July 22, 2002 (Computerworld) --
Jerry Ungerman, president of Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. in Redwood City, Calif., earlier this month spoke with Computerworld about how the firewall/virtual private network (VPN) market leader is faring in the current economic environment, and where the company is headed amid expectations of a recovery. Excerpts follow.
What is Check Point's relationship with WorldCom? WorldCom is a very big partner of Check Point. They used to carry multiple security products, but sometime last year, they decided they were going to standardize on one security product. Right now, we are the [sole] security product that WorldCom packages and resells, on a stand-alone basis as well as a managed service offering, on a worldwide basis.
Are you concerned about WorldCom's financial problems? Obviously, their core business has been impacted with the telecom slowdown, and they're dealing with some other issues. But right now, we have a very good relationship. They're a very good partner, and they've been doing very well for us.
Check Point President Jerry Ungerman
How has the meltdown in the telecommunications sector affected you? It's not had a big impact on us. The biggest impact has been the overall economic slowdown - the IT spending slowdown, as opposed to telecom specifically.
Your first-quarter results were down across the board from the same period a year ago. I know you're in a quiet period until your second-quarter financial results are released on July 22, but what can you say about your financial outlook in general? One of the things that we still see is that security is one of the more important areas that IT executives are focused on. We still think we're getting a larger percent of the spending - and the increase in spending, to the extent that there is any - than other kinds of technology products. This year, we haven't seen as much of an economic recovery as we expected, although most of our projections were for recovery in the second half of the year, with most of it coming in the fourth quarter. We're not there yet, so we don't know if it's going to happen. But we do know that people are not being allowed to buy as much as they need right now. They're being very cautious in their spending, delaying, to some extent, some of the full implementations of projects. But we still think security is at the top of the list, from a focus and spending standpoint. When you announced that you were going to end maintenance support for Version 4.1 of your firewall/VPN product at the end of this year, some of your customers were pretty upset. Where does that stand?
"Cisco and PostPath will finally break Exchange's iron grasp on business e-mail...."
Read more...
"IT site manager pilot fish at this big manufacturer gets a call from an engineer -- who's frantic because his..."
Read more... Read more Networking posts or See all Blogs
Netbooks, ultraportables, mini-notebooks — whatever you call them, they've been grabbing headlines. Are they here for the long term or just a flash in the pan?
Download this Executive Briefing now (a $195.00 value), compliments of ProCurve Networking by HP. (Source: Computerworld) This briefing looks at the basics of network management, which tend to get lost in the dizzying array of products and processes. It also examines new tools that are on the way to help IT executives deal with management in the new era of automation.Download this Executive Briefing now (a $195.00 value), compliments of ProCurve Networking by HP. Download this executive briefing
Five Technologies Simplifying Infrastructure Management
Get this white paper now! (Source: Liebert) Today's data centers must support more devices, are consuming more power and generating more heat. Learn five infrastructure technologies that are making it easier for growing businesses to introduce new IT systems as needed while maintaining high levels of availability. Download this white paper
White Papers
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services.
XenServer FREE trial
Citrix XenServer is the simplest and most effective way to virtualize and provision servers. XenServer combines comprehensive server virtualization capabilities with unparalleled scalability, performance, economics, and ease-of-use. Based on the open source Xen hypervisor, XenServer delivers fast performance, easy management, and advanced features such as live migration.
Accelerate your pursuit of perfection For almost 80 years, Kodak has been helping banks, insurance companies, healthcare providers, government agencies and other businesses produce billions of document images. So Kodak is uniquely positioned to know and deliver–what customers want: easy-to-use scanners that output the best possible image quality. Download this white paper now!
Networking Know-How For tips and best practices on building anything in the network, see Sandra Gittlen's regular column.
See your link here
Subscribe to
Computerworld 
or
Other LAN/WAN Stories
The Impact of Social Networks on Mobility Strategies
Download this Executive Briefing now (a $195.00 value), compliments of ProCurve Networking by HP. 
Get this white paper now!
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. 
Columnist Bert Latamore digs deep to analyze the latest networking trends.
For almost 80 years, Kodak has been helping banks, insurance companies, healthcare providers, government agencies and other businesses produce billions of document images. So Kodak is uniquely positioned to know and deliver–what customers want: easy-to-use scanners that output the best possible image quality. 
Networking Know-How
Computerworld