How do you differentiate a product that keeps getting mixed up with a commoditized market, but really doesn't belong there? What differentiators do you look for that can keep you from being included in a herd where you don't belong? You start with a technological innovation, get (and stay) real close to your customers, and add a pinch of partner ecosystem to speed time to market and you have NitroSecurity and the NitroView product line.
Nitro started with the fastest backend database in the market. Drinking from the proverbial fi re hose is no problem for Nitro products. In fact, it is this innovation that started the whole NitroView project. When you can gather the most data without dropping packets, the obvious thing to do with it is analyze it. Sounds like a SIEM, but it isn't in this case.
What you end up with is a way to analyze threats at a level of detail that is unique in the industry. This is important because once you can analyze threats in near real time, if you know vulnerabilities, you can calculate risk, and manage that risk, also in near real time. Not only can you develop ongoing risk analysis, you can look back on historical trends. That makes the NitroView products pretty powerful. So where do you go for the encore?
Nitro innovators told me that the next great challenge is gathering huge amounts of data from a large number of relevant devices and parsing that into relevant schemas. And, you need to do all of this in near real time to be truly useful. Nitro calls this technique “zero-day correlation rules,” meaning that they can develop rules on the fly, much like zero-day attacks appear in the wild.
There is an implication here, as well. What Nitro is doing sounds suspiciously like network forensic analysis. And it is. That is the direction in which Nitro is headed, and that will make it a clear leader. So how do you differentiate in a commoditized market? As my father used to say, “If you don't compete, you can't be beat.” By carving out an individual niche that plays on tech strengths, listening closely to customers and developing an ecosystem that allows partnering for rapid time to market, you have a solid spot in the marketplace. And, there you have the NitroSecurity story.
