????最近數年來，網絡設備巨頭思科公司（Cisco）的防火墻業務受到了競爭對手的強勁挑戰，市場份額不斷被蠶食，而這個對手卻是規模比思科規模小得多的巴洛艾托網絡公司（Palo Alto Networks）。而今，思科開始向對手的顛覆性技術發起反擊，準備推出新一代“情境感知型”防火墻產品。

????思科宣布此消息的時間是本周一下午，也就是舊金山RSA信息安全會議正式開幕前一天。新任思科公司安全與政府業務高級副總裁的克里斯?楊將在此次會議上首次公開亮相。

????上周，我在思科總部對克里斯?楊進行了采訪，希望了解他重振思科安全業務的計劃，以及如何應對來自巴洛艾托公司的競爭。（順便說一下，后者已經做好準備，隨時可能申請上市。）楊承認，巴洛艾托公司是最早發現新一代情境感知型防火墻這一商機的公司，這種技術能夠探測到不同的應用軟件、用戶和設備，而不僅僅是IP地址。但他認為，思科可以將這種安全功能嵌入向客戶銷售的基礎設備中，從而擊敗競爭對手。思科擁有廣泛的用戶基礎，但在安全業務方面尚有很大的提升空間。

????高德納研究咨詢公司（Gartner）最近的一份報告將業內新生勢力巴洛艾托公司列為企業網絡防火墻業務的頂尖提供商。該報告還表示，防火墻市場正在經歷“動態演化”階段。

????楊在采訪中稱：“情況其實很簡單：市場有需求，巴洛艾托網絡公司率先抓住了這個機遇。但我們現在已經認識到這種市場需求的存在，正在推出相應的服務，同時還要進一步創造出更高的價值。”

????楊表示，如同之前的聲音、視頻和數據功能一樣，思科公司將在基礎設備中嵌入情境感知型安全功能，從而充分體現思科公司的價值所在。他說：“網絡將所有這些新體驗都銜接起來，包括應用軟件、數據、設備和用戶。”

????在思科于周一舉辦的新聞發布會上，公司高管演示了新的防火墻科技，企業管理人員可借助該技術追蹤員工在多種設備上使用應用軟件的情況，比如，某位用戶是否在使用iPhone、個人電腦或其他設備在Facebook上發帖或共享視頻。該技術還能推動公司實施相關政策，比如禁止特定的員工群體玩iPad游戲。

????思科首席執行官約翰?錢伯斯明確表示，安全業務現在是公司的頭等大事。雖然巴洛艾托網絡公司早在數年前就推出了情境感知型防火墻產品，但現在思科才推出類似產品。去年11月份，錢伯斯將克里斯?楊招進了公司董事會，并將安全業務設為思科首個獨立的產品部門。楊表示：“我們的客戶已經意識到，沒有網絡幫助，他們無法解決安全問題。客戶并不關心我們去年賺了多少錢，也不關心去年公司的安全業務增長了多少，他們關心的是網絡的安全性。”

????譯者：李玫曉/汪皓

????For the past few years Cisco's firewall business has been losing market share to a much smaller rival called Palo Alto Networks. Now the network equipment giant is set to unveil its answer to Palo Alto's disruptive technology -- its own next-generation, so-called "context aware" firewall.

????The announcement was made Monday afternoon, a day before the official start of the RSA Conference in San Francisco. The event was also a coming-out party for Chris Young, the new SVP of Cisco's (CSCO) security and government group.

????I sat down with Young last week to find out how he plans to revive Cisco's security business and take on Palo Alto Networks (which, by the way, is expected to file for an IPO any day now). Young conceded that Palo Alto Networks was first to recognize the need for next-generation, context-aware firewalls, which can detect different applications, users and devices -- not just IP addresses. But he believes Cisco can beat the competition by embedding such security features into the infrastructure equipment it sells to companies. Cisco has a vast user base, but it also has a lot of catch-up to play in the security space.

????A recent report from research firm Gartner listed relative newcomer Palo Alto Networks as a leading vendor in enterprise network firewalls. The report also stated that the firewall market is undergoing a period of "dynamic evolution."

????"The story is really simple—there's a market need for this and those guys [Palo Alto Networks] saw it early on," Young said during last week's interview at Cisco's headquarters. "But what we've done is taken the approach of recognizing that this need exists and delivering on it but also taking it a step further and bringing another level of value."

????Part of Cisco's value, according to Young, will be its ability to embed context-aware security capabilities into its infrastructure equipment, just like it has done with voice, video and data. "The network is the substrate that binds all these new experiences together—the apps, the data, the devices and the users," says Young.

????At Cisco's press conference on Monday, company execs showed a demo of its new firewall technology, which lets administrators track how employees are using apps across a range of devices--for example, whether a particular user is posting or sharing videos on Facebook using an iPhone, PC or other device. It also enables companies to enforce policies, like not allowing a specific group of employees to access games on iPads.

????Cisco CEO John Chambers has made it clear that the security business is now a priority. But while Palo Alto Networks launched its context-aware firewall several years ago, Cisco is launching a similar product today. In addition to bringing Young on board last November, CEO Chambers has made the security business a separate product division, a first for Cisco. "Our customers have realized that they can't solve the security problem without the help of the network," says Young. "Customers don't care about how much money we make or how much we grew in the security business last year. They want security built into the network."