My year started off with a cornucopia of events – CES, the National Retail Federation show and the World Economic Forum in Davos — and though they’re three completely different events, there was one thread that cut across all of them: artificial intelligence. Like the internet did 30 years ago, AI will change the way we work, live, learn and play. However, also like the internet, AI will bring several new security threats, prompting organizations to rethink their cyber strategies.
Palo Alto Networks Inc.‘s announcement Tuesday of its intent to acquire CyberArk for $25 billion implies a heavy price tag, as its shares fell on the news. But I believe it to be a good, long-term strategic move for Palo Alto and a logical extension of its platformization strategy. Valuation is interesting to look at but highly overrated long-term. If an acquisition is a good one and helps transform a company, then the purchase price won’t matter over time. Consider the purchase of Mellanox Technologies Ltd. by Nvidia Corp., which was almost $7 billion in 2019.
Cisco Systems Inc. this week held its first AI Summit, a thought leadership event on the pivotal topics shaping the future of artificial intelligence — this one focused on the security of AI systems. The summit was small and intimate, with about 150 attendees, including executives from about 40 Fortune 100 companies. I understand why the interest from top companies was so high, as the speaker list was impressive