New companies have to be brash to enter the network security market, given that the industry has witnessed an explosion in creativity over the past five years and considering that big players such as Microsoft and IBM increasingly are throwing their weight around in security. Nonetheless, anyone who takes the time to listen to what IT managers say they would like to see from the security industry can't walk away without the impression that there is plenty of room for the new.

For example, Ryan Bagnulo, vice president and head of software architecture and innovation at Wachovia, says he'd like to see more industry action on automating security-policy administration based on the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards' eXtensible Access Control Markup Language.