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Network-access control software provider ForeScout Technologies on Feb. 25 named veteran industry executive Michael P. DeCesare, former president of Intel Security, as its new CEO.
DeCesare, who replaces interim CEO T. Kent Elliott, will assume his new role on March 2. Elliott will continue as a nonemployee member of the company’s board of directors after serving as interim CEO since July 2014.
Fourteen-year-old, Campbell, Calif.-based ForeScout provides continuous monitoring and mitigation security systems that help enterprises prevent and respond to cyber-threats. The company’s CounterACT appliance identifies and evaluates network users, endpoints and applications in real time to provide visibility, intelligence and policy-based mitigation of security problems.
DeCesare has more than 20 years’ experience in the security sector. While he served as the former president of Intel Security, previously McAfee, the company posted multiple quarters of double-digit revenue growth under his guidance. Prior to his role with Intel Security, DeCesare held senior roles at EMC, Documentum and Oracle.
“This new megatrend called BYOD [bring your own device] has hit the network, and CIOs are dealing with an increasing percentage every year of devices coming onto the network that can’t be managed,” DeCesare told eWEEK. “The way that you do that in a corporation is NAC [network-access control]. The reason that we’re seeing such strong growth in this industry–conservatively, somewhere around 40 percent [per year] estimated by Gartner Research—is because of NAC, and it’s really resuscitated the industry as a whole.
“ForeScout is like a toll booth: We’re going to check you when you get on or off the highway, but when you’re on, you’re on your own. It used to be that you were only checked when you got on the network. NAC has evolved to become a much richer piece of the security architecture overall because it has shifted from that to continuous monitoring.”
ForeScout’s software is used by about 1,800 enterprises and government agencies in more than 62 countries.