Strategy of Security

Have you seen the movie Minority Report with Tom Cruise? That’s immediately what I think of every time I hear the word “intent.” It’s one of the most mind-bending movies I’ve ever seen.¹ You should watch it if you haven’t. Spoiler alert: it’s about a concept called “pre-crime.” Tom Cruise goes around arresting people for murders they haven't committed yet. The plot twist happens when Tom Cruise gets predicted as a future murderer himself, then goes on the run to prove the system wrong.

It's exceptionally rare to find a company that's been through a journey like the one SailPoint has been on over the course of 20 years. Their 2026 fiscal year was arguably their best one yet, full of major product launches and milestones - including over $1 billion of Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR). I spoke with Matt Mills, SailPoint's President, about a wide range of topics.

It’s exceptionally rare to find a company that’s been through a journey like the one SailPoint has been on over the course of 20 years. Their 2026 fiscal year was arguably their best one yet, full of major product launches and milestones — including over $1 billion of Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR). I spoke with Matt Mills, SailPoint’s President, about a wide range of topics.

Sometimes the right opportunity takes decades to materialize. You just have to be patient and prepared to seize it when the moment comes. This is the moment SailPoint is entering right now. They've made it to nearly a billion dollars of ARR by managing and governing human identities over the course of 20 years. A nice business, for sure - but only a fraction of what's coming next. It's not a "legacy" company. It's a company that has been patiently preparing for its time to come.

Sometimes you just have to rip the band-aid off. Varonis had a near miss on its Q3'25 earnings guidance and lowered revenue guidance for the full fiscal year. The result was placed squarely on the shoulders of their on-premise subscription business. Many people will call it a stumble. I see it differently. It's the start of a sprint towards the future.

I'm honored to team up with Francis Odum (Software Analyst Cyber Research) and CJ Gustafson (Mostly Metrics) for this deep dive article. Enjoy! Netskope just became the second cybersecurity-related IPO of 2025. The company filed its S-1 on August 22, 2025 and went public 27 days later at a $7.26 billion offering valuation. The journey of Netskope is a remarkable one.

Does it make sense for Palo Alto Networks to acquire CyberArk? ...wait a minute, weren't we just doing exactly the same thing for SentinelOne?! Yep. You can't make this stuff up. Reports of a CyberArk acquisition surfaced before the ink was even dry on my analysis of a potential Palo Alto Networks-SentinelOne deal. The news became official less than 24 hours later: Palo Alto Networks will acquire CyberArk for $25 billion. There's no need to do an analysis of a theoretical deal this time.

Does it make sense for Palo Alto Networks to acquire SentinelOne? That was the multi-billion dollar question many people were talking about last week after (speculative) reports came out about a potential deal. And now we have another one, with WSJ and Reuters reporting a potential acquisition of CyberArk (right before I was about to hit publish!).¹ I normally wait until after deals are announced to do a detailed analysis.

Palo Alto Networks just put everyone else who is hoping to compete in AI/ML Security on notice. Their ~$500M+ (intended) acquisition of Protect AI is nothing short of a declaration to win this emerging market before competitors get their strategy together. This is going to be one of the headline deals for 2025. Maybe even the entire decade if everything goes right. A deal like this is comes with a lot of questions and skepticism, though.

AI Governance Establishing and overseeing guidelines and practices to ensure the ethical, transparent, and accountable development and implementation of AI. LLM Security Practices and measures to protect LLM models from being exploited for malicious purposes, and to ensure their safe, ethical, and responsible use.