Full disclosure

What's all this then?

After my post about Ingrian's "60 days to Compliance" program, I got a mail from Mike Rothman saying that he had merely been pointing out the inaccuracies in it "for the people", and it was an "irresponsible piece of marketing". I don't want to get into a slanging match with him on those points as I have nothing but the utmost respect for Mike and value everything he says, but I stand by my position: It needs to be taken in context, and anyone looking at it will necessarily possess the intelligence to apply the correct context. Plus, I'm not going to get into a full blown argument without admitting that there is a reason for my renewed interest in Ingrian.

The offer

As I've revealed in many previous posts, Ingrian have been close working colleagues for many years, through their time with the i100 SSL box, which at least one reader will remember with fond memories (you know who you are Owen), up until now with their superb DataSecure offering, one of which I am sitting next to as I type. I've worked with the kit throughout that time, in every job I've had, apart from SE for Vormetric, when I very much worked against it! Recently, I was offered the chance to work with Ingrian more closely, and help grow the EMEA arm of the company: that is, to work for Ingrian Networks full time.

Well, what can I say? It seemed to be written in the stars, but I needed to consider it carefully. I was glad to be able to consult Mike on it in fact, as I've been keeping it close to my chest for some time. In the course of our conversation however, Mike observed that I should probably stop pimping myself out to Ingrian here and come clean to avoid losing face.

What's to disclose?

I didn't believe I was pimping myself when I wrote the post, I still don't, I have never written anything I don't fully believe in, and have never received a penny for anything I've written here. But if there's a danger that people will lose respect for what I'm saying without it, then here's my admission in full:

I had spoken with Jon Shaw, the RSM for Ingrian EMEA on several occasions, usually as part of my previous role in distribution where I helped put the two sides of the agreement together, but also at Kinamik, where we had a vendor partnership. He had often asked if I would be interested in working more closely. I had always said yes, but we agreed that we would wait until a suitable position came available, and I was free of commitments.

The thought process

When Jon called me last month to finally offer me a job, it was a less difficult decision to make than it would have been before March. I was just leaving to take a short holiday, and didn't enjoy it much because of the stress I was under. I explained in a previous post that it has not been the happiest of times recently, and the pull to get back to the UK and family was strong. When I got back to Spain I had all but decided to make the move. It still took me 3 weeks to finally make the decision. I still feel indebted to Kinamik for all I have learned and taken from my time there.

Rothman The Advisor

Mike said I should make it clear that my move to Ingrian is because of my interest in data-security and to show that I wasn't acting under instruction from them - doing it for the money, that is.

On the contrary, my interest in data-security is almost entirely down to Ingrian, rather than the other way around. One of the first and most exciting people I worked with in data security was a guy called Morgan Flager, who is now a venture capitalist, so maybe I AM in it for the money. I don't come cheap these days, but then I guarantee a certain amount of market knowledge and success. The blog though, that's my baby. No-one works entirely for love, but I say what I like here, and no company owns me.

Morgan inspired me whilst we were both young, he made it interesting, and I've followed data-security ever since. I now have regular exchanges with Rich Mogull, who allowed me to interview him here when he left Gartner recently . I've followed him my entire career, so that was really exciting for me.

I guess because I believe, nay KNOW, I'm not pimping out my blog (although MTV should note, that "Pimp My Blog" is a great idea for a new show) that I missed the fact it might seem that way. I'm grateful to Mike for pointing it out so I can set the record straight at the same time as breaking my important news.

Reasons for blogging

I'm not blogging for the money, I'm in it for the chance to discuss security. I'm not moving to Ingrian because I'm interested in data-security, I'm interested in data-security because of Ingrian, and we'll both do very nicely from it. No-one has any influence over my blog, apart from those whom have helped carve out my career over the last 7 years, so Ingrian tend to feature quite highly, but then so does Mogull, and I'm not working for him.

Irony (or "Pimp My Mike")

Here's a thing, I've just been checking my keywords, and although I refer to Ingrian 8 times in 120 or so blogs, my number one personal tag of all time is STILL "Mike Rothman" with 9 entries, (make that 10!) second only to "data security" at 14. Even Lord Mogull of Securosishire only gets 6, Thomas Ptacek and Tim Berners-Lee get just one each. What does that tell you?

Home time

So I'm back in the UK. I still have a flat in Barcelona, but I'm resident in Winchester, Hampshire, England one more. I'm feeling happier already, but I will miss Spain, and especially the people at Kinamik who have made my time there so enjoyable.

Hopefully being home won't cheer me up TOO much and ruin the niche I've carved for myself.