Cisco Systems, Network Associates (NAI) and Lucent Technologies have announced the formation of the Security Research Alliance (SRA) aimed at bringing security vendors together to collaborate on projects and look at technology issues emerging over the next two to five years.
The group's primary objectives are to provide the IT community with research findings; increase the likelihood of transferring those findings into commercial products and services; and to team up on selected research projects, according to a statement released Wednesday, based on an announcement at the RSA Data Security Conference in San Jose, California.
The alliance is not intended to serve as a standards body and its members are not intended to jointly develop products. The goal is to leverage the research efforts members do independently, officials said.
As one of its first actions, the Security Research Alliance will sponsor the first annual Security Research "Crystal Ball" Symposium in Los Angeles on April 13, the day before the opening of Spring Internet World there.
The group is open to new members who are security vendors. Terry Benzel, vice president of NAI Labs advanced security research division, will serve as SRA's initial chairman.