RSA Security became one of the latest victims of industry consolidation at the end of June when EMC announced it is to acquire the firm for $2.1bn. The news set tongues wagging across the sector, but only briefly.

A year ago this month EMC nemesis Veritas Software was bought by security firm Symantec, creating the world’s fourth-largest software firm.

Symantec now describes itself as a protection company that looks after the infrastructure, information and interaction of businesses. Its users range from the individual consumer to the largest organisations and it offers products that reflect this breadth.

A few years ago such purchases would have been inconceivable. Most buyouts were performed by rival companies with competing technologies that would result in additional customers and market share.

But in the present climate, mergers and acquisitions are very much the order of the day. Analysts have been predicting this consolidation for some time following the boom and bust days of the late 1990s and the early years of the new millennium. And they were right.

Many of the smaller firms with substantial technology have already been picked off by larger counterparts to plug vital gaps in technology portfolios.

There was always going to be a limit to how long these kinds of purchases could continue, but now the bigger companies that preyed on smaller firms can no longer rely on their position as the hunter.

As the small IT firm slips further towards being an endangered species, the vulnerability of bigger firms that once seemed immune to acquisition becomes more obvious.

The ultimate prediction says in a few years’ time the industry will consist of five or six supervendors and a dramatically reduced collection of medium-sized firms.

What impact this will have on users remains to be seen.

There are two schools of thought on the effect of consolidation. The acquirers, companies set on becoming the supervendors, argue that less choice for the user is good as it removes confusion and forges closer relationships.

But globalisation can stifle input and innovation from smaller players. And businesses that are not keen on working with huge vendors will soon be left with little choice.

The notion that variety is the spice of life is fading fast in the IT sector, and the idea of bigger is better is here to stay.

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