Here’s some additional commentary from Mike Rothman, president of analyst firm Security Incite, on 3Com’s announcement that it will offer an IPO of TippingPoint stock.

The greater market trend that Mike is getting at is that intrusion prevention systems are no longer enough by themselves; customers now expect a more full-bodied approach.

“I think TippingPoint needs to position a big strategy to be compelling to Wall Street as a stand-alone entity. Like Sourcefire, there needs to be something bigger than just IPS, which is largely acknowledged to be a feature as part of a bigger security strategy. But having a public market currency will allow TippingPoint to acquire complimentary technologies and grow their product line. But just spinning it out and continuing on as is won’t be sufficient to generate the growth the public markets will expect. So the strategy needs to reflect that customers expect a broad security product offering (something I call ‘Big is the new small’) and they’d expect TippingPoint to deliver that sooner rather than later, once they are spun out.”