The AV is Dead was taken a bit out of context. There is a much more detailed write up here.http://news.softpedia.com/news/Is-Antivirus-Really-Dead-440960.shtml
It my understanding that this comment is based on the old AV Signature model, where the AV product is just looking for a string match. I would guess the Top 3 AV companies moved away from this technology over 3 years ago. They now are using reputation technology , where an AV product now tracks the Good files and sandboxes the Unknown files. Also Sandboxing apps, not allowing them to modify the OS is now considered AV.
F5 does a great job at protecting the servers/apps with ASP, but this does nothing for the desktops. ( unless you add in WebSense). I am not going to stop using an AV product in hopes that the company on the Server side is using ASP and keeping their servers secure. Most Web hosting facilities do very little to protect the Web Servers and only offer security at an additional price.
I agree that Signature based AV is dead, but AV will be around for a long time. It has just morphed into something new.
F5 also offers a Base DLP- Data Loss Prevention component. But a dedicated DLP solution is what is really needed to protect sensitive PCI type data. IE your comment about adhering to regulatory and compliance laws.
We at F5 are off to a good start but there are still a few specialty product that can do better. Maybe some new Partnerships are in order?
I enjoyed your article,
Thanks.
Barry Miller
