Novell Acquires Senforce to Beef Up Endpoint Security

Novell has acquired endpoint security management vendor Senforce Technologies in a play to extend Novells policy-management offerings.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. In July, Novell and Senforce, based in Waltham, Mass., announced a OEM partnership and gave birth to a new product, ZENworks Endpoint Security Management, which is available today as a stand-alone product or as part of the Novell Secure Desktop offering.

ZENworks Endpoint Security Management works to protect against data leaks and threats to the network by enforcing encryption policies at the desktop whether or not a user is on-line, and offers removable device security, personal firewalls, wireless security and application control.

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According to Richard Whitehead, director of product marketing for Novell, the company plans to integrate this technology into other ZENworks offerings in the future. More information on an integrated roadmap is slated to be announced in the months to come.

To read more about the partnership between Novell and IBM, click here.

"Novell initially partnered with Senforce to help customers enforce security policies to control device ports, wireless connections and applications, as well as to guarantee data encryption," he said. "As we began work with Senforce, we immediately realized how well both companies solution sets complemented each other and saw the synergy created from merging the endpoint security solution into Novells existing systems management solutions."

Senforce, Whitehead continued, offered a complete suite of endpoint security management tools including wireless security, port/device management to firewall and data encryption. Senforces capabilities fell in step with what Novells customers are looking for, he added.

"The configuration management, security management and identity management markets are converging as customers now view these three IT areas as interrelated," he said. Novell believes it is important we have products that address all three areas."

IDC analyst Chris Christensen agreed that the management and security markets were converging, and added that customers require mobile computing tools to contend with an environment where both internal and external IT threats are rising.

"Novells acquisition of Senforce provides a comprehensive security and management solution that includes endpoint security capabilities, like personal firewall, encryption and blacklisting, which can help companies secure their networks and their data without slowing down their businesses," he said in a statement.

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