Symark Buys BeyondTrust, Takes Its Name

Symark International has a new name and a new set of capabilities under its belt.

The company announced today it has acquired BeyondTrust, and will henceforth be known by that name as it sharpens its focus by providing security and compliance for privileged user access for Microsoft Windows. 

The acquisition broadens the company’s portfolio, which has traditional focused on privileged access management for Unix and Linux environments. This means the company will now be able to meet the needs of businesses across Unix, Linux, Windows desktops and servers, network devices, applications and databases – something company officials said doubles the firm’s potential market.

"BeyondTrust uses the concept of least privilege management (for) Windows desktops to secure…and create very effective access policies for a windows desktop user,” said John Mutch, CEO of the newly formed BeyondTrust.

Eventually, the company will integrate the new Windows product with its PowerSeries management console, he said. The hope is that the combined technologies of the two vendors will help the company on both ends of the competitive spectrum – it will offer customers more granularity than larger vendors like IBM and Novell while meeting a broader need than companies like Cloakware, Mutch added.

“Organizations continue to struggle with excessive user privilege as it remains the primary attack point for data breaches and unauthorized transactions,” said Mark Diodati, an analyst with the Burton Group, in a statement. “As a result, they are looking for holistic solutions that provide consistent authentication, auditing, and privilege analysis across the Windows, UNIX, Linux, and Mac OS platforms.”

 All employees from both companies will be retained, with former BeyondTrust CEO John Moyer taking on the role of EVP and general manager of the BeyondTrust Windows Business Unit.