Security vendor Rapid7 is acquiring machine data search vendor RevelOps, which does business as Logentries, in a deal valued at $68 million. The acquisition of Logentries is the first for Rapid7 since the company completed its IPO on July 17.
“When we went public, we announced to the world our vision to build and become the premier security and data analytics platform over time,” Corey Thomas, president and CEO of Rapid7, told eWEEK.
When attackers go after an organization, the attack is often across the entire enterprise, which is why it’s important to have a consolidated view into all data and be able to analyze data for risk of exposure, Thomas said. Organizations also need to be able to detect compromises in data in addition to having the ability to access and search all data.
“The acquisition of Logentires will allow us to provide our customers a means to be able to search and access data to better manage their security,” Thomas said.
Andrew Burton, CEO of Logentries, said his company’s view has always been that machine data search and analytics is a foundational technology. “We’ll now be able to offer our customers a better end-to-end solution,” Burton told eWEEK.
Thomas noted that there is some customer overlap today between Rapid7 and Logentries, but there will also be opportunities for new customer growth.
There is also some competition. Splunk is well-known for its data search technology and, in fact, Rapid7 integrates and partners with Splunk. Thomas said he sees opportunities to coexist with Splunk, even though Rapid7 owns Logentries.
“Most customers need to be able to keep data for a long time,” Thomas said. “One of the big innovations from Logentries is a low-cost way to store lots of data with the ability to search very fast.”
Rapid7 will seek to expand the applicability of Logentries for compliance-related activities. Several security compliance mandates—including Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, or PCI DSS—specify the use of security information and event management (SIEM) technology.
“Part of the work we’ll be doing over the next quarter or so is to enable Logentries’ technology to fulfill compliance requirements,” Thomas said.
Rapid7 has multiple products and services in its portfolio, including the Nexpose vulnerability platform and the Metasploit penetration-testing framework. The plan moving forward is to integrate all of the company’s data efforts to be available in a single place via Logentries so that an organization can understand all the relationships across data.
Although Rapid7 bought Logentries, Thomas noted that Rapid7 typically builds technology rather than buying companies. “Our default plan is to build innovation organically and be opportunistic when we see great teams and technologies,” he said.
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eWEEK and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.