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p>PatchLink is planning to acquire SecureWave, an endpoint security software vendor.
The merger, announced June 18, must still be approved by SecureWaves shareholders and is expected to close in the coming weeks. Made just four months after PatchLinks acquisition of Harris STAT, PatchLink officials said the SecureWave purchase will create a comprehensive security platform for protection and control of all enterprise servers and endpoints.
“We believe PatchLink is now poised to capitalize on a significant market opportunity as the de facto provider of policy-based enterprise security solutions,” Pat Clawson, CEO of PatchLink, said in a statement.
The merger brings together Patchlinks record as a provider of patch and vulnerability management tools with SecureWaves ability to centrally manage the use of applications and devices to prevent data leaks and combat malware and also to prevent unauthorized applications and devices from connecting to laptops, PCs, servers, terminal services servers and thin clients.
IDC analyst Charles Kolodgy sees a number of trends in the security space that make this an “interesting acquisition.” Endpoint security has increased in importance over the years and the window of exposure – the time between the release of a patch, the release of attacks based on that vulnerability and the time for enterprises to deploy a patch – is growing longer, he said.
“So host IPS (intrusion prevention system) is used to help protect your systems from the attack during that window of exposure,” Kolodgy said. “By acquiring SecureWave it makes it much easier for organizations to close the window of exposure, without (needing) to drastically change their patch procedures, which could have considerable consequences itself.”
A second trend is the move towards reducing the number of agents enterprises need to install, Kolodgy said.
“Enterprises dont want to load up their system with a lot of agents from many different vendors,” he said. “Its costly, more difficult to install, to manage, etc. So if you can have an agent, or set of agents from one vendor it makes it easier for the enterprise. IDC still believes this is the direction enterprises and vendor offerings will take.”
As part of the agreement between the two companies, Mangrove Capital Partners, an original investor in Skype and the primary shareholder in SecureWave, will be given a seat on the PatchLink board of directors. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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