Alert Logic announced today that they had acquired ArmorLogic, makers of the Profense web application firewall (WAF). The acquisition immediately gives Alert Logic a solution in is what is probably one of the hottest areas of information security, web application security.
In addition to the announcement link above, Alert Logic has published a full FAQ on on the acquisition here. ArmorLogic has sold their WAF as a traditional product up until this point. Alert Logic will be offering it as a Security-as-a-Service offering with a managed services option in the very near future.
I wanted to include Gray Hall, CEO of Alert Logic’s quote from the press release because I think sums up pretty well the thinking of Alert Logic on this acquisition:
“Armorlogic has a reputation among its customers and partners for delivering world-class protection for Web applications while being easy to use,” said Alert Logic CEO Gray Hall. “As is often the case for emerging technology companies, great products meeting real customer needs are unable to achieve broad market penetration. Alert Logic’s ability to transform Armorlogic’s product into a fully managed SaaS offering, coupled with our outstanding partner network including the leading hosting and cloud service providers in the world, gives us the ability to bring a market-leading WAF solution to the market segment that needs it most.”
I think the idea of offering WAF as a Security-as-a-Service type of offering is a key enabler to WAF reaching critical mass. Making it easy to deploy, more affordable and offering help in managing WAF are three of the biggest reasons we have not seen WAF more widely adopted, even though it is practically mandated by the PCI DSS.
Of course WAF is an important technology for Alert Logic’s partners in the hosting and cloud provider channel. This would seem to be a perfect fit for the AL channel.
Having been involved in my own share of acquisitions and sales, it is always a proud day for both the company acquiring and the folks selling. The ArmorLogic team should be congratulated for building a product and business that the market valued so highly that Alert Logic thought it worthy to acquire. Congratulations are also in order for the Alert Logic team for recognizing a need in the market that they know they can fill and going out and executing on acquiring the solution.
I will have more to say about WAF and this acquisition in the coming days.
Related articles
- The Inevitability of Security-as-a-Service (securecloudreview.com)
- Real World WAF Detection and Bypass Made Easy (pauldotcom.com)
- anti-waf-software-security-only-zealotry (jeremiahgrossman.blogspot.com)
- Security As A Service Is More Than A Virtual Security Gateway (securecloudreview.com)
