MSP Netrix Acquires Argentina-Based Edrans To Spur DevOps

With the acquisition, Netrix gets access to a large pool of developers in Argentina and Spain who will let the solution provider offer DevOps-as-a-service to clients while giving it the scale needed to deliver on customer promises.

Cybersecurity and end-to-end IT managed services provider Netrix Thursday said it has acquired Edrans, a Buenos Aires, Argentina-based cloud-focused solution provider in a big push to overcome a long-term shortage in DevOps personnel.

Edrans has a near-shore development platform based in Buenos Aires and in Madrid, Spain, and offers DevOps-as-a-service, said Russell Reeder, who in January joined Chicago-based Netrix, ranked No. 188 on the CRN Solution Provider 500 list, as its CEO.

The “Great Resignation” currently impacting the ability to find and retain IT talent makes near-shoring of DevOps an attractive alternative, Reeder told CRN.

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“Edrans has a practice of recruiting people out of school, getting them up to speed in DevOps, and moving them up through the ranks,” he said. “The company has hundreds of developers now, and has access to thousands. And it’s only a two-hours time zone difference.”

That developer pool will have an immediate impact on Netrix’s business, Reeder said.

“Our clients are growing, and our backlog is growing as well,” he said. “We need to make sure we have the staff to deliver on our promises.”

Reeder declined to discuss the terms of the acquisition, which actually closed earlier this month. Going forward, the Edrans management team will remain intact as the company will be known as “Edrans, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Netrix.”

Funding for the acquisition came from Netrix with additional capital from OceanSound Partners, which in August of 2020 acquired a large portion of Netrix.

Edrans is the fifth acquisition for Netrix in 18 months, Reeder said. The company in January acquired BTB Security, a cybersecurity and digital forensics solutions company. Netrix also acquired Chicago-based PSC Group, the IT Services Business Unit of Prosum, and the Managed IT Business Unit of Contegix known as DSS (Distributed Systems Services).

Despite the large number of acquisitions, Reeder declined to characterize Netrix as a platform company, which is when an outside investor acquired one solution provider as a vehicle for making more channel acquisitions in an effort to roll them up into a larger company.

“These have all been strategic acquisitions,” he said. “It’s not a roll-up. When I hear about private equity roll-ups, it’s usually to make the balance sheet better, and not to integrate the companies. We integrate our acquisitions for scale, not just to aggregate the business.”