LANDesk Acquires VMware's Shavlik For Patch Management

The acquisition by South Jordan, Utah-based LANDesk brings in VMware's vCenter Protect product family for IT management. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

LANDesk will rebrand VMware's Vcenter Protect and return the Shavlik brand name to the technology. The technology is sold in standard and advanced versions. An update catalog and antimalware engine is sold separately.

LANDesk said it plans to integrate the Shavlik Protect products to add functionality to its line of Total User Management products, which includes asset management, power management, operating system provisioning and software deployment capabilities.

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"It will become immediately apparent to Shavlik Protect customers that LANDesk is committed to their current investment in Shavlik Protect products, committed to how they do business, and committed to continued product evolution and innovation," said LANDesk CEO Stephen Daly in a statement.

The Shavlik technology integrates with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager. The product was designed for centralized patch management and asset inventory for small and midsize businesses. It also has centralized antivirus, power management and IT scripting, LANDesk said.

VMware acquired Shavlik Technologies in 2011, following Shavlik's focus on making the patch management configurable to work in virtual environments, said Pete Lindstrom, research director at Spire Security. At the time Shavlik was respected in the industry, but it was outshone by BigFix and Altiris, which offered more robust functionality, Lindstrom said. BigFix is now part of IBM and Altiris is in Hewlett-Packard's product portfolio.

"We're at the end of our innovation cycle when it comes to something that calls itself patch management," Lindstrom said. "That basic functionality is nice if it is integrated into a broader, automated solution for IT management."

Shavlik had been Web-enabling its products and attempting to build its portfolio around smaller businesses, emphasizing ease of use and the vulnerability and virtual machine management capabilities.

VMware has made a number of security acquisitions over the years. The company acquired host-based intrusion prevention vendor Determina in 2006, application-aware firewall and intrusion prevention vendor BlueLane Technologies in 2008, and Tricipher in 2010 for identity and access management services.

PUBLISHED APRIL 9, 2013