Managed Security Services Provider Netsurion Acquires SIEM Vendor EventTracker

Over the past year or so, threat vectors for Netsurion’s customers have changed drastically, and CEO Kevin Watson said the managed security services provider knew it had to take a different approach.

The Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based company said Thursday it will merge with security information and event management (SIEM) vendor EventTracker, a move Watson told CRN would allow the combined company to roll out a deeper and more sophisticated managed security services offering to small and midsize businesses.

Terms of the deal, which recently closed, were not disclosed. As part of the deal, Netsurion major shareholder Providence Strategic Growth will make a ’significant equity investment’ in the combined company.

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The deal brings together Netsurion’s managed security services, which focus on multilocation businesses and include specialties in firewall and wireless access point management, with EventTracker’s SIEM, log management and correlation capabilities. Watson said Netsurion chose EventTracker in particular because it also has a managed services offering, with its own SOC for a managed or co-managed SIEM offering.

Netsurion will be the parent company under the deal, with EventTracker continuing to operate under its own brand as a subsidiary. All employees will remain with the company, Watson said. EventTracker CEO A.N. Ananth will continue in his role, the company said.

The move is fairly unique in the security space, with an MSSP picking up a vendor offering rather than the other way around. While other SIEM vendors have managed services offerings, such as IBM and HP ArcSight, Watson said Netsurion and EventTracker will set themselves apart by targeting the small, midsize and multilocation markets, instead of just the large enterprise.

’We like to think that it’s a unique approach,’ Watson said. ’We felt that the smaller side of the market was missing out on [a combination like this].’

The company is readying its first combined managed services and SIEM offering, Watson said, which will be delivered as an agent installed on workstations, POS systems, laptops and other devices, reporting to the cloud for managed SIEM capabilities. Watson said this is critical for the lower end of the market because SMBs are experiencing the same sophisticated threats as their enterprise counterparts, but need a solution at an appropriate price point for their business.

Netsurion will do a formal launch of the offering in the next month or so, said Watson, adding that it will also be available to reseller partners -- an area Netsurion is growing ’exponentially.’

Netsurion will work to build on its combined offerings with EventTracker going forward, leveraging the company’s technology ’a lot more than it has been to date and providing more capital to grow that side of the business,’ he said.