Big Data Buy: Barracuda Purchases Cloud Information Archiving And Analytics Specialist Sonian

Storage and security vendor Barracuda Networks has purchased public cloud archiving provider Sonian to meet increased demand for compliance, analytics, and email security and management capabilities.

The Campbell, Calif.-based company said Sonian's archiving and analytics capabilities enable customers to preserve and access communications data. By using those insights, Barracuda said businesses could identify potential threats in communications data before they escalate into larger problems.

"The Sonian platform will enable us to continue to drive differentiation and leadership as customers move to Office 365," BJ Jenkins, president and CEO of Barracuda, said in a statement. "Further, we believe there is an opportunity to integrate Sonian's analytics and AI with our data protection portfolio."

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Waltham, Mass.-based Sonian is privately held and brings more than 32,000 customers in 40 countries to the Barracuda ecosystem, as well as partnerships with large MSPs and software companies. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, and Barracuda didn't immediately respond to requests for additional comment.

"The potential of Sonian's technology and go-to-market model combined with Barracuda's scale and complementary products creates a powerful value proposition for both partners and customers," Tim McKinnon, Sonian's president and CEO, said in a statement.

The acquisition will enable Encore Technology Group to archive and provide security context around all kinds of public cloud communications extending well beyond email, messaging or Skype, according to President and Chief Technology Officer Michael Knight.

There are very few standalone, third-party public cloud archiving and analytics products on the market today that are both inexpensive and easy for channel partners to deploy, Knight told CRN. As a result of this deal, Knight said Barracuda partners and customers will now have access to the same level of analytics and tools in the public cloud as are available on premises.

"As people moved into the public cloud, they lost that capability, and Barracuda is re-enabling it through their technology," Knight said.

Many of Greenville, S.C.-based Encore's customers will benefit from Sonian's capabilities, Knight said, ranging from school districts looking to audit digital communications in a cyberbullying case to private organizations interested in bolstering their data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities in the cloud.

"Barracuda is continuing to create technology products, as well as acquire technology products, that are going to enable the public cloud," Knight said.

In addition to archiving data, Sonian's technology provides business communications analytics by, in part, helping companies discover unusual activity by searching inside of email discussions and attachments. A company using its technology could set alerts to tell it when emails containing credit card numbers, social security numbers, certain watchwords or other confidential information are being sent from its systems. The companies said this capability is increasingly important as end users look to Software-as-a-Service tools to fulfill regulatory, policy compliance and data preservation needs.

Barracuda and Sonian's combined cloud archiving capabilities are powerful yet easy-to-use for both customers and channel partners, the company said. The Sonian platform was designed for OEMs and MSPs from the ground up with white-label and administrative APIs for easy and automatic deployments, according to the companies. Sonian employs 64 people, according to LinkedIn.