Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) today announced that, in an all cash transaction, it has acquired Soha Systems, an innovator in enterprise secure access delivered as a service. The acquisition is intended to complement Akamai's strategy of securing, protecting and accelerating enterprise applications and services in the cloud.
Providing employees with secure access to enterprise applications deployed behind the firewall is a core requirement for all businesses. Increasingly, businesses must also deal with delivering third-party access to critical applications whether hosted in a public cloud or a private data center. Enabling secure access to enterprise applications can be a complex and cumbersome task requiring on premise hardware and systems, such as Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs), Virtual Private Network (VPN) appliances, identity management systems and application monitoring solutions. Yet, with all of these technologies in use, enterprises can still be exposed to a variety of security risks, such as lateral movement across the enterprise network. Access to enterprise applications via the Internet on employee and third-party devices that are not entirely controlled by the enterprise further increases risk and operational complexity.
"In many ways, the traditional enterprise model is 'turning inside out' with applications, employees and data moving to the cloud, well outside of the enterprise's traditional zone of control. At the same time, security and IT teams remain responsible for ensuring visibility, security and performance," explained Robert Blumofe, executive vice president, Platform, and general manager, Enterprise and Carrier Division, Akamai. "By adding Soha's secure access technology to our Cloud Networking Solutions, we believe we are well positioned to help our customers take full advantage of the key trends, cloud and mobile, driving enterprise computing."
Through its acquisition of Soha – named one of Gartner's Cool Vendors in Cloud and Emerging Technology, Security, 2016 – Akamai plans to extend its portfolio of Cloud Networking Solutions. By offering businesses secure, cloud-based application access control, Akamai aims to simplify and improve remote and mobile access to enterprise resources, while at the same time minimize the exposed attack surface. The company believes that Soha's secure access technology will be instrumental to Akamai's goal of bringing these new capabilities to market in 2016.
"Enterprise security is undergoing a phase shift and Soha's secure access service has been designed to address the unique challenges businesses are facing in this era of hybrid data centers and mobile users," said Haseeb Budhani, co-founder and CEO, Soha Systems. "We look forward to fully integrating our groundbreaking solution as a high-value component of Akamai's massively scalable, global platform."
Soha, headquartered in Sunnyvale, is a privately-funded company. The acquisition is not material to Akamai's financials.
About Akamai
As the global leader in Content Delivery Network (CDN) services, Akamai makes the Internet fast, reliable and secure for its customers. The company's advanced web performance, mobile performance, cloud security and media delivery solutions are revolutionizing how businesses optimize consumer, enterprise and entertainment experiences for any device, anywhere. To learn how Akamai solutions and its team of Internet experts are helping businesses move faster forward, please visit www.akamai.com or blogs.akamai.com, and follow @Akamai on Twitter.
