Category Archives: Identity management

BYOA, Identity management, M&A, News & Analysis, Software as a service

LogMeIn acquires LastPass for $125 million to create remote access giant

Remote working SaaS company LogMeIn will acquire password management service provider LastPass for $125 million to bolster its position in identity and access management.

LogMeIn already has a strong position in cloud-based remote login and LastPass is best known as a password manager with an emphasis on enterprise, so it’s easy to see how the two product portfolios complement each other. The combined companies will be in a position to offer a wide range of remote access tools and services.

“LastPass has a great business, a beloved and award winning product, millions of loyal users, and thousands of great business customers – they are synonymous with the category,” said Michael Simon, LogMeIn’s Chairman and CEO. “We believe this transaction instantly gives us a market leading position in password management, while also providing a highly favourable foundation for delivering the next generation of identity and access management solutions to individuals, teams and companies.”

“LogMeIn and LastPass share a great common vision on reshaping identity and access management in ways that not only increase productivity but also improve security for individuals and companies, alike,” said Joe Siegrist, CEO of LastPass. “The striking commonality between our businesses, our products, and cultural DNA make this a great fit for both teams, and we believe a great win for our customers.”

In the rationale behind the move there was much talk of BYOA (bring your own app), which LogMeIn has identified as a key trend. Essentially this means remote workers using whatever tools they see fit and IT managers having to work out how to accommodate them – much as has happened with BYOD (bring your own device). LogMeIn’s strategy is to be the default BYOA enabler.

cloud security, Funding, Identity management, News & Analysis, Okta

Okta raises $75m in funding as cloud identity management leader is valued as $1.2 bn

identity access managementCloud security vendor Okta has raised $75 million from existing shareholders, taking its market valuation at $1.2 billion.

A specialist in identity and mobility management, Okta raised the finance from lead investors Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital. New investment has been attracted from Khosla Ventures, Altimeter, Glynn Capital and others.

Since its founding in 2009, Okta has now raised a total of $230 million.

Okta has added to its management team with Michelle Wilson, former general counsel at Amazon, joining as the first independent director on its board. In addition, Okta has appointed Michael Guerchon, ex-Riversoft HR man, as its Chief People Officer and Jon Runyan as its General Counsel. Runyan, formerly a partner in Goodwin Proctor’s technology companies practice, will oversee the company’s legal affairs worldwide.

In September Okta announced a ‘substantial investment’ in private cloud infrastructure rented from Amazon Web Services in Germany. An additional disaster recovery facility has been established in Eire. The use of the AWS facilities was a move to manage all European data in a single facility within Europe.

“We’re at an important inflection point where IT leaders, product developers and industry analysts see the critical role identity plays in connecting people, apps, devices and organizations,” said Todd McKinnon, Okta CEO, “Okta pioneered cloud-based identity management, which set us up to become the foundation for secure connections.”

Okta stakeholder Ben Horowitz, co-founder of investment partner Andreessen Horowitz, described Okta as the ‘runaway market leader in identity management’.

“This new round of funding will expand their scope and bring that solution to the world,” said Horowitz.

Since its start-up in 2009, Okta has won 2,500 customers globally catering to demand for cloud security with its identity management service.

Meanwhile, Cybersecurity vendor Webroot announced new channel to market for its cloud based services, in a partnership with New Zealand-based distributor exceed. The agreement gives retailers, IT resellers and managed service providers access to Webroot’s cloud-based big data analytics, automated machine learning and intelligent endpoint security.

Distributors, resellers and service providers are revising their business model to focus on cloud services, giving security vendors the scope for rapid expansion, according to Justin Tye, Exeed’s managing director. “We selected Webroot for its flexible, fast, and effective solutions, as well as its business model that clearly supports a multifaceted sales strategy,” said Tye.

Identity Governance Framework, Identity management, SailPoint AccessIQ, Single sign-on

SailPoint Announces Integrated Cloud Identity Management Solution for the Enterprise

Image representing Sailpoint Technologies as d...

Recognizing that cloud adoption is making identity management more complex and difficult for the world’s largest companies, SailPoint today announced SailPoint AccessIQ, which integrates cloud access management with rich identity governance and automated provisioning. AccessIQ provides convenient, easy-to-use services such as single sign-on (SSO) and self-service access request, while ensuring that cloud applications are managed within the same identity governance framework used for on-premises applications. Delivered as a cloud service, AccessIQ deploys quickly and allows enterprises to immediately take advantage of convenient cloud access services coupled with improved visibility and oversight over their usage.

“The consumerization of IT has changed business user expectations. They want fast, simple and convenient access to cloud services without being slowed down by IT processes and controls,” said Jackie Gilbert, VP and GM of SailPoint’s Cloud Business Unit. “And, we see a growing trend of ‘bring your own application,’ where workers self-provision cloud applications. Both scenarios make it more difficult to monitor and control when and where users are placing sensitive data in the cloud, which brings a host of security and compliance concerns. IT can’t manage compliance and risk if it doesn’t have visibility into the cloud applications used throughout the enterprise.”

Designed for empowered business users looking for a more flexible and agile way to address business challenges, AccessIQ provides an intuitive, tablet-like interface to deliver services that improve productivity and user satisfaction. AccessIQ includes an intuitive App Launchpad for one-click, single sign-on to cloud applications from any device, step-up authentication options for added security, as well as simple self-service application request capabilities, via an easy-to-use App Store. This empowers business users to safely use cloud applications for business or mixed-use purposes, with approvals and provisioning handled automatically based on organizational roles and security policies.

SailPoint AccessIQ, together with SailPoint IdentityIQTM, offers the richest set of end-to-end controls over cloud applications available today. AccessIQ’s integration with IdentityIQ provides an enterprise-grade governance platform for managing identities and applications in the cloud, with policy, role, and risk models unified with on-premises application identity management. To extend governance to applications outside the control of IT, AccessIQ provides:

  • Full visibility of user sign-on activity and account usage, enabling
    business unit procured applications and SaaS applications procured by
    individuals to be managed as part of an enterprise-wide identity
    governance strategy.
  • A flexible, risk-based approach to cloud application identities so IT
    organizations can tailor how they manage and control those
    applications without locking down the environment and getting in the
    way of the business.
  • Full audit reporting on application usage and “who has access to what”
    to demonstrate compliance and control monthly subscription expenses by
    promptly deprovisioning unused or unauthorized cloud application
    accounts.

SailPoint AccessIQ is a fully hosted, multi-tenant solution that seamlessly and securely integrates with SailPoint IdentityIQ. It will be generally available in Q3 2012 with per-user subscription-based pricing. For more information, visit: www.sailpoint.com/cloud.


Arrowpath Venture Partners, Identity management, Venture Funding, Xceedium

Xceedium Gets $12 Million for Identity Management

Image representing ArrowPath Venture Partners ...

Xceedium, Inc., provider of Zero Trust privileged identity and access management solutions, today announced that is has closed a $12 million Series B financing extension led by existing investor ArrowPath Venture Partners. The new funds will be used to fuel continued growth and expansion of the company, with specific emphasis on Xceedium’s new cloud-based initiatives. As part of this aggressive growth strategy, the company also announced today the launch of Xsuite Cloud.

“The market for privileged identity and access management solutions is constantly growing and the push for enterprises to move to the cloud has only increased its potential,” said Morgan Rodd at ArrowPath Venture Partners. “Xceedium’s track record and strong management team were the key drivers for this extension. Xceedium has proven resources in place to capitalize on the growing demand for products that control and monitor privileged network access.”

Large enterprises and global government agencies have adopted Xsuite as a critical component of their security infrastructure to meet stringent security and compliance requirements – eliminating the risk of allowing employees and third parties unchecked privileged access to their networks. This financing round allows Xceedium to maintain that leadership position and to aggressively fuel its cloud-based initiatives with Xsuite Cloud. Xsuite Cloud is a comprehensive privileged identity and access management platform designed to provide additional protection for organizations that are taking advantage of the cost, power and scalability of Amazon Web Services (AWS) in conjunction with existing datacenter infrastructure.

“We are very pleased to be announcing this latest round of financing coincident with the unveiling of our new Xsuite Cloud offering,” said Glenn Hazard, Xceedium CEO. “We are seeing significant adoption of our privileged identity and access management solutions within both the commercial and federal sectors. As these customers adopt cloud and hybrid architectures, Xsuite Cloud along with this latest funding extension uniquely positions us to take full advantage of this growing market opportunity.”

In addition to ArrowPath Venture Partners, new investor Western Technology Investment joined existing investors in the Series B financing extension.