Google acquires Siemplify for boosting security operations

Google Cloud today announced the acquisition of Siemplify, a provider of security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) technologies.

SOAR platforms allow companies to collect key security data, such as alerts, that its security operations team has been monitoring. The technologies ultimately aim to enable companies to prioritize and improve their incident response efforts. A recent survey from Trend Micro found that the proliferation of cybersecurity tools—enterprises typically have an average of 29 different security tools—has led to major difficulties around prioritization of threats.

In a blog post, Sunil Potti, vice president for Google Cloud Security, said the acquisition of Siemplify will assist the cloud platform with “advancing invisible security and democratizing security operations for every organization.” The company’s technology ultimately helps companies to “better manage their threat response.”

A report from CTech pegged the estimated acquisition price for Siemplify at $500 million. VentureBeat hasn’t independently verified the reported acquisition price, and CTech has a mixed track record in terms of accuracy. A Google Cloud spokesperson declined to confirm the figure on Tuesday.

Prioritizing threats

Potti said that Google Cloud became interested in Siemplify for its platform that offers an “intuitive workbench” that allows security teams to improve their management of risk and reduce the costs they incur around addressing cyberthreats.

Siemplify enables security operation center (SOC) analysts “to manage their operations from end-to-end, respond to cyberthreats with speed and precision, and get smarter with every analyst interaction. The technology also helps improve SOC performance by reducing caseloads, raising analyst productivity, and creating better visibility across workflows,” Potti said.

The acquisition will allow Google Cloud to expand on its “vision of a modern threat management stack that empowers customers to go beyond typical security event and information management (SIEM) and extended detection and response (XDR) tooling, enabling better detection and response at the speed and scale of modern environments,” he said.

Specifically, Google Cloud said that Siemplify’s solution will be integrated with its Chronicle security analytics and threat intelligence service. A SOAR tool had been the “missing piece” for Chronicle, said Forrester analyst Allie Mellen in comments shared with VentureBeat.

“This acquisition is an important step in providing a unified offering to practitioners and in being able to compete more directly in the security analytics platform space,” Mellen said.

Investing in security

The acquisition follows Google Cloud’s commitment in August to investing $10 billion in cybersecurity over the next five years.

In Siemplify’s own blog post, CEO Amos Stern, who cofounded the company in 2015, said that “Google’s resources, expertise, and overall commitment to cybersecurity” were key factors leading to the acquisition.

By joining Google Cloud, the company aims to “drive innovation and help many more security teams take their operations to a whole new level,” Stern said.

With offices in New York and Ramat Gan, Israel, Siemplify had raised $58 million in funding. Backers had included Georgian Partners, 83North, G20 Ventures, and Jump Capital.