In a significant expansion of its strategic entry into the solution market, managed services software and outsourcing vendor Continuum has acquired CARVIR, a provider of security solutions for MSPs.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The deal adds a managed SIEM offering to Boston-based Continuum’s security portfolio, and enhances its existing next-generation detection and response services.
“Security is the greatest threat to businesses today, and greatest opportunity for MSPs, and Continuum Security was created to enable the channel to capitalize on these dynamics.” said Continuum CEO Michael George in a press statement. “Our partners already benefit from our security solutions and it was clear to us that, by bringing onboard CARVIR’s expertise and technology, we could heighten our partners’ capabilities in this space. In doing so, we’ve been able to rapidly accelerate our own plans to enhance Continuum Security, and are now in pole position to fuel our partners’ growth and profitability in cybersecurity and beyond.”
Jay Ryerse, CARVIR’s CEO, will stay with the business he founded and become Continuum’s security products CTO.
Based in Cumming, Ga., CARVIR offers a version of next-generation endpoint security software for MSPs based on technology from SentinelOne, of Mountain View, Calif. The company introduced a managed SIEM offering in partnership with EventTracker, of Columbia, Md., last December and a web gateway security solution powered by software from Cyren Ltd. the following month.
Continuum signaled an impending entry into security services as far back as October 2016. A year later, at the 2017 edition of its Navigate partner event, the company officially unveiled a security solution set with two core components called Profile & Protect and Detect & Respond, both of which are backed by 24/7 security operations centers in Pune and Mumbai, India.
Profile & Protect is designed to help MSPs manage and deliver vulnerability scanning, anti-virus, firewall, and other security services from Continuum itself and third-party suppliers. Detect & Respond utilizes behavior analysis technology to provide real-time protection from attacks that have successfully penetrated an organization’s defensive perimeter.
Drawing on technology acquired with CARVIR, Continuum has now enhanced the functionality in Detect & Respond and split the solution into two products. One, called Detect & Respond—Endpoint, employs CARVIR’s SentinelOne-based product to identify and remediate attacks on desktops, laptops, and servers. The second, named Detect & Respond—Network & Compliance, uses CARVIR’s EventTracker-based SIEM product to identify and remediate attacks within networks.
In a short time, CARVIR has established itself as one of the most popular security vendors in the SMB channel. Since November 2016, when its endpoint security product first went on sale, the company has accumulated over 500 MSP partners who support more than 4,000 client sites.
Continuum was acquired by Chicago-based private equity firm Thoma Bravo a year ago, and has been eyeing potential acquisition targets ever since. Purchasing CARVIR is its most significant such transaction to date in the security space.
Security is Continuum’s top priority at present and big bet for the future.
Though its business model relies on outsourced network and security operations centers versus software alone, Continuum competes with managed services line-of-business software makers like Durham, N.C.-based SolarWinds MSP and Kaseya Ltd. which maintains dual headquarters in Miami and New York. Both vendors offer security products as well. A third major name in MSP software, Norwalk, Conn.-based Datto Inc. does not yet have a security portfolio of its own, but plans to introduce one in the future, according to CEO Austin McChord in a conversation with ChannelPro last December.
Increasingly sophisticated, often file-less, security threats have combined with an epidemic of ransomware attacks to drive rapidly escalating outlays on security technology. Global outlays on security will rise 10.2 percent this year alone to $91.4 billion, according to analyst firm IDC.
