Cyxtera to Spin Out Cybersecurity Business as AppGate

Cyxtera is spinning out its cybersecurity business into a separate company led by Mike Aiello, formerly Google’s director of product management.

The new business will operate as AppGate and will bring together a set of cloud- and hybrid-ready security and analytics products and services. The spin-out is expected to be complete in the first quarter of 2020.

The products and services include AppGate SDP, a software-defined perimeter solution, the Total Fraud Protection suite of risk-based authentication and digital threat protection capabilities, and a range of threat management and analytics offerings including the Brainspace digital investigations platform and the company’s Immunity range of offense-oriented software and adversary simulation services. Today, these products secure more than 1,000 organizations across 40 countries.

Cyxtera’s Barry Field

Barry Field, AppGate’s chief revenue officer, tells us his company will “work with our channel partners to provide them with customized support and enablement to reach the different buyers in each market.”

“Our intention is to expand the channel program for AppGate as the demand for zero-trust solutions is growing at a fast pace,” he said. “Developing a channel program is a priority for the overall distribution strategy.”

AppGate will have its own partner program, which will be announced in the near future, Field said.

“In the meantime, partners can continue to work with Cyxtera as they do today with no disruption,” he said. “We believe there is an advantage in that each company can focus on providing the specific tools, enablement and support to its channel partners.”

Until the spin-out is final, partners will continue to collaborate with their same channel team who will assist them during the transition, Field said.

The companies will share the same ownership structure as the existing Cyxtera business, led by private equity firms BC Partners and Medina Capital, while the spin out will allow each organization to pursue the most appropriate business strategy to leverage its respective market opportunity, according to Cyxtera.

Cyxtera’s Mike Aiello

Aiello directed product management for Google Cloud Platform Security, and previously was CISO for Goldman Sachs’s Consumer and Commercial Bank.

“Cyxtera has built the most comprehensive solutions for secure access and fraud protection,” Aiello said. “These solutions are backed by leading investigative analytics and adversary simulation capabilities. The team’s deep offensive expertise and defensive capabilities are built for today’s complex, hybrid infrastructures making things simple for our customers and complex for their adversaries. I’m delighted to join an exceptionally talented team as CEO to help enterprises and government agencies defend themselves in the world’s most hostile environments.”

Cyxtera and AppGate will work closely together as strategic partners, with AppGate leveraging Cyxtera’s global footprint to accelerate deployments and expand as-a-service capabilities. Cyxtera will integrate AppGate products into the capabilities connected via its CXD on-demand marketplace, providing customers with a cyber-resilient data center platform.