Blue Coat Acquires Perspecsys to Capture CASB Sales

Enterprise security and networking provider Blue Coat Systems has acquired Perspecsys, a California–based enterprise cloud data protection solutions provider for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition is expected to help Blue Coat expand its cloud security offerings as well as its hybrid cloud portfolio as the company jockeys for position in the Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) market.

“As the largest content security provider on the planet and a leader in CASB, Blue Coat is the logical source for these security services,” said David Canellos, Perspecsys CEO, in a statement. “Enterprises want to buy this class of solution from Blue Coat and Perspecsys’ Cloud Data Protection is a natural complement to Blue Coat’s widely recognized portfolio of cloud and proxy technologies.”

Perspecsys’ AppProtex Cloud Data Protection platform was designed to help customers secure critical assets by tokenizing and encrypting data both in use and at rest, according to the announcement.

Blue Coat CEO Greg Clark said the acquisition will also allow the company to help international customers meet growing data privacy and compliance needs as the importance of securing end user data in the cloud becomes more rigorous.

“Given that more than 50 percent of our customers are based overseas, and as we look to expand our vision for cloud protection, we are paying close attention to the unique needs of multinationals that reside or are doing business in geographies with strict compliance and data sovereignty requirements,” said Clark. “Perspecsys has delivered an approach for encrypting and tokenizing data in the cloud that can actually be used in the real world by global customers, making it a disruptive force in the market and a great addition to Blue Coat.”

The acquisition comes on the heels of Blue Coat’s new Alliance Ecosystem of Endpoint Detection and Response, a group dedicated to sharing actionable intelligence about endpoint security from the company’s security portfolio. Founding members of the group include TripWire, Countertack and Digital Guardian, among others.