BlueCat Networks Expanding Partner Opportunities with LiveAction Acquisition

BlueCat Networks, the provider of network infrastructure management, automation and security solutions, is acquiring LiveAction from software investor Insight Partners.

LiveAction provides network observability and intelligence solutions. Insight Partners remains a minority investor in BlueCat Networks and continues to support the combined company's growth.

BlueCat Networks expects to complete the acquisition this month and isn’t saying how much it's paying for LiveAction.

Jonathan Eisner, BlueCat Networks’ senior vice president of worldwide channel sales, said the acquisition will allow his company’s partners to deliver the core DDI (DNS, DHCP, IPAM) technologies that are fundamental in facilitating and managing network access, plus network observability and performance management technologies from LiveAction (LiveNX, LiveWire, LiveSP, OmniPeek).

Blue Cat Networks' Jonathan Eisner

“The LiveAction portfolio provides real-time visibility and insights into how well the network is performing, and can proactively identify performance and security issues impacting network services and devices,” he said. “Our partners will be able to offer their customers an enhanced portfolio of products to deliver solutions that are fundamental in both modernizing their networks and optimizing their operations, performance and security.”

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BlueCat Networks, LiveAction Focused On MSPs

BlueCat Networks and LiveAction are both focused on partners that offer managed services, Eisner said.

“BlueCat offers DDI solutions through specialty MSPs as well as larger MSPs that provide network transformation and management services to global customers,” he said. “LiveAction has a specialized MSP offering, LiveSP, that helps service providers monitor, administer, troubleshoot and identify security risks on customer networks. LiveSP offers full visibility of customer networks via a single pane of glass, automates provisioning workflows, has rich and easy-to-use dashboards, collects, analyzes and reports on diverse network telemetry data, and that allows the secure separation, administration and management of multiple customer accounts.”

BlueCat Networks and LiveAction have strong channel partner relationships in North America and Europe, Eisner said.

“Both companies are investing in the channel in Latin America and Asia Pacific, and we are also seeing opportunities in underserved markets like the Middle East,” he said. “Once the acquisition is complete, we will work together to optimize and expand our geographic coverage.”

Expanded Partner Program Coming

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LiveAction and BlueCat Networks are both channel-first organizations and “while we share many of the same partners, there will be expanded opportunities to those partners that carry only one line to extend their solutions,” Eisner said.

“Our partners specialize in networking products and services,” he said. “Our combined offerings will enable partners to offer these products under a unified partner ecosystem, pricing and support structure from one vendor. We also expect to deliver unique product integrations and dashboards through our partners that will simplify network design, deployment and optimization, and improve visibility, performance and security. Our future state will include an expanded world-class partner program, and we look forward to sharing exciting details in the months to come.”
“We are excited as we look ahead to the next chapter in LiveAction’s growth and evolution as part of BlueCat,” said Francine Geist, LiveAction’s CEO. “We both share a commitment to customers and continued innovation to help them harness the value of their network infrastructure.”