Cisco to Acquire Cloud Access Security Broker CloudLock for $293 Million

Cisco (CSCO) is set to acquire cloud access security broker CloudLock for $293 million in cash and equity, bringing the team under its networking and security business group, according to an announcement on Tuesday.

With more than 700 customers with tens of millions of users under management, CloudLock is based in Waltham, Massachusetts, and has recently been named among the Best Places to Work by the Boston Business Journal and the Best Small & Medium Companies to Work for by Glassdoor. Cisco plans to pay additional retention-based incentives for CloudLock employees who join Cisco, Reuters reports.

“As enterprises are retooling themselves and increasingly building their futures in the cloud, security has not only become a top business priority, it is now universally demanded by businesses and individuals alike, as a necessity to keep their cloud applications, their data, and their businesses safe,” CloudLock co-founder and CEO Gil Zimmerman said. “The ability to protect all of those assets in the cloud now has a name, Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB).”

According to Gartner, CASB solutions will go from five percent penetration in 2015 to over 85 percent by 2020. Zimmerman said that when CloudLock started talking to Cisco about potential opportunities to collaborate it realized how much the companies had in common:

“We share the same vision on the future of security that focuses on a platform that scales to any size, provides immediate value, is simple to manage and leverage, and is easily extensible through APIs. We also realized that by joining forces, we could accelerate the execution of our vision with greater investments in research and development, the CloudLock CyberLab, partner enablement, and global reach which is far greater than we could have ever achieved on our own. Customers will experience new capabilities and offerings that the combined Cisco Security offerings bring, unparalleled in the industry. On all fronts, the customer experience will only improve, even with the bar already set so high.”

In a FAQ page about the deal, CloudLock said the deal will not impact existing partners, but it will work to “enable and leverage the amazing partner network Cisco has already created.”

The deal comes shortly after Cisco acquired CliQr to add its application-defined cloud orchestration platform.