McAfee FOCUS 2011: McAfee Acquires NitroSecurity

One more McAfee announcement to report before heading off to Dallas for the 2011 Tigerpaw User Conference. McAfee has acquired NitroSecurity, a security information and event management (SIEM) solution provider. The company announced the acquisition earlier in the month, but the official announcement was made during the McAfee FOCUS 2011 Security Conference in Las Vegas.

McAfee expects the deal to be approved during Q4 2011. And when it is approved, McAfee will integrate NitroSecurity’s SIEM management solution with the McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator platform to give clients the flexibility to implement new security policies from a single management console.

If you recall, earlier in the conference McAfee announced another integration with RSA, the security branch of EMC Corp., also involving the McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator. RSA and NitroSecurity sit side-by-side on the 2011 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Security Innovation and Event Management. Translation? They’re competitors. But McAfee Senior Director of Product Marketing for Risk and Compliance Marty Ward said the NitroSecurity announcement will not have any negative impact on McAfee’s partnership with RSA. “This acquisition won’t affect the RSA Archer solution because McAfee has a longstanding and strong relationship with RSA,” he said.

McAfee is entering into a hot SIEM market with the acquisition of NitroSecurity. SIEM is a $1 billion industry and has been growing by an average of 22 percent from 2009 to 2014, according to the IDC Group.