Cyphort provides analytics for threat defense, and Juniper plans to use the assets to bolster on-premises and cloud security.

Mitch Wagner, Executive Editor, Light Reading

August 31, 2017

2 Min Read
Juniper Snapping Up Cyphort for Security

Juniper said Thursday it plans to acquire Cyphort, a security software company providing analytics for threat defense.

Juniper will use the acquisition to bolster its Sky Advanced Threat Protection, for enhanced on-premises and cloud security, according to a post by Kevin Hutchins, Juniper senior vice president of strategy and product management, on the company blog Thursday afternoon.

Cyphort's technology integrates with "existing security tools to discover and contain the threats that bypass the first line of security defense," Hutchins says. Cyphort uses machine learning and behavioral analytics to improve efficiency.

Figure 1: Photo by LPS.1 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons Photo by LPS.1 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Juniper expects the acquisition to close within the next month.

Cloud-based advanced threat prevention "is becoming a critical feature of next-generation firewalls," where Juniper intends to lead, Hutchins says.

Juniper this week introduced security services designed to secure cloud-native apps built using microservices. Juniper Contrail Security is designed for enterprise and software-as-a-service multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments. (See Juniper Secures Cloud-Native Apps.)

Security is a hot topic this week -- it was a main focus of discussion at VMware's VMworld conference in Las Vegas. And VMware launched a security service to provide protection at the application level. (See VMware Offers App Security From the 'Goldilocks Zone'.)

Juniper CEO Rami Rahim said in an earnings call late last month that the company might pursue a security acquisition, so the Cyphort acquisition isn't surprising. (See Juniper Secures Cloud-Native Apps.)

Security revenue was down for Juniper in that quarter $69 million, down 12% year-over-year and up 5% sequentially. Overall revenue for the second quarter of 2017, ending June 30, was $1.31 billion, up 7% year-over-year and sequentially.

Cyphort Chief Executive Manoj Leelanivas, was a 14-year veteran at Juniper and spent seven years at Cisco, and holds more than ten patents for his work at the two companies, according to his company bio.

Juniper most recent acquisition was cloud optimization service AppFormix, which Juniper scooped up in December.

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About the Author(s)

Mitch Wagner

Executive Editor, Light Reading

San Diego-based Mitch Wagner is many things. As well as being "our guy" on the West Coast (of the US, not Scotland, or anywhere else with indifferent meteorological conditions), he's a husband (to his wife), dissatisfied Democrat, American (so he could be President some day), nonobservant Jew, and science fiction fan. Not necessarily in that order.

He's also one half of a special duo, along with Minnie, who is the co-habitor of the West Coast Bureau and Light Reading's primary chewer of sticks, though she is not the only one on the team who regularly munches on bark.

Wagner, whose previous positions include Editor-in-Chief at Internet Evolution and Executive Editor at InformationWeek, will be responsible for tracking and reporting on developments in Silicon Valley and other US West Coast hotspots of communications technology innovation.

Beats: Software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), IP networking, and colored foods (such as 'green rice').

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