SolarWinds Plug Security Hole With Passportal Acquisition
In a bid to offer increased security to its MSP customers, Texas-based software giant SolarWinds has acquired Canadian password and documentation management firm Passportal.
With 22,000 MSP clients around the world, SolarWinds serves a total of 6 million end users in mostly small to medium sized businesses, and will use the acquisition of Passportal to address demand for an IT infrastructure package that includes security measures.
Passportal’s collection of self-serve password reset, password management, and IT documentation solutions will now be known as the SolarWinds Passportal suite, and offered to SolarWind’s global customer base.
Speaking on the acquisition, SolarWinds EVP John Pagliuca said that security was a critical issue for the small to medium businesses that rely on SolarWind’s MSP.
“For most MSPs, password management is complex and time consuming as they scale their service business, but they need it to increase operational efficiency and reduce risk,” said Pagliuca in a statement. “The SolarWinds Passportal suite specifically addresses this need as it was designed from the ground up for MSPs. […] The ability to quickly add on specialised tools like password management and privileged information management is especially critical for the MSP whose customer, the SMB, has become the new cybercrime target du jour.”
Mergers and acquisitions have become a popular growth strategy for MSPs, which are often looking to expand into new geographic regions and develop expertise in new areas to plug gaps in their offerings and deter customers from defecting to competitors.
One of the fastest-growing tech companies of the last decade, SolarWinds have consistently used acquisition to expand into new verticals take on new satellite offices around the world – turning the company from a provider of network monitoring solutions into a global ‘one-stop shop’ for IT services.
The purchase of Passportal follows the acquisition of service management software company Samanage in April, and access right management solution provider 8man in November 2018.