Blue Coat Dives Deep Into Security Data With Solera Networks Acquisition

Security supplier Blue Coat has announced the acquisition of Solera Networks, in a bid to up its Big Data security game.

Security vendors are increasingly using analytics, hoping that data warehouses full of security data will allow customers to extract better information about attacks and vulnerabilities, an areas currently called security information and events management (SIEM). “Context” is now king in the security world, and RSA, backed by technology from its owner EMC, is hoping to take the lead, with a strategy announced at its RSA 2013 event in February.

Blue Coat and Big Data

Blue Coat, a major supplier into global governments, will be basing its analytics efforts on its new acquisition, Solera’s DeepSee platform. It likens the Solera offering to a digital video recorder (DVR), providing surveillance over the network, recording all data going through the different ports.

This kind of technology is useful for protecting against advanced, persistent attacks, which can sit on networks for years without being detected.

Blue Coat also announced the launch of SSL Visibility, designed to give organisations more insight into encrypted traffic, building on technology from Netronome, which it acquired earlier this month. The Solera technology has already been integrated into that, meaning Blue Coat has the ability to do pretty thorough deep packet inspection.

“The future of the industry is moving beyond just blocking malware and stopping targeted attacks to also identifying and resolving the full scope of the attacks in real time,” said  Greg Clark, CEO at Blue Coat Systems.

“Retrospective capture and analytics are now an essential component of modern security architecture, and Solera has pioneered this field, creating a DVR for the network that records traffic and allows customers to easily mine that information.”

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. It is expected to go through in the next 30 days.

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