Cloudera has acquired big data security provider Gazzang to build out its security capabilities.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. According to Cloudera, the acquisition is another step along the company’s security roadmap. With the acquisition of Gazzang, the company will be adding Gazzang’s capabilities around data encryption and key management.
According to Cloudera, the plan is to focus the Gazzang team on security challenges surrounding Hadoop through the Cloudera Center for Security Excellence, with a specific focus on:
– Comprehensive data and cluster security technologies — including “follow the data” authorization and encryption policies riding on Cloudera’s data lineage tracking capabilities.
– Security testing and certification — including continuous vulnerability assessment, performance optimization, and developing regulatory compliance playbooks.
– Security ecosystem partner enablement — developing security integration APIs and certifying partner products.
“Enterprises are adopting big data solutions, despite what some mainstream press has stated, but only when they can address data security and compliance requirements,” said Adrian Lane of the analyst firm Securosis, in a statement. “That Cloudera can now address the enterprise’s most critical security requirement — data encryption — directly into the platform is a big win for security-sensitive customers. What’s more, Gazzang’s transparent form of encryption scales right along with NoSQL clusters, so Cloudera customers get data security at big data scale. This is an astute acquisition by Cloudera.”
According to Cloudera, the company plans to integrate Gazzang’s technology into its Cloudera Enterprise offering, and will take over support for Gazzang customers.
“Data security is no longer a checkbox for IT organizations or operations departments, it has become a top business priority,” said Tom Reilly, chief executive officer at Cloudera, in a statement. “At the same time compliance requirements for protecting data continue to expand in scope where data access comes under scrutiny. We’re entering a whole new era with the rise of the Industrial Internet and the Internet of Things where there is vastly more data being streamed from billions of devices. Centralizing and accessing that net-new data to unlock its value is therefore a challenge when you consider the security requirements. That’s what we’re solving now.”
