SolarWinds and AdEPT both on the acquisition trail

 Managed services specialist SolarWinds has acquired Passportal to bolster the depth of its security portfolio and elsewhere AdEPT has also been busy adding more muscle to its operations.

Passportal has devised MSP focused password management and privileged client tools that will be added to the options it can offer the channel.

Passport management is one of those tasks that tends to become more complex with a greater number of users and can cause service providers headaches.

“At SolarWinds, every move we make to build out our solutions starts with one question: Does this help solve a problem for our customers? When we decided to augment our security portfolio with the SolarWinds Passportal suite, we answered that question with a definitive yes,” stated Kevin Thompson, CEO, SolarWinds.

“The new SolarWinds Passportal product suite will arm IT service providers with the ability to more effectively manage and secure the broad range of IT ecosystems under their purview. While many security vendors take a complex approach to solving IT security management challenges, our focus has always been to make IT—including security—look easy, despite the complexities in the background," he added.

Colin Knox, CEO of Passportal, said that he had been an MSP and had decided to develop tools that would make life easier for that channel community.

"We’ve always developed technologies with the MSP in mind, and that’s completely mapped to the SolarWinds approach of putting the customer first, with industry leading IT management products designed with simplicity in mind. It’s a truly exciting move for us and the MSP market," he said.

The acquisition was not the only deal revealed today with IT services player Adept Technology Group splashing out £5.2m for education specialist Advanced Computer Systems Group (ACS).

"We are delighted to have acquired such a high-quality business with the highly experienced vendors remaining with ACS Group post-acquisition," said AdEPT chief executive Phil Race.

"AdEPT has an existing education focused IT service operation in Orpington - the acquisition of ACS Group builds on this capability and extends the geographical reach of AdEPT's IT services to Yorkshire," he added.

Kevin McEwen, the managing director of ACS, said that the were benefits from choosing to be acquired.

“Our education focus, providing a broad range of expertise to more than 200 educational establishments, alongside our commercial clients means that AdEPT is an incredibly complementary home for our business,” he said.