Imperva pitches positives of jSonar deal to partners

Imperva is describing its acquisition of database security player jSonar as a positive move for its channel partners.

Late last week, the firm sealed the deal to pick up jSonar in a move designed to extend the security coverage it could offer to customers. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but it should close by the middle of this month if all goes to plan.

This is the second deal struck by Imperva in the space of 16 months, coming after it picked up Distil Networks in June last year to add more bot protection to its portfolio.

Pam Murphy, CEO of Imperva, said its channel partners would be able to take advantage of the increasing need for greater data protection and the access to jSonar technology.

“Data security is a critical need and represents an under-served market opportunity,” she said. “With over 60 database platforms and more than 2,000 out-of-the-box product integrations, this planned acquisition will enable partners to help customers manage risk, compliance and enable secure transformation of their database workloads.

“Partners will be able to offer a fast, comprehensive and cost-effective way to secure data across diverse datasets – on-prem and in the cloud.”

Imperva is looking to combine its app and data security expertise with jSonar’s ability to gain access to databases, either on-prem or in the cloud, to make sure customers are not struggling with pockets of unprotected information.

Under the deal, Ron Bennatan, a 25-year data security veteran and founder of jSonar, will stay on board to head up the Imperva Data Security business, which will combine the product lines of both firms.

“While data grows at an exponential rate, budgets do not,” said Bennatan. “Our mission has always been to develop solutions that solve the full range of challenges in data security in a way that is efficient, simple to achieve, and provides tangible value beyond compliance.”

The deal got the thumbs-up from Alexei Balaganski, lead analyst at KuppingerCole Analysts, because of its potential to solve more user problems.

“As data management and protection use cases continue to grow in complexity, variety and scale, organisations increasingly have to choose between best-of-breed yet disjointed security tools and an integrated suite,” he said.

“The potential of Imperva and jSonar represents a comprehensive integrated approach to securing data both through its complete lifespan and across a broad range of heterogeneous IT platforms, which entitles customers to get return from existing investments while gaining consolidated analytics, proactive protection and quick response capabilities.”