Content delivery network provider Akamai is acquiring Asavie, which focuses on security, performance monitoring and access policies for mobile and IoT devices.
Terms of the all-cash deal were not disclosed. Asavie is based in Dublin, Ireland, and employs about 130 people; its customers include telecom and tech heavyweights such as AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, IBM, Microsoft, Samsung and Telefonica, according to reporting by Irish Times. Akamai said that it doesn’t expect the deal to have a material impact on its finanacial results for 2020.
Asavie’s mobile, IoT and security solutions will become part of Akamai’s Security and Personalization Services product line. Akamai noted that carriers embed the SPS products within tech bundles sold to their subscribers. Akamai, which now refers to itself as an intelligent edge platform, positioned the acquisition as one that will boost its 5G security strategy and enable it to provide secure mobile and IoT solutions for remote work.
“We believe the addition of Asavie will help Akamai’s carrier partners address enterprise and mid-market customer demand for IoT and mobile device security and management services,” said Dr. Tom Leighton, CEO and co-founder of Akamai Technologies. “What’s notable about the Asavie solution is that, as more IoT devices connect over cellular and 5G, it has been shown to be very easy to scale and protect them.”
In particular, Ralph Shaw, Asavie’s CEO, said that the company enables secure, automated, self-serve access to business resources for mobile and remote workforces — a boon during the global pandemic. Asavie and Akamai said that Asavie’s clientless architecture is “particularly well-suited for regulated verticals, such as healthcare, financial services, and education. Many of these industries are transitioning to a secure ‘office anywhere’ environment as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and benefit from a rapidly installable, scalable and cloud-managed solution.”
“We expect COVID-19 to have a lasting impact on how employees work and how businesses operate. Network security needs will be required to evolve in a 5G era where the office needs to go wherever employees happen to work,” said Shaw. “The Asavie suite of software-defined solutions is designed to enable enterprises to provide access to business resources while continuously protecting the business in a world of evolving cyber threats targeting mobile devices, users and applications.”
