Akamai acquires Soha to ramp up its Cloud Networking Solutions

by Abhinav Mohapatra

Content Delivery Network (CDN) services company, Akamai Technologies, has acquired Soha Systems, an innovator in enterprise secure access delivered as a service, for an undisclosed amount. According to the CDN company, the acquisition will help it strategize securing, protecting and accelerating enterprise applications and services in the cloud.

The challenge

Akamai states that providing employees with secure access to enterprise applications deployed behind the firewall is a core requirement for all businesses. Businesses today are dealing with delivering third-party access to critical applications whether hosted in a public cloud or a private data center. Enabling secure access to enterprise applications requires on premise hardware and systems, such as Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs), Virtual Private Network (VPN) appliances, identity management systems and application monitoring solutions. Even though these technologies are in use, enterprises are still exposed to a variety of security risks, such as lateral movement across the enterprise network. Access to enterprise applications via the Internet on employee and third-party devices that are not entirely controlled by the enterprise further increases risk and operational complexity. Robert Blumofe, Executive Vice President, Platform, and General Manager, Enterprise and Carrier Division, Akamai said, “In many ways, the traditional enterprise model is ‘turning inside out’ with applications, employees and data moving to the cloud, well outside of the enterprise’s traditional zone of control. At the same time, security and IT teams remain responsible for ensuring visibility, security and performance.
“By adding Soha’s secure access technology to our Cloud Networking Solutions, we believe we are well positioned to help our customers take full advantage of the key trends, cloud and mobile, driving enterprise computing.”

The solution

Through its acquisition of Soha, Akamai plans to extend its portfolio of Cloud Networking Solutions. By offering businesses secure, cloud-based application access control, Akamai aims to simplify and improve remote and mobile access to enterprise resources, while at the same time minimize the exposed attack surface. The company believes that Soha’s secure access technology will be instrumental to Akamai’s goal of bringing new capabilities to market. Haseeb Budhani, Co-Founder and CEO, Soha Systems, said, “Enterprise security is undergoing a phase shift and Soha’s secure access service has been designed to address the unique challenges businesses are facing in this era of hybrid data centers and mobile users. We look forward to fully integrating our groundbreaking solution as a high-value component of Akamai’s massively scalable, global platform.” Before Soha, Akamai also acquired Concord Systems, an IoT centric startup. Last Year the company also acquired Bloxx and in 2013 it acquired DDoS company Prolexic. As stated by several industry reports, the company is ramping up its security acquisitions to set a foothold in the market and complement its other verticals that look after optimizing and securing web based traffic.