Intel’s (NASDAQ:INTC) McAfee security division is acquiring privately held database security vendor Sentrigo. Financial terms of the deal are not being publicly disclosed.
Sentrigo’s products include the Hedgehog Enterprise product, which is a Database Activity Monitoring (DAM) solution that provides virtual patching for database deployments. Another key product is the Hedgehog DBscanner, which is a vulnerability assessment solution for databases.
“After evaluating other players in this market, McAfee recognized that Sentrigo has the best technology, best go-to-market approach, and strongest team to bring into McAfee,” Martin Ward, McAfee’s senior director of risk and compliance product marketing, told InternetNews.com. “McAfee has sold Sentrigo solutions under an OEM agreement for six months so we are already familiar with the market opportunity, technology, how to sell it, and who to target.”
Ward added that the Sentrigo solution is complementary to what McAfee already sells. With the previous partnership, McAfee had already been branding Sentrigo’s products, including Vulnerability Manager for Databases, Database Activity Monitoring, and Integrity Monitoring for Databases as McAfee products.
“We believe Sentrigo has the DNA to become the market leader for cloud security of databases,” Ward said. “The Sentrigo architecture is unique in the database security market, utilizing autonomous sensors that can be deployed locally wherever cloud systems are provisioned.”
The need to protect databases against attack, specifically SQL Injection-type attacks, is one which multiple vendors have been attempting to solve. Oracle recently released its own Database Firewall product to prevent SQL Injection. IBM also has scanning technology that helps prevent SQL Injection attacks.
“There is no Web application firewall as part of the solution,” Ward explained. “Sentrigo has a technology called vPatch, which helps in preventing SQL injection attacks, and that technology will be part of the McAfee portfolio.”
In Ward’s view, the Sentrigo products integrated within McAfee’s portfolio will be able to stand up to the competition.
“Oracle and IBM have started to enter this market as well, but McAfee believes that an integrated and comprehensive server security solution, including database and application-level security along with OS-level security, will help customers be more secure against the Advanced threat landscape,” Ward said.
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.
