Symantec to buy mobile app management firm Nukona
Summary: Symantec is to acquire Nukona, a mobile application management software company, in the hope it will bolster the security giant's mobile device scope in the ‘BYOD’ era. — Security giant Symantec said this morning it has agreed …
Context & Ripple Effects
Symantec's agreement to acquire Nukona puts one of the largest names in endpoint security directly into mobile application management, the fast-forming category created by employees bringing personal smartphones and tablets into the workplace. The pickup traveled widely for a deal of its size, landing the same day with Computerworld, eWeek and other trade outlets alongside Symantec's own announcement.
Timing matters: the acquisition lands weeks after a bruising stretch for Symantec, which in January 2012 disclosed that hackers had stolen source code during a 2006 breach without its knowledge, followed by a hacker publicly releasing the pcAnywhere source in February. Buying its way into the BYOD market lets the company reframe the conversation around growth in mobile rather than remediation of old breaches — though enterprise buyers will judge whether the two efforts produce a coherent mobile security stack.
First-order effects
- Nukona's application management technology moves under the Symantec brand, giving enterprise IT a single vendor pitch that spans traditional endpoint protection and app-level control of employee-owned devices.
- Symantec's security sales force gains a concrete BYOD-era offering to lead with, at a moment when the company needs positive product news after the source-code disclosures of early 2012.
Second-order effects
- Standalone mobile management specialists now compete against an incumbent who can bundle app management with an already-deployed security agent, pushing the field toward price pressure and further acquisition interest.
- Symantec's reseller channel gets a cross-sell motion — renewing existing security contracts becomes the entry point for mobile management deals — which raises the bar for any rival selling mobility tooling on its own.
Third-order effects
- If BYOD adoption continues to dissolve the assumption of a corporate-owned device, security budgets shift from locking down hardware to governing apps and data, structurally favoring platforms that merge management and protection over point products.
- An incumbent buying a small mobility specialist is the pattern to watch: sustained, it consolidates mobile application management out of the startup tier and into the portfolios of large security vendors, with the pace set by how quickly enterprises standardize on these bundles.
The trend: Enterprise security is migrating from device-centric endpoint protection toward managing applications and data on employee-owned devices, with incumbent security vendors acquiring their way into mobility.