close
close

OpenText Expands MDR Offerings for SMBs with Acquisition of Pillr

Posted on by darion

Governance and Risk Management, Managed Detection and Response (MDR), Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP)

The purchase fills a gap in OpenText’s digital offer for small and medium-sized companies

Michael Novinson (Michael Novinson) •
May 22, 2024

OpenText Expands MDR Offerings for SMBs with Acquisition of Pillr

OpenText will fill the managed detection and response gap in its cyber platform for managed service providers by acquiring Pillr from Novacoast, an IT services company.

See also: Global Identity State: Optimizing Identity Validation

The Waterloo, Ontario-based information management titan said Wichita, Kansas Pillr is a good fit for OpenText’s portfolio of cybersecurity tools for small and medium-sized businesses, which focuses on powerful yet cost-effective capabilities, said senior vice president of marketing and strategy Geoff Bibby’ ego. The deal will strengthen OpenText’s threat protection strength while simplifying operations for MSPs, he said (see: OpenText Exec on what purchasing Micro Focus means for your security).

“We don’t have any interactions with MSPs, they don’t really ask what we’re going to do in the MDR space, so it’s nice that this day has finally come,” Bibby told Information Security Media Group.

How OpenText plans to integrate Pillr

The MDR department was established in 2018 as an independent unit within Novacoast, and in September 2022 it changed its name from novaSOC to Pillr. Novacoast CEO Paul Anderson was Pillr’s CEO for most of its existence, while Novacoast CTO Adam Gray was Pillr’s chief science officer. LinkedIn found that Pillr employs 43 people, and Bibby said most of the company’s development and sales team will join OpenText.

“It was never the case that we would be able to reach the top of the most expensive assets in the market,” Bibby said. “Pillr fits our investment profile really well.”

Pillr already has integrations with 450 third-party security tools, as well as distribution relationships with Pax8 and D&H, which Bibby says will enable a smooth transition and immediate availability of Pillr services to the OpenText MSP network. Bibby said that within the next 90 days, the company will integrate Pillr with OpenText Secure Cloud, enabling managed service providers to use the technology directly.

Pillr’s integration with Secure Cloud primarily involves API work, and Bibby said that once that work is complete, MSPs will be able to get everything from security awareness training to MDR services in one place. According to Bibby, Pillr operates on a subscription-based pricing model, with fees based on the number of endpoints supported (see: OpenText, Google, Varonis Chief Data Security Officer Forrester Wave).

Smaller MSPs are struggling to keep up with the growing number of cyber threats, and Bibby said that using a third party to help detect and respond to threats on behalf of the MSP will help them successfully address these challenging environments. While Pillr operates largely independently of Novacoast, Bibby said there are some services for which Pillr is dependent on Novacoast, which will now require a switch to OpenText.

What Pillr brings to the table

The acquisition will add hundreds of new MSPs in North America and the UK to OpenText’s list of more than 23,000 MSPs worldwide and provide industry expertise in areas such as K-12 education, where OpenText hasn’t done much to date, according to Bibby . Pillr’s MDR platform complements the endpoint and email security capabilities OpenText has acquired from Webroot and Zix, he said.

“This now becomes a very natural addition to our endpoint prevention and detection offering,” Bibby said.

From a metrics standpoint, Bibby said OpenText will track both the number of new MSPs added thanks to Pillr’s technology and the increase in wallet share of existing MSPs thanks to Pillr. The deal should also help OpenText reduce its MSP and customer churn, as one of the biggest complaints about the company’s cyber portfolio has already been addressed, according to Bibby.

Pillr is OpenText’s first cybersecurity acquisition since acquiring Volt, NetIQ, Fortify and Arcsight through its January 2023 $5.8 billion purchase of Micro Focus, and Bibby expects additional deals once work on the Micro Focus integration is complete. OpenText will look to tap into adjacent whitespace markets identified by MSPs, although Bibby said MDR is by far the most glaring vulnerability for MSPs.

“We have always sought to grow in the security market and understand the importance of security to our overall history as an information management services provider,” Bibby said.