My year started off with a cornucopia of events – CES, the National Retail Federation show and the World Economic Forum in Davos — and though they’re three completely different events, there was one thread that cut across all of them: artificial intelligence. Like the internet did 30 years ago, AI will change the way we work, live, learn and play. However, also like the internet, AI will bring several new security threats, prompting organizations to rethink their cyber strategies.
As Veeam Software Group GmbH recently held its annual industry analyst event in San Antonio, it had a new direction to talk about following its announcement of its intent to acquire Securiti Inc. for a little over $1.7 billion. Veeam is best known as a data protection company, but that changed when with the intent to acquire Securiti.
Veeam Software Group GmbH today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Securiti Inc. for $1.725 billion, by far the largest purchase made by the company to date. Though Veeam has made many acquisitions under the tenure of Chief Executive Anand Eswaran (pictured), this is the first in the security market. As a data protection company, Veeam can be thought of as “security-adjacent,” but now squarely enters the artificial intelligence cybersecurity race.
Cisco Systems Inc. today announced its 8223 routing system, powered by its new Silicon One P200 chip — a new network system designed to unlock artificial intelligence’s potential through massive scale. Earlier this year, Nvidia Corp. introduced the concept of “scale-across” architectures as AI is now hitting the limits of a single data center. A “unit of compute” was once a server then evolved into a rack and then the entire data center.
F5 Inc., the Seattle-based application delivery and security company, is expanding its portfolio with today’s acquisition of CalypsoAI Inc., a leader in enterprise artificial intelligence security. The acquired company was founded in 2018, showing it has been pioneers in the AI security market long before the latest hype cycle. The purchase price was announced at $180 million. The company had raised $43.2 million over three rounds, so the acquisition price provided the investors a strong return.