Netskope Discloses Infiot Acquisition, Launches ‘Borderless WAN’ Offering

The cloud security vendor’s takeover of Infiot creates a new ‘converged SASE’ solution for partners and customers.

Cloud security vendor Netskope has acquired its second company this year as the Santa Clara, Calif.-based firm continues to expand its offerings globally.

The privately held Netskope, which touts itself as a leader in Security Service Edge (SSE) and Zero Trust, disclosed Tuesday that it quietly acquired San Jose, Calif.-based startup Infiot, along with its “borderless WAN” solution for securing a range of remote work sites, in May. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

In announcing its Infiot takeover, Netskope also launched “Netskope Borderless WAN,” based on its newly acquired Infiot technology, which has been described as next-generation SD-WAN.

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Combined with Netskope’s own SSE technology, the company now has a “converged Secure Access Services Edge” (SASE) platform that provides “AI-driven zero trust security and simplified, optimized connectivity to any network location or device,” according to a company statement.

Parag Thakore, co-founder and CEO of Infiot before it was acquired by Netskope, told CRN that the merging of Netskope and Infiot’s technologies is a “game changer” and a move that makes perfect sense.

“It’s super-complementary,” he said of combining the two firms’ expertise to create a SASE environment.

Thakore, who is now senior vice president of Borderless WAN at Netskope, said the new SASE environment will create “consistent security and consistent service from one vendor.”

In a statement, Sanjay Beri, Netskope’s CEO, said the recent “explosion of data and devices, along with the numerous ways that people connect, communicate and collaborate,” has transformed both networking and security.

“It is in this transformation where Netskope is uniquely positioned to help customers with a fully converged SASE platform,” said Beri. “We’re very excited to introduce Borderless WAN, and to welcome Infiot to our growing team.”

This is the second acquisition for Netskope in recent months.

In June, Netskope said it had acquired San Jose, Calif.-based WootCloud, described as an innovator in applying Zero Trust principles to loT security, or the protection of Internet devices and the networks they‘re connected to from threats and breaches. Terns of that deal were also not disclosed.

In March, the 10-year-old Netskope also debuted its first-ever global partner program as it eyes worldwide revenue expansion.

Netskope’s purchase of the 50-employee Infiot, which was founded in 2018, comes as companies and government agencies rapidly adopt SASE to protect data wherever it‘s located and wherever it’s going.

In a statement to CRN, Andrew Lerner, research vice president at Gartner, said Netskope’s takeover of Infiot is a “pretty impactful deal” for enterprise customers.

“It is really the first time we‘ve seen a cloud security-focused vendor go out and grab SD-WAN,” he said. “We’ve seen networking and firewall vendors go out and add cloud security, but this is a vendor going the other way. It really speaks to customer demand for unified, and simplified management and policy and wanting to avoid a complex mix of multiple products.”

Lerner added that Netskope’s Infiot takeover will “directly address the segment of the SASE market looking for a single vendor offering that integrates SD-WAN and security service edge (SSE) capabilities.“

Thakore said the “combination of Infiot and Netskope will deliver on the promise of SASE like no other technology vendor can.”

As for the channel, Thakore said both companies were committed to the channel before the merger – and the combined company will be even more committed.

“It will be less complicated,” he said. “We’re now providing a single-vendor solution to channel members. This is amazing for the channel.”