Barracuda Acquires SignNow For Storage Business

The Campbell, Calif.-based network security vendor said SignNow targets businesses with its cloud-based digital-signature service, which enables companies to sign, back up and store important documents while complying with data retention and audit policies.

SignNow has more than 1 million users, including 100,000 small businesses and over half of the Fortune 500, according to Barracuda. The Newport Beach, Calif.-based SignNow is in a crowded field of e-document signature companies that support digital signatures using smartphones and tablets, including DocuSign and EchoSign. The firm also runs NotaryNow, an online notarization service for large enterprises.

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"The SignNow acquisition strengthens our offering in cloud data storage and continues our focus on providing simple, yet powerful and affordable IT solutions," said BJ Jenkins, CEO of Barracuda Networks, in a statement. "SignNow has experienced phenomenal growth, and we are looking forward to bringing it into our fully integrated suite of cloud and on-premise security and storage solutions."

The SignNow service works with devices running just about any platform. It also centralizes corporate agreement archives, auditing and tracking the document-signing process. The service is free for up to five documents per month. The firm boasts of strong security, supporting multifactor authentication, encryption and network security protection.

Jenkins, a longtime EMC executive, left EMC last October to head Barracuda. He replaced Barracuda founder Dean Draco, who left the firm to head Eagle Eye Networks, a cloud-managed video security system.

Jenkins was president of EMC's Backup and Recovery Systems (BRS) Division and has been leading the security firm's foray into storage. Barracuda's Copy & trade file-syncing and sharing service was introduced in February. The company announced an expansion of that service last week, tripling the amount of free cloud storage it makes available from 5 GB to 15 GB.

The service enables users to share files of any size, including raw photos and 1,080p videos. The company's referral program also enables users to earn 5 GB of additional free storage for themselves after each new referral.

Introductory Copy accounts start at $99 a year for up to 250 GB of storage. Business accounts start at 100 GB of cloud storage for $400 a year.

PUBLISHED ON MAY 22, 2013