Google on Monday announced it completed its reported $5.4 billion deal to acquire Mandiant, where the leading security services provider will join Google Cloud and retain the Mandiant brand name.
Retaining the Mandiant brand name was a signal to analysts that Google aims to grow Mandiant and not simply absorb it into Google Cloud.
“The decision to retain the Mandiant brand is hugely symbolic,” said Frank Dickson, who covers security and trust at IDC. “Most certainly, the brand has tremendous value. More importantly, it communicates that Google intends to retain and grow the independent capabilities of Mandiant, rather than completely ingesting it into Google. Integrations are important, but it would be unfortunate to lose the goodness of Mandiant.”
Jon Oltsik, a senior principal analyst and ESG Fellow, added that Google will likely pitch and/or bundle security services into lots of deals, including those for pure cloud services. He said this bundling gives Google a unique offering vs. Amazon and Microsoft. The Redmond, Washington, company lost out to Google in March.
“Google Cloud is also the home of Chronicle as well as Google’s services for data management and advanced analytics,” Oltsik said. “Mandiant’s offering will take advantage of these services and be built on Google Cloud in the future. To me, it’s the reason for this positioning.”
IDC’s Dickson viewed the Google-Mandiant deal as big and bold — and paradigm-breaking.
“Google did not just acquire any security services provider or tuck-in acquisition that it could elevate with its platform,” Dickson said. “Google acquired one of the premier security services organizations. If you are being victimized by a nation-state cyberattack, Mandiant is on your short list of vendors to help. Ultimately, the two entities provide different distinctive competencies to creating cybersecurity outcomes. Not only is Google one of the leading providers of cloud platforms, Google also is great at delivering analytics at scale. Who has more visibility than Google?”
In a public statement, Google said that Google Cloud and Mandiant will deliver an end-to-end security operations suite with even greater capabilities to support customers across their cloud and on-premise environments.
"The completion of this acquisition will enable us to deliver a comprehensive and best-in-class cybersecurity solution," said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud. "We believe this acquisition creates incredible value for our customers and the security industry at large. Together, Google Cloud and Mandiant will help reinvent how organizations protect themselves, as well as detect and respond to threats."
