Arxan Technologies, vendor of application attack prevention and self-protection solutions, acquired Wednesday Apperian, a mobile application management (MAM) and security company. The acquisition aims to establish Arxan as a leading provider of application security and management for mobile and IoT applications.
Apperian will continue to operate as a subsidiary of Arxan and will be led by Apperian executive, Mark Lorion, who will become president and general manager for Apperian.
Founded in 2009, Apperian was backed by top-tier investors, Bessemer Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, North Bridge Venture Partners and Converge Venture Partners. The company became one of the mobility platform for distributing enterprise mobile apps. Its platform has enabled more than 2.5 million enterprise app installations and earned 12 granted and pending patents. Apperian has seen its contracted user base grow by more than 180 percent in the last 24 months.
The Apperian platform provides fine-grained security and dynamic policy controls at the individual app-level for deployments in the extended enterprise where traditional mobile device management-based approaches are not possible or desired, such as BYOD, contract workers, and other unmanaged devices.
Arxan’s patented technology defends applications against attacks, detects attempted attacks at run-time, and deters attacks by stopping, alerting or repairing detected attacks. Arxan offers solutions for software running on mobile devices, desktops, servers, and embedded platforms, including those connected as part of the IoT.
As Arxan continues to broaden its footprint throughout the enterprise, customers will benefit from Apperian’s capabilities and expertise with SaaS software and enterprise deployments. With the majority of Arxan customers also having enterprise mobile apps, customers will benefit from easy access to the ability to securely deploy those apps to all potential users – whether or not those users are using MDM-enrolled devices.
“We have witnessed substantial growth in mobile and IoT applications investment by enterprises over the past few years, and we are excited to bring Apperian into the Arxan fold,” said Joe Sander, CEO of Arxan. “The application security and management capabilities Apperian provides are pivotal for organizations to securely deploy and manage their apps and we’re excited to offer our customers Apperian’s MAM products. This acquisition puts Arxan in a unique position with the strongest and most comprehensive solution for enterprise application protection and management for both mobile and IoT.”
“The Apperian team and I are thrilled to be joining Arxan,” said Lorion. “We share an ‘app-centric philosophy’ with Arxan and believe that mobile apps should be protected so that they can be safely distributed to any user leveraging any device. Enterprises are realizing the significant benefits of applying security and management at the app-level to maximize the secure adoption and reach of their mobile apps.”
According to Gartner, “Companies that simply want to manage apps, app licenses and operate a branded app store are well-served with stand-alone MAM tools. These tools are also a fit for large populations of nonemployees (like contractors) for whom the organization cannot insist upon installation of an MDM profile.”
In August, Arxan Technologies added new and enhanced support for operating systems and programming languages, including QNX (a subsidiary of Blackberry), a platform in the IoT space for connected cars and medical devices, and Swift (Apple’s programming language), as well as new white-box cryptographic schemes including SHA-3.
rxan offers solutions for software running on mobile devices, desktops, servers, and embedded platforms, including those connected as part of the IoT.
Industries include mobile banking, mobile payments, connected cars, connected medical devices, gaming, and digital media, among others. Arxan works with many marquees partners in the security space including IBM and Cigital to deliver comprehensive solution to enterprises.
