DevOps development company JFrog recently announced its purchase of Vdoo, an Israeli AI-based security startup, for a cash-and-stock deal that amounts to approximately $300 million. As security becomes ever integral to the DevOps space, the acquisition is the fruit of JFrog’s efforts to provide security for its end-to-end platform.

“Vdoo boasts world-class security experts and vulnerability researchers along with some of the most broad-scoped security technology in the world, with an extensive set of capabilities to analyze the security of legacy and modern software, with a focus on IoT and devices,” a spokesperson from JFrog told Identity Review. “JFrog and Vdoo also have unmatched synergies, across technology and product philosophy, according to JFrog CEO and co-founder Shlomi Ben Haim,” they added.

A Match Made in Software Heaven

JFrog’s chief platform manages and deploys software updates for users, and although the company currently has a market cap of about $4.65 billion, its product was not without its holes. When InfoSec engineers initially recognized JFrog’s vulnerabilities, they developed a number of tools, like their XRay product, to mitigate the issue.

Vdoo, on the other hand, works in the IoT and networked device space—a space whose every object constantly reports to the cloud, which breeds vulnerabilities—using AI to not only monitor the behavior of hardware that connects the devices, but the behavior of the devices themselves. This method of binary analysis is akin to that of JFrog’s DevOps software, hence the match-up.

“[This] acquisition will fuel JFrog’s security and runtime expansion, expanding the JFrog end-to-end DevOps Platform offering, providing holistic, continuous security from the development environment all the way to edges, IoT and devices,” adds the spokesperson when asked about the complementary nature of JFrog and Vdoo’s offerings. “Built with the right balance between the developer and the security engineer in the enterprise, the solution continuously mitigates risks in each step of the pipeline across the software development lifecycle, delivering security-certified software releases that are trusted and validated from developers to devices.”

What’s To Come

The acquisition is likely to set off a domino effect of changes for both companies, notably in numbers: Vdoo’s staff of 100 compared to JFrog’s 800. JFrog’s security team, however, will see disproportionate growth.

“The acquisition is expected to grow JFrog’s security team by three times, across development as well as marketing and sales. The team will span North America, Israel, Japan and Germany,” says the spokesperson.

And although Vdoo’s SaaS will exist as sovereign for now, the pair plan to release a combined, “holistic” platform by 2022, starting with updates to JFrog’s Xray product.

“Vdoo will be a key differentiator in JFrog’s security push, enabling customers to have true, fortified confidence in their software released (and consumed) all the way to devices,” the spokesperson says. “Without this type of solution, JFrog might deliver binary security and a strong DevSecOps integrated solution, but not attest to all updates to the edge/devices and the environments and configurations they were delivered in.”

ABOUT THE WRITER

Olivia Baker is a tech editor and journalist at Identity Review, where she writes on tech policy and national digital identity technologies.

Contact Olivia Baker at olivia@identityreview.com.

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