On 08 March 2022, Google LLC announced that it was in the process of acquiring a well positioned Security firm Mandiant®, in one of the biggest deals in the company’s history. Google announced it was paying 5.4 Billion US Dollars to acquire security intelligence company Mandiant. This inturn will allow Google access to security data gathering capabilities, as well as a its security consultant workforce and will become a part of Google Cloud entity. The Google Cloud vertical is headed by a Kerala born Indian, Mr Thomas Kurian.
Mandiant as an independent company has been delivering with its skilled manpower and team, unparalleled niche and professional services and is an industry-leader in Threat Intelligence among other Security Services. The Team at Mandiant is also coupled with research from more than 300 intelligence analysts, these resulting insights are what power Mandiant’s dynamic cyber defense solutions – delivered through the managed multi-vendor XDR platform, and their product ‘Mandiant Advantage’. Google’s acquisition of Mandiant proves Google Cloud’s commitment to enhancing its security offerings to better protect and advise customers across their on-premise and cloud environments. The expertise of this amalgamation will exemplify the strength and intelligence that the Mandiant Advantage SaaS platform that Mandiant has. The merger will also help both the organizations to effectively configure and manage their complex mix of security products that is available in their inventory.
Sundar Pichai, Chief Executive Officer of Alphabet (the mother company of Google), was found quoting that “Google Cloud’s security offering as a strong differentiator” and that “The increase cyber and ransomware attacks is a wake-up call for the industry. Over two decades, Google has built some of the most secure computing systems in the world and we are proud that our Google Cloud customers can benefit from our experience here. We pioneered the Zero Trust approach, an architecture that builds in multiple layers of defense against unauthorized access. This approach and the other security solutions help customers minimise the impact of cyber-attacks and prevent them completely.”
Google had also earlier acquired Siemplify, in January 2022, which is a leading security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) provider which is used to help better manage their threat response. Both Google Cloud and CrowdStrike (cloud-delivered endpoint and workload protection provider) had in year 2021 announced a series of product integrations for in-depth security, comprehensive visibility and workload protection at scale across hybrid cloud environments. As part of the partnership, CrowdStrike Falcon platform was integrated with Google Cloud’s suite of security products such as Chronicle, Google Cloud Security Command Center (SCC) etc.
Mr Thomas Kurian had also pointed out that globally all companies are facing unprecedented security threats, especially as the war in Ukraine rages, and Mandiant gives the company a platform of security services to add to the Google Cloud platform. “This is an opportunity to deliver an end-to-end security operations suite and extend one of the best consulting organizations in the world. Together we can make a profound impact in securing the cloud, accelerating the adoption of cloud computing and ultimately make the world safer,” “We look forward to welcoming Mandiant to Google Cloud to further enhance our security operations suite and advisory services, and help customers address their most important security challenges.” said Kurian in a statement on the occasion of this acquisition.