EMC announced Monday that it has acquired IT security company Network Intelligence, in a deal valued at about US$175 million.
The storage specialist's announcement comes on the heels of its US$2.1 billion buyout of security vendor RSA Security. That deal and the Network Intelligence purchase provide EMC with the foundation to launch its new information security division.
The Network Intelligence transaction, which closed on Monday, is intended to enable EMC to build products that conduct real-time and historical analysis for evaluating security and regulatory compliance. Network Intelligence's products deliver alerts for possible security breaches, as well as analyse network performance.
"Information security continues to dominate the spending intentions of CIOs around the world. The battlefront in security has quickly shifted from securing the network perimeter to protecting and securing the information itself," Joe Tucci, EMC's chief executive, said in a statement.
In June, EMC announced plans to acquire RSA, a maker of identification and access management technologies such as tokens and encryption-related software.
The lines between system management and storage companies and security companies continue to blur, not only with EMC's acquisitions but also with security giant Symantec's merger with storage maker Veritas Software.
