Barracuda Acquiring Skout Cybersecurity to Add XDR Platform for MSPs

Barracuda is acquiring Skout Cybersecurity to enter the fast-growing extended detection and response (XDR) market.

Skout offers an XDR platform and service for MSPs. The acquisition continues Barracuda’s M&A momentum. That includes its acquisition of zero trust network access (ZTNA) provider Fyde.

Barracuda didn’t say how much it’s shelling out for Skout. The deal should close this month.

Brian Babineau is Barracuda‘s senior vice president and general manager of MSP solutions. He said the acquisition will bring a multitude of benefits to Barracuda’s partners.

Barracuda’s Brian Babineau

“By introducing Skout’s offering to our new and existing partners, we are providing them with an XDR platform that connects with critical security infrastructures such as email, firewall, identity and access, and a 24×7 SOC that aids the detection of – and response to – cyberattacks,” he said. “This will enable MSPs to address threats more efficiently and spend less time on remediation, specifically because the additional threat detection, threat analysis and response capabilities are provided by the 24×7 SOC.”

Skout has proven its managed XDR platform in the marketplace, Babineau said. Moreover, the platform is unique because it makes security services consumable and sellable by MSPs.

Barracuda-Skout to Simplify Security for MSPs

With Skout, Barracuda is providing partners with choice and flexibility when building out their cybersecurity practices, as well as investment protection for MSPs by integrating with existing security infrastructure, Babineau said.

“The goal is to simplify security for the MSP and make it easier for them to handle cyberattacks in the diverse customer environments they manage,” he said. “Any MSP will tell you that time and talent are valuable commodities. With this offering, we are helping them become more efficient with both. Because the platform helps to filter out the noise that comes along with so many disparate systems in such a challenging security climate, partners are putting less time toward trying to determine what the most important security events are and how to best respond to them.”

Additionally, by providing an XDR backed by a SOC, Barracuda is eliminating the challenges associated with staffing security experts, Babineau said. That’s another struggle for most MSPs today.

“By taking advantage of these key aspects of the offering, MSPs can set themselves apart from their peers,” he said.

Skout has more than300 MSP partners.

“They will continue to work with Skout as they have in the past,” Babineau said. “But they will also have access to Barracuda’s broad portfolio of email protection, network and application security, and data protection offerings. This will enable them to embrace a portfolio of easy-to-deploy, easy-to-manage, multilayered security and data protection solutions.”