HPE acquires Niara to enhance security at the Intelligent Edge

PALO ALTO, CA-- Feb 1, 2017 - Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) has announced it has acquired Niara Inc., a Sunnyvale, California-based leader in the emerging User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) security market segment. Niara will operate within HPE Aruba to enhance the company's ClearPass network security portfolio for wired and wireless network infrastructure. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

"With this transaction, we are continuing to innovate at the Intelligent Edge with software-defined solutions to better protect our customers' business and IoT data," said Keerti Melkote, Senior Vice President and General Manager, HPE Aruba. "With over 20 billion IoT devices expected to be connected to networks by 2020, security is the number one concern for our customers. Combining Niara's next-generation behavior analytics software with Aruba's ClearPass network security portfolio will deliver the industry's most complete visibility and attack detection system."

A New Class of Security Technology: User and Entity Behavior Analytics
UEBA is a new class of security technology that is designed to identify next-generation security threats that have penetrated traditional firewalls and other perimeter systems.

In defining the UEBA market, Gartner states, "User and Entity Behavior Analytics offers profiling and anomaly detection based on a range of analytics approaches, usually using a combination of basic analytics methods and advanced analytics… Examples of these activities include unusual access to systems and data by trusted insiders or third parties and breaches by external attackers evading preventative security controls."1

The Niara behavioral analytics software automates the detection of attacks and risky behaviors inside an organization and dramatically reduces the time and skill needed for security teams to investigate and respond to security events. Niara was included in a May 2016 Gartner report, "Cool Vendors in UEBA, Fraud Detection and User Authentication, 2016."2

Together, HPE Aruba and Niara Will Provide the Most Complete Visibility and Attack Detection System for the Intelligent Edge
Adding Niara to the HPE Aruba ClearPass portfolio advances HPE's Intelligent Edge strategy for transforming the workplace and operational experiences within the fast-growing wired and wireless network infrastructure market for traditional and IoT devices. The Niara behavioral analytics solution seamlessly integrates with the ClearPass network security platform to create the industry's most complete visibility and attack detection system.

After an incident is discovered by Niara, a ClearPass network access policy can be automatically triggered to isolate or disconnect the user or device from the network to prevent access to sensitive information such as credit cards or other customer and corporate information.

"ClearPass has earned a reputation as the industry's leading device and user-access policy solution," said Sriram Ramachandran, CEO and co-founder of Niara. "Integrating Niara's advanced behavioral analytics with ClearPass is a natural extension that will now deliver network-wide, real-time visibility and predictive assessment of potential risks inside the enterprise. We also are excited to elevate our relationship with a ClearPass Exchange integration partner, to directly contributing to Aruba's growth."

Additional Resources
Click here to read blog posts from Antonio Neri and Keerti Melkote.

About Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is an industry leading technology company that enables customers to go further, faster. With the industry's most comprehensive portfolio, spanning the cloud to the data center to workplace applications, our technology and services help customers around the world make IT more efficient, more productive and more secure.