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Cisco plans to acquire cybersecurity firm Duo Security for $2.35B

cnbc.com

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Re: Cisco plans to acquire cybersecurity firm Duo Security for $2.35B

#11

Post by yawgmoth »

Congratulations to my neighbors at Duo! That's a crazy amount of money and I hope that many Ann Arborites pay it forward in the tech scene from which Duo came.

Lots of good tech in A2 in general - Deepfield acquired by Nokia, SkySpecs, Trove, FarmLogs (a YC startup), LLamasoft (my employer!), IBM is here, Toyota, Hyundai, a rapidly increasing number of medtech companies, and plenty of boutique consulting. It makes for a healthy life - a strong tech scene drives wages up, yet the cost of living is still fairly low (downtown A2 is very expensive already, but you can live in the nearby areas for considerably less). There were four companies from A2 in the who's hiring page the other day. Take a look! :)

Re: Cisco plans to acquire cybersecurity firm Duo Security for $2.35B

#12

Post by radlad »

throwaway5752 wrote: post #8

Are they a cybersecurity company? I thought they were more about IAM. I realize this is the CNBC headline, but I am curious if Duo does something I was unaware of, like rev. engineering, pen. testing, etc. ps - congrats to Duo!

Doesn't do identity, relies on external IAM. Look into Duo Beyond.

Re: Cisco plans to acquire cybersecurity firm Duo Security for $2.35B

#15

Post by charlietango92 »

Bluecobra wrote: post #5
youdontknowtho wrote: post #4

I really hope that Duo survives this. Cisco isn't necessarily known for handling acquisitions well...or software...but who knows. Maybe it's the shot in the arm that many companies will need to move to token based auth. Lot's of enterprise IT departments take Cisco's word as divine. I have had some bad experiences with Cisco the company, but the devices have always been really good even if they lag behind some of the…

I agree 100%. My experience with Duo has been awesome compared to other 2FA solutions such as RSA (which was a dumpster fire setting up and maintaining). I would hate it if it Cisco ruined it.

Also made the switch from RSA to Duo - was like a breath of fresh air. Sales rep said that about half of their clients that had an MFA solution already were converts from RSA (not surprising really.)

Re: Cisco plans to acquire cybersecurity firm Duo Security for $2.35B

#16

Post by throwaway5752 »

radlad wrote: post #12
throwaway5752 wrote: post #8

Are they a cybersecurity company? I thought they were more about IAM. I realize this is the CNBC headline, but I am curious if Duo does something I was unaware of, like rev. engineering, pen. testing, etc. ps - congrats to Duo!

Doesn't do identity, relies on external IAM. Look into Duo Beyond.

Interesting, thank you!

Re: Cisco plans to acquire cybersecurity firm Duo Security for $2.35B

#17

Post by mtgx »

radlad wrote: post #12
throwaway5752 wrote: post #8

Are they a cybersecurity company? I thought they were more about IAM. I realize this is the CNBC headline, but I am curious if Duo does something I was unaware of, like rev. engineering, pen. testing, etc. ps - congrats to Duo!

Doesn't do identity, relies on external IAM. Look into Duo Beyond.

Duo Beyond was a very smart move on their part, taking Google's enterprise security architecture and turning it into a third-party turnkey solution for enterprise customers. They did it before Cloudflare, too. I bet that is a big part of the reason why Cisco is paying so much now.

Re: Cisco plans to acquire cybersecurity firm Duo Security for $2.35B

#18

Post by castillar76 »

throwaway5752 wrote: post #8

Are they a cybersecurity company? I thought they were more about IAM. I realize this is the CNBC headline, but I am curious if Duo does something I was unaware of, like rev. engineering, pen. testing, etc. ps - congrats to Duo!

Not to be too sticky about it, but IAM is cybersecurity. There's a lot more to security than reverse engineering, pen-testing, and vulnerability research.

Re: Cisco plans to acquire cybersecurity firm Duo Security for $2.35B

#19

Post by castillar76 »

youdontknowtho wrote: post #4

I really hope that Duo survives this. Cisco isn't necessarily known for handling acquisitions well...or software...but who knows. Maybe it's the shot in the arm that many companies will need to move to token based auth. Lot's of enterprise IT departments take Cisco's word as divine. I have had some bad experiences with Cisco the company, but the devices have always been really good even if they lag behind some of the…

The more recent acquisitions like Meraki and OpenDNS seem to have fared better. Perhaps the lesson here is that the acquisitions do better when left alone by the mothership. :)

Re: Cisco plans to acquire cybersecurity firm Duo Security for $2.35B

#20

Post by davidu »

youdontknowtho wrote: post #4

I really hope that Duo survives this. Cisco isn't necessarily known for handling acquisitions well...or software...but who knows. Maybe it's the shot in the arm that many companies will need to move to token based auth. Lot's of enterprise IT departments take Cisco's word as divine. I have had some bad experiences with Cisco the company, but the devices have always been really good even if they lag behind some of the…

The acquisition track record for the Cisco Security business is pretty incredible. Like HBS Case Study good. Sourcefire, ThreatGrid, OpenDNS, Lancope, CloudLock, Observable. Great products and teams brought to scale and maintained. Even IronPort 10+ years later has done fantastically well.

I'm thrilled that Duo will be joining an amazing business filled with a deep bench of security talent and wonderful customers. It's a really strong fit with what Duo has already built and with where both teams are going, now together.

I guess I should mention I was founder / CEO of OpenDNS, was acquired by Cisco, previously led the Cisco Security business, and am still an executive at Cisco. So maybe a bit biased, but still factually on the mark. ;-)

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