nCircle to expand product set with Cambia acquisition

The acquisition will allow nCircle to deliver an appliance-based risk management solution while allowing enterprises to audit their regulatory compliance posture from a single console, according to nCircle executives.

nCircle is buying Cambia in a stock transaction. Cambia stockholders will own 15 percent of the combined company, according to Abe Kleinfeld, nCircle president and CEO. nCircle, a San Francisco-based risk management vendor, is also working with JK&B Capital, a Chicago firm, on a US$7 million venture capital round to "help cover acquisition costs."

Kleinfeld said he expects 20 of Cambia’s 25 employees, including those in engineering, sales and marketing, to remain with the company. Cambia's website today automatically transferred visitors to nCirlcle's homepage.

Merging the two firms' products is a "logical step," Kleinfeld said. "The line between compliance and risk management is blurring — companies need to know not only how compliant they are with their security policies, but they need to know whether they're secure, as well."

nCircle's agentless Configuration Compliance Manager appliance automates network device configuration management. It allows administrators to check on system configurations, changes to them and how those changes will impact internal policy compliance.

Cambia's CM product enables security professionals to check system configurations and compliance with policies for audit and regulatory issues. It provides a library of policies based on a range of regulations, including

PCI, the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act, and Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

nCircle hopes to deliver reporting capabilities integrating the two companies' products within 30 days, according to Kleinfeld. He hopes to deliver an appliance combining the two products "within 18 months."

The company will, however, sell stand-alone versions of the two products, he said.

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