Carbonite Acquiring Webroot Is a Step Toward Complete Cyber Resilience for Customers

Carbonite, a leading data protection and backup provider, closed on its acquisition of cybersecurity vendor Webroot in March 2019.

As a partner of both Carbonite and Webroot, we at TechVAR have closely followed Carbonite’s efforts since then to integrate the companies while ensuring both customers and partners are fully satisfied and supported.

So, what does this acquisition mean for the organizations and end users who rely on these products?

We view the merger as an opportunity for these two market leaders to combine powers and introduce an even stronger solution, perfectly suited for an era of growing cybersecurity concerns.

What Is Carbonite?

Carbonite offers a complete Data Protection Platform for businesses, including features for backup, disaster recovery, high availability, and workload migration technology.

Carbonite’s Data Protection Platform provides secure cloud infrastructure to businesses on a global scale.

Originally a consumer-facing product for personal users, Carbonite has pivoted its focus to the SMB market and even provides custom data protection solutions built to scale. And for those looking for a backup solution for their newly remote workforce, we recently included Carbonite in our list of top cybersecurity tools for work-from-home teams.

Some key benefits of Carbonite:

  • Easy-to-use cloud backup for all your important files

  • Award-winning support seven days a week

  • Advanced encryption for data both at rest and in-flight

  • On-site, offsite, cloud, and hybrid deployment options

  • All-in-one solutions with hardware, software, and cloud services

Carbonite has solutions specific to laptops and desktops, servers, and external storage, so customers’ data is protected no matter where it lives. 

What Is Webroot?

Webroot provides cybersecurity solutions and threat intelligence, harnessing the cloud and AI to protect both businesses and individual users against cyber attacks.

Webroot’s services are focused on securing endpoints, networks, and end users and designed to serve the unique challenges faced by SMBs and MSPs.

Webroot Business Endpoint Protection, DNS Protection, and Security Awareness Training help small- to medium-sized businesses build a solid foundation for cybersecurity. Learn more about the Webroot products that TechVAR offers.

Some key benefits of Webroot:

  • One single-pane-of-glass, unified admin console

  • Fast and easy deployment of the platform

  • Powered by predictive threat intelligence

  • Comprehensive reporting features with granular visibility

Carbonite Acquires Webroot

Carbonite’s acquisition of Webroot is part of a documented trend of backup vendors strengthening their offerings by adding additional security protection.

Carbonite and Webroot provide two different kinds of solutions, but they have a common goal: empowering organizations to keep their data protected.

While Carbonite’s services are focused on backing up and recovering critical business data to protect it from accidental deletion, theft, hardware failure, data corruption, and more—Webroot’s services cover the individual element.

Webroot’s products ensure individual endpoints are protected from nefarious actors and help businesses equip their users with the cybersecurity knowledge needed to recognize those threats.

A large part of Carbonite’s reasoning for acquiring Webroot is that it allows them to provide a solution for cyber resilience: the ability to manage a cyberattack or data breach while carrying out business as usual.

“Businesses are looking at business continuity in the face of ransomware and security threats, making sure your backups are working and secure, you’re not backing up malware and your backup program isn’t getting attacked,” said Hal Lonas, SVP and CTO of Carbonite, in a comment published by TechTarget.

And this trend aligns with what we’ve seen here at TechVAR—businesses are increasingly in need of implementing both data security and backup measures, in order to quickly detect, react, and recover from breaches and data loss.

The merging of Carbonite with Webroot aims to make this easier for SMB customers.

In the near future, we expect to see these two offerings consolidated further to create an all-in-one cyber resilience offering.

Cyber Resilience in an Era of Increased Threats

It’s no secret that the pandemic of 2020 was an opportunity seized by cyber attackers, and as a result, has been dubbed possibly the largest cyber threat ever. The accelerated move to a remote workforce for many companies played a large role in this.

“I think we’ve seen a jump forward in time — a 30% jump into the future, accelerated by about five years,” said Lonas in the same TechTarget article, referring to how the coronavirus has sped up the move to working from home.

Now, organizations must adapt quickly to ensure remote employees have the tools and training they need to keep networks and endpoints protected.

New and improved Carbonite-Webroot cyber resilience services enable organizations to do just that.

More About OpenText Acquisitions

Shortly after Carbonite’s acquisition of Webroot, OpenText acquired both companies in December 2019. OpenText, known as “The Information Company,” provides market-leading information management solutions to enable organizations to gain deep insight.

OpenText strategically acquired both Carbonite and Webroot because the company views security as “an integral part of an information management strategy.”

“Combined, we will be able to provide our customers the first end-point platform that offers data protection, endpoint security, intrusion detection and digital forensics – ensuring cyber resiliency and trusted innovation,” said Mark J. Barrenechea, OpenText CEO & CTO, in OpenText’s press release announcing the acquisition.

We expect the unification of all three companies will lead to further collaboration and an even more powerful cybersecurity solution for businesses and organizations of all types.

Your Roadmap to Cyber Resilience

Knowing this context around Carbonite’s acquisition of Webroot should give you a glimpse into what the future of cybersecurity looks like.

Businesses need an action plan for backing up and recovering data—and a way to keep it secure from external threats.

Is your organization cyber resilient? With more and more cybersecurity concerns emerging, it might be time to revisit your cybersecurity infrastructure.

Let TechVAR do the legwork for you. Our Technology Advisors work with you to understand your organization’s needs and will help identify the best security solution for your business. Contact us for a free consultation.

Let our experts find the perfect cybersecurity solution for your needs.

TechVAR is your personal shopper for all your IT needs.