CA Technologies to acquire Layer 7 Technologies

CA Southern Africa has announced that CA Technologies has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Layer 7 Technologies, a provider of Application Programming Interface (API) management and security. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The acquisition of Layer 7 will enable CA Technologies to manage and secure the API marketplace with leading technology that complements its current Identity and Access Management suite, including CA SiteMinder, and its technologies focused on DevOps including the CA LISA suite. The combination of CA Technologies and Layer 7 solutions will help organisations to better manage and secure APIs and deliver more confidently and quickly the cloud, mobile and composite applications that run today's business services.

"The addition of Layer 7 and the synergy across our technologies will improve how we securely support organisations in their cloud, mobile and 'Internet of things' initiatives," said Mike Denning, security general manager, CA Technologies.

"We use APIs every day, whether accessing flight data from our mobile device, using Google Maps from a hotel website or making payments online. There are billions of API calls a day and that number are going to increase with the proliferation of smart devices, ranging from vehicles, meters, TVs and other devices, as they start interacting over APIs. Without API security and management, thousands of business services are vulnerable to disruption."

Benefitting numerous key stakeholders in an organisation - from developers and IT architects who need to streamline and securely accelerate the development of new business services, to the line of business and the C-suite who demand business services deliver a superior customer experience to help ensure customer retention and growth - the acquisition will enable organisations to:

Securely enable strategic cloud, mobile and "Internet of Things" initiatives through API security and management;

Accelerate service delivery and increase profitability by externalizing and monetizing existing application assets that are securely offered via APIs;

Expand the network of API developers by offering a convenient API development platform that provides all the tools necessary to discover, publish and test APIs;

Govern API activity in order to enforce SLAs, improve operational performance and monetize Big Data transactions; and,

Secure the externalized API business through authentication, authorization, auditing and threat protection.

"The API-driven economy has exploded, driven by today's cloud, mobile and complex composite applications for business services," said Paul Rochester, CEO, Layer 7.

"With more than 8,000 public APIs available at the end of 2012, there is a vast library of proprietary components and data exposed to the external world that need to be managed and secured from unauthorised access. API applications and services are no longer a trend, they are mainstream. The combination of CA Technologies and Layer 7 is the best option for enterprises to successfully and securely leverage all the business benefits APIs can offer."

Layer 7's API management and security capabilities are delivered both on-premise and from the cloud. The company, founded in 2002, has offices in the US, Canada and Europe.

For more, go to ww.layer7tech.com