EMC to acquire Archer Technologies

EMC said that it plans to acquire GRC (governance, risk and compliance) vendor Archer Technologies for an undisclosed sum. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter, and is likely on the smaller side, as EMC said the deal would not have a material impact on its fiscal 2010 revenue or earnings.

Archer's technology will be rolled into EMC's RSA Security Division and help customers better maintain and enforce company policies across virtualized and physical infrastructures, EMC said in a statement.

Privately held Archer competes with vendors such as Agiliance and Modulo. It has 6 million licensed users and 25 customers in the Fortune 100. The Overland Park, Kan., vendor's products are built on a framework called SmartSuite, which allows customers to fine-tune the software for their businesses' specific needs and build new applications.

The company also has an online marketplace where customers can acquire applications and extensions for their Archer deployments.

Meanwhile, EMC's RSA division “has typically spent a lot of time at the technology level” creating tools for system monitoring, encryption and other areas, said Paul Stamp, senior product manager. Archer's software “really fills that gap between the technology and the business” by helping companies manage their GRC strategies, he said.

Forrester Research analyst Chris McLean echoed the sentiment. While EMC has long had elements of GRC, such as content management software, it lacked a defined central strategy or product offering, he said. “Archer's going to go a long way toward giving them that.”