CA World: CA To Buy API Security Company Layer 7

CA Technologies has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Canadian Application Programming Interface (API) security specialist Layer 7, to bolster its cloud and mobile applications. The deal was announced during the annual CA World conference in Las Vegas.

The cost of the acquisition is currently unknown.

API entering mainstream

Layer 7 is a private company founded in 2003 and currently employing around 180 people. Despite its small size, its existing customers include Adobe, Xerox, Cisco, NATO and the US Army.

According to the Layer 7 CEO Paul Rochester, there were over 8,000 public APIs available at the end of 2012, and all of them needed to be managed and secured. This has caused serious growth for the company, eventually bringing it to the attention of acquisition -hungry CA. Now, Layer 7 software will complement CA’s products such as SiteMinder and CA LISA.

Among other things, the acquisition is expected to result in a convenient API development platform that provides all the tools necessary to discover, publish and test APIs, integrated with the rest of CA’s product family.

“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, general manager of security at 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 is 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.”

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