Telstra acquires New Zealand security analytics provider Cognevo

Telstra has acquired the assets of New Zealand security analytics provider Cognevo, part of software company Wynyard Group which entered voluntary administration last month, in order to bolster its managed security services worldwide.

Telstra was an existing customer of Cognevo prior to the purchase agreement -- which is still subject to conditions being met -- having signed a AU$3.2 million, three-year cybersecurity deal a year ago.

"Cognevo provides Telstra with a powerful intelligence and analytics platform that will allow us to quickly identify and explore key cyber threats and to contain those first-seen cyber issues before they become a serious breach," former Telstra CISO Mike Burgess previously said.

"A data analytics capability that identifies true 'unknown-unknowns' should be a fundamental part of any organisation's cyber defence. Cognevo's security analytics solution has an ability to identify true mathematical anomalies, rather than relying on known understanding of what is bad."

Telstra was Wynyard Group's foundation customer for its Advanced Cyber Threat Analytics (ACTA) solution, which identifies and prevents anomalies and cyber threats inside a network prior to infiltration.

"ACTA will provide Telstra with a powerful intelligence and analytics platform that will allow us to quickly identify and explore key cyber threats and to contain those first seen cyber issues before they become a serious breach," Burgess said in November 2015.

"A data analytics capability that identifies true 'unknown-unknowns' should be a fundamental part of any organisation's cyber defence."

Telstra had trialled the ACTA technology over 2015 prior to signing the deal, with Wynyard unveiling ACTA in August 2015.

Telstra has been focusing on its managed services portfolio of late, flagging the importance in securing multi-cloud services and calling this "critical" to its overarching strategy, by entering a partnership with hybrid cloud security startup vArmour in May.

The partnership will see Australia's incumbent telco add another layer of security solutions to its enterprise managed services portfolio.

Telstra also formed a partnership with Microsoft in September to deliver managed voice services to Office 365 enterprise customers, combining cloud collaboration with a voice-calling solution.

In July, Telstra acquired Readify, a developer of Microsoft software applications, saying it will bolster the telecommunications provider's cloud offerings.

"Readify will provide application development and data analytics services, nicely complementing Kloud's existing services," Telstra's executive director of Global Enterprise and Services Michelle Bendschneider said at the time.

"It will enable Telstra to add incremental value to customers in enterprise cloud applications, API-based customisation, and extensions, as well as business technology advisory services."

Telstra continued expanding its cloud and managed network application services by acquiring Australian company Kloud in January, which provides managed services to more than 80 corporate and government customers across Australia and Asia-Pacific, as well as supplying solutions for productivity, identity, security, application development, and cloud infrastructure for enterprise cloud applications.

Telstra had also acquired unified communications solutions and contact centre provider North Shore Connections (NSC) Group in August 2013; network integration services provider O2 Networks for a reported AU$60 million in January 2014; and information security, networking, and data management provider Bridgepoint in October 2014.

In April, Telstra also unveiled a business multi-cloud connecting solution to support the use of hybrid cloud services Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Office365, VMware vCloud, and IBM SoftLayer. The solution, called Cloud Gateway, allows customers to connect directly to multiple public cloud environments via Telstra's IP network.

Telstra in January also invested in Chinese cloud company Qiniu.