Trustwave, a provider of on-demand data security and compliance management solutions recently announced the acquisition of ControlPath (the terms of which are confidential and have not been disclosed). ControlPath, an enterprise Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC) product company, finally has what we all hope is a loving and stable home environment where it can flourish.
What we all know today as ControlPath, has had a turbulent and difficult time since it was first concieved as "consultingware" by Alderrman Consulting, LLC back when the world was being roiled with SOX audits for the first time and the GRC market was just glimmer in Gartner's eye. Colorado-based VAR, Accuvant picked up Alderman Consulting and their IP to form the backbone of their compliance practice back in 2004, keeping founder Matthew Alderman on to lead that charge under Accuvant founder and VP, Bill Strub.
What we learned shortly after was that a VAR may not be the right home environment to raise a young application. Our sources tell of a difficult time ensuring that the fledgling product was properly nutured and allowed to grow. Specifcially, a lack of resources (funding and attention) as well as clear leadership around the IP, along with a sales force unaccustomed to such solutions made it difficult for this youth to truely blossom.
Foster care being a transition period, Accuvant spun the venture out in 2006 to become ControlPath. It was really a sink or swim time for ControlPatch, thankfully, the arrangement kept Accuvant as a partner/reseller, giving them time to find their footing. Alderman stayed on in the new company as CTO, a role he held up until the Trustawave acquisition. Alderman continues to shepard his baby into adolescence as VP of Compliance Management Solutions inside of Trustwave.
It will be curious times as Trustwave begins their planned integration of the ControlPath GRC technology into their existing suite of SaaS compliance management solutions. How will they integrate their content model, a formidable part of the original offering? What will the move to "on-demand" do the ability to integrate with on premise solutions that feed the data hungry compliance monster?
According to Alderman, "This technology fits well with Trustwave's compliance suite, which currently includes solutions for a variety of regulatory mandates as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX)."
Will they be able to scale out their content offerings to meet increasing demands in the still evolving GRC space or will they fall behind like some many of the other content rich GRC players in the market? Rest assured, we'll be keeping a sharp eye on Mr. Alderman and baby as they get acquainted with their new adopted parents.
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