In the era of AI, cyberattacks are increasingly targeting both human and non-human identities alike. As technology continues to advance, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) operate and manage sprawling, thinly resourced identity environments, often without the resources necessary to protect them. In the absence of real privileged access management (PAM) capabilities, organizations have had to fall back on “best practices in terms of manual steps to configure,” according to Rohit Ghai, CEO of cyber resilience platform provider Barracuda.
The Enterprise Door Closes
The February 2026 acquisition of CyberArk by Palo Alto Networks raised the bar for identity platforms by demonstrating a commitment to identity security as a core pillar. The industry has followed suit, adding capabilities—and responsibilities—to platforms that organizations have been using for some time. Unfortunately, this has served to make it more difficult in many ways for vulnerable organizations to benefit from increased identity security diligence.
The complexity and cost of effective management has increasingly put enterprise-grade tools out of reach for businesses served by managed services providers (MSPs). This has created challenges for SMBs, leading to a significant section of the market being quietly priced out of its own protection. Many organizations lack the human power and financial resources required to invest in increasingly sophisticated security platforms.
Barracuda's Answer
Barracuda Networks has taken steps to close this gap with the announcement of its acquisition of PAM provider Evo Security. Evo’s MSP-first design philosophy is built around the technician’s daily workflow, designed to ensure efficiency and affordability. The acquisition folds identity access management (IAM) and PAM into the existing resilience stack of Barracuda’s BarracudaONE platform.
Michael Roth, CEO and founder of Evo Security, will be taken on at Barracuda as VP of identity product management, signaling a bet on scale over independence. “The power of the acquisition is to really scale this technology, leveraging our global reach and our partner ecosystem, and offer industry-best support that our customers value very much, especially these small customers,” says Ghai.
The Sprawl Within the Solution
The founding premise of Evo Security was to solve the growing challenge of MSPs drowning in disconnected identity tools. This issue has arisen as the result of a years-long, industry-wide pattern of “platform” vendors accumulating products, rather than integrating them properly. The rising trend of industry acquisitions has not featured extensive effort toward true integration.
Analysts warn that partners are souring on this approach. “MSPs are starting to complain more about the ‘platform movement’ and the lock-in they experience, especially when they notice disjointed platforms that seem more like a hodgepodge that lack real seamless integration, forcing them to then augment certain tools with third-party offerings,” says Devan Adams, principal analyst at Omdia.
Where Integration Actually Lives
Understanding this growing issue, the distinction between bundling disparate tools at the UI level and full integration at the data layer is significant. Consolidating several tools under one vendor means that the customer can purchase the solution from a single partner, but it does not help with the complexity of tool sprawl and fragmentation. Many of the organizations that could benefit the most from a centralized stack are unable to manage and operate these sprawling platforms.
Barracuda’s acquisition of Evo is an attempt to address and remediate this issue. In contrast with this ongoing trend, Evo’s authentication logs will feed directly into Barracuda’s threat detection, creating a truly integrated experience. This acquisition demonstrates the technical bar that separates a real unified platform from a simple shared login page for disconnected tools.
What MSPs Should Watch Next
How this acquisition and integration play out can offer insight and lessons for MSPs moving forward. Whether Barracuda’s data-layer promise holds up across the full stack in practice remains to be seen, and may signal the level of feasibility of the company’s vision. This deal can serve as a market test regarding whether any vendor can actually solve complexity, or only relocate it.
