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SharePoint Tools Vendor Idera Acquires iDevFactory

• By Jeffrey Schwartz
• June 07, 2010

Looking to bolster its portfolio of SharePoint administration tools, Idera has acquired iDevFactory, a supplier of security administration software.

Idera, a division of BBS Technologies Inc., announced the acquisition of the closely-held company at the annual TechEd North America 2010 conference, which kicks off today in New Orleans. In addition to offering SharePoint administration tools, Idera supplies administration and management software for Microsoft's SQL Server database and Windows PowerShell.

Despite its tight focus, Idera, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, says it has 7,000 enterprise customers ranging from small to the very largest of shops. The addition of iDevFactory gives Idera a tool that will give administrators and systems auditors a view of the security of the SharePoint environment, according to Rick Pleczko, Idera's president and CEO.

"It allows you to manage the rights, managements and permissions to documents and content stored in SharePoint," Pleczko said of iDevFactory's software in an interview. "It can create reports that tell who can have access to what and what can be accessed by whom and then it allows you to do audit checking to make sure your permissions are correct. It also can do things like find dead accounts from people who have left the company. It's a fairly rich product."

Known as the iDevFactory Universal SharePoint Manager, Idera is renaming it the Idera SharePoint Security Manager. In conjunction with the acquisition, Idera is launching a new release to support SharePoint Server 2010, which shipped last month. The new release adds support for multiple forms management and the ability in SharePoint Web parts to delegate functions to end users. For example, a help-desk worker can determine who has access to specific systems, said Julia Hall, an Idera director.

The new release starts at $4,995. Pleczko said the team of iDevFactory, which consists of "less than 10" employees, will join Idera. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The deal is the second recent acquisition for Idera, which also acquired the Sonar performance management tooling from Binary Wave Ltd. in October. The latter company is a SharePoint consultancy. Pleczko said Idera will continue to shop for companies or software that fit its mission of addressing the market for administration of SharePoint, SQL Server and PowerShell management.