Tufin Steps in After Skybox Shutdown, Offers Migration Plan

Tufin purchased limited assets and customer information from Skybox Security after the San Francisco-based exposure management vendor suddenly ceased operations this week.

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Tufin CEO Raymond Brancato said the Boston-based network and cloud security policy automation firm didn’t purchase Skybox’s contracts or assume ongoing support responsibilities, but will instead help ex-Skybox customers transition to Tufin’s orchestration suite. Specifically, Brancato said Tufin will provide flexible pricing, expedited onboarding and additional support to customers migrating from Skybox (see: Network Security Firm Tufin Promotes Raymond Brancato to CEO).

“We just purchased limited assets as well as some limited business information from Skybox,” Brancato told Information Security Media Group. “We did not purchase the company, and we did not purchase the contracts.”

How Tufin Plans to Migrate Former Skybox Customers

Skybox Security, founded in 2002, employed 284 people and raised nearly $335 million in outside funding, according to IT-Harvest, including a $50 million financing round in February 2023 from CVC Growth Funds, Pantheon, and J.P. Morgan. At the same time, Skybox tapped former Digital Guardian CEO Mo Rosen to be its next CEO, replacing founder Gidi Cohen, who led Skybox from July 2008 to January 2023.

”This abrupt end was surprising to me and to many others, and being disconnected, I cannot offer any meaningful explanation,” Cohen wrote on LinkedIn Tuesday. “You will need to find it elsewhere. While I am proud of our many achievements, the situation leaves everyone involved, employees, customers, partners and myself alike in shock and sorrow.”

Neither Skybox nor Rosen responded to ISMG requests for comment. Rosen told ISMG in February 2023 that he planned to pursue profitability for Skybox, make the company’s SaaS tool easier to deploy and use, and extend Skybox’s product to more effectively leverage data about exposure, vulnerabilities and exploits across the company’s customer base (see: Skybox Security Snags Digital Guardian’s Mo Rosen as New CEO).

Tufin bought specific intellectual property, trademarks and customer lists from Skybox but not the company’s customer contracts, Brancato said, meaning all former Skybox customers were left without an active service agreement once the company ceased operations. As a result, former Skybox customers will need to proactively choose Tufin rather than being automatically transferred.

The company is offering former Skybox customers flexible pricing and special migration discounts to encourage customers to switch without financial burden, as well as streamlined onboarding support with training and consulting resources. Brancato said Tufin also will offer dedicated office hours and direct access to company experts, along with insights from a community network of former Skybox customers.

“We have a program called Express Path,” Brancato said. “It’s very flexible pricing and terms. One of the things we’re doing is around the software and implementation services, so we have really strong special pricing around that. We also have Express Onboarding. It’s a transition package specifically designed for the Skybox customers, where they’ll have unlimited access to the Online Learning Center and training packages.”

Some Former Skybox Employees Expected to Join Tufin

While the acquisition didn’t include Skybox’s workforce, Brancato said Tufin has a strong interest in hiring ex-Skybox employees in technical, support and R&D roles to help facilitate customer transitions. The hiring process remains fluid, Brancato said, with decisions being made based on Tufin’s internal needs and how former Skybox employees can contribute to the transition effort and ensure continuity.

“We definitely are working with experienced resources from Skybox,” Brancato said. “We’re working through that now to see if we can hire as many people as possible to support a smoother transition to Tufin’s Orchestration Suite.”

One significant shift is the move from Skybox’s mixed model to Tufin’s subscription only approach, with the former offering both perpetual licenses with ongoing maintenance contracts as well as subscription-based services. Tufin operates exclusively on a subscription model, and Brancato said the firm is offering highly flexible and customized pricing plans to facilitate the transition for perpetual Skybox customers.

“Skybox had a combination of perpetual and subscription customers,” Brancato said. “They had started just doing subscription a couple years ago, and we have been a subscription-based company for many years now, so the only thing we do is subscription. A majority of their customers are that way as well, but there are some that also still have perpetual maintenance.”

Brancato said Skybox’s issues were company-specific rather than industry-wide, underscoring that Tufin’s staying power in the network security policy management space. Tufin was taken private by Turn/River Capital in August 2022 for $570 million and laid off approximately 10% of its workforce – or about 55 employees globally – shortly after the completion of the transaction (see: How Automation Can Help Address Growing Network Demands).

“The concern is understandable that people may have, and Skybox customers are going through a difficult situation right now,” Brancato said. “But Tufin is not just another vendor. We are the largest and most financially strong and growing company in this space.”