How the Chocolate Factory aims to focus more on enterprise security
Cloud Next Today, Google is set to unveil a new integrated security platform that experts believe could aid in their competition with Microsoft for a larger share of the enterprise information security market.
Known as Google Unified Security (GUS), this initiative consolidates the company’s current threat intelligence, security operations, and cloud security offerings, along with Chrome Enterprise. Given we're in 2025, it also integrates autonomous AI capabilities.
Google’s strategy seems akin to what Microsoft unveiled earlier this month when they announced specialized AI agents designed to work alongside different security tools. These AI agents aim to assist security professionals by generating reports that highlight which alerts require immediate consideration from analysts.
The leading advertising company’s information security team includes a division known as Google Security Operations. This unit reportedly assesses security warnings by examining the specifics of each situation before providing recommendations to human supervisors regarding which threats require attention. Additionally, another system employs artificial intelligence to analyze malicious software and evaluate the severity of potential risks posed by such threats.
Certain customers will have the opportunity to utilize the agents throughout Q2. The platform release is scheduled to align with Google's Cloud Next conference, happening today.
Compared to the capabilities Google gained in March with its acquisition of Cloud Security startup Wiz for $32 billion — which marked the tech behemoth’s biggest buy to date — these new additions seem relatively minor.
The acquisition of Mandiant for $5.4 billion in 2022 ranks as Google’s third-biggest purchase, coming second only to the $12.5 billion buyout of Motorola Mobility in 2011.
Acquiring Wiz and Mandiant indicates that Google has become a key figure in information security, though it still lags behind competitors.
Microsoft is currently the biggest player in the security market globally," said Neil MacDonald, a vice president at Gartner Research, to The Register. "As a corporation, Google examines this and thinks: What prevents us from becoming a major provider of enterprise security too?
Redmond has mentioned before that their yearly security business income surpassed $20 billion. Google does not reveal its security sales figures publicly, and according to Gartner’s MacDonald, this figure is only "a small part" compared to Microsoft’s leading market earnings.
Wiz offers Google an emerging segment of security solutions via its Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP). This platform safeguards cloud-native applications from the initial coding phase through their entire operational lifecycle, constantly scanning for and eliminating risks while maintaining adherence to corporate security protocols.
Wiz operates across several cloud platforms, enabling Google to offer it to both its Cloud clients and users of various public clouds.
"Multi-cloud CNAPP is essential for securing cloud infrastructures," wrote Forrester Vice President and Principal Analyst Andras Cser in a recent memo regarding the Wiz acquisition.
"Google Cloud's multi-cloud security features will speed up its adoption among numerous businesses," he noted.
When questioned regarding the acquisition cost, which stands as the highest in the history of cybersecurity, exceeding Cisco’s $28 billion deal for Splunk from the previous year, Cser informed The Register that this figure "demonstrates Google's hurried approach to entering the market and acquiring customers."
He mentioned that developing a CNAPP solution would require 3,600 years of engineering effort otherwise.
Google couldn't afford to lose years, let alone millenniums, since Microsoft already boasts a CNAPP known as Defender for Cloud.
Buying Wiz also helps Google move into adjacent security markets that are equally appealing to enterprise security customers, according to MacDonald.
"Wiz specializes in core technologies involving graphs and graph analytics, and adding intelligence to these graphs to comprehend object relationships — this is their approach in the cloud domain," he explained.
MacDonald went on to explain, “However, this model can be expanded to encompass both data and data entities, as well as application development—areas where Wiz has already made progress through the acquisition of Dazz. It can further be applied to exposure management—a growing sector. Therefore, this technological advancement provides them with the foundation of the Wiz core platform and enables them to tackle related applications.”
While Wiz gives Google a multi-cloud security play, it also wants to make its own cloud platform more secure than those offered by rivals.
This is where that Google Unified Security, or GUS, comes into play.
In today’s announcement marking the broad release of the security platform, Google highlighted the integrated aspects of the new offering and provided these illustrations:
That indicates Google has shifted toward providing a comprehensive security platform encompassing numerous features and controls.
"Microsoft leverages this approach very effectively," MacDonald stated. "They possess identity, data, a SIEM system, and endpoints," he explained, pointing to Redmond’s security offerings, most of which are integrated with their other business and cloud services to discourage clients from opting for competitors’ solutions.
“And naturally, Microsoft aims to push enterprise licensing deals,” MacDonald stated. “When I examine GUS, it essentially reflects Google’s message: How about purchasing additional products from us, such as Chronicle SecOps, Chrome Enterprise, the fundamental offerings of Wiz, and Security Command Center.”
MacDonald indicates that he believes Google does not aspire to become Microsoft; instead, it merely aims to emulate certain aspects of Microsoft. He also anticipates that Google will likely refrain from venturing into endpoint security in the near future.
McDonald suggested that he thinks they have a strategic aim to expand their enterprise security earnings beyond Google Cloud, and whenever feasible, apply that same technology to enhance Google Cloud as well. He noted that certain investments, such as Mandiant and Wiz, benefit both areas.
Can Google develop into an autonomous multi-billion-dollar cybersecurity firm separate from its cloud division? He stated, "I think they aspire for this to occur," and added, "I trust they have the capability to achieve it." ®