This week saw the acquisition of the Enterprise Rights Management software vendor Liquid Machines by Check Point. This acquisition is a confirmation of further consolidation and integration needed to raise the profile of enterprise rights management software.

In a number of past blog posts I mentioned the superiority of Enterprise Rights Management over full disk encryption and file encryption, and Check Point’s acquisition confirms this because it already has its own file encryption tools. This is a recognition that the benefits of enterprise rights management around persistent security will always be the main advantage it has over any other encryption tool.

From Check Point’s perspective, this acquisition helps the company to leverage their suite of security tools, helping the company to draw from a wider selection of possible tools when recommending solutions to their clients.

I am hoping Check Point has not has not paid way above the market price as there are current pressures for enterprise rights management price tags to come down as price is another key factor to wider acceptance of this technology.

I believe that there will be further mergers and acquisitions in the enterprise rights management area over the next 12 months, but because of the downward pressure on product prices and implementation costs, return on investments will take longer than initially expected. Finally, this acquisition indicates that enterprise rights management is coming of age and will have its place in the enterprises’ overall information security strategy.