VMware Inc. today revealed that it has acquired E8 Security Inc., a Redwood City, California-based startup that develops software for protecting employee devices from online threats.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. However, Sumit Dhawan, the senior vice president and general manager of VMware’s End-User Computing group, shared in a blog post that his company is absorbing both the E8 team and its technology. E8 had raised $21 million in funding.

The biggest asset that the virtualization giant is obtaining through the deal is the startup’s flagship Fusion platform. It helps enterprises secure employee devices using machine learning algorithms that keep an eye on worker activity to understand what day-to-day activity looks like. When something unexpected happens, such as a suspicious event that may indicate a security breach, Fusion checks the accumulated historical data to determine if there’s reason for concern.

E8 said the software can catch everything from malware infections to malicious insiders abusing legislate access credentials. A company’s analysts can use a diagnosis console built into Fusion to dig deeper into a threat and understand how it entered the network.

VMware plans to integrate E8’s technology into its Workplace ONE device management platform. The software acts as a central control hub where enterprises can perform maintenance tasks such as patching and set rules on how employees may interact with business applications.

E8’s technology should complement the set of security analytics features that VMware introduced for Workplace ONE last week. According to the company, the software can analyze user activity to generate recommendations on how companies should assign access privileges and authenticate workers when they log into a business system. It also identifies technical problems such as device performance issues that may hamper employee productivity.

VMware didn’t specify when companies can expect E8’s technology to become available in Workplace ONE.

Photo: Robert Hof/SiliconANGLE