Google Cloud has acquired Siemplify, a cloud-based security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) firm, to support the security team in its threat detection and response efforts.

Siemplify's cybersecurity initiatives include working with security operations centers (SOCs) to integrate threat response into user security policies. The acquisition signals wider implications for the cybersecurity field and the future of SOAR and security information and event management (SIEM).

“Siemplify was one of the few remaining standalone SOAR offerings, as many others have been picked up by SIEM vendors over the years," according to Allie Mellen, Analyst at Forrester.

"For businesses, users and security professionals, this acquisition means that they now have one less standalone SOAR offering to choose from. This can be a benefit — having a security analytics platform that tightly integrates SIEM and SOAR can help practitioners implement more seamless automation into their work. However, some practitioners prefer to use a separate, independent SOAR offering because they find the depth of available integrations to be more powerful. The list of standalone SOAR vendors is dwindling, and businesses, users and security professionals need to consider how SOAR factors in as a feature of their security analytics platform, instead of a standalone offering.”