Google buys ID management specialist Bitium

Single red open padlock amongst many blue closed padlocks in rows

Google has announced the acquisition of identity and access management business Bitium, allowing it to offer its cloud customers more secure access to products and services.

Bitium has innovated a single sign-on (SSO) system and provisioning platform to help businesses secure their cloud applications. Google explained that with more businesses opting to use the cloud to run their applications, new concerns arise around keeping them safe from intruders - whether internal or external.

"With the acquisition of Bitium, Google Cloud will gain capabilities to help us deliver on our Cloud Identity vision," Karthik Lakshminarayanan, director of product management in Google's G Suite and Cloud Identity business, said in a blog post.

"Our enterprise customers want a comprehensive solution for identity and access management and SSO that works across their modern cloud and mobile environments."

He added that buying Bitium will enable Google to deliver a wider range of integrations for provisioning, securing and managing devices used in the enterprise, but didn't reveal exactly how.

Lakshminarayanan said the acquisition of Bitium won't change the way Google implements security in the cloud, however. It vowed to continue working with its existing partners working in the identity management space to keep offering innovative and secure ways for people to access the products and services they need to make their business work.

Identity management is big talk at the moment, with tech firms eyeing up smaller companies to help them develop their identity access and management features. For example, SAP announced the acquisition of Gigya earlier this week to help manage customer identities and profiles.

Clare Hopping
Freelance writer

Clare is the founder of Blue Cactus Digital, a digital marketing company that helps ethical and sustainability-focused businesses grow their customer base.

Prior to becoming a marketer, Clare was a journalist, working at a range of mobile device-focused outlets including Know Your Mobile before moving into freelance life.

As a freelance writer, she drew on her expertise in mobility to write features and guides for ITPro, as well as regularly writing news stories on a wide range of topics.