Stuart Hirst (Deloitte)
Deloitte has acquired Converging Data Australia, a Sydney-based risk consulting business with expertise in Splunk technologies, and a wider presence in the UK.
Terms of the deal will see the founder of Converging Data Australia and all staff join the consultancy giant's Risk Advisory practice.
Through this acquisition, Deloitte expects to scale and accelerate cyber analytics services across Asia Pacific, while enhancing expertise in big data, artificial intelligence and security orchestration and response.
"Working in the areas of security, operational intelligence, and data analytics, as well as digital and IoT innovation, the Converging Data team will bring its deep domain expertise to help our clients keep pace with the continually evolving technology risk landscape," said Dennis Krallis, managing partner of Risk Advisory at Deloitte.
"They will enhance and complement our existing investments in the design, build and running of bespoke Cyber Security Intelligence Operations Centres for clients."
Converging Data has a track record of delivering strategic outcomes to customers through Splunk Enterprise software, which is adopted by large enterprises across Asia Pacific.
Furthermore, Stuart Hirst - managing director of Converging Data - will take on a partner role within the Risk Advisory division.
In joining Deloitte, Hirst said Converging Data will be able to scale and achieve its goal of becoming the "undisputed leader of Splunk services in Australia".
"We have worked with Splunk since the day we started," Hirst said. "It’s a very powerful tool for capturing and analysing the vast pools of data that large organisations have to deal with.
“We developed our DataPaaS solution to help clients rapidly scale and optimise Splunk tools and are looking forward to combining it with Deloitte’s global team of more than 300 Splunk professionals to help more Australian businesses benefit from the insights and benefits Splunk software can bring."
The deal builds on Deloitte's previous investments in the risk and data analytics space including CBig Consulting, Qubit and Connected Analytics.
Converging Data uses the Splunk analytics platform to converge IT operations, SOAR, application analytics, cyber security and IoT monitoring, according to Deloitte.
“Today, businesses are investing in projects and programs that help them to monitor and stay alert to key risk events in real time – such as fraud, cyber security, compliance and financial crime,” added James Nunn-Price, cyber leader of Asia Pacific at Deloitte.
“Converging Data use the Splunk analytics platform to converge IT operations, SOAR, application analytics, cyber security and IoT monitoring, providing clients with the opportunity to gain valuable insights from their technology investments.
“Converging Data’s unique methods and solutions, such as its Data Platform as a Service (DataPaaS) offering, enable it to build, deploy and deliver cyber analytics solutions at scale and speed using the Splunk platform.”
