Evolve IP Adds ID-Authentication-As-A-Service With Clearlogin Acquisition

Hot off its fourth acquisition of 2017, channel-friendly cloud service provider Evolve IP said Tuesday that it is the new owner of identity authentication provider Clearlogin.

The Clearlogin technology will let Evolve IP bake ID-as-a-Service directly into the cloud provider's OneCloud platform, which extends identity authentication into all of Evolve IP's services, including Disaster Recovery as a Service, contact center, and Unified Communications as a Service.

The acquisition will translate into new cloud selling and recurring revenue opportunities for channel partners, Scott Kinka, Evolve IP's CTO, told CRN.

[Related:Evolve IP Acquires Cloud Comms Company Mtel To Continue International Push]

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Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Clearlogin unified authentication technology will be included for free across all Evolve's cloud services. However, Clearlogin, an IBM platform, is used across more than 4,000 of the most common cloud applications on the market today and Evolve IP isn't changing that, Kinka said.

"The user's Evolve homepage will have UCaaS, contact center and email from Office 365, but they'll also have access to Dropbox and Salesforce and all the other cloud apps they have in one spot, with one centralized authentication strategy," he said.

Evolve IP's solution provider partners can easily add identity management to not only their customers' Evolve IP services, but other cloud servicesas well, Kinka said.

"This is the biggest problem that everyone knows they have but don't know the solution to right now," he said. "These customers also have other portals that need identity authentication. Any time we're able to solve a problem for customers creates a revenue opportunity for partners."

Clearlogin will still be available for sale as a stand-alone product, Kinka said, noting that Evolve IP has "no intention" of changing the product's strategy of integrating multiple hubs, even if it's a competitor's application.

Clearlogin's existing partner community, which primarily consists of ISP partners and software vendors, will be integrated by the end of the year into Evolve IP's partner community.

The Clearlogin team, based in Mountainside, N.J., will be staying on as Evolve IP employees, Kinka said. Over time, Evolve IP will be taking over support services and delivery, leaving the Clearlogin team to focus on engineering and product development.

Evolve IP's most recent acquisitions included the purchase of Mtel, a cloud communications firm based in the Netherlands, in August as part of its strategy to extend its international reach. In May, the provider bought Mesa, Ariz.-based Workspace as a Service provider Azzaron.