Adarma, an independent security services company, previously ECS Security, has successfully launched following a private management buyout led by David Calder and Nathan Dornbrook with capital from Livingbridge, one of the UK’s leading mid-market private equity investors, and debt from Bank of Scotland.
With over 250 staff and experience spanning over two decades, Adarma provides a broad range of IT security consulting, solution and services with deep expertise in threat management including Security Operations Centre (SOC) design, build and operation. Adarma helps large enterprises to establish operational security capabilities including in-house, co-managed and fully managed SOC environments.
Helping clients to extend SOC capabilities
The company’s expertise helps clients to extend existing SOC capabilities to respond to evolving threatsThe company’s expertise also helps clients to extend existing SOC capabilities to respond to evolving threats and establish a high-value proactive approach to hunting and effectively defending against attackers through addressing control gaps.
From launch, Adarma has an extensive client roster that includes market leading brands from FTSE 250 organisations. In fact, Adarma’s 20 largest clients have a combined annual turnover in excess of £150bn and rely on Adarma’s expertise to help protect sensitive data covering over half of the UK population.
Preparing for critical security incidents
David Calder, MD and co-founder of Adarma says, “Our decision to create Adarma is part of our desire to focus exclusively on the security space with the aim of becoming the UK market leader for FTSE 250 organisations across a broad range of industries. We are thrilled to receive backing from Livingbridge as we start this new chapter in our journey.”
Security is a priority at board level as well as within Security Operations departments at these organisations"
“Typically, our customer base consists of larger organisations who accept that attacks and breaches are inevitable. Security is a priority at board level as well as within Security Operations departments at these organisations. They realise that it is not a case of if, but when they will face critical security incidents and want to be prepared for this. Our tailored solutions and in-depth engagements with our customers ensure a deeper understanding of their business and requirements, enabling us to deliver improved results for each client.”
Adarma is based on the Latin phrase 'call to arms’ to represent the security it offers to clients and its core founding objective – to make the world a safer place.
Closing the security skills gap
Nathan Dornbrook, CTO and co-founder of Adarma said: “Another core principle of the Adarma ethos is a focus on skills and experience that is complemented by, but not replaced by, technology. Our clients tend to have complex environments, with technical and cultural requirements that define them in often unique ways.
“Our teams are made up of skilled and highly certified practitioners that have deep, real world expertise in working with large organisations. Many of our staff and clients have been with us for a decade or more and we see this partnership journey as key to building a sustainable and trusted business as well as assisting in fulfilling our objective to help close the security skills gap in the UK.”
Adarma runs its own dedicated UK based 24/7 SOC which is staffed by practitioners with deep relevant skills
Adarma runs its own dedicated UK based 24/7 SOC which is staffed by practitioners with deep relevant skills. All teams hold qualifications to degree level in cyber security related subjects and technology specific accreditations plus extensive rapid response capabilities. Core Adarma technology partners include Splunk, ServiceNow and Tenable.
Provider of cyber security services
Paul Thomson, Group Chief Executive at ECS, said: “Over the last 6 years, ECS’s security business has grown rapidly within the Group into a truly industry leading provider of cyber security services. Strategically it makes sense for ECS Group and Security to separate, allowing both companies to further focus on their core areas of expertise.
“For Group, this also enables us to expand our core offerings and expertise in digital transformation in our key markets namely, enterprise IT infrastructure and public cloud, as well as investing heavily to build out other areas of the business. We wish David, Nathan, the management team and the staff at Adarma all the very best and anticipate working in close partnership with them moving forwards.”
Commenting on the investment, Matthew Caffrey, Partner at Livingbridge said: “Adarma is a very exciting business for us to partner with. We believe there is an opportunity to partner with the team to build a business of real scale in the growing cyber security market. The team have built up a great business and we’re excited to work with them as they grow.”