PatchLink born again as Lumension Security

Patch management company PatchLink is no more, but its demise is not bad news. The company has changed its name to Lumension Security.

Formed from a cross between the word 'luminescence' and the phrase 'new dimension', Lumension's birth probably became inevitable last June on the day PatchLink merged with Luxembourg-based SecureWave. Up to that point, PatchLink had been a well-known software patch management company. After that point, given SecureWave's very different set of products, it had turned into something new that wasn't well expressed by using the words 'patch' and 'link' in close proximity.

Lumension is coy about what the re-branding exercise has cost it, but a new name -- chosen from among many suggestions put to it -- and a new logo don't come cheap. The company has also managed to plump for a name that had a free domain, no small feat these days.

"PatchLink had a good name for what we were, but with the acquisition it had become inappropriate," admitted Lumension's Andrew Clarke. He was determined not to turn the name into an end in itself, preferring to focus on the new direction being taken by the outfit, sloughing off its past as a natural rather than forced move.

The new company has products covering a number of security bases. The old patch management systems are still in the mix, but to this has been added endpoint security software, network access control, and policy compliance reporting.

The last six months have been a busy time for the old PatchLink, which also bought STAT Guardian Vulnerability Management Suite from Harris in February.