Zscaler to Acquire Red Canary in 2025: Inside the AI-Powered Security Deal Shaking Up MDR

Zscaler to Acquire Red Canary: What the Deal Means for AI-Powered Managed Detection and Response Introduction Global cloud-security giant Zscaler has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Red Canary, one of the market’s best-known Managed Detection and Response (MDR) specialists. The cash-and-stock transaction, announced on 27 May 2025, is expected to close in August pending regulatory approvals. The move positions Zscaler to deepen its AI-driven security operations while giving Red Canary the global scale and data lake it needs to accelerate threat-detection innovation. Why Red Canary Matters Founded in 2013, Red Canary has carved out a leadership slot in MDR by combining high-fidelity telemetry, behavioral analytics and automation to help enterprises investigate threats up to ten times faster than legacy SOC tools. The company has been named a Leader in The Forrester Wave: MDR for three consecutive years and appears in Gartner’s Market Guide for MDR seven years running. By protecting endpoints, identities, networks and cloud workloads, Red Canary has accumulated deep expertise that Zscaler can bolt onto its Zero Trust Exchange. Strategic Fit With Zscaler Zscaler processes more than 500 billion security transactions every day and already offers a robust AI and machine-learning layer via its ThreatLabz research team. Folding Red Canary’s MDR engine into that data fabric promises several immediate synergies: • Unified Zero Trust + MDR Platform Customers will soon be able to deploy a single, cloud-native stack for secure access, exposure management and 24×7 threat monitoring—eliminating blind spots between endpoint EDR and inline SSE protections. • Agentic AI and Automated Response Red Canary’s automation workflows will tap Zscaler’s global data lake to orchestrate real-time containment and remediation, reducing mean time to respond (MTTR) while easing analyst fatigue. • Expanded Threat Intelligence Coverage Integration of threat intel from both companies should yield earlier detection of emerging ransomware, supply-chain compromises and identity-based attacks, a growing pain point as hybrid work persists. What Customers Can Expect The two firms are promising a phased product roadmap: initial cross-selling of Red Canary MDR to Zscaler’s 45 percent Fortune 500 install base, followed by deeper feature convergence. Current Red Canary customers can maintain their existing agent footprint; Zscaler hints at optional migration paths to its native endpoint client after the deal closes. Industry Impact Consolidation is sweeping the security-operations landscape as vendors race to fuse AI, Zero Trust architecture and MDR under one umbrella. Zscaler’s bid to merge inline inspection with boutique MDR echoes Microsoft’s acquisition of Miburo and Google’s pickup of Mandiant in 2022. The combined firm will challenge CrowdStrike Falcon Complete and Palo Alto Networks XSIAM for share of the fast-growing managed security services segment, projected to top $30 billion by 2027. Expert Commentary “Bringing Red Canary into the fold accelerates our vision of an AI-powered SOC,” said Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry during the announcement call. “Together we can reduce alert noise, raise detection accuracy and deliver true autonomous response at cloud scale.” Red Canary CEO Brian Beyer added, “Zscaler’s global visibility gives us the granular signals we need to innovate faster and push MDR quality even higher.” Next Steps and Closing Timeline • Definitive agreement signed: 27 May 2025 • Regulatory review period: 60–90 days • Expected close: August 2025 • Integration kickoff: Q3 CY 2025, subject to closing conditions Takeaway For security leaders grappling with alert overload and talent shortages, the Zscaler–Red Canary combination could unlock a turnkey, AI-driven alternative to traditional SOC models. As cyber-threats evolve, the race to build an autonomous, data-rich security operations platform is intensifying—and this acquisition puts Zscaler firmly in the pole position.