Databarracks adds depth with PlanB

Business resilience specialist Databarracks has bolstered its capabilities with the acquisition of Glasgow-based PlanB Consulting.

The move for the Scottish business, which specialises in cyber continuity and resilience, will add more depth to the Databarracks offering.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the plan is to combine the businesses to provide a suite of services, including data protection, disaster recovery, business continuity and incident response.

Chris Butler, resilience director at Databarracks, said that the acquisition would add a skilled business to the portfolio: “PlanB has been a powerhouse in business continuity and resilience for almost two decades. They’re widely known, highly respected and one of the true thought-leaders in our industry.

“Led by the highly respected Charlie and Kim Maclean-Bristol, they are a multi-award-winning business continuity consulting business and stalwarts of the resilience community.”

Butler provided an insight into the sort of pitch the business would be making with PlanB now part of the operation.

“The world is undoubtedly more volatile and uncertain. Supply chains have come under extreme pressure and business interruptions remain highly likely. The cyber arms race shows little sign of peaking, and by the end of the decade, there will likely be few businesses that haven’t been targeted and affected,” he said.

“The organisations that thrive will be those prepared for this changing environment. PlanB strengthens this integrated approach, cultivating dynamic leadership, adaptive operations, robust technology and supportive supply chains to enable businesses to survive and prosper,” he added.

In response, Maclean-Bristol, co-founder and director of PlanB, said that the tie-up would give the business access to greater market reach

“Together we bring a wide range of consulting skills, real-world expertise and can now offer a complete range of business continuity, crisis management and cyber resilience services,” he said.

Mike Osborne, chairman of Databarracks, said that the move would put the firm in a position to provide customers with an alternative offering.

“I’ve spent 30-plus years in the industry, and the market has fundamentally changed over the past few years,” said Osborne. “The old guard of BC specialists has been absorbed by generalist IT service providers. Sungard Availability Services sadly went into administration in the UK. Throughout the pandemic, many of the smaller consulting providers took in-house roles, leaving ‘the big four’ as an expensive alternative.

“The operational resilience market has become fractured across cyber, data protection, IT recovery and business continuity planning, now leaving few – if any – genuine specialists dedicated to end-to-end resilience,” he said.

Oborne argued that the combined business could challenge some of the incumbent players as a result, adding: “This acquisition creates a market-leading data protection, technology recovery, business continuity and cyber resilience business offering in one.”