Tech brokerage firm Upstack beefed up its cybersecurity and AI tech advisory capability with the acquisition of SecureX this week.

With the acquisition, SecureX CEO Victor Cardona and chief revenue officer and managing partner Kirk Horton join Upstack as partners. Cardona founded SecureX in 2017. He previously held enterprise cybersecurity roles at Comcast and Netacea, where he saw an opening in a channel that still leads with network and communications.

“Victor and Kirk built SecureX on the idea that every technology decision is a security decision, and the CIOs and CISOs they advise trust them on exactly that basis,” said Christopher Trapp, founder and CEO of Upstack. “That discipline is where enterprise buyers are heading as AI and data center demand continue to reshape their priorities. Bringing SecureX onto our platform puts the security conversation at the front of every engagement we run.”

Christopher Trapp

The acquisition was Upstack’s 25^th since 2022.

From the start, SecureX focused on providing security advice for midsize to large enterprises. Besides cybersecurity, it advises on cloud, AI governance, data center colocation, and infrastructure.

“We started this because we saw how much time our CIO and CISO clients were losing in evaluation and due diligence, sometimes more than a year,” said Cardona. “They know the problem they need to solve. What they need is a design, a plan, and a total cost of ownership. We take on that work so they can move in weeks instead of months. With UPSTACK’s solutions engineering, project management, and account management teams behind us, we can do that for more clients and go deeper on every engagement.”

Horton added: “Security permeates every layer of an organization, so we wrap a security conversation around everything we do, whether it’s cloud, colocation, AI, or connectivity. When a client hands you their operational risk, they trust you with their brand and their reputation. That gives Upstack a higher-level conversation with the executives who make these decisions.”

Upstack delivers advisory and execution services across areas such as data center colocation, cloud, connectivity, networking, cybersecurity, AI and more.