SAN FRANCISCO, July 16 Reuters If Alphabet39;s Google is successful in its effort to buy cloud security company Wiz, it would bolster its cloud security offerings for large organisations, a hotspot for hackers, and help it take on cloud rivals Amazon.com and Microsoft, experts said.

Alphabet is in advanced talks to acquire Wiz, a person familiar with the matter said on Sunday, in an up to 23 billion deal that would be Google39;s most expensive acquisition and provide it with cybersecurity products that defend against ransomware gangs wreaking havoc on large enterprises.

There is a hot market for cloud security, said Jerome Seguera, a senior intelligence analyst at the cybersecurity firm MalwareBytes, adding that Wiz gives customers great visibility into their assets in a straightforward way.

Wiz offers tools that allow organisations to scan their entire infrastructure and specific software for threats.

Google has been steadily expanding its cybersecurity offerings in recent years. Two years ago it bought the popular cyber firm Mandiant for 5.4 billion.

I think they are trying to compete with Microsoft and to a smaller extent AWS Amazon Web Services, said Marc Bleicher, chief technology officer of the security firm Surefire Cyber.

Wiz is one of only a few who address a big chunk of the cloud security market in one platform, Bleicher said.

Wiz was founded in 2020 at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, primed to benefit from the move towards remote work and…