cloud security – Cloud Computing Today

Bromium Collaborates With Microsoft To Complement Windows 10 Security Functionality

Bromium announced today a collaboration with Microsoft that ensures compatibility with Bromium’s micro-virtualization technology and Windows 10 to deliver a secure endpoint market solution. Bromium complements Windows 10 security by means of its approach to security that leverages micro-virtualization to isolate and quarantine security threats before they have the opportunity to touch the endpoint device. Ian Pratt, CEO and co-founder of Bromium, commented on the partnership with Microsoft as follows:

Our strategic partnership with Microsoft is centered on a common technology heritage and a shared goal of hardening the endpoint to prevent enterprise breaches. This partnership validates micro-virtualization as a foundation for future desktop security and assures Bromium’s security products are compatible and complementary to Microsoft’s efforts to enhance security in Windows. Microsoft and Bromium together make Windows endpoints secure, defeating attacks by design and delivering real-time threat insights. We are proud to be working closely with Microsoft to help end the era of enterprise breaches.

As Pratt notes, Bromium’s collaboration with Microsoft underscores the validity of micro-virtualization as a technology that facilitates endpoint security. In addition, the partnership testifies to the complementary quality of new security functionality specific to Windows 10 such as its use of CPU virtualization to protect the endpoint. From an industry perspective, Bromium’s partnership with Microsoft validates the efficacy of isolation technology as a proven modality for ensuring endpoint security in conjunction with Bromium’s real-time analytics and actionable threat intelligence. Expect Bromium to continue amplifying its momentum in the wake of its partnership with Microsoft, particularly as Windows 10 achieves broader adoption throughout the industry.

Menlo Security Raises $25M In Series B Funding And Reveals Isolation Platform For Malware And IT Security

This week, Menlo Security emerged from stealth to reveal details of a security platform that leverages isolation technology to tackle malware and related threats to IT security. In contrast to IT security models that focus on perimeter defense or behavioral analytics to identify anomalous behavior, Menlo Security deploys an isolation platform to quarantine web-based applications in disposable containers as illustrated in the graphic below:

As the graphic illustrates, all content is housed within Menlo Security’s isolation platform, irrespective of whether it poses a security threat or not. Because the platform disposes of all content, security threats never reach endpoint devices or infrastructures. The platform removes malware from web traffic, attachments and email without requiring the installation of endpoint software. In addition to announcing details of its isolation platform, Menlo Security revealed the finalization of a Series B funding raise totaling $25M. The Series B funding raise was led by Sutter Hill Ventures and complemented by participation from General Catalyst and Osage Partners. The finalization of Menlo’s Series B round means that it has now raised a total of $35.5M, building on a November 2014 Series A funding round of $10.5M. The launch of its isolation platform promises to disrupt cloud security methodologies by delivering a model for disposing of malware without relying on analytics to detect deviations from “baseline” usage patterns or perimeter defense approaches. As such, Menlo’s isolation platform places it in a unique ballpark when it comes to cloud security and malware detection by taking the discussion about cloud security away from what is good and bad, toward a different model entirely.

Xactly Partners With Protegrity To Enhance Cloud Security Of Its SaaS Incentive Compensation Application

Protegrity today announced a partnership with incentive compensation vendor Xactly that allows Xactly customers to benefit from Protegrity’s suite of cloud security products and services. Protegrity’s Cloud Gateway uses tokenization or encryption to protect customer data before it traverses a SaaS, cloud-based infrastructure. The Protegrity solution bolsters the security of SaaS applications by delivering enhanced data protection based on encryption, tokenization and cloud monitoring functionality. The solution also features an enterprise-grade key management solution that provides a comprehensive and automated approach to storing encryption keys while ensuring that the key tokens reside outside the purview of the cloud within a safe but readily accessible location. Today’s announcement means that Protegrity adds Gartner leader in the 2015 Magic Quadrant for Sales Performance Management, Xactly, to a list of supported SaaS platforms that includes Box and Salesforce. Meanwhile, Xactly stands to benefit from giving its customers the assurance that its platform for delivering HR-based incentive compensation frameworks complies with rigorous and battle-tested standards for cloud security. The larger significance of the Protegrity Cloud Gateway consists in its ability to empower organizations with sensitive data to build SaaS applications that can achieve compliance with protocols such as HIPAA and HITECH, PCI and others. The partnership between Protegrity and Xactly illustrates the intensity of the desire for cloud security solutions on one hand, and the corresponding market response from vendors such as Protegrity to deliver turnkey cloud security products that deliver the requisite security needs in conjunction with the operational simplicity and scalability demanded by contemporary enterprise customers. Expect Protegrity to continue expanding its roster of SaaS partnerships as SaaS applications that utilize sensitive data proliferate and require correspondingly robust cloud security frameworks.

Elastica Partners With Cisco To Bring Data Science Driven Cloud Security To The Enterprise

Cloud application security vendor Elastica recently announced a partnership with Cisco that allows Cisco to resell Elastica’s Cloud Access Security Broker solutions to its customers. The partnership between Elastica and Cisco gives Cisco customers access to Elastica’s CloudSOC portfolio which includes IT risk assessments, deep visibility regarding live cloud application traffic and the ability to detect risky actions on the part of enterprise employees. Elastica’s Shadow IT risk assessment enables customers to prioritize risk ratings of applications in addition to analytics on cloud application usage within an organization. Meanwhile, Elastica’s Shadow Data analytics provide insight into data governance and compliance-related risks with a view toward providing direction regarding how improved data governance and renewed approaches to IT compliance can mitigate an organization’s overall IT risk. Another core Elastica CloudSOC product offering provides deep insight into live cloud application traffic and user activity by leveraging machine learning and semantic technologies that can identify compromised user accounts, high risk transactions and threatening user accounts by means of a proprietary, algorithmic ThreatScore. Elastica’s cloud application security solution draws upon cloud application API data via Elastic securelets that connect to the backend of cloud applications, live cloud application data regarding networking traffic as well as usage patterns and log data from third party security solutions. Elastica’s partnership with Cisco complements solutions such as Cisco’s Cisco Cloud Web Security (CWS), Web Security Appliance (WSA) and Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance by providing deep visibility into analytics related to the security of SaaS and cloud applications more generally. Moreover, Elastica stands to gain access to Cisco’s expansive channel of customers while Cisco benefits from the data science expertise that Elastica brings to the conversation regarding cloud security. Expect to hear more about Elastica as its partnership with Cisco deepens and fuels accelerated product innovation in collaboration with the needs of its evolving customer base.