She is smart, self-reliant, small-in-stature and can run anywhere. She is the quick and nimble little sister of virtualization technology and has stolen the hearts of many in the cloud-computing set. In 2013, she was introduced to the world as containerization and has been solving the problem that is virtual machine sprawl since then.
While containerized applications bring many benefits, securing them requires a different approach and McAfee will soon be able to help IT teams do just that. In a recent press release, the cybersecurity firm announced they would be acquiring NanoSec, the makers of a container-based security system. As specialists in safeguarding software written for containers and Kubernetes environments, NanoSec gives their clients the ability to detect and prevent threats at the applications level.
“NanoSec’s technology is a natural extension for McAfee MVISION Cloud, enhancing our current CASB and CWPP products, and adding to our ‘Shift-Left’ capabilities to deliver on the DevSecOps best practice to improve governance and security,” said Rajiv Gupta, SVP and GM of McAfee’s cloud security business unit.
Once owned by Intel, McAfee was spun-out after a 49 percent – 51 percent ownership deal was struck between its parent company and private investment firm TPG in 2017. While business was good under Intel’s ownership, the company was eager to embrace their independence.
McAfee CTO Steve Grobman said the company could be more responsive to market demands now that they were on their own. “The product strategy doesn’t change, but we will be more agile and have the ability to execute faster from organic development,” he said in a 2017 interview. “The way you run a semiconductor company is different than what’s needed in cybersecurity.”
The company has shifted focus since their split from Intel, building towards becoming an industry leader in cloud-based services and augmenting their cybersecurity offerings. McAfee acquired Skyhigh Networks, a provider of cloud cybersecurity, in late 2017. They also closed a deal for Canadian-based Tunnelbear, a two-switch VPN service, in 2018.
NanoSec was founded by Vishwas Manral in 2015. Based in Cupertino, California, the firm focused on building a security solution that protects data center and cloud traffic. The software is designed to work across multiple computing and containerized environments – on any infrastructure, at any scale.
“Joining forces with McAfee means that our groundbreaking capabilities including our unique application-identity based approach for app-level protection and micro-segmentation will be available on a global scale,” said Vishwas Manral, founder and CEO of NanoSec. “McAfee has demonstrated not only its leadership in cloud security, but its desire to continually innovate and deliver new capabilities that reshape how organizations can operate workloads and applications safely in the cloud. It felt like a natural fit to join McAfee to deliver to application development and security professionals’ greater visibility and control over detecting, responding and resolving threats to reduce risk.”
