vArmour bags $44 million to secure data centers and protect critical apps across multi-clouds

The cloud computing technology has changed the way organizations buy, provision and deploy IT systems. Depending on the complexity, anyone with a credit card could go to Amazon Web Services and deploy an simple SaaS application in less than a week. However, cloud is not without its challenges. The underlying technology can be complex with so many moving parts. In the age of multi-clouds (public, hybrid or private) coupled with mobile applications and devices, it can be challenging to secure all the cloud services because of the increased in attack surface.

With businesses and government organizations moving to cloud, cloud security market is estimated to reach $13 billion by 2022. The need for cloud security has also given birth to a new generation of cybersecurity startups that leverage artificial intelligence to protect organizations’ critical assets. One of the leaders is vArmour, an API-driven cloud security startup company that secures data centers and protects critical apps across multi-clouds.

Today, vArmour announced it has raised $44 million Series E funding to provide security to cloud computing, hybrid deployments and other transformative computing models. The round was led by AllegisCyber and NightDragon, with participation from existing investors. Founded in 2011 by Michael Shieh and Roger Lian and a team of technology experts from Juniper, Netscreen, RSA and Silvertail, the Mountain View, California-based vArmour is helps hundreds of companies worldwide, using its Application Controller, to consistently and effectively apply security controls across hybrid clouds, reducing the attack surface and maintaining continuous compliance. vArmour’s top backers include: Highland Capital Partners, AllegisCyber, Redline Capital, Citi Ventures, and Telstra.

With the worldwide public cloud services market projected to grow 17.3 percent in 2019 (to total $206.2 billion), the new investments recognize the urgent need for security solutions that protect data and applications that are increasingly being sprawled across public and private cloud environments, especially for organizations in heavily regulated industries.

A core technology that powers its products and services, vArmour’s Conform addresses anxiety among security teams who are struggling with their organization’s rapid expansion to hybrid cloud. Conform bridges security and compliance policy requirements to public and private cloud. Without it, security and IT pros are left to the overwhelming task of reconciling diverse compliance rules to their disparate cloud environments, each with its own unique security controls and nuances. As a result, they are adopting vArmour for its elegant simplicity, reduced cost, and helping to achieve continuous compliance for their organization.

“Organizations are deploying multiple clouds for business agility and reduced cost, but the rapid adoption is making it a nightmare for security and IT pros to provide consistent security controls across cloud platforms,” said Bob Ackerman, Founder and Managing Director at AllegisCyber. “vArmour is already servicing this need with hundreds of customers, and we’re excited to help vArmour grow to the next stage of development.”

Founder of NightDragon, Dave DeWalt, adds, “From my experience, this is an important solution for the cloud security space. With security teams now having to manage a multitude of cloud estates and inundated with regulatory mandates, they need a simple solution that’s capable of continuous compliance. We haven’t seen anyone else do this as well as vArmour.”

vArmour’s solutions are based on significant IP built within its approach to application security, a method for identifying, securing and controlling workloads where data and processes are dispersed and traditional firewalls are ineffective. vArmour’s holistic approach includes auto-discovering hybrid cloud applications, computing infrastructure-independent communication policies, and measuring effective enforcement to reduce attack surface and maintain continuous compliance.

“Security and IT pros are having a difficult time maintaining consistent security policy across their private and public cloud environments, so we’ve designed Conform to help these teams manage the numerous compliance requirements they have to deal with,” said Tim Eades, CEO of vArmour. “By taming the cloud, vArmour brings peace of mind all the way to the board room, enabling further cloud adoption and aiding with regulatory compliance.”