Lacework hires Facebook VP of engineering to advance cloud security platform

Lacework, developer of a data-driven cloud safety platform that has seen fast development available in the market, disclosed that Fb vp of engineering Arash Nikkar has joined the corporate.

Nikkar had beforehand been with Fb since 2013, and he began with Lacework final fall as the corporate’s vp of engineering. The rent was not introduced till at the moment.

In an interview, Nikkar stated he joined Lacework partly as a result of the safety business “feels prefer it’s at an inflection level — pushed by the elevated adoption of the general public cloud. The normal method to securing your footprint simply will now not suffice.”

And with an enormous quantity of room for development in cloud, “I’m actually excited to be part of that evolution and that transformation, and deal with it with Lacework,” Nikkar advised VentureBeat.

Parallels at Lacework

Earlier than becoming a member of Fb, Nikkar had spent 5 years at Hulu as its principal software program improvement lead.

Nikkar stated that whereas he hadn’t beforehand labored within the safety house, he noticed plenty of parallels at Lacework along with his experiences at Fb and Hulu.

Like these firms, Lacework is a fast-paced group that’s anchored in ideas resembling being “customer-first, data-driven, and extremely collaborative,” he stated.

There are additionally parallels between his previous experiences and the way in which Lacework is approaching cloud safety from a technical perspective, Nikkar stated.

“Each of them cope with super quantities of knowledge, and require constructing out real-time knowledge stream processing methods. Each require constructing out complicated, distributed methods. There’s a number of machine studying and AI and different kinds of statistical evaluation, in addition to constructing out this frequent shared infrastructure,” he stated. “So whereas the domains are clearly completely different than these I’ve labored with prior to now, there are many similarities within the underlying applied sciences.”

Polygraph

Central to Lacework’s platform is its Polygraph know-how, which collects and correlates huge quantities of knowledge, detects potential safety points, and prioritizes the most important threats for response. Key capabilities embody ML-powered anomaly detection and deep visibility throughout cloud and container workloads. Moreover, the platform reduces alerts to a median of 1.4 per day and false positives by 95%, in line with the corporate.

When it comes to know-how, Polygraph is “what caught my consideration essentially the most” at Lacework, Nikkar stated. The know-how contrasts with the standard mannequin the place a safety staff should continuously consider and rewrite guidelines for anomaly detection, he famous.

“Polygraph simply takes a a lot smarter method—the place you’ve constructed a baseline and also you’ve utilized machine studying to detect anomalies,” Nikkar stated. “And you’ll cowl way more breadth and several types of use circumstances.”

Based in 2015, Lacework ranks among the many best-funded and highest-valued privately held cybersecurity vendors, with the corporate most not too long ago elevating a $1.3 billion funding spherical in November that introduced a post-money valuation of $8.3 billion. Lacework was initially incubated at Sutter Hill Ventures, following a mannequin used to launch two different tech business success tales, Pure Storage and Snowflake.

Progress surge

Whereas Lacework doesn’t disclose particular metrics for its development, the corporate “has been rising at 3.5X, year-over-year, on most of those metrics,” Lacework co-CEO Jay Parikh stated in an interview. Prospects embody Snowflake and Pure Storage, in addition to VMware, Cloudera, Reynolds Shopper Merchandise, Nextdoor, and Brightcove .

With its sturdy development and up to date funding, “we’re scaling up what we are able to provide, investing in R&D, investing in our channel and associate program ecosystem build-out,” Parikh stated.

Earlier than coming to Lacework final July, Parikh had additionally beforehand labored at Fb—from late 2009 till February 2021—within the position of vp of engineering.

Nikkar is working below Parikh at Lacework, and he’s the primary main rent on the firm for the co-CEO.

When it comes to product improvement priorities trying forward, Lacework will proceed seeking to advance its platform and its patented Polygraph know-how, the executives stated.

Advancing the platform

Lacework is constructed atop the Snowflake knowledge platform and excels at gathering, processing, and normalizing knowledge—after which deriving insights for purchasers, in line with the executives. Lacework will proceed to have a look at growing the visibility and insights its platform can present across the knowledge being gathered from buyer environments, the executives stated.

“You’ll see us proceed to evolve by way of what kinds of insights we are able to present—as a result of now we have each the understanding of the developer surroundings in addition to what’s taking place in your precise runtime surroundings,” Parikh stated.

For instance, with the Apache Log4j vulnerability disclosed in December, Lacework brings the flexibility to each scan for the vulnerability—and detect which particular binaries have the unhealthy packages—whereas additionally exhibiting in manufacturing the place the flaw may be exploited, he stated.

“Some firms can simply do the scanning, however they will’t do the manufacturing evaluation,” Parikh stated. “We will do each, and it’s all on the identical platform.”

This makes Lacework stand out from different cloud safety gamers which might be providing level options, he stated.

“We basically deliver a unique method,” Parikh stated. “And we are able to innovate quicker and we are able to present a way more complete, end-to-end method—as a result of we’ve invested in constructing out this distinctive platform method.”

Constructing the staff

Together with persevering with to drive the event of larger visibility and insights for purchasers within the Lacework platform, Nikkar’s priorities on the firm will embody constructing out a “world-class” engineering staff, he stated.

This may embody hiring cybersecurity consultants who deliver deep information of the house, in addition to bringing aboard “individuals who don’t essentially have any expertise within the safety area,” Nikkar stated.

“We search for people who’re intellectually curious, desperate to be taught, and cozy coping with a ton of whitespace and ambiguous issues—and who’re genuinely unhappy with the established order,” he stated.

As a result of Lacework’s platform takes a “holistic” view throughout a buyer’s cloud footprint, having a staff that may deliver alternative ways of interested by huge issues is crucial, Nikkar stated.

“We’re constructing actually sturdy safety area experience, in addition to taking individuals who’ve solved issues inside completely different domains—however have a number of parallels to a number of what we’re doing right here in constructing these large-scale methods,” he stated.

Finally, Lacework is “constructing technical methods that folk have by no means constructed earlier than,” Nikkar stated.