In this
Q&A, VMblog connected with industry expert and serial entrepreneur, Brendan
Hannigan, CEO and co-founder of Sonrai Security, to learn more about Sonrai's
expansion into Cloud Workload Protection.
Sonrai Security offers a security platform that helps companies govern
and secure public clouds like AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. Sonrai has large enterprise customers such as
Fortune 100 company World Fuel Services, has garnered $88M in funding and
tripled its business last year.
VMblog: You recently announced expansion
into Cloud Workload Protection (CWPP). Could you tell us a bit about entering
the space and the vision for the product?
Brendan Hannigan: Of course. Our goal is to
unearth, prioritize and eliminate risks across every part of a customer's
public cloud. We aim to eliminate risks
across all silos. By adding workload
security to Sonrai Dig, we now help companies eliminate workload risks. Integration with the rest of our solution is
very special. Our platform instantly
links any host vulnerabilities found into our identity graph and to highlight
those vulnerabilities that have a path to access sensitive data or privileges.
Customers love that.
VMblog: We last spoke with you in July 2020
for the launch of Sonrai's Governance Automation Engine within its Sonrai Dig
platform. Can you remind us a little more about the platform?
Hannigan: Sure. Powered by a patented
cloud identity graph, Sonrai combines workload, platform, identity, and data
security in one platform. This approach
means Sonrai finds and eliminates risks that others miss entirely. Our graph instantly prioritizes items that
need immediate attention and bots automate remediation.
VMblog: What new capabilities are featured
in the new workload security capability that were not previously available to
clients?
Hannigan: New capabilities include the
ability to drill down on specific vulnerabilities to fully understand their
‘blast radius'. New ‘Risk Amplifiers' uncovered by the Sonrai identity graph
prioritize vulnerabilities with access to critical data, that grant access to
high privileges or those exposed externally.
Our workload security also provides extensive ability to uncover PII and
other host based risks. This
announcement expands on Sonrai Dig's existing strengths in identity, platform,
and data security.
VMblog: Why is CWPP needed in the
enterprise and broader cloud security industry?
Hannigan: Traditional security products
are pretty crappy when applied to the cloud because of the dynamic nature or
cloud workloads and micro services applications. Workload Security (what some call CWPP)
enables enterprises to identify, prioritize and eliminate workload risks (e.g.
vulnerabilities) in public clouds.
However, we believe this function must be integrated into a broader
cloud security platform which is what Sonrai offers.
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Brendan Hannigan is an accomplished CEO, general manager and serial entrepreneur. Brendan is CEO and co-founder of Sonrai Security and Chairman of Twistlock. As a partner at Polaris Partners, Brendan helps fund and find security, cloud and SaaS companies. Brendan also serves on the board of Flashpoint and Tausight.