2016 Security 100: 20 Coolest Web And Application Security Vendors

Coolest Web And Application Security Vendors

There's been a lot of talk in the security industry about the death of the perimeter, as protection technologies on the edge of the network have proven to be insufficient to fully stopping today's threats. With that, more and more companies have started to move protection and detection capabilities closer to where the data and traffic sits by embracing Web and application security technologies. Both legacy and emerging vendors have jumped to help customers and partners tackle this trend, offering Web and application security solutions that leverage the cloud, analytics and machine learning to improve a company's security posture. Take a look at 20 of the coolest Web and application security vendors on CRN's inaugural Security 100 list.

Akamai

Tom Leighton, CEO

Headquarters: Cambridge, Mass.

Users demand their websites and infrastructure be protected, but they don't want to sacrifice performance. That's where Akamai comes in, offering a range of security solutions for the Web and data center to prevent against Web application attacks and Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks.

AppRiver

Michael Murdoch, CEO

Headquarters: Gulf Breeze, Fla.

AppRiver provides born-in-the-cloud solutions for Web and email security, including spam and virus protection, Web protection, email encryption, migration services and more. The company has gained high praise for its channel program, which includes recurring revenue opportunities, support, training and free trials.

AppSense

Scott Arnold, CEO

Headquarters: Sunnyvale, Calif.

AppSense works to protect the endpoint and user experience at the desktop and application level with its User Environment Management portfolio. A renewed focus on the channel in recent months has led to significant double-digit sales growth for the company.

Bay Dynamics

Feris Rifai, Founder, CEO

Headquarters: San Francisco, New York

Bay Dynamics takes threat detection to the next level around applications and assets with analytics and machine learning. That additional security power can help provide the business intelligence companies need to combat insider threats, outside threats, attack surface threats and high-privilege-access threats, the company said.

Beyond Security

Aviram Jenik, CEO

Headquarters: Cupertino, Calif.

If a company wants to know if it has vulnerabilities in its applications, network or critical infrastructure, Beyond Security says it’s the one to call. The company offers testing solutions to find hidden vulnerabilities to help companies better secure their environments and meet regulatory standards.

Blue Coat Systems

Greg Clark, CEO

Headquarters: Sunnyvale, Calif.

Blue Coat Systems has been making big strides in the cloud security market, acquiring two cloud security companies in 2015. The company has a strong presence in the enterprise market, with 80 percent of the Fortune 500 as clients for its Web, network and cloud security solutions.

Cloudmark

George Riedel, CEO

Headquarters: San Francisco

Cloudmark serves the enterprise and service provider markets with its long-standing email security solutions. The company's Trident solution protects against targeted phishing attacks and its Authority offering is a broader solution to block spam, phishing and malware across email and messaging services.

Illumio

Andrew Rubin, Founder, CEO

Headquarters: Sunnyvale, Calif.

The network security model of the past isn't working. Illumio is looking to change that, with a solution that adapts to both data center and cloud environments, securing them by providing visibility and control over enterprise applications. The startup landed $100 million in funding last year, which it said it would put toward further developing its Adaptive Security Platform.

Ixia

Bethany Mayer, CEO

Headquarters: Calabasas, Calif.

Ixia offers a network application performance and security resilience software solution that helps companies maintain the efficiency and security of their physical and virtual networks. The company took the plunge into the channel more than a year ago, launching a partner program in 2015 and seeing strong partner growth.

Menlo Security

Amir Ben-Efraim, Co-Founder, CEO

Headquarters: Menlo Park, Calif.

Menlo Security emerged from stealth in June with $25 million in funding and a new take on email and Web security. The company's Isolation Platform works by isolating all Web and email content in the cloud before it reaches the endpoint, then preserving the user experience with mirroring.

Mimecast

Peter Bauer, Co-Founder, CEO

Headquarters (North America): Watertown, Mass.

Mimecast provides security, archiving and continuity subscription solutions for popular cloud applications such as Office 365, Microsoft Exchange and Google Apps for Work. It protects against email threats such as phishing, malware and spam. Mimecast announced its initial public offering in November.

Netskope

Sanjay Beri, Founder, CEO

Headquarters: Los Altos, Calif.

Netskope is in the emerging cloud access security brokerage market, helping companies gain visibility and control over cloud applications. The company expanded that offering in February, launching a threat protection solution for cloud applications. Its solutions appeal to a broad set of partners, including systems integrators, MSPs, VARs and cloud services brokers.

Palerra

Rohit Gupta, Founder, CEO

Headquarters: Santa Clara, Calif.

Palerra helps companies protect their data and infrastructure in the cloud. The company's LORIC platform helps enterprises automate the process of threat detection, incident response, analytics and more around cloud and SaaS offerings. Palerra landed $17 million in funding last April, money it said it would put toward growing its channel program.

Prevoty

Julien Bellanger, Co-Founder, CEO

Headquarters: Los Angeles

Named after a French official responsible for guardianship, Prevoty provides security software to help enterprises secure applications. Applications plug into the company's security engine, giving real-time visibility as the "eyes and ears" of the application at runtime and blocking unsafe content.

Proofpoint

Gary Steele, CEO

Headquarters: Sunnyvale, Calif.

Proofpoint is committed to developing a set of next-generation solutions to help customers address their threat protection, compliance, archiving, governance and secure communication needs. The company's cloud-based as-a-service offerings include email, social media, mobile, data security and more.

Skyhigh Networks

Rajiv Gupta, Co-Founder, CEO

Headquarters: Campbell, Calif.

Skyhigh Networks is another company positioned to reap the benefits of the exploding market for cloud access security brokers. Skyhigh helps companies securely and confidently move to the cloud, with visibility, threat detection and policy enforcement solutions.

Skyport Systems

Art Gilliland, CEO

Headquarters: Mountain View, Calif.

Skyport Systems works to lock down mission-critical IT and corporate assets with its HyperSecured Infrastructure solution, which ties together compute, security, virtualization and policy management to secure enterprise applications. The company has attracted top talent, naming former HP enterprise security senior vice president Art Gilliland as CEO last fall.

Twistlock

Ben Bernstein, Founder, CEO

Headquarters: San Francisco

Security is one of the greatest pain points facing enterprise adoption of container technologies. Twistlock looks to solve that problem, with a solution that allows enterprises to monitor and secure static and runtime container application activity and protect cloud and on-premise containers. It landed $2.5 million in funding in 2015.

Waratek

Brian Maccaba, CEO

Headquarters: Dublin, Ireland

Watatek was the winner of 2015's prestigious RSA Conference Innovation Sandbox competition. The company took home the prize for its AppSecurity for Java offering, which looks to provide large enterprises and institutions with runtime application protection using secure container technology in on-premise or cloud environments.

Zscaler

Jay Chaudhry, Founder, CEO

Headquarters: San Jose, Calif.

2015 was a big year for Zscaler, which landed $100 million in funding and saw strong growth of its Internet security solutions. Born in the cloud, the company offers a cloud-based firewall proxy architecture that acts as a single virtual proxy to the Web. This security-as-a-service approach helps drive better Web, application, cloud and mobile security for customers.