John Maddison, EVP of Products & Solutions, Fortinet

Tel Aviv, Israel-based Alcide has set itself apart from the competition by focusing on securing east-west lateral movement within Kubernetes, Maddison said. Companies need to protect their data flow, and while other Kubernetes tools focus on north-south activity, Maddison said Alcide's ability to secure lateral movement inside the workload is important as well.

Alcide is very small today, and has a long road ahead of them, Maddison said. But the company's focus on different types of data movement within Kubernetes containers provides Alcide with a niche that enables the company to grow its presence in the market.

Maddison said he's also keeping an eye on startups that address the security challenges around serverless computing as well as the API-based technology used to control native cloud instruments.