The Israeli company democratizing enterprise security

Post-Covid employers are looking to bring people back into the office, while employees are looking for more flexibility and mobility with regard to hybrid models. Companies want to provide the same security to their employees wherever they are, despite the fact that remote connectivity is not always as secure as enterprise-based networks. To solve that problem, Israeli startup Perimeter 81 came up with a unique solution. The cloud and network security company develops software to enable secure remote networks for organizations, who in the past have relied on complex security appliances like VPNs and firewalls. Amit Bareket, who serves as CEO co-founded the company with Sagi Gidali, who serves as CPO. Currently, the company has 1,700 businesses that use its platform to provide a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) service over the internet. SASE software solutions enable organizations to connect to a single secure cloud network as a service where they can gain access to on-premise and cloud resources.

“Resources are moving to the cloud and employees are working from home,” Bareket told CTech in an interview. “The internet is the new corporate network, and it doesn't make sense to continue and maintain the legacy hardware based infrastructure.” While previously companies had their own premises or offices which functioned as their corporate network, complete with a firewall that acted as a gatekeeper for their organization's network - that has now all changed.

“Today, with fast internet and software as a service solutions (SaaS) like Perimeter 81, enterprise-grade network security solutions are available to companies of any size - whether their employees are inside or outside an office.”

On the edge

The company’s idea was to build a user-centric security model that could be delivered and managed using cloud-edge computing, meaning with cloud services that are delivered locally. “If you’re in Israel, for example, you’d work with a cloud data center that’s in Israel, since you need reduced latencies and to cut down on bandwidth to enable a better connection. We work with 40 different data centers all over the world, where we buy the equipment and ship it to data centers. In Israel, for example, we go through Bezeq, which hosts our servers in their local data centers in Petach Tikva,” he said.

Perimeter 81’s software is being delivered as a service, instead of consuming security directly from a firewall that works exclusively on an organization’s premises. “Our new model works wherever employees are, who are now looking for increasing mobility, security, and flexibility,” he said. Currently, there is no good security model that allows enterprises to protect those who work remotely.

User friendly

Perimeter 81’s solution is easy to use and install. “It can unite all of an enterprise’s security needs, and be controlled from a single management platform. It’s also more accessible,” he said. Today, companies need to purchase firewalls directly from security distributors which can take time and be cumbersome. “With our solution, customers can simply go to our website and build a security system in minutes. We call it democratizing security.”

The fact that security is moving from on-premises firewalls to a software-based solution that is easy to consume makes cybersecurity solutions accessible to almost anyone, he said.

It seems as if today, the market needs more SASE options, which can be directly delivered from the cloud, and can be adapted to what a specific customer needs. “This could provide solutions for both today’s and tomorrow’s needs,” he said.

In the past, companies have needed to compromise on security to enable productivity, but now that is becoming a non-issue. However, any type of system is still at risk of rampant ransomware attacks. Bareket noted that Perimeter 81’s technology does include anti-virus protection, and the ability to create a secure network and segment it for different employees, which makes it better protected against ransomware.

Some of Perimeter 81’s customers include Postman Inc. (owned by Facebook), Kustomer, Aqua Security, Whiskey Auctioneer, Pollinate, and TrustPilot. So far, the company has raised a total of $65.8 million, after completing a Series B round. Currently, it is looking to continue growing but doesn’t have an IPO date set in stone yet.

“We need a lot of investments to enable us to compete in this sector, but we have been very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.”

As for the IPO? “We’re dreaming about that.”