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Cloud security startup FireLayers, which specializes in protecting applications running in cloud systems, knows that enterprises have to trust many—some might say too many—people that have access to files that are both sensitive and important.
The Redwood City, Calif.-based startup, which came out of stealth mode in February, wants to upgrade the way companies secure and manage their cloud applications. It does this by offering a unified security platform that protects companies’ cloud assets and ensures security and compliance across all cloud applications.
It also is connecting some important adjacent dots for enterprise IT managers with its new-gen cloud application gateway.
FireLayers Cloud App Control, released Sept. 17, is new-generational because it is the first to combine into a suite of applications functionality that includes IT governance, security and compliance for any user, CEO and co-founder Yair Gridlinger told eWEEK. These types of apps traditionally have been available only as point products.
Data governance, for one, is an important application that often is often overlooked or put on a shelf by enterprises due to expense, lack of staffing to handle such a non-daily production duty, and difficulty to implement. It comes included in the FireLayers package.
Additionally, the gateway and all its functionality is available for use with any cloud app and is accessible on any device, Gridlinger said.
FireLayers is XACML (eXtensible Access Control Markup Language)-based and protects against hackers, account hijacking, lack of visibility into corporate content-sharing, data leakage, unauthorized access from BYOD, unintentional risky user behavior and thousands of other risks from using cloud apps, Gridlinger said.
The platform can provide deep insight to more than 20 different cloud apps; in Salesforce for example, FireLayers can control more than 600 different operations, going far beyond the small number supported in its API [application programming interface], Gridlinger said.
“Cloud app providers like Salesforce, Google, Box, SuccessFactors and others deliver excellent user experiences, meet demanding performance SLAs, and secure data in their cloud,” Gridlinger said. “But their responsibility ends there, leaving a gap. FireLayers closes that gap by giving IT teams a centralized, proactive platform that can secure and control home-grown, custom and popular cloud apps down to the deep feature level.”
FireLayers enables IT to proactively protect the use of cloud applications via rule-based policies while ensuring that they maintain the required security and compliance levels. It protects cloud application usage from initial user identification to the safe retrieval of data and request fulfillment.
It also adds a layer of proactive protection and monitoring to any cloud application identifying all users, applications, and actions, Gridlinger said.
Key features of FireLayers Cloud App Control include:
–highly granular policy-based rule enforcement and deep auditing;
–the mature XACML standard to create and enforce policies while identifying any user interactions through the FireLayers platform in real time;
–enables “permit” or “deny” for individual sessions;
–allows the control of any command in any cloud app, including customized, home grown and popular apps; and
–integrates with best-of-breed cloud security tools (authentication, antivirus, antimalware, DLP, SIEM and others).
FireLayers is designed for companies ranging from about 500 users to those with multiple thousands of users. For more information, go here.