Understanding the security of both enterprise- and cloud-based data is critical to managing risk. That’s where Gurucul’s new Hybrid Behavior Analytics (HBA) technology is aiming to help, providing visibility and analytics across both cloud and enterprise assets.
In the market today many User Behavior Analytics (UBA) vendors are focused on the enterprise side of data, while Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) technology vendors tend to focus just on the cloud applications, according to Saryu Nayyar, CEO of Gurucul.
“With HBA, we’re trying to combine the two worlds of UBA and CASB to provide one view into where risks are,” Nayyar told eWEEK.
Gurucul’s core platform is called Gurucul Risk Analytics, which includes threat, access and cloud analytics technologies. The HBA architecture makes use of both UBA and identity access intelligence (IAI). Nayyar said Gurucul makes use of different big data engines, including Hadoop. On top of that, the HBA architecture uses Gurucul’s proprietary data sciences capabilities to provide advanced intelligence. Gurucul has filed for a patent on its hybrid analytics capabilities, Nayyar added.
CASB vendors have been making headway in recent years by offering the promise of cloud visibility for enterprise usage. Gurucul is different in that it is aiming to provide an overall identity context for user behavior, not just cloud behavior, according to Nayyar.
Gurucul uses link analysis to build user activity profiles, she said. Link analysis is not a new approach as it has its roots in technology that Nayyar was involved with at Vaau (which was focused on identity and access management, according to Nayyar). Sun Microsystems (now Oracle) acquired Vaau in 2008, and Oracle now sells Vaau’s product under the name Oracle Identity Analytics.
“We’re very passionate about the power of an identity, and we wanted to extend that with our venture at Gurucul,” Nayyar said.
With Gurucul, the identity context is combined with machine learning algorithms to give more detail insight into risk, she said. The name “Gurucul” is the combination of two words: guru (which means “expert”) and cul (which means “group”). “It’s a team of experts that makes our product and our customers successful,” Nayyar said.
Looking forward, Nayyar said the plan for Gurucul is to continue to innovate in the machine learning space to improve analysis.
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eWEEK and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.
