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VMware has announced plans to acquire Kubernetes security start-up Octarine and fold it into the Carbon Black business.
On Wednesday (13 May), VMware announced its plans to acquire Octarine, a Kubernetes security start-up that was founded in 2017. VMware plans to combine Octarine with Carbon Black, the security company it acquired last year in a deal worth $2.1bn.
VMware did not reveal how much it is purchasing Octarine for, but said that the start-up should fit in with Carbon Black’s “intrinsic security strategy” to protect content and applications in Kubernetes environments.
Octarine, which has bases in California and Tel Aviv, provides continuous security and compliance for the complete lifecycle of Kubernetes applications, with the aim of simplifying DevSecOps by encouraging developers to embed security into every part of the development process.
Octarine CEO Shemer Schwarz said that three years ago, his start-up set out on a path to provide “a different kind of security solution” that addresses the shift that native computing brings to both the technology stack and to organisational roles.
“DevSecOps is now becoming a mantra in many organisations – and for a good reason,” Schwarz said. “These paradigm shifts fuelled our imagination and innovation – lighting our path and defining our roadmap.
“While we are very proud of what we have accomplished so far, there is so much more we have planned in our roadmap. And we continue to expand our platform functionality in order to provide more value to our customers.”
The acquisition
Patrick Morley, general manager and senior vice-president of VMware’s security business unit, explained why the company decided to snap up Octarine. He said that developers are taking advantage of containers to modernise applications in the cloud and, as with any major technology adoption, “attackers are not far behind”.
“Protecting workloads is critical to the security of applications and data inside every organisation. Building Octarine’s innovation into the VMware security portfolio will present a major opportunity for our team to further simplify and improve security for our customers,” he said.
Morley added that the acquisition of Octarine, combined with native integrations with VMware vSphere, VMware NSX and VMware Cloud Foundation, creates a “unique and compelling solution to better secure workloads”.
“I’ve often heard: ‘security is fundamentally broken because it’s too complex.’ And increasingly, I’m hearing the request for container and Kubernetes support from our customers,” he said.
“Security clearly doesn’t need a new product; it needs a new approach and I’m proud to be leading the security charge for VMware by delivering on our strategy to make security intrinsic to the enterprise.”
