RedLock Raises $12M, Intros A New Cloud Security Solution To The Channel

RedLock on Tuesday announced a 100 percent channel strategy and a cloud security solution that looks to provide visibility, monitoring, and control over public cloud infrastructure.

The company has also raised a $12 million Series A funding round, led by Sierra Ventures and Storm Ventures.

RedLock was created by CEO Varun Badhwar, a co-founder of cloud access security brokerage company, CipherCloud. The company's RedLock Cloud 360 platform offers a new way for companies to see what is inside of their cloud infrastructure, providing a common control point for workload discovery, continuous monitoring, and cloud forensics. Companies can use the solution to detect anomalies, do risk scoring, compliance reporting, and view and set security controls.

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The startup, based in Menlo Park, Calif., has already seen traction for its solution. RedLock was a finalist in this year's RSA Innovation Sandbox startup contest.

In an interview with CRN, Badhwar said that the early interest in RedLock signals growing security concerns as more customers move to the cloud. "Our technology, for the first time, allows organizations to get a complete and true picture of their usage and risk associated with public cloud infrastructure," Badhwar said.

The solution gathers data from 50 to 100 different API sources, Badhwar said, ingesting the raw data on configurations, network traffic, and developer and user activity and enriching it with its own threat feeds and machine learning. From there, RedLock creates a product risk map, where customers can get a visual depiction of their environments, including workloads deployed, changes being made, and more.

Robi Papp, managing partner at San Francisco, Calif.-based AvantGarde Partners, said security is one of the biggest concerns for customers moving to the cloud. He said the visibility and visualization of cloud environments that RedLock provides helps customers feel more comfortable and secure with their move to the cloud, as well as meet contractual obligations around cloud security.

"It’s a very powerful proof-of-concept and [provides] immediate value when customers see it," Papp said. "A lot of companies, especially the older organizations moving to the cloud, they have security organizations that they need to maintain. That's been missing in AWS and Azure. They are used to having a certain level of security and a certain framework. What RedLock does is allow them to feel more comfortable when they move to the cloud."

"The cloud is here to stay," he said. "We look at it as a growth opportunity. We don't want to sell network equipment or storage. Since our clients have concerns around security, especially in the cloud, it's an area we want to concentrate on."

RedLock is coming to market with a 100-percent channel strategy. Badhwar said the company has already signed up a handful of partners, who have already sourced and closed deals. He said RedLock would launch an official channel program shortly. Badhwar said RedLock is focused on recruiting regional security VARs, though will also look to add some cloud implementation partners and managed service providers.

That focus on the channel is important, AvantGarde's Papp said. "I like when they are 100 percent channel. It just shows that there's not potential conflict."

While some of RedLock's new funding will go towards product investments, Badhwar said the focus of the funding would be on building out the company's go-to-market through the channel. That includes enhancing the product so it is zero-touch, making the company easier to work with for partners, and raising the awareness of the importance of the company's technology.

"I think a lot of this awareness around the problem and the extent of the problem, most importantly. Then, we will be building the machine that can go fulfill that demand that will hopefully come very soon with the launch," Badhwar said.