As the mass exodus to cloud computing rages on, cloud security providers are starting to attract billion-dollar investments.

A cloud-native data-driven security platform has secured one of the largest venture funding rounds of the year in the USA.

Although DigiconAsia.net does not usually cover IT industry investment news, the achievement by Lacework to raise US$1.3bn in growth funding at a valuation of US$8.3bn will be an exception.

The founding thesis of Lacework is that cloud security is fundamentally a data problem. Solving this problem—brought on by the enormous scale, evolving technologies, adaptive infrastructure, and constant change of cloud environments—requires rethinking the traditional approach to security.

This is where the firm’s cloud security platform has unique selling propositions, in that it integrates security natively from code to run time, and it utilizes a data-first patented machine-learning engine that delivers “less noise, lower risk, and higher ROI”. This is supposed to empower customers with automation to see and understand cloud changes at scale without requiring manual intervention, leading to “safer innovation at higher velocity”.

Additionally, the firm recently announced technology that promises to enable organizations to integrate security practices earlier in their software delivery process. The company will also scale go-to-market strategies, growing the Lacework workforce and the company’s presence globally to improve service levels to customers. 

The ecosystem surrounding Lacework includes IaC, CI/CD, and workflow integrations such as Kubernetes, Terraform, and Jira, strong and growing alliances with partners like Snowflake, New Relic, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure and growing channel partnerships with companies including Presidio, EVOTEK, Guidepoint, GlobalDots, and Katana1.

Said David Hatfield and Jay Parikh, co-CEOs, Lacework: “Our growth over the last 36 months reflects the pain many businesses endure as they attempt to navigate the cloud using security products that simply aren’t designed for it. This investment, and the partnership of these long-term investors, will help us realize Lacework’s promise of becoming the most trusted cloud security platform.”