Sysdig eyes up DevOps security capabilities through Apolicy acquisition

DevOps firm Sysdig has plans to add infrastructure as code (IaC) security to its capabilities and further secure the DevOps process, and it's looking to cloud-native application development firm Apolicy to make it a reality.

Sysdig has announced its intent to acquire Apolicy for an undisclosed amount, citing complementary strengths in cloud and Kubernetes security with policy as code, auto-remediation of drift, and faster issue resolution with risk-based prioritisation.

The company states, "Adopting IaC principles for building infrastructure can improve reliability by improving consistency and reducing human error. Checking for security as configurations are defined 'shifts security further left', allowing teams to identify and resolve issues before infrastructure is deployed.

The Apolicy capabilities will support the Sysdig Secure DevOps Platform, which secures containers, Kubernetes, and public cloud infrastructure

Sysdig chief executive officer Suresh Vasudevan says that most breaches result from configuration errors and customers are seeking a platform that can spot these errors before reaching the deployment stage.

"With Apolicy, Sysdig delivers a secure DevOps workflow for infrastructure and workloads and automatically closes the loop from production to source by fixing issues identified at runtime.

Sysdig says that customers can expect to see:

• Apolicy provides the ability to apply consistent policies and best practices across multiple IaC, cloud and Kubernetes environments. Customers can now bridge the gap between developers, DevOps and security teams with a unified view of security requirements using policy as code. Automating compliance by enforcing OPA-based policies via Kubernetes admission controller puts the control back in the hands of the user.
• With the addition of Apolicy, customers can now detect runtime drift and map it back to the IaC configuration (source) file, enabling auto-remediation of the IaC configuration source with a pull request allows for enforcing policy consistently across teams.
• Consolidating alerts by identifying the production instances that are affected by the IaC error and prioritizing IaC fixes based on the application context, allows users to prioritize remediation efforts. Rich application context makes it easy to identify owners who can fix misconfigurations.

Apolicy chief executive officer Maor Goldberg says Apolicy was founded with the purpose of security Kubernetes from source to production.

"We are excited to join forces with Sysdig and combine the best security capabilities in the market for cloud and containers together with our infrastructure and posture security. Together we will bring customers one end-to-end cloud-native security platform that is built on open source.

StageOne Ventures managing partner Tal Slobodkin adds, "We were very excited to be the first to support Maor and the Apolicy team in late 2019 as they set out to disrupt the cloud-native application protection space. We are equally excited today to see the next step in Apolicy's evolution as it combines with Sysdig, and look forward to the future success of the combined company.