Lacework expands into ANZ, eyes APAC market
DevSecOps supplier Lacework’s expansion into Australia and New Zealand will pave the way for a broader move into the Asia-Pacific region
DevSecOps supplier Lacework has expanded into Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), following nine quarters of sequential revenue growth and a massive Series D funding round earlier in the year.
In January 2021, the company raised $525m from Sutter Hill Ventures and other top-tier investors to support its next phase of growth. Its cloud-based security platform collects a variety of data, including configuration and log data, from hyperscale cloud infrastructures, and applies machine learning algorithms to detect security vulnerabilities and anomalies that need to be addressed.
Lacework has hired industry veteran Graham Pearson, formerly from AT&T and Okta, to lead its ANZ business, which has grown to 23 people since June 2021. Its move into the market comes at a time when ANZ is facing a significant digital skills gap which companies are trying to plug with security automation.
“Lacework has changed the game when it comes to security,” said Pearson, vice-president and general manager at Lacework ANZ. “What sets our platform apart is the thesis that security is, at its heart, a data problem.
“By focusing first on what is normal rather than establishing rules, our customers can consolidate many bespoke tools into fewer alerts, simplify management and automate security policy. It is easier, smarter, comes with zero implementation cost and requires minimal people to run it,” he added.
Built natively on top of Snowflake, a cloud-based data warehouse, Lacework can integrate with DevSecOps processes and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, enabling developers to remediate issues, such as stopping a problematic build or closing an Amazon S3 storage bucket, for example.
Lacework’s chief product officer and former CEO, Dan Hubbard, told Computer Weekly’s sister site, SearchITOperations.com, earlier this year that with the ability to ingest other data sources, the company has also seen interest from customers who are looking to use its platform as a security information and event management (SIEM) system or want to reduce their SIEM spending.
Read more about cloud and cyber security in ANZ
- Australia’s public cloud market is dotted with global and domestic players, with maturing adoption across public and private sectors.
- Flybuys takes 12-month journey towards the cloud, slashing time to deliver customised offers to less than 45 minutes, among other outcomes.
- Australia is playing to its strengths in niche areas such as governance and deep tech to punch above its weight in the cyber security industry.
- Australia’s latest cyber security strategy includes centralised management of networks and a voluntary code of practice for deploying internet-connected devices, among other areas.
Lacework plans to hire additional staff in 2022, and the ANZ team will serve as a launchpad for further growth across Asia-Pacific over the next 12 to 18 months.
“We have hired a strong local team and hope to continue to attract the best IT talent in our region to support our growth plans,” said Pearson.
Lacework expects to grow its ANZ business through four revenue streams – direct business, resellers, and managed security services, as well as global and local partners including Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Katana1 and CTRL Group.
According to IDC, spending on security hardware, services and software in Asia-Pacific is expected to reach $23.1bn in 2021 – an increase of 12.6% over the previous year, thanks to growing cloud adoption, digital transformation projects and remote work arrangements.
Australia is one of the top three cyber security spenders in the region due to the presence of a large number of businesses catering to domestic and international customers. It is also one of the most mature cloud markets in the world, with major cloud suppliers having established cloud regions in the country.
