Netskope aims to rein in shadow cloud apps
Netskope, a cloud app analytics and policy startup, emerged from stealth mode with $21 million in funding, 50 employees and a series of customers.
The company specializes in software that identifies all the cloud applications inside an enterprise whether authorized or not. Netskope's findings and analytics are then used by companies to enforce policies.
Netskope is planning to showcase its wares at the Gartner Symposium and ITXpo in Orlando next week. The company, which was funded by the Social+Capital Partnership and Lightspeed Venture Partners, is likely to find a market among CIOs looking to at least control shadow cloud applications. Netskope's software tracks cloud app usage and what users do whether they are downloading content or sharing it and with whom.
According to Netskope, the general idea is to allow employees to use their favorite cloud applications, but allow enterprises to optimize usage in a secure way. The company has put together a database of 2,600 cloud apps rated on 30 areas ranging from security to audits to disaster recovery to fuel a "Cloud Confidence Index," which is designed to rank enterprise readiness.
To that end, Netskope delivered a cloud confidence report and ranked the applications it deems most enterprise ready. Software development, marketing and productivity score the bottom on cloud confidence because they lack compliance certifications, encryption at rest and password enforcement.
Netskope said its services are available now with subscription pricing based on per user per year.