Software containers are becoming a major part of application development due to their ability to divide applications and place them on various physical and virtual machines. Containers offers flexibility, easier workload management, and aids developers in moving essential code/library tools and updating apps for rapid pace of deployment through DevOps infrastructures such as Docker. However, developers can run into security issues such as numerous items to track in a container, different Linux releases, and the need for constant supervision as containers are continuously updating. Cool Startup: Aqua Security

Aqua Security aims to provide an advanced security layer for software container environments. They are an Israeli cybersecurity company founded in late 2015, and launched its platform for general availability in May 2016. Aqua Security’s solution works to secure the runtime environment of software containers in a single continuum.

The Aqua Container Security Platform is the management console that provides development-to-production container lifecycle protection by integrating with registries where images are pulled from, Active Directory and LDAP for user authentication and identity management, and with continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) tools for management throughout the lifecycle. On the backend, the console integrates with SIEM solutions so event logs can be pulled into a central console. The Aqua Console also manages the Aqua Agents, which are privileged containers that get installed on the hosts that are to be protected. One agent gets installed for every container engine. The Aqua container forces policy onto other containers and reports back to the console on all the activity.

Aqua Security also provides service that complements both products with a threat intelligence feed in the cloud dubbed Container Cyber Intelligence that provides the product with information such as malicious IPs that should be blocked. Aqua implements that research into its automated policy for up to date protection.

On Sept 27, they have raised $9 million in new Series A funding, led by Microsoft Ventures. Cybersecurity entrepreneur and investor Shlomo Kramer will be joining the company’s Board of Directors. Aqua Security’s seed investors TLV Partners and Kramer also participated in this round of funding, bringing Aqua’s total investment to date to $13.5 million overall.

Company Background

• Company: Aqua Security
• Started: 2015
• Headquarters: San Francisco, CA and Ramat Gan, Israel
• VC Raised: $13.5 M in 2 Rounds from 3 Invstors
• Executives: Amir Jerbu (CTO & Co-Founder) and David Dror Davidoff (CEO & Co-Founder)
• Employee Count: 11 – 50
• Product: Cloud Security – Virtual Container Environments
• Customers: Hewlett-Packard, Fortune

Feature Set

• Image assurance that includes both passive as well as active scanning
• Fine-grained, role-based user access control that limits user access and type of access to specific containers, hosts, and applications
• Full visibility, monitoring and audit trail for container activity, user access and host configuration changes
• Automated security policies that provide an optimal security wrapper for containers and does not require manual intervention
• Runtime protection that includes both real-time detection as well as prevention when container behavior breaks policy
• Integrations with a variety of image registries, CI/CD tools, SIEM and analytics tools