Software giant VMware has said it plans to acquire specialist Kubernetes company Octarine, a deal at the core of VMware’s drive to become a major security provider.
Following the firm’s decision to snap up Carbon Black seven months ago, VMware is hoping to integrate Octarine’s security platform for Kubernetes applications into its broader security services.
The company’s technology helps simplify DevSecOps and enables cloud-native environments to be more secure from development through runtime, according to Carbon Black’s CEO Patrick Morley.
“The unique properties of the cloud (speed, agility, scale) mean that developers are increasingly using containers to modernize applications. As with any major technology adoption, attackers are not far behind, looking to take advantage of new risk areas,” he said.
“Protecting workloads is critical to the security of applications and data inside every organization. Building Octarine’s innovation into the VMware security portfolio will present a major opportunity for our team to further simplify and improve security for our customers.”
The move is seen as a leap forward for VMware, which has launched a significant push into the security market through investments and acquisitions.
The acquisition allows VMware to enhance its security tools for containers and Kubernetes environments by embedding Octarine technology into the VMware Carbon Black Cloud, as well as the VMware Tanzu platform. Tanzu is a centralised management platform for operating and securing Kubernetes infrastructure and applications across various teams and cloud environments.
The integration of Octarine’s Kubernetes platform will allow VMware customers to mitigate risks by providing visibility into cloud-native environments, and provide runtime monitoring and control of workloads across hybrid clouds, among other benefits.
“Three years ago we set out on a path to provide a different kind of security solution, one that addresses the profound shift that cloud native computing brings both to the technology stack and to organizational roles,” said Octarine CEO Shemer Schwarz.
“While we are very proud of what we have accomplished so far, there is so much more we have planned in our roadmap. And we continue to expand our platform functionality in order to provide more value to our customers.”