Management and protection of hundreds of thousands of devices in seconds: Enterprise security

Tanium, a start-up that provides real-time, convenient security and system management for corporate networks, has received $90 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a partner at a16z, a former head of Microsoft's Windows Department, Stephen Sinofsky will join the Tanium board.

Tanium is a start-up enterprise that provides endpoint security and enterprise network management, founded in 2007 and is the founder of the Orion Hindawi father and son.

Traditional Systems management or security solutions are often multi-tier scenarios, that is, from the endpoint to the management center often need to go through the Relay/collection server, so often need to install the client software at the endpoint device, and in a large number of terminals in the case of information collection often need hours or days, timeliness is not high, maintenance is not convenient.

The Tanium solution is to have the client communicate directly with the server. The company's website does not introduce the specific implementation of the scheme, but from the following diagram can be seen, its network looks like the use of Peer-to-peer technology, in addition to direct client-server connection, there is communication between the client. The user can manage the devices on the network through the browser and ensure security. According to the website introduction, using the Tanium solution, the network administrator can master hundreds of thousands of devices in a few seconds, and can make the change in the same time. All network nodes can be queried, managed, updated, protected, and in the browser near real-time (about 15 seconds).

Because the Tanium solution is real-time and convenient, this combination of security and system monitoring solutions may pose a threat to traditional enterprise software providers, which used to be the domain of IBM, CA Symantec, and so on, but those solutions often need to install clients, And it does not have the advantage of timeliness and convenience.

Tanium is now starting to make a profit. Although Hindawi refused to disclose the company's number of customers, he said that some large credit card companies, banks and U.S. government agencies are using the company's products.

The investment in Tanium is a16z's second-largest investment in the company's history (the first big investment was the $100 million investment in GitHub in 2012). Sinofsky explains that a16z likes to look for ways to improve the satisfaction of specific it needs through software, or to reinvent or redefine traditional categories, and Tanium both. Insiders said a16z to Tanium's valuation of 900 million U.S. dollars. The financing is also the first financing in TANIUM7 years.