SAN JOSE, Calif. — Aug. 12, 2020 — Elisity, Inc., the pioneer of combined zero-trust networking and software-defined perimeter, emerged from stealth mode today to reveal the details of the company’s modern approach to enterprise data security in a world transformed by cloud, mobility and connected devices. With Elisity Cognitive Trust™, the company redefines security and introduces a new security paradigm that combines Zero Trust Network Access and Software-Defined Perimeter where identity is the new perimeter. This approach enables teams to support digital transformation and workforce mobility, reducing costs, simplifying management and delivering powerful secure network security services to customers. The company also today announced its vision for modern security.
According to Gartner, “Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) augments traditional VPN technologies for application access, and removes the excessive trust once required to allow employees and partners to connect and collaborate. Security and risk management leaders should pilot ZTNA projects as part of a secure access service edge (SASE) strategy or to rapidly expand remote access.”[1] Gartner analysts explain, “The new model — zero trust networking — presents an approach that abstracts and centralizes the access mechanisms, so that the security engineers and staff can be responsible for them. ZTNA starts with a default deny posture of zero trust. It grants access based on the identity of the humans and their devices, plus other attributes and context (such as time/date, geolocation and device posture), and adaptively offers the appropriate trust required at the time. The result is a more resilient environment, with improved flexibility and better monitoring. ZTNA will appeal to organizations looking for more-flexible and responsive ways to connect and collaborate with their digital business ecosystems, remote workers and partners.”[2]
With its combined Zero Trust Access and a Software-Defined Perimeter with AI, Elisity Cognitive Trust fits the ZTNA model by providing secure digital business transformation and anywhere, anytime access to apps and services. AI is built into Elisity Cognitive Trust and trust is never static — the built-in AI engine monitors flows, tracks and analyzes user behavior and makes access recommendations based on this behavior. It is not just a VPN replacement but rather a platform that helps an organization transition to zero trust across their entire digital footprint including campus, branch, remote access and cloud.
Elisity Cognitive Trust discovers all the organization assets regardless of their digital footprint, it also builds an encrypted e-mesh overlay between the cloud control/policy/AI platform, Elisity Cloud Control Center, and the on prem, virtual private cloud, datacenter server, Elisity Edge. Any device or app is connected to this mesh only if it is configured with a policy and all the policies are centrally managed in the cloud. Access is never taken for granted and is continuously monitored for risk, health and behavior.
Elisity e-mesh is a software-defined, application-centric virtual network that runs on top of existing IP/MPLS transport network/infrastructure. Elisity Cognitive Trust removes the need for VPN with its data protection and access protection capabilities and decouples application access from underlying network access. The network is inherently assumed to be untrustworthy. Similar to a traditional VPN, services brought within the Elisity environment are no longer visible on the public internet and therefore are shielded from attackers.
“Elisity Cognitive Trust enables digital business transformation scenarios that are ill-suited to legacy access approaches. As a result of digital transformation efforts, most enterprises will have more applications, services, and data outside their enterprises than inside. Elisity Cognitive Trust places the security controls where the users and applications are — in the cloud. Organizations can now connect and secure their access in campus, branch and remote offices to their applications in the cloud, multi-cloud or data center environments,” said Sundher Narayan, Chief Architect at Elisity. “We are bringing significant benefits in user experience, agility, adaptability, and ease of policy management and, for cloud-based Elisity Edge deployments, scalability and ease of adoption are additional benefits.”
“Legacy network security solutions do not address the dynamic secure access requirements of today’s digital businesses,” said Shamus McGillicuddy, vice president of research at Enterprise Management Associates. “Elisity offers a new and modern approach to protecting business-critical applications and data, in the cloud or on-premises. Its technology is designed to stop lateral movement, DDoS attacks, and insider threats.”
“When we think about perimeter today, we have to consider the many aspects of identity. A remote workforce, on many devices and accessing multi-clouds means we have to rethink identity and access and how to authorize access,” said Lee Doyle at Doyle Research. “With the introduction of Elisity Cognitive Trust and the approach with identity as the new perimeter, organizations can better protect their intellectual property.”
“Security is complex, and we are always after the latest, modern approaches to securing our customers’ assets,” said John Cavanaugh, CTO at NetCraftsmen. “We look forward to continuing to evaluate and pilot innovative strategies like Elisity’s new Cognitive Trust platform as companies continue to move to multi-cloud, ongoing remote access, and connected devices.”
Founded in 2018, the company closed a $7.5M seed round of funding that year led by Atlantic Bridge. With its seed round, Elisity has been scaling its engineering, sales and marketing teams to ramp up ahead of the company’s launch. Brian Long, managing partner at Atlantic Bridge; Joe Pinto, chief customer experience officer at Pure Storage; and Ayman Sayed chief executive officer at BMC Software joined Elisity’s board of directors to guide the company through rapid growth.
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Elisity is solving the challenge of securing access to enterprise assets and enterprise data in the complex modern world of blurring enterprise boundaries and mobile workforces. Elisity has introduced a unified policy and identity-based access solutions powered by AI. The Elisity team is made up of experienced entrepreneurs with deep technical backgrounds in enterprise networking and security with the world’s largest and most security-conscious organizations. Atlantic Bridge is the lead investor in the company. Advisors include security and networking luminaries, including Greg Akers (former SVP at Cisco), Praveen Akkiraju (Softbank Ventures), Woody Sessoms (former SVP at Cisco), and Jeff Tantsura (Internet Architecture Board). Learn more at www.elisity.com.
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[1] “Market Guide for Zero Trust Network Access,” Published 8 June 2020 and revised 16 June 2020 by Steve Riley, Neil MacDonald, and Lawrence Orans
[2] “Market Guide for Zero Trust Network Access,” Published 8 June 2020 and revised 16 June 2020 by Steve Riley, Neil MacDonald, and Lawrence Orans