IBM partners will benefit from the company’s just-announced acquisition of Polar Security. It helps companies discover, continuously monitor and secure cloud and SaaS application data, and addresses the growing shadow data problem.

That’s according to Eric Maass, director of data security product management at IBM Security. Polar Security marks IBM’s fifth acquisition in 2023. Since Arvind Krishna became CEO in April 2020, IBM has acquired more than 30 companies, bolstering its hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.

Founded in January 2021, Polar Security is a pioneer of data security posture management (DSPM). That’s an emerging cybersecurity segment that reveals where sensitive data is stored, who has access to it, how it’s used, and identifies vulnerabilities with the underlying security posture, including with policies, configurations or data usage.

IBM plans to integrate Polar Security’s DSPM technology within its Guardium family of data security products.

IBM Partners Can Meet ‘Huge’ Demand for Visibility, Control

IBM’s Eric Maass

“After Polar’s DSPM technology is integrated and made available within IBM’s data security portfolio, our plan is to offer resale of IBM Guardium products with Polar capabilities through our existing partner channels,” Maass said. “This additional DPSM capability will be a great opportunity for IBM channel partners as it offers an easy-to-deploy solution meeting a huge demand that customers are seeking — visibility and control over data across cloud environments. Additionally, we see benefit for channel partners in the consulting and MSSP space, where value-added services, such as vulnerability remediation, will be valuable to clients.”

Polar Security can automatically find unknown and sensitive data across the cloud, including structured and unstructured assets within cloud service providers, SaaS properties and data lakes. Once discovered, Polar Security classifies the data, maps the potential and actual flow of that data, and identifies vulnerabilities, such as misconfigurations, over-entitlements, and behavior that violates policy or regulations.

Based on a risk-based prioritization methodology, Polar Security provides remediation reports that pinpoint the most pressing security risks and compliance violations. It also provides an analysis of the underlying causes and practical recommendations to address them.

Sensitive, Unknown Data Spread ‘Far and Wide’

“CISOs and security teams today are urgently seeking to regain visibility into sensitive and unknown data that is being spread far and wide across disparate on-premises, cloud and SaaS environments,” Maass said. “The DSPM technology offered by Polar is meeting a critical need by providing a fast and easy way to discover this data and bring it back under the control of IT and security teams.”

IBM partners will be able to leverage Polar Security to help clients improve visibility into shadow data, understand how that data is being used, and what vulnerabilities may exist in the posture and configuration of the underlying cloud and SaaS data stores, he said.

“Further, partners may opt to provide value-added services, such as remediation of discovered vulnerabilities, helping to reduce the client’s exposure to costly data breaches and compliance violations,” Maass said.