Cloud security newcomer FireLayers is emerging from stealth today with the launch of a policy-based security platform that enables IT departments to deploy pre-defined and customizable rule sets for popular applications like Salesforce.com (CRM), Microsoft (MSFT) Office 365, Yammer and Workday, among others.

The San Francisco-based company is a venture-backed initiative that aims to provide policy-based security, compliance and IT governance for cloud applications. As the company noted in its announcement, cloud apps have become critical business enablers, but they also expose those same businesses to risks and vulnerabilities.

The FireLayers platform is meant to provide customers with proactive mitigation of security and compliance gaps to protective sensitive information.

Some of the features FireLayers noted in its release:

"The cloud is the biggest tectonic shift in IT in the past decade,” said Yair Grindlinger, co-founder and CEO, in a prepared statement. "It represents huge benefits, but requires IT and security leaders to develop digital environments that enable cloud adoption while maintaining required levels of security, compliance and IT governance."

The company emerges from stealth with funding from capital firm YL Ventures behind it. YL Ventures typically invests in cybersecurity, cloud computing, Big Data and software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses.

It's likely FireLayers is kicking off its go-to-market strategy with a direct sales focus, but wait to see if the company eventually turns to the channel.