Vera, Centrify Partner to Protect Sensitive Data in the Cloud

Security startup Vera has been busy solidifying partnerships to promote its data security strategy. Its latest is a deal with Centrify that aims to provide enterprises with simple, unified access control to sensitive information shared across cloud and on-premises systems, the company said.

Vera offers technology that protects data wherever it goes rather than securing endpoints or specific data on location within the network. Centrify specializes in identity management, with a platform that protects against compromised credentials by securing an enterprise’s internal and external users as well as its privileged accounts.
Together, the companies are using their technologies to enable businesses to control access to critical information and business applications in a unified, user-centric way, across on-premises and cloud operations without impacting employee productivity, Vera said in a press release.

The deal with Centrify is the latest Vera has inked in recent months as it continues to build its business as well as its partner and customer base. Vera has recently unveiled partnerships with VMware (VMW) as well as Okta and Dropbox to combine technologies to better secure data traveling across hosted and dedicated networks.

Specifically, the new partnership with Centrify integrates Vera’s file access control and encryption technology with Centrify’s one-click authentication and user-management platform, the Centrify Identity Platform. This combination of technologies is expected to provide IT teams with granular control and visibility over business-critical data, even after files have left the corporate domain, the companies said.

“When it comes to protecting your organization’s crown jewels, the single most important tool is having strong, non-intrusive and automated encryption in place,” said Prakash Linga, CTO and co-founder of Vera in the release. “Our partnership with Centrify accelerates the rollout and consistent application of data-in-use security, allowing Centrify and Vera customers to centrally manage access to both business-critical apps and data in a hybrid world.”

Vera’s technology is based on company-management policies and provides security teams with visibility and real-time control over user and data activity. IT managers can use it to grant individual employees varying levels of access within each document without impacting user productivity, the company said. This  balances security with user-centric convenience and flexibility so IT can manage and maintain access control to sensitive data and files no matter where they travel, according to Vera.

This type of identity management and access control is becoming critical, as more than half the data breaches in 2015 started with compromised security credentials, said Shreyas Sadalgi, senior vice president of business development at Centrify. He said the combination of his company’s technology with Vera’s will help strengthen this type of control for organizations.

“This partnership gives our customers strong encryption and data control abilities that seamlessly integrate with Centrify’s secure identity platform,” he said. “In order for businesses to operate more efficiently, IT and security teams must shift their focus away from the company perimeter, with the confidence that their data is safe.”