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Everybody seems to want in on the cloud access security broker (CASB) market! In the past year, Cisco acquired CloudLock, Microsoft acquired Adallom, and Blue Coat acquired Elastica and Perspecsys and then itself was acquired by Symantec. Whew, that’s a lot of buying and selling!
Anyone who has made a bet on purchasing technology from a young company only to have that company swallowed up knows how the movie is likely to end: The acquiring company tries to “consolidate” architectures, roadmaps get reswizzled, talented developers leave, and your project no longer has the support and attention it needs from the vendor. I realize that I’m painting a worst-case scenario, and I know there are exceptions out there.
In any early market, and certainly one as important as CASB, it’s critical to know where your vendors are in their own company lifecycle, and what their plans are for supporting your projects and requirements in the long-term. There are five things you need to know about vendors that you consider strategic to your business, but before we go into them, I want to take a moment to talk about the what needs to be the heart and soul of a long-term, iconic cloud security business like Netskope.
When you’re building a business that’s in it for the long haul, you need to have a leader and an experienced, collaborative core team that, in their hearts, want to build for the future and have the fortitude and patience to stay 100 percent focused on that. From day one, the Netskope team has been thoughtful about every single decision we’ve made, from the purposeful way we architected our solution, to our bigger vision about where we want to take the company, to how we built our technology and channel partnerships. We have not taken short cuts or short-changed our partners for short-term wins, but instead built the product and the company to earn the trust of, and build long-term partnerships with, our customers and partners.
Now for the five things that signal that your vendor is in it for the long haul:
- Financial viability. Does the company have the funds it needs to accomplish its long-term objectives, including technology investments, engineering talent, and the customer support team needed to ensure your success? Ask about fundraising, cash burn, and assess long-term financial viability. Netskope has pursued funding opportunistically in strong markets to build the arsenal needed to attract and retain en