Fortanix – Reinventing Cyber Security

Securing data has been one of the most debated topics in the information industry these days and so far there has been no definite answer to that.

We’ve all heard of encryption and it is said to be one of the most effective methods to protect data. Even though encryption is used now, it is limited to data at rest and data in motion, i.e. if an application starts to run, the data in use is not protected and thus vulnerable to threat.

Fortanix refers to its Runtime Encryption® platform as the holy grail of security because of its ability to provide deterministic security, meaning it provides complete protection throughout lifecycles of data.

They also developed Self-Defending Key Management Service™ (SDKMS) which is industry’s first unified key management and HSM product which leverages Intel® SGX to protect keys and sensitive data. One of the key highlights of the technology is that it offers deterministic security even when root credentials and cloud infrastructures are compromised.

The “Eureka” moment

Ambuj Kumar, CEO and Co-founder said, “Anand and I have known each other since undergrad. Between the two of us, we have more than 100 patents and 30 publications in leading journals. Our work has been deployed in billions of products. Based on our years of experience in security and cryptography, we realized that existing approaches are inadequate to the current threats facing businesses.”

He adds by saying, “And a new security solution is needed which leverages an understanding of how modern application stacks work from the chip to the cloud. Fortanix is the result of that understanding. We are thrilled to have the support of Intel Capital, Foundation Capital and NeoTribe Ventures — three committed and knowledgeable venture partners.”

Building a Fortress for the future

Fortanix mission is to solve cloud security and privacy and they intend to solve this problem by separating security from the infrastructure. The current trends and approaches in securing applications and infrastructure have been inept. Although there are countless solutions for detecting and analyzing breaches, no notable breakthrough has been made to eradicate these breaches.

And this motivated the CEO to team up with Anand Kashyap to establish Fortanix. The company believes that for a security to be most effective, the following criteria should be met without compromise,

• Critical infrastructure and applications need provable security — that works flawlessly all the time without relying on thresholds-based triggers or alerts
• Security should be portable — able to follow the applications wherever they run, either in a public cloud or on-premises
• Lastly, it’s not enough to alert an overworked SOC team that the proverbial horse is about to leave the barn or has just left the barn. Security must be preventative — it must not allow assets to be compromised in the first place

The Runtime Encryption® platform a new category in the security industry was created so that these issues may be addressed effectively. The customer base of Fortanix includes 20+ fortune 500 companies and all this with just three years down the road.

Engineering a better workplace and secure world

Best in class engineering and product teams: Fortanix is creating a state-of-the-art technology in the cloud security industry and hence hires only world-class engineers and team members, who also get to contribute in building world-class unique security products.

Culture: Fortanix promotes an open culture for all its employees. Each employee gets an opportunity to own whatever they are building and everyone, including the leadership, is easily approachable.

Support for a return to work initiatives: Fortanix has been hiring employees who have had career gaps due to personal commitments particularly, women. Fortanix believes that everybody should be given an equal opportunity at work irrespective of their circumstances.

Benefits: Fortanix offers a competitive salary and equity along with free catered lunch and public transportation reimbursement. Fortanix also provides unlimited PTOs to its employees. 

Cultivating kindness and Manufacturing Success

It is one of the core beliefs at Fortanix that a few brilliant people can make all the difference in the world and they have inculcated that belief into everything they do. For a company to reach heights it’s critical that its employees enjoy a happy and winning culture. Fortanix is stringent in terms of hiring and employs only the good and qualified, hence when an employee is aboard the company ensures that they are treated with respect and love.

Fortanix regards the following as the most valuable attributes of their family:

1. Excellence
2. Replication
3. Ownership

What makes Fortanix Exceptional?

• World-class cutting-edge products which solve unique cloud security problems for enterprises: Fortanix Runtime Encryption®; Fortanix SDKMS; Fortanix EDP
• World-class Engineering and product team
• Building Unique products in the cloud security market, like no other company
• Great work culture
• Dozens of fortune 100 partners and customers who believe in Fortanix

Meet the Maestros

Ambuj Kumar, CEO and Co-founder: Before founding Fortanix,Ambuj had acquired vast experience working in various big companies like Cryptography Inc where he developed many of the company’s security technologies and NVIDIA where he designed World’s most advanced computer chips including world’s fastest memory controller. He holds a degree from IIT Kanpur in Bachelor of technology and a Master of Science degree from Stanford University, both in EE.

Anand Kashyap CTO and Co-founder: Anand acquired his experience from Symantec and VMware as a researcher and as an engineer in areas related to security and networking. He has taken part in several prominent conferences like financial cryptography and BlackHat and has filed 25+ patents in his industry. Anand too holds a bachelor of technology degree from IIT Kanpur and holds a Ph.D from Stony Brook University in the field of Computer Science.

“We put software and hardware security in billions of devices.” 

“We help our customers get deterministic security, unlike existing leaky security, which means their applications and data remain completely protected regardless of how the attacks originate and how root credentials are compromised.”