American multinational software company Red Hat today announced the signature of a definitive agreement to acquire StackRox, a trailblazer in Kubernetes-native security.
By bringing StackRox’s Kubernetes-native security capabilities to Red Hat OpenShift, Red Hat said it hopes to take one step closer to creating a single platform that will enable users to “build, deploy and securely run nearly any application across the entirety of the hybrid cloud.”
In addition to Red Hat OpenShift, StackRox will carry on supporting multiple Kubernetes platforms, including Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), and Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE).
StackRox was founded in 2014 with the goal of reinventing enterprise security. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and employs around 60 people.
For StackRox CEO Kamal Shah, the planned acquisition is confirmation of StackRox’s originality when it comes to Kubernetes security, which over the past two years has evolved to be the company’s focus.
“We’re thrilled to join forces with Red Hat, coupling the industry’s first Kubernetes-native security platform with the leading Kubernetes platform for hybrid cloud, multicloud, and edge deployments,” said Shah.
“This is a tremendous validation of our innovative approach to container and Kubernetes security. Red Hat is an ideal partner to accelerate our vision of enabling organizations to securely build, deploy and run their cloud-native applications anywhere.”
Red Hat revealed plans to open source StackRox’s technology post-acquisition in an action that’s consistent with Red Hat’s open source heritage. Red Hat has pledged to continue to support the KubeLinter community as well as new communities as the company works to open source StackRox’s tech treasures.
The transaction is scheduled to close in the first quarter of 2021, subject to the usual closing conditions.
“Securing Kubernetes workloads and infrastructure cannot be done in a piecemeal manner; security must be an integrated part of every deployment, not an afterthought,” said Red Hat CEO and president Paul Cormier.
“Red Hat adds StackRox’s Kubernetes-native capabilities to OpenShift’s layered security approach, furthering our mission to bring product-ready open innovation to every organization across the open hybrid cloud across IT footprints.”
