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Check Point Software Co-Founder Launches Simple Network Security In The Cloud

This article is more than 7 years old.

Shlomo Kramer, who co-founded Check Point Software  alongside Gil Schwed and Marius Nacht in 1993, raised $20 million in a series A funding round for Cato Networks late last year, a startup venture aimed at redefining how enterprises secure their networks and mobile devices. His elevator pitch: "Network security is simple again."  Now Kramer is up and running in the cloud.

After leaving Check Point in 2003 -- when it was a publicly-held market leading firewall provider -- Kramer went on to become a successful technology investor. He backed and sat on the boards at high-flying cyber firms including Sumo Logic, Palo Alto Networks, Trusteer (acquired by IBM ), and several others. His second act as founder was with Imperva, which went to market with the first web application firewall (WAF) and IPO-ed in 2011. Today Imperva is one of only a dozen or so pure-play cybersecurity companies with $1 billion plus market caps.

If third time's the charm and Kramer is after something even bigger than Check Point and more groundbreaking than Imperva, then Cato Networks may be it. The company has launched its Network Security-as-a-Service (NSaaS) -- a platform which moves the security perimeter for network and mobile devices into the cloud -- to an audience of IT leaders who are struggling with complex legacy point security products.

The worldwide public cloud services market is projected to reach $204 billion in 2016, up from $175 billion in 2015, according to IT industry analyst firm Gartner , Inc. "This strong growth continues to reflect a shift away from legacy IT services to cloud-based services, due to the increased trend of organizations pursuing a digital business strategy" said Sid Nag, research director at Gartner. A recent report from Transparency Market Research forecasts the cloud security market will reach nearly $12 billion in annual spending by 2022.

A recent CSO blog points out cumulative spending on mobile security is expected to be around $113 billion between now and 2020. The total addressable market for cloud and mobile security is a huge pot of gold for the early movers with next generation technologies in these sectors.

VCs know Shlomo Kramer as the quintessential entrepreneur who will startup, IPO, and grow a security company -- and then do it again. Most importantly, CIOs, chief information security officers officers (CISOs) and IT security practitioners get Kramer's pitch. Today's cyber defenders are understaffed, riddled with dozens of point security products which don't talk to each other and are often ineffective at thwarting hackers, and desperately seeking what Cato Networks is promising... simple network security in the cloud -- if there is such a thing.

And Kramer's competitors? They may be kicking themselves in the aaS for not thinking of NSaaS first.

Visit SteveOnCyber.com to read all of my blogs and articles covering cybersecurity.

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