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VMware Acquires Mesh7 for Cloud-Native Application Behavior Security

Credit: WMware

VMware is acquiring Mesh7 to bring "visibility, discovery, and better security to APIs (application programming interfaces)," the hybrid- and multi-cloud software provider says.

This is technology M&A deal number 181 that MSSP Alert and sister site ChannelE2E have covered so far in 2021. See all technology M&A deals for 2021 and 2020 listed here.

Mesh7 offers a Cloud-Native Application Behavior Security solution for distributed and cloud-native applications by integrating deep Layer 7 insights with cloud, host and reputation data to "provide the most comprehensive and proactive blind spot detection and protection solution available today," the company claims.

Mesh7 points to security operations use cases, including the opportunity to enable real time analytics along with SIEM and intelligence integrations.

Mesh7: Early Investors and Security Capabilities

Early Mesh7 investors included Juniper Networks, March Capital, The Fabric and Splunk. In a mid-2020 statement explaining the company's software, Mesh7 said the offering delivered "breakthrough application behavior security architecture," including:

  • Auto-discovery and Mapping of services and host processes, API payload & schema, PII data flow and access to shared public cloud services and external/3rd party egress domains;
  • Continuous Baselining, Anomaly Detection, Alerting and Mitigation of application behavioral changes, API vulnerabilities, threats and data breaches; and
  • Deep Forensics based on intelligent data collection and correlation across network traffic, APIs, payload, PII data flows and services with contextual telemetry data from public cloud logs, and third-party threat-intelligence and reputation system,

The deal aligns with VMware's Tanzu Service Mesh technology, which controls the communication between thousands of application components, enforces security policy and measures performance and other critical functions, regardless of the underlying infrastructure, the buyer says.

VMware and Tanzu Service Mesh: Expected Synergies

Once the deal closes, the integration of Mesh7’s contextual API behavior security solution with Tanzu Service Mesh will "enable VMware to deliver high fidelity understanding of which applications components are talking to which using APIs. Developers and Security teams will each gain a better understanding of when, where and how applications and microservices are communicating via APIs, even across multi-cloud environments, enabling better DevSecOps," VMware says.

Tom Gillis, SVP/GM of VMware's networking and security business unit, provides more details here.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.