A container is an isolated, virtual server instance. It’s a ground breaking technology that leverages the existing kernel of the operating system (OS) to support multiple, independent user spaces on a single server. As a result, containers require little to no overhead, making them much more efficient than virtual machines, which rely on specialized hardware and/or software to run.

Containers are driving a fundamental shift in the IT operations model; by taking advantage of the existing OS, including its interfaces and management resource features, containers significantly reduce the costs and complexity of virtualized environments, while optimizing their utility and performance. Containers allow developers to quickly and easily create, move and scale applications/services to meet the constantly evolving demands of the enterprise.

Docker is an extremely popular container runtime environment. It creates an additional abstraction layer between the container infrastructure and the administrator to enable easy management and deployment automation of containerized applications. It has become the accepted standard for container technology. Docker has been downloaded over 400,000,000 times, it has dev communities in over 50 countries, and developers have created “Dockerized” versions of more than 250,000 applications, which is impressive for a project that started roughly two years ago. It comes as no surprise that estimates show Docker Inc has joined the Billion dollar companies club.

The Docker project has gained enormous popularity and has become the “de-facto” containerization standard supported by all major operating system providers (e.g. Microsoft and Redhat), virtual data center providers (e.g. VMware), and cloud service providers (e.g. Google, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Rackspace ) in a very short time span. The ability to make containers so easily accessible has caught the attention of most enterprises, with a large number of major organizations actively evaluating it, with a significant percentage now using it in production. In additiona, there are also companies that use native Linux containers without necessarily using Docker.

The original Linux containers are not designed to have full isolation as virtual machines do. Containers share the same kernel and certain system resources. Two Linux concepts: cgroups and namespaces help create additional virtualized isolation for containers. However, the risks to data in a container are similar to the risks to data on a physical machine. And you can’t look into containers easily. Organizations looking into container security need visibility into containers as well as additional tools to execute protection beyond the platform level.

Containers are now being hailed as the technology of the future. Organizations of all sizes are investigating ways to leverage these new technologies. As with every new technology being adopted, security is an important consideration, especially if mission-critical applications are being moved to the container stack. This is why container security is getting a tremendous amount of attention.

Twistlock provides the industry’s first enterprise security suite for virtual containers. The suite gives enterprises the visibility and control they need to secure container-based applications and data to maximize the efficiency, portability and scalability of using containers, while maintaining end-to-end security from deveopment to production. The technology has been in beta since June 2015. Now we are annocuing the general availability of our solution. So additional organizations worldwide can leverage our security suite to enable the new technology stack.

The rapid adoption of containers and more specifically Docker has created several challenges for enterprises that want to rely on them for their production systems. Containers can create security blind spots, as security teams have little visibility or control over what is happening within the container. As with the cloud, the security problem must be solved before containers can realize their full potential.

Twistlock is the industry’s first enterprise security suite for virtual containers. The Twistlock security suite provides these capabilities: Full stack vulnerabiltiy management, Advanced access Control, and Smart runtime protection. Together, these technologies comprise an end-to-end solution that enforces consistent policy and protection standards from development to production.

Twistlock has 15 beta customers, most of them are large enterprises, some are household names. Our typical customers are enterprises that are innovating with containers. Most our customers have a strong DevOps culture and a desire to use cutting edget technologies. The organizations deployed Twistlock so far include financial services, hospitality, healthcare, government, and consumer services. Many run internet-scale applications and have real-time performance and rigorous scalability requirements. Our solution is extremely easy to use, has little impact on runtime performance and development processes. The use cases we cover include lightweight, scale-out platform for algo-trading, service providers who require portability between various cloud platforms, and consumer-facing services that need quick updates and continuous delivery.

No. Hardening containerized applications is one important aspect of container security and we include that as an aspect of our soution. However, enterprise security in general is not only about hardening services or applications; it’s about a whole cycle of activities. This involves protecting, monitoring, analyzing and responding to risks/threats. Today’s organizations deploying containerized applications lose the ability to do all of that for their containerized applications. Twistlock’s purpose is to give them back that control.

Twistlock was founded by Ben Bernstein (CEO) and Dima Stopel (VP R&D). Both Ben and Dima have deep enterprise security expertise in the defense and private sectors.

In shipping, a twistlock is a security piece that keeps containers secured. We thought it would be the perfect analogy to what we do – securing containers. See twistlock in action here.

Twistlock has raised $3.1 million in seed funding, led by YL Ventures.

Twistlock is based in San Francisco, California and Tel-Aviv, Israel.