In an exclusive conversation with CXO Media and APAC Media, Vishal Gupta, Founder and CEO, Seclore outlines how the company is the leading provider of data-centric security solutions. Its differentiators focus on what large enterprises value like ease of use, ease of administration and rapid time-to-value.
Seclore has evolved significantly since its inception. Could you walk us through your latest portfolio updates—products, services, or any recent innovations?
Seclore has evolved a lot in its decade-long journey from a DRM / secure outsourcing product vendor to a data centric platform provider for large enterprises and governments. In this journey the threats that organizations face has also evolved. Our solutions today cater to protecting the most confidential data of enterprises and governments in the wake of new threats to data from third parties (vendors, contractors, customers, lawyers, auditors, board members) and AI systems.
Our newly launched offering to protect enterprise data from AI systems is a response to rising threats that AI systems pose to enterprises. There are significant productivity gains from AI, but the security and privacy risks of AI negate a large part of the gains. To achieve both i.e. security and productivity, Seclore has launched a new capability which helps enterprises selectively mark and protect confidential data from being exposed to AI systems.
Seclore has always been helping large enterprises protect data in third party collaboration scenarios. With the new offerings we have just launched, enterprises can get a single pane of glass view of all third-party data exchanges and based on that score their contractors / partners into risk categories. The new offerings also enable security and privacy norms to be extended to third parties.
Under your broader strategy vision, what are the key components of Seclore’s current Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy?
Seclore has always had a very partnership driven GTM strategy. We believe that best-of-breed combinations of product and services are suited for large enterprises. This also enables enterprises to get “complete solutions” rather than just technology.
Our go to market strategy can be summarized by two words i.e. Focus and partnerships. We currently focus our energies on large enterprises (financial services, manufacturing) and government agencies in Asia, Europe and North America. We provide complete solutions to the enterprises by partnering with complementary technology companies, system integration partners and distributors.
Can you elaborate on Seclore’s partner ecosystem? How do partnerships contribute to your growth, innovation, and customer delivery?
Seclore is a partner-focused company. We partner with any agency which can complement the value delivery to our customers. This includes:
- Complementary technology providers in the DLP / CASB / SASE / DSPM and adjoining spaces
- System integration service providers
- Consulting service providers
- Security focused resellers and distributors
With each of these categories of partners the goal is to make the customer experience seamless. We are constantly co-innovating with each of our partners in this journey.
The cybersecurity space is crowded with many players. How does Seclore differentiate itself in this increasingly competitive and data-centric environment?
Most cybersecurity players are focused on protecting “infrastructure” i.e. devices, networks, applications etc. We believe that while necessary, this is not sufficient to protect the real asset of any enterprise i.e. data. Seclore’s core focus is on ensuring that security investments get focused on data and therefore the company is the leading provider of data-centric security solutions.
Within data-centric security providers, our differentiators focus on what large enterprises value i.e. ease of use, ease of administration and rapid time-to-value.
Are there any new business strategies or service lines that Seclore is exploring or implementing to stay ahead in the cybersecurity market?
Seclore is constantly innovating. This innovation is in the products we build but also in how we build and take that to market. Seclore is today implementing a complete shift to development process automation as well as a new cloud native architecture to further reduce the time to value for our customers. This is a small selection of a whole slew of initiatives within the company in this direction.
What are the key concerns of CISOs of the enterprises who you deal with regularly?
We work with 500 of the largest enterprises in the world like American Express, Ford, The United Nations, Applied Materials, Saudi Telecom, HDFC and ICICI. This gives us a ringside view of the happenings and broad patterns which define security and compliance priorities of these organizations. Based on this we see the following patterns
- Third party data risk: Enterprises are coming around to the realization that they operate in highly globalized value chains, and the security of their data is dependent on the security posture of the weakest link in this value chain.
- Security and privacy risks of AI: Enterprises are realizing that AI systems have demonstrated poor security and privacy awareness and therefore are increasingly weighing the pros of AI adoption with the risks.
- Heterogenous privacy regulation compliance: Most enterprises today are subject to multiple security and privacy regulations and are struggling with complying to all the regulations at once.
To Seclore, these above become the key concerns and therefore the key areas of focus for our innovation.
Given Seclore’s emphasis on protecting data beyond traditional access controls, how are you aligning your product innovation with the evolving digital transformation and compliance needs across industries?
The challenge of distributed value chains and geopolitics is pulling enterprises in a direction opposite to digital transformation and increased collaboration needs. Seclore is helping enterprises achieve these mutually conflicting goals together and therefore help enterprises go through digital transformation without compromising on security and compliance requirements.
Bhavya Bagga, APAC Media
