HPE snaps up edge-to-cloud security startup Scytale

HPE is building on its edge to cloud security strategy by snapping up Scytale, an open-source security platform that runs across on-premise, cloud and container-based infrastructure.

Scytale is a San Francisco-based startup that looks at application-to-application identity and access management.

The company was founded in 2017 by Sunil James, Emiliano Berenbaum, and Andrew Jessup. The three co-founders have built up a workforce hailing from cloud-native enterprises like AWS, Duo Security, Google, Okta, PagerDuty and Splunk.

Scytale is also recognised as the founding contributor of the Secure Production Identity Framework for Everyone (SPIFFE) and SPIFFE Runtime Environment, along with other open-source projects under the Cloud Native Computing Foundation.

Announcing the purchase on Monday, David Husak, GM of HPE's Cloudless Initiative, said that security will continue to play a fundamental role as the company progresses into its edge to cloud platform as a service strategy. Financial details of the acquisition have not been disclosed.

"We recognise that every organisation that operates in a hybrid, multi-cloud environment requires 100% secure, zero trust systems, that can dynamically identify and authenticate data and applications in real-time," Husak said in a blog post.

"We also recognise that the open-source community, which every day advances an endless array of projects designed for an open, multi-cloud, micro-services driven world, are at the forefront of writing code that delivers true zero trusts, highly secure systems."

Scytale founder Sunil James said that he met with Antonio Neri before he became HPE's CEO and that a discussion between the two left him with a stronger understanding of the company's deep roots in helping customers bridge complex enterprise IT infrastructure.

"This understanding was reinforced last year when I met Dave Husak and Dave Larson (I call them 'the Daves'), two leaders within Hewlett Packard Labs," James wrote.

"Scytale's DNA is security, distributed systems, and open-source. Under HPE, Scytale will continue to help steward SPIFFE. Our ever-growing and vocal community will lead us. We'll toil to maintain this transparent and vendor-neutral project, which will be fundamental in HPE's plans to deliver a dynamic, open, and secure edge-to-cloud platform."