Cloud Security, Cloud Security

Tenacity secures $3 million to bring cloud security to SMBs

A visitor tries out a smartphone next to a symbol of a cloud at the CeBIT 2012 technology trade March 5, 2012, in Hanover, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Tenacity on Thursday announced it raised $3 million so the SaaS provider can continue its goal of delivering workable, cloud-based security to small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

The company aims to help small businesses more effectively manage security, compliance and costs. Based on a self-service model, Tenacity’s platform uses artificial intelligence to deliver actionable data related to security posture, spending insights, and compliance misconfigurations, eliminating the need for additional staff or outside consultants.

“Tenacity has reimagined access to cloud security for every business,” said Alex Brown, a board member at Tenacity. “Ease of use, as well as a foundation of solid cloud optimization and security expertise are critical. Everyone who runs a company in the cloud knows that cost, security, and compliance are problems that have to be solved every day.”

Heather Paunet, senior vice president at Untangle, added that SMBs continue to be the target of cyberattacks, underscoring the need for tools to service the market. Paunet said Untangle’s 2021 SMB IT Security Report found that SMBs recognize the threats faced today and the need for change: Some 58% of SMBs have deployed more than 10% of their IT infrastructure in the cloud — a 32% increase from 2020.

“This indicates a shift for SMBs to continue to move more of their IT infrastructure to the cloud, but with a keen focus on the security aspect of moving to the cloud,” Paunet said.

Frank Dickson, program vice president for security and trust at IDC, added that the ability to leverage powerful and almost limitless compute and storage with having to manage physical hardware and storage comes as a perfect fit for staffing and talent-constrained SMBs.

“Not managing infrastructure allows SMBs to focus on their core business,” Dickson said. “However, cloud does not alleviate SMBs of their half of the shared responsibility model. Identity, data, applications and operating systems still need to have protections put in place and compliance will need to be assessed and reported. Although SMBs need the same cloud security measures and protections as large enterprises, complex tools sets meant to maximize customizability are simply undigestible. Ease-of-use, guided recommendations, automation and integration are foundational needs for SMB cloud security.”

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