We Are SC Magazine Rookie Security Company of the Year finalists!

A couple of days ago, we learned Concentric is one of SC Magazine’s finalists for the prestigious Rookie Security Company of the Year award. The news comes close on the heels of our Business Intelligence Group Artificial Intelligence Excellence Award win just a few days ago, and I could not be more proud of Concentric and the team. You see, in the real world, a tech startup is not a glamorous HBO hit series. It’s basically a bunch of really smart engineers toiling in obscurity for long hours at low pay. When the company gets some recognition, it’s because of them and their work. Nice job Shankar, Madhu, Gopal and everyone who makes it happen, every day.

So why did we make the cut? It’s simple, really. We have some great customers who are willing to share their story with SC Mag. We have an innovative, award-winning technology foundation that solves a clear-and-present-danger-type cybersecurity problem. And (despite the award’s title having something to do with rookies) our team is anything but rookie.

Our submission to SC Mag is a nice summary of where we’re at. I’d like to share some of it with you.

SC Mag: How well is the company meeting its overall mission and vision?

Concentric’s vision is to be an indispensable cybersecurity provider in a world free from the risk of data loss due to cybercrime. That’s an audacious aspiration, and to help make it happen our mission focuses on three key areas:

Accurate, comprehensive protection that finds and remediates risk across data located on premises, in the cloud, or part of an as-a-service solution. We aspire to protect every element of business-critical data without impeding the business in any way.

Lowest cost of ownership that puts data security within reach for every business. We’re doing that today by leveraging the productivity of AI and offering the best user interface on the market.

Technology extension that deploys our risk assessment and remediation capabilities into as many specific use cases as possible. Today, for example, we offer a unique User 360˚ tool that helps manage risks related to insider crime and employee status changes.

SC Mag: How strong is the company’s customer base?

Cadence Design Systems – Sreeni Kancharla, CISO, explains how Concentric fits into his security architecture:

“Concentric identifies our business- critical data, such as product documentation, finance reports and contracts. It’s a critical layer of security on top of the data protection solutions we already use.”

Nutanix – Sebastian Goodwin, CISO, talks about how they use Concentric:

“The solution identifies our high-value assets and then assesses risk for each one. We didn’t want rule maintenance overhead so Concentric’s autonomous operation was a big win.”

Company Nurse – Henry Svendblad, CTO, explains how Concentric keeps him ahead of his competitors:

“We are acknowledged leaders when it comes to protecting our customers’ private information, and Concentric helps us understand and secure data without needing to be content experts.”

SC Mag: Does the company have a strong product/service portfolio?

Concentric’s Semantic Intelligence™ solution automates data security. It’s a completely new approach to data access governance that uses deep learning to capture the collective wisdom of content owners. We extract optimal security policies from existing data without hard-to-maintain rules or end user classification.

Deep learning organizes data into thematic categories that offer insights into meaning and business criticality. Risk Distance™ analysis uncovers each category’s baseline security practices to spot at-risk files. It reveals inappropriate sharing, risky storage locations or incorrect classification – all without rules or policies.

In production deployments for nearly two years, we protect data in industries ranging from finance to healthcare to high tech.

SC Mag: Does the company offer strong customer service and support for the products/services it supplies?

Concentric’s customer support team offers a robust program focused on three pillars:

Ongoing Value

Concentric’s solution supports a range of use cases, including access governance, data security, zero trust access management and more. We regularly meet with customers to identify new ways to use the solution, provide new feature training and ensure long-term success.

Security Stack Cost Reduction

Our service team assists with upstream and downstream integrations to reduce overall costs in our customers’ entire security stack. Concentric’s automated data discovery and categorization can eliminate high-overhead rule and policy maintenance tasks by acting as the source of truth for data loss prevention or perimeter security solutions.

Direct Access to Engineering Resources

We pride ourselves on giving customers direct access to our design engineers. Their expertise speeds problem resolution and sharpens our ability to deliver product enhancements and bug fixes quickly and accurately.

SC Mag: Is the company engaged in compelling research and development efforts that will lead to continued innovation?

Risk Distance™ analysis identifies risk by learning the security practices followed by thematically similar data. It’s an innovative new approach to data security that eliminates development and maintenance of rules and policies. Our innovation efforts focus on three areas:

Risk assessment

Risk indicators can be complex, extending beyond file location or access configurations. Innovation in AI-enabled risk analysis will give us the ability to spot complex, multi-dimensional risk factors that are beyond the reach of heuristics or human analysis.

Data categorization

Our AI-enabled data analysis yields thematically similar file groups that serve as the foundation for peer-centric risk analysis. We continue to innovate by improving categorization accuracy, granularity and coverage.

Applications and Interface

Risk Distance has myriad applications. Our new User 360˚ tool, for example, presents risk related to specific employees. Innovations in applications and interfaces will expand how our risk insights can support everything from compliance to data governance.

It’s an exciting time to be at Concentric. If you’re in the market for data security, we’re now offering a chance to see your data like you’ve never seen it before with a complimentary risk assessment. Want to learn more? Have a look here and set up a meeting with the team today!