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Founder and CEO of Seclore
Seclore on enabling digital transformation with zero-trust data protection solutions
For years, India has been blessed with the effervescent and ever-expanding number of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) stringed by a rapid growth driven by the new age technology transformation.
The enormous opportunity provided by the sector led many tech companies to explore how they could help organizations grow without compromising their essential intellectual property.
Keeping in line with the contingencies, many tech companies have emerged in this landscape. Over the course of the last forty years, technology has driven a fundamental economic shift.
With the increasing pace of digital innovation, automation, and AI, many questions arise about whether these forces will bring about the demise of data breaching.
On the contrary, Seclore Technology predicts the proliferation of digital innovation will instigate the beginning of a new era, where information is shared more freely using a wide variety of methods, both within a beyond the corporate boundary.
The free flow of information in turn will require new data protection methods that can better control the use of information wherever and however it travels – even while it is being utilized.
"Our purpose was clear; to provide data security solutions that ensure information shared with outsourcers and other third-party partners remained fully protected and under the control of the organization.
The origins of the technology were part of a final year project at IIT Bombay and the company was incubated at the IIT Bombay incubator SINE," said Vishal Gupta, CEO of Seclore and the architect behind the data-centric security solution.
An endeavour of a technology solution that started as a college research project was about to ripen into a default prerequisite for any large organization utilizing outsourcing.
As the initial years passed, the team realized what they had built had much wider application beyond the specific context of outsourcing which led to the present-day Seclore Data-Centric-Security solution suite.
Today, Seclore strongly stands as a global organization, with offices in Germany, Mumbai, California, and Dubai, providing data-centric security solutions to nearly 2,000 customers across 29 countries with an esteemed clientele including Indian Navy, the Singapore Defence Ministry, a variety of ministries in Netherlands, the Crown Prince Court in Abu Dhabi, Linde, Astra Zeneca, Alliance, Essar, ICICI, Kotak, SBI, HDFC, Saudi Telecom, Aditya Birla Group, R R Donnelley, TATA, Larson and Toubro, Magma Financial Services and many more.
Today, organizations are trying and testing a major shift in how they approach data protection.The objective is to implement security solutions that integrate seamlessly with their existing data protection investments and IT environment.
Why? They are finding blind spots in the various data protection 'point' solutions they have invested in or are looking at but have not had a way to easily combine best-of-breed solutions that would 'cover' the blind spots without major administrative and implementation costs.
"The biggest blind spot? The traditional data protection solutions (DLP, CASB, Data Classification, email encryption) are good for detecting or classifying information or applying basic encryption.
However, these solutions do not control the uses of information once it is shared and lands on the recipient's desktop – what we call 'the last mile' data protection problem," Vishal explains.
Seclore Data Centric Security Platform, with pre-built connectors and unified policy and identity management, makes it easy for organizations to seamlessly augment their existing systems (Data Classification, DLP, CASB, file sharing, email, content management) with persistent, granular data-centric security, to automatically protect and track information wherever it travels.
Equipped with Unified Policy Manager that orchestrates pre-built connectors for a variety of on-prem and cloud email solutions (MS Exchange, MS Exchange Online, Outlook, OWS, Gmail); DLP solutions (McAfee, Forcepoint, Symantec); and content management solutions (IBM ECM, MS SharePoint), it also features OEM's the best-in-class Data Classification solution from Boldon James.
While many IT firms offer a varied portfolio, Seclore focuses on one thing – creating solutions that enable organizations to persistently protect their most valuable asset – information – wherever or however it travels.
The flagship product is Seclore Rights Management. Seclore's Rights Management offering makes it easy for users to add granular usage controls to files, and for recipients to work on protected files, due to its award-winning browser-based technology.
Because users do not have to download an agent, it is very easy to adapt and collaborate with the protected files, even for external users.
Seclore Rights Management is a part of the recently announced Seclore Data-Centric Security Platform.
The open Seclore Data-Centric Security Platform enables organizations to leverage their existing and future investments in best-of-breed investments in data protection (Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB), Data Classification, content management, email, file sharing services) with Seclore Rights Management.
The integration of multiple technologies to automate protection and tracking is why over six million users in more than 2,000 companies across 29 countries, are using Seclore to protect their information to the last mile.
Strategically focusing on underserved segments with high growth potential: SMBs (including specific departments within large tier-1 enterprises), specific verticals like BFSI, and specific applications like safeguarding of personally identifiable information and protecting Intellectual Property in Manufacturing, Vishal is also spearheading the firm towards the opportunities within the lucrative government and intelligence (G&I) vertical.
Seclore has continually pushed the boundaries in the data-centric security space. It has introduced features like policy federation and browser-based technology that are driving the large-scale adoption of the technology at a pace never seen in the industry.
2010 – First to market independent Enterprise Rights Management
2012 – First to provide connectors for leading DLP and content management solution
2013 – First to offer agentless access to protected documents
2014 – Release of the connector and secure view for SAP ERP
2015 – Dynamic Access Request to revolutionise the ease of onboarding
2016 – First to provide native 'anyness' support; covers all file types, devices, OSs
2017 – Full agentless Enterprise Rights Management; ease of use for external users
2018 – First to offer an open, agile Data-Centric Security Platform
Frost and Sullivan 2017 India Digital Transformation Awards
Best Enterprise Digital Rights Management – VARINDIA Channel Leadership Survey 2017
8th India Digital Awards; organized by IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India)
Awarded 2 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze by Infosec Global Excellence Awards 2018 in four categories:
– Security Products and Solutions for Enterprise
– Data Protection for Manufacturing
– Data Protection for BFSI
– New Products and Services
Info Security Global Excellence Awards 2018 in four categories:
o Security Products and Solutions for Enterprise
o Data Protection for Manufacturing
o Data Protection for BFSI
o New Products and Services
Recognized with a Cyber Security Excellence Award in 2018
CIO Choice Awards 2018 for the Best Data Protection Solution
Team Seclore continues to be optimistic about the company's growth potential and business pipeline. The firm has played a critical role in market education and has taken a thought leadership stance since its inception.
Vishal sums it up for us, "We will continue to innovate our data-centric security platform, making it easier for organizations to leverage existing and new data protection solutions such as Cloud Access Security Brokers.
As well, we will focus on ensuring organizations can readily move to the cloud, using a variety of best-of-breed solutions, with the full support of MS O365 including MS Exchange, MS Exchange Online, Outlook, OWS, and MS SharePoint Online."
EDUCATION – IIT Bombay
CAREER BREAKTHROUGH – Founding one of the earliest global enterprise software startups in India i.e. Herald Logic
EXPERTISE – Taking new data protection ideas and turning them into viable solutions. Visionary in leveraging data protection technologies including digital rights management, cloud-access security brokers, data loss prevention, data classification and associated technologies
IN ONE LINE, WHAT IS DATA SECURITY? Keeping information secure and under the control of the organization, wherever and however it travels, even while it is being utilized by the recipient.
INSPIRED BY: Subhash Chandra Bose, Akio Morita
WEAKNESS: Sleep, travel bug
BIG WINS
Getting governments in 10 countries to protect national secrets using Seclore's technology
Winning Stanford University's "Most disruptive technology" award and 40 under 40
Building a truly global product organization out of India starting from a university incubator
A DAY IN YOUR ROUTINE
My days normally don't start too early. If I am in India, then get my son ready for school and then catch a few more winks, then work till approx. 4 pm and get home in time to spend a few hours with family before I start work again at about 9:30 pm to end by midnight.
YOUR TRADEMARK
Be a part of the solution and not the problem
THE JOURNEY
The journey at Seclore has been overwhelming, to say the least. From a research project to a global leader in a rapidly growing security area has been a roller coaster ride, to say the least.
It has involved a lot of hard work but also a lot of fun along the way. Scaling the company from a 2 people university project to the 200 people global company has been humbling and enriching. There are just no words.
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