As the idea of containers gains momentum, there are a couple of problems that increasingly need to be solved - networking, storage and security being the key three. Twistlock aims to solve the last of those and be part of unlocking far-broader container adoption.
Containers are, of course, a Linux concept that allows the running of multiple isolated Linux systems on a single control host. Instead of creating a full virtual environment, with Linux containers, an operating system is shared across the various containers while running resources are offered to the container in isolation. Linux containers have existed for a long time, but Docker re-invigorated the notion and brought it to a wider audience.
As Docker has made container usage more prevalent, however, it has also highlighted some issues with Linux containers that make even broader adoption difficult - storage, networking and security being the three most regularly cited examples. Indeed, much of the justification for vendors suggesting that containers should still be run within a virtual machine relate to the security issue.
So it is interesting to see Twistlock come out of stealth this morning. The company is announcing a virtual container security suite that it hopes will provide the visibility and control that enterprises need to broaden their container usage.
The company, like so many other security vendors, was founded in Israel but now has dual Tel Aviv/San Francisco headquarters. Twistlock was founded by Ben Bernstein and Dima Stopel, who have plenty of enterprise security expertise in both the defense and private sector; both spent more than 10 years in the
Twistlock addresses risks on both the host and within the application of the container. With the Twistlock security suite, enterprises can:
- Monitor both static container images and runtime container applications to identify risks.
- Specify security baselines to ensure the host has been hardened and the application meets certain quality and security standards before it can be pushed into production.
- Protect containers deployed both in the cloud and on-premises in a virtual data center.
- Keep up with the dynamic security concerns associated with the continuous integration of micro services.
In terms of the go to market and business model for Twistlock, the company is following an open source strategy. Twistlock is releasing an open source customizable security framework for developers of containerized applications. At the same time, an enterprise solution for security operation teams is offered that provides a centralized location from which security can be configured and monitored across the various container clusters the organization uses.
Twistlock has an agent that is installed on each container host. The agent supports host hardening, the inspection of operations done by the container manager daemon, and a low footprint inspection of certain container elements at run-time. Each Twistlock agent is in charge of sending information back to the central Twistlock server, where that information can be accessed and made available through the management console. This happens for offline monitoring purposes, as well as real-time purposes.
If Twistlock delivers what it says it will, we will potentially see the start of far wider container adoption. Perhaps more interestingly we will see an increase in concern from traditional virtualization vendors. These vendors have long been wary of Docker but have fallen back to the "a VM is the best place to run a container" message - Twistlock aims to change that.
