• Home
  • News
  • Fortune 500
  • Tech
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechCybersecurity

Alphabet and Cisco Fund Ex-HP Security Lead’s Startup

Robert Hackett
By
Robert Hackett
Robert Hackett
Robert Hackett
By
Robert Hackett
Robert Hackett
March 15, 2016, 7:30 AM ET
HP's Art Gilliland speaking at Protect 2013
HP's Art Gilliland speaking at Protect 2013Courtesy: Hewlett-Packard

Art Gilliland, former HP exec and current CEO of Skyport Systems, says he believes there are two types of computer network architectures that are important to the future of cybersecurity.

The first entails cloud access brokers, gatekeepers that manage the traffic flowing between cloud services and corporate networks, he says. (See Blue Coat, Netskope, Skyhigh Networks, Elastica, and Zscaler, for example.) And the second involves “microsegmentation,” a method of protection that divvies up a computer network and controls how its parts, or nodes, interact.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

This latter area is where Gilliland’s new firm, a 3-year-old cybersecurity startup based in Mountain View, Calif., stakes its claim. On Tuesday the company said it raised a $30 million round of funding led by GV, Alphabet’s (GOOG) investment arm (née Google Ventures), bringing its total fundraising to $67 million to date.

Other investors in the Series C round of funding include Cisco (CSCO) Investments, Thomvest Ventures, Northgate Capital, and InstantScale as well as existing investors Index Ventures, Intel (INTC) Capital, and Sutter Hill Ventures.

For more on cybersecurity startup funding, watch:

Skyport’s product essentially consists of a special network connection card—a security appliance—designed securely to link a company’s servers to the Internet (or an intranet). “Every application gets its own security envelope,” Gilliland says, describing the firm’s hardware-assisted approach to compartmentalizing software programs. “We basically filter all communications, all interactions, from applications to the outside world.”

“Anything not allowed, we block,” he adds.

Read more: For better cybersecurity, skip the shiny toy—invest in people and processes

Three ex-Cisco and Juniper Networks (JNPR) engineers—Michael Beesley, Rob Rodgers, and Will Eatherton—founded Skyport in 2013. Gilliland, who headed enterprise security software at HP prior the company’s breakup into Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and HP Inc. (HPQ), left the tech giant last year to take the reins of the startup. Stefan Dyckerhoff, managing director at Sutter Hill, originally incubated the company at his venture capital firm while serving as interim CEO.

Dave Munichiello, general partner at GV and Amazon (AMZN) alum, tells Fortune that his decision to invest in the company reflects his changing attitudes about corporate IT infrastructure. “If you had talked to me three years ago I would have said it was inevitable that 100% of workloads would go to the cloud,” he says.

“As I’ve spent more time with portfolio companies, I’ve seen a hybrid approach from enterprise IT execs,”continues Munichiello, who has also invested in Slack and CoreOS. “Some workload goes to the public cloud, some to a private cloud, some to a hybrid—that’s the trend I see over the next 10 years.”

Despite many companies now undergoing a shift to cloud infrastructure, Skyport aims to help secure in-house networks. One of the company’s biggest competitors in the microsegmentation market is VMware, owned by EMC (EMC) (soon Dell). Smaller firms that offer similar features include data center security startups vArmour and Illumio.

“Most breaches occur through vendor connections into an IT environment,” Gilliland says, outlining the problem his firm seeks to solve. “Our system controls what’s allowed in that environment.”

About the Author
Robert Hackett
By Robert Hackett
Instagram iconLinkedIn iconTwitter icon
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map

© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.