DevOps.com

  • Latest
    • Articles
    • Features
    • Most Read
    • News
    • News Releases
  • Topics
    • AI
    • Continuous Delivery
    • Continuous Testing
    • Cloud
    • Culture
    • DevSecOps
    • Enterprise DevOps
    • Leadership Suite
    • DevOps Practice
    • ROELBOB
    • DevOps Toolbox
    • IT as Code
  • Videos/Podcasts
    • DevOps Chats
    • DevOps Unbound
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming
    • On-Demand Webinars
  • Library
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • On-Demand Events
  • Sponsored Communities
    • AWS Community Hub
    • CloudBees
    • IT as Code
    • Rocket on DevOps.com
    • Traceable on DevOps.com
    • Quali on DevOps.com
  • Related Sites
    • Techstrong Group
    • Container Journal
    • Security Boulevard
    • Techstrong Research
    • DevOps Chat
    • DevOps Dozen
    • DevOps TV
    • Digital Anarchist
  • Media Kit
  • About
  • AI
  • Cloud
  • Continuous Delivery
  • Continuous Testing
  • DevSecOps
  • Leadership Suite
  • Practices
  • ROELBOB
  • Low-Code/No-Code
  • IT as Code
  • More Topics
    • Application Performance Management/Monitoring
    • Culture
    • Enterprise DevOps

Home » Blogs » Lance Crosby’s Vision To Bring Scale, Speed and Security To Developers with StackPath

Lance Crosby’s Vision To Bring Scale, Speed and Security To Developers with StackPath

By: Alan Shimel on November 2, 2016 Leave a Comment

lancecrosby_headshot_2016The last most of us heard from Lance Crosby we thought he was riding off to an island sunset, to bask in the glow of a very successful exit from SoftLayer. The company he founded was bought by IBM for a few billion dollars to serve as the centerpiece of their cloud strategy. Many would have been content with that as their career. But Crosby isn’t done yet. His new vision is StackPath, whose mission is to bring scale, speed and security to developers.

Recent Posts By Alan Shimel
  • Agile and DevOps for Kiosks
  • Graph CDN for GraphQL APIs
  • Drumroll, Please! The Winners of the 2021 DevOps Dozen² Awards Are …
More from Alan Shimel
Related Posts
  • Lance Crosby’s Vision To Bring Scale, Speed and Security To Developers with StackPath
  • StackPath Launches EdgeEngine Serverless Computing
  • 3 Must-Haves When Implementing DevSecOps
    Related Categories
  • Blogs
  • DevSecOps
    Related Topics
  • cdn
  • devsecops
  • security
  • softlayer
Show more
Show less

I had a chance to catch up with Lance recently and talk about StackPath. The company just emerged from stealth in July but already has over 100 employees and over thirty thousand customers. This is due to acquiring three companies pre-launch, “MaxCDN, a leading NextGen CDN company, Fireblade, an Israel-based company with patented cloud based WAF technology, and Cloak, a leading VPN technology company.” On top of this StackPath has developed some patented new DDOS mitigation technology. Of course DDOS attacks are all the rage now with everyone’s camera, refrigerator and any other connected device in on the action.

DevOps/Cloud-Native Live! Boston

From a DevOps point of view what I find interesting is that Crosby and StackPath have clearly targeted the developer, rather than the security admin or the Ops team with this offering. Even in the title of their press release announcing the StackPath platform and CDN they target developers, “StackPath Announces General Availability of Its Global Security Platform for Developers.”

This is an interesting approach and one I spoke to Lance about. In Lance’s view there is a gap between those who build and design applications and those who operate and secure them. Empowering developers with a friction-less security solution is what StackPath’s mission is. It is the developers who need to be thinking about security and more importantly making it part of the equation. This idea is one that many in security have espoused, but usually because they feel developers have larger budgets than the security team.  But I don’t think that is the case here. Crosby knows both the security and developer markets from SoftLayer. He is trying to fill a need he saw while still at SoftLayer that he wasn’t able to offer then.

The CDN service they announced wraps up the three technologies they acquired along with their DDOS mitigation. To me it seemed like a Cloudflare kind of offering. Crosby agrees that there are similarities, but the plan is to build out the platform far beyond what it offers now or what Cloudflare offers. Threat analysis and artificial intelligence are part of the future, as well as more.

The company already raised a large first round led by ABRY Partners, a multi-billion dollar private equity fund. Of course Crosby has his own money available as well as no shortage of VC/private equity funds who would like to invest in his next adventure based on the success of SoftLayer.

The security industry has been looking for cloud native, next generation solutions and StackPath could be one of these. At some point though you need to please multiple masters. In this case if you are going to sell developers security, at some point you need to get the security people on board as well. It will be interesting to see how StackPath continues to grow and expand in the market. Certainly a mix of organic solutions with a sprinkling of acquisitions appears to be the recipe Crosby and team are following.

— Alan Shimel

Filed Under: Blogs, DevSecOps Tagged With: cdn, devsecops, security, softlayer

Sponsored Content
Featured eBook
The State of the CI/CD/ARA Market: Convergence

The State of the CI/CD/ARA Market: Convergence

The entire CI/CD/ARA market has been in flux almost since its inception. No sooner did we find a solution to a given problem than a better idea came along. The level of change has been intensified by increasing use, which has driven changes to underlying tools. Changes in infrastructure, such ... Read More
« Why PR, Legal and HR Matter for Continuous Delivery
Webinar: Leading Change at DevOps Enterprise Summit San Francisco »

TechStrong TV – Live

Click full-screen to enable volume control
Watch latest episodes and shows

Upcoming Webinars

Shift Left Done Right
Wednesday, May 18, 2022 - 11:00 am EDT
Get Infrastructure Transparency and Improve Your Developers’ Experience in the Process
Thursday, May 19, 2022 - 3:00 pm EDT
Accelerating Continuous Security With Value Stream Management
Monday, May 23, 2022 - 11:00 am EDT

Latest from DevOps.com

Creating Automated GitHub Bots in Go
May 18, 2022 | Sebastian Spaink
Is Your Future in SaaS? Yes, Except …
May 18, 2022 | Don Macvittie
Apple Allows 50% Fee Rise | @ElonMusk Fans: 70% Fake | Microsoft Salaries up by 100%?
May 17, 2022 | Richi Jennings
Making DevOps Smoother
May 17, 2022 | Gaurav Belani
Why Over-Permissive CI/CD Pipelines are an Unnecessary Evil
May 16, 2022 | Vladi Sandler

Get The Top Stories of the Week

  • View DevOps.com Privacy Policy
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Download Free eBook

The State of Open Source Vulnerabilities 2020
The State of Open Source Vulnerabilities 2020

Most Read on DevOps.com

How Waterfall Methodologies Stifle Enterprise Agility
May 12, 2022 | Jordy Dekker
Top 3 Requirements for Next-Gen ML Tools
May 13, 2022 | Jervis Hui
Progress Expands Scope of Compliance-as-Code Capabilities
May 12, 2022 | Mike Vizard
15 Ways Software Becomes a Cyberthreat
May 13, 2022 | Anas Baig
Why Over-Permissive CI/CD Pipelines are an Unnecessary Evil
May 16, 2022 | Vladi Sandler

On-Demand Webinars

DevOps.com Webinar ReplaysDevOps.com Webinar Replays
  • Home
  • About DevOps.com
  • Meet our Authors
  • Write for DevOps.com
  • Media Kit
  • Sponsor Info
  • Copyright
  • TOS
  • Privacy Policy

Powered by Techstrong Group, Inc.

© 2022 ·Techstrong Group, Inc.All rights reserved.