Expands global reach to Israel and Australia, adds individual open source developers to program
Venafi, the inventor and leading provider of machine identity management, announced that the Machine Identity Management Development Fund added 16 new developer projects in 2020, causing the fund to double in size. New global technology leaders that joined the fund include Akeyless, Anjuna Security, n8n, OpenFaaS, Pulumi, Sidechain Security, Service Rocke and more.
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“New ideas for software innovation grow out of the minds of tech entrepreneurs. Venafi helps young startups put those ideas into reality. Venafi’s Development Fund works in collaboration with innovators and other experienced individuals to support customer needs.”
“The Machine Identity Management Development Fund couldn’t be more important for our cloud-native future, and industry awareness and recognition is attracting developers from around the world to join the Venafi Ecosystem,” said Kevin Bocek, vice president of security strategy and threat intelligence at Venafi. “Our Fund is creating a global community to future-proof customer success, and many of the developers are generating significant new revenue streams for their organizations. One especially innovative event occurred when Jetstack, a two-time fund participant, was acquired by Venafi in May. And this is just the beginning. In 2021, we’re ready to modernize in entirely new ways to grow the Venafi Ecosystem and create more success for developers.”
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Venafi’s Machine Identity Management Development Fund is a global initiative designed to increase the visibility, intelligence and automation required for effective machine identity management across enterprise networks. Key milestones of the Machine Identity Management Development Fund include:
- The fund has more than doubled the number of developer projects in 2020. The fund now includes more than 30 developer projects.
- Three developers have received a second round of funding. Developers have realized the value of the Machine Identity Development Fund. They have dedicated resources to integrations that accelerate the delivery of comprehensive machine identity management across microservices, DevOps and multicloud environments.
- Indie Development Fund is launched. The program pays individual developers for innovative, open source machine identity projects. By participating in the Indie Developers program, individual developers receive direct sponsorship from Venafi to work on projects they’re passionate about to help the open source and cloud-native communities
- Venafi acquired Jetstack, an early Development Fund participant. Jetstack, a global leader in open source machine identity management software for Kubernetes and cloud-native ecosystems, joined the Fund in 2018. This acquisition, conducted in May 2020, is reshaping the way modern applications required by digital transformation are secured.
- Created new revenue opportunities for developers. Through the Fund, developers can make their products available to license through Venafi. This is a growing opportunity for startups, global technology leaders and individual innovators.
“When Venafi approached us about the possibility of sponsoring cert-manager with the to-be-launched Development Fund, I thought it was too good to be true,” said Matt Barker, CEO of Jetstack. “As I explored it further, it turned out to be better than we could have imagined, and the sponsorship and support we received on joining played a big part in the project’s success. More importantly, the relationship helped us develop customers and commercial strategy, which ultimately culminated in us joining the Venafi business in May 2020. For anyone developing products in and around the machine identity management space, especially in the cloud-native, developer-centered world, I would highly recommend getting in touch to find out how you can play a part.”
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The Machine Identity Management Development Fund encourages recipients to build integrations that deliver greater visibility, intelligence and automation across any technology that creates or consumes machine identities, including:
- Cloud and hybrid-cloud infrastructure
- Kubernetes
- Service mesh
- DevOps
- Containerization
- Secure Shell (SSH)
- Code signing
- Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
- Artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data analytics
- IoT
- Blockchain-distributed ledger technology
To find out more about the Venafi Machine Identity Management Development Fund and how you can become a funded developer,
Quotes from Development Fund participants:
Bruno Couillard, president & CEO at Crypto4A: “From the first moment that we were introduced to Venafi, to participating in the Machine Identity Management Development Fund, to today, we continue to have an amazing journey. Being part of the Development Fund has allowed Crypto4A to focus and align ourselves to solving problems by focusing on the outcomes that customers care about most. It is amazing to be part of the journey with Venafi in getting machine identities recognized as an important category that requires attention. With the upcoming challenges we face due to quantum computing, there is also a great opportunity to solidify our security foundations as an industry—and we can’t think of a better company than Venafi to work with in helping our customers navigate these challenges.”
Jeffry Jacob, cyber risk management advisor at Difenda: “As a result of the progress and success over the last 18 months, what started out as a project has now become a dedicated business unit. Venafi not only provided us the initial financial support through the Development Fund, they have also provided technical recommendations, support and insights into customer expectations to help us build the right product. With their deep knowledge and understanding of their customer base, Venafi has been instrumental in identifying opportunities and driving sales for Difenda’s app. Venafi continues to work closely with us in product development, marketing, sales and customer satisfaction, thereby providing assurance over the long-term potential and sustainability of our integration product.”
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Sven Feuchtmüller, managing director at filancore UG: “New ideas for software innovation grow out of the minds of tech entrepreneurs. Venafi helps young startups put those ideas into reality. Venafi’s Development Fund works in collaboration with innovators and other experienced individuals to support customer needs.”
Gerrit Tamboer, managing director at Fullstaq: “Open source software is the foundation of the company we build. Not only is it our default choice when delivering solutions to our customers, but we also love contributing to open source projects on a regular basis. We are very grateful for being a part of the Development Fund and using our knowledge of the open source ecosystem on a much wider scale.”
Alex Ellis, founder of OpenFaaS Ltd and CNCF ambassador: “Open source is a distribution model, rather than a business model, which makes sourcing funding and sustainability particularly challenging. This is even more of a problem for independent projects and companies that are not externally funded. Venafi’s Development Fund is a practical way to help cloud-native teams build out enterprise features and reach Global 5000 companies.”
Peter John Marquez, general manager at ServiceRocket Apps: “You can’t just open a marketplace and declare that you have an ecosystem. Launching a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) is not a simple matter. For the past 10+ years, ServiceRocket has helped software companies like Atlassian and Salesforce establish and grow world-class ecosystems. We know successful PaaS ecosystems require strategic planning and investment. That is why it has been such a pleasure to work with Venafi and their Development Fund. This team understands how critical it is to create an environment where their products, customers and partners can thrive.”
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