7 critical IT platforms to add to your tech stack

Remote security, threat detection, and incident response are some of the most critical issues IT and Security teams face in supporting their organizations. These attacks and vulnerabilities cost companies billions in lost revenue, lost data, and damaged reputation every year. For smaller organizations, the impact can be fatal. 

In all of these instances, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Some of the most valuable organizations in the world make their mark protecting the assets and reputation of thousands of other companies. 

To help you build a secure, thriving business, here are seven IT services and platforms that help companies protect themselves.

1. LogMeIn

In the post-pandemic world, remote work continues to be a valuable and important part of the landscape. With millions now working from home, companies need ways to securely bring people together digitally. Endpoint protection and remote access have become top priorities for organizations offering flexible work to their staff. 

This is the mission of LogMeIn, a SaaS platform for remote collaboration, IT management, and customer engagement. Founded in 2003 by Marton Anka, and Michael K. Simon, this Boston-based firm has become a well-recognized name in the industry.

They became a comprehensive resource for secure, streamlined remote collaboration through both their own development efforts (such as Central by LogMeIn remote management tool), and by completing key acquisitions with LastPass and GoToMeeting.

2. SentinelOne

Ransomware is both costly and destructive. As the world goes remote and digital, ransomware attacks have exploded, with experts predicting one attack happening every 11 seconds this year alone.

SentinelOne helps clients prevent and recover from ransomware and other malware threats using autonomous, AI-empowered detection to recognize the behaviors common in ransom operations.

The tool prevents bad actors from encrypting files and offers a roll-back option for protected Windows devices, allowing users to recover quickly in the event of a breach.

The Israeli-founded company, started in 2013 by founders Tomer Weingarten, Almog Cohen, and Ehud Shamir, has experienced considerable success in only 8 years. It has grown to over 700 employees and just last month landed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as the highest-ever debut for a Cybersecurity IPO. 

3. PagerDuty 

Up-to-the-minute information is essential for maintaining your IT infrastructure. It empowers companies to keep internal and external teams and products running, without costly downtime or errors.

PagerDuty helps comapnies stay on top of their infrastructure through an incident management platform that provides reliable notifications, automatic escalations, on-call scheduling, and other functionality. This allows teams to operate seamlessly and maintain uptime on their most important services and products. 

The Toronto-based company was founded in 2009 by University of Waterloo graduates Alex Solomon, Andrew Miklas, and Baskar Puvanathasan. The three founders, software engineering alums of Amazon, built the company after realizing that even large corporations had to fend for themselves with internally-built tools for managing IT infrastructure calls.

Knowing the critical role incident reports and escalation plans play in both IT security and company reputation, they built PagerDuty as a solution that any enterprise could easily put in place. 

Their idea took off, growing to a $1.8B valuation in just 10 years. The company debuted on the NYSE in April 2019.

4. CrowdStrike

Another player in the remote security and endpoint protection space, Crowdstrike is a recognized leader providing threat intelligence and cyberattack response services to a variety of high-profile clients and industries. 

The Sunnyvale, CA company was co-founded in 2011 by George Kurtz, Dmitri Alperovitch, and Gregg Marston.

The team soon added other high-profile names to its ranks, including former FBI investigator Shawn Henry. Henry was picked to lead CrowdStrike Services, a portion of the business focused on proactive detection and response services.

The company has garnered a bit of a star-studded reputation, with involvement in high-profile investigations including the widely-publicized Sony Pictures hack, and attacks on the Democratic National Convention (DNC) servers in 2015 and 2016.

As a result of their high-profile investigative work and comprehensive protection and response services, the company enjoyed an eye-catching Initial Public offering in 2019, with shares doubling on the first day of trading on the NASDAQ.

5. Okta

Getting logged in quickly and securely is important, whether you’re a remote employee or a customer logging in to use a service. 

Secure identity verification company Okta makes getting logged more secure than ever. Offering both single and multifactor login options for employee and customer applications, Okta ensures “that the right people have the right access to the right resources at the right time.”

The platform allows IT and IS teams to more easily manage and secure their user authentication processes. It also allows developers to create more secure login and identification controls for programs, services, and devices.

Okta was founded in 2009 Okta by Todd McKinnon and Frederic Kerrest. The company has enjoyed long-term success, first as a private company attracting $75 million in VC funding from top names including Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, and Sequoia Capital.

Later, the company’s 2017 IPO debuted with a valuation of over US $6B. 

For mor information, check out our Okta Buyer Guide which contains insight on pricing, plans, and how to get a discount.

6. 1Password 

Yes, remembering your password is a hassle. But it’s important.

Weak or forgotten passwords are one of the easiest ways for bad actors to infiltrate systems or platforms. Therefore, secure and reliable password management is imperative for everyone, whether you’re trying to securely log into company systems or post photos to Insta.

1Password was designed with all these needs in mind, from personal social platforms to mission-critical financial systems access.

This password manager, developed by AgileBits, provides secure storage for multiple passwords, software license keys, and other confidential data. It achieves security and flexibility via the use of a “virtual vault,” protected with a Password-based Key Derivation Function 2 (PBKDF2) master password. The SaaS-based service stores all your passwords (across many devices and browsers) in one place for a low monthly fee. 

Launched in 2006 by Dave Teare and Roustem Karimov (a self-described “two guys in a garage” story), 1Password quickly gained traction, growing to millions of users, 50,000 companies, and finally a $200m investment from top VC firm Accel in 2019. Continuing its evolution, 1Password acquired encrypted secrets management service SecretHub in April of this year. For the most recent updates on 1Password features, check out our guide on their newest product upgrade from 1Password 7 to 8 as well as our Buyer's Guide on 1Password for more info on pricing and plans.

7. Cybereason

Cybereason is a managed detection and response provider, helping to identify and avert cyber attacks, analyze evolving threats, and help clients recover from those attacks.

The company’s suite of services includes comprehensive endpoint management for devices, cloud-services protection, threat intelligence analysis, and detection & response. 

The Boston-based company, founded in 2012 by Lior Div, Yonatan Amit, and Yossi Naar also provides Next-Generation Antivirus (NGAV) services as well as a research entity, Nocturnus, that “specializes in discovering new attack methodologies, reverse-engineering malware, and exposing new system vulnerabilities.”

Nocturnus is notable for successful detection and “vaccination” of high-profile viruses such as the 2017 ransomware attack known as Bad Rabbit and the encryption malware attack NotPetya. 

This success in detection and prevention has garnered attention from venture capital investors including Charles River Ventures and tech investing giant SoftBank Group, with funding multiple investment series totaling over $388m US.

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