Tenable Poaches Cloud Exec From Qualys

By Ericka Chickowski 1

Vulnerability management and security monitoring firm Tenable Network Security showed partners it is doubling down on cloud with announcements this week that it’s launching a new security cloud solution and it has hired a new executive to oversee its cloud strategy.

Dubbed Nessus Cloud, the SaaS offering is evolving from Nessus Enterprise Cloud and will provide enhanced remote management of distributed scanners and added collaboration features that will likely appeal to Tenable’s managed services partners. According to Tenable, the company’s plans for the cloud go beyond the Nessus product line and it will ultimately deliver a global platform meant to complement the company’s continuous monitoring and vulnerability management products.

The company brought on Sean Molloy as vice president of cloud services to help steer its course in the cloud as it ramps up for a March 31 launch of Nessus Cloud and starts to build momentum toward that platform.

“As more organizations rely on enterprise-wide software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications for day-to-day operations, cloud security becomes a critical concern,” said Ron Gula, CEO, Tenable Network Security. “Tenable is investing heavily in cloud and Sean Molloy is exactly the right blend of visionary leader and hands-on project manager to help us give customers more choice and flexibility by delivering all of Tenable’s products as cloud services.”

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Previously Molloy was the chief architect for Tenable rival Qualys, where he was instrumental in designing and deploying its cloud platform and helping it transition to a services-based software model. It’s a model that’s worked well for Qualys, as evidenced by CEO Philippe Courtot’s earnings call with shareholders earlier this month, in which he explained that the percentage of customers who have bought more than one of its security SaaS solutions has risen from 20 percent in 2012 to 54 percent in 2014. He said that partners have played a big part in the company’s growth, calling out new managed services partnerships with federal contractor DMI, as well as Telstra in Australia and Orange CyberDefense in France and DMI

“These partnerships are unique as they deliver the complete suite of Qualys’ security and compliance offerings fully integrated with our managed services which can be seamlessly delivered from either our shared cloud platform or via private cloud,” he told shareholders.

Molloy is now tasked with helping Tenable to get a bigger piece of the security pie by recharging its cloud strategy.

“My job is to design, deploy, and operate a world-class cloud framework for the full Tenable product suite,” Molloy said. “We want to assure both capacity and availability, and provide a tight integration to the on-premise software. It’s something Tenable is uniquely positioned to deliver and I’m thrilled for the opportunity to work with such incredibly talented people to make our products available in the cloud.”