Cyber security specialist Palo Alto Networks has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Bridgecrew, a developer-first cloud security provider, for $156 million.

The firm said the acquisition will enable “shift-left” security, with its Prisma Cloud offering becoming the first cloud security platform to cover the full application lifecycle. 

The platform will now be able to provide developers with security assessment and enforcement capabilities throughout the DevOps process. Ultimately, Prisma customers will benefit from a single platform that can deliver cloud security from build time to runtime, seamlessly connecting security and DevOps teams, Palo Alto added.

“Shift left security is a must-have in any cloud security platform,” commented Nikesh Arora, chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks. “Developers don’t want to wait until runtime to find out their security is not working, and the CISO charged with protecting the entire organisation certainly values higher security from fixing issues earlier in the development lifecycle.

“We are thrilled to welcome Bridgecrew, and its widely adopted and trusted developer security platform, to Palo Alto Networks. When combined, Prisma Cloud customers will benefit from having security embedded in the very foundation of their cloud infrastructure.”

A pioneer in shift-left, Bridgecrew focuses on infrastructure as a code (IaC), which sees infrastructure configuration codified during development. The provider’s IaC platform offers developers and DevOps teams a systematic way to enforce infrastructure security standards throughout the development lifecycle. 

Additionally, Bridgecrew’s open source IaC scanner Checkov has gained significant early traction with developers, surpassing one million downloads in 2020 – its first full year of availability. The firm’s full security platform is also seeing strong early traction across many cloud-first organisations and several industries. 

Palo Alto said it will continue to invest in Bridgecrew’s open-source initiatives as part of its ongoing commitment to DevOps security.

The acquisition will also see Bridgecrew co-founders, Idan Tendler, Barak Schoster and Guy Eisenkot, join Palo Alto Networks along with their teams.

“We have dedicated ourselves to building developer-first tools that bridge the gap between developers and cloud security,” said Idan Tendler, co-founder and CEO of Bridgecrew. “By joining Palo Alto Networks, we will be able to bring codified cloud security to the developer community on a wider scale. We look forward to working together to continue shifting cloud security left.”

The deal is expected to close during Palo Alto Networks’ fiscal third quarter, subject to customary closing conditions.