Red Hat has announced it’ll acquire container and Kubernetes-native security provider StackRox in a bid to boost the security of its OpenShift Kubernetes platform. 

StackRox offers native security solutions to Kubernetes containers by directly deploying components for enforcement and deep data collection into the Kubernetes cluster infrastructure. The StackRox policy engine includes hundreds of built-in controls to enforce security best practices; industry standards, such as CIS Benchmarks and NIST; configuration management of containers and Kubernetes; and runtime security. 

Red Hat said the purchase would help it focus on securing cloud-native workloads by expanding and refining Kubernetes’ native controls and shifting security left into the container build and CI/CD phase. This will help provide a cohesive solution for enhanced security up and down the entire IT stack and throughout the lifecycle.

“Securing Kubernetes workloads and infrastructure cannot be done in a piecemeal manner; security must be an integrated part of every deployment, not an afterthought,” said Red Hat CEO Paul Cormier. 

“Red Hat adds StackRox’s Kubernetes-native capabilities to OpenShift’s layered security approach, furthering our mission to bring product-ready open innovation to every organization across the open hybrid cloud across IT footprints.”

Red Hat said it plans to open source StackRox’s technology post-acquisition. It’ll also continue to support the KubeLinter community and new communities as Red Hat works to open source StackRox’s offerings.

In addition to Red Hat OpenShift, StackRox will continue supporting multiple Kubernetes platforms, including Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE).

In a company blog post announcing the acquisition, StackRox CEO Kamal Shah said his company made a strategic decision to focus exclusively on Kubernetes and pivoted its entire product to be Kubernetes-native.

“Over two and a half years ago, we made a strategic decision to focus exclusively on Kubernetes and pivoted our entire product to be Kubernetes-native. While this seems obvious today; it wasn’t so then. Fast forward to 2020 and Kubernetes has emerged as the de facto operating system for cloud-native applications and hybrid cloud environments,” Shah said.