Companies are turning to data security startups to prevent theft of corporate info

NEW DELHI: As more employees carry their own computing devices to work, companies are turning to technology startups that provide data security and authentication services to prevent theft and misuse of corporate information.

The trend known as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) allows employees to use their personal devices such as tablets and smartphones to access company resources, including emails, databases and applications. While providing convenience, it also opens up security issues that companies have to address.

"There is a massive requirement for quality content management," said Anand Kekre, co-founder and chief executive of Pune-based Vaultize that provides data security for employees' personal devices at large companies, including the DDB Mudra group and Tech Mahindra.

Kekre and Ankur Panchbudhe, both IIT Bombay graduates, founded the company in 2010 with a seed capital of Rs 1 lakh, after stints at IBM, Veritas and Symantec. In July this year, Vaultize raised an undisclosed amount of funding from private equity fund Tata Capital Innovation Fund.
The startup secures unstructured data such as emails and files, encrypts data on various devices, and even remotely wipes off sensitive data if the device gets misplaced or stolen. "We evaluated a lot of solution providers, but zeroed in on them (Vaultize) because of their features and cost benefits," said Sebastian Joseph, chief technology officer of advertising major DDB Mudra Group. Kekre expects his company to report a revenue of up to $75 million in FY2015-16, with Indian customers contributing about 10% to the top line.

India's data protection services sector has seen significant growth over the last five years, with companies such as Pune-based Druva, through its InSync software, garnering clients such as Nasa and Stanford University. According to a recent BYOD-focused survey conducted by Dell, a significant portion of Indian corporates will prioritise their mobile investments in 2013 to include rising demand from employees to bring their own devices.

"The expectation is that an employee's work and personal lives should run concurrently," said Ravi Gururaj, chairman of Nasscom's product council. "This leads to significant security issues which traditional software will not always be able to solve," he said. This includes security challenges such as a corporate IT infrastructure losing control of a device's configuration and its security settings, leaving the company's network open to major breaches.