Former Palo Alto Networks CEOs, Dave Stevens and Lane Bess, Join vArmour as Board Members, Investors

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA–(Marketwired – Jul 9, 2014) – vArmour, a stealth security company designed to protect the new data defined perimeter for enterprises, today added more firepower to its board with the appointments of Lane Bess and Dave Stevens, who also join as investors. With a combined 60 years of experience leading and growing security, data center and tech start-ups, including Palo Alto Networks, Brocade and Zscaler, Lane and Dave will help guide vArmour through the high-growth phase the company is experiencing as they disrupt the market and continue to expand its product offerings with a powerful new level of protection for global enterprise data.

“Advanced attackers now live inside enterprise networks for an average of 243 days before detection,* and with the rise of cloud, virtualization and mobile, data centers are now as agile as they are vulnerable. vArmour is assembling a world-class team to develop and deliver a completely new way to visualize, manage and ultimately protect the data center and defend against these threats,” said Tim Eades, vArmour CEO. “Lane and Dave have proven their mettle growing major players in the security industry from early startups to Fortune 500 companies. To have them join as both board members and investors is a huge endorsement for the disruptive technology we are building and the massive market opportunity we’re pursuing.”

Lane and Dave will contribute their extensive experience in guiding vArmour through the company’s ongoing high-growth strategy and future acceleration. Specifically, the duo will advise vArmour on its technology roadmap and go-to-market plan, and leverage their numerous global industry connections to help scale the business quickly. As both Lane and Dave held the CEO position of network security leader Palo Alto Networks, the two executives have exceptional insight into the security space and will play a core role in successfully executing on vArmour’s goal to protect the new data-defined perimeter.

Dave Stevens has been an investor, entrepreneur, and operating executive in the technology industry for more than 25 years. Dave was a co-founder of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. in 2005 and served as its Chief Executive Officer until 2008. In that role, he developed the foundational vision and market entry strategy for the company’s transformative technology. Dave also served as a Venture Partner at Foundation Capital where he was responsible for investments in the communications, computing, storage and wireless sectors. Most recently, he was the Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Corporate Development for Brocade, where he led the company’s technology strategy, key business initiatives, M&A and investment portfolio as it focused on the evolving data center infrastructure within enterprises, cloud service providers and federal markets.

“Virtualization is driving a revolutionary change in architecture across the data center. Enterprises are simply not able to use legacy security and networking technologies to protect today’s highly virtualized environments,” says Dave Stevens. “The vArmour team has been able to design a solution, unencumbered by legacy thinking or technological trappings, that meets these challenges in a radically new and more effective way. I fully expect them to reform how enterprises protect their new, data defined perimeter in today’s reality of pervasive virtualization, constant threats and ongoing security breaches.”

Lane Bess has more than 25 years of experience and a proven track record in sales, marketing and executive management of rapidly growing, publicly traded and privately held companies serving the enterprise and consumer market. He is currently the chief operating office of Zscaler, an innovator and leader in cloud-based Internet security services. In his previous role as CEO of Palo Alto Networks, Lane was responsible for late fundraising and grew the company to over $200 million in revenue while on the path to its IPO. He additionally served as EVP of Worldwide Sales and general manager for Trend Micro, which exceeded $1 billion in annual revenue. Lane is also an investor and serves as an advisor at PernixData, Inc., ThoughtSpot, Inc. and Nutanix, Inc.

“Security challenges are constantly evolving in today’s post-mobile, post-cloud, post virtualization world. While so much industry innovation has been focused on the emerging and persistent threats outside of the data center or enterprise network, significant work is still needed to address data threats that have already infiltrated and live inside enterprise networks. vArmour is solving these issues head-on,” said Lane Bess. “The vArmour team has done an excellent job isolating and eradicating such threats in an actionable way, and in doing so, they’ve completely elevated the security market to a level we haven’t seen before.”

Those interested in learning more about the newly defined data perimeter are invited to attend an upcoming webinar: The Next Frontier in Enterprise Information Security. The webinar, presented by vArmour, distinguished Gartner analyst Neil McDonald and Stephen Sparkes, former CIO of Morgan Stanley, will take place on July 24. For more information, visit here.

*Source: Gartner Group, Mandiant

About vArmour
Based in Mountain View, Calif., vArmour is a stealth security company focused on securing the data-defined perimeter of enterprises. The company has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Highland Capital Partners. Executives from NetScreen, Juniper Networks, Silver Tail Systems, Citrix, Riverbed and IBM lead the company, which will launch later in 2014. Learn more at www.varmour.com.