Zscaler boosts AI capabilities with cybersecurity startup Avalor acquisition

Zscaler, a prominent figure in the cloud security industry, is set to augment its AI data capability through the acquisition of cybersecurity startup Avalor. With the boosted capabilities of Avalor's Data Fabric for Security, Zscaler aims to more efficiently identify and prevent potential data breaches, adding an additional layer of security.

This move forwards Zscaler's commitment to AI innovations within the Zero Trust Exchange data, bolstered by Avalor's over 150 pre-built integrations. These measures will allow customers to proactively identify and anticipate critical vulnerabilities while improving operational efficiencies.

Benefiting from its monumental data foundation, Zscaler is perfectly positioned to revolutionise AI capabilities within the cybersecurity industry. The company's new proposition will help organisations mitigate risks and optimise their performance while enabling zero-touch operations.

Jay Chaudhry, CEO, Chairman, and Founder of Zscaler, stressed the importance of robust data in AI, stating, "AI is only as good as the underlying data, and many solutions lack the additional context and knowledge from data sources across the enterprise to truly leverage security-specific AI models."

"Zscaler operates the world's largest security cloud with the most relevant data to train security-specific large language models (LLMs), and with the Avalor acquisition, we can more effectively identify vulnerabilities while predicting and preventing breaches," said Jay Chaudhry. 

Avalor's Data Fabric for Security performs the critical task of ingesting, normalising, and unifying data across enterprise security and business systems to generate actionable insights, analytics, and operational efficiencies.

Expanded by Zscaler's Zero Trust Exchange platform, the security-centric data fabric will enhance and fully automate AI-driven analytics and decision-making in real-time. This integration will simplify the complexity of data aggregation and collection, making it more accessible and user-friendly.

Raanan Raz, Co-Founder and CEO of Avalor, also commented, "We have long understood that being able to make sense of all the disparate security data sources in an organisation is essential to understanding and improving risk posture; that is why we delivered the industry's first Data Fabric for Security to provide that aggregated platform."

"The first application running on our Data Fabric is our Unified Vulnerability Management (UVM) module. By combining the Zscaler proprietary data sets with the 150 third-party sources Avalor supports, we will be in a prime position to enhance our UVM capabilities and create new applications with additional cyber protection insights," said Raanan Raz. 

The acquisition deal was finalised predominantly in cash on March 13, 2024, with equity subject to vesting conditions making up the rest of the offer. While this collaboration breathes exciting changes into the AI and cybersecurity sector, integrating Avalor's technology and operations will be an important challenge moving forward. Both companies are enthusiastic about the potential benefits this will offer customers and the industry.