Lepide Empowers Enterprises to Keep Digital Assets Safe — Whether They are Located On-Premises or in Cloud Servers

TL; DR: Lepide helps large enterprises across the globe improve data protection, meet compliance standards, and mitigate threats. The company’s data security platform helps protect core systems, whether they’re kept on-premises or in cloud servers, and is compatible with other security information and event management (SIEM) solutions. With a fast and innovative approach to ongoing development, Lepide strives to keep customers one step ahead of adversaries in an ever-evolving threat landscape.

In recent years, we’ve seen hackers successfully breach large companies and institutions that invest heavily in sophisticated cybersecurity solutions. These events underscore a hard truth: Due to human fallibility and the increasingly complex nature of IT systems, protecting an entire IT system 100% of the time is an impossible feat.

But accepting this fact doesn’t mean you should view cybersecurity as an all-or-nothing proposition. The key is to follow cybersecurity best practices while locking down an organization’s most valuable digital asset — its data.

“It’s critically important to, at the very least, have visibility over the stuff that matters,” said Aidan Simister, CEO at Lepide (pronounced le-pie’d). “A lot of people are put off because they think it will be a million-dollar project that’s incredibly complicated. It doesn’t need to be like that.”

Lepide’s data security platform empowers organizations across the globe to protect sensitive data and meet compliance requirements. The platform features an interactive dashboard that provides a high-level view of systems and data in real time. Users can classify and locate sensitive data, track permission changes, analyze behavioral patterns, and audit changes being made.

Moreover, Lepide protects data and essential systems whether they’re kept on-premises or in cloud servers. The solution is also compatible with other applications and security information and event management (SIEM) solutions, making it easier for organizations to adopt the technology. Ultimately, the Lepide team is on a mission to help organizations implement enterprise-level data protection regardless of their size, industry, or budget.

Lepide provides end-to-end data visibility across file servers as well as applications like Active Directory, Dropbox, Group Policy, NetApp, and Office 365.

“Data is absolutely critical,” Aidan said. “We believe that wherever it’s stored, whether it’s in the cloud or on prem, whether it’s on a server or stored in AWS, doesn’t matter,” Aidan said. “But we also fundamentally believe that the responsibility to keep it secure and safe shouldn’t be just because you have to pass a compliance audit. It’s super important that organizations treat data with the respect that it deserves.”

Aidan told us the benefits of Lepide’s data security platform can be boiled down to four areas.

“First, there’s the discovery classification piece; we help you understand where your sensitive data is and why it’s sensitive,” he said. “If you have files that contain shareholder data buried away and stored on some file server that you’ve totally forgotten about, that’s not ideal.”

The second piece of the puzzle is figuring out who has access to the sensitive data identified. Aidan said this step helps reduce risk through the ability to modify access policies.

“The next logical step is to understand the behavior around sensitive data through reports, alerts, and anomaly detection,” Aidan said. “For example, why is a certain employee suddenly accessing files at 3 a.m. if he doesn’t normally behave like that?”

Finally, the platform automatically scans and classifies data related to compliance regulations, providing greater visibility over the content of files.

“So in terms of our value proposition, it’s providing organizations with better visibility to make better decisions around their data and doing it in a way that isn’t crazily expensive or ridiculously complicated,” Aidan said. “And in a way that doesn’t require speaking to some aggressive, hungry salesperson.”

Aidan told us that the events of 2020 spurred widespread adoption of cloud computing to power distributed workforces. The year also brought forth increased awareness when it comes to data security.

“We had a massive surge in demand once everybody figured out, well, we’ve given people laptops, but how are we going to secure them? It’s funny because many people are saying how there’s been a massive shift in how at-risk data is. But I don’t truly believe that.”

He said the concept of a secure network perimeter was rendered obsolete by mobility, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT) long before the pandemic. He pointed to Shadow IT — or the IT systems put in place by users other than the core IT department to address inadequacies of the central system.

“Data may feel more at risk, but largely, I think it’s a psychological thing,” he said. “People are like, ‘We no longer see employees in our offices; we don’t know what they’re doing or how they’re operating.’ But it’s certainly driven a lot of organizations to think deeply about the risks that are posed to what is essentially the lifeblood of their business, which is their data.”

Lepide’s suite of security solutions addresses these newfound fears.

“It’s about having confidence that you’ve got visibility over the data that matters the most in the organization and using that visibility to make better decisions or at least start on a security journey. Security should never be an afterthought.”

Over the years, Lepide has built up a good list of platform features — from change audits and user interaction tracking to access governance, reports, real-time alerts, and compatibility with numerous platforms. In terms of future evolution, the company has recently adopted a customer-fueled product development approach to coincide with its new focus on monetization through subscriptions.

“The honest truth is, probably up until 18 months ago, we lived in our own echo chamber,” Aidan said. “We thought we knew best. Now we have very regular interactions with each one of our customers. We’re always asking, ‘What are we missing? What can we fix?’”

Such a strategy is fundamental to Lepide’s current release process.

“We innovate fast,” Aidan said. “I mean, we are a technical company, not a sales outfit. We have four releases a year and have regular summits, customer meetings, and feedback surveys in place.”

In addition to planning for short-term needs, Lepide’s customer success team works closely with customers to understand their future needs.

“We want to know what will be important to customers in the next 12 to 18 months, in three to five years — we’re going to be able to service them then as well,” Aidan told us. “We’re getting a lot deeper into partnerships with our customers, getting closer to help understand and resolve their problems. I’m excited about what the future holds.”

Lepide offers a free, fully functional 15-day trial for all new customers. The trial includes permissions analysis, access governance, and behavior analytics. It also provides anomaly spotting, real-time alerts, and reports. Check it out to see why thousands of companies are using Lepide to get actionable insights into security and compliance concerns.