Salt Security

About Salt Security

Salt Security is a cutting-edge cybersecurity company specializing in API protection. Leveraging advanced AI/ML, an API data lake, and real-time analysis, Salt Security provides a robust platform based on adaptive intelligence that identifies and mitigates potential threats to API services. With a focus on proactive defense, Salt Security catalogs the customers’ APIs to prevent attacks in the early stages and deliver insights that improve the API security posture. With Salt Security, organizations can protect their most valuable data and services, and secure the integrity and vulnerability of their API-driven applications.

Summary

Salt Security, a leading API security platform, joined forces with AllCloud, a Datadog Gold Tier Partner, to enhance cloud observability, ensuring consistently high service levels for its growing customer base. Facing the challenges of processing vast amounts of data and managing a complex technology stack, Salt Security leveraged AllCloud’s Next Generation Landing Zone for a well-architected AWS infrastructure. Engaging seamlessly with the AllCloud FinOps team, Salt Security embarked on a journey of cost optimization and enhanced observability, benefitting from invaluable monthly insights and recommendations. Datadog, integrated by AllCloud, emerged as a central monitoring tool, enhancing visibility and operational efficiency, resulting in optimized pricing and performance, operational efficiency, scalability, and a commitment to growth with the AWS Enterprise Discount Program (EDP).

Challenge

Salt Security excels in detecting and mitigating attacks on APIs in real time. To achieve this, the platform processes vast amounts of data and manages a diverse stack of top-notch technologies in the backend, including AI. This demands robust, comprehensive observability and monitoring capabilities across the entire cloud environment. As with any growing SaaS business, the scrutiny of cloud costs intensifies, posing a significant challenge for optimization and efficient management. Recognizing the paramount importance of FinOps expertise, Salt sought a partner to address this critical concern.

Solution

Salt Security began working with AllCloud three years ago after migrating from another provider. Deployment of AllCloud’s Next Generation Landing Zone helped the Salt Security team to establish a well-architected and managed AWS infrastructure that supports scalability.

Following the architecting and setup of the AWS environment, Salt Security continued its collaboration with the AllCloud dedicated FinOps team, who provide monthly suggestions for cloud cost optimization and observability improvements. These recommendations, ranging from identifying unused resources to optimizing services such as Kafka for better efficiency, play a crucial role in achieving cost savings and operational excellence.

To address the issue of cloud observability and monitoring, Salt Security leveraged AllCloud’s partner, Datadog, a leading monitoring and analytics platform. As a recipient of the Partner of the Year award from Datadog, AllCloud was able to maximize the potential of the monitoring tool for the Salt platform, providing a holistic view of cloud performance and actionable insights for optimization.

Among other monitoring tools in Salt Security’s tech stack, Datadog plays a central role in providing visibility of the platform’s cloud operations. By sending customer metrics from the application and integrating with Kubernetes, Datadog enables deep insights into the application’s performance. In fact, Datadog has become the primary monitoring tool for Salt Security, supporting the escalation and scaling of operations. The platform processes several million messages per minute across hundreds of backend instances, adapting efficiently to peaks in customer seasonality.

Results

The implementation of Datadog and ongoing collaboration with AllCloud has provided several major benefits for Salt Security’s cloud management and performance:

• High service level: Datadog has become instrumental in enabling Salt Security to deliver high levels of service based on real-time demand to its growing customer base.
• Operational efficiency: Datadog has become a central tool at Salt Security, used across the organization, including R&D, SOC, and Sales. Cost savings are not just about reducing expenses but also optimizing resources, including CPU, memory, and backend scaling.
• Scalability and adaptability: Over the past year, Salt Security has grown its customer base significantly. AllCloud and Datadog have supported the operational and cost optimization efforts as the platform has scaled, focusing on internal resource utilization, Kubernetes tuning, and backend fine-tuning.
• Adapting to AWS changes: AllCloud has played a pivotal role in helping Salt Security navigate recent changes in AWS terms and conditions, providing the latest insights into the dynamic cloud industry. Weekly consultations ensure Salt Security can make informed decisions amidst evolving AWS models and changes in partner solutions.
• Commitment to growth: Salt Security’s commitment to scale and grow as a business is reflected in its engagement in the Enterprise Discount Program (EDP), signed through AllCloud. This three-year commitment signifies Salt Security’s dedication to cloud development and leveraging AWS resources efficiently.

“API security is a rapidly growing niche in the cybersecurity field. With AllCloud and Datadog as key partners, our team is confident in its ability to meet the demands of our customers, and provide world-leading API security services at scale.” –  Gal Porat, Director of DevOps, IT and Security at Salt Security

“We are thrilled to recognize AllCloud for their exceptional work on the Salt Security project. As a Partner of the Year award recipient, AllCloud has effectively leveraged Datadog’s leading monitoring and analytics platform to address critical issues of cloud observability and monitoring. Their expertise has enabled the Salt platform to fully harness Datadog’s capabilities, providing a comprehensive view of cloud performance and actionable insights for optimization.” – Fergal McDonnell, Director of Channels and Alliances, EMEA.