Lacework

What it does

Lacework is an AI-native cloud security platform that protects cloud-native applications and infrastructure from vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and threats - covering code security, infrastructure as code scanning, cloud posture management, and runtime threat detection. AI capabilities include the Polygraph behavioral analytics engine that builds baselines of normal cloud activity and detects anomalies indicating threats without requiring predefined rules, AI-powered vulnerability prioritization that ranks CVEs by exploitability and business risk rather than CVSS score alone, automated attack path analysis that identifies how attackers could chain vulnerabilities to reach critical assets, intelligent cloud compliance monitoring that continuously checks configurations against security benchmarks, and AI-assisted alert investigation that provides context and recommended response for detected threats.

Strengths

• Mid-market engineering organizations use Lacework for cloud-native security - AI vulnerability prioritization focusing remediation effort and behavioral threat detection covering cloud workloads.
• Large enterprises use Lacework for enterprise cloud security - AI-powered detection across multi-cloud environments and code-to-cloud security coverage from development through production.
• Small cloud-native startups use Lacework for comprehensive cloud security - AI behavioral detection protecting cloud environments without dedicated security engineering to write detection rules.

Watch-outs

• Wiz has stronger cloud security market momentum: Wiz has rapidly become the dominant cloud security platform — Lacework competes on behavioral detection depth but faces strong competitive pressure from Wiz's agentless approach and extensive cloud integration.
• Behavioral anomaly detection requires tuning period: Lacework's Polygraph needs time to establish behavioral baselines — new deployments experience a learning period before anomaly detection achieves optimal signal-to-noise ratio.
• Alert volume management requires investment: Behavioral analytics can generate high alert volumes during initial deployment — security teams must invest in tuning and triage workflows to benefit from AI detection without alert fatigue.

Pricing

Lacework pricing based on cloud resources monitored. Not published. Mid-market contracts from approximately $50,000 annually. Enterprise pricing negotiated. Annual contracts.