Orca Security launches new global Partner Program and ai-powered Partner Success Platform. Orca Security announced its new global Partner POD Program and integrated, AI-powered Partner Success Platform (PSP). The program rewards partners across the full customer lifecycle, including net retention, while custom AI teammates within PSP help them identify opportunities, create content, build expertise and grow more efficiently. The program and platform are directly linked: what the Partner POD Program promises, PSP helps partners execute. Unlike traditional partner portals that primarily provide access to static information and resources, PSP is designed to actively help partners get work done. AI embedded throughout the platform can analyze data, generate materials, surface relevant intelligence, answer technical questions and automate time-intensive tasks. "AI gives us the opportunity to rethink not only what a partner platform can be, but the partner program itself," said Gil Geron, CEO and Co-Founder of Orca Security. "We're moving beyond traditional portals and static resources toward an intelligent experience that can anticipate needs, connect insights and help partners take action. Together, the Partner POD Program and Partner Success Platform create a foundation for AI to become a true growth engine, helping partners uncover opportunities and create more value for customers." The Partner POD Program is built around three principles: making Orca easy to do business with, engineering profitability into the program rather than negotiating it deal by deal, and extending Orca's innovation beyond its security product into how partners transact, sell and get rewarded. Partners are recognized for the value they create across the customer lifecycle, from new business through expansion and net retention. The Partner Success Platform brings marketing, intelligence, enablement and business planning into one AI-powered partner operating system. Key capabilities include: * AI-powered expertise: An AI assistant trained on Orca product documentation, answers partner questions and links directly to relevant source materials. * Intelligent account analysis: The Demand Center analyzes prospective accounts against Orca's ideal customer profile across 11 vectors, returning a match score, relevant intelligence, contacts, and downloadable preparation materials in under 30 seconds. * AI-generated campaigns: Partners can generate co-branded social content and lead-capture landing pages in approximately one minute, replacing processes that can otherwise require weeks and outside agency support. * AI-powered enablement: AI-generated quizzes, certifications, demos, and other activities help partners build expertise while tracking progress directly in the platform. * Automated planning and content: AI can generate business plans, QBR-ready materials, solution briefs, integration guides, and technology alliance battle cards. Together, the program and platform give partners a connected way to build expertise, create demand, support customers and grow their Orca businesses. The program establishes the incentives and rewards, while PSP helps partners put them into action with greater speed and less manual work. "We built the Partner Success Platform around the way partners actually work, making it easier to build expertise, find answers, understand where to focus, and get more done," said John Tavares, SVP, Worldwide Partner and Alliances, Orca Security. "By making benefits easier to access, rewarding outcomes across the customer lifecycle and putting AI directly in partners' hands, we're helping them move faster and build more profitable cloud security practices." For partners, the value is greater speed, efficiency and access to capabilities that traditionally require more time and resources. By automating repetitive work and making Orca expertise, intelligence, content creation and enablement available on demand, PSP helps partners spend less time searching for information, building materials and managing manual processes, and more time applying their expertise to customers and growing their businesses. "As someone who works across a broad portfolio of vendor partnerships, efficiency and precision matter," said Emily Doornbos, Director of Alliances & Programs, GuidePoint Security. "The Orca Partner Success Platform gives us the tools to move faster and smarter... the AI campaign agent removes the heavy lifting from demand generation, and the deal coaching capability means we're not just creating pipeline, we're closing it. It's the kind of platform that turns a good partnership into a great one, and I'm excited to see what it unlocks for our go-to-market motion together." The Partner POD Program combines PSP with enablement, incentives, deal protection and support for partners building their cloud security capabilities. Every partner receives access to the platform, with progress and activities tracked directly through PSP. The Orca Partner POD Program and Partner Success Platform are available globally and localized in six languages at launch. Partners can access PSP at psp.orca.security. Learn more at orca.security/partners/overview. David Marshall is the founder of VMblog.com, one of the industry's longest-running independent publications covering modern data center technologies. What began as a focus on virtualization and cloud computing has expanded to cover the full spectrum of enterprise IT, including AI, security, and DevOps, making VMblog a trusted destination for vendor news, technology analysis, and industry commentary.Beyond publishing, David has spent his career at the intersection of technology and business, inventing, marketing, and launching a number of successful software companies and products, and building a reputation as a skilled marketing executive in the enterprise IT space.David is also a published author, having written two well-regarded books on virtualization and served as technical editor for two "For Dummies" titles covering virtualization and cloud computing. He co-founded CloudCow.com, a publication focused on cloud computing, and has been named a VMware vExpert every year since 2009, one of the longest continuous honoree streaks in the program's history.Connect with David on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmarshall/

Cloud security firm Upwind scores $300M from Bessemer and TCV. The cloud security startup banks $300M at a $3.8B valuation led by Bessemer and TCV. Last updated: September 5, 2026 5:32 am Upwind Security has closed another nine-figure round as cloud security spending keeps climbing. The company raised $300M in Series C funding led by returning backers Bessemer and TCV, with Salesforce Ventures, Greylock and Craft Ventures among the participants, SiliconANGLE reported. The round values Upwind at $3.8B, roughly $2B more than at the start of the year. The raise comes eight months after the company's previous nine-figure round. Upwind sells a platform that automatically maps every asset in a cloud environment, refreshing its view every 30 seconds to catch configuration changes, new workloads and account shifts before they become exposures. Its approach leans on eBPF, a Linux feature that lets the company collect kernel-level telemetry without risky operating system changes. Upwind then applies AI to scan those assets for weak points, comparing each workload's configuration against known attack patterns. The platform can also generate AI-BOMs, bills of materials that list the components inside AI applications so administrators can spot risky software. The funding round underscores how investors are rewarding security startups that target the messy reality of modern clouds, where developers add and remove workloads constantly. Upwind competes with the likes of Wiz and Orca Security in the red-hot cloud security category.

Orca Security protects ai-powered & developer-built applications. Post Views: 1 Orca Security has unveiled two AI-powered solutions designed to address evolving risks in application development. Orca Security's ai-powered solutions. Orca Security has unveiled two AI-powered solutions designed to address evolving risks in application development. The first, Orca AI AppGen Security, identifies and protects applications created outside traditional development pipelines using AI platforms such as Claude, Supabase, and Lovable. The second, AI Code Security Auditor, employs deep static analysis to detect vulnerabilities in code generated through conventional software development processes. These additions expand the Orca Platform's capabilities to secure applications across all stages of creation, from enterprise engineering teams to AI-assisted developers. Key findings from Orca Research Pod. A 2026 report from Orca Research Pod, analyzing anonymized data from over 1,200 cloud environments, revealed that 52% of organizations now construct custom applications with AI assistance. As business units deploy AI-generated applications connected to APIs, cloud infrastructure, and sensitive data, traditional security oversight is increasingly insufficient. Simultaneously, exploitable flaws persist within development pipelines. IBM's research indicates that breaches involving shadow AI systems cost organizations an average of $670,000 more than standard incidents, emphasizing the urgency of comprehensive security measures. "Modern software development is no longer confined to engineering teams. Developers, non-technical employees, and even advanced AI models are generating applications across multiple environments. Security frameworks must adapt to this reality without hindering innovation," stated Gil Geron, CEO of Orca Security. "Our AI Code Security Auditor equips teams to proactively identify critical vulnerabilities in AI-assisted workflows, while AI AppGen Security ensures visibility over applications created outside traditional pipelines. Together, these tools provide unified protection for all software creation methods." Addressing critical challenges. The solutions address two critical challenges in contemporary development. Orca AI AppGen Security provides security teams with visibility into AI-generated applications by: * Identifying applications built outside formal pipelines and tracing their creators * Assessing risk exposure across API integrations, data access points, and third-party dependencies * Prioritizing threats based on potential business impact Orca Code Security Auditor enhances traditional static analysis by: * Detecting vulnerabilities overlooked by conventional SAST tools through AI-driven code evaluation * Conducting comprehensive repository scans to identify risks associated with frontier AI models * Focusing on exploitable weaknesses that pose immediate threats to systems "Developers and business teams are deploying applications at a pace that outstrips our ability to manually review them. Applications created outside our pipeline were previously invisible, creating significant blind spots," said Sangram Dash, CISO at Sisense. "These tools allow us to maintain control while enabling rapid development, ensuring we can govern all software without impeding progress." Expanding risks and industry trends. The report highlights growing risks as AI integration expands. Organizations must now secure applications developed through hybrid models where human and machine-generated code coexist. The tools emphasize the need for context-aware security strategies that balance innovation with risk mitigation. Additional findings from the State of AI Security Report 2026 include: * 78% of surveyed organizations reported increased complexity in managing AI-generated code * 43% of security teams lack tools to assess risks in AI-assisted development * 61% of breaches involving AI systems originated from unmonitored third-party integrations Adaptive security architectures. The report underscores the necessity of adaptive security architectures capable of evolving with emerging technologies. As AI-generated software becomes more prevalent, the focus shifts toward proactive risk assessment and real-time threat detection. The solutions are part of a broader industry trend toward AI-enhanced security. Recent studies show that organizations using AI-driven security tools experience 34% faster threat response times and 22% lower incident resolution costs compared to peers relying on traditional methods. Conclusion. The findings align with growing concerns about AI's role in cybersecurity. While AI accelerates development, it also introduces new attack vectors that require specialized mitigation strategies. The report recommends that organizations adopt unified security platforms capable of addressing both human and machine-generated software risks.