Next-Generation Technologies & Secure Development
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Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SSDLC) Management
Merger Combines Application Protection and DevOps to Secure Software at Scale

Jyoti Bansal will combine the software delivery and API security companies he established to create a more seamless DevSecOps experience for developer and security personas.
See Also: OnDemand | AI in the Spotlight: Exploring the Future of AppSec Evolution
Bringing San Francisco-based Harness and San Francisco-based Traceable together will take advantage of increasing convergence between DevOps and application security personas and lower friction for software development, security and deployment, according to Traceable co-founder and CTO Sanjay Nagaraj. Both companies have observed overlapping customer interests and business needs, he said.
“We saw the convergence of personas happening from a DevSecOps perspective overall, and it just makes sense to build a DevSecOps platform to address both sides of the need, from a DevOps perspective and a SecOps perspective,” Nagaraj told Information Security Media Group.
Harness, founded in 2017, employs nearly 1,200 people and in May 2024 received $150 million in financing from Silicon Valley Bank. Traceable, founded in 2019, employs 229 people and has raised $110 million of outside funding, most recently including $30 million in May 2024 from a group of investors led by IVP. The combined company will move forward under the Harness name (see: How Akamai’s Acquisition of Noname Enhances API Protection).
How Harness, Traceable Will Come Together
Developers have historically focused on software delivery while security teams ensured compliance and protection, but as organizations embraced DevSecOps, these responsibilities merged, creating demand for a single platform. Developer teams started integrating security early into the software development lifecycle, with many customers actively requesting joint discussions about Harness and Traceable.
“The expectation of these developers is that they are continuously delivering value to the business,” he said. “That means the writing of code, which is shipping continuously. What happens to the security aspects of those things in that delivery itself? Bringing two amazing companies that were growing very well independently to create a much stronger company just made sense.”
Modern software development follows a continuous delivery model, in which new features, bug fixes and updates are constantly deployed, but the speed of software development has introduced security risks. AI-powered code generation has made it easier to develop and shift software faster, but this practice also boosts the likelihood of security vulnerabilities – and adding security after deployment isn’t effective, he said.
“Continuous delivery in itself is not enough,” Nagaraj said. “Continuous security is also very much required as part of it. And that’s where the companies are coming together, and the personas are also starting to see the same thing.”
Organizations using both Harness and Traceable previously had to manage separate systems, integrations and administrative tasks, but these products will be unified post-merger, simplifying access control, licensing and platform administration. Developers also will have better visibility into security risks earlier in the pipeline, while security teams will have better insights into the development process, Nagaraj said.
“The team philosophy in terms of the culture that’s built, the product philosophy in terms of how they are built, to the customer value delivery is all exactly the same, right?” Nagaraj said. “That means that the customers get the added benefit of now having not only the DevOps knowledge, but also the security knowledge coming together in one single company.”
The first six months will focus on platform-level integrations such as role-based access control, user management and licensing to unify how customers manage users and security permissions across both platforms. From there, data sharing and automation between Harness and Traceable will be improved, and product-level integrations will enhance application security features and build security automation.
“In the next 12 months, we truly believe that combined value for some of the products that Harness has will start to come to our customers as we progress,” Nagaraj said.
What’s the Future for Standalone API Security Vendors?
Combining AI-native insights with security automation will help organizations manage security risks more efficiently and make software delivery faster, more secure and more efficient, Nagaraj said. AI can help identify anomalies in real-time, automatically enforce role-based permissions, compliance checks and risk mitigation, and assist with code security reviews, thereby reducing manual efforts, Nagaraj said.
“AI is continuing to redefine software delivery in many ways,” Nagaraj said. “We are committed to building a powerful library of AI-native agents to make software delivery faster, more efficient and more secure.”
Standalone API security vendors will struggle unless they offer more than just API discovery and testing, Nagaraj said, with many traditional API security companies focused on cataloging and testing APIs but lacking runtime security and advanced threat detection. Traceable has instead focused on API-driven security, Nagaraj said, using real-time API traffic analysis to enhance detection and protection, he said.
“We were able to cover the end to end of discovery, testing and runtime protection with the best-in-breed across all of those modules,” Nagaraj said. “So, if someone really needs to go build an API security company today or actually survive going forward, they need to have best in breed in all three categories. Otherwise, they will be actually replaced by a me-too product from an Akamai or an F5 or whatnot.”
Nagaraj said the success of the Harness-Traceable deal will be measured by boosting market presence and increasing sales, the number of Harness customers adopting Traceable security solutions, and how many customers deploy Traceable’s security solutions in production. High adoption rates will validate the effectiveness of the integration, with success measured in both financial and operational terms.
“At Traceable, we have an adoption rate where 95% of our customers were deployed in production,” Nagaraj said. “And the motto that we had was, ‘We want to be the single largest security provider with the most amount of deployments in production.'”