Cirencester-based Core to Cloud is joining forces in the battle against cyber crime with Silicon Valley specialists Illumio. 

And buoyed by success, the 2015-founded Cirencester company is now looking to expand its workforce by 50%.

Currently employing 27 people, a spokeman for the firm told Punchline that the Illumio partnership underlines Core to Cloud's steady success.

"We took on 56% more staff last year and aim for 50% for 2023, though the challenge is finding people with the right tech skills," he said. Candidates are welcome, he added, to approach the firm proactively.

As cyber attacks become increasingly sophisticated and targeted, Core to Cloud supports more than 100 customers, including Fat Face, University College London and over 50 NHS Trusts. New partner Illumio specialises in Zero Trust Segmentation (ZTS).

In simple terms, ZTS is a strategic approach to cybersecurity that secures an organisation by eliminating any implicit trust and continuously validating every stage in digital interaction. 

As 2021's dramatic cyber attack on the planning portal of Gloucester City Council shows, such threats are far from abstract.

James Cunningham, CEO of Core to Cloud, said: "Despite record spending on cybersecurity, the world continues to experience more frequent and devastating breaches—in the past two years alone, 76 percent of organisations were attacked by ransomware. 

"The hyperconnectivity that comes with digital transformation makes organisations increasingly vulnerable. Attacks continue to break through perimeter defences and move, often undetected, to access critical assets and infrastructure."

ZTS, he added, is a modern security approach that contains and minimises the impact of breaches and ransomware.

"Illumio ZTS is the first platform that prevents breaches from spreading across endpoints, clouds, and data centers by continually visualising how workloads and devices are communicating, creating granular policies that allow only wanted and necessary communication, automatically isolating breaches by restricting lateral movement proactively or during an active attack."

From healthcare to enterprise, organisations are continuously seeking new ways to defend against constant and advancing threats, he explained.

"Threat actors use increasingly sophisticated techniques to breach organisations, whether it's automation or AI, meaning it's more a case of when rather than if.

"We're delighted to be working with Illumio; the partnership makes us one of only a handful of UK cyber specialists to be able to offer its ZTS product suite to UK customers."

Scott Walker, a senior director at Illumio, said: "Core to Cloud is a cybersecurity specialist that strives to help organisations solve problems in different ways, so there is a natural synergy in terms of culture, goals, and experience."

James added: "The partnership is a perfect fit. We both have extensive experience in healthcare and Enterprise with a mutual goal to bring the latest innovations in cybersecurity to the UK, to help organisations minimise the risks of the modern threat landscape. We look forward to what the future holds by working together."

Core to Cloud is appropriately based at Cecily Hill Barracks in Cirencester - a former military installation known locally as The Castle.