Kubernetes and containerized application management startup Sidero Labs Inc. announced today that it has raised $4 million in new funding to advance its solutions for managing bare-metal and hybrid computing clusters while ensuring high levels of security.

Founded in 2019, Sidero Labs was, as it says, “born out of real-life Kubernetes experience – and problems.” The founders had been running production Kubernetes clusters for large enterprise companies and found that many of the existing Linux distributions required a lot of effort and frequent patching to ensure security.

Sidero was created to solve these operational challenges. The company’s first project, Talos Linux, was a new immutable operating system built purely for Kubernetes that offers benefits such as security, stability and efficiency, plus improved performance capabilities, by minimizing functional surface area.

Its latest product, Omni, has been designed to help teams easily set up, deploy and manage clusters anywhere. Omni allows users to start with bare-metal, virtual machines or a cloud provider and create clusters spanning all locations, or deploy single-node clusters at remotely managed edge sites, with a few clicks.

The company counts among its customers Ubisoft Entertainment SA, F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG and Nokia Oyj, who the company says use its products for their ease of use. “With just three developers, we built our API on top of Omni, and had the operational cluster up  and running quickly,” said a spokesperson for Ubisoft. “If we had not used Omni, it would have delayed our platform by a year.”

Hiro Capital LLP led the investment round, with the Sony Innovation Fund also participating.

“This investment marks a pivotal moment for us, allowing us to accelerate product development and scale awareness to meet the growing demands of companies looking for intuitive and powerful tools to deploy and manage Kubernetes,” Sidero Lab Chief Executive Steve Francis said in a statement.

Image: Sidero