Awake Security

Awake Security is a Mountain View, California-based cybersecurity company that develops an artificial intelligence-driven network detection and response platform to automate enterprise threat hunting across complex hybrid-cloud environments. Prior to its acquisition, the enterprise software provider scaled its operations to approximately 175 employees and achieved a nearly 700 percent increase in annual recurring revenue. The business raised roughly $80 million in total venture capital funding, highlighted by a $36 million Series C round, and was backed by prominent institutional investors such as Greylock Partners and Bain Capital Ventures. After establishing strategic technical integrations with major platforms like Google Cloud, the company was acquired by networking infrastructure provider Arista Networks in late 2020 to form the Arista NDR division. Awake Security was founded in 2014 by Michael Callahan, Gary Golomb, Michael Moeller, Keith Amidon, and Debabrata Dash.

Awake Security is a network detection and response (NDR) company that built an AI-driven platform to discover, profile, and detect advanced threats across enterprise networks and was acquired by Arista Networks in 2020 (now marketed as Arista NDR). [2][9]

High-Level overview

Awake Security built an AI-native NDR product that uses machine learning to autonomously discover devices, users, and applications on networks and to surface high-fidelity attacker behaviors rather than raw alerts[3][7]. Awake’s product served enterprise security teams, SOCs, and incident responders across campus, data center, cloud, IoT/OT, and hybrid environments by providing triage, forensic context, and guided investigations[3][7]. The platform aimed to reduce operational overhead and improve detection accuracy versus legacy approaches by combining multi-dimensional ensemble ML with analyst-focused workflows[3][7]. Awake was acquired by Arista Networks to integrate its NDR capability into Arista’s security and cognitive cloud networking portfolio, extending Awake’s reach inside Arista’s customer base[6][9].

Origin story

Awake Security was founded to address gaps in network visibility and detection left by traditional endpoint and signature-based tools; its founders and leadership built the product around AI-driven behavioral modeling to detect adversarial intent across entities and time[8][9]. The company gained traction with enterprise customers and investors for its ability to reduce false positives and provide actionable “answers, not alerts,” leading to industry recognition and the formation of an advisory board as it scaled[8][7]. A pivotal moment was Awake’s acquisition by Arista Networks in 2020, which folded Awake’s NDR technology into Arista’s security offerings to deliver an integrated network + security solution[6][9].

Core differentiators

• AI-first NDR: Awake emphasized multi-dimensional ensemble machine learning to model attacker behaviors across devices, users, protocols, and time rather than relying solely on signatures or indicators[3][7].
  - High-fidelity signals and analyst workflows: The platform focused on surfacing contextualized, triaged incidents and guided forensic information to reduce SOC workload and speed investigations[3][7].
  - Broad network coverage: Awake positioned itself to operate across campus, data center, cloud, IoT/OT and hybrid environments, addressing the expanded “new network” surface area[3][7].
  - Integration and go-to-market via Arista: Post-acquisition, Awake’s technology benefits from Arista’s networking footprint and channel relationships to deliver security integrated with cognitive cloud networking[6][9].

Role in the broader tech landscape

Awake rode several converging trends: the growth of encrypted, distributed, and IoT-rich networks that reduce endpoint-only visibility; increasing demand for ML-driven threat detection to combat sophisticated attackers; and vendor consolidation where networking vendors embed security capabilities into the fabric of the network[3][6][9]. The timing mattered because enterprises were expanding cloud/IoT footprints and SOC teams were strained by alert fatigue, creating demand for high-fidelity NDR and analyst-centric tooling[3][7]. By demonstrating that network telemetry plus AI can produce actionable detections, Awake influenced expectations for how NDR products should reduce operational overhead and integrate with EDR/SIEM tooling in modern security stacks[3][7].

Quick take & future outlook

Having been acquired by Arista, Awake’s technology is positioned to scale as an integrated Arista NDR capability within network and cloud deployments, leveraging Arista’s customer base and distribution channels to accelerate adoption[6][9]. Future shaping trends include increased adoption of network-layer detection as a complement to endpoint/cloud telemetry, growing emphasis on AI explainability and analyst workflow automation, and continued consolidation between networking and security vendors—areas where Awake’s approach maps closely to market demand[3][6][9]. Expect Arista to continue embedding and evolving Awake’s NDR features to deliver tighter network-secured architectures and to push toward unified network + security operations for larger enterprises[6][9].