In today’s cloud computing environments, workloads have exploded in both scale and complexity. Securing access to critical services and data requires robust authentication and authorization for every workload - from containerised applications to cloud services and AI agents. Yet most organisations still rely on primitive secrets management rather than true workload identity - creating a fundamental security gap in how services authenticate and access resources. Managing the identity and authentication of these workloads across dynamic cloud environments remains a central challenge for organisations striving to maintain security and compliance while protecting their critical services and data.
With the rise of cloud native architectures, ‘Non-Human Identities’ (NHI) for application workloads and cloud services are growing exponentially - now reaching up to 50 times more NHIs than humans. While robust solutions exist for human identity, few can effectively address the unique challenges of securing workloads at scale across heterogeneous environments.
At Cofide, we’re on a mission to revolutionise how organisations secure workloads across any cloud environment. By focusing on the foundational layer of identity, we’re building solutions based on open standards that make Zero Trust architectures practical and achievable for organisations of any size. We believe that security should be an enabler for developer innovation, not a hindrance.
To identify and authenticate workloads and services, organisations often use long-lived NHI credentials, like certificates, tokens and service accounts. That or rely on secrets management, which fundamentally isn’t identity at all, but rather shared knowledge that can be copied and misused. While these methods have served their purpose, they’ve become an increasingly critical vulnerability in our modern cloud-native landscape.
These practices present significant risk across enterprises: credentials are largely unmanaged, poorly documented, and wrapped in processes that create friction rather than security. Developers struggle with cumbersome workflows, leading to workarounds that expose organisations to risk through misconfigurations, inadvertent credential sharing, or targeted attacks.
Despite common knowledge of this attack vector, identity-based security breaches are on the rise and often feature in the headlines; Identity and Access Management (IAM) remains the most overlooked cloud attack risk (Sysdig Cloud-Native and Security Usage Report, 2024). It is estimated that a typical breach costs businesses on average $2.4M, as well as considerable reputational damage. The risks are mounting, and there is increasing C-level interest in the dangers that lurk in ever-growing cloud environments. There is now more desire than ever to act with urgency to address these challenges.
In a world where compute and networks are increasingly heterogeneous and highly dynamic, identity has become the cornerstone of effective security. Unlike traditional approaches based on secrets and static credentials, true identity-based security enables dynamic, context-aware access decisions based on what a workload is, not just what it knows. While the industry recognises that ‘Identity is the new perimeter,’ implementing this principle in real-world multi/hybrid cloud environments has remained unnecessarily complex; it is fair to say that ‘Zero Trust’ remains elusive for most.
We’re changing that through intelligent workload identity management for any cloud environment that is automated, consistent, contextual and based on open standards. Our identity-first approach ensures that every workload has cryptographically verifiable identity that can be used to make real-time access decisions, eliminating the risks associated with traditional credential management while simplifying security for developers.
Internet security as we know it today owes its existence to open standards. These aren’t just technical specifications; they’re the shared language of the digital, interconnected age, enabling seamless communication and security. Our team’s experience, including significant contributions to cert-manager at Jetstack (now part of Venafi) and Cilium at Isovalent (now part of Cisco), has shown us first-hand how automated, standards-based approaches can transform security operations at scale.
At Cofide, we’re building on this foundation, and are deeply committed to open standards for workload identity and interoperability. We’re embracing proven standards like SPIFFE and OAuth, as well as more emerging standards such as WIMSE. Just as we witnessed how automation of WebPKI through ACME transformed the security of web applications, we’re now pioneering the next evolution in cloud security - one where robust workload identity becomes the foundation of trust for the modern enterprise, securing an increasingly intelligent and interconnected ecosystem of cloud native and AI systems.
While we’re heads-down building and engaging with our design partners, we’re selectively opening our early access program to organisations that:
Early access partners will receive:
In the coming weeks and months, we’ll be sharing more resources, including open source contributions to the community. If you’re interested in joining our early access program and helping shape the future of workload identity, we’d love to connect with you. Contact us at [email protected] to learn more about enrolling in our early access program.
Talk to us for a demo and join our early access programme.