What is our primary use case?
We use Apiiro to detect secrets in our code, including SCA and SBOM generation. We recently used it to identify unused and public GitHub repositories, which we were able to clean up and remove code that should have been private.
We deployed Apiiro as SaaS.
How has it helped my organization?
The biggest benefit of Apiiro for us was the visibility it gave us into our GitHub organization, which we didn't have much of before.
The benefit of adding Apiiro early is that it would be integrated into our pipeline from the start. Since we have had some of our software products for many years, we would have to do a lot of cleaning up before integrating Apiiro into our developer workflow. Integrating Apiiro early allows us to stay ahead of the curve on security issues and address them as they arise, rather than having a huge backlog for developers to fix.
Apiiro's ability to provide visibility into the risk of our application components is great. This was a selling feature for us. Apiiro was a less mature product a little over a year ago when they were still early on in their development. However, they have made fantastic advancements over the last year, which has given us much more visibility into that sort of thing.
Apiiro has helped prevent business-critical risks by making recommendations based on what it thinks is a high or critical issue. I think it does a pretty good job at that, but those recommendations still need a manual review from us. In general, if Apiiro flags a critical issue, it is usually pretty close to identifying whether it is business-critical or not. It is something we should review, even if we end up downgrading it. Apiiro raises valid concerns, and I am happy that it does.
What is most valuable?
Apiiro's secrets detection feature has saved us several times, which we appreciate greatly. We also like the visibility aspect because it goes beyond visibility into code to include visibility into our developers' work and who needs more security training. Apiiro allows us to identify repeat offenders who introduce security issues, so we can provide them with additional training and support.
What needs improvement?
Apiiro recently integrated SaaS, and we would love to see them expand on that. They provide many integrations to different products, including SaaS products such as Snyk. Ideally, Apiiro would include SaaS from the get-go.
I would like support for our self-hosted Git server, other than GitHub, just regular Git. I understand that it's a legacy system and most people aren't using on-premises Git servers. We're probably gonna move away from it soon, and Apiiro is trying to accommodate us there.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Apiiro for over one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability has been very good. Early on, there was one instance when it was down for an hour or so, but it was not a big deal.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Apiiro is scalable, even for large customers. It's hard to say for certain, but we haven't had any issues with it. We probably have around a hundred or two hundred GitHub repositories, and we haven't had any performance issues or anything like that.
How are customer service and support?
We have biweekly or monthly meetings with them, and we raise any questions or concerns we have at that time. I have never needed to contact Apiiro's technical support independently.
We are also in a Slack channel with Apiiro, where we can ping them if we have any questions, and they usually respond quickly.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used Black Duck Hub to identify risky licenses, but that was essentially the only thing we used it for.
When we first started using Apiiro, it was not as mature as it is today. However, when we evaluate software vendors, we are not only evaluating the product but also the team behind it. We try to envision what the future might look like for the product and whether it has the potential to become great. If we can get in early on a product that shows promise, it can be beneficial for us both in terms of usability. We won't have to change tools in two years and pricing because we can get in at a good price early on.
The entire proof-of-concept process, sales process, and working with the Apiiro engineers were all very positive. I would like to emphasize that the team at Apiiro has been fantastic.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment was straightforward. One person was required for the deployment.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation was completed in-house with the help of an Apiiro tech.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Snyk, Endor, and primarily GuardRails. We chose Apiiro because of its team. GuardRails was significantly more expensive then, and it was one of those situations where the price difference didn't make sense to me. Apiiro was already clearly on its way to providing everything that GuardRails had pitched us, it was better priced, and the team was outstanding. So, from a value perspective, Apiiro was a great choice at the beginning.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Apiiro ten out of ten. There are certain features we're asking for That Apiiro is working with us on. Generally, these are not super major things.
Apiiro is a mature solution.
Apiiro has added a lot of work because there were many things we didn't know about that we had to address. So, theoretically, it has increased our workload because our entire AppSec program was virtually nonexistent for a while. We weren't doing anything, but after implementing Apiiro, there is a lot more work. Therefore, I wouldn't say that it has reduced our manual workload.
We hired at least one person specifically to work with Apiiro. In that sense, it is additional work, but it is a good thing, and we somewhat anticipated it.
In the past year, we have requested features from Apiiro. One of them has been a bit of a back-and-forth process, but we have met with both of their founders, who have taken the time to meet with us and discuss how we can achieve our goals, even if it means getting what we need from Apiiro in a different way than we originally intended. They have been very engaged with us, and we feel that they treat us like any other customer, even though we are smaller.
No maintenance is required except for setting up our configurations.
My advice is to use Apiiro strategically. This means that we should not simply bring Apiiro into our environment, take all of its findings at once, and expect the development teams to fix them all within a couple of months. Instead, use Apiiro as a supporting tool for our AppSec strategy. I have seen many organizations bring on Apiiro or similar tools and then simply take all of the findings, create tickets for them, and assign them to developers. However, I believe that we need to be more strategic in how we integrate Apiiro into our culture and workflows.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud