The past year has seen multiple high-profile incidents where companies left sensitive data in insecure cloud deployments. Lacework Inc. wants to make it easier to keep information hosted off-premises safe.

The security startup announced today that it has raised a $24 million Series B funding round led by Sutter Hill Ventures to support the effort. Lacework provides a software-as-a-service platform that can sift through the operational data generated in a cloud environment for signs of security issues.

Lacework collects information about everything from the applications in a deployment to the virtual machines, networks and storage repositories that support them. The startup’s platform then compares pertinent details against security best practices defined in advance by company’s administrators. Lacework can thus detect configuration oversights that may potentially pose a risk, such as whether a data repository is accessible without a password.

According to the startup, its platform checks every new modification made to cloud environments to ensure they stay compliant with best practices as they change over time. Lacework displays security gaps identified by its algorithms in a graphical dashboard that also provides advice on how to close them.

Other companies also offer such capabilities, including some of the very cloud providers whose platforms Lacework targets. Amazon Web Services Inc., for instance, late last year introduced features to help customers ensure their data repositories’ security settings are properly set up. One of the things that help Lacework stand out is that its configuration monitoring capabilities are paired with threat detection.

The startup’s platform keeps an eye out for unusual user behavior, suspicious system changes and other signs that tend to indicate a breach. Administrators can investigate positive hits flagged by Lacework through a built-in search console that makes it possible to surface operational logs related to an attack.

Lacework claims that its platform is currently used in production by more than 20 organizations. The startup will use the capital from the new funding round to expand sales and marketing efforts around the offering.

Lacework has raised a total of $$32.7 million to date.

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