Mesa Security in the Google for Startups program

We’re excited to announce that Mesa Security is now part of the Google for Startups program! The Google for Startup’s cloud credits were very enticing and we were especially interested in leveraging some of the applications available in Google for Startups. In particular, Google Cloud stood out to us with Vertex AI, which enables us to run AI models with complete tenant privacy. This ensures that data remains secure and never leaves our infrastructure while leveraging powerful foundation models without the need to manage the underlying infrastructure. This is crucial for Mesa Security’s product requirements, as we process large volumes of tenant email data securely and at scale.

With Google for Startups, we also found that businesses could leverage Google Cloud’s extensive resources and expert support to accelerate their operations.

Our Approach to Building on Google Cloud

Google for Startups provides guidance and essential resources for startups looking to scale efficiently on Google Cloud. Being accepted into the program allowed us to access a robust ecosystem of tools that helped us implement best practices in development, security, and cost optimization.

We systematically structured our approach in five key steps:

1. Designing the Cloud Architecture

Our cloud strategy leverages the following key Google Cloud products:

• Cloud Storage & Databases: Utilizing Cloud Storage for raw data storage and Cloud SQL for structured threat intelligence.
• Compute Engine: Leveraging GPU instances for inferencing with local LLM and VLM models.
• Cloud Functions & Pub/Sub: Processing incoming emails from user submissions and using event-driven services for further processing in our detection pipeline.

Google for Startups provided us with the necessary credits and tools to streamline our cloud integration and architecture.

2. Leveraging Google’s AI & Threat Analysis Stack

The heart of our platform lies in real-time threat analysis, powered by Google’s AI stack:

• Vertex AI: Training deep learning models on historical attack patterns.
• Natural Language API: Extracting insights from text within emails, primarily for phishing and malicious intent detection.
• BigQuery & Looker: Running large-scale behavioral analysis across datasets to identify emerging threats and generate actionable insights.

3. Building an API-First Approach for Seamless Integration

For enterprise customers, seamless integration is crucial:

• Apigee API Management: Developing and managing secure APIs to expose security insights and integrate with enterprise email systems like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.
• Cloud Workflows: Automating response mechanisms such as blocking malicious senders and triggering security alerts.
• Cloud Functions: Enabling serverless execution of threat mitigation workflows.

4. Enhancing Security with Google Cloud’s Built-In Features

Security is a top priority when handling sensitive data. We incorporated security and compliance best practices using:

• Security Command Center: Providing continuous threat monitoring and compliance enforcement.
• Cloud Key Management (KMS): Managing secrets and encryption keys to protect confidential customer data.
• Chronicle Security Operations: Delivering intelligent threat detection and real-time monitoring for malicious activity.

5. Building Privately with Vertex AI

Vertex AI provides a powerful, fully managed service that enables startups to efficiently test and deploy AI applications within Google Cloud. The features that stood out to us include:

• Foundation Models: Accessing high-performing foundation models (such as Gemini) to experiment with and evaluate models tailored to our needs.
• Serverless Architecture: Seamlessly building and scaling generative AI applications while ensuring compliance with security best practices.
• RAG Implementation: Preventing hallucinations by fine-tuning models with proprietary email data and implementing Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) techniques.

Why Google for Startups?

The Google for Startups program has been invaluable in helping us optimize our infrastructure and scale effectively. Particularly, Google’s support has been instrumental in our cloud integration journey. The API-First approach ensures a smooth and efficient integration process for businesses and implementing Google Cloud’s security features has bolstered our data protection efforts. Choosing Google for Startups has significantly contributed to optimizing our infrastructure and scalability. We love that there is: 

• Enterprise-Grade Cloud Infrastructure: Google’s secure cloud capabilities ensure high compliance and reliability.
• Comprehensive Service Portfolio: A vast array of services tailored for AI-driven cybersecurity solutions.
• Global Reach & Low-Latency Connectivity: Google Cloud’s extensive global network ensures fast and reliable service delivery.

As we continue to leverage Google for Startups, we look forward to sharing more insights on how it enhances our capabilities and accelerates our mission to secure enterprise communications.