Company Overview

Imperva is a global leader in cybersecurity, co-founded in 2002 by Shlomo Kramer and Amichai Shulman, with headquarters in Redwood City, California, and R&D in Tel Aviv, Israel. Imperva specializes in Web Application Firewall (WAF), DDoS protection, API security, Bot management, Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP), and Data Security. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014 (NYSE: IMPV) and was acquired by private equity firm Thoma Bravo for approximately $2.1 billion in 2018, becoming a private company. Imperva also acquired Incapsula, a cloud security and CDN platform, further extending its security portfolio across both on-premise and cloud environments.

Related providers: Imperva Security Services、Imperva CDN Services

Core Products

  • Imperva WAF (Web Application Firewall)：Industry-leading WAF supporting both on-premise (SecureSphere) and cloud (Cloud WAF) deployments, protecting web applications against OWASP Top 10 attacks.
  • DDoS Protection：Globally distributed DDoS mitigation service capable of handling Tbps-scale attacks across L3/L4 and L7 layers.
  • CDN (Content Delivery Network)：Integrated content acceleration service with globally distributed edge nodes for static and dynamic content.
  • Bot Management：Identifies and mitigates malicious bot traffic, protecting applications from scraping, credential stuffing, and content theft.
  • API Security：API discovery, security detection, and threat protection to identify vulnerabilities and anomalous behavior.
  • RASP (Runtime Application Self-Protection)：Real-time attack detection and prevention from within applications without code modifications.
  • Data Security：Includes Database Activity Monitoring (DAM), Data Loss Prevention (DLP), and file security monitoring.
  • ThreatRadar：Imperva's threat intelligence service providing real-time threat feeds based on global network traffic data.

Core Strengths

  • Web Security Leader：Consistently recognized as a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader for WAF, with deep security expertise.
  • Hybrid Deployment Model：Offers both on-premise hardware appliances (SecureSphere) and cloud-native SaaS (Cloud WAF), supporting hybrid architectures.
  • Incapsula Integration：The acquisition and integration of Incapsula brought cloud security and CDN capabilities, bridging traditional WAF with modern cloud security.
  • Comprehensive Data Security：Beyond application security, Imperva offers leading database security and data leakage prevention solutions.

Key Milestones

  • 2002：Co-founded by Shlomo Kramer and Amichai Shulman in Tel Aviv, Israel, initially focused on database security.
  • 2011：Acquired Incapsula, entering the cloud security (WAF and CDN) market and establishing a dual-product strategy.
  • 2014：IPO on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: IMPV), raising capital for global expansion.
  • 2018：Acquired by Thoma Bravo for approximately $2.1 billion; company taken private.
  • 2020–Present：Continues to strengthen API security, Bot management, and cloud-native capabilities, unifying Incapsula and Imperva under a single security platform.

Market Position

Imperva competes with the following providers in the web application security and data security markets:

  • Cloudflare：Cloudflare WAF is Imperva's primary competitor in the cloud WAF space, leveraging a massive global network and free-tier adoption.
  • Akamai：Akamai's Web Security (Kona Site Defender) and CDN solutions directly compete with Imperva's cloud security products.
  • Radware：A fellow Israeli cybersecurity company, Radware's WAF and DDoS protection products overlap significantly with Imperva.
  • F5 Networks：F5 BIG-IP ASM and Silverline cloud WAF compete with Imperva in the traditional enterprise market.
  • Fortinet：Fortinet FortiWeb WAF and FortiGate security architecture compete with Imperva in the SMB and mid-market segments.