In addition to MaxCDN, StackPath purchased Fireblade, an Israeli web application firewall developer, and Cloak, a VPN provider. The company also developed software in-house to fight off distributed denial of services (DDOS) attacks.

All the technologies, except for the Cloak VPN, have been integrated into a single offering, Canale told CRN.

The company says its ultimate vision is to assemble a "suite of mission-critical security Web services" that will share information processed through a machine learning engine that "increasingly improves its threat posture."

“It effectively deputizes each service on the host network with the authority to identify and communicate real-time threats against it to an intelligent data repository," according to a company statement.

Applications, micro-services, and Internet of Things devices will be able to access those services via APIs.

Chris Elgaaen, director of security solutions at Sycomp, a Foster City, Calif.-based security specialist that is familiar with Crosby through its partnership with IBM, said the former SoftLayer CEO chose a hot market to target with his new venture.

But while companies are increasingly concerned about securing their cloud environments, the market is extremely competitive, Elgaaen said.

“StackPath will be going up against some of the leading security players with this approach," Elgaaen said. "Their success may well depend on how they are able to coexist in an environment with some of those established players."

If the StackPath offering requires enterprise clients to manage security policies separately from their existing environment, gaining market share will be challenging, he said.

Elgaaen said he's interested to see how the channel will ultimately participate in the startup's strategy.

 "SoftLayer was also historically a direct model," he told CRN. "It could be the focus is really on young, born-on-the-web companies."

StackPath's Series A round included $150 million from ABRY Partners, a private equity firm, and another $30 million from unnamed investors close to the company's founders.