Ian Riopel, CEO and Co-Founder of Root.io – Interview Series

Ian Robeel, CEO and co -founder of ROOT.IO, tops the company’s task to secure the supply chain for software with the original cloud solutions. With over 15 years of cybersecurity and security, he has played leadership roles in Slim.ai and FXP, focusing on institutions sales, going to the market, and public sector growth. He holds ace from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan and is a graduate of the American Army Intelligence School.

Root.io is a specific cloud safety platform designed to help institutions secure their software supply chain. By automating confidence and compliance through development tubes, Root.io allows the connection of faster and more reliable programs for modern Devops teams.

What inspired the founding of the root, and how did the idea of ​​treating automatic weakness (Avr)?

Root was born from a deep frustration that we have repeatedly faced: organizations that devote huge amounts of time and resources to chase the weaknesses that have never disappeared. The screening has become the only defense against the technical debts that CVE accumulates, but with the emerging weakness rate, the screening alone is no longer sufficient anymore.

As preserved for Slim Toolkit (formerly Dockerslim), we were already deeply involved in improving containers and safety. It was natural for us to ask: What if the containers could repair themselves proactive as part of the life software development cycle? Automatic installation, now known as automatic weakness (“AVR”), was a solution – an approach that does not focus on building sorting and a list, but removes it automatically, directly in your program, without making breakage changes.

The root was previously known as Slim.ai – which paid the brand, and how the company developed during this transition?

Slim.ai began as a tool to help developers reduce and improve containers. But soon we realized that our technology has evolved into something more influential: a strong platform capable of securing production programs in a proactive manner. The brand to the root embodies this transformational transformation-from the developer improvement tool to a strong safety solution that enables any institution to meet strict security requirements about open source programs in minutes. Root embodies our mission: reaching the root of software risk and re -processing weaknesses before they become accidents.

You have a team with deep roots in cybersecurity, from Cisco, Trustwave and SNYK. How does your collective experience form the root DNA?

Our team built security scanners, defended international institutions, and specific solutions to some of the most sensitive and high -risk infrastructure. We wrestled directly with the preferences between speed, security and developer experience. This group experience mainly formed the root DNA. We are obsessed with automation and integration – not just identifying safety problems but solving them quickly without creating a new friction. Our experience informs every decision, ensuring that security rushes innovation instead of slowing it down.

Root claims to the weakness points in the containers in seconds – no rebuilding, no stop. How does your AVR technology already work under the cap?

Avr works directly on the container layer, quickly identifying, correcting, correcting or replacing it inside the same image – without requirement of complex rebuilding. Think about it as the weakened symbol excerpts by replacing smoothly with your replacement with dependencies, layers and time of time. No more waiting on the spot stains, no need to return your pipe engineer. It is a treatment quickly innovation.

Can you explain what distinguishes the root from other safety solutions such as Chainguard or RapidFort? What is the edge of this space?

Unlike Chainguard, which imposes rebuilding using coordinated images, or RapidFort, which shrinks offensive surfaces without handling weaknesses directly, ROOT directly corrects the current container images. We smoothly integrate into your pipeline without disable – no friction, no. We are not here to replace your workflow, we are here to accelerate and promote it. Each image passes through the root becomes mainly a golden – guaranteed, transparent, dominant image of a quick investment return by reducing weaknesses and saving time. Our platform reduces treatment from weeks or days to only 120-180 seconds, enabling companies in high-regulating industries to eliminate the accumulation of weakness for months in one session.

The developers should focus on building and charging new products-do not spend hours repairing security weaknesses, which is a long time and is often a frightening aspect of developing software that gives innovation. Worse than that, many of these weaknesses are not their own-it stems from the weaknesses of the third-party sellers or open source software projects, forcing the difference to spending valuable hours in fixing another person’s problem.

Developers and research and development teams are among the largest cost centers in any institution, both in terms of human resources, software and cloud infrastructure that support them. Root gives up this burden by taking advantage of AI Agenic, instead of relying on teams of developers working around the clock to check the weakly known weaknesses.

How does the root benefit from Aigen Aim to automate and simplify the process of weakening?

Our Ageric AI engine is used to repeat thinking processes and a procedure for a seasoned safety engineer – a significant evaluation of the Cve effect, identifying the best available corrections, strict testing, and applying repairs safely. It is accomplished in seconds that requires an important manual effort, and expands through thousands of images simultaneously. Each treatment that teaches the system, continuously enhances its effectiveness and the ability to adapt, which leads to the inclusion of a full -time safety engineer in your photos.

How is the root combined in the functioning of the current developers without adding friction?

The root is completely integrated into the current workflow, and directly connecting to the container log or pipeline – no reformulation, there are no new agents, and there are no additional side tools. The developers pay the photos as usual, and the root deals with correcting and publishing the updated images smoothly or as new signs. Our solution remains invisible until need, which provides a complete vision through detailed auditing paths, comprehensive SBOMS, and simple decline options when desire.

How to balance automation and control? As for the teams that want to see and supervise, what is the extent of allocating the root?

In the root, it enhances automation – does not decrease – -. Our platform is very customized, allowing the teams to expand the level of automation to meet its specific needs. You decide what to leave automatically, when it involves a manual review, and what you are excluded. We offer a wide vision through DIFF’s detailed views, ChangeLogs, influence analyzes, and ensuring that security teams remain aware and empowerment, and have not been left in the dark.

With thousands of weak weaknesses installed, how to ensure stability and avoid breaking the dependencies or disrupt production?

Stability and reliability supports every action taken by Avr Root. By default, we adopt a conservative approach, follow the graphs of dependency accurately, employ coacher corrections for consensus, and test each image that was accurately treated for all the test frameworks available to the public for open projects before publication. If a problem appears at all, it has been arrested early, and the restoration decreases is an effort. In practice, we maintained less than a 0.1 % failure rate across thousands of automatic treatments.

As artificial intelligence advances, as well as possible surfaces of the attack. How is the root prepared for the emerging AI era threats?

We consider both artificial intelligence a potential threat and defensive great power. The root includes flexibility directly in the software supply chain, ensuring that complex work burdens – including the complex AI/ML chimneys – constantly harden. Artificial intelligence factors develop with the development of threats, and the defenses adaptation independently faster than attackers can behave. Our ultimate goal is to flexibility of the chain of supply of independent software: the infrastructure that quickly defends itself emerging threats.

Thank you for the wonderful interview, the readers who want to know more, visit Root.io.