Qualys has been described as "one of the earliest software-as-a-service security vendors."[6]
Philippe Courtot first invested in the company in 1999. He became CEO and board chair in 2001. Courtot described Qualys as addressing a "mounting need for automatic detection of network vulnerabilities" when he announced the second round of financing.[7][8]
The company launched QualysGuard in 2000, making Qualys one of the first entrants in the vulnerability management market.[9] This software could automatically scan corporate local area networks (LANs) for vulnerabilities and search for an available patch. The company subsequently added compliance, malware detection, and web application scanning to its platform.[10][11][12]
Qualys went public on the Nasdaq under the stock ticker QLYS on September 28, 2012, raising net proceeds of $87.5 million.[3][13]
Qualys then launched its Cloud Platform and lightweight cloud agent to continuously assess the security and compliance of organizations' global IT infrastructure and applications. The new Cloud Platform helped organizations assess and address the security and compliance of their IT assets in real-time, whether on-premises, cloud-based or mobile.[14][15][16]
Qualys offers a Network Passive sensor service, an advanced technology layer that continuously monitors network traffic to identify all devices and applications within an organization's environment. The Network Passive Sensor immediately sends asset metadata to the Qualys Cloud Platform, where it is analyzed for comprehensive security insights.[17]
In August 2021, Qualys partnered with Red Hat to bring Qualys' Cloud Agent to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) CoreOS and Red Hat OpenShift. The CoreOS Cloud Agent for OpenShift works with Qualys' Container Security Runtime, delivering continuous packages and vulnerabilities for the entire OpenShift stack.[18]
Qualys won two Pwnie Awards in 2021, in the "Best Privilege Escalation Bug" and "Most Under-Hyped Research" categories.[19][20][21]
In November 2023, Qualys released its Enterprise TruRisk Platform, which aggregates cyber risk signals to provide a risk-scoring framework for companies to measure and reduce IT risk.[22]
In February 2024, Qualys became the first cloud native application protection platform (CNAPP) to also cover SaaS apps. Qualys TotalCloud gathers and unifies cloud data from multi-cloud environments, giving IT departments better visibility to address security issues.[23]
In May 2024, Qualys launched a managed security services partner (MSSP) portal as part of its global partner program. The portal helps Qualys' partners improve operational efficiencies and provides visibility into client accounts, licenses and user roles.[24]
^Rosenbaum, David (September 2011). "Cloud control: you want your cloud provider to share security risk. Your provider wants to limit its liability. The result is a negotiation. Here's what CFOs should know to gain the upper hand". CFO. Vol. 27, no. 7.
^"Qualys, Inc. Secures $20M in Second Round Financing" (Press release). PR Newswire. April 10, 2001.
^"Using your browser for security". Network World. IDG Communications, Inc. April 28, 2003.