CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Astrix Security vs Orchid Security

Astrix Security sells software that maintains a real-time inventory of all AI agents, MCP servers, and NHIs, with context to understand risk and business usage. Orchid Security sells an identity-first security platform that discovers, analyzes, governs, and proves identity controls across applications. CISO Tribune files both under Non-human identity security. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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  • Astrix Security
  • Orchid Security
Astrix Security vs Orchid Security: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
Astrix SecurityAstrix Security sells software that maintains a real-time inventory of all AI agents, MCP servers, and NHIs, with context to understand risk and business usage.astrix.securityOrchid SecurityOrchid Security sells an identity-first security platform that discovers, analyzes, governs, and proves identity controls across applications.orchid.security
What it sells
  • AI Agent Discovery[4][9]Maintains a real-time inventory of AI agents, MCP servers, and non-human identities, with context on risk and business usage.
  • Secure AI Agents[10]Identifies and remediates AI agents and non-human identities that have excessive privileges, vulnerable configurations, or abnormal activity.
  • Agent Control Plane[4][7]Provisions AI agents with short-lived credentials and precisely scoped, just-in-time access at creation.
  • Orchid Security PlatformAn identity-first security platform that discovers, analyzes, governs, and proves identity controls across all applications.
  • Orchid Identity Audit[8]Continuous observability to identify Identity Dark Matter across all managed and unmanaged environments.
Categories
Headquarters
New York City, United States[2]Not stated on its pages
Founded
2021[2][4]Not stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Owned by Cisco since 2026[3][6]Not stated on its pages
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • May 4, 2026Astrix Security announced that Cisco has declared its intent to acquire the company.[16]
  • September 15, 2026Orchid Security unveiled AI readiness controls for AI agents, covering ongoing identity drift detection and kill switches operating at the application level.[14]
  • September 9, 2026Orchid Security announced identity drift detection and application-level kill switches for AI agents.[12]
  • May 28, 2026Orchid Security extended its Identity Control Plane with capabilities aimed at governing AI agents.[13]
  • February 5, 2026Orchid Security unveiled Identity Audit, which combines audit data from unmanaged applications with audit logs from governed IAM systems into a unified view of identity activity.[11]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: listed, seen November 5, 2026[6]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
From its own pages, Astrix Security sells mainly to enterprises that need to govern AI agents and non-human identities that fall outside traditional IAM. Its pages describe security admins who pre-define agent policies and developers who launch agents from their preferred tool. Its inventory correlates data across cloud, SaaS, on-prem, databases, vaults, CI/CD and AI platforms.From its own pages, Orchid Security sells mainly to teams in regulated industries under audit pressure and to identity programs with persistent blind spots. Orchid says it covers self-hosted and SaaS applications, along with cloud, on-prem, legacy, and custom-built applications. Orchid describes the risk of orphaned accounts left behind during an acquisition, so organisations that grow through acquisitions are among the buyers it addresses. Orchid integrates with existing IAM, PAM, and IGA tools rather than replacing them, so it speaks to organisations that already run those systems.
Last verified
November 2, 2026October 29, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Astrix Security and Orchid Security are both filed under Non-human identity security.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Astrix Security's primary category is Non-human identity security; Orchid Security's is Identity governance and administration.
  • Orchid Security is also filed under Privileged access management and AI model and agent security.
  • Astrix Security lists AI Agent Discovery, Secure AI Agents and Agent Control Plane. Orchid Security lists Orchid Security Platform and Orchid Identity Audit.
  • Astrix Security is headquartered in New York City, United States.
  • Astrix Security was founded in 2021.
  • Astrix Security is owned by Cisco, since 2026.

What it sells: Orchid Security

What Orchid Security Platform does
Orchid discovers SaaS, cloud, on-prem, legacy, and custom-built applications automatically. Orchid analyzes authentication and authorization flows, detects risk, enforces policies, and automates remediation. Orchid integrates with existing IAM, PAM, and IGA tools to enhance visibility and governance.
What Orchid Identity Audit does[8]
Orchid Identity Audit maps identities across all applications, including those using legacy or retired domains. Orchid identifies high risk accounts that lack ownership or appear in dark web credential leaks. Orchid provides continuous evidence of decommissioned accounts.

Questions about Astrix Security and Orchid Security

What do Astrix Security and Orchid Security sell?
Astrix Security sells AI Agent Discovery, Secure AI Agents and Agent Control Plane. Orchid Security sells Orchid Security Platform and Orchid Identity Audit.
Are Astrix Security and Orchid Security in the same category?
They share Non-human identity security. Astrix Security's primary category is Non-human identity security and Orchid Security's is Identity governance and administration.
Where are Astrix Security and Orchid Security headquartered?
Astrix Security is headquartered in New York City, United States.
When were Astrix Security and Orchid Security founded?
Astrix Security was founded in 2021.
Who owns Astrix Security and Orchid Security?
Astrix Security is owned by Cisco, since 2026.
Who are Astrix Security and Orchid Security sold to?
From its own pages, Astrix Security sells mainly to enterprises that need to govern AI agents and non-human identities that fall outside traditional IAM. From its own pages, Orchid Security sells mainly to teams in regulated industries under audit pressure and to identity programs with persistent blind spots.
What have Astrix Security and Orchid Security announced recently?
May 4, 2026: Astrix Security announced that Cisco has declared its intent to acquire the company. September 15, 2026: Orchid Security unveiled AI readiness controls for AI agents, covering ongoing identity drift detection and kill switches operating at the application level.

About Astrix Security

Astrix Security sells software that maintains a real-time inventory of all AI agents, MCP servers, and NHIs, with context to understand risk and business usage. Astrix Security identifies and remediates AI agents and NHIs with excessive privileges, vulnerable configurations, abnormal activity, and policy violations. Astrix Security provisions secure-by-design AI agents with short-lived credentials, just-in-time, precisely scoped access, and policy at creation. Astrix Security offers Agent Control Plane (ACP), which lets you deploy AI agents rapidly and responsibly without access chaos or compliance risk.[1][7][10]

Astrix says it protects enterprises from AI agents and Non-Human Identities (NHIs) that fall outside traditional IAM. Agents and NHIs outnumber humans 100:1, yet remain outside IAM and audit review cycles, according to Astrix. Employees grant agents NHIs with broad, often static, permissions to corporate assets, according to Astrix. Astrix also says many agents operating autonomously remain shadow agents, without clear human ownership.[8]

On discovery, Astrix Security automates discovery of all agents, whether custom, third-party, or home-grown, including shadow, unregistered agents. Astrix Security connects in minutes to discover AI agents, MCP servers, non-human identities, and secrets across an environment. The inventory covers NHIs such as service accounts, OAuth apps, API keys, SSH keys, and IAM roles. Each AI agent, NHI, and secret automatically receives a risk score, based on dynamic access analysis, behavioral patterns, and security findings.[5][9]

On securing agents, Astrix Security describes posture management that reduces excessive privileges, fixes configuration weaknesses, and automatically assigns human ownership for each agent. Allow, flag, and block rules can be scoped by user, department, platform, and resource type, and are evaluated before any action is executed. ML-based engines analyze agent behavior across access patterns, IP call addresses, permission changes, secret usage, and connected apps or vendors to surface anomalies. Astrix Threat Center consolidates fragmented alerts into prioritized Threat Cases.[5][10]

On deployment of agents, security admins pre-define policies for AI agents with granular, least-privilege permissions for various use cases. Developers launch an agent from their preferred tool, selecting a pre-approved permission profile for onboarding. Security admins can then view and manage the deployed agent in the inventory with its policies attached. Managed agents receive instant access backed by short-lived, precisely scoped tokens that auto-expire. Astrix Security also lets customers use discovery and security to uncover shadow agents or those with sensitive permissions, then onboard them into ACP with precise, least privilege access.[7]

Astrix Security offboards NHIs automatically when employees leave, vendor contracts end, or identities are inactive. Astrix Security discovers exposed secrets and provides context and risk prioritization to remediate them. Astrix Security integrates with Slack notifications, Jira tickets, API automations, and ITSM, SIEM and SOAR systems. Astrix Security generates compliance reports on NHI usage, risk, and lifecycle events and simplifies audits for frameworks like PCI DSS, SOX, and GDPR.[11][12][13]

On how it is delivered, Astrix Security is agentless, non-proxy, and API-based, reads metadata only, and requires minimal permissions. Astrix Security says a consolidated, real-time inventory of all AI agents, NHIs, and secrets is available within hours. Astrix Security correlates data across cloud, SaaS, on-prem, databases, Vaults, CI/CD, and AI platforms to uncover shadow agents and their owners. Astrix Security says it protects environments from NHI risks, from AWS, Azure, ChatGPT, GitHub and BigQuery to Salesforce, Office365, and CoPilot.[5][9][14]

Since 2021, Astrix says it has pioneered and defined NHI security, helping Fortune 1,000 enterprises extend traditional IAM to cover NHIs. Alon Jackson is CEO and co-founder of Astrix. An international travel agency used Astrix to reduce the number of new high-risk NHIs by 97%. A Senior Director, Identity Security at Workday describes Astrix as a strategic solution to provide visibility and control of non-human identities. Astrix Security lists an address at 33 Arch Street Boston, MA 02110, USA. Astrix Security is now part of Cisco. Astrix has ended standalone sales of new licenses effective June 30th, 2026, and existing customers continue to receive the service and support outlined in their current agreements.[1][5][8][9][11][13][14][15]

Astrix Security on the record

Sources

Astrix Security full record

  1. [1]astrix.securityAstrix Security · astrix.security · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Astrix security establishes north american headquarters as demand for third party connectivity grows in 2023 301719691Astrix Security via PR Newswire · prnewswire.com · published January 12, 2023 · Tier A
  3. [3]Cisco announces intent to acquire astrix securityCisco · blogs.cisco.com · published May 4, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Identity Security for AI Agents & NHIs | Astrix SecurityAstrix Security · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Secure AI Agents & NHIs with One Platform | AstrixAstrix Security · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Astrix AI Agent Security Platform Reviews & Product Details - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier C
  7. [7]Agent Control Plane | Deploy Secure-by-Design AI AgentsAstrix Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]About Astrix Security: Mission, Team & VisionAstrix Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]AI Agent Discovery & Visibility Platform | AstrixAstrix Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Secure AI Agents & NHIs at Scale | Astrix SecurityAstrix Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]NHI Lifecycle Management: Automate, Control & Secure NHIsAstrix Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Next-Gen Secret Scanning - Astrix SecurityAstrix Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]NHI Auto-Remediation - Astrix SecurityAstrix Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]NHI Discovery | Discover Non-Human IdentitiesAstrix Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]NHI Posture Management - Astrix SecurityAstrix Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]A New Chapter: Astrix Security is Joining CiscoAstrix Security · published May 4, 2026 · Tier A

Orchid Security full record

  1. [1]orchid.securityOrchid Security · orchid.security · undated page, accessed October 29, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Ai readinessOrchid Security · orchid.security · published September 9, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Orchid - Identity Visibility and Intelligence for the Application LayerOrchid Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Bringing Clarity to the Complexity of IdentityOrchid Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Agentic AI Identity Security: Closing the Gaps Agents ExploitOrchid Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Identity Security Platform: Uncover Identity Dark MatterOrchid Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Beyond Shadow IT: The Identity Dark Matter Undermining ComplianceOrchid Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Security That Survives the Acquisition.Orchid Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Customer StoriesOrchid Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Why 50% of Identity Projects Fail (And How to Fix the "Blueprint")Orchid Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Orchid Launches Identity Audit to Illuminate the Dark Matter of Enterprise Identity ActivityOrchid Security · published February 5, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Orchid Security Adds AI Readiness Controls: Identity Drift Detection and Application-Level Kill Switches for AI AgentsGlobeNewswire · published September 9, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Orchid Security targets AI agent sprawl with new identity governance toolsSiliconANGLE · published May 28, 2026 · Tier B
  14. [14]Orchid Security Introduces AI Agent Readiness Controls Featuring Continuous Identity Monitoring and Kill-Switch CapabilitiesCSO Online · published September 15, 2026 · Tier B

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