Scaling the vCISO: How to Deliver "White-Glove" Security Without the Burnout
Why niche business rhythmsânot just better toolsâare the future of managed security services.
The shift from general security monitoring to true âRevenue Intelligenceâ and risk management requires more than just a SIEM and a dream. It requires a deep understanding of business contextâsomething traditional Managed Detection and Response (MDR) has struggled to scale.
By leveraging the current âTechnological Tailwindâ of Large Language Models (LLMs), founders Tyler Lalicker and Woo are building Zaun.ai to provide the âwhite-gloveâ security that SMBs and niche MSSPs actually need.
The Origin Story: From Retail Optimization to Cybersecurity Mission
Every great security leader has a âfinding the lightâ moment. For Tyler, it didnât begin with a lifelong obsession with code. As a teenager, he actively rejected programming in favor of World of Warcraft. His professional journey started instead in retail at Best Buy, where he became deeply focused on P&L optimization and identifying sales pipeline bottlenecks, but more on that later.
Driven by a desire to improve risk intelligence, he taught himself SQL and machine learning. A mentor later helped him connect this passion for optimization with cybersecurity, framing the âmissionâ in security as the ultimate optimization problem. After years of building ML solutions for the public sector and SaaS startups, Tyler saw the 2022 AI boom as the perfect moment to tackle one of the industryâs biggest challenges: scaling personalized security.
Zaun.ai wasnât built in a vacuum; it emerged from a decade at the intersection of business optimization and technical security. Tylerâs early experience in retail P&L management gave him a âbusiness-firstâ lens that most security practitioners lack, shaping how he approached both risk and technology.
When Tyler reconnected with his former colleague Woo, now CEO of Zaun, they quickly recognized a massive market gap. The two had previously collaborated on a machine learning product, humorously dubbed âAbnorML,â with a capital M and L. With the 2022 AI surge, they finally had the technological tailwind needed to automate complex multi-tenant environments and bring their vision to life.
Tylerâs leap into entrepreneurship was supported by three critical pillars:
Strong Conviction: A shared belief that LLMs could solve configuration management and search at scale.
A Support Network: Having a spouse who also works in cybersecurity provided the professional stability to take the risk.
Market Timing: The emergence of LLMs allowed for ânormalizingâ data across diverse security stacks for the first time in history.
The Architecture of Autonomous SOAR
Zaun.ai was born from the realization that LLMs are uniquely positioned to manage configurations at scale and facilitate search within multi-tenant architectures. Instead of broad, commodity monitoring, the platform acts as an AI-native autonomous SOAR engine.
Continuous Context Capture: Unlike traditional tools that require manual tuning, Zaun captures feedback âon the flyâ as users work. This retains institutional knowledge that usually disappears when a consultant leaves.
Secure API Integration: Zaun utilizes a foundational technology (similar to the Model Context Protocol or MCP) that allows LLMs to interact with any security tool.
Rigid Guardrails: To ensure safety, the AI is permitted to query data but is strictly restricted from taking unauthorized administrative actions, such as isolating a system without human oversight.
The Value Add: Why Business Context is the Ultimate Security Control
Traditional Managed Detection and Response (MDR) is built on volumeâmonitoring as many endpoints as possible with a âone-size-fits-allâ approach. Zaun.ai flips this by focusing on Contextual Intelligence and bespoke protection.
1. Deep Contextual Investigations
Most SOCs perform basic lookups. Zaun.aiâs autonomous engine performs full investigations on every alert, gathering 4 to 5 times more evidence than a human analyst typically could in the same timeframe. This provides the âwhyâ behind the alert, allowing for faster business decision-making and fewer âfire drillsâ for your team.
2. Sector-Specific âBusiness Rhythmsâ
A âstandardâ security policy often fails because it doesnât account for how a business actually operates. Zaun.ai captures âon-the-flyâ feedback to learn the unique nuances of your sector:
K-12 Education: Identifying âkey drive timesâ during the start of a semester when high traffic is normal, preventing false alarms.
Law Firms & Wealth Management: Mapping specific âdata enclavesâ where sensitive PII is stored and applying more rigid controls there than on general networks.
3. Rapid Integration and Safe Automation
For an SMB, your tech stack is often a mix of legacy and modern tools. Zaun.ai uses a foundational integration technology (similar to the Model Context Protocol) to connect with any API âvery, very fast.â Crucially, it applies Rigid Security Controls: the AI can query and investigate anything, but it is strictly blocked from taking administrative actionsâlike shutting down a serverâwithout explicit human oversight.
Scaling the Strategic Layer: vCISO and Provider Use Cases
For the vCISO or the leader of an MSP/MSSP, the challenge is doing security consistently across a diverse portfolio without burning out your best engineers.
The vCISO: Transition from âchecklistâ to âstrategic partner.â Zaunâs autonomous runbooks ensure every client receives a high-maturity investigation, capturing the strategic vision you define even when you arenât in the room.
The MSSP: Move beyond âcommodityâ monitoring. Use the platform to build bespoke capabilities for niche markets. Gathering 4-5x more evidence per alert means your analysts spend time on high-value remediation rather than chasing false positives.
The MSP: Close the cybersecurity skills gap. Zaun.ai provides the âSecurity Guardrailsâ your team needs. Because the platform maps investigations to frameworks like MITRE D3FEND, your IT generalists can handle more of the security workflow safely.
The Path to Strategic Resilience
The origin story of Zaun.ai reflects a shift in our industry: security is no longer just a technical hurdle; itâs a business optimization challenge. By leveraging data-driven revenue intelligence and combining it with the massive technological tailwinds of LLMs, the âContext Gapâ is finally closing.
If you are still relying on commodity MDR services that donât know the difference between your âbusy seasonâ and a breach, you are leaving your organization at risk. The future of cybersecurity isnât just about more data; itâs about better intelligence. Itâs time to move beyond the checklist and start building a security posture that truly understands your business.
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