Torsion

Torsion Information Security, founded in London in 2016 by Peter Bradley, operates as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider focused on Data Access Governance. The company's creation stemmed from Bradley's extensive career as a secure information management consultant, where he repeatedly encountered the failure of manual governance processes and IT admin tools to control data access effectively. This experience led to the core concept behind Torsion: shifting the responsibility of data access from a centralized IT function to the business users who own and understand the data's context and commercial implications.

The company's primary offering is a platform that provides visibility and control over 'who has access to what' within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, including integrations with Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive. Torsion's business model is based on selling its software to a global client base, addressing the security and compliance challenges that arise from the sprawling nature of data sharing in modern collaboration environments. The platform is engineered to be deployed quickly, delivering value by automating the process of monitoring and controlling data access permissions in real-time. It identifies and helps remediate inappropriate access, providing a continuous audit trail to satisfy compliance requirements. This is achieved by indexing every file, folder, user, and access instance, then using intelligent automation to enforce access policies.

Torsion has secured funding from several venture capital firms and angel investors, including Juno Capital, Bayes Entrepreneurship Fund, The FSE Group, and SFC Capital, with support from Innovate UK. The firm has received accolades such as the cybersecurity compliance award at the Computing Security Awards and recognition in the Gartner Market Guide for Data Access Governance. A significant milestone occurred in July 2024 when Torsion was acquired by AvePoint, a move intended to strengthen AvePoint's Control Suite and extend real-time data access governance to a broader market, particularly organizations with limited IT resources.

Keywords: Data Access Governance, Microsoft 365 security, compliance automation, information security, SaaS, access control, insider threat, SharePoint governance, Teams governance, data visibility