"Asset intelligence is really an elevation of asset management," Joe Diamond told ISMG, framing a deliberate strategic shift at Axonius as he moved from interim to permanent CEO.
Joe Diamond's strategic pivot: visibility plus action
Diamond, who joined Axonius in May 2024 as chief marketing officer, became the company's president in August 2025 and added the interim CEO role in February before stepping into the permanent CEO role Tuesday, is steering the New York–based company beyond static inventories. He told ISMG that Axonius will emphasize "complete visibility and complete context across all the different asset classes" and pair that visibility with orchestration capabilities that "take action" — from automated patching to deploying agents and enforcing policies.
His promotion coincides with organizational moves to narrow focus: in November the company laid off just under 100 people, roughly 11% of its workforce, a change Diamond characterized as sharpening the company's focus.
Bidirectional API model and 1,400+ integrations
Axonius has deliberately rejected a traditional static inventory model for a bidirectional API approach. Diamond said that model lets the company ingest data from more than 1,400 integrated tools and orchestrate remediation tasks back into those systems. That bi-directionality underpins the company's pitch: not merely to identify gaps but to enable operational responses from the same platform.
"You have to actually be able to use the platform to be able to respond to the things that have gone wrong across the organization," Diamond said, listing examples such as managing patches or ensuring that "an agent is installed on a cohort of endpoints."
AI agents as a new, standalone asset class
Diamond framed the coming surge of AI agents interacting with applications, identities, data and systems as a transformational shift akin to the early internet. "I think of AI agents as like the movement we had around the internet," he said. "It's to that degree. So, it really has to be a standalone asset class given the volume of different agents that are going to be deployed across organizations in the future."
Axonius positions itself as a central visibility and orchestration layer that can correlate information across networks, endpoints, identities and applications. The company argues that its platform can provide contextual relationships between AI agents, identities, SaaS applications and software assets — enabling enterprises to inventory agents, understand access, and monitor interactions with downstream systems.
Diamond cautioned that no single product will solve the whole problem: "There's not going to be any one solution that solves all of it... It's going to be defense in depth for AI, no different than it was for endpoint, no different than it was for network."
Extending into IoT and OT after the Cynerio acquisition
Axonius' July 2025 acquisition of Cynerio, a medical device security specialist, for more than $100 million gave the company network-based visibility capabilities for cyber-physical assets that complement its existing platform-neutral integration strategy. Diamond said that unlike traditional IT assets — which are often API-driven — IoT and OT frequently require sensor-based network visibility, a capability Cynerio brought to Axonius.
"Wouldn't it be great if we could also extend the same platform and cover IoT and OT devices as well?" Diamond asked, explaining why the company moved to include those asset classes. He contrasted Axonius' origin in IT asset visibility with Armis, which began in IoT and OT before moving deeper into IT environments — and noted that Armis' acquisition by ServiceNow has caused some joint customers to reevaluate long-term platform strategies.
What this means for security teams, procurement leaders, and enterprises
- Security teams: Expect a platform that prioritizes not only discovery but also remediation workflows. Diamond emphasized automation — patching, agent deployment, policy enforcement — executed from the same orchestration layer that discovers issues.
- Procurement leaders and platform architects: The company is explicitly positioning itself as a consolidator of visibility across asset classes, including AI agents, SaaS, endpoints, IoT and OT, which could influence decisions about platform consolidation versus best-of-breed mixes. Diamond said some customers are already reevaluating platform strategies in the wake of vendor consolidations.
- Enterprises with medical and cyber-physical assets: The Cynerio acquisition is meant to bring network-sensor capabilities for classifying and inventorying those devices into Axonius' broader integration footprint, enabling a single platform view across cyber and cyber-physical inventories.
Diamond framed the company's path bluntly: extend visibility, build orchestration and maintain platform neutrality while adding the sensor-based capabilities required for IoT and OT. He said Axonius is "making sure that we keep all of our options open, that we're building all the rigor internally and all the operational strength to make sure that we can be a strong and independent company." That declaration is both a roadmap and a test — whether customers will accept one platform for discovery and remediation across traditional IT, AI agents, and cyber-physical systems remains the practical question Axonius has set out to answer.
