About Senserva

Microsoft security, in the Shavlik tradition.

Senserva is a Microsoft-first security software company. We build on three decades of Microsoft ecosystem work, from the original Windows NT team, through Shavlik Technologies, and now Senserva, to help every organization manage, monitor, and remediate security across Microsoft 365 and Entra ID.

Same caliber of engineering that shipped security software to millions of endpoints. Built for the 80 percent of organizations that don't have a Fortune 500 security team, and the enterprises that already do.

Our story, the short version.

Senserva was founded in 2019 by Mark Shavlik and TJ Dolan. The starting point was simple. Microsoft 365 and Entra ID have become the most important identity and security surface on the planet, and most organizations cannot tell, with confidence, whether their configuration is safe, whether their privileged users are protected, or whether yesterday's fix still holds today.

We built Senserva to change that. The same Microsoft ecosystem depth that powered Shavlik Technologies, pioneers of patch management and the team behind HfNetChk and MBSA, is now focused on Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Intune, and Sentinel. Configuration drift. Identity risk. Device posture. Privileged access. Patch. All in one engine, written in the same tradition.

Today Senserva is a member of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA), a Microsoft Security Excellence Awards finalist, and endorsed by the Microsoft Entra, Sentinel, and Intune teams. Our products are used by IT and security teams who need clear answers, validated remediation, and tools that meet them where they already work.

1988

Original Windows NT team

Mark Shavlik is one of the pioneering developers on the original Windows NT team, led by David Cutler at Microsoft.

1993

Shavlik Technologies founded

Mark founds Shavlik Technologies. HfNetChk and MBSA go on to ship security scanning and patch management to millions of Windows endpoints worldwide.

2011

Acquired by VMware

Shavlik Technologies is acquired by VMware. Mark works with Paul Maritz and Raghu Raghuram in the data center and cloud era.

2019

Senserva founded

Mark Shavlik and TJ Dolan found Senserva to bring the same depth of Microsoft security engineering to Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Intune, and Sentinel.

Today

MISA member, MSFT Awards finalist

Exclusive MISA member. Microsoft Security Excellence Awards finalist. Endorsed by the Microsoft Entra, Sentinel, and Intune teams. Trustworthy AI integrated in every product.

Cutting edge. Not bleeding edge.

We are always looking for the most current technology that can genuinely help our customers. Not always the latest thing, but the most recent tech we find effective after we have actually used it in production, against real Microsoft 365 and Entra ID tenants, under real operational load.

That means we take the innovation hit on the bleeding edge, the breaking SDKs, the half-baked previews, the APIs that shift under your feet, the models that hallucinate, the patterns that look brilliant on a conference slide and fall apart in a live environment. We absorb those costs so you do not have to.

By the time a capability ships in Senserva, it has earned its place. We integrate it, validate it, harden it, and put guardrails around it. You get to be on the cutting edge, with far less cost, far less risk, and no experiments running against your tenant.

Pragmatism over fashion. Evidence over hype. That is how a Microsoft-first security team has always built, and it is how we build Senserva today.

What we believe.

Three principles shape every line of code, every report, and every AI output Senserva ships.

Security is for everyone.

Whether you are one person running IT for a small business or leading a security team at a large enterprise, you are solving the same problems. Senserva is designed to work for both, directly, integrated with your existing stack, or entirely through Claude Desktop.

Microsoft first. Customer always.

We have been writing Microsoft-first security software since the Windows NT team. Every check is grounded in Microsoft Graph, MCSB, SCuBA, and real Microsoft Learn guidance. No generic compliance veneer over someone else's engine.

When Microsoft is not the best choice for a customer, we of course find the best choice and use it. Microsoft first? Yes. Microsoft only? No. Customer first? Always.

Trustworthy AI, not AI theater.

Senserva Trustworthy AI cites MCSB and SCuBA codes, uses Graph PowerShell SDK v2, and runs every output through a validation layer before it reaches you. Guardrails, anonymization, and rule-based checks are the core of the product, not a marketing line.

Mark Shavlik

Mark Shavlik

CEO & Co-Founder
CEO of Senserva
Original Windows NT developer
Founder of Shavlik Technologies
Acquired by VMware
30+ years in Microsoft security

Why Mark built Senserva.

Mark wrote HfNetChk for the world. Microsoft distributed it.

Mark's career in Microsoft security started inside the company. Selected for the original Windows NT team under David Cutler, he helped ship the operating system that became the foundation of modern enterprise computing. Mark also worked on Paul Maritz's team at Microsoft in a later role. He then founded Shavlik Technologies, the company that pioneered patch management, shipped HfNetChk and MBSA, and scanned hundreds of millions of Windows endpoints before being acquired by VMware.

Thirty years of that work led to one observation. The organizations most in need of strong security are the ones least able to pay for a full enterprise program. The tools were not built for them. The checks were too noisy, the reports were unreadable, and the remediation plans needed a consultant on retainer to execute.

Senserva exists because I was tired of watching good organizations fail because the tools weren't built for them. We built something that not only works for the 80 percent, it gives them compliance intelligence that even Fortune 500s don't have. Mark Shavlik, CEO and Co-Founder

Senserva builds that intelligence directly into the product. Every check, every report, every remediation script is written by engineers who have shipped Microsoft security software for decades. Every AI output is validated by Senserva Trustworthy AI before it reaches your team. The result is one tool that works equally well for a small IT team and for a Fortune 500 security program.

Mark Shavlik
From the Senserva blog

Looking back: Mark Shavlik’s Microsoft Journey

From the original Windows NT team to HfNetChk and MBSA (still securing millions of computers today through Ivanti) to founding Senserva. Three decades of building Microsoft security products, in Mark’s own words.

Nov 13, 2025 Mark Shavlik
Read the full story

Mark Shavlik on LinkedIn

A Microsoft security product line, three decades in the making.

Mark started on the original Windows NT team at Microsoft, then built a series of Microsoft focused security products, bringing us to today's Senserva product line. One continuous arc: scan, classify, remediate, verify. Same tradition, same engineers, new Microsoft surface.

HfNetChk

The original Microsoft hotfix scanner

HfNetChk (Network Hotfix Checker) was the first security scanner Mark's team wrote. It was not written for Microsoft. Mark wrote it for the world. Microsoft distributed it. HfNetChk gave administrators the first reliable way to query a network and identify which Windows systems were missing critical security patches.

For years it was the definitive answer to the question every IT team was asking: which of my machines are actually up to date?

Shipped by Microsoft. Built by Shavlik.

MBSA

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer

Microsoft asked Mark and his team to write MBSA, the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer, and to fold HfNetChk into it as the patch-scan engine. MBSA ran on hundreds of millions of Windows endpoints, checking for missing security updates, weak passwords, insecure configuration settings, and misconfigured services. For more than a decade it was the standard baseline assessment tool shipped and supported by Microsoft, and it secured computers in every industry and every country that ran Windows.

Used to secure millions of Windows computers.

Shavlik Protect

The Shavlik commercial product line

Alongside the Microsoft-shipped tools, Shavlik Technologies built the commercial product line IT and security teams relied on every day: HFNetChkPro, Shavlik NetChk Protect, and Shavlik Protect. Patch scanning, patch deployment, configuration assessment, and agentless remediation for Windows environments large and small.

Those products were used to secure millions of computers across enterprises, government, military, healthcare, and education. Today that same product line lives on as part of Ivanti, is built into the top security products of today, and has been running for 25 years, still protecting production environments around the world.

Still in use today via Ivanti.

Recognition and credentials.

Work that has been recognized by Microsoft and the broader security community.

MISA
Member
Exclusive member of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association.
2024
Finalist
Microsoft Security Excellence Awards. Security ISV of the Year and Endpoint Management Trailblazer finalist.
600+
security checks
Across Microsoft 365 and Entra ID identity, devices, applications, privileged access, and M365 workloads.
3
Microsoft Teams
Endorsed by the Microsoft Entra, Sentinel, and Intune product teams.

Work with us.

Try Siemserva free, read the blog, or reach out. Microsoft MVPs and MISA members get Siemserva free, always.

EXCLUSIVE MISA MEMBER  |  MSFT SECURITY EXCELLENCE FINALIST  |  ENDORSED BY MICROSOFT ENTRA, SENTINEL, AND INTUNE

From the blog

Reading from the Senserva team.

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How Siemserva is built, how the graph is modeled, and how Senserva Trustworthy AI turns raw findings into validated answers.
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