Jahnavi- Considering you’re working in the ‘information security’ related sector, what according to you are the foremost measures which should be taken to avoid any kind of issues in the system?
Prakash- In the security segment, it’s all about being comprehensive because there is no one thing that solves against every specific problem.
My top advice to security buyers is to look for a comprehensive security solution; also called layered security. There are a lot of different terms for it, but that’s what it comes down to.
The second piece of advice is to find true security experts to manage your security deployment. Most companies don’t have this role on staff. They likely have an IT person on staff, but IT generalists are not going to have deep knowledge in security. Finding the right person who can verify that your security deployment is doing its job is vital.
But this leads to a major problem faced worldwide – the cybersecurity skills gap. There just aren’t enough trained information security professionals to fill these jobs, and this is why you see so much discussion about managed service providers (MSPs). Many companies are outsourcing security to MSPs because they don’t have – and can’t hire – staff to manage this inhouse.
Jahnavi- As it is known that ‘WatchGuard has deployed nearly a million integrated, multi-function threat management appliances worldwide’, how do you think it was possible to go through with this?
Prakash- WatchGuard was founded in 1996, so the company has been around for a long time. I joined WatchGuard in 2015, and at that time we were best known for our network security offering. But shortly after I joined, we established an ambitious plan to evolve our network security offering and create our WatchGuard Unified Security Platform framework around it. Security of the future is comprehensive, and when we talk about the unified security platform framework, it means bringing together network protection, endpoint security, identity protection, and secure Wi-Fi that is deployed and managed through a single pane of glass.
So, we embarked on a strategy to make sure that we had all those pieces covered. We did some through organic elements investments, and some through acquisitions.
The second part was it’s not just about having it all in one pane of glass through one vendor, it’s about how these things work together. This is where our XDR solution, called ThreatSync, comes in. It looks at events on the network and on the endpoints, and helps automate the detection of, and response to, cyber threats.
We are able to detect threats before they even become threats, and we are able to take action based on that information. So, the WatchGuard Unified Security Platform framework wasn’t just about production elements, which is a minimum requirement, it’s about how these components work around together through automation.
This is important when you consider the value chain; there is the end customer who just wants to be protected – for example, a bank, a doctor’s office, education institution, or retail outlet – but doesn’t have the expertise to do all the things themselves. So they outsource to the MSPs.
MSPs then take security from a vendor like us, and they also need the automation we provide because they need to scale their business to protect hundreds of customers. If they had to customize security configurations for every customer they would not be able to scale. The automation from the WatchGuard Unified Security Platform framework allows them to reduce their cost of operation as well. We are constantly correlating events, and the MSPs can automate the responses to those events where they trust the platform to take the action. So if something is deemed malicious, we can quarantine the process, or whatever it maybe. This level of automation improves the security efficacy, simplifies the lives of the MSPs using WatchGuard, and actually saves them money on the operations side.
Jahnavi- How can you say as a representative of Watchguard, that the signature red boxes are architected to be the industry’s smartest, fastest, and meanest security devices?
Prakash- I’m very proud of the red boxes we’ve built, and the colour is a great choice because it really stands out. But when I think about the appliance itself, it is just a way to connect to the network. The true secret lies in the services we provide through the appliances. In the early days of the company, the multitude of services we delivered to the customers was a significant innovation in the industry. WatchGuard has had a passion for security since our inception in 1996, and that passion still drives us to innovate and stay ahead of the curve today.
Jahnavi : I didn’t even think that something like this is even possible.
Prakash- We work in a highly innovative space, which is what makes it very exciting. One of the things that differentiates WatchGuard is our ability to take highly complex, enterprise-grade security, and simplify it so MSPs can implement it at scale to help our customers..
Jahnavi : Right. So, are there any set goals for the company that needs to be achieved by 2030? If yes, what are they?
Prakash- Our mission is to unify security for MSPs over all globe. We want to be recognized and THE cybersecurity platform provider for all MSPs, and that’s really what drives us every day. In the short term, that means convincing more and more MSPs to use our full platform. In addition to growing the number of MSPs using our platform, we intend to keep expanding the amount of services and capabilities that are available on our platform, both organically and through acquisition.
Jahnavi- Congratulations that WatchGuard has been recognized in BIG’s 2023 Excellence in customer service awards. How do you think it was possible?
Prakash : This recognition is all thanks to the support team. The support team has been excellent and it’s the result of a very rigorous process over the last few years which allows us to scale our support team very quickly.
This is interesting because if you ask any employee at WatchGuard, regardless of their job function, they will say that everything we do is focused on what’s best for MSPs, and this unifies the company as a whole. I’m proud of this recognition because the support team really epitomizes our focus in action as they are working with partners every day. Our post-action surveys about the support team shows tremendous partner satisfaction. The support team is one of the reasons that once our partners go WatchGuard-red, they stay WatchGuard-red.
Jahnavi- Sir my last question is that how can the situation of data being stolen be avoided altogether? What has WatchGuard contributed for the prevention of data theft?
Prakash- Now I think that our work starts before it even gets to that point. I feel like it’s about having enough control systems in place.
Companies need to make sure that an adversary is not already in their system. It really starts with that, because most breaches are caused because cyber criminals had credentials to a network. We strongly believe that we have an amazing identity management system, especially for the privilege. The second part is of course how you tend to protect your data, from the various perspectives. Lastly, the major thing is the detection. It’s a comprehensive approach starting with the identification till the detection.
Jahnavi- Thankyou sir.
Prakash- We’re very excited by the work that’s being done here. We started in Noida in 2018 with a very clear vision and strategy, and just a handful of engineers. This office is a great success, and now we’re well over a 100 people. We’re expanding it beyond engineering into a lot of other functions connected to our global team, and there are many great opportunities here. For people who are passionate about security, this is the right place!
Jahnavi- I’m sure you’ll find your people. Thankyou. It was nice meeting you.
