In this episode of Net Effects Podcast, Mark Bavisotto and guest host Salil Kulkarni (President/CEO and Founder of Vichaar, LLC) talk with Palo Santo Networks President Amit Singh about cybersecurity and its potential as “one of the most vibrant fields for innovation.”
Amit attributes his success and journey to his dad’s wisdom. Amit grew up in India and traveled to America to get his Master’s degree. Upon graduation from Rensselaer with a Master’s in Industrial and Management Engineering, he joined Oracle as a software engineer in the early 90s. He rose to VP of Sales within the company and in 2007, and realized that the future of computing was the Cloud. He joined Google Enterprise and led Google from a consumer-focused company to an enterprise.
In 2018, he joined Palo Alto Networks (PANW) — a leader in cybersecurity with core products that include advanced firewalls and cloud-based offerings. Amit shares predictions for the next normal as informed by decades of experience in leading digital enterprise initiatives.
Episode highlights:
- “The home is now a first-class citizen of a corporation.” Home used to be where you go after work, but now, with work-from-home and hybrid workforces, IT technologies must address a new perimeter that is anywhere and everywhere. Networks should be designed with zero trust and provide information and access to teams no matter where they are and what device they are using. For these reasons, a fairly big change/shift is coming in the next five to 10 years.
- Cyber threats are spreading across industries (e.g., education, research, commercial, etc.) and location. We are now dealing with both the lone hacker and entry into an era of large-scale, broad, and automated attacks.
- Leveraging technology, data, and machine learning has been key in identifying incidents and patterns. A deep investment is needed but it’s not so easy because many companies’ infrastructure is so far-flung.
- A new set of social contracts with employees and customers was created during the pandemic. Communications – like weekly call-ins and check-ins, one-to-many listening sessions – were ramped up while minimizing internal emails and meetings. Management shifted to leading through exception and broad-based measures.
- The pandemic was an incredible accelerator for self-work/personal development (meditation, journaling, fitness). These have become deeply ingrained practices.
Listen to the full episode now for more insights about the roles of digital and social transformation in creating our next shared chapter.
About Amit Singh: As president, Amit is responsible for all go-to-market functions, including sales, support, consulting, business development, partnerships, and enablement. Before joining Palo Alto Networks, Amit held several roles at Google, including founding and building Google’s Cloud business. In this capacity, he worked to help companies move to Cloud-based services like Gmail, Google Docs, and the entire Cloud platform suite. He also led business and operations for Google’s AR and VR efforts. Before Google, Amit spent 20 years at Oracle in various product, engineering, sales, and strategy roles.
Amit is a graduate of Rensselaer with a master’s degree in industrial and management engineering and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Delhi College of Engineering.
