With so many hackers trying to steal your data, every CIO should be extremely careful with traditional VPNs or outdated technology infrastructure, says Shibu Paul, Vice President – International Sales at Array Networks, in an interview with CIO Axis. According to him, security has become imperative amidst all the data breaches that have and are occurring and zero trust has come in as a prominent solution in the wake of the current situation
1. Array Networks had recently announced a ‘Make In India’ initiative, can you please elaborate on this initiative?
We, Array Networks India Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of Array Networks Inchad announced undertaking into the production of hardware and software products rei in India will receive a major boost. The product manufacturing unit has been set up in Bengaluru and is expected to generate employment in India.
Covid-19 has changed the dynamics of the work environment, from standalone, traditional systems to remote working and this has accelerated digital transformation. How has Array Network made use of this situation?
As Covid-19 struck the world, all were forced to rethink their strategies and their business continuity plan. With the lockdown being imposed in the country WFH became the norm and we are fully prepared to protect our customers with any threat coming their way with Array WAF and SSL Interceptor. Definitely, WFH has added vulnerability but mostly to organizations that haven’t adapted and upgraded their legacy infrastructure to a more robust and secure one that caters to their current needs. Our technologies, however, hold a unique position in terms of data delivery and management in customer’s infrastructures and have the ability to provide insights into application data that can be used to boost security as well as improve efficiency. We want to invest in technologies that allow us to provide additional value in terms of security and application enablement. Not to mention Array’s Hyper-converged platform which offers unique solutions like Application delivery controllers with Web vulnerability scanners and Web application firewall for mitigating a lot of application-level risks. Enterprises are looking to embrace hyper-converged infrastructures as a go-to technology platform to address security and productivity concerns. We believe that hyper-converged systems will help enterprises achieve digital transformation all the while addressing the concerns of operational costs and enhanced customer experience to stay ahead of the competition.
The new work environment has not just opened doors for digital transformation by leap and bounds, but it has also opened a vortex through which cyber threats are thrown at organizations and its users. How have Array’s products eased its customers’ efforts in combating the cyber threats?
Post Covid-19 pandemic, the cyber-attacks against India have surged, especially due to WFH which makes enterprises and users vulnerable due to inefficient and outdated VPNs. Denial of service (DoS), IP hijacking and phishing are the main three attack categories used by the threat actors. Mostly, cyber-attacks take place due to the absence of robust security infrastructure. Weak and reused credentials are also another reason for the surge in cyber-attacks. To keep attackers away, enterprises would have to strengthen their defences to knockdown the malware that could secure privilege credentials. Our AVX Series Network Functions Platforms brings consolidation, convenience and workflow enhancement to networking and security and provides deep visibility to the application access and anomaly usage. Array’s patented HCI platform AVX is equipped to improving the SSL performance of customers’ existing WAF, NGFW and IPS. Our Anti-DDoS solution is geared with day one blocking feature while our competitors offer 1 -2 months for blocking mode. We want to invest in technologies that allow us to provide additional value in terms of security and application enablement.
Will zero trust aide in fighting cyber threat actors?
With so many hackers trying to steal your data, every CIO should be extremely careful with traditional VPNs or outdated technology infrastructure. Security has become imperative amidst all the data breaches that have and are occurring and zero trust has come in as a prominent solution in the wake of the current situation. Enterprises are rapidly rolling out secure remote access platforms and zero trust architecture will be one of the key technologies to see an explosive demand. Given remote work is the best way to keep your employees safe in this pandemic era, SSL VPN and zero trust framework is the need of the hour for every business. Our AVX Series Network Functions Platforms brings consolidation, convenience and workflow enhancement to networking and security and provides deep visibility to the application access and anomaly usage. This is the future of the workspace and already many of the large enterprises have begun the transformation. Zero trust will equip enterprises with advanced security to facilitate every employee to work from anywhere and any network without the use of a VPN. We aim to work closely with IoT application vendors and integrate our solutions to suit their requirement and also to enhance our SSL Intercept solution to take care of the newer challenges and requirements.
Has Array’s interaction with its customers and channel partners been affected due to the changing business dynamics?
Array’s channel program is devised to select partners and continuously trains them on leading-edge solutions. ACTI helps us to bring out custom made solutions keeping in mind the feedback that we have received from our customers through various social media outlets and our channel ecosystem. Business Intelligence has helped us optimize our work and focus on productive trends.
Do you anticipate market growth in the next fiscal year? How has Array Networks prepared to meet growth expectations?
We are pioneers in networking and security products with the best-in-class product line for our customers. We are a very customer-centric company, focused on providing high-performance infrastructure, services and support to our customers. Our customers are our biggest industry influencers and customer satisfaction is our key marketing strategy. I feel we will be one of the major gainers in FY21 as eCommerce and digital infrastructure spending of most organizations is being expedited adding to the growth rate. We pride ourselves in being cost-effective without compromising the quality and services. By aligning our products and solutions with that of our customer’s needs, we are able to empower our customers to influence the evolution of products through customization. Array Center for Technology and Innovation (ACTI) in Bengaluru features state-of-the-art technology and has a fully equipped customer training center capable of providing enhanced support to local and global customers. It has and will help us to bring out custom made solutions keeping in mind the feedback that we have received from our customers through various social media outlets and our channel ecosystem.