Founded in 1999 as one of the first SaaS security companies, Qualys has established strategic partnerships with leading cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, as well as managed service providers and consulting organizations including Accenture, BT, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Deutsche Telekom, DXC Technology, Fujitsu, HCL Technologies, IBM, Infosys, NTT, Optiv, SecureWorks, Tata Communications, Verizon and Wipro. The company is also a founding member of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA). Mr. Sumedh Thakar, President and CEO, Qualys shares more information about the same
Can you explain why cybersecurity matters to businesses today?
Every business today is digital, and a good user experience (is the app intuitive, can tasks be easily performed on a mobile phone, does it integrate well with other apps) is an essential element of the success of a company.
Due to competition, organizations need to implement these new technologies quickly, leading to the possibility of errors in the solution infrastructure. A company’s valuable data could be exposed to bad actors due to these errors. This exposure can be financially burdensome or, in some cases, an existential risk to the business. A strong cybersecurity program helps eliminate or significantly reduce this risk.
What are the biggest data security threats in the current scenario?
Hackers are getting smarter and more sophisticated. We are now seeing attacks being conducted as professional operations, with bad actors becoming more surgical and precise in their approach to choosing a victim, exploiting this organization for fiscal and social gain.
As a rule, all types of attacks become “mundane”. Malicious actors take advantage of all possible attack vectors, be it a phishing campaign or a ransomware attack. One of the biggest threats today is visibility. You can’t protect what you can’t see or don’t know is there.
Qualys is the oldest cloud security platform in existence, with an increasing growth trajectory. Can you share the strategies that help you not only maintain but also grow in this competitive market.
Innovation being the cornerstone of the company, Qualys has always been product driven. Since its inception, the product strategy has aimed to continually evolve and adapt to the threat landscape in which it finds itself – to enable customers to succeed in protecting the company’s crown jewels and maintaining the business continuity.
Having leveraged cloud-based technology from the start, Qualys has been able to scale and enable customers to ensure that their systems are well protected and cannot be compromised by attackers. By consolidating customers’ cybersecurity stacks into a single agent, Qualys has raised the bar for vulnerability management by reducing cyber risk and remediation times for customers, while enabling new and existing customers to maximize their spend. of security.
Since you have been associated with Qualys for almost two decades now, can you share your journey in the company. Also keeping in mind macro factors and changing realities for CIOs, how have you evolved your GTM strategy?
Life is about solving challenges every day, no matter what role you’re in – so for me, working in a company where I could solve problems and see the societal impact was important to my personal journey. Starting as an engineer within the company, I was able to work alongside customers, hear and understand their needs, and build something that solved their pain points. Being able to see in numbers the impact of Qualys on customers is what energizes me and motivates me to continue to innovate and serve.
Today, our platform secures all facets of your daily life: we secure the banks where you invest your money, we secure the hospitals that look after your health and that of your loved ones, we secure the online purchases you make during the holiday season, we secure the smartphones you use every second of the day, we secure the social media platforms that allow you to stay in touch with distant friends and family. We secure everything.
With respect to our GTM strategy, we are focused on innovating and delivering additional capabilities that align with customer needs to further enhance their cybersecurity programs.
What are the latest security and data migration/protection trends you are seeing globally vis-Ã -vis India?
Asian countries are ahead of the western world because they have the advantage of not having to deal with legacy systems. India and its neighbors in the region are leveraging modern IT and cybersecurity methods to build new systems that improve people’s lives socio-economically.
For example, UPI transformed India’s digital economy, accelerated the country’s transition to a cashless society, and achieved more real-time transactions than any other payment system in the world.
On cybersecurity, Qualys is working with Union Government entities through their digital offerings, including UIDAI in their flagship project Aadhar, as well as the UPI payment system to help them build resilience. data, continuous threat assessment and patch management.
Another trend I see is that governments are placing more emphasis on protecting the data of their citizens. Increasingly, this is leading to data residency laws, forcing companies to keep customer data in that country.
Today’s hackers are getting smarter and more sophisticated; how do you track this? What do you think are the strategies and best practices for simplifying enterprise security?
Through automation, today’s malicious actors maximize the impact of their large-scale attacks – for example, in the Microsoft Exchange breach in March 2021, it was valued that 250,000 servers fell victim to the attack.
If attackers use automation to disrupt business operations and the continuity of every type of organization, defense mechanisms must also do the same. Businesses – private and public, government agencies and critical infrastructure organizations – are starting to get their hands full. Automating security infrastructure is no longer a choice, but a necessity for every cyber arsenal.
The risk of automation breaking something within the company’s IT infrastructure will now be fully offset by the risk of not automating at scale.
As governments increasingly focus on data security and digital transformation, how can Qualys be a partner in leading the industry into the next phase of growth?
Cybersecurity is the foundation that allows organizations to safely leverage technology. Qualys has always been customer-focused and innovative to adapt to the threat landscape, no matter how fast it changes. We are constantly striving to improve current solutions and introduce new ones, to ensure our customers have the protection they need to maintain business continuity.
Additionally, Qualys is focused on bringing new innovations to its platform. This all-in-one, integrated approach to security saves organizations significant time, helps reduce risk and increases overall efficiency.
What is the company’s vision for the next five years as the world enters the age of digitalization?
For more than 20 years, we’ve worked to create a consolidated approach to cybersecurity so organizations can stop drinking disparate data from siled solutions into a fire hose. We have put our customers first and are building our platform cloud natively. The future of the company will continue to build on this work with an overall mission to make cybersecurity cheaper.
