Since the start of this year, I have been all over the EMEA region – from Spain to Scandinavia, the UK to the Middle East. It’s been inspiring to understand the different priorities of each market, and where individual companies and broader industries are on their Zero Trust journeys. No matter the location or vertical, however, one topic that is coming up time and time again in my conversations with customers is resilience. Or more specifically, how companies can back-up and protect their existing data estate, and why this action should be acted upon immediately vs. being something that can wait. Exploring today’s resilient landscapeResilience is a topic we’ve been discussing a lot at Zscaler – and not just in terms of our own cloud infrastructure. Earlier this year, we launched research exploring the state of cyber resilience within global businesses. While the results showed an increasing recognition of resilience’s critical business value within a volatile operating environment and escalating threat landscape, they also highlighted worrying inconsistencies, gaps and inefficiencies in current strategies that IT leaders cannot afford to ignore any longer. In particular, we’ve seen that many organizations still rely on outdated or reactive security models. They feel confident in their resilience posture because nothing’s gone wrong yet. But without getting far more proactive with their approaches, set-ups and risk hunting, that confidence may well be misplaced in the wake of emerging developments like AI powered threats. Real resilience comes from visibility, awareness and preparation – not just hope and assumption.The key is building what we call “Resilience by Design.” That means designing systems that can absorb shocks, adapt quickly and keep the business running, even when things go wrong. It applies across every layer of the tech stack, from infrastructure and networks to applications and data. But so too does it apply to the people behind these stacks. As Gartner puts it in ‘Succeed as an SRM Leader by Infusing Resilience Into Your Program’: “Resilient people embody many of the same characteristics as resilient systems and are a key component of a resilient program.” At Zscaler we fully agree with the need for a more holistic approach to resilience – that’s why we’ve also commissioned research into personal resilience, and are due to launch those results in the coming month. Continuing the conversationMy next destination will be Prague for Zenith Live EMEA – Zscaler’s annual user conference. And I’m sure resilience will be a central topic of discussion there as well, as we plan to demonstrate how organizations can thrive in AI with the help of Zero Trust. My attendance of Zenith Live will mark almost a year to the day since I joined Zscaler, so it’s an important milestone for me to reflect upon. In the past 12 months I’ve seen our relationships with partners and customers grow and mature. As companies look to the convergence of AI and Zero Trust to fuel their next level of digital transformation and establish resilient, mission-critical infrastructures, Zscaler’s platform message is resonating more than ever.We’ve also expanded into markets like the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe – and I’m really looking forward to meeting some of our newest customers in Prague, as well as our growing partner ecosystem and my team members who are flying in from across the region. We’ve a packed schedule of keynotes, transformation theatre presentations featuring Zero Trust Everywhere and over 60 breakout sessions co-presented by customers, so it promises to be a great event. I’ll be onsite for the full conference so do come and find me on the show floor. We can chat resilience, AI, zero trust and much more.
[#item_full_content] Since the start of this year, I have been all over the EMEA region – from Spain to Scandinavia, the UK to the Middle East. It’s been inspiring to understand the different priorities of each market, and where individual companies and broader industries are on their Zero Trust journeys. No matter the location or vertical, however, one topic that is coming up time and time again in my conversations with customers is resilience. Or more specifically, how companies can back-up and protect their existing data estate, and why this action should be acted upon immediately vs. being something that can wait. Exploring today’s resilient landscapeResilience is a topic we’ve been discussing a lot at Zscaler – and not just in terms of our own cloud infrastructure. Earlier this year, we launched research exploring the state of cyber resilience within global businesses. While the results showed an increasing recognition of resilience’s critical business value within a volatile operating environment and escalating threat landscape, they also highlighted worrying inconsistencies, gaps and inefficiencies in current strategies that IT leaders cannot afford to ignore any longer. In particular, we’ve seen that many organizations still rely on outdated or reactive security models. They feel confident in their resilience posture because nothing’s gone wrong yet. But without getting far more proactive with their approaches, set-ups and risk hunting, that confidence may well be misplaced in the wake of emerging developments like AI powered threats. Real resilience comes from visibility, awareness and preparation – not just hope and assumption.The key is building what we call “Resilience by Design.” That means designing systems that can absorb shocks, adapt quickly and keep the business running, even when things go wrong. It applies across every layer of the tech stack, from infrastructure and networks to applications and data. But so too does it apply to the people behind these stacks. As Gartner puts it in ‘Succeed as an SRM Leader by Infusing Resilience Into Your Program’: “Resilient people embody many of the same characteristics as resilient systems and are a key component of a resilient program.” At Zscaler we fully agree with the need for a more holistic approach to resilience – that’s why we’ve also commissioned research into personal resilience, and are due to launch those results in the coming month. Continuing the conversationMy next destination will be Prague for Zenith Live EMEA – Zscaler’s annual user conference. And I’m sure resilience will be a central topic of discussion there as well, as we plan to demonstrate how organizations can thrive in AI with the help of Zero Trust. My attendance of Zenith Live will mark almost a year to the day since I joined Zscaler, so it’s an important milestone for me to reflect upon. In the past 12 months I’ve seen our relationships with partners and customers grow and mature. As companies look to the convergence of AI and Zero Trust to fuel their next level of digital transformation and establish resilient, mission-critical infrastructures, Zscaler’s platform message is resonating more than ever.We’ve also expanded into markets like the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe – and I’m really looking forward to meeting some of our newest customers in Prague, as well as our growing partner ecosystem and my team members who are flying in from across the region. We’ve a packed schedule of keynotes, transformation theatre presentations featuring Zero Trust Everywhere and over 60 breakout sessions co-presented by customers, so it promises to be a great event. I’ll be onsite for the full conference so do come and find me on the show floor. We can chat resilience, AI, zero trust and much more.
