Threading the needle between security and enablement with Zscaler CIO Praniti Lakhwara

ServiceNow veteran and Zscaler CTO in Residence Venkat Lakshminarayanan returns to the show for part 2 on self-healing infrastructure. Venkat and host Pamela Kubiatowski discuss organizational considerations when pursuing highly resilient network architecture, including convincing leaders of the business benefits, equipping IT teams with the skills to build and maintain the environment, and the need to take calculated risks when replacing legacy technologies. Don't miss this fascinating follow-up to our first installment.

Salesforce veteran and current Zscaler CTO in Residence Venkat Lakshminarayanan joins host Pamela Kubiatowski to discuss IT's Holy Grail – a self-healing infrastructure. Venkat parses the differences between self-service, self-solve, and self-heal; explains how zero trust plays a role by simplifying underlying architecture; and covers the essential role of AI/ML for pattern recognition and automated response.

Why doesn't malware hop from smartphone to smartphone as with computers? That’s the question that led former Airgap CTO Satish Mohan and his co-founders to a fundamental rethink of network segmentation. Mohan sat down with guest host and Zscaler CTO in Residence Sanjit Ganguli to discuss Airgap's origin story, challenges with traditional segmentation, and how a novel architecture helps to overcome them.

IT departments often battle the perception of being the "department of no.” In this episode, Zscaler CIO Praniti Lakhwara talks about her guiding principle of enabling every desk to be more productive while simultaneously managing the needs of the business. She discusses the CIO/CISO relationship, the biggest challenges facing CIOs today, the benefits of being “customer zero,” and more in this fascinating glimpse into the life of IT czar.

From missiles to your money, Regions Bank Senior VP of Cybersecurity Engineering Jay Patty has more than 20 years of cybersecurity experience protecting some of society’s most important assets. In this episode, he recalls his career trajectory and the personal traits that keep him seeking cyber’s toughest challenges. Tune in to learn critical differences between public and private sector cybersecurity, navigating complex compliance standards in regulated industries, and the crucial importance of having a hobby.

In her second sit-down with host Pamela Kubiatowski, Voya Financial CISO Stacy Hughes turns from the technical to the interpersonal. Hughes speaks as an industry advocate and mentor about the importance of going deeper than standard cyber awareness training, mentorship as "servant leadership," practical advice for dealing with the time constraints imposed on executives, and a few of the Atlanta-area organizations she supports.

What are CISOs to make of recent rulings against their colleagues and increasing scrutiny from the SEC, whose new reporting rules are dnow in effect? Host Pam Kubiatowski sits down with renowned Voya Financial CISO and FinTech veteran Stacy Hughes to discuss how the new rules affect incident response, the importance of CEO support, and considerations unique to the financial industry.

From Microsoft to Salesforce, Syam Nair’s work has left an indelible mark on the intersection of technology and business productivity. He recently joined Zscaler as CTO and EVP of Research and Development. In this episode, he relates lessons from the first 100 days on the job, the personal philosophies that guide his professional life, and what excites him most about the future of Zscaler from a technology perspective. His ability to inspire, engage, and be wholly life-enhancing is legendary among tech leaders.

When a prospect has trouble grasping the architecture underpinning zero trust, Zscaler calls in Brian Deitch. The Chief Technology Evangelist is known for his colorful technical whiteboarding sessions and passion for infosec. He joined the show to discuss his career, early experiments with social engineering, and influences on his distinctive style.

He never planned to climb the ladder of corporate technology leadership. But an obsession with hard problems led him down the path to becoming the CTO for South Africa's Capitec Bank. In this episode, learn more about Andrew Baker's career arc, including going from "my very first project was to remove Zscaler because I didn't see the value in it," to leading three successful zero trust transformations and becoming a Zscaler advisor.