Get ready to navigate the cyber seas with Anand Oswal, the esteemed Senior Vice President and General Manager of Network Security at Palo Alto Networks. In a week bustling with RSAC activities, we snagged a moment with Anand to delve into the strategies that keep his team a stroke ahead in the relentless battle against cybersecurity threats. As we peel back the layers on Palo Alto Networks' approach to innovation, Anand gives us the insider's view on their latest products and the heightened importance of embedding security into AI from the get-go.
With Anand's insight, we uncover the real struggles businesses face in this ever-evolving digital landscape. He candidly discusses how customers grapple with the complexities of their security tools and the burdensome costs of managing numerous systems. The conversation takes an enlightening turn as we discuss Palo Alto Networks' efforts in consolidating these tools into efficient, unified platforms, bolstering defenses while trimming down operational fat. Plus, we explore the transformative power of Generative AI in the workplace, from ramping up productivity to automating intricate tasks, and how Palo Alto Networks is harnessing this tech to revolutionize industry workflows. Join us for a session that's as much about cutting-edge tech as it is about practical, on-the-ground applications that resonate with the pulse of today's business demands.
Get ready to navigate the cyber seas with Anand Oswal, the esteemed Senior Vice President and General Manager of Network Security at Palo Alto Networks. In a week bustling with RSAC activities, we snagged a moment with Anand to delve into the strategies that keep his team a stroke ahead in the relentless battle against cybersecurity threats. As we peel back the layers on Palo Alto Networks' approach to innovation, Anand gives us the insider's view on their latest products and the heightened importance of embedding security into AI from the get-go.
With Anand's insight, we uncover the real struggles businesses face in this ever-evolving digital landscape. He candidly discusses how customers grapple with the complexities of their security tools and the burdensome costs of managing numerous systems. The conversation takes an enlightening turn as we discuss Palo Alto Networks' efforts in consolidating these tools into efficient, unified platforms, bolstering defenses while trimming down operational fat. Plus, we explore the transformative power of Generative AI in the workplace, from ramping up productivity to automating intricate tasks, and how Palo Alto Networks is harnessing this tech to revolutionize industry workflows. Join us for a session that's as much about cutting-edge tech as it is about practical, on-the-ground applications that resonate with the pulse of today's business demands.
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Speaker 1:
And I am here at RSAC on Tuesday. Super exciting weeks. Very excited to be with Anand from Palo Alto Networks. Anand, how are you? I'm doing, great. How are you I'm doing well. Such an exciting week, so much to explore Before we dive in. Maybe introduce yourself to those few people in the industry who don't know who you are at Palo Alto Networks.
Speaker 2:
Anand Oswal, I lead network security at Palo Alto Networks. Anand Oswal, I lead network security at Palo Alto.
Speaker 1:
Networks. Well, that's very simple, but there's a lot to unpack here. I have lots of questions. Maybe start off with innovation. That's really at the forefront of what you and your team do at Palo Alto Networks. Tell us about the innovation strategy, because you have so many new products, so many releases. What's the plan to stay at the cutting edge of cybersecurity here at RCC?
Speaker 2:
Look, cybersecurity is a very interesting industry, evan, as we, as vendors in the industry, we need to be right every single time. The attacker needs to be right only once.
Speaker 1:
So our job is to really stay ahead of all of these things happening.
Speaker 2:
There's new technologies, there are new types of threats and we are constantly innovating. This is a super innovative industry and we are at the forefront of that at Palo Alto Networks.
Speaker 1:
Yes, and so many challenges, so many opportunities. You know this week, as we speak, what are the biggest challenges facing your customers.
Speaker 2:
Look, I think in the last 12 to 15 months we've seen this phenomenon of generative AI on everybody's mind. Usage of AI has become ubiquitous, but when we think of enterprises use of AI, I think of from two different perspectives. The first is employees. They're using these gen AI applications because they want to be more productive, and our research says that more than half of employees in organizations are using these applications, whether you're aware of it or not. That's one broad use case. The second use case is about companies. They're building AI-powered applications because they want to transform their businesses, give their customers new and richer experiences, and as you do that, you increase the attack surface. So how do you?
Speaker 1:
secure that Both of these are relevant.
Speaker 2:
They will have significant impact on companies' top line, bottom line, but they bring in new risks, and that's why it's so important to secure AI by design.
Speaker 1:
Well said, let's talk about customer impact. You talk to customers day in, day out. What are they telling you at the front lines of defense in this challenging new world? What are their concerns? And you know desires, requests.
Speaker 2:
Look, customers are having to deal with a lot of things in cybersecurity. Unfortunately, over the years, they've built up this plethora of different tools and products and they're stitching it together. It's hard, it cumbersome. They have, they don't have enough skill, labor, the operational costs are very high. So when I talk to customers, they're saying, hey, help me simplify my cybersecurity, help me consolidate this point products and tools onto the platform. And that's what we've been working of the last four or five years bringing all these point products and tools together, but in a unified platform where you have unified workflows, you have manageability constructs, you have monitoring insights, ai, operations all in a single dashboard. So they really want to simplify their operational cost, they want to focus on what they do best and they want to have really good security.
Speaker 2:
So, in simple ways, when I say they want to make more money, they want to save money and they say keep me out of trouble.
Speaker 1:
Wonderful sentiment. Let's talk about AI and automation. Of course, it's all over RSAC this year, but let's maybe look behind the hype. What are the practical utilities around leveraging AI, Gen AI within your suite and what's the value that you can deliver immediately?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, If you think of Gen AI usage for employees, they tend to be more productive. So, for example, you have productivity tools that will do data analysis for you right on the fingertips, will help you build new algorithms right now. If you're a developer, help you write code. Help you complete code. Simplify your complex software logic. Or if you're a marketing and sales professional, you're a developer. Help you write code, help you complete code, simplify your complex software logic.
Speaker 1:
Or if you're a marketing and sales professional.
Speaker 2:
You're using it to create new marketing, collateral emails to customers. You're using it to create blogs and press releases. All of this is happening. There are thousands and thousands of these applications being used. Unfortunately, the risk associated with it is that they may contain sensitive data of your organization. So how does IT have full visibility onto what usage of JNR is happening in the organization? Once they know what's happening, can they have control which ones they want to allow, which ones they want to deny?
Speaker 1:
Which ones they want to limit usage on.
Speaker 2:
For the ones that you allow how do you ensure that you have secure usage of it and the light level of controls to ensure that your proprietary data is not getting leaked out?
Speaker 1:
And last, but not the least, threat prevention.
Speaker 2:
We're seeing a lot of examples where responses from these JNN applications are coming in with malicious links and URLs, and how do you ensure you protect these? And that's what precision AI security services come together we can protect these advanced threats coming in.
Speaker 1:
Wow, that's such an extraordinary insight. You talk to so many customers. You have so many successful stories around helping customers defend against threats. Do you care to call out any examples or stories where you're helping customers in different industries, different verticals? You know stories that don't make the news defending against these threats out there.
Speaker 2:
Look, I think we are working with customers across every single major category, right? You can imagine any customer in the industry. They're using AI, they're using AI or they're building AI-powered applications. A third of organizations are only building AI-powered applications because they want to transform their business operations, they want to give different experiences to their customers and they want to secure their journey of applications from design to build to run. So you don't have the right posture and protect from all the runtime threats your applications, your data, your model. One thing, evan, I want to point out is that, as you think of AI powered applications, I really look at this as the third wave of application transformation. Now you and I are old enough. The first time applications built, they were built with a three tier architecture. You had the front end, you had the application, your database, then came along the cloud. Cloud gave the organizations an opportunity to modernize the app stack using a microservices architecture.
Speaker 2:
Ai-powered applications represents the third wave of application transformation. It's not just plugging a model to an application and you're done. You're building an entire new app stack in AI infrastructure, ai models, tools and plugins and data sets, and these are coordinating and having access to your sensitive data. So you think about this. Every component here is introducing new risk from a supply chain perspective, from a configuration perspective, from a runtime perspective, and that's why it's so important you secure this by design. Well said.