Latest / Buzz Off / Episode 1: Justin Brooks, Zscaler

Transcript

Episode 1: Justin Brooks, Zscaler · Buzz Off

• 0:06
  Hello and welcome to Buzz Off.
• 0:10
  My name is Oliver Chapman.
• 0:12
  I am Solution Area Director for networking and security at Computacenter.
• 0:16
  This is a web series that is designed by our customers, for our customers.
• 0:20
  I've got some cue cards. Look, I'm a proper presenter.
• 0:23
  So we have pre-selected three buzz words
• 0:26
  or phrases that our guest is not allowed to say.
• 0:30
  We have a different partner on each time, and if they say it,
• 0:33
  you will hear this noise.
• 0:37
  If I mention all three buzzwords,
• 0:39
  I will forcefully eject them from the studio.
• 0:42
  this week's buzz, words and phrases are “converged”,
• 0:46
  “innovation” and “singing off the same hymn sheet”.
• 0:49
  This week's guest is Justin Brooks, vice president UK&I at Zscaler.
• 0:54
  He's an ex-military man.
• 0:56
  So I'm a little scared about potentially having to forcefully eject him.
• 1:00
  Justin, welcome to Buzz Off.
• 1:02
  Thanks a lot. How are you feeling?
• 1:03
  It's good to be here with you.
• 1:04
  Relaxed? Comfortable? I am, yeah.
• 1:07
  No intimidation. None. Right?
• 1:09
  Okay. Well, perfect. Look, we’ll launch into it.
• 1:11
  So I'm going to ask you some key questions.
• 1:13
  There's about seven.
• 1:14
  Remember, the rules are you go get through it. No buzz words.
• 1:17
  Otherwise we'll hear the buzz. Right.
• 1:19
  So first question, what keeps you at Zscaler?
• 1:22
  Well, first off, let me thank you for having me join you today.
• 1:25
  What keeps me at Zscaler?
• 1:27
  It's, it's a couple of different things.
• 1:29
  One is our customers.
• 1:31
  What personally, excites me and keeps me motivated is being able to go in
• 1:37
  with customers and understanding what's driving their business outcomes.
• 1:41
  And then how can we support that?
• 1:43
  We're solving real problems.
• 1:45
  We're able to help them increase their top line revenues in various ways,
• 1:49
  decrease their operational costs and mitigate risks.
• 1:53
  And many times with, some of the largest companies on, on the global stage.
• 1:57
  The other thing is working specifically at Zscaler, is the innovation -
• 2:03
  Unbelievable!
• 2:07
  Straight away! I barely made a minute.
• 2:09
  Well, you need to be careful now because you got two more chances.
• 2:12
  And then otherwise, I have to forcefully eject you from the studio. So.
• 2:15
  Right. Innovation we've had, it would take that box.
• 2:18
  So anyway, carry on.
• 2:19
  All right.
• 2:20
  Is, is the breadth of the platform and the development that goes into it.
• 2:23
  Yeah.
• 2:24
  You know, it's not just about, you know, resilience from the edge.
• 2:27
  It's, it's about more than that, and it's about, you know, protecting,
• 2:31
  you know, the, the global, landscape, how companies are operating
• 2:36
  within, you know, different, geographic remits.
• 2:40
  You know, how they're, indoctrinating new technologies.
• 2:44
  So, you know, addressing all of those problems and, you know, Zscaler
• 2:48
  staying on the forefront is incredibly, motivating and exciting to me.
• 2:52
  Excellent. Great answer.
• 2:54
  Why Computacenter and Zscaler together for our customers?
• 2:58
  Yeah.
• 2:59
  You know,
• 2:59
  you and I were having a conversation, off camera a minute ago, and we were.
• 3:03
  We were talking about people, right?
• 3:04
  I think, you know, everything starts with people.
• 3:07
  Businesses starts with people both internally.
• 3:10
  The relationships that we develop with, with our customers.
• 3:13
  And when I think about the partnership, it starts with,
• 3:16
  you know a great partnership at a personal level.
• 3:20
  Yeah. We do a lot of planning together.
• 3:23
  We do a lot of planning as as organisations.
• 3:25
  We do, a lot of preparation and put a lot of thought into our customers.
• 3:31
  And what are their outcomes even before that first meeting.
• 3:34
  Where are we going to spend our time?
• 3:36
  And through that, we're able to solve a lot of problems.
• 3:39
  Right.
• 3:39
  Well able to deliver on a lot of outcomes together.
• 3:42
  I think we do a, an amazing job at bringing the technology.
• 3:47
  You although with managed services
• 3:49
  and, you know, the, the advice and, you know, our relationships
• 3:55
  that you have with, customers, it all comes together and many times
• 4:00
  that that results and, you know, almost a seamless engagement.
• 4:04
  And our partnership and that's, that's just really special.
• 4:07
  I love that, and I think it sounds like it's care.
• 4:09
  Right. I think that's that's what matters collectively.
• 4:12
  So what makes us unique to enterprise organisations, to the big customers?
• 4:17
  Collectively, us together, its delivery.
• 4:21
  It's it's kind of expanding on what I was saying earlier.
• 4:26
  Put a lot of thought, a lot of care into how we're going about,
• 4:29
  you know, solving problems for our customers.
• 4:30
  Understanding what moves the needle that, you know, technology just doesn't,
• 4:35
  you know, need to be solved for the sake of technology
• 4:37
  or purchase for the sake of technology that we, you know, it's understanding
• 4:40
  those business outcomes.
• 4:43
  And I think that that's
• 4:44
  always at the forefront, in how we engage with one another.
• 4:48
  And then,
• 4:49
  you know, how we engage with our customers
• 4:50
  so that that's a special thing we do together. Great.
• 4:53
  And you mentioned so you see a lot of customers, your team sees
• 4:56
  a lot of customers as well, especially very senior stakeholders.
• 5:00
  What's the question that every CIO should be asking their teams right now?
• 5:04
  Yeah, that they should be taking a look at,
• 5:10
  are we status quo or are
• 5:12
  we, what's another word for innovating?
• 5:15
  I'm not going to say that one again.
• 5:17
  That's not allowed But, are we staying on, on the precipice
• 5:21
  of of new technology to address this new state of the world?
• 5:26
  Yeah.
• 5:26
  That, you know, it's not what it was
• 5:29
  two years ago or five years ago, or certainly not ten years ago.
• 5:33
  The old way of doing things through, you know,
• 5:37
  castle and moat or VPNs, it's evolved greatly.
• 5:41
  And so, I think, you know, the senior leaders,
• 5:44
  including ourselves, really need to take a look at how,
• 5:47
  how we're addressing, you know, the new world.
• 5:51
  You've got AI, you've got, IoT,
• 5:55
  OT, you've got, you know, more and more of a remote workforce.
• 6:00
  The the stage is very different now.
• 6:02
  And so, you know, thinking about not only how do I, you know,
• 6:07
  adjust and address and,
• 6:10
  be resilient in this new world, but also, you know, thinking about consolidation
• 6:15
  and, you know, do I really need to, over architect?
• 6:19
  I can simplify.
• 6:20
  There's there's platforms
• 6:21
  like Zscaler out there that can solve so many problems for me.
• 6:24
  Like DLP or AI or branch.
• 6:28
  So I love the approach you're taking to this.
• 6:30
  Just. And I almost feel like you're fishing for buzzwords every now and again.
• 6:33
  I think you're playing an aggressive game here. I like it right.
• 6:35
  One card down, one buzzword.
• 6:37
  So next question.
• 6:39
  When you think about impressive outcomes that we have delivered for customers.
• 6:43
  So things like saving money, saving time,
• 6:44
  you already mentioned some of those things.
• 6:46
  What's the use case that springs to mind. Yeah.
• 6:49
  There's a lot.
• 6:50
  And I do need to be careful about, you know, using some, some, some names.
• 6:53
  You know, a lot of times, by the nature of what we do. Yeah.
• 6:56
  It's sensitive.
• 6:57
  But, one of the things that I think I'm most proud of
• 7:01
  is that, you know, how we've responded when there are incidents that take place.
• 7:06
  And, we need to, to come in and, support our customers together.
• 7:10
  And so I think we've done an amazing job, doing that.
• 7:13
  You know, when I also think about, you know, some of the delivered outcomes,
• 7:17
  you know, a lot of it is taking, companies from legacy, to new
• 7:22
  and what we've been able to deliver together is a lot of cost savings
• 7:27
  plus protection and better agility.
• 7:31
  And so I'm really proud of that.
• 7:32
  And then the, another one that comes to mind is a is a company where we were able
• 7:37
  to really help increase the top line, which was through M&A activity.
• 7:40
  We were able to increase their
• 7:42
  M&A and,
• 7:43
  route to revenue by about 75%, and that's significant.
• 7:47
  You know, looking at some of those soft numbers
• 7:49
  as they're applied back, they become hard numbers.
• 7:51
  And what they invest in paid for itself tenfold.
• 7:55
  So, those are some.
• 7:56
  And that's key isn’t it, how
• 7:58
  you can help our customers to accelerate their business.
• 8:01
  Okay.
• 8:03
  How important is AI to Zscaler right now?
• 8:07
  It's incredibly important.
• 8:08
  It should be, it is, to everyone.
• 8:11
  But, AI is the buzzword of all buzzwords.
• 8:14
  It is. It is. It would be unfair.
• 8:17
  It would be unfair.
• 8:18
  But it is real.
• 8:20
  And, you know, it's it's not just from the aspect of how do you
• 8:24
  how do you incorporate - all CIOs need to be asking this question,
• 8:27
  which is, how do I get all the benefits out of the AI?
• 8:30
  How do I get the efficiency and how do I get the productivity?
• 8:33
  And, you know, unfortunately, in many cases, how can I offload some,
• 8:37
  capital expenditures or operational expenditures through through AI?
• 8:42
  But the question that needs to be asked
• 8:44
  at the exact same time is, what is my risk profile?
• 8:48
  Right?
• 8:49
  And, you know, how do I prevent data leakage?
• 8:53
  Because a lot of times there's not a lot of control,
• 8:56
  there's not a lot of governance.
• 8:57
  There's there's really no, you know, past example of how to do this.
• 9:03
  So, you know, when you're saying, okay,
• 9:05
  we need to apply a governance structure, what do you modelling it after?
• 9:08
  You really starting from scratch there?
• 9:11
  And you need the expertise of, of companies like yours,
• 9:14
  companies like, Zscaler to help you with that model
• 9:18
  so that you can reap the benefits and provide the protection.
• 9:21
  The other side of that is the security attacks are getting more advanced.
• 9:26
  We've already seen AI generated, attacks take place.
• 9:31
  And I'll tell you. Right.
• 9:33
  Right on the heels of that is quantum computing.
• 9:36
  Quantum is going to break RSA.
• 9:37
  It's going to break, you know, the, blockchain.
• 9:40
  So, you know, you're going to need quantum technologies.
• 9:43
  You need to be thinking about, you know, what's next with quantum.
• 9:45
  So AI's the start and we really are in the infancy.
• 9:48
  We are just getting started.
• 9:49
  Companies are just getting started, but,
• 9:53
  we've got to act now, companies need to act now.
• 9:55
  And that leads us on really nicely to our kind of final formal question,
• 9:58
  which is what excites you most about Zscaler’s portfolio
• 10:02
  and the roadmap that you're that you're seeing?
• 10:04
  Yeah, it comes down to platform.
• 10:06
  You know, I look at the, the new technology that,
• 10:11
  you know, we’re introducing into the
• 10:15
  platform.
• 10:15
  These are things that we're developing.
• 10:17
  You look at some of the acquisitions that we've made around,
• 10:20
  you know, browser and, AI security.
• 10:23
  It's really exciting.
• 10:24
  So, you know, expanding out into, you know,
• 10:28
  not only the AI security space, but, you know, I mentioned the branch,
• 10:32
  resilience, earlier, you know, data loss prevention.
• 10:37
  There's there's so much there that we can solve for, for customers.
• 10:41
  The power really is in the platform, and that's the big differentiator for us.
• 10:45
  It's not just about securing, you know, the edge.
• 10:48
  There's much more to that.
• 10:49
  And it takes out to your point, those point technologies, it saves money.
• 10:52
  It saves time.
• 10:53
  That helps our customers to operate in a, in a, in a far more efficient way.
• 10:57
  Hey, look, you made it through the core questions.
• 10:57
  Hey, look, you made it through the core questions.
• 11:00
  Pretty good. Only one.
• 11:01
  Not bad. Not bad at all.
• 11:02
  Thank you so much.
• 11:04
  Phenomenal.
• 11:05
  Good effort.
• 11:05
  Thank you for joining me. Much appreciated. Amazing to be here.
• 11:08
  Thanks for the time.
• 11:09
  We made it!. One buzzword.
• 11:11
  I mean, I'm pretty sure he was playing buzzword lottery.
• 11:15
  He played a very aggressive game. I quite liked it.
• 11:17
  Congratulations, Justin.
• 11:19
  It was great spending the time with you.
• 11:20
  We will be back next time with some more buzzwords, different guest.
• 11:24
  Thank you for watching.