Secure Access as a Business Accelerator: a Conversation with Pulse Secure

In this Security Ledger Conversations Video, we speak with Sudhakar Ramakrishna, the CEO of the firm Pulse Secure on that company’s journey from Juniper Networks’ remote access business unit to a thriving, independent company selling secure access technology to firms with on premises, cloud and mobile deployments. Technology has utterly transformed how companies operate and managed information , changing the conversation about ‘remote access’ to one about ‘secure access,’ he says. We’ll talk about how Pulse Secure has leveraged those changes to find market success. 

There are few parts of the security industry that have been left untouched by the market’s embrace of both mobile and cloud computing. That’s certainly true of the market for remote access technology like virtual private networks (VPNs).

Ten or 15 years ago, SSL and IPSEC VPNs were go-to technology for allowing remote workers to connect into enterprise networks and access enterprise applications and data. The technology was a boon to companies, who could suddenly benefit from employees logging in from branch offices, home offices, customer sites and other remote locations.

Sudhakar Ramakrishna
Sudhakar Ramakrishna is CEO of Pulse Secure where he oversees all aspects of business strategy and execution.

Today, the profile of the average workplace and corporate network has transformed. Corporate owned data centers and applications have migrated to cloud platforms like AWS and Azure. Employees expect to access corporate data and applications from just about anywhere, and do so using a dizzying array of devices: Windows, Apple and Linux based PCs, Android and iOS -based mobile devices and so on.

Secure remote access to those resources is more important than ever- but also more complicated than ever. So how do companies keep up with that change? How are smart companies managing to stitch together these disparate computing platforms to make their workers not just more secure, but more productive?

[Read more Security Ledger coverage of cloud security trends here.]

To find out, I sat down at the recent RSA Security Conference* with Sudhakar Ramakrishna, the CEO of the firm Pulse Secure. Sudhakar and Pulse have been at the epicenter of the changing remote access space, ever since Pulse spun out of Juniper Networks as an independent firm in 2014. Today, the company boasts some 20,000 customers and 18 million secured endpoints.

Rather than clamping down on new computing and use models like mobility and cloud, access security technologies should help accelerate their adoption and use by removing barriers to use, he said.

“Mobility drives freedom and productivity. Cloud creates more options for companies, but comes with its own security challenges,” he told me.

The key for modern firms, he said, is to exploit transformative technologies and platforms like cloud and mobile computing, but doing so securely.

In this conversation, Sudhakar and I talk about Pulse Secure’s evolution from a business unit of networking firm Juniper Networks to a full fledged remote- and secure access firm in its own right. We discuss the changes in the marketplace, as remote access technologies have given way to secure access platforms. Finally, we talk about how Pulse Secure is adapting and thriving alongside rapid changes in the enterprise security market.

You can check out the first part of our conversation below, or by clicking this link. The second part of our conversation can be found here.

(*) Disclosure:

Security Ledger’s coverage of RSA Conference was sponsored by the following organizations: RSA Security (a division of Dell), LookingGlass Cyber SolutionsQualys Inc., Pulse Secure Inc., DigiCert Inc., and Keysite Technologies. For more information on how Security Ledger works with its sponsors and sponsored content on Security Ledger, check out our About Security Ledger page on sponsorships and sponsor relations.

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