CIOL Exclusive: Vinay Sharma, RD, India and SAARC, NETSCOUT

Netscout—is a provider of business solutions related to data security, application, and networking. They work with a hybrid cloud environment for the in-demand industry, enterprise and government networks.

In a conversation with us, Mr Vinay Sharma, Regional Director, India and SAARC, NETSCOUT, shared his insights on current challenges in the industry and his motivation.

First, I would like to know more about you. Tell me about your childhood, dreams and passions growing up.

To be frank, I never thought of getting into the IT services domain during my early years. I graduated in Commerce, topped Mumbai University and always wanted to have a career in Management Accounting and excelled at debates in these subjects. However, despite suggestions from my professors to continue my further studies in Finance and carve a career path in the field where my talent existed, my family’s humble financial condition did not permit me. Hence, I took the first job that came my way, which was in IT, where I did not have much knowledge, but a lucrative career option in those days. To become a good fit in the company, I started to learn about technology by working hard and began to enjoy it. Today, I am well-equipped with both technical as well as business aspects in the IT services space.

If you were not doing what you do right now, what would you be doing for a living?

Being a good learner and with a gift of the gab, I would have been a College Professor in Management Accounting or Cost Accounting or would have gone ahead to serve the industry as a Management or Cost Accountant.

Who motivated or influenced you the most in your life?

In the first place, my family needs motivated me and I wanted us to have a comfortable life by going to the next level financially. When one is hungry, the desire to earn your food is stronger, I believe. 

As regards who influenced me in my life, there are a couple of people, but the person I was most inspired by was Anil Batra, a leader in the IT industry, who also happened to be the MD of Riverbed Technology where I worked earlier. Anil has worked with both start-ups and Fortune 500 companies, including the role of President of Cisco Systems. I admire him and had the opportunity to learn from him about Financial and People understanding also, of which he has tremendous knowledge.

What made you choose this industry?

As I mentioned earlier, it was by chance and not by choice I got into the IT industry. The opportunity came through a friend and I accepted the job offer immediately after graduation. With hard work and continuous learning, I was able to establish my career in the industry and am today glad for what I did.

Can you talk about your journey in this industry?

My areas of expertise are Business Alliances, Managed Services, Enterprise Software, Business Development and Partner Management.  

I bring nearly 2 decades of professional experience and functional knowledge across Sales and Marketing domains in the IT networking industry to my current role as the Regional Director (Enterprise), India and SAARC at NETSCOUT. For over 4 years, in this position at NETSCOUT, I am responsible for the Sales and Business Development functions at the organisation for these regions. Prior to my current role, I was the Director, Sales, India (West) at Riverbed Technology and had the responsibility of the Sales function in the region. Immediately after graduation, I joined PAM Networks and was heading the branch in 3 years’ time. Then I moved on to the role of Sales Manager at D-Link India and later as Regional Sales Manager at Force10 Networks. At Juniper Networks, I served as the Regional Manager, after which I moved on to the role of Regional Business Manager at HP, before joining Riverbed.  

All along in my career, I chose to work with good companies but was not established as a market leader in the space. Here, I had to overcome challenges to reach out to prospective customers and convert them. This is something I always enjoy doing, as it provides a sense of achievement.

Why do you think that there is a need for your company to exist in today’s market?

This is an interesting question, I must say. Today, as the IT and digital world are evolving rapidly, it is crucial to have IT solutions and services that ensure reliable service, better application delivery, excellent user experience and also adapt to the ever-changing environments.  

There is an urgent need for businesses to perform flawlessly to maintain revenue growth and the competitive edge. So, IT services must provide service delivery assurance that is essential to better business outcomes, by automating data analysis for smart decision making. Wire data has to be mined in real-time to deliver timely, accurate and actionable insights to service assurance applications. Enterprises also need end-to-end visibility and analytics in their complex data centre, cloud and hybrid infrastructure.  

NETSCOUT is already established in these areas of the Application and Network Performance space and for more than 35 years has been trusted by the world’s largest and most complex enterprises, communication service providers and government agencies. Hence, we are in a position to provide better solutions.

Secondly, the modern cyber-threat landscape is constantly evolving in size, volume, frequency and complexity. With businesses seamlessly connected and dependent on the availability of websites and online services, it is crucial to mitigate DDoS attacks which are provided by our powerful Arbor DDoS Protection solution. It blocks inbound threats and outbound malicious communication using highly scalable, stateless technology and unique global threat intelligence.  

Can you describe your products?

Our rich portfolio of monitoring and analytical tools, Netscout, provides real-time, pervasive visibility and insights customers need to accelerate and secure their digital transformation. Its tools span virtual, physical and cloud environments. Some key solutions:

Omnis™ Cybersecurity advanced threat detection and response platform offer comprehensive network visibility, threat detection, highly contextual investigation and automated mitigation at the network edge. This function is vital to ensure proper service assurance and cyber-security.

nGenius™ Service Assurance solutions provide real-time and end-to-end visibility into network and application performance and help uncover anomalies besides contextual analysis of service.

Arbor Smart DDoS (Distributed Denial of Services) Protection products support in protecting against attacks that threaten availability and advanced threats that infiltrate networks to steal critical business assets. 

It is an in-line security appliance and acts as the first and last line of perimeter defense.

Our Security and Performance solutions can improve service networks and application performance in physical, virtual data centres or the cloud.

Recently, NETSCOUT launched Smart Edge Monitoring, the first-in-the-industry solution for timely identification and rapid resolution of performance issues of remote workforces.

Can you describe your business model?

In India and SAARC regions, we grow and retain our business through Channel Partners.

What type of tech and algorithms do you use?

Our Technology Partners are Dell Technologies, VMware, AWS, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft, Google Cloud, Cisco Systems, Citrix and Oracle. We use SaaS services from Salesforce.com. 

What are your views on the industry during the pandemic and can you give me your insights into the future?

Although Technologies existed in the pre-pandemic era, the good use of technology has become evident now. And in my opinion, even if things come back to normal, many aspects that have changed due to digital transformation will remain to some extent. Digital transformation and Cloud Migration will accelerate, leading to more Cyber-threats adding to the complexities.

IT Network and Application performance and Cybersecurity areas of businesses will become very crucial for business continuity, employee engagement, operational excellence, and better customer experience. Therefore, organisations have to put in place the right solutions and monitor their performance continuously to stay ahead of the curve.

What would you like to change about this industry?

Well, from the Indian context, two things;

First, India is a growing economy. While we are high at intellectual, we are moderate to low on capital investment, especially around intangible benefits of technology. We are in a global economy and to compete against foreign brands and to establish our position in the global market we need to boost our investment in the right technologies.

Second, I am observing a few very good initiatives by the government like “Make In India”. However, unfortunately, these are abused and misused by people. Without any effort in making a competent technology, people are using it to get business and make money.

In today’s world, there is an immense need to safeguard data. What steps have you taken to secure your company? 

At NETSCOUT, data security is given top priority. Security measures such as Perimeter Security, Identity Access Management, Encryption, Regulatory Compliances, among others, are followed. Most importantly, we ensure our employees are provided education and training on an ongoing basis about cybersecurity awareness and management.

Our Privacy and Data Security Practices, include Technology Safeguards, Organisational Safeguards and Physical Safeguards.

What are the steps taken concerning ESG? 

Our Commitment to ESG continues to be high. Environmental, Social and Governance are inextricably intertwined with our mission, vision and our core tenets. As our tagline says, we are the guardians of the connected world, we believe a commitment to ESG is crucial for creating long-term business value.

Our global Heart of Giving programs are open to all full-time and part-time employees. When the need arises, we offer specific giving campaigns with matching gifts above and beyond the standard giving limits and support various collections and projects in the offices on behalf of local recognised non-profit organisations.

We are committed to fully complying with all applicable laws, regulations and other obligations related to both our products and our operations.

For Supplier Engagement, we have Policies, Procedures and Documents applicable to our Vendors in place.

For Governance, we have codes and policies that articulate our expectations and ensure that our and the behaviour of those we partner with aligning with our mission to be the guardians of the connected world. 

Some of the Codes are Code of Business Conflict, NETSCOUT Vendor Code of Conduct, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Policy, Environmental Policy, Health and Safety Policy, among others.

What are the recent developments in your company?

With technological innovations and continuous research, we are striving to provide the best Service Assurance and cybersecurity solutions. We also nurture and develop talent.

Any latest round of investment?

We are a public listed company (Nasdaq: NTCT)