Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Ajay Gulati, CEO of ZeroStack (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: I’m asking you to be a bit more specific to your domain of expertise. You have a long background in VMWare and you’re doing something that is heavy in cloud infrastructure. Are there more discrete problems that you have seen that if you were starting a company today, you would solve that problem?

Ajay Gulati: The platforms have become easier. If I look at the problems, I feel the problems fall into specific areas like marketing and sales. In most of these areas, people are looking for better solutions. One area where I feel a lot of companies struggle with is doing marketing.

Sramana Mitra: That is a very crowded field. This is why I’m asking you specifically about the infrastructure side because we cover the application side very heavily. Marketing technologies on the cloud is a very crowded field.

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Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Ajay Gulati, CEO of ZeroStack (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Does that map to any specific types of verticals or industries where there is more activity than others along these lines?

Ajay Gulati: It does. If you think of the cases where people are more prone to building apps, it used to be primarily the technology industry where you would have tech companies building a lot of software. You may have a couple of other industries like biotech or financial services. Over the past five to seven years, more and more companies are becoming software companies. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Ajay Gulati, CEO of ZeroStack (Part 1)

This discussion focuses on the infrastructure end of private clouds.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by having you introduce yourself and ZeroStack to our audience.

Ajay Gulati: I’m the Co-Founder and CEO of ZeroStack. I started this company with a couple of other friends about three years ago. Prior to ZeroStack, I was at VMWare for a long time. One of the problems that we noticed with lots of companies is that there were companies who were looking at this new cloud-based model of IT both for building their applications and deploying their >>>

Thought Leaders in Cyber Security: Fred Wilmot, CTO of PacketSled (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Lift yourself to a 30,000-foot level and tell me the emerging trends and what are you seeing out there by way of white spaces and open opportunities.

Fred Wilmot: One of the very large trends is that there’s huge amassing of espionage tools that are beginning to get more mature. We used to talk about script kitties taking advantage of more advanced software. Now we have organized crimes producing software with the same software development lifecycle that I would produce as a security vendor. That’s impactful. They can make their crime more effective. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cyber Security: Fred Wilmot, CTO of PacketSled (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Who are the top managed services providers who are using your technology? Are there some large ones? What is their target audience? I’m trying to understand where in the landscape you are playing.

Fred Wilmot: I think anytime you talk about MSSP’s, you don’t crack the Fortune 500 per se. The mid-market and the SMBs are areas where people don’t have the ability to build up a security organization or an operations environment. In our top-tier, from a customer acquisition perspective, you would see Entity Security and Optive. We have a couple of partners in Australia and the UK doing the same thing. We have a host of smaller ones that really do target SMB. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cyber Security: Fred Wilmot, CTO of PacketSled (Part 1)

Fred discusses the network security risks continuing to escalate with an increasingly connected universe of things.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as to PacketSled.

Fred Wilmot: I’m the interim CEO and the CTO of PacketSled. We are a security platform company founded by security practitioners to help dramatically reduce the expertise, time, and complexity for practitioners to detect, identify, and respond to threats.

Sramana Mitra: Talk a little bit about what other industry trends are you seeing and how that is playing into your work. >>>

6 Podcasts with VCs Interested in Cloud Startups

Just as entrepreneurs brought computing from centralized mainframes to distributed desktop PCs and then to cloud computing, entrepreneurs continue to make their marks on various parts of the cloud. Without the support of venture capitalists and investors, much of this progression would not be possible. If your startup operates in the cloud, you would be wise to listen to this selection of 30-minute podcast interviews with VCs interested in cloud startups.

Brian Jacobs, Emergence Capital – General Partner, Brian discusses his views on where cloud opportunities are likely to be at this point. While we’re in a mature market, he is still bullish on innovation.
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Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Sash Sunkara, CEO of Rackware (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Tell me a little bit about your company. You’ve raised three rounds of financing. What’s the genesis of the company? What’s the story?

Sash Sunkara: We started the company in 2009. It was myself and Todd Matters. Our focus was on building a cloud management suite for the enterprises and building that bridge. We’d just gotten through 2008. Investments weren’t happening in a big way. A lot of VCs were just holding on and trying to make sure that they had enough funds for their current portfolio. We found a strategic partner that wanted the product for a different use. They put a couple of million dollars in. >>>