On the lighter side of things , we ask the industry experts what makes them tick . . . .

Developing a new and innovative technology . I came up with the idea of SD-WAN four years prior to cofounding Viptela . The SD-WAN market didn ’ t exist in 2012 . Ten years later it is an $ 8 billion-plus market .

What made you think about a career in technology ?

Growing up in Pakistan , I had no choice . I would be an engineer or a doctor . I couldn ' t cut a frog in my biology classes , so I decided that was not for me . I was good at math , so technology was the logical direction .

What style of management philosophy do you employ with your current position ?

I believe in maintaining a critical balance between compassion and accountability . You should have compassion , but that should be supported with accountability . It is critical .

What do you think is the current hot technology talking point ?

Machine-to-machine connectivity is on the rise and because of that , we are seeing the Industrialization of the Internet . Robotic devices on factory floors are talking to automation software without a human involved and hospital beds are reporting back to AIbased safety monitoring systems .

A key challenge for this is latency . These devices require near-real-time communications , or bad

things happen . This was not the case for what I ’ ll call the ‘ consumer Internet .’ People are more tolerant of these issues , but the connectivity models that sufficed for the consumer Internet will simply fail for the industrial Internet .

We need a very different type of connectivity to handle these challenges .

And how do you deal with stress and unwind outside of the office ?

My best friend in life is my wife . I spend time with her every evening to catch up on family , life , and work . She is my biggest stress reliever .

If you could go back and change one career decision , what would it be ?

I should have bet on myself , believed in my idea , and left Cisco five years before I did . I should have taken the risk when I initially had the idea for SD-WAN . I believe that whenever you have an idea that will change an industry , you should have the courage to take a risk .

And what do you currently identify as the major areas of investment in your industry ?

As I mentioned earlier – the Industrialization of the Internet . This is intertwined with Edge Computing . It is

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