Intelligent CIO North America Issue 06 | Page 80

GET TO KNOW
Customers need a flexible deployment , high availability , reliability , managed in their private or public cloud or for government in-country requirements .
What do you think is the current hot technology talking point ?
There has been an acceleration of Digital Transformation , brought on by the pandemic and remote working requirements . These need to be secured with authenticated network access for users and devices including encryption and data / device integrity . PKI is the proven technology to deliver it at scale . I ’ m seeing rapid growth not only in the enterprise and IT areas but in using PKI to solve new use cases and security challenges . Customers need a flexible deployment , high availability , reliability , managed in their private or public cloud or for government in-country requirements . We ’ ve reimagined PKI , and built a modern , container-based architecture that is built to be the PKI service for today ’ s and tomorrow ’ s security challenges .
How do you deal with stress and unwind outside the office ?
I ’ m a weird mix of a nerd . I like a lot of things like snowboarding , mountain biking and hiking , and find these activities away from the office relaxing . The opposite side of me loves comic conventions , board games , vintage dancing and sci-fi or fantasy movies . I grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons and still enjoy board games , so this is where my other , more nerdy side shines through and allows me to relax .
If you could go back and change one career decision what would it be ?
This is a hard one for me because I ’ m very futurefocused . Where I am today is based on the challenges and stumbling blocks that I ’ ve had to cross . I have to say I don ’ t know if there ’ s anything that I would change because doing so would change the trajectory of where I am today . For me , it ’ s the history of bad choices and decisions , as well as the great ones that make me who I am today .
What are the region-specific challenges when implementing new technologies in North America ?
For us at DigiCert , we operate at a global level . Most of our technologies and infrastructure are built with a global scale in mind , but the way we build technologies is region-specific . For example , in the EU there ’ s a lot of focus on privacy so we want to maintain our customer ' s data in their specific region if it ’ s country-specific or region . At DigiCert , we have a global focus , but you need to have uptime , availability , and low latency and be able to segment out data by region or country .
What changes to your job role have you seen in the last year and how do you see these developing in the next 12 months ?
I took on the CTO role earlier this year . My background has been primarily R & D and engineeringfocused , but a few years ago I was asked to be the CSO , which included the security operations aspects within the company . This grew into a CIO role focusing on IT operations and internal company focus . These roles outside of engineering broadened my horizons and helped me understand a whole different side of the business . Over the next 12 months , I plan to incorporate all I ’ ve learned as CSO and CIO and include those aspects into my customerfocused CTO role .
What advice would you offer somebody aspiring to obtain a C-level position in your industry ?
Growing up , I saw myself as a builder and a breaker , and that same mindset applies to those aspiring to obtain a C-level position . As a kid , I loved to open up electronic pieces to see how things worked , then try and rebuild .
You need to look at how you can accelerate and do things differently . Sometimes you just need to figure out how to tear apart problems and break them down into smaller components and be a problem solver . Solving problems , whether people and processoriented or reworking code , places you in the best position to be successful . p
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