"Our current focus is on strengthening our partner base in India" : Manoj Taskar, Country Manager, Tenable Network Security

Tenable Network Security, as the name suggests is aimed to provide solutions that fill the security gaps across the organizations. As the internet, technology and the workplace are constantly changing, Country Manager at Tenable Manoj Taskar highlighted his vision on various topics with The DQ Channels.

What are the recent trends in application and network security that will dominate 2017?

IoT (internet of Things) is a new frontier and is transforming the way organizations have traditionally looked at network and application security. Gartner estimates that there will be 26 billion IoT devices by 2020. While it is a big leap in technology, the diverse and unclear environment of IoT often creates new vulnerability areas and require continuous monitoring and new remediation tools. Device-level protection alone is going to be inadequate for enterprises. They will start to focus more on centralizing their security controls in a heterogeneous environment and implementing proper policy and process frameworks.

What will be the effect of the digital revolution in the enterprise security domain?

Digitalization is another major driver for security in the coming days. Visibility to the enterprise infrastructure and its digital assets will be of utmost importance in the digital era. There is an increasing need to rapidly respond when a security breach occurs and this calls for proactive measurement of security posture. Knowing your IT assets and security posture is thus the priority of today’s security practitioners. Compliance will be another driver for security in the digital enterprise.

Can you mention a few concerns of CIOs and CISOs regarding their network security strategy? What role Tenable can play?

CIOs and CISOs are realizing the shortcomings of a traditional ‘layered-security’ approach. Multiple security tools and redundant solutions might give you an illusion that your network is secure; but this approach creates security gaps that attackers can easily exploit. It’s important to ensure that these tools must work together to deliver a holistic solution. Continuous visibility, contextual reference and decisive action are going to be critical for practitioners. Tenable helps them by providing complete visibility of the network and assets, and its vulnerabilities based on their business priorities.

According to you, what are the three pillars of a security program in the emerging IT landscape?

Today’s digital enterprise are borderless, with data spread across the cloud, virtual systems, and mobile device. It is a highly distributed and ever-changing environment. Thus, building an integrated and holistic security program is a big challenge for CISOs. Visibility, Context (Measure and report) and Assurance (continuous monitoring) are the new foundation for the future of security.

Throw some light on your investment plans in R&D, India.

Our current focus is on strengthening our partner base and increasing our customer foot print in India.

The key markets Tenable strives to address in India and how mature is the market in adopting your cutting-edge solutions?

BFSI, Telecom and Healthcare are the key verticals for us in India. These market segments have fairly matured security practices and understand the value our solutions bring to the table. They are also highly governed by regulations which require cutting edge solutions like ours.

About the $230 million Series B investment last year and how it's being put to use by Tenable?

This investment is being used to ensure that Tenable maintains its leadership position in the market and continues to deliver customer satisfaction.

Key business models for the regional markets - advantages your customers and partners have for an inclusive business ecosystem?

Our channel partners are security-focused players in the regions, building on complementing solution offerings, giving the customers the inclusive and holistic security ecosystem.

What is your channel structure and how partners are categorized?

We have a two tiered-channel structure --National and Regional. This helps us increase our reach to the local customers, who could not be addressed by National partners.

What is the pristine USPs of your solution and value-added services Tenable leverage?

PVS (Passive Vulnerability Scanner) is a USP of Tenable’s offerings. It provides non-intrusive network monitoring and profiling to continuously scan and assess an organization's security. This, combined with our Security Centre and Log Correlation Engine, gives a holistic security view to the customer, while enabling our partners to provide expert value-added services.

Throw some light on Tenable’s market share and geographical expansion plans in the future. (Channel strategy/ go-to-market strategy for FY 2017)

Our go-to-market strategy is completely partner driven. We are a completely partner-focused sales organization in the region and committed to building sustainable and profitable partner relationships.

Comments on network security being a tough product for traditional channel partners.

Network security is all about value selling. Partners who can adapt to the value selling methodology are the one who will thrive in this space.

Mention USPs for channel partners who work with Tenable.

Tenable solutions offer the partners a competitive edge and flexibility in offerings and positioning. Besides, our partner program provides specialized engineering & sales training, support needed to develop business and go-to-market plans, certifications on our offerings, and customer support.

Are you into any government programs.

Current focus is on building the enterprise customers.