Senior Vice President of Global Strategic Alliances & Business Development, NETSCOUT SYSTEMS INC
WSJ Tech Live 2020: In Conversation with Tom Raimondi, CMO at NETSCOUT
How are companies like NETSCOUT adapting to change in 2020? Tom Raimondi, Chief Marketing Officer at NETSCOUT, speaks ...
About Thomas Raimondi
In a September 2021 interview at WSJ Tech Live, Tom Raimondi, then Chief Marketing Officer at NETSCOUT, discussed the company's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and evolving cybersecurity threats. He stated that DDoS attacks had increased, with a shift from large attacks to smaller, more consistent ones, which he attributed to the work-from-home movement creating new VPN sites and perimeters. Raimondi said NETSCOUT had provided customers with upgrade licenses and product access before purchase orders were issued, and that the company had donated equipment to the organization running the presidential debates to protect against hackers. Raimondi described NETSCOUT's employee policies during the pandemic, including a no-layoff policy announced by CEO Anil Singal, weekly mental health outreach, and free weekly coronavirus test kits for employees returning to the Westford headquarters on a volunteer basis. He also highlighted the company's philanthropic efforts through its Heart of Giving foundation, including partnerships with Habitat for Humanity and a new program to support disadvantaged families with internet access, computers, and educational resources. Looking ahead, Raimondi said NETSCOUT would continue investing in next-generation security, cloud technology, and cost reduction, and described the company's "visibility without borders" architecture as providing customers with a unified view of application management, troubleshooting, and security across virtual environments.
Transcript (14 segments)
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Josh Matches0:09
From WSJ Tech Live, I'm your host Josh Matches, and I'm joined by Tom Raimondi, the CMO of NETSCOUT. Thank you so much for joining us, Tom.
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Thomas Raimondi0:18
Thanks for having me, Josh. So, for those of us who don't know, tell us a little bit about NETSCOUT and what you guys do. So NETSCOUT, we like to call ourselves the guardians of the connected world. We've been in business for approximately 35 years, and we serve the high end of the enterprise and the mobile carrier telco marketplace. So we help companies protect the most mission-critical applications, whether you're in the cloud or you're a mobile carrier running 5G or LTE. Companies turn to NETSCOUT to keep the mission-critical applications up and running.
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Josh Matches1:04
So there's been a lot of security news this year, particularly with the upcoming election. What's changed in some of the DDoS attacks this year from prior years? Are there more activity during the pandemic? I'd love to hear all about it.
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Thomas Raimondi1:20
Yeah, DDoS attacks are up all over the place right now, and it's very interesting. It used to be that you would see very large DDoS attacks. Now what we're seeing is lots of smaller attacks, very consistent. Everybody's being hit with the work-from-home movement. The perimeter went from the edge of your data center out now to your home. What's happened is that all these new VPN sites have been created to support the work-from-home movement. With all those new edges being created, there are a lot more areas of vulnerability that need to be protected, and the hackers are going out there trying to exploit that. So NETSCOUT, with our customer space, we've done a great job in helping arm our customers with the tool sets to protect that. In some cases, Josh, we've gone out and we've given customers upgrade licenses before they can get a PO out. We've let customers have product to help them make sure that their environments are protected.
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Josh Matches2:23
Well, I'm sure with all those smaller attacks, people need to be constantly prepared, and it's incredible that you guys have stepped up to the plate to help businesses, especially now before the election.
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Thomas Raimondi2:31
Yes, yes, we have. As a matter of fact, we provided the organization that ran the presidential debates with gear to make sure that their environments were protected from hackers. Because they love to take down big events like elections, they like to stop civil opportunities like presidential debates. And NETSCOUT always likes to volunteer and help out in those areas where we can. So we're pleased to be able to partner and help them.
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Josh Matches3:04
Absolutely. Well, the pandemic has changed everything about the way we work. How have you guys supported your employees during the pandemic?
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Thomas Raimondi3:14
Well, we have a philosophy called 'lean but not mean.' NETSCOUT is probably the nicest place you could ever want to work or be an employee. Our CEO, Anil Singal, is a very caring individual. Obviously, we've allowed our employees to work from home. Anil announced a no-layoff policy. Because we have a culture of being frugal and lean, we have the financial capabilities to weather a storm like this. So we've reassured our people that your jobs are safe, we have the money to invest in future technologies, and we have weekly outreach to our people to make sure that they feel stable, that their mental health is taken care of. We've just opened up our Westford headquarters on a volunteer basis for those people that do want to come back to the office, where they feel better working from the office. And for these people, we give them free weekly COVID-19 test kits. So anything that we can think of to really make the work environment better, to help out the employees' mental health, physical health, free yoga, lots of different processes and programs.
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Josh Matches4:32
Well, it makes sense that you guys are making your employees feel secure while you're securing everything else. Yeah, how have you guys found ways to give back? I feel like 2020 is the year of purpose, where everyone needs to find a way to either give back in communities or volunteer. What philanthropic work has NETSCOUT done?
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Thomas Raimondi4:49
Well, 2020's been a tough year, but NETSCOUT has a foundation called Heart of Giving. I've been here nine and a half years, and Heart of Giving is a way of life at NETSCOUT. So we've partnered with Habitat for Humanity and we've been building houses for years. We donate land, we sponsor house builds. We're a worldwide organization, so we encourage employees to give. We match dollar for dollar what you give. The company matches. If you invest time, we donate the value of the employee's time in cash back to the organization. So 2020 for us is a continuation of the NETSCOUT culture of giving. Now we've done some new programs. We just partnered with a new organization where we've created a foundation to support disadvantaged families right now who don't have access to internet and online education. We want to make sure that all families have the ability to educate their children, to get access to high-speed internet, to get access to computers. So NETSCOUT just started a new program where we're donating money, equipment, expertise. We're encouraging our executives to be leaders in that area. So again, it's a continuation of our philosophy of just being good corporate citizens.
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Josh Matches6:32
That's so important. I feel like this is the year where everyone needs to step up for education. Yes. So Wall Street Journal Tech Live is always so future forward-looking. What's next for NETSCOUT as you guys look into 2021?
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Thomas Raimondi6:43
We're going to continue to invest in next-generation technology around security, around cloud, around bringing costs down. The pandemic has really created an environment where people are trying to move to cloud faster. Many more edges have been created in the marketplace today. The concept of a traditional data center is evaporating. Now everything is more virtual. And NETSCOUT has a technology or a philosophy called 'visibility without borders.' We're taking our visibility without borders architecture and we're offering it to security across the board. We're providing our customers with a ubiquitous view of management of your applications, troubleshooting, and security, regardless of whether you reside today or tomorrow. So big technology investments for us.
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Josh Matches7:46
That's very exciting. Definitely the tools that every business needs in the future. Tom, thank you so much for joining us here at WSJ Tech Live at the Nasdaq Lounge. We appreciate your participation and look forward to seeing what NETSCOUT does next.
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Thomas Raimondi8:01
Thanks for having us. Thank you.