60 seconds with Dave Spence

How long have you been at Khipu?

Almost 9 years.

Why did you choose to join Khipu?

It was a small company going places, and the role I was given allowed me plenty of freedom to make it my own. 9 years on; and whilst it’s a much larger & more mature company, it’s still got a fleet of foot that keeps things fresh, enjoyable and absolutely helps us to meet our customers’ expectations and therefore continue our growth.

You work a lot with JISC and the public sector on their Cyber Security challenges – can you give us an insight into some of the challenges faced by CIOs in this sector?

CIO’s are faced with a huge task around Cyber Security, whilst maintaining more compliance and regulatory requirements than ever before – but often with the same or fewer resources available to them. Balancing this, with the ever-increasing demand for digital services from end users, and it can all add up to a huge challenge that only a clear and well executed plan can achieve. At KHIPU we have worked hard to align ourselves to networking and security vendors who understand the importance of a strong third party ecosystem. The benefits of fully integrated and automated systems cannot be underestimated when trying to meet these challenges.

Cyber security threats have changed a lot over the past 10 years, how can the Public Sector evolve to meet these challenges?

As organisations have had to cope with supporting an influx of personal devices (BYOD) as well as IOT and the adoption of cloud services, the removal of the traditional physical network boundary has caused a huge shift in how organisations have had to protect themselves from modern cyber threats. At KHIPU, we’ve developed a Zero Vulnerability Infrastructure blueprint to help our customers identify and address the weaknesses in their environment. Whether it’s end user awareness training to mitigating phishing attacks, advanced endpoint protection against modern malware or visibility and control over cloud applications to name just a few areas – It’s this kind of comprehensive approach, that I encourage organisations to take, to help identify their weaknesses and navigate a very busy marketplace.

What’s the next big thing organisations need to look out for and get up to speed on?

Something that’s fairly new to me, but definitely peaks an interest is around dark web monitoring. It goes back to the basics of questioning – How can an organisation protect itself against something it cannot see? I’ve recently been speaking with a number of customers who see type of technology as a requirement and I’m seeing an increasing number of examples on where this technology has become prevalent.

What are you most passionate about when it comes to Networking and Security?

The relationships that working in this industry brings. IT can be a complex industry, often with its own list of unique challenges. But you cannot beat the satisfaction you feel, when you deliver a project that exceeds expectations, particularly if you can enhance your customers reputation at the same time.

Who would you name as the game changers in Networking and Cyber Security?

There are so many new vendors out there claiming to have the next big thing, and often it may be true. But if i have to name a company who have consistently brought out new products and features to enhance their portfolio again and again, and each time they are just so far ahead of the curve. For this consistency, Palo Alto Networks get the nod.