Video: 10 Minute IT Jams – Who is Gigamon?

Gigamon is on a mission to make network management simpler. The California-headquartered network visibility and analytics company is expanding its Australian and New Zealand presence at a time when IT and security pressures are mounting for organisations of all sizes.

George Ducas, Chief of Gigamon for Australia and New Zealand, spoke with 10 Minute IT in an exclusive interview about the priorities facing IT managers as the post-pandemic workplace continues to evolve, and the critical role that network visibility can play.

"We really focus on providing network visibility and analytics capabilities to enterprises both big and small, and telcos as well," Ducas said, adding, "we really are focused on providing that visibility across multiple platforms including cloud, virtual and physical infrastructure, because we see a distinct need for businesses these days to have a much deeper understanding of what's traversing their network."

IT departments, Ducas explained, are frequently challenged by an "explosion" of network tools that, rather than providing clarity, generate more confusion and complexity. "Often that we find in dealing with massive tool explosions that create a lot more confusion often than visibility," he said. Gigamon aims to address these overlapping tools by "providing a more efficient way of utilizing sometimes pre-existing tooling infrastructure in order to give you a better or more accurate or more secure viewpoint of what's happening in your environment."

As Australia steadily returns to the office after extended periods of remote work, Ducas highlighted three key IT and InfoSec priorities that have emerged.

"Firstly, if we look at the infrastructure - including the tooling and detection capabilities - it needs to be really robust," Ducas said. He noted that, during lockdowns, many staff used personal devices to access corporate networks, often outside the purview of IT. According to Ducas, it is now "important for IT departments to be able to detect potential vulnerabilities but more importantly act quickly."

The second priority is adapting IT infrastructure for the hybrid model combining work-from-home and office-based activity. "Many businesses... are probably leaning more towards the work from home in this current environment," Ducas said. "So I think IT's next challenge will be to make sure they both adequately scale their infrastructure for this new mix of how people are working."

This includes the scaling up of VPN capabilities and a reassessment of security postures and potential risks in the "new hybrid world". Ducas stressed, "Again, having visibility and a visibility fabric which enables you to do this – to know what's going on inside your LAN and remotely via the WAN – is critical."

A third pressing concern is the focus on optimisation, especially to contain costs. With many businesses feeling pressure on budgets, IT leaders are being asked to do more with less. "There's going to be a renewed focus on optimisation performance, especially with respect to cost," Ducas said. "Clearly organisations want to do this without compromising anything like security, risk, compliance, etc. And on top of that, I think IT departments are going to be pushed even harder to make changes more quickly because everything around them is changing so fast and the business is demanding a lot from IT."

The mantra of "doing more with less through at least at a lower cost" is, as Ducas described, "a key focus area for Gigamon. Being able to run fast in this environment whilst minimising unnecessary spend and reducing risk is a key use case for us."

Optimising the toolset, Ducas said, is not just an operational requirement but can also yield a tangible return on investment. "In the past there has been a tooling explosion; over the past decade there's literally a tool for everything… But often the way they've been deployed doesn't pay attention to sending the right information to the right tools," Ducas explained. "Often the entire data or traffic set is sent to multiple tools and each tool takes what they need from these feeds, and then throws the rest away – it's very inefficient."

Instead, Gigamon advocates for an approach where "only the relevant data" goes to the "relevant tool". Ducas continued, "If we look at this a little bit more closely, it has two real benefits. Firstly, the tooling becomes instantly more effective because it's only looking at the information relevant to it. And secondly – and sometimes in a cost-constrained environment there's an even more major benefit – in that IT can probably stretch their investment and make the tools last longer, and in some cases even reduce the amount of tooling you need."

This, Ducas said, can lead to a "very quick ROI from optimisation activities like this, from the customers we're deployed in."

Locally, Gigamon has physical offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra, employing six staff across engineering and sales in those cities. "We're also focusing on New Zealand at the moment and trying to build up a practice there," Ducas added, noting a robust partner community is crucial to the company's success in the region. "We're a big supporter of the channel and channel partners in terms of deploying our capabilities, and their skill and expertise when coupled with our products is pretty key."

Further investment is expected. Ducas revealed that the company is "potentially looking at putting some more resources on in the next sort of six to twelve months, possibly in sales and also again in that channel space."

Asked about how enterprises or partners can engage with Gigamon, Ducas said there are multiple avenues, including reaching out to local staff in any of the major offices, or via the company's partner community. "We'd be more than happy to entertain a contact locally by contacting either myself or any of my team locally in Melbourne, Sydney or Canberra, and again we have both sales and technical resources in those areas," he said.

For Ducas, the overarching message is one of partnership and efficiency in a fast-evolving technological landscape. Summing up, he said, "Being able to run fast in this environment whilst minimising unnecessary spend and reducing risk is a key use case for us."

"It's all about giving organisations a deeper understanding of what's happening in their environment, so they can make smarter decisions."