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More than a hundred data centers, 4 billion security threats daily, and one cloud-based platform. Paul Martini, CEO of iboss—a Boston-based cloud security company that offers network security as a service—is on a mission to replace legacy business VPNs with a zero-trust architecture. The platform allows secure internet access on any device or network, from any location, and on any cloud, according to the company site.
IT Brew caught up with Martini, who holds more than 250 patents in cloud cybersecurity, to chat about cloud security and saying goodbye to legacy business VPNs.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What can you tell us about the work you’re doing?
“The idea is that when you think about connectivity and security, the technology required to properly secure organizations for access controls, or connecting people to the things they need securely, making sure that attackers don’t get access to applications and services—that type of technology that’s required for the masses is so expensive and so complicated that it basically makes it almost inaccessible.”
Why should someone choose a secure access service edge (SASE) over a VPN?
“I think generative AI is changing a lot. It’s killing a lot of different technologies. SASE is killing VPNs. And the reason for it is, it’s a component of SASE. Why should you have access to everything in the office, when in reality, the reason you’re connecting to the office is that maybe there’s some application in that office that you use? So SASE takes a different approach, because it connects you to the office. It basically [eliminates] the need for a VPN, but instead of connecting you to the whole office, the only thing you connect to is that HR system—or whatever you needed access to.”
Can you tell us more about your customers?
“Definitely. We have thousands of customers, and they range from every vertical: Typically it’s finance, healthcare, insurance…We do [have] organizations that have 50 employees, we have organizations that have 500,000 employees, and this hits every single vertical. We do about 150 billion transactions a day now. So think of a TSA checkpoint that has to process 150 billion bags every single day.”