Earlier this month, we brought together a group of our customers from Switzerland and Germany to convene at our headquarters in Zürich for our customer forum: evolution edition. The event was another opportunity for us to create value together with our customers, so we can continue to meet their needs every day. For our customers who couldn’t join us at the event and all others who are interested, here’s an overview of the discussions and sessions of the day.  

To start, we heard from our keynote speaker, Almog Apirion, CEO of Cyolo, who discussed the evolution of secure connectivity – from the days of simple physical security to the modern approach of trust identity connecting directly to apps. He discussed how to enhance security by addressing your weakest link first: us humans.    

“Our digital space has completely changed, and we need to change the way we connect people to digital assets.” – Almog Apirion  

During our CEO’s keynote, covered our unique approach to SASE and how we plan to provide our customers with a Secure Access Experience through which we eliminate complexity, provide comprehensive support, and deliver robust security outcomes.  

After the keynotes, our customers participated in breakout sessions which covered operational and strategic topics related to zero trust, ZTNA, SSE, and SD-WAN. Some notable takeaways from the discussions during those sessions include:  

• Zero trust is so broad that organizations have to narrow their focus when beginning their zero trust journey. In this regard, it can be helpful to focus on quick wins like implementing multi-factor authentication and single sign-on (SSO). In addition, each company is at a different stage in its Zero Trust journey.  
• Focusing on people and processes before the technology is important for success when implementing zero trust.  
• SD-WAN is still very important for many organizations, especially given the convergence of IT and OT environments.  
• In today’s hybrid work environment, SSE helps protect users and data using tools including zero trust network access (ZTNA), Secure Web Gateway (SWG), and Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB). Working with a partner who can provide 24/7 expert operations and support enables organizations to embrace SSE and SASE while freeing up organizational bandwidth to focus on their businesses.  

We had a great time talking to our customers about their challenges and expectations for the future. With 2023 coming to a close, we look ahead with renewed focus, motivated by the opportunity that lies ahead as we continue to collaborate with our customers.  

Watch out for 2024 dates coming soon.