Aryaka has tapped Google Cloud executive Shailesh Shukla as CEO and Chairman, enabling it to enhance its hold in the SASE market.
Having served as an independent board member and as Executive Chairman of the Board since September 2023, Shukla is no stranger to Aryaka.
Shukla comes to the role with 25 years of cloud, networking, and cybersecurity expertise. He joined Aryaka after helping build the multi-billion-dollar networking and security business at Google Cloud as the vice president and general manager.
Over the course of his career, Shukla has built growth businesses and teams for both entrepreneurial startups, like Instart Logic and Redback Networks, and also for at-scale companies such as Google and Cisco Systems. His prior roles include Chief Operating Officer at Instart and VP/GM of several routing and software businesses at Cisco.
“He's had a tremendous track record of success in everything he's done, with a particular mastery of networking and security, as well as scaling companies to their next stage of growth,” said Aryaka investor and Board member Rob Schwartz of Third Point Ventures. “He's the ideal person to lead this company as it revolutionizes the industry and elevates SASE to new heights."
Shukla assumes the CEO and chairman role at a critical time for Aryaka. Fueled by the need to secure increasingly complex and distributed applications riding on hybrid cloud and data-center-based IT infrastructures accessed by users around the globe, the SASE market is booming.
A recent Vertical Systems Group report revealed that the number of Carrier Managed SD-WAN sites in the U.S. will surpass one million by 2027. A network operator manages these sites, utilizes an SDN architecture, enables dynamic optimization of site connectivity, and provides centralized network control with visibility end-to-end.
However, navigating fragmented vendors, consistently securing distributed users and applications, managing integrations, and adapting to constantly evolving threats pose significant challenges to enterprises. Aryaka addresses these issues with its Unified SASE solution that provides a one-of-a-kind distributed policy enforcement, unified control plane, and single-pane-of-glass management that guarantees optimal network and security performance.
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