In an age when cyber threats loom giant, the dedication and keenness of cybersecurity professionals are extra essential than ever. Every year, Cisco makes some extent of choosing and recognizing a standout cybersecurity advocate who has earned the title of cybersecurity defender. This yr, it was unimaginable to decide on only one particular person.
That is why Cisco’s 2025 EMEA Cybersecurity Defender of the 12 months award goes out to a group of practitioners at SAP Enterprise Cloud Companies (ECS) whose contributions displayed an unusual capacity to lift the bar for general safety posture. The recipients are:
- Boris Mäck, Head of Expertise and Structure at SAP Enterprise Cloud Companies
- Roland Costea, CISO of SAP Enterprise Cloud Companies
- Christopher Hett, Cloud Community Architect at SAP Enterprise Cloud Companies
On this weblog, we are going to discover the origins of their ardour, the challenges they confronted whereas engaged on their important mission at SAP ECS, the methods they employed to beat these hurdles, and their invaluable insights for these seeking to make their mark in cybersecurity.
The Start of Ardour for Cybersecurity
A former Romanian chess champion, Roland Costea used his wits for technique to seek out his manner into the sphere. Having studied know-how and programming at college, he needed to discover a option to make a extra distinctive contribution. He discovered cybersecurity and by no means seemed again.
Christopher Hett’s ardour began early as a pc recreation hobbyist. After he studied info know-how at a college in Germany, his first encounter with cybersecurity was by enabling his work’s Wi-Fi community with state-of-the-art encryption to mitigate assault vectors now additionally coming from wi-fi connections exterior corporations’ premises.
Boris Mäck’s sturdy background in networking started his cybersecurity journey. His experience in infrastructure companies and community applied sciences naturally led him into cybersecurity, particularly as securing networks grew to become an more and more vital facet of IT.
Partnering with Cisco to Overcome SAP ECS Challenges
As one of many world’s main deliverers of managed cloud companies, SAP Enterprise Cloud Companies can’t afford downtime. That’s the reason, for Roland, the corporate’s CISO, it’s all about pace. He notes, “I discover that pace is probably the most vital factor. And after I say pace, it’s pace in the best way that we determine, detect, defend, reply, get well, and govern… [After all], you’ll be able to’t afford to maintain an airport down for half-hour.” That’s why, in his opinion, the way forward for multi-cloud wants to incorporate a built-in safety part, and that’s the place Cisco is available in.
First, Christopher, Cloud Community Architect, explains the state of affairs even additional: “We’ve over 7,000 buyer environments, so we have to have an answer that scales however doesn’t disrupt the companies of these 1000’s of consumers. This can be a specific problem if you need to introduce an elevated safety service that calls for extra sources, and but uptime nonetheless must be preserved in any respect prices.”
A part of the problem is that SAP is each a multi-cloud supplier and one of many high twelve hyperscalers on this planet (alongside Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and others), requiring steady uptime. Because of this SAP wants to offer the identical native capabilities for all their clients all through the world “irrespective of the place the client resides,” and do it in a standardized manner “that delivers the identical worth independently for all our clients in a multi-cloud setting,” as Roland expressed.
For that reason, SAP Enterprise Cloud Service selected to associate with Cisco.
To optimize pace, improve scalability, and guarantee enterprise continuity whilst companies broaden, SAP is working to construct one overarching personal cloud, protected by Cisco Multicloud Protection, a part of Cisco’s Hybrid Mesh Firewall options to sit down over their three hyperscalers—offering constant, automated safety throughout them. As well as, SAP leverages Cisco Safe Entry to safeguard consumer entry to the net, cloud companies, SaaS and personal purposes with a single, cloud managed console.
These options improve SAPs safety and permit them the pliability to scale fluctuating enterprise wants and proceed to help their community of consumers with little to no disruption to their operations.
On the Proper Observe
“This landmark safety mission proves the facility of the ‘One Cisco’ Workforce in fixing SAP’s largest safety challenges—defending their clients at scale,” says Robert Nicola, Shopper Govt. “We delivered an progressive, scalable, and differentiated resolution that units a brand new commonplace for buyer worth.”
Cisco likes to associate with corporations like SAP Enterprise Cloud Companies as a result of we are able to do the appropriate factor collectively.
When requested what made him proud, Boris, Head of CAE Expertise and Structure, shared, “I keep in mind when the CIO of the corporate we had been working with got here to us and stated, ‘Hey guys, we had a extreme ransomware assault in our community, and the one IT programs that survived had been the SAP programs hosted in RISE [one of our managed solutions]. To me, that is nice proof that we’re doing the appropriate issues with our ideas right here.’
They’re, and Cisco is proud to assist. The insights and experiences shared by these Cisco 2025 Cybersecurity Defenders of the 12 months emphasize shining a light-weight on the great that’s being completed by the appropriate partnerships and the fervour of engaged cybersecurity leaders.
As know-how advances, so does the crucial for strong cybersecurity measures. With devoted professionals like our defenders paving the best way, the way forward for cybersecurity seems promising. Thanks to our defenders for his or her inspiring tales and for illuminating the trail for future leaders on this vital area.
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