In an age when cyber threats loom massive, the dedication and fervour of cybersecurity professionals are extra essential than ever. Every year, Cisco makes a degree of choosing and recognizing a standout cybersecurity advocate who has earned the title of cybersecurity defender. This 12 months, it was unimaginable to decide on only one particular person.
This is the reason Cisco’s 2025 EMEA Cybersecurity Defender of the Yr award goes out to a crew of practitioners at SAP Enterprise Cloud Companies (ECS) whose contributions displayed an unusual capacity to lift the bar for total safety posture. The recipients are:
- Boris Mäck, Head of Know-how 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 undertaking at SAP ECS, the methods they employed to beat these hurdles, and their useful insights for these trying 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 search out his means into the sphere. Having studied expertise and programming at college, he wished to discover a approach to make a extra distinctive contribution. He discovered cybersecurity and by no means seemed again.
Christopher Hett’s ardour began early as a pc sport hobbyist. After he studied data expertise 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 outdoors corporations’ premises.
Boris Mäck’s robust background in networking started his cybersecurity journey. His experience in infrastructure providers and community applied sciences naturally led him into cybersecurity, particularly as securing networks grew to become an more and more important facet of IT.
Partnering with Cisco to Overcome SAP ECS Challenges
As one of many world’s main deliverers of managed cloud providers, SAP Enterprise Cloud Companies can’t afford downtime. That’s the reason, for Roland, the corporate’s CISO, it’s all about velocity. He notes, “I discover that velocity is essentially the most important factor. And after I say velocity, it’s velocity in the way in which that we determine, detect, shield, reply, recuperate, and govern… [After all], you possibly can’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 explicit problem whenever you need to introduce an elevated safety service that calls for extra assets, 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 the planet (alongside Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and others), requiring steady uptime. Because of this SAP wants to supply the identical native capabilities for all their prospects all through the world “regardless of the place the client resides,” and do it in a standardized means “that delivers the identical worth independently for all our prospects in a multi-cloud setting,” as Roland expressed.
For that reason, SAP Enterprise Cloud Service selected to companion with Cisco.
To optimize velocity, improve scalability, and guarantee enterprise continuity at the same time as providers develop, 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 online, cloud providers, SaaS and personal functions with a single, cloud managed console.
These options improve SAPs safety and permit them the pliability to scale fluctuating enterprise wants and proceed to assist their community of consumers with little to no disruption to their operations.
On the Proper Monitor
“This landmark safety undertaking proves the facility of the ‘One Cisco’ Crew in fixing SAP’s greatest safety challenges—defending their prospects at scale,” says Robert Nicola, Consumer Govt. “We delivered an progressive, scalable, and differentiated resolution that units a brand new customary for buyer worth.”
Cisco likes to companion with corporations like SAP Enterprise Cloud Companies as a result of we will do the fitting factor collectively.
When requested what made him proud, Boris, Head of CAE Know-how and Structure, shared, “I keep in mind when the CIO of the corporate we have been working with got here to us and stated, ‘Hey guys, we had a extreme ransomware assault in our community, and the one IT methods that survived have been the SAP methods hosted in RISE [one of our managed solutions]. To me, that is nice proof that we’re doing the fitting 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 Yr emphasize shining a light-weight on the nice that’s being achieved by the fitting partnerships and the eagerness of engaged cybersecurity leaders.
As expertise advances, so does the crucial for sturdy cybersecurity measures. With devoted professionals like our defenders paving the way in which, the way forward for cybersecurity seems to be promising. Thanks to our defenders for his or her inspiring tales and for illuminating the trail for future leaders on this important area.
Inquisitive about making a distinction in cybersecurity?
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