2020-February-27

Advance Security, Learn from Customers, Mentor Others

Unless you’ve been living under a router, you’ve heard of Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA). It’s one of many innovation home runs Cisco has hit recently.

A lead innovator on ETA was Cisco Distinguished Engineer Sarav Radhakrishnan, who won a Pioneer Award for his work on the breakthrough security solution.

These days, Sarav spends his time advancing security capabilities in the Intent-Based Networking Group (IBNG) portfolio.

Born and raised in Chennai, India, Sarav joined Cisco in San Jose in 1999 after earning his master’s degree at the University of Kansas. He’s been with the company ever since, spending the past 10 years at our Bangalore campus.

We sat down with Sarav to get the skinny on ETA, his latest security work, thoughts on innovation, and more.

CEC: What is your role at Cisco? What are you currently working on?

Sarav: My goal is to provide comprehensive security in the enterprise, and in the process, achieve significant and sustainable differentiation for Cisco against our competitors. To make this happen, I work very closely with the architects and leads in IBNG, the Security Business Group, and the Security and Trust Office.

Customers are experiencing a low-grade fever when it comes to integrating security into the enterprise network. It has become extremely complex, so we’re trying to simplify this through automation and make the network play a far more significant role in securing the enterprise.

CEC: What exactly is Encrypted Traffic Analytics, and how is it a differentiator for Cisco?

Sarav: ETA detects malicious communication in encrypted traffic without decryption. It does this by leveraging the network to extract and export metadata. We identify malicious traffic using a fingerprint — much like how an iris scan and thumbprint help identify a human being. This, in turn, allows us to detect it without decryption. None of our competitors could do this at the time of launch in 2017.

ETA is a good example of the challenge I mentioned in that it’s fairly complex to set up. To get it to work, users had to do a lot of careful configuration. In December, we launched an automation tool in Cisco DNA Center that allows customers to enable ETA in their enterprise with the click of a button. The adoption since then has been great. We’re doing the same thing for other security offerings such as Cisco Umbrella, our cloud security platform.

CEC: What about our security SD-WAN solutions and opportunities there?

Sarav: Many of our enterprise customers are moving their apps to the cloud. Providing access to these applications for an increasingly distributed and mobile workforce is challenging. Workers access apps in branches or on their phones at a coffee shop.

Our SD-WAN solution allows our customers to give these workers a much better application experience at a lower cost and simpler management. It’s a win-win, and it’s why SD-WAN demand is very hot right now.

However, the SD-WAN architecture opens up the branch to direct internet and cloud access. This creates a new and very significant threat vector. In late 2018, we launched our SD-WAN security solution that brings to bear a host of critical functions aimed at securing the branch. The network now hosts a full-function firewall to secure the enterprise.

CEC: Tell us about winning the Pioneer Award for ETA.

Sarav: I remember the day I got an email from Joel Bion (SVP, Research and Advanced Development) congratulating me on the win. It was one of the defining moments of my career. It would not have been possible without my co-conspirators David McGrew and TK Keanini.

It was an awesome experience to join David Goeckeler at the Cisco Beat to talk about this innovation. I was there in the audience at Cisco Live when Chuck (Robbins) and David got up on the big stage and launched ETA. To see something you’ve worked on day and night for two years come to fruition like that — there’s nothing better!

CEC: What are your thoughts on innovation at Cisco?

Sarav: What I love most about Cisco is the relentless focus on innovation. It’s really at the heart of everything we do. We are given the flexibility to go and try stuff out, and we have a tech fund for ideas that get greenlit. It helps us explore new market opportunities, and in the process, understand and address new customer problems.

I can tell you that real innovation is not possible if there’s a constant fear of failure. Of course, not every project is as successful as ETA. I worked on one called Li-Fi, which used light as a means of communicating to the internet. It was awesome, but the market wasn’t ready for it.

Failure should be seen as a learning opportunity. In every such venture, we learn something that will come back to help Cisco at a later stage.

CEC: Tell us your views on the importance of having close relationships with our customers.

Sarav: Cisco exists because of our customers, and it’s important to take every opportunity to interact with and learn from them. I personally benefit from conversations with customers whom I meet at Cisco Live events. Many times they bring in a perspective that we definitely would have missed.

Sometimes when we build security solutions, we wear the network operator’s hat by default. We want to simplify the way we deliver security to customers — such as with tools like vManage that can potentially help merge the budgets of NetOps and SecOps teams. But when we talk to customers, it becomes clear that about 70 percent of them still have separate NetOps and SecOps teams; they’re probably not going to adopt this immediately.

We realized we need to ease customers through their transformative journey. Just dropping a solution and expecting it to work is a disaster for adoption.

CEC: What keeps you at Cisco?

Sarav: Aside from innovation, it’s the importance that’s given to employees. Chuck has talked a lot about mental and physical health. On our Bangalore campus, our HR teams have organized several events promoting a healthy lifestyle.

Then there’s Cisco’s ability to consistently navigate challenging times. We’re amazingly flexible and nimble for a big company. And then there’s my team. They’re among the smartest people in the industry, but they’re still very humble. I happened to be in San Jose for my 20th anniversary at Cisco, and my boss arranged a surprise celebration. I had no idea and was very touched by the gesture.

CEC: Tell us about your experience mentoring other engineers at Cisco.

Sarav: Part of growing into a senior role is ensuring we create the next set of leaders who can carry the company torch forward.

At every stage in our career, we need to mentor and be mentored by someone. When I joined Cisco, I was mentored by a Distinguished Engineer. I looked up to him, and I thought, hey, one day I want to be like him.

Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to mentor a diverse pool of engineers across various levels. I love seeing the new college hires — their energy and hunger to prove themselves really motivates me. Nothing is more gratifying than seeing them grow in their careers.

CEC: What advice would you have for someone just starting out as an engineer?

Sarav: Focus on both technical and non-technical skills. Yes, it’s essential to be connected with what’s happening in the industry by following key leaders on LinkedIn, and so on. But what really differentiates you from the rest of the engineering community is non-technical skills like collaboration and communication.

Collaboration is very important because it breeds innovation. You need to be able to work across teams and organizations to take your ideas forward. And the way you communicate is essential for presenting your ideas crisply and succinctly to your team and your leadership team.

After all, ETA wouldn’t have happened without different groups across Cisco working together.

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