Netskope Empowers Over 25% of ASX50 for Cloud Security and Data Protection in Australia
Netskope, a leader in Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) – a new model for cyber security and networking – has announced that after just eight years of operations in ANZ, it now counts more than 25% of the ASX50 in its customer ranks, as well as 36 federal and state government entities. Three of the four largest insurance companies in Australia use Netskope, and its platform protects more than 625,000 Australian workers from cyber security threats and data loss. Key customer brands include the Royal Flying Doctors, Australian Community Media and payment technology company ZIP.
The Australian go-to-market team at Netskope has doubled in the past three years, and the latest talent to join the team is Luke Healey, who joined this autumn to lead public sector sales. Healey has previously led public sector portfolio expansion for a number of major tech companies, including Dimension Data and Cisco, where he held tenure for 14 years, including taking the reins of the company’s broader public sector department in 2015. Healey will lead Netskope Australia’s sales among government state agencies and sub-agencies, with an initial focus on New South Wales.
Eager to refocus on cloud-first solutions and cybersecurity, Healey saw Netskope as a natural fit:
“There are still many on-premise systems across state agencies. But with the government’s cloud-first policy, over the coming months we will see a major migration of these systems to the cloud, and cybersecurity is a huge priority.” Healey continues; “Initiatives such as the Digital Restart Fund are further incentivising the prioritisation of security modernisation among public organisations. Netskope offers a highly relevant and timely value proposition to transforming public sector networking and security capabilities, especially with our five Australian data centres providing local data jurisdiction, and our completion of the IRAP assessment two years ago.”
Tony Burnside, VP of APAC at Netskope commented; “I am delighted Luke chose Netskope from all the opportunities he had open to him. We are doing great work with key federal government agencies already, and we are bringing him to replicate this with state and local entities, and broadly help reinforce the cyber resilience and performance of our governing entities across the country.”
Healey is the latest addition to a team of senior specialists that have reinforced the Netskope APAC team in recent years, including Daniel Fouladi (SASE / Telco), Matt Paull (Channel & Alliance), David Fairman (CIO), Samantha Macleod (CxO Advisor) and Nicholas McKenzie (CxO Advisor).
Reflecting on Netskope’s success factors in ANZ, Burnside explains; “Local customers recognise the relevance of Netskope’s platform in tackling some of their most pressing tech challenges; simplifying their technology architectures, and maintaining high standards in cloud and data protection. The latter is a critical parameter for executives and boards in light of new workplace architectures and hybrid work, recurring large-scale data breaches impacting Australian businesses, and the potential for tougher data privacy and protection regulations.”
He continues; “Following ongoing tech adjustments made during the pandemic in order to adapt to remote working, many organisations are now left with a complex stack of networking and security solutions that mostly works, but is usually expensive, and difficult to manage, often requiring significant human resources. There’s also an added complexity in protecting employees and data wherever they move in a cloud-heavy and increasingly hybrid working environment, where employees’ working location and setup can literally change every day. In this context, our platform is an attractive prospect for Australian organisations, providing networking and data and cloud security capabilities that major analysts recognise as leading-edge.”
