Anshuman Singh
Senior Director, Product Management, Barracuda Networks

As senior director of product management, Anshu­man Singh oversees the product side of the Web Applica­­tion Firewall (WAF) and Applica­tion Delivery Contro­ll­­er (ADC) at Barracuda Net­works. The company provides secu­rity and storage products. Singh’s focus is on designing and defining new enhancements to the existing products. He has been with Barra­cuda since 2007, when his previous company, Net­Co­n­­ti­­­­­nuum, was acquired by it.

Having followed the cybersecurity space very closely, he believes that the threat landscape has been gradually changing as attacks are becoming more sophisticated and are emerging from a host of sources. Further, due to social engineering, it has become increasingly difficult to detect targeted attacks using a standard mechanism. In such a scenario, he says companies need to build additional security layers that will use technologies like AI and machine learning. On future technology trends, Singh notes that although technologies such as AI, IoT, cloud and data analytics are spoken of independently, they do impact each other. “Given that IoT devices are connected to networks, these networks need to be secured. Handling the huge amount of data generated through these devices is another aspect to think about. With the existence of a large amount of data comes the need for an analytical engine that can make sense of this data. So in a way, technologies are all connected.”

While every day is memorable for Singh, he recalls two specific experiences that left an impression on his mind. The first was an incident at Net Continuum, when every engineer, including himself, signed the box containing the company’s very first shipment of hardware that was being sent to the customer. Another memorable experience was when Barracuda Networks’ products were used by a large cable TV provider to stream the Olympic Games in Rio. “At one point, 40 per cent of traffic in Brazil was going through Barracuda products,” he recounts.

Coming to his work ethic, Singh says he believes in letting people take initiative and does not like to micromanage his team. Working with a large variety of people is one of his biggest strengths. An engineer from IIT-BHU, Varanasi, Singh also has an MBA from IIM Bangalore. Outside of work, he likes to spend quality time with his family, which comprises his wife and their eight-year-old son. He loves discussing football and global affairs with his son. He also likes to read in his free time.