Buzz Off

Oliver Chapman puts Zscaler’s Justin Brooks in the hot seat, cutting through the buzzwords to uncover real insights on networking, security and what AI means for the future.

Creators and Guests

Host
Oli Chapman
Head of Networking and Security at Computacenter UK
Guest
Justin Brooks
VP UK&I, Zscaler

What is Buzz Off?

Straight talk on networking & security!

Every week there's a new phrase, trend or acronym dominating the networking & security conversations. Too often, the buzzwords get in the way of what you really want to know: What does it actually mean? Why does it matter? And how will it help my organisation?

That's where Buzz Off comes in. Hosted by Oli Chapman, Head of Networking & Security at Computacenter, we bring together experts from leading technology and security organisations to explore the biggest topics shaping the industry today.

But there's one rule: leave the buzzwords at the door. No jargon. No marketing speak. No hiding behind industry clichés.

Instead, expect honest conversations about today's challenges, emerging technologies, evolving threats, and the practical steps organisations can take to stay secure, connected, and successful.

Hello and welcome to Buzz Off.

My name is Oliver Chapman.

I am Solution Area Director for networking
and security at Computacenter.

This is a web series that is designed
by our customers, for our customers.

I've got some cue
cards. Look, I'm a proper presenter.

So we have pre-selected three buzz words

or phrases
that our guest is not allowed to say.

We have a different partner on each time,
and if they say it,

you will hear this noise.

If I mention all three buzzwords,

I will forcefully eject them
from the studio.

this week's buzz, words
and phrases are “converged”,

“innovation”
and “singing off the same hymn sheet”.

This week's guest is Justin Brooks,
vice president UK&I at Zscaler.

He's an ex-military man.

So I'm a little scared about potentially
having to forcefully eject him.

Justin, welcome to Buzz Off.

Thanks a lot. How are you feeling?

It's good to be here with you.

Relaxed? Comfortable? I am, yeah.

No intimidation. None. Right?

Okay. Well,
perfect. Look, we’ll launch into it.

So I'm going to ask you some key
questions.

There's about seven.

Remember, the rules
are you go get through it. No buzz words.

Otherwise we'll hear the buzz. Right.

So first question,
what keeps you at Zscaler?

Well, first off, let me thank you
for having me join you today.

What keeps me at Zscaler?

It's, it's a couple of different things.

One is our customers.

What personally, excites me and keeps me
motivated is being able to go in

with customers and understanding
what's driving their business outcomes.

And then how can we support that?

We're solving real problems.

We're able to help them increase
their top line revenues in various ways,

decrease their operational costs
and mitigate risks.

And many times with, some of the largest
companies on, on the global stage.

The other thing is working specifically
at Zscaler, is the innovation -

Unbelievable!

Straight away! I barely made a minute.

Well, you need to be careful now
because you got two more chances.

And then otherwise, I have to forcefully
eject you from the studio. So.

Right. Innovation we've had,
it would take that box.

So anyway, carry on.

All right.

Is, is the breadth of the platform
and the development that goes into it.

Yeah.

You know, it's not just about,
you know, resilience from the edge.

It's, it's about more than that,
and it's about, you know, protecting,

you know, the, the global, landscape,
how companies are operating

within, you know, different,
geographic remits.

You know, how they're,
indoctrinating new technologies.

So, you know, addressing all of those
problems and, you know, Zscaler

staying on the forefront is incredibly,
motivating and exciting to me.

Excellent. Great answer.

Why Computacenter and Zscaler
together for our customers?

Yeah.

You know,

you and I were having a conversation, off
camera a minute ago, and we were.

We were talking about people, right?

I think, you know, everything starts
with people.

Businesses starts with people
both internally.

The relationships
that we develop with, with our customers.

And when I think about the partnership,
it starts with,

you know a great partnership
at a personal level.

Yeah. We do a lot of planning together.

We do a lot of planning
as as organisations.

We do, a lot of preparation and
put a lot of thought into our customers.

And what are their outcomes
even before that first meeting.

Where are we going to spend our time?

And through that,
we're able to solve a lot of problems.

Right.

Well able to deliver on a lot of outcomes
together.

I think we do a, an amazing job
at bringing the technology.

You although with managed services

and, you know, the, the advice and,
you know, our relationships

that you have with, customers,
it all comes together and many times

that that results and,
you know, almost a seamless engagement.

And our partnership and that's,
that's just really special.

I love that,
and I think it sounds like it's care.

Right. I think that's that's
what matters collectively.

So what makes us unique to enterprise
organisations, to the big customers?

Collectively, us together, its delivery.

It's it's kind of expanding
on what I was saying earlier.

Put a lot of thought,
a lot of care into how we're going about,

you know, solving problems
for our customers.

Understanding what moves the needle
that, you know, technology just doesn't,

you know, need to be solved
for the sake of technology

or purchase for the sake of technology
that we, you know, it's understanding

those business outcomes.

And I think that that's

always at the forefront,
in how we engage with one another.

And then,

you know, how we engage with our customers

so that that's a special thing
we do together. Great.

And you mentioned so
you see a lot of customers, your team sees

a lot of customers as well,
especially very senior stakeholders.

What's the question that every CIO
should be asking their teams right now?

Yeah,
that they should be taking a look at,

are we status quo or are

we, what's another word for innovating?

I'm not going to say that one again.

That's not allowed But,
are we staying on, on the precipice

of of new technology
to address this new state of the world?

Yeah.

That, you know, it's not what it was

two years ago or five years ago,
or certainly not ten years ago.

The old way of doing things through,
you know,

castle and moat or VPNs,
it's evolved greatly.

And so,
I think, you know, the senior leaders,

including ourselves,
really need to take a look at how,

how we're addressing,
you know, the new world.

You've got AI, you've got, IoT,

OT, you've got, you know, more
and more of a remote workforce.

The the stage is very different now.

And so, you know, thinking about not only
how do I, you know,

adjust and address and,

be resilient in this new world, but also,
you know, thinking about consolidation

and, you know,
do I really need to, over architect?

I can simplify.

There's there's platforms

like Zscaler out there
that can solve so many problems for me.

Like DLP or AI or branch.

So I love the approach
you're taking to this.

Just. And I almost feel like you're
fishing for buzzwords every now and again.

I think you're playing an aggressive game
here. I like it right.

One card down, one buzzword.

So next question.

When you think about impressive outcomes
that we have delivered for customers.

So things like saving money, saving time,

you already mentioned
some of those things.

What's the use case
that springs to mind. Yeah.

There's a lot.

And I do need to be careful about,
you know, using some, some, some names.

You know, a lot of times,
by the nature of what we do. Yeah.

It's sensitive.

But, one of the things that I think
I'm most proud of

is that, you know, how we've responded
when there are incidents that take place.

And, we need to, to come in and,
support our customers together.

And so I think we've done an amazing job,
doing that.

You know, when I also think about,
you know, some of the delivered outcomes,

you know, a lot of it
is taking, companies from legacy, to new

and what we've been able to deliver
together is a lot of cost savings

plus protection and better agility.

And so I'm really proud of that.

And then the, another one that comes to
mind is a is a company where we were able

to really help increase the top line,
which was through M&A activity.

We were able to increase their

M&A and,

route to revenue by about 75%,
and that's significant.

You know,
looking at some of those soft numbers

as they're applied back,
they become hard numbers.

And what they invest in paid for itself
tenfold.

So, those are some.

And that's key isn’t it, how

you can help our customers
to accelerate their business.

Okay.

How important is AI to Zscaler right now?

It's incredibly important.

It should be, it is, to everyone.

But, AI is the buzzword of all buzzwords.

It is. It is. It would be unfair.

It would be unfair.

But it is real.

And, you know, it's it's
not just from the aspect of how do you

how do you incorporate -
all CIOs need to be asking this question,

which is, how do I get all the benefits
out of the AI?

How do I get the efficiency
and how do I get the productivity?

And, you know, unfortunately,
in many cases, how can I offload some,

capital expenditures or operational
expenditures through through AI?

But the question that needs to be asked

at the exact same time
is, what is my risk profile?

Right?

And, you know,
how do I prevent data leakage?

Because a lot of times
there's not a lot of control,

there's not a lot of governance.

There's there's really no,
you know, past example of how to do this.

So, you know, when you're saying, okay,

we need to apply a governance structure,
what do you modelling it after?

You really starting from scratch there?

And you need the expertise of,
of companies like yours,

companies
like, Zscaler to help you with that model

so that you can reap the benefits
and provide the protection.

The other side of that is the security
attacks are getting more advanced.

We've already seen AI generated,
attacks take place.

And I'll tell you. Right.

Right on the heels of
that is quantum computing.

Quantum is going to break RSA.

It's going to break,
you know, the, blockchain.

So, you know,
you're going to need quantum technologies.

You need to be thinking about,
you know, what's next with quantum.

So AI's the start
and we really are in the infancy.

We are just getting started.

Companies are just getting started, but,

we've got to act
now, companies need to act now.

And that leads us on really nicely
to our kind of final formal question,

which is what excites
you most about Zscaler’s portfolio

and the roadmap
that you're that you're seeing?

Yeah, it comes down to platform.

You know, I look at the,
the new technology that,

you know, we’re introducing into the

platform.

These are things that we're developing.

You look at some of the acquisitions
that we've made around,

you know, browser and, AI security.

It's really exciting.

So, you know, expanding out into,
you know,

not only the AI security space, but,
you know, I mentioned the branch,

resilience, earlier,
you know, data loss prevention.

There's there's so much there
that we can solve for, for customers.

The power really is in the platform,
and that's the big differentiator for us.

It's not just about securing,
you know, the edge.

There's much more to that.

And it takes out to your point,
those point technologies, it saves money.

It saves time.

That helps our customers to operate
in a, in a, in a far more efficient way.

Hey, look,
you made it through the core questions.

Hey, look,
you made it through the core questions.

Pretty good. Only one.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

Thank you so much.

Phenomenal.

Good effort.

Thank you for joining me.
Much appreciated. Amazing to be here.

Thanks for the time.

We made it!. One buzzword.

I mean, I'm pretty sure he was playing
buzzword lottery.

He played a very aggressive game.
I quite liked it.

Congratulations, Justin.

It was great spending the time with you.

We will be back next time
with some more buzzwords, different guest.

Thank you for watching.