Flexible Databases and Cyber Security with MongoDB Chief Information Security Officer Lena Smart
09/13/20 • 46 min
This week on How I Launched This: A SaaS Story, Stephanie Wong (@stephr_wong) is pleased to welcome Lena Smart from MongoDB. MongoDB is a force in the database industry, offering indexing and storage capabilities for any document.
We start the show with a thorough discussion of Lena's background and her journey to becoming one of the top Chief Information Security Officers in the business. With the vital importance of security online and the ever-changing laws and regulations proliferating the space, Lena tells us that security should be part of a business's culture. She offers tips for achieving this ideal, including instituting a policy of mandatory security awareness training and supporting your strongest link - your employees.
The episode continues as Lena tells the story of MongoDB's founding. With the growth of mobile and cloud technologies, it became clear that the world needed a better database. MongoDB rose to the challenge by providing an intuitive, easy, secure solution for companies that is scalable and customizable. We learn about MongoDB Atlas, a global database platform with out-of-the-box layered security measures and additional available add-ons like Atlas Data Lake. Lena explains this layered approach to MongoDB security, comparing it to the physical securities a brick-and-mortar business or home might employ. We learn about MongoDB's field level encryption specifically and how it's changing database security.
To wrap up the show, Lena talks about the hiring process for security personnel and how a few good team members can help influence and mentor others. She stresses the security culture mindset, emphasizing cooperation between departments. We talk about the partnership between Google and MongoDB and how these two companies have learned from each other. Lena leaves us with a powerful message to be yourself and continue to grow and learn.
Episode Links:MongoDBMongoDB AtlasMongoDB RealmMongoDB Atlas Data Lake
This week on How I Launched This: A SaaS Story, Stephanie Wong (@stephr_wong) is pleased to welcome Lena Smart from MongoDB. MongoDB is a force in the database industry, offering indexing and storage capabilities for any document.
We start the show with a thorough discussion of Lena's background and her journey to becoming one of the top Chief Information Security Officers in the business. With the vital importance of security online and the ever-changing laws and regulations proliferating the space, Lena tells us that security should be part of a business's culture. She offers tips for achieving this ideal, including instituting a policy of mandatory security awareness training and supporting your strongest link - your employees.
The episode continues as Lena tells the story of MongoDB's founding. With the growth of mobile and cloud technologies, it became clear that the world needed a better database. MongoDB rose to the challenge by providing an intuitive, easy, secure solution for companies that is scalable and customizable. We learn about MongoDB Atlas, a global database platform with out-of-the-box layered security measures and additional available add-ons like Atlas Data Lake. Lena explains this layered approach to MongoDB security, comparing it to the physical securities a brick-and-mortar business or home might employ. We learn about MongoDB's field level encryption specifically and how it's changing database security.
To wrap up the show, Lena talks about the hiring process for security personnel and how a few good team members can help influence and mentor others. She stresses the security culture mindset, emphasizing cooperation between departments. We talk about the partnership between Google and MongoDB and how these two companies have learned from each other. Lena leaves us with a powerful message to be yourself and continue to grow and learn.
Episode Links:MongoDBMongoDB AtlasMongoDB RealmMongoDB Atlas Data Lake
Previous Episode
Internet-Connected Products and the Importance of Giving Back with Aeris CEO Marc Jones
Welcome back to How I launched this, A SaaS Story! This week, Carter (@carterthecomic) and Stephanie (@stephr_wong) welcome Marc Jones, President, CEO & Chairman of Aeris, a technology company that helps organizations create and sell internet-connected products that consumers and businesses love. Aeris’ software powers 15 million connected devices worldwide, enabling medical professionals to remotely monitor patients, homeowners to remotely lock their doors, and vehicle owners to download self-driving capabilities at the push of a button.
With a long-term view of how hardware and software will necessarily converge, Marc explains how he and his colleagues jumped into Aeris and refocused the company in the early 2000s, harnessing the power of wireless connectivity to help businesses do more things more easily. We hear the story of growth as Aeris grew 35% year-on-year, from zero revenue in 2009 to more than $100M in annual revenue today -- all leveraging its own profits and with no venture capital investment.
Later in the show, we discuss race and how it has influenced Marc's path, and he offers valuable advice and inspiration for other Black entrepreneurs as they begin their careers. Emphasising the importance of responsible risk-taking, Marc explains why he feels people of color are underrepresented in the technology industry and how he hopes to improve this situation through his involvement in Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT). MLT works to mentor and support men and women of color, providing them with the opportunity to network with and learn from successful role models.
We wrap up the show with a look at how Aeris is connecting the world and helping non-profit companies leverage connectivity technology to accelerate their impact. Marc provides powerful examples from around the world -- from Syrian refugees to African farmers --, showing us how people and companies working for good can create a better planet for everyone. He takes a look into the future and tells us the advancements he'd like to see, not only in the technology space, but in society, and how the two can help each other.
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AI-Driven Data Management with Informatica Senior Vice President Jitesh Ghai
Welcome back to How I Launched This, A SaaS Story. This week Carter Morgan (@carterthecomic) hosts a conversation with Jitesh Ghai. Jitesh is Senior Vice President of Informatica and goes in-depth about the advanced data management software they've created for use with Google Cloud. As key players in the space, Informatica has excelled in facilitating customer and cloud provider relationships while also building specialized data migration and management tools for enterprise companies taking advantage of the cloud.
Jitesh explains how his passion for data and life philosophy of making plans while also being flexible led him to Informatica. Because data is so important to supporting fact-driven company decisions, Informatica's offerings like data integration, indexing, management, privacy services, and more are vital for most modern-day companies. Their auto-indexing, tagging, and advanced, rich metadata provide companies with a thorough understanding of not only what data they have but where it is. Informatica provides the Business 360 experience for enterprise clients with AI-driven data software that can not only collect and index but analyze customer buying behavior, streamline logistical systems, and more.
Later, we talk with Jitesh about Informatica's journey to market and evolution to becoming a true cloud-first, cloud-native solution. Jitesh describes the company's awareness of data fragmentation problems between on-prem and the cloud and their desire to create a flexible cloud data solution. He details real-world examples of companies benefiting from the software, and makes predictions for the future of data and the positive effects it will continue to have on decision making.
Episode Links:
Informatica
Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services
CLAIRE engine
Equinix
Sunrun
BigQuery
How I Launched This: A SaaS Story - Flexible Databases and Cyber Security with MongoDB Chief Information Security Officer Lena Smart
Transcript
MUSIC UP
Lena Smart [00:00:06] No matter what you do, be yourself. Just be honest to what you want to do. If you want to be a security expert, go learn it. There's so much free stuff out there it's not funny. If you want to learn how to read a line of code and see if it's vulnerable before it actually goes into production, go become a developer that is really involved in security of an application. There's so many different routes to becoming a CISO now that you could pick
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