As digital technology continues to evolve, cyber security has become a top priority for businesses of all sizes. Identity-centric and holistic cyber security approaches have gained significant traction in recent years. Identity-centric security shifts the focus from protecting network perimeters to protecting user identity and access to company resources. Holistic cyber security integrates all security measures into a cohesive system, addressing vulnerabilities in the entire IT infrastructure.
In the dynamic business space, where employees and customers are increasingly mobile, these approaches can help prevent data breaches, protect against insider threats, and ensure regulatory compliance. By adopting a comprehensive approach that focuses on protecting user identities and integrating all security measures, companies can safeguard their digital assets and demonstrate their commitment to cyber security.
In this interview with The Enterprise World, Mr. Arun K. Singh, CEO of Ilantus Technologies walks us through the journey.
Tell us about Ilantus Technologies
Ilantus Services is a global leader in providing identity-centric, holistic cybersecurity solutions built on the Zero Trust Framework. Ilantus Technologies has more than two decades of unparalleled expertise in providing IAM services to clients across all industry verticals. It was founded in 2000 as a global cybersecurity company with a focus on the Identity & Access Management domain to offer products and services to customers globally. Recently, the product business was rolled out as a different company and Services business merged with a digital Security company – Network Intelligence, Ilantus Services is now a fully owned subsidiary of Network Intelligence..
What were the initial challenges you faced?
When I joined Ilantus Technologies, it was having Product and Services business intermingled with no clear boundaries. As a CEO, I led the global team to drive business growth, product engineering, innovation, service delivery, sales & marketing, analyst, and investor relationship management. Soon I realized that the DNA of product and services business are very different. This led to restructuring the company and having a separate entity with independent P&L for Product and Services.
Which was that point that triggered the growth of Ilantus Technologies?
The restructuring of product and services as two different entities helped in completing the transformation of Ilantus’ global business effectively. It enabled cultivating services mindset to realign growth strategy with market, finalize multiyear roadmap and, adoption of a winning culture with teams that believe in a growth vision, thrive together, beat competition, delight customers, and deliver profitable growth.
The restructuring also fostered change in company culture to be more client centric and higher accountability for quality of services. Ilantus Technologies got well recognized by leading analysts e.g. Gartner, KuppingerCole, Frost & Sullivan and others.
What is the reason behind Ilantus Technologies’ long-standing success?
I think people first strategy and client centricity had been the key pillars for our long-standing success. People first strategy helped us in maximizing the retention ratio and building a long term winning team. Many of our key employees stayed with the company for more than 15 years. Client centricity enabled us to develop multiple solution accelerators which not only reduced the time to deploy cyber solutions faster but also cut down costs significantly.
The Products and Services-
What are the services that Ilantus Technologies specializes in?
We specialize in offering full range of Identity and Access Management (IAM) Services to our clients across each industry vertical globally. Whether it’s advisory services to start the IAM journey, conducting assessments for to identify gaps in current deployment, providing consulting, or implementing, migrating, and managing IAM solution, Ilantus Technologies offers it all. Below picture depicts our service catalogue for IAM services
How important is cyber security, considering the changing landscape?
With innovation and disruption, organizations are facing increasing pressure to adopt cutting edge technologies and stay ahead of the curve. In order to provide better client services organizations are using technologies e.g. RPA, ChatBot, NLP, Virtual Reality, AI, ML, Big Data, Predictive Analytics, IoT, 5G, Wearables, Geo-fencing, Beacons, Cloud, EDGE, FOG Computing etc. Each of these new technologies expand the attack surface and lead to cybersecurity concerns. Cybersecurity is one of the top concern for Board members and a key enabler for the adotion of new digital technologies.
Ilantus Technologies combined with Network Intelligence, offers end-to-end cybersecurity capabilities to clients. Below picture presents our combined services catalogue –
How do you make sure your services are reliable?
We have built productized service offering supported with unique solution accelerators to ensure predictive outcomes. We also have a dedicated division for service quality audit which works with each client engagement as an independent entity and presents unbiased report to the senior management.
How do you help companies increase business scalability and sustainability?
Our delivery approach includes setting up a robust foundation with key critical systems in cloud or on premise. Once the foundation is tested for high availability and peak load, we bring in our “Factory Model” to onboard rest of the applications on the foundation. This enables sustainability and helps us to scale up the operations to the desired level.
How do you decide to take Ilantus Technologies a step further in terms of your services?
Most of our cybersecurity engagements start with a maturity assessment phase which helps us identify gaps and benchmark client environment against their peers. This enables client to see the big picture clearly and understand the plan to not only solve immediate issue but also what should be included in the roadmap for further deliberations. We also add value thru our unique solution accelerators e.g. in IAM domain we have – Rapid application onboarding framework – AiA (Application Integration Automation, Integrated Dashboard, ITDR (Identity Threat Detection and response) & Role mining engine. We have similar solutions in other domains as well.
Leadership
What do you think are the responsibilities of an entrepreneur?
The key responsibility of any entrepreneur is to deliver Business growth without which survival becomes an issue. It requires skills in the leader to define vision, take right risk to setup the business, and drive continuous innovation to stay ahead of competition. Success in business can’t be achieved without having a strong leadership coaching and development skills.
Can you please brief us about your professional experience?
I am currently serving as the CEO and President of Ilantus Technologies, a global leader in providing identity-centric, holistic cybersecurity solutions. Furthermore, I also hold the position of CEO at Network Intelligence, a digital security company in the Americas region. Additionally, I serves as an Advisory Board Member of Cydres (formerly known as The Herjavec Group), as well as GL Bajaj Group of Institutions, and am a member of the Forbes Technology Council.
Before assuming my current position, I worked as a Principal/Partner and Americas Risk Advisory Leader at Ernst & Young LLP. As a Client Serving Partner, I advised senior executives, board members, and technical leaders on establishing comprehensive processes for managing and maturing information technology programs. Prior to joining EY, I worked at Accenture, where I served as Managing Director & Global Leader for their Managed Security Services (MSS) business. In this role, I launched MSS as a new line of business and scaled it rapidly to achieve $350+ million USD in annual revenue within a 4-year timeframe. I carried P&L responsibilities for sales, revenue, delivery, capability development, and branding.
Before Accenture, I worked at Wipro Technologies as Global Business Head for Enterprise Security Services. In this role, I built and led a team of 5000+ security professionals globally, providing security consulting, implementation, and managed services to Wipro’s clientele worldwide. I also worked at Infosys Technologies and HCL Technologies in the areas of eCommerce Security, Network Security, and Application Security.
I began my career as a cryptographer and research professional, and subsequently transitioned to building and driving cybersecurity businesses. I have published multiple research papers and has been invited as a speaker and panelist to numerous conferences such as Forbes Technology Council, ISMG CISO/CEO panel, Adventory CEO, HIMSS, SmartGrid, RSA Conference, Gartner Security Summit, and many more.
What are the key achievements of your entrepreneurial journey?
I have been recognized for my entrepreneurship and influence in the business community. I was featured as one of the “World’s Inspiring CEOs to Follow in 2022” by World Leaders Magazine and as one of the “Top 10 Influential Business Leaders to Follow in 2021” by Beyond Exclamation Magazine. Mirrors Review also named me as one of the “10 Prominent CEO Leaders 2021,” while Insight Success Media LLC recognized me as an “Innovative Business Leader, Making a Difference 2021.”
How do you look after your employees? What makes your team unique?
There are many vehicles that we utilize to stay in close contact with each team member and keep them motivated & updated on our business objectives. Community meetings, town hall, cultural events, inter team competitions and weekly connect with reportees play a significant role in this. We have also aligned our incentive program with performance objectives and the quarterly appraisal cycles helps in taking care of critical/top-performing employees. The right attitude for collaboration is the key value that we drive thru each employee which makes then unique.
What would be your advice to the budding entrepreneurs?
I would advice them to understand power of networking and practice it in their day-to-day work life as they look for growing the business. I would also like them to know the power of emotional quotient (EQ) and ability to understand, empathize, and connect with the people around them. A high EQ is essential to become a great leader and successful entrepreneur.
