“The Attic” Video Podcast Episode 6: Why EUC is Headed for Next Major Growth Wave from Sanjay Poonen, former COO, VMware

Be sure to check out the latest Attic one-to-one chat with Sanjay Poonen, an EUC superstar who led the development of VMware’s EUC business when virtual desktops were hardly a household phrase. Sanjay shares his fascinating journey, growing up in Bangalore, India, traveling 10,000 miles to study computer science at Dartmouth College, a journey that would eventually see him rise to great heights in the EUC world.  

Sanjay – never a status quo believer – sought opportunities with companies beginning to innovate disruptive products and technology. He began as an engineer at Apple in the early days of Mac development, helped develop startup Alphablox (analytic applications) acquired by IBM; then spent eight years at SAP, as president of its platform, applications, and industries group, expanding SAP beyond its original ERP model.

Sanjay became an EUC icon after leaving SAP in 2013 and joining VMware to build its EUC business, recruiting the best of the best from Citrix, MobileIron and others to map the future in virtualization and deliver the tools to make EUC a viable choice for enterprises. Always a disruptor, Sanjay shook up the industry in 2014 with VMware’s acquisition of AirWatch, an enterprise mobile management and security provider. The $1.5 billion price tag was a startling number at that time.

IGEL and Sanjay have been strategic allies for more than a decade, as the two companies have had a common goal of growing the EUC business and delivering the best, most secure cloud workspace experience to enterprises and their end users. Tune in and hear Sanjay talk about the next wave of EUC innovation, why security is paramount and his new adventures.

On Security’s Future: “The next frontier is protecting source code…. developer security and understanding the vulnerabilities…. i.e. code used in early detection to detect disease as opposed to reacting later.”

On Breach Concerns: “It’s certainly a boardroom topic, as having economic impact when there’s a breach. But imagine a scenario very similar to what happened in Bopal in the 1980s. That type of incident could happen again through a hack. It’s not just economic impact, it’s lives too.”

On EUC Growth: “Work from anywhere is just starting to take off in a whole new way. End user computing is hot again. If you’re in sales you’re still going to be selling to the same buyers. They haven’t gone away..but they’re not just buying VDI now. They’re buying many other tools.” – Sanjay Poonen

Listen in and find out which security company Sanjay says could be the next CrowdStrike. Watch the Attic: Episode 6 – Sanjay Poonen.

Thanks for stopping by The Attic. Join us again next time for more insightful conversations. Some of our upcoming guests include EUC influencer Christiaan Brinkhoff, Principal PM and Community Lead, Windows 365 at Microsoft, and Tim Minahan, CMO of Citrix.

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