In an age when cyber threats loom giant, the dedication and keenness of cybersecurity professionals are extra essential than ever. Every year, Cisco makes a degree of choosing and recognizing a standout cybersecurity advocate who has earned the title of cybersecurity defender. This yr, it was unattainable to decide on only one particular person.
For this reason Cisco’s 2025 EMEA Cybersecurity Defender of the 12 months award goes out to a crew of practitioners at SAP Enterprise Cloud Companies (ECS) whose contributions displayed an unusual means to boost the bar for general safety posture. The recipients are:
- Boris Mäck, Head of Know-how and Structure at SAP Enterprise Cloud Companies
- Roland Costea, CISO of SAP Enterprise Cloud Companies
- Christopher Hett, Cloud Community Architect at SAP Enterprise Cloud Companies
On this weblog, we’ll discover the origins of their ardour, the challenges they confronted whereas engaged on their important venture at SAP ECS, the methods they employed to beat these hurdles, and their invaluable insights for these trying to make their mark in cybersecurity.
The Start of Ardour for Cybersecurity
A former Romanian chess champion, Roland Costea used his wits for technique to seek out his method into the sphere. Having studied know-how and programming at college, he needed to discover a approach to make a extra distinctive contribution. He discovered cybersecurity and by no means appeared again.
Christopher Hett’s ardour began early as a pc recreation hobbyist. After he studied data know-how at a college in Germany, his first encounter with cybersecurity was by enabling his work’s Wi-Fi community with state-of-the-art encryption to mitigate assault vectors now additionally coming from wi-fi connections outdoors firms’ premises.
Boris Mäck’s sturdy background in networking started his cybersecurity journey. His experience in infrastructure providers and community applied sciences naturally led him into cybersecurity, particularly as securing networks turned an more and more vital side of IT.
Partnering with Cisco to Overcome SAP ECS Challenges
As one of many world’s main deliverers of managed cloud providers, SAP Enterprise Cloud Companies can’t afford downtime. That’s the reason, for Roland, the corporate’s CISO, it’s all about velocity. He notes, “I discover that velocity is essentially the most vital factor. And once I say velocity, it’s velocity in the best way that we establish, detect, defend, reply, recuperate, and govern… [After all], you possibly can’t afford to maintain an airport down for half-hour.” That’s why, in his opinion, the way forward for multi-cloud wants to incorporate a built-in safety part, and that’s the place Cisco is available in.
First, Christopher, Cloud Community Architect, explains the scenario even additional: “We’ve got over 7,000 buyer environments, so we have to have an answer that scales however doesn’t disrupt the companies of these hundreds of shoppers. It is a specific problem once you wish to introduce an elevated safety service that calls for extra sources, and but uptime nonetheless must be preserved in any respect prices.”
A part of the problem is that SAP is each a multi-cloud supplier and one of many prime twelve hyperscalers on the earth (alongside Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and others), requiring steady uptime. Which means SAP wants to offer the identical native capabilities for all their prospects all through the world “irrespective of the place the shopper resides,” and do it in a standardized method “that delivers the identical worth independently for all our prospects in a multi-cloud surroundings,” as Roland expressed.
For that reason, SAP Enterprise Cloud Service selected to accomplice with Cisco.
To optimize velocity, improve scalability, and guarantee enterprise continuity at the same time as providers increase, SAP is working to construct one overarching non-public cloud, protected by Cisco Multicloud Protection, a part of Cisco’s Hybrid Mesh Firewall options to sit down over their three hyperscalers—offering constant, automated safety throughout them. As well as, SAP leverages Cisco Safe Entry to safeguard person entry to the online, cloud providers, SaaS and personal functions with a single, cloud managed console.
These options improve SAPs safety and permit them the pliability to scale fluctuating enterprise wants and proceed to help their community of shoppers with little to no disruption to their operations.
On the Proper Monitor
“This landmark safety venture proves the facility of the ‘One Cisco’ Group in fixing SAP’s greatest safety challenges—defending their prospects at scale,” says Robert Nicola, Consumer Government. “We delivered an revolutionary, scalable, and differentiated answer that units a brand new commonplace for buyer worth.”
Cisco likes to accomplice with firms like SAP Enterprise Cloud Companies as a result of we are able to do the best factor collectively.
When requested what made him proud, Boris, Head of CAE Know-how and Structure, shared, “I keep in mind when the CIO of the corporate we had been working with got here to us and mentioned, ‘Hey guys, we had a extreme ransomware assault in our community, and the one IT programs that survived had been the SAP programs hosted in RISE [one of our managed solutions]. To me, that is nice proof that we’re doing the best issues with our ideas right here.’
They’re, and Cisco is proud to assist. The insights and experiences shared by these Cisco 2025 Cybersecurity Defenders of the 12 months emphasize shining a lightweight on the great that’s being completed by the best partnerships and the eagerness of engaged cybersecurity leaders.
As know-how advances, so does the crucial for sturdy cybersecurity measures. With devoted professionals like our defenders paving the best way, the way forward for cybersecurity appears to be like promising. Thanks to our defenders for his or her inspiring tales and for illuminating the trail for future leaders on this vital area.
Interested by making a distinction in cybersecurity?
Get acknowledged! Inform us concerning the revolutionary methods by which you or your crew are contributing to the cybersecurity panorama and be thought-about for our subsequent Cybersecurity Defender of the 12 months award.
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