AWS re:Invent – Q&A with Tim Jefferson, Barracuda VP of Public Cloud

The Barracuda team has big plans for AWS re:Invent 2018, which is coming up Nov. 26 to 30 in Las Vegas, and we hope you’ll join us there. You can read more about what we’ll be up to at the conference in our recent blog post about what you need to know before you go.

To help you prepare for the conference, we sat down with Tim Jefferson, VP of Public Cloud at Barracuda, to discuss the sessions he recommends, what he’s looking forward to about attending re:Invent, and the breakout session on Barracuda’s journey to securely adopting AWS.

re:Invent recommendations and key takeaways

What sessions do you recommend customers or channel partners attending re:Invent check out?

There are so many great sessions to choose from, especially around security and networking. I spoke with a few of my friends at AWS recently to see which sessions they recommended, and a few of their suggestions stood out to me:

• Optimizing Network Performance for Amazon EC2 Instances


• Planning Advanced AWS Networking Architectures


• PrivateLink for Partners: Connectivity, Scale, Security


• Everything You Wanted to Know About Firewalls and Middle Boxes on AWS


• Network Foundations on AWS


• Advanced VPC Design and New Capabilities for Amazon VPC

What are you looking forward to about re:Invent this year?

My favorite part is learning about all the new AWS services that are getting launched. They tend to target re:Invent for all their major product launches now, and they just keep coming out with more. So, it’s always interesting to hear what’s new.

I also really enjoy Monday Night Live, an evening keynote session AWS has every year at re:Invent where they talk about the secret sauce, if you will, and what goes on behind the scenes at AWS. This year Peter DeSantis, vice president, AWS Global Infrastructure, is presenting this year, and the session always provides a unique view into how AWS builds, architects, and manages infrastructure.

And, of course, I’m looking forward to the keynote for AWS CEO Andy Jassy. It’s a chance to hear how fast the business is growing and really see how big and healthy the business is, which areas are growing fastest, and what the organization’s priorities are going forward.

Register here to join us at AWS re:Invent 2018, November 26 - November 30

What are the key takeaways you’d like attendees to get from the session you’ll be leading with Fleming?

I hope everyone gets a lot out of our breakout session, Moving 400 Engineers to AWS: Our Journey to Secure Adoption. The journey Barracuda has gone on — figuring out how to securely pivot a large number of engineers to the public cloud — is similar to what other big companies are going through, and I think the lessons we’ve learned along the way can help customers trying to accelerate their transformation. It’s a chance to learn from someone who’s gone through it, Fleming Shi, our SVP of innovation, who has been driving change at that level. We ended up building our own solution to address the challenges we saw along the way, and I’m looking forward to sharing a public preview during the session.

What are the biggest challenges organizations face when trying to adopt AWS securely?

I think the biggest challenge customers have it on how to best instrument controls in public cloud deployments. Organizations have a set of security controls for on-premises environments that don’t translate well to the cloud. The challenge is figuring out the best way to instrument cloud-native security controls. You need to look at all the cloud services you’re using, strip them down to identify vulnerabilities, and build controls that can scale. We will be previewing a new product that does just this at re:Invent.

How can companies balance developers’ need for speed and agility with IT’s need for security, visibility, and control?

Everyone talks about balancing speed and security, but it should never be an “or”; it should always be an “and”. Companies need to give their development teams the flexibility to choose tools that allow them to build fast while staying secure. This allows them to take full advantage of the agility the cloud enables.

Visit us at AWS re:Invent 2018, November 26-November 30, Booth #2029, Venetian Sands Expo

Register here