Ramesh Nuti & Kevin Sanyasi Naidoo | DigiCert Trust Summit 2023

This is Textron tv. Hey, everyone. We're back here live in Las Vegas for the DigiCert Trust Conference.

We've been here all day, and you know, we've heard, we've heard from a lot of DigiCert executives, we've heard from some CSOs and, and, you know, distinguished people in the post quantum world and ai, generative AI and, and, and everything else. I I want to bring you a different kind of view today. Now, uh, I want to introduce you to Ramesh nti.

Yes. Yes. And Kevin Nado.

Correct. Okay. We're doing well.

Ramesh and Kevin are the co-founders of a company called Acme Tech. And Acme Tech is one of DigiCert's Gold Partners best partners. Platinum Elite Partners.

Platinum Elite partner. Okay. Um, and we haven't heard from any of the DigiCert partners there.

You're the first one, so, okay. Thank you for coming on. You're welcome.

Um, I should mention, this is Ramesh on my far right. This is Kevin here on my near right. So, guys, let, let's start off with a little bit about Kevin and, and Ramesh, what, how did you come to start Acme Tech and, and give us kind of, you know, a little bit of the Acme Tech story if you don't, as well as your own personal story.

Sure, sure. Um, well, thanks for having us here, first of all, and, uh, we're thrilled to be here at, uh, Digis Trust Summit. Mm-Hmm.

Uh, and we're thrilled to be our goal sponsors for this one, and which really brings together a lot of, um, um, CEOs, trust leaders into one, one beautiful room and talks about out of, uh, security. So we are really thrilled to be here, first of all. Um, yeah, so how the Jon began in 2010, Kevin, my co-founder here, uh, he, he is in the industry for a long time before me.

Uh, so he had an idea about, you know, um, how the SSL is, you know, really getting involved and, uh, and I was an entrepreneur, uh, myself and running different things before. Uh, so when he had an idea, so we discussed and we said, okay, let's put things together to as anme tech and really solve some problems. And one of the problems, what we early on realized was SSL has evolved, but the, the larger resellers like CW Dell, they were falling behind in terms of catching up with and, uh, how to really serve their customers.

So we put together an industry, uh, blueprint kind of model, uh, enablement model that really, um, enables and empowers these, uh, larger resellers, uh, from pre-sales to order management to post-sales, uh, in kind of really, uh, providing the solutions in a easy and a, and a quick manner to their, to the cus to the customers. Um, that journey, uh, really now evolved into, uh, we started from SSL, now, PKI, uh, I-O-T-I-A-M, uh, you know, CIAM, which is customer right, in Texas Management. So we are the value add distributors, uh, and, uh, very dedicated managed services providers and a trust advisor, uh, in the industry.

I love it. What a great story. Yeah.

So let me just make sure I get this right. So you guys are a distributor in the three tier system where you have DigiCert sort of as the manufacturer, if you will, the Sure. Just, you know, digital and then you distribute it to many of the resellers like A-C-D-W-A, Dell, you know, large, large AW Resellers, Resellers like that.

Some of them, I guess I consider themselves VARs. Correct. And, um, and you are that value added distributor.

So this is a model I understand, right? This goes back to when I first got involved Sure. In technology in the late, mid, mid nineties, maybe by the late nineties was internet already, and I was full into that.

But, um, that's it. I I didn't realize it was that evolved an ecosystem here. And so part, I guess your value add to the channel partners is you are giving them a, an organized way of managing their digital certificate sales, whether it be PKI or, or, you know, web websites or, or what have you.

Interesting. Yeah. I, I would go on to say, uh, you know, the word distribution, uh, you know, you know, you get distribution models and companies that have to, from an admin perspective, paper push.

I think it's different. In our case, it's, uh, as much as we distribute the product, we subject matter experts and consultants in that specific field of everything that subject to PKI as a technology as well as extended now into, you know, identity access management. So that, that's the value add here, huge Value add.

Because what, what we found is, um, what, what we found is that these large distributors of technology, uh, don't have, uh, they, they, they don't have the expertise to understand public key infrastructure is that particular technology that has a very, very unique niche. You've gotta have the know-hows comes with tons of experience. And, and interestingly, it's, it's, it, the importance of the evolution of public key as an infrastructure is basically the, the nucleus of Powering Digital Trust today.

If you look at certificate based authentication, so if you look at the channel concept and you look at industries being able to reach out to be able to, you know, have products and products distributed into the industry, these channels hold very critical relationships across all multi, you know, multiple business verticals that, you know, the vendors with their direct teams cannot reach out to. So what we've done is we've taken, we've grown the business into subject matter experts into becoming in, in, into that particular company that would support, like Ramesh mentioned, CDW from A to Z, ensure that, um, we, we would support the entire sales process support backend. It also involves integration at the highest level.

So we have the expertise behind the scenes and we are an extension of the vendor. Got it. And that way, the vendor is able to leverage these channels through API tech and, and solely depend on us to basically push their product.

So are you delivering services to end users for your channel partners? That's a good question. Um, yes, we, we deliver to end users, but through the, uh, through the channels, uh, which is three w So let, let me, let me play out a scenario, right?

I called Dell, you know, I'm said I have a little data center, a little data closet. I called Dell. Hey, I, I, you know, I'm setting up some service here.

I need some, uh, you know, I need some certificates set up. I have a question though, because I also have this site that's being, uh, you know, it's a distributed site. I have it at on Amazon as well.

AWSI wanna make sure my certificates talk to each other, right? This is a little tricky. We don't have that expertise either.

Does CDW right? Sure. Fred.

And so they say, okay, let us get our SMEs Acme Tech on the call. Correct, Yeah. And then you actually get on the call with me and say, Hey, let, yeah, So we, we jump on the call with the, um, the CDW con manager, uh, who, who got the call from the customer, uh, asking for a solution on SSL side or APKI, it could be anything.

Uh, and, uh, we then, uh, you know, scope the entire, uh, you know, the, the problem set that customer has along with the account manager at the CW or Dell, and ensure that, you know, we put a solution to the customer in 10 to 15 minutes, uh, depending on the, you know, complexity of the solution, it could go a little longer. Um, and then, uh, we, if needed for APKS solution, we put demos, uh, we make sure the customer gets, uh, all their questions answered, uh, and give them a solution. So you are the SMEs Channel?

Absolutely, yeah. And we also do the post implementation side of it, And then it's no hidden that it's Acme Tech. So when CDW gets on the call, if, if you take CDW for example, they would leverage a company like Focal Point for all of, you know, their, uh, identity access management, uh, as subject matter experts.

And Acme Tech is that company that would provide the exact same servers in the space of P-K-I-P-K-I and also identity access as well. Uh, we have a team that will support the entire process and that eliminates, um, a lot of work for DigiCert because now it's a true partner, right? That basically takes on the opportunity from the beginning, closes it, and as an extension of the channel program, but then you, that subject matter expert.

So I get it. That's exactly what we do. I love It.

Yeah. Alright, so, and, and before we go any further for people want to get more information about Acme Tech, what's the website? com ac How do, how do you spell it?

com. Dot com, okay. Now look, we've heard from so many experts today, we are at the cusp of some, you know, real technology change, right?

The, the, the basic RSA algorithms, PKI technology. I, I'm in technology 30 plus years. It, it hasn't really changed, right?

Right. I remember when the Netscape browser first got SSL right? Secure socket layer, the underlying technology is basically the same.

Maybe we went from 1 28 to 2 56 bid encryption, right? But now we start talking about things like post quantum Sure. We start talking about things like generative ai, right?

Game changing. Yes. Yep.

How does ACME Tech stay on top of this? Well, um, I, I'm gonna provide an analogy to you. I, you know, if you look at my signature, uh, my signature states that, um, we sell the problem you solve, not the solution.

Because if you take the solution and offer that to the customer, it's all about the customer experience in this case and in and in this industry where exactly, you talk about the evolution of the worldwide web, and you can't keep up with the pace of the worldwide web. And remember, there's a direct proportion as the worldwide web evolves with cybercrime always staying above it, it creates all these pain points for customers to be able to adjust accordingly. It comes about, you know, it, it boils down to industry standards, NIST requirements, browser requirements, these are all rules and regulations that really pressurizes the certificate authority industry.

And it, it, and, and then these changes sometimes are not effectively communicated to end customers. And then they, you know, the ripple effect is that the lack of communication in the industry, um, you know, raises an alert in the industry. All of a sudden, if a customer has a CER that expires, because, you know, you didn't really know about automation, now realizes it needs automation.

So we, you know, to, to answer your question, these pain points have a direct proportion in terms of how it evolves as the worldwide web evolves. So you, you talk about next generation ai, you talk about IOT Smart Cities, I had an individual the other day say, you know, mention he was so excited, you know, having breakfast, uh, hey, you know, my wife is excited. She, there's a toaster that she could turn on using her phone, right?

And I just said to him, imagine if somebody hacks your phone and decides to turn on that toaster. And he paused. I didn't realize that.

I just focused on the technology. I never realized that somebody could basically hack my phone. So this is the reality of where, uh, you know, the reality of the space and, and, and acne tech is doing a fantastic job because we know that the solution is there.

But how we step up as a partner is that we address the pain points of the customer, which basically deals with everything that has evolved in the industry. And we resolve that to make sure that there's a thorough customer experience in leveraging these PKI solutions. Just to, yeah, very well said this.

So add to that, you, it's like, if you look at, uh, the changes in industry from internet in nineties, uh, internet was the major thing that happened. Everyone got onto the e-commerce. Everyone's building e-commerce websites.

And every 10 years you have these changes. In 20, um, 2009, 2010, we have, uh, smartphones come in and everyone's building applications, mobile, everyone's applications. And in 2014, 15, we got a blockchain Bitcoin that was, it was in 2009, but at 1415, it actually really everyone blockchain and Bitcoin, right?

So, and now it's, it's ai, generative ai. It's really shifts the momentum to a next level. Um, a couple that with post quantum.

So that's coming in next five, 10 years. Um, and the prediction is by 2031, uh, the, the algorithm can be broken by the, by the PQC. So now all of these things coming together at a rapid pace, uh, customers are really not ready, uh, yet.

Uh, they should have been ready three, four years ago. And so we are as ACTech, as, as distributors and MSPs, uh, what we try to do is we try to educate the customers really, really quick and fast and say, guys, um, the time is up. It's not like you can't wait for too long.

It's already now. So it's start preparing yourself. So we at Acme Tech really do that on a daily basis.

We, uh, empower these channels to educate the customers to say, this is important for you guys to look out for, and the solution by the Digit cert and what we are the lead partners for them. So their TLM solution really takes care of a lot of use cases that customers are really facing today, um, with their five amazing managers. They built, uh, right from the, the trust lifecycle manager to, um, you know, code sign, you know, code signing managers, uh, document signing managers, DNS Trust, even iot with the matter thing.

They, we have the solutions for the customers. The first step is to educate them and make sure that they're ready, and it's now not tomorrow that we should be prepared for. So that's what we do as, as, as a distributors, You know, I, I had this conversation with, um, Jason Saban, who's the CTO at DigiCert, right?

As an end user customer, especially in today's economic climate and everything, I, I don't have the luxury of preparing too early, right? I can't afford to put money into something that may come in five years, correct. 10 years, who knows.

But I want my solutions provider to be preparing for that because the day, you know, the stuff hits the fan, and I gotta know, I need you ready to help me. Absolutely. And, and I think that, you know, that's the nature of customers today.

Customers expect more, maybe it's from C-O-V-I-D and, and the whole digital transformation thing or whatever, but we want more. We expect more. We demand more.

And so while I may not put money or effort into it, I need you to Sure. And I think that's what they want to hear. I think that's probably part of the Acme Tech value problem.

Absolutely. Yeah. It's, it's, it's basically keeping up with that fast pace.

If you go back 18 to 20 years ago, and if you looked at a lot of engineers out there and, you know, and you spoke about an S SSL certificate, the perception then was that you only need an SSL certificate if you, uh, take a credit card, take money. And if you spoke to those companies at that point and said, Hey, you need Mr. SSL certificate just to authenticate your website.

No, I don't need it because I don't submit in, you know, any information. And that was one of the, you know, as a, you know, as a visionary, that was that, that, that was a changing point because, you know, you know, my vision was everything someday will become HT DPS when you and I spoke, right. Everything will become HT DPS.

If you look at, you know, just encrypting everything internal with everything external, it all has to be HT DPS traffic. And if you mention that to all, a lot of the top, um, you know, CIOs 15, 20 years back, they never would've bought that. Right?

Uh, and look at where we've headed now. Everything has to be HT DPS, you know, so, So let, let's be real. Why?

Because they got burned so many times and we had so many breaches with that, you know? Yes. That we didn't have a choice.

And, and that, that goes to my point that I was trying to make about customers. Not that they're lazy, but until there's sort of a gun to your head, they don't want to do it. But then when there's a gun to their head, they want you to help them right now, right now, with solutions right now.

And I think that that's part, you know, I spoke to, uh, o Neil Sinha, the CEO of Yeah. Of of, did you, sir? Sure.

That's part of their responsibility. It's part of your responsibility. It, It, it makes a big difference.

It it, and also you, something very critical is the evolution of infrastructure. Yeah. You know, unfortunately in this day and age, we still have a lot of, you know, key government institutions, large businesses that still have old infrastructure that don't actually sustain best security practices.

So it's never about the solution in this day and age. It's about saying, okay, if I wanna deploy APKI solution in the environment, unfortunately your infrastructure needs to be changed. So there's a lot of other external factors coming that, that comes around infrastructure to ensure that clients have to upgrade to be able to keep up with best practices.

So it's never just about the solution. Uh, you know, it it it's about basically ensuring that your business, entire operational infrastructure is built around best practices and updated and upgraded around best practices. Absolutely.

And, and that's a moving target. That's a moving target. That's always a challenging target because, you know, customers, like you said, um, they don't react until something happens, you know?

So we as, um, partners and, and our main responsibility is to obviously all the time to really, uh, ensure the customers have their information and, and their, they're staying out of the game. Uh, and, uh, and making sure this distributors and, and the partners that we work with, uh, we can call them wars. Uh, they are also on top of the thing.

So we have, uh, created systems like, um, we have a newsletter that goes out every Thursday, uh, for the, for the CDWs and Dells and other things to let them, we can gauge them. We wanna empower them with the latest and greatest in the industry. What's happening.

Uh, we have some amazing, uh, articles that are written, uh, as blogs and on our websites. Um, and we have a dedicated, um, uh, support desk we created in 2014, envisioning that, you know, these articles would be easier for our customers to really, uh, ensure that it becomes easier for them to implement the solutions on there. And so we do all these things on a regular basis to make sure that our content, our videos are our, our, our engagement with these partners and customers, really, you know, to keep them, you know, up to date.

And we, as subject matter experts, we know how to really put the solution. But as, as you said, it's very important that we hope the customers realize it greatly and come to us. And our job is to really, you know, educate them, uh, and keeping them in the, in the center of this.

And, uh, if need comes, we are always there to, to, to support them. That's always important. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Hey, we're about outta time. I want to remind people though, a Vtech, A-C-M-E-T-E-K, correct.

Right. Dot com. Dot com.

What a great story, man. Good stuff. Thank You so much, Ramesh.

Kevin, thanks for being on techstrong TV today. Thanks for participating here at Digit Search Trust and keep up the great work. 'cause I, I think things strapp in things are gonna get real exciting over the next couple of years here, months and years.

Can't agree more. Thanks for having us. Thank You.

What a pleasure. All right. We are live here in Vegas.

I think we have one more interview coming up, so stay tuned for that. But we'll take a short break.