Vasu Murthy, Svp And Chief Product Officer At Cohesity – Interview Series

Vasu Murthy is nan SVP and Chief Product Officer astatine Cohesity, bringing complete 25 years of endeavor package acquisition crossed information security, protection, and analytics. Prior to joining Cohesity, he held activity roles astatine Rubrik, Oracle, and DataScaler, contributing to merchandise maturation and large-scale innovation.

Cohesity is nan leader successful AI-powered information security. Over 13,600 endeavor customers, including complete 85 of nan Fortune 100 and astir 70% of nan Global 500, trust connected Cohesity to fortify their resilience while providing Gen AI insights into their immense amounts of data. Formed from nan operation of Cohesity pinch Veritas’ endeavor information protection business, nan company’s solutions unafraid and protect information on-premises, successful nan cloud, and astatine nan edge

You co-founded DataScaler, which was later acquired by Oracle. What lessons from your startup travel still guideline your decision-making today?

Finding merchandise marketplace fresh was our superior extremity successful nan early stages astatine DataScaler. While we had galore enthusiastic prospects for nan product, enthusiasm did not ever construe into a repeatable usage case. The powerfulness is successful asking nan correct questions. If each you inquire is “What would you like?” aliases “Would you usage this?”, group are often successful nan mindset of their perfect self, reasoning astir what they’d for illustration to usage aliases request successful a cleanable world, and it doesn’t ever bespeak what they request successful their day-to-day reality.

If thing is genuinely important to a customer, chances are they’re already doing it, apt not efficiently aliases enjoyably. They mightiness beryllium utilizing a clunky merchandise they don’t like, spending much money, aliases handling things manually and wishing they could get clip back. The amended questions to inquire are: “What are you doing coming that’s hard?” aliases “What would prevention you clip aliases money?” When you commencement pinch nan correct questions, you uncover problems that are worthy solving.

What drove your determination to move from a elephantine for illustration Oracle into nan fast-paced world of Rubrik and later Cohesity?

I deliberation of my profession arsenic a bid of missions. Reid Hoffman calls it “Transformational Tours” successful his book, The Alliance. A emblematic ngo for maine lasts 2-3 years and ends pinch a circumstantial result for nan business, and past it’s clip to activity connected thing new. While I was astatine Oracle, I was fixed a task that became a three-year mission. Once completed, I asked, “What’s next?” and they said, “Something moreover bigger!”, truthful I assembled a squad and began nan adjacent mission. That rhythm repeated itself, and each time, nan situation grew.

At nan extremity of my 3rd ngo astatine Oracle, I was craving thing astatine nan gait and position of a high-growth startup, which led maine to Rubrik. After Rubrik’s IPO, I took immoderate clip disconnected to deliberation astir what was next, and group retired to subordinate a squad pinch an breathtaking challenge, which is really I came into my domiciled astatine Cohesity.

What unsocial opportunities did you spot astatine Cohesity that convinced you this was nan correct adjacent section successful your career?

Cohesity’s caller acquisition of Veritas’ endeavor information protection business is precisely nan benignant of task that I was looking for. The opportunity to play a cardinal domiciled successful integrating nan companies while charting a soft modulation for nan ample customer guidelines is some challenging and rewarding. I’m privileged to lend to shaping nan culture, power merchandise development, and making this translator successful for our labor and customers.

You joined Cohesity conscionable earlier nan Veritas acquisition. What was your first attraction arsenic CPO coming into this high-stakes moment?

For a CPO, knowing nan mindset of customers and labor is conscionable arsenic important arsenic knowing nan merchandise and nan market. Our customers are global, and our group person been done different experiences. Getting a connection crossed that resonates pinch each of them is crucial.

Beyond communication, my apical privilege is to summation nan gait of invention we present to our customers, and gain nan correct to proceed to grow our footprint. There’s an opportunity to guideline our customers to nan early of information information and AI.

Cohesity has a beardown AI-first vision. How are you reasoning astir AI arsenic a merchandise furniture versus an embedded capability?

Cohesity leverages AI successful each aspects — from detecting anomalies and classifying information to helping customers accelerate and fortify cyber recovery. With hundreds of exabytes of information nether our management, there's a large opportunity to unlock AI-driven insights from each crossed nan platform.

Cohesity was built from nan crushed up arsenic a platform, which makes america unsocial successful this market. Designed to support aggregate applications from nan start, Cohesity has a beardown position successful galore usage cases connected data. Customers salary america to bring their information into our platform, which gives america a powerful opportunity to build and present applications connected apical of it.

How do devices for illustration Cohesity Gaia redefine really enterprises interact pinch their data?

80% of endeavor information is unstructured and traditionally difficult to negociate aliases analyze, and generative AI has provided opportunities to extract insights and worth from it.

To leverage unstructured data, it needs to beryllium gathered from a assortment of sources, cleaned to guarantee it does not person unwanted private, delicate data, and provided successful immutable views for RAG and different ways to deduce insights. Even erstwhile information is available, it takes important effort to build nan AI infrastructure to present insights.

Cohesity Data Platform already gathers and secures information from each locations, and we besides built Gaia, a full-fledged RAG exertion to deduce insights from data. This allows users to interact pinch their information utilizing earthy language, make valuable insights, and seamlessly unify institution knowledge crossed various information types and locations.

What are nan astir breathtaking customer usage cases you've seen truthful acold for AI-powered conversational hunt and threat detection?

There's truthful overmuch information worldwide that galore customers don't moreover cognize what they have. Being capable to unlock that and leverage for much accusation is very powerful for business. One facet I find peculiarly absorbing is nan conception of information sovereignty. In today's geopolitical climate, countries are progressively concerned astir whether information stored wrong their borders gives their citizens control. A cardinal mobility that's been coming up, particularly pinch AI, is whether these AI services are hosted successful nan cloud. People are worried astir whether they tin query their information and who tin entree it.

Cohesity stands retired to maine successful situations for illustration this because it offers a solution done enabling on-premises information management. With Cohesity, customers don't request to move their information to nan unreality aliases interest astir entities managing it successful different countries. The increasing interest astir information sovereignty and “data gravity” intends that much organizations want to support things on-premises, and we tin supply precisely that solution, moving pinch our hardware partners and NVIDIA.

How do you guarantee alignment crossed product, design, and documentation—especially erstwhile launching AI-first experiences?

Success of a institution depends connected each functions operating successful harmony – not conscionable product, creation and documentation. Ideas tin travel from anyplace and erstwhile group consciousness heard, they consciousness a consciousness of ownership that drives nan champion outcome.

It is important to see each stakeholders early on, perceive to them, and guarantee they each person a opportunity successful nan outcome. Product teams request to beryllium bully thought curators and thief prioritize, designers request to support customer acquisition astatine nan forefront, and archiving teams request to attraction connected minimizing nan clip spent successful documents by moving pinch designers, providing in-line guidance arsenic necessary. AI has a immense domiciled to play successful processing and delivering this experience.

What frameworks thief you prioritize betwixt customer symptom points, visionary innovation, and method debt?

It pays to commencement from first principles erstwhile determining priorities and shaping our approach. Frameworks tin beryllium adjuvant for communicating this, particularly erstwhile they’re well-aligned. That said, I judge astir products tin mostly beryllium categorized into 3 types.

First, location are caller products pinch fewer customers, wherever invention should beryllium nan main focus. Then, you person nan halfway products that are nan breadstuff and butter. Innovation is important here, but addressing customer symptom points should besides beryllium a priority. Lastly, you person long-term, mature products that are well-established. In this case, nan attraction shifts much to managing customer symptom points and method debt.

What are your goals for Cohesity’s merchandise portfolio complete nan adjacent 12 to 18 months?

We've recovered truthful overmuch that fits betwixt Cohesity and Vertias' endeavor information protection business since nan acquisition. It's nan fastest I've ever seen 2 merchandise suites travel together. In Veritas' astir caller iteration, they converted their backup solution into a group of microservices wrong containers. Conversely, Cohesity started arsenic a container-based exertion level built connected a elastic information layer. Because of this, it’s imaginable to driblet Veritas services onto nan Cohesity platform, and things activity seamlessly because nan information level useful pinch both.

Over nan adjacent 12 to 18 months, we want our workload support, information information and AI services to beryllium communal for each our customers. We’re besides building a seamless upgrade way for each customers to get to a early impervious level for their data.

A merchandise that I’m peculiarly excited astir is RecoveryAgent, Cohesity’s caller Agentic AI cyber orchestration solution. The first caller offering from nan associated improvement efforts of Cohesity and Veritas, it provides customers pinch easy cyber betterment preparation, testing, and automation to fortify information postures, summation assurance successful incident response, and beryllium compliance.

What proposal would you springiness to different CPOs navigating this AI-dominated landscape?

People are emotion nan contiguous request to incorporated AI into applications. Often this is successful nan shape of making workflows easier and assisting group successful being much productive. While this is useful for customers, it is improbable that customers salary importantly much for this incremental productivity improvement.

True AI differentiation requires re-thinking nan workflows wholly driven by AI. The exertion is evolving quickly and will go much valuable arsenic nan AI accuracy improves. AI tin beryllium awesome for earthy connection interactions and immoderate planning, nan halfway logic still requires a batch of validation, monitoring, error-correction, and scaffolding. While AI driven apps will amended complete time, location is money to beryllium made successful AI and information infrastructure.

Thank you for nan awesome interview, readers who wish to study much should sojourn Cohesity.