Today, most CISOs in the enterprise space have decades of experience. They’ve led teams covering everything from threat intelligence to security/privacy by design initiatives, navigated tricky transitions like the one from on-prem to the cloud, and become prominent business leaders in their companies.

Here’s the reality though: even the most seasoned CISO needs help with what’s next. No matter how much experience you have, every day, you’re being asked to define best practices in areas that are still being shaped – from AI, to cloud, to digital. With only so many hours in the day, how do you ensure that you’re addressing today’s business needs and keeping an eye on the future?

In my new role as a CISO Advisor within Cisco, I spend a lot of time helping CISOs strike that balance. Like other security leaders, I’m attending numerous security conferences (mostly virtual nowadays), reading the latest analyst reports, and keeping my ears open for new technology with relevant use cases. Recently however, I started partnering with a new team who has changed the way I’ve thought about the security ecosystem: the Cisco Investments team.

For those of you who aren’t familiar (like I was until a few months ago), Cisco Investments is Cisco’s venture capital arm. They are a team dedicated to identifying and building relationships with top startups – determining opportunities to invest, acquire, or partner. They eat, sleep, and breathe the security venture capital world, and they work with startups and Cisco’s own engineering teams to collaborate on new capabilities that complement Cisco’s existing product offerings.

So, what does this mean for you as a CISO?

Don’t Have Your Own Dedicated Innovation Team? Let Cisco Investments Be Your Extended Team

It’s no secret that working with startups comes with unique benefits – particularly agility and forward-thinking solutions. However, according to our CISO Survival Guide to the Startup Ecosystem while nearly all (99%) security leaders say their organizations are open to working with a security startup, most (56%) survey participants don’t have a formal assessment process for looking at the latest and newest tech in the sector.

That’s the beauty of a team like Cisco Investments. If you don’t have a formal assessment process or a dedicated innovation team, they can fill that need, identifying enterprise-grade, best of breed companies that are Cisco-vetted and trusted.

Join us on February 23rd 

To bring these insights to you – CISOs and security leaders – our CISO Advisor team is partnering with Cisco Investments to host EXPLORE Security 2022 on February 23^rd. Not only will you have the chance to hear from Cisco’s investment and acquisition team about our strategy and perspective on the security startup world, but also hear from other security venture capital experts at YL Ventures and Forgepoint Capital.

Then after the main event, we’re also offering select customers the chance to meet these startups first-hand in VIP Experiences. Whether you’re interested in learning more about cloud data security, cloud network security, risk and compliance, or something else, we can personalize an experience, introducing you to the founders and visionaries who we partner with every day.

We’d love to hear what you think. Ask a question, comment below, and stay connected with Cisco Secure on social!

We’d love to hear what you think. Ask a Question, Comment Below, and Stay Connected with Cisco Secure on social!

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