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Cliff Young, CEO, ClearPath

1: There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about the imminent arrival of cloud services as a mainstream product. Are we there yet?

Yes – cloud services have actually been around for some time – the term "cloud" is simply the natural evolution of Software as a Service (SaaS). In both, the data center is leveraged to drive services and applications to many users in a very efficient, cost effective manner. ClearPath has been delivering cloud-based network security and infrastructure services since 2004 - we have been at the forefront of the evolution of cloud services. However, ClearPath’s unique and patented approach delivers the technological differentiation that drives value to the service provider’s bottom line. The key success driver for adoption of cloud services is to continually increase their level of pre-integration automation, ease of use and scalability. This is the focus of ClearPath’s patented approach to cloud services technologies and this is how ClearPath offers service providers the ability to differentiate their offerings in the marketplace.

2: How would you differentiate SaaS from cloud computing?

SaaS is only but one manifestation of cloud computing. SaaS is usually associated with one application or tool. Cloud computing is usually associated with entire suites of integrated tools and services, which are centrally managed from a portal that everyone in the value chain can utilize. In addition to delivering software-based features such as gateway security and connectivity, ClearPath’s value also extends to network infrastructure management. These cloud services manage and monitor physical and virtual devices. This is of particular importance to service providers where pre-integrated, low-touch, highly automated and low cost solutions are necessary to differentiate their products, retain customers and succeed in highly competitive markets.

3: Recent outages at Amazon have caused high profile companies to lose services. What would you say to customers who still don’t ‘trust’ the cloud?

The primary objective for any cloud service must be security – the fact that cloud services distribute the service delivery infrastructure across multiple geographies and communications networks requires that all the connections and interactions of that infrastructure must be highly secure, dependable and redundant. ClearPath’s Cloud Based Network & Security Platform leverages a network of highly secure data centers with 256-bit AES encrypted data and multiple system redundancies to ensure the security and integrity of its platform. Service providers recognize and appreciate that this is one of the key aspects of ClearPath’s differentiation; it is in-line with their priorities.

4: Your services are delivered over the internet, often to mobile devices. The increased bandwidth and reduced latency of new, faster, networks offers higher levels of application performance. Does this present new opportunities?

It does. That said, high bandwidth availability is still not something that’s universally found in all locations worldwide, particularly in rural locations and on mobile networks. One of the key success factors is the efficiency of the solution and how it minimizes its dependence on network bandwidth. ClearPath’s approach is to provide a robust set of services that are delivered within the smallest possible footprint.

5: Tell us what differentiates your managed cloud services from the competition.

Four things: automation, pre-integration, ease of use, and scalability. We deliver an extremely efficient cloud service architecture and deliver exceptionally low price points for the service provider. These are the main elements of the ClearPath platform that differentiate us from the competition. – No other company has been able to achieve this level of efficiency and simplicity in its service delivery model. More importantly, ClearPath is the only company that is providing this end-to-end technology. We allow service providers to efficiently and profitably deliver value added services to their customer base.

6: Security is a huge issue for all companies and Sony is a large corporation that has had a high profile issues. Is there a culture problem in how businesses approach security issues?

Not exactly – while there is certainly more data exposed as a result of companies doing more business over the Internet, one must realize that in a world that is becoming increasingly more interconnected. Workers, customers, and their business partners are no longer limited to connecting and interacting with each other while sitting behind a desk – mobile devices, telecommuting and social networking has accelerated this trend.

7: Do smaller companies need to take a different approach to security to larger companies?

Yes. While smaller companies have the same challenges and requirements as larger companies to connect their locations, secure those connections and have full visibility and management capabilities into those connections, smaller companies are almost universally constrained by the cost and complexity of implementation Very often they need these services the most, but can afford them the least. using the traditional methods of securing and managing network infrastructure is simply too expensive. Cloud services such as those enabled by ClearPath are specifically designed and priced for this small business market segment, as well as distributed enterprises where there are many locations with relatively few users at each location with minimal or non-existent IT support. ClearPath provides the technological paradigm shift to permit these services to be delivered efficiently and profitably by network service providers. Furthermore, the approach adopted by ClearPath takes these benefits to the next level by pre-integrating and automating the ordering, provisioning, use and maintenance of the service to make the platform easy to use for the non-technical end user while providing the service provider with highly differentiated value.

8: What’s the most popular service or solution you offer and why is that?

The most popular service that we provide is VPN and gateway security, which are “must haves” for any business. However, the real value in our technologies, services and features is the unified and highly simplified manner in which these services are deployed. Any non-technical user can immediately get maximum value from our platform without training, technical background, or domain knowledge. Furthermore, these features also inure to the benefit of the service providers who purchase our platform to offer their customers and partner a truly differentiated data access product.

9: You offer many products and solutions. How and why would you encourage companies to come to you as a one-stop shop rather than choosing solutions from the market a la carte?

Usually, putting together all these components requires many hard costs for hardware, software, licensing and integration, as well as soft costs related to lost productivity, defocusing from core business objectives and technological obsolescence. There is simply no way to cost effectively build such a system from scratch without overcoming tremendous financial and technological obstacles. Then there are the significant on-going costs to maintain a solution. ClearPath has dedicated many years and tens of thousands of man-hours to develop, refine and simplify the use and management of its platform. Service providers can leverage the benefit of all this effort without incurring the costs and risks of building these systems from scratch.

10: What are the major challenges you feel you will face over the next 12-18 months?

Our biggest challenge is getting our technology in front of enough service providers to effectively change the way all businesses use the Internet to connect, secure and manage themselves. This change is inexorable and ClearPath is at its forefront. The major challenge as we see is how quickly we can help more service providers worldwide take advantage of the change we know is happening in the business world.