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Why I joined Symmetry Systems

Claude Mandy headshot

I’m ecstatic to have joined the amazing team at Symmetry Systems and thought I’d share my thoughts on why I leaped at the opportunity to join this exceptional team after a very rewarding three years at Gartner. There were a lot of factors and analysis that went into the decision, but three factors stand out in my deliberation:

Solving a challenging problem

I love challenges and taking on hard problems. As a former CISO, I have countless scars from my attempts to help my organization secure our data (including most importantly our customer’s data) at scale; while enabling the organization to use data to maximize its value. The complexity of millions of data objects across thousands of data stores, multiplied by a seemingly infinite combination of roles, permissions for thousands of user and machine identities was pretty challenging even when you have a “perimeter” wrapped around the corporate environment. 

symmetry data permissions graph

The adoption of the cloud and explosion of modern privacy legislation has made this problem both harder and more critical to solve at scale. 

Fast forward through my time as an industry analyst at Gartner, and the thousands of discussions with CISO’s trying to figure out their current maturity and plan effective strategies to reduce risk, it was apparent to me that of the four most common CISO priorities, data security remains the biggest challenge for CISO’s, while data privacy remains one of the biggest organizational priorities.  This intersection between data security and data privacy at scale is where Symmetry focuses and is a problem I’m excited about tackling.

Technology based on years of research and industry feedback

I’ve followed Symmetry Systems since first hearing about them from some of my CISO peers almost 4 years ago and when they were pre-seed. The thing that stood out back then is that the technology underpinning Symmetry Systems is based on years of award-winning university research into data store and object security. The research was funded by DARPA and National Science Foundation and collaborated with teams at General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Intel, ARM, Google, and others. This pedigree is unmatched in this fledgling market as investment floods into the Data Security Posture Management on the back of the recent announcement of Symmetry Systems as a 2022 Gartner “Cool Vendor”.

A team focused on creating a long term legacy together 

The most important consideration for me in joining a new team is always the team and culture. A company that puts its people first and foremost is setting itself up for success. I want to work with a CEO and management team that understands that the culture of the organization is driven by the people, not by a documented set of values.

When I first met Mohit, Casen and others on the team here at Symmetry, it was the sense of teamwork that jumped out to me first. This is a team that has each other’s back – they trust each other implicitly and care about each other and the long term success of what they are building together.  

This is a team that is going to leave a legacy of changing how data security is done. And YES! We have openings….