Guest: Alex Gounares (LinkedIn, Twitter)
Company: Polyverse Corporation (Twitter)
Show: 2022 Prediction Series

Alex Gounares, CEO of Polyverse Corporation, made two big predictions on our show last year: one was that there would be industry consolidation in the cybersecurity field and the second was that zero trust would go from zero trust networking to zero trust everywhere, zero trust to everything. Interestingly, both his predictions actually came true. For 2022, Gounares has two big predictions again. “The first is that the industry consolidation will continue to happen. It might be a slightly slower pace than it was in 2021, but there’s still a lot of need out there, a lot of fabulous companies that are building some very innovative products,” he says.

Gounares also believes that Blockchain is going to be the very fundamental technology for cybersecurity technologies as well as cybersecurity products in 2022. Check out the above video for more details.

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Swapnil Bhartiya: Hi, this is your host Swapnil Bhartiya and welcome to our series on prediction videos for 2022. Once again we have with us Alex Gounares, co-founder and CEO of Polyverse. Alex it’s great to have you on the show again.

Alexander Gounares: Great to be back Swapnil.

Swapnil Bhartiya: Yeah, we had you on the show last year. I do want to check how many of your predictions turn out to be true. Before we go there, please tell us quickly, what is Polyverse all about today?

Alexander Gounares: Polyverse, we’re a cybersecurity company focused on providing a hardened version of Linux. In particular, we focus on protecting systems against memory attacks, script injection attacks, and so forth. One of our key value props is that our protection works, even if you don’t have a patch system. Whether you’re in the cloud or on a device, if it’s difficult to patch, if you use our technology, we can provide a strong level of protection for you.

Swapnil Bhartiya: Excellent. Now, if I would ask you to please grab your crystal ball and tell us what predictions do you have for 2022?

Alexander Gounares: Well, maybe I would start with how my predictions panned out last year. Last year I had two big predictions. One was that there would be industry consolidation in the cybersecurity field. And the second was that zero trust would go from zero trust networking to zero trust everywhere, zero trust to everything.

I’m glad to say both predictions came true. If you look at the cybersecurity industry in terms of acquisitions, there was a 60.6% increase in cybersecurity acquisitions, M&A activities so far this year. That’s just so far, according to 451 Research. That’s compared to an industry backdrop of about 11.1% increase in M&A across the entire tech sector. It’s very definitely cyber security was the hot space for mergers and acquisitions.

On my second prediction of zero trust everywhere. That one is a little bit difficult to measure, because how do you measure how much people are talking about it, but maybe the simplest proof point is in the spring of last year, President Biden issued a cybersecurity directive. One of the key tenets of that cybersecurity directive was to implement zero trust everywhere. If it makes it to the President’s desk, I’m going to count that one as a win because that pretty much means it’s in mainstream consciousness at that point.

Swapnil Bhartiya: Thanks for sharing those, and you of course know, we had a great discussion last year. Now I want to also hear your thoughts on the predictions that you have for the next year.

Alexander Gounares: Thanks Swapnil. For 2022, I have two big predictions again. The first is that the industry consolidation will continue to happen. It might be a slightly slower pace than it was in 2021, but there’s still a lot of need out there, a lot of fabulous companies that are building some very innovative products. One of the things that we consistently see, at least from the customers we work with, is this idea of customers want a one stop shop. They want to just have their problem solved. I think we’re going to see a lot of the bigger players continuing to acquire and absorb a lot of these sort of innovative point solutions to provide a more kind comprehensive end to end offering. That’s my first prediction. The wave of consolidation will continue into 2022.

My second prediction, I’m not as confident in, but I think it’s going to happen. It’s basically using Blockchain as a fundamental technology for cyber security technologies and cybersecurity products. Blockchain in the form of Bitcoin and Dogecoin and all the various Altcoins out there, obviously was quite the rage this year, if you look at how much the value of Bitcoin has gone up and so forth. It’s definitely hit the national consciousness for sure.

But the technologies behind Bitcoin, specifically Blockchain, are quite compelling. For about a decade now people have been saying, “Oh, there’s lots we can do with it. Lots we can do with it.” One of the things that I’ve seen as I’ve worked with various technology companies and technology companies in the cybersecurity space this past year, there’s been a number of companies that have figured out how to apply Blockchain technology, that sort of technology behind Bitcoin to really do some innovative things in cybersecurity.

My prediction for 2022 is that we’re going to see some mainstream products introduced and hopefully get some traction that use Blockchain behind the scenes. Now whether or not they market it as a Blockchain product, I don’t know, but behind the scenes, I think Blockchain’s going to be the very fundamental technology for cybersecurity in 2022. Between consolidation and Blockchain, those are my two predictions for 2022.

Swapnil Bhartiya: What is going to be the focus area for Polyverse, not only in 2022, but going forward because things have changed. We talk a lot about supply chain. That is becoming a very important topic for today’s discussion, but I want to know from you, what is Polyverse now and what is going to be the focus?

Alexander Gounares: We continue to focus on our customers which are primarily in the critical industries. Government, banking, telecom, finance, legal, and so forth. That whole value prop of protecting systems, even if they aren’t patched, the whole value prop of providing this end to end software supply chain integrity, where we can vouch for the entire history of every last piece of software on your system. We can tell you where the source code was, the source code to the compiler, everything from the boot loader up to the kernel, up to your application. That sort of end to end supply chain, auditability and verification is incredibly important. Those continue to be our areas of focus. We are working on some new products, not surprisingly, and I’m not ready to make an announcement just yet, but Swapnil you will be one of the first to know when we’re ready to announce.

Swapnil Bhartiya: Excellent. Alex, once again, thank you for taking time out today, and not only sharing the predictions for this year, also crosscheck the prediction that you made and how far we’ve come. Thanks for not only sharing the pulse you have on the industry and the market, but also sharing the focus that is going to be for the company in 2022 and going forward. As a result, I would love to have you back on the show. As you mentioned, a lot of exciting news coming out of Polyverse, so of course we’ll be bringing it out to as well. But thanks for your time today.

Alexander Gounares: Thank you very much Swapnil. Thank you everybody for listening.

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