Tell Me Why cyber resilience is the need of the hour
Companies need to rethink cybersecurity in the cloud and AI era, says Banyan Cloud CEO
After two decades at Apple, where security was engineered into products instead of being bolted on later, Nagesh Konduru saw a costly weakness across the wider industry: companies were investing heavily in cybersecurity without protecting their critical data or ensuring a quick recovery in case of a breach.
That gap prompted Konduru to establish Banyan Cloud, a cybersecurity platform built around a data-first approach. Speaking to host Lachlan Kitchen on Gulf News’ Tell Me Why podcast, the company’s founder and CEO said businesses adopting cloud computing and AI must prepare for attacks by strengthening their ability to detect breaches, protect critical data and restore systems rapidly.
“The reality is, no matter what, you’ll be hacked,” Konduru said. “So, the question is, are you resilient? Resilience means, if something goes wrong, how fast can you detect it and how fast can you recover.”
For decades, Konduru said, the cybersecurity industry concentrated largely on protecting the network perimeter while assuming the data inside it was secure. Cloud adoption has changed that equation. A single excessive permission can potentially expose resources across an organisation, while one configuration error can make a global database accessible externally.
Konduru advocates starting security with the data and working outwards. “Data is the only constant; all the rest is fluid,” he said. “In the cloud, you have a server today and tomorrow you don’t. Everything is dynamic.”
AI is adding another layer of complexity. It can help defenders identify threats, but it also allows attackers to discover vulnerabilities far more quickly. Businesses are additionally giving AI agents access to enterprise systems, sometimes without clearly defined restrictions.
He also highlighted the Middle East’s relative advantage. Many regional organisations moved directly to cloud and newer technologies without accumulating decades of legacy infrastructure. The region’s compliance-led approach, supported by cybersecurity and data-protection regulations, has also encouraged businesses to consider security earlier.
Ultimately, Konduru argued that innovation and security can exist side by side. Complicated processes, rather than security controls themselves, often cause delays.
