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Better Business Technology

Macquarie Telecom, Netskope expand partnership to unify network security and boost performance for Australian business in AI era

AUSTRALIA’s Macquarie Telecom and Nasdaq-listed Netskope are expanding their strategic partnership – which, so far, has shown the whole to be larger than the sum of its parts – to deliver a fully unified, single-vendor Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution to Australian organisations.

The partnership, which launched in 2025 with the integration of Netskope’s Security Service Edge (SSE) platform into Macquarie Telecom’s SASE offering, has been extended to now incorporate Netskope’s SD-WAN capabilities. The result is a complete SASE framework purpose-built for mid-market and enterprise organisations across Australia, delivered by a single vendor, and managed through Macquarie Telecom’s proven managed service expertise.

“Our partnership with Netskope has validated our conviction that Australian organisations want and deserve enterprise-grade, unified security without the complexity,” Macquarie Telecom group executive Marija Harris said. Marija Harris group executive at Macquarie Telecom

“We’re now able to offer our customers one platform, one portal, and the confidence that their security policies follow them wherever they work. With Netskope’s industry-leading security and networking capabilities combined with Macquarie Telecom’s own long-standing expertise in SD-WAN deployment, government-grade security, and highly regarded customer service, we are uniquely positioned to help Australian organisations keep operations simple and manageable as they strengthen their cyber defences to adopt cloud and AI.”

Combining the capabilities of Macquarie Telecom and Netskope, the solution delivers a comprehensive and adaptive security and networking architecture that protects networks, data, users, and cloud and AI usage, with all data processing, visibility, and security and networking policies accessible and managed through what they refer to as ‘a single pane of glass’.

Infrastructure to secure the future

With more than 120 full-compute data centres worldwide, including seven in Australia, the Netskope NewEdge infrastructure underpinning Macquarie Telecom’s SASE solution allows users to enjoy security services with optimised and consistent latency, regardless of their location and movements, preventing the performance and user experience trade-offs many organisations still face when deploying more security tools.

This consistent, location-agnostic protection is becoming increasingly critical as Australian businesses navigate complex regulatory requirements such as the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act (SOCI), or the Essential Eight framework.

This partnership also strives to meet the demands of Australian organisations seeking a balance between ambitious AI adoption and robust AI security guardrails. Netskope recently released a sustained stream of innovations designed to accelerate AI services, and secure the wide spectrum of risk emerging with AI adoption, including its Netskope Skylight AI Security suite, AI Fast Path, AI Command Centre, AgentSkope or Agent Action Control.

These guardrails, integrated in Macquarie Telecom’s SASE solution, allow organisations to define granular AI security policies and traffic paths, leverage AI to secure AI, and let their teams adopt and experiment with the technology with peace of mind.

The expansion of the partnership follows strong market momentum, as Australian organisations move to adopt cloud and AI without adding complexity. Macquarie Telecom is already engaged with dozens of organisations across a broad range of industry verticals such as professional services, healthcare, aged care, retail, consultancy, manufacturing, and logistics.

Getting AI-era runs on the board

Earlier this year, Gartner recognised Netskope for the third consecutive year as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) platforms, and for the fifth consecutive year as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Security Service Edge (SSE), consistently recognised both for its vision and its ability to execute.

“IT, I&O and security teams are navigating complex and often conflicting dynamics, such as the balance between aggressive AI adoption and security, that make IT management and decision-making difficult,” Netskope channel director for Asia-Pacific, Andrew Heywood said. Andrew Heywood Netskope

“Through this extended partnership we aim to help Australian organisations reconcile security and networking priorities, simplify their management, and keep associated tools robust and relevant in the future.

“Our positive results to date is a sign that our proposition is resonating with the market, and we look forward to helping more organisations navigate the security and network challenges of the AI era with the Macquarie Telecom team,” Mr Heywood said.

The expansion builds on a relationship growing in strength, which was recently recognised when Macquarie Technology Group was named Most Impactful Partner of the Year in July as well as APJ MSP of the Year in April by Netskope.

Mr Heywood said the awards also reflected the significant momentum the partnership has already built as the market shifts toward integrated, cloud-first security and networking solutions.

www.macquarietelecom.com

www.netscope.com

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How do businesses find ways to win with AI?

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

WHEN BUSINESSES and customers want to search for anything now, they go to artificial intelligence (AI), not Google search.

Since it started in Australia in 2022, ChatGPT for example has about 18% of search queries.

Which is taking a significant part of Google’s previous domination of the internet ‘search’ business. [Google Chrome today also leads with an AI search, utilising its Gemini family of AI products]. 

But how do businesses increase their visibility on AI? 

Chris Van Landenberg, the operations manager at Found Digital, said businesses needed to be aware of their position in terms of customers. 

He said AI works differently from the previously dominant Google search, which offers more generic answers.

People ask different questions of AI

AI, on the other hand, is more specific. People are asking different questions. It focuses on what the customer is looking for, what problems they face in business and how the business can fix it.

“People are going to AI saying can you recommend a local plumber? What is the best offer for a caravan in Australia?” Mr Van Landenberg told Talking Business.

“It works very differently to Google. AI is not going to present you with a list of options.

“It’s going to narrow down the available options to a select few or in some cases, a single recommendation.”

He said AI does this through a process and, as people proceed through that process, businesses will be filtered out based on whether they meet certain criteria.

“It’s not doing anything magical,” Mr Van Landenberg said.

“It’s taking the same thought process that a human would go through when deciding whether or not to engage with a business and applying that logic at scale.”

Strategies to increase AI visibility

Mr Van Landenberg said this requires businesses to utilise strategies to increase their AI visibility.

“In the past you could separate marketing from reality in the sense that you could really rank well on Google without necessarily being the best option,” he said. “That’s getting a lot harder now.”

“The better way to think about it is that AI is trying to recommend the best answer to a question.

“So you’re not trying to game the system, you’re just trying to be the best answer,” Mr Van Landenberg said.

“That’s where clarity, building trust and producing useful content come into it.

“It’s going to happen when your business is clearly positioned for a specific customer and problem and when that positioning is reinforced by third part validation,” Mr Van Landenberg said.

“So first and foremost, you need to clearly explain what you do because AI needs to understand your business in order to match you to the right request.

“It’s looking for businesses that clearly explain what they do, what products and services they offer, who’s their target audience, what problems do they solve.

“It’s looking for businesses that are consistent with that explanation across the web that use simple natural language, not corporate jargon or marketing fluff.”

Need to develop a business’s ‘trust’ credentials

Mr Van Landenberg said this means businesses need to increase their trust signals to boost their AI visibility.

“So you’d want reviews across multiple platforms, you’d want to be listed in directories, you’d want testimonials from satisfied customers, awards, media coverage,” he said.

“Anything that’s going to increase your credibility because AI is going to place a lot of weight on how your business is viewed by other across the web.

“And in fact, it’s going to trust what others say about you a lot more than what you say about yourself,” Mr Van Landenberg said.

“And also creating helpful content that answers your customers’ questions.” 

www.founddigital.com.au

www.leongettler.com

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness 

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-15-interview-with-chris-van-landenberg-from

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Karabin: Cyber security needs AI to ward off AI

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

ONE OF THE BIG PROBLEMS now is that cyber security is getting worse, and harder to manage.

John Karabin, cyber security strategist for McGrathNicol Canberra, and formerly in a similar leadership role for NTT Australia, said the bottom line was that businesses needed to invest more in cyber security.

How bad is it?

Mr Karabin said he would have thought, with all the publicity about cyber breaches, companies would be taking more precautions now against cyber attacks and breaches.

“Sadly, the statistics indicate that it is growing,” Mr Karabin told Talking Business. 

“I think if you look at the latest figures from the Australian Cyber Security Centre, they get a call once every seven minutes about a breach or some event.

“That started off, a year or two ago, at once every 12 minutes, so the number of issues is growing.”

Can AI make a positive difference?

Mr Karabin said the current version of generative artificial intelligence (AI) would be a game changer for the cyber security industry.

There is some good coming out of the sector already, with a lot of security vendors starting to include generative AI in their systems.

On the other hand, a lot of attackers are were increasingly using it to weaponize the technology, he said.

“Generative AI is now increasing the number of vulnerabilities around,” Mr Karabin said.

“Its ability to potentially write code and exploit those vulnerabilities is another tool in the kit bag of the adversary.

“And probably the big one we’re all worried about is fake news, the ability to write sophisticated emails to trick someone to click on a link or convince someone to pay a bill to the wrong account,” he said.

“It’s a revolution at the moment in the industry in that it has abilities that we are still uncovering. It’s opening the door up to less skilled hackers.”

Cyber must lead in AI to fight it

On the plus side, this is also ensuring that cyber security vendors must assemble teams skilled at using AI to deal with this problem

“From the defender side, it gives us a tool to start to deal with the very complicated digital world that we’re handling,” Mr Karabin said.

“If I look at my own team, I run a team in Australia of about 70 people and the skills sets in my team are exponentially increasing.

“So I can use AI to focus teams in certain areas, perhaps use it to train them as well. We’re running war gaming sessions to help our teams get prepared,” he said.

“We can now use some of that generative AI to really hone in on the perpetrator and the really tiny signals that they’re making.

“On the flip side, the hackers, the adversaries are also able to use it. They can now point (at) every single possible vulnerability.

“They can find new vulnerabilities we hadn’t previously thought of, so we have this real cat and mouse game at the moment.”

This means the skill sets of his teams are growing.

“We now have a lawyer in our business that is aware of the cyber security environment that we’re dealing with because we have legal implications,” Mr Karabin said.

“We have governance, risk and compliance people. We have automations specialists for how we can use the tools more effectively.”

www.mcgrathnicol.com 

www.leongettler.com

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-41-interview-with-john-karabin-from-ntt-aus

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ReadyTech globalizes Australia’s organisational software innovations

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

READYTECH, one of Australia’s first Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) listed software startups is expanding its business model. And it’s expanding globally.

Marc Washbourne, ReadyTech’s co-founder, said the company started more than 20 years ago with its software platform JobReady for employment providers to identify job seekers’ skills, and match those people for jobs.

It entered the education market with a student management system. ReadyTech also today provides software for the courts and for government, particularly councils.

It is also expanding globally, securing contracts in the UK and across Europe, for example, with its courts management software.

“With our software products, if you look through them, we look after TAFEs, colleges and universities, with our student management system, our government products, particularly for local government, as well as our justice products, which really helps courts and tribunals to manage all of the workflows that are required across the judiciary,” Mr Washbourne told Talking Business. 

“The portability is strongest in Commonwealth countries. Often what we find is that they have similar frameworks and setups for the way these types of organisations are run,” he said.

“So that’s why we’ve seen success so far in areas like Canada and the UK and that’s where we’re really focused on. The legs of growth are in those Commonwealth countries where the products transfer the best.”

Covering many niche markets

ReadyTech software platforms are very much based around niche markets.

“What the software does very well is it meets the customer needs very closely. These are vertically focused,” helps courts and tribunals to manage all of the workflows that are required across the judiciary,” Mr Washbourne said.

“The requirements can be very complex. The requirements of an education provider, a large TAFE or a university, or large courts, these are very specific requirements, across a whole range of record keeping, and compliance and workflows.

“The success of these products is that they are designed to meet those needs closely, and then customers can configure their own workflows.

“And by subscribing to our software-as-a-service  (SAAS) model, our customers are able to then effectively get updates and upgrades to keep those systems in line with any changes, or legislative changes or industry type changes. That helps customers become really long-term partners of ours.”

Bringing on the AI

Mr Washbourne said ReadyTech was now embracing artificial intelligence (AI).

He said AI was important because education providers and court systems everywhere worked off data.

“If you think about something like an education provider, they store an enormous amount of data about those students and the insights that can be gained – the elevation of student experience that can be delivered – through the use of these models and this data, these opportunities are very profound,” Mr Washbourne said.

“If you look at the ability of courts to look at patterns of resolutions and outcomes across court cases and what that might mean for consistency across the justice system is a huge opportunity.

“I think the phrase that’s often used is that data is the oil of the 21st century. We’re sitting on a lot of it. We have over 4000 customers and there’s millions of workers, and students and citizens across these platforms.” 

www.readytech.io

www.leongettler.com

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-30-interview-with-marc-washbourne-from-read

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Why can’t our systems manage cyber security properly?

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

HOW has the world changed since we had remote work? And how has this impacted cyber security? Why has there been such an increase in cybercrime?

According to Denis O’Shea, who created Mobile Mentor back in New Zealand in 2024, it’s because our systems aren’t built for today’s conditions.

“Most of the crime we see today happens on computers, on people’s laptops, primarily Windows devices, and that’s where a lot of the attacks are aimed,” Mr O’Shea told Talking Business. 

“And one of the reasons that’s happened, and hackers are being so successful, is that a lot of the security infrastructure and tools we put in place were designed in the last century, before we had the vocabulary we have today around cybercrime and ransomware.

“Back in the day, we had tech passwords.

“Passwords were an amazing invention back in 1961 but now they are the single biggest reason for hacks because people’s credentials get leaked or people reuse those same credentials on different websites, and then they get stolen and sold on the dark web.”

Corporate domains are not cyber safe

Mr O’Shea, who is also Mobile Mentor’s chairman, said the other problem was people and companies having a concept of a corporate domain “and thinking everyone inside the domain is safe and everyone outside is bad”.

“Well that doesn’t work anymore because we are all taking our devices home, and we’re working on the train and plane,” he said.

“So we have security constructs and ideas from the last century that a lot of companies are still reliant upon and they’re just not fit for purpose in a day and age when we’re getting hundreds of spam emails and phishing attempts every day.”

Mr O’Shea said Mobile Mentor had addressed the issue of cybercrime by “making security invisible”.

“We know we need more security but what we need to try and do is not make it in your face,” he said.

“What we’re trying to do is use the modern tools we’ve got to enable people to go password-less and embrace things like single sign on and biometrics on our devices.

“So we’re using our faces, our fingerprints or our voice.

“There’s a whole bunch of other things we can do to put additional security on devices that enable people to be more secure than they ever were before.

“But we’re hiding it, we’re making it invisible so it’s not in the user’s face.

“But if someone is trying to breach that device, it’s a really good defence.”

Multiple-layer defences are there to use

Mr O’Shea said this more successful approach to defence was being done with layers of Microsoft technologies that most companies already haven’t yet gotten around to using.

Mr O’Shea also envisaged a time when companies would become password-less. He said most people already have devices in their pockets, their iPhones, that can read their face. This system can also be used on personal computers.

“The technology is there, we just need to be very deliberate in saying ‘this is the technology we are going to use’ so that we can move our employees away from relying on passwords,” he said.

Mr O’Shea said passwords were very easy to hack because “human beings are lazy”.

“We know from research that 6% of people use their pets’ names, and their date of birth,” he said.

“We know a huge portion of people use a spreadsheet or a word document which is sitting on their computer.

“We know that Gen Z put their work passwords on their phones.

“So human beings are lazy. We can’t remember complex passwords to every application that changes every 90 days.

“The sooner we get away from that and rely on who we are, rather than something we know, the better we will all be.” 

www.mobile-mentor.com

www.leongettler.com

 

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-22-interview-with-denis-oshea-from-mobile-m

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Macquarie Telecom launches VeloCloud Partner Channel to assist Australian MSPs

AUSTRALIAN telecommunications innovator Macquarie Telecom – part of the Macquarie Technology Group (ASX: MAQ) – has signed a first-of-its-kind agreement with US SD-WAN technology leader VeloCloud to provide its systems to managed service providers (MSPs) across Australia.

The initial four-year agreement will be supported by an investment – worth an estimated A$30 million – by Macquarie Telecom, enabling it to offer the best commercial terms to MSPs on what it describes as “VeloCloud’s world-leading technology”.

Macquarie Telecom group executive, Luke Clifton said the new agreement would open software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) technology – which virtualises and simplifies networking and optimises app performance – to more MSPs and businesses while offering the greatest discounts available, helping to offset Broadcom’s recently-enacted price rises to its VeloCloud technologies. 

Macquarie gains special partner status

The arrangement comes as Macquarie Telecom becomes VeloCloud’s only Australian ‘Pinnacle Partner’ – a feat it has achieved through pioneering SD-WAN in Australia in 2017 and since deploying the technology to more businesses in Australia than any other provider.

Mr Clifton said the agreement was a testament to the company’s bet on bringing SD-WAN to Australia in 2017 and, more recently, expanding into Security Access Service Edge (SASE), which would generate significant value for Australia’s channel.

“We’ve worked closely with VeloCloud and nearly all of our customers to harness the value of this technology while major telcos have maintained a complete lack of vision, zero innovation, and buried their heads in the sand,” Mr Clifton said.

“We see many of the same issues affecting our traditional mid-sized-enterprise customer base hitting the channel. They’re overcharged and underserved by vendors and major telcos, and we can deliver a far better experience together.”

Now, he said Macquarie would extend that SD-WAN value to the information and communications technology (ICT) channel in an offering comprising hardware, licensing, managed services, carriage, and industry-leading, net promoter score (NPS)-proven customer service.

A major advantage, he said, was that partners would be working with a local provider that operates in Australian dollars, providing better price certainty given the risk of fluctuating exchange rates and changes in vendor pricing.

Marketing changes to drive VeloCloud

Macquarie Telecom has also announced the promotion of current chief marketing officer, Tony Emmanouil to director of marketing and channel, leading the company’s VeloCloud Partner Channel and working closely with partners.

“This agreement empowers us to deploy a wide range of VeloCloud solutions, ranging from licencing to fully managed services to best suit different partners across Australia,” Mr Emmanouil said.

“This isn’t just a re-sell play, we will go to market with partners to bring the world’s leading SD-WAN technology to their customer base. We’ve got a truly unique blend of experience, expertise, commercial value and service to enable more partners to bring this technology to a greater cross-section of Australian businesses.”

Broadcom’s VeloCloud division vice president and general manager Sanjay Uppal said, “With this partnership, we can serve the needs of people who otherwise may not get access to this advanced technology.

“The world is changing, with new apps coming in, security threats, and people are really relying on their distributed networks a lot more on a day-by-day basis. This partnership together really epitomises what people are looking for in mid-to-large enterprises.”

www.macquarietelecom.com.au

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Australian cyber security environment short on ‘expertise’?

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

ONE OF THE BIG ISSUES with cyber security in Australia is the lack of expertise.

Jason Baden, F5’s regional vice-president for Australia and New Zealand, said the situation in Australia was so critical that cyber criminals were targeting secondary schools. He said this meant that every organisation, large or small, needed to be cyber aware, because they’re carrying personal data.

“The level of skill sets and requirements for security now has increased across all companies,” Mr Baden told Talking Business.

“Anywhere that has personal information that could be a target, with any criminal looking to get into an organisation, they’re going to look for the weakest link.

“Now what that means is that every single person will have to have a great security posture.” 

Pay attention now

Mr Baden said this was particularly pertinent now, when people were making mistakes all the time, clicking on any link and responding to emails sent out by cyber criminals.

This meant that organisations needed to prioritise cyber education for all staff.

“From an F5 perspective, we look after the application from an enterprise level but every organisation needs to ensure they’ve got great education because there are phishing links, all types of areas where they can be contacted,” he said.

This means the cyber security education needed to be across everyone in the organisations, at all levels.

“Every single person in the organisation is responsible for cyber security,” Mr Baden said.

“Previously with cyber security, companies would leave it to their IT teams, the networks team, to the cyber team.

“As we’ve continued on, we’ve seen much more of the business CEOs, the CFOS, they’re much more interested in what they’re spending their money on and what are they getting for that money and where is that going and will that cover them off.”

Mr Baden said one of the challenges with cyber security was locating where applications were being hosted to ensure their security. Potentially every bank, government instrumentality or telco would have their own applications.

“We manage security for multiple different companies and the way that occurs is that the major banks, the major governments, the telecommunications companies all have different ways of delivering those applications, whether it’s to pay your bills, whether it’s to get information and the most important thing is wherever that sits, you are able to make sure you’ve got that security portfolio covered across all those areas,” Mr Baden said.

Listen to cyber specialists

To address the skills shortages in cyber security, Mr Baden said, “there can never be enough” specialists, so a lot of companies are now turning to SAAS (software as a service) solutions for global threats.

“Now if you don’t have all those skills sets and you can leverage someone who’s hot on SAAS, then if there is a threat anywhere across the world, that can be replicated into your security portfolio before you can be attacked,” he said.

In Australia, Mr Baden said, there was a requirement for company directors to be aware of cyber security. That was part of the board governance today.

He said with all the brand damage now being done by cybercrime – for companies like Optus, Latitude and Medibank – companies have been investing heavily in cyber security over the last five years.

“What it does is it brings it back to the fact that these high-profile breaches have meant that nobody wants to be called on that, so everyone is investing to make sure they can avoid that,” he said.

www.leongettler.com

www.f5.com

 

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-44-interview-with-jason-baden-from-f5

 

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