VMblog:  Can you give VMblog readers a quick overview of your company?

Peter Bookman:  guardDog.ai is a Salt Lake City-based company with a cloud-based Autonomous Incident Response (AiR) cyber security software service that works with a companion Fido unit (hardware plug-in or, as of July 2022 available virtually) to simplify network security. The solution exposes invisible threats on networks and the devices attached to them, with patented technology to address and prevent cybersecurity threats before they compromise network environments, which is the real magic in the equation.  

Every business, government, healthcare institution, home consumer, or other organization, is grappling to find security solutions that can address the growing realm of cyber security threats, and guardDog.ai is leading out in providing the answers. 
  
As of this month, guardDog.ai is expanding its reach to address full Attack Surface Management (ASM) and ASM-as-a-Service (ASMaaS), which Gartner has recognized as cyber security’s next horizon.  

Also, virtual deployments for guardDog.ai are now possible through clusters of containers, via Kubernetes orchestration, and as of this month, (August 2022) through our newly-launched partnership with VMware. This makes guardDog.ai hardware agnostic. In all, we provide IT staff, IT organizations and MSSPs with the ability to achieve instantaneous and unlimited deployments.

VMblog:  Your company is sponsoring this year's VMware Explore event.  Can you talk about what that sponsorship looks like?

Bookman:  We’re exhibiting in booth 1914. We invite all to come and see us as we’re celebrating the VMware partnership news with some fun activities and swag with a gaming and gambling theme to emphasize the fact that you can’t afford to gamble when it comes to the cyber security protection you use.

VMblog:  VMware has decided to change the name of the event this year from VMworld to VMware Explore.  With VMworld being such a part of the history, do you have any thoughts on the name change?

Bookman:  Having worked with VMware for many years and through many companies, founder/CEO Peter Bookman notes the role of virtualization is a critical to the world we live in. VMware has played such a vital role in this arena that the importance of the conference and event (whether live or “virtual,” ironically) is steadily increasing, regardless of what the conference is called. And “Explore” is perhaps a good description of what is happening now, as virtualization is increasingly required to span the realm of many IT functions, perhaps especially including cyber security needs and the requirement of global organizations and MSSP providers to manage thousands of connections remotely.

VMblog:  How can attendees of the event find you?  What do you have planned at your booth this year?  What type of things will attendees be able to do at your booth? 

Bookman:  Booth 1914 – come find us for a little “gaming and gambling” fun to visit a bit, see the guardDog technology in action, and get some cool swag to remind us all that we can’t afford to gamble with our cyber security hygiene and health.

VMblog:  What are you personally most interested in seeing or learning at VMware Explore?

Bookman:  More sharing and examination of the power of containerization and what it means for the ability to exercise IT power at scale, reduce and eliminate many of the supply chain challenges of hardware components, and access the power of massive AI-driven resources from the cloud.

VMblog:  Can you give us the high-level rundown of your company's technology offerings?  What kind of message will an attendee hear from you this year?

Bookman:  guardDog.ai’s offering is Autonomous Incident Response (AiR) services that provide full ASM (Attack Surface Management, or Attack Surface Management as a Service) through companion Fido technology at the point of connected networks and the devices that connect to them. We’ve been in existence with a market offering since January 2020, but VMware Explore advances our newly-announced virtual capabilities at an even higher level since we’re partnering with VMware as one of the ideal ways we achieve the replacement of FIDO as a hardware plug-in, where desired, with entirely virtual and containerized technology.

VMblog:  Talking about your product solutions, can you give readers a few examples of how your offerings are unique?  What are your differentiators?  What sets you apart from the competition?

Bookman:  In large part, the most pernicious vulnerabilities lie in the “edge territory” beyond the cybersecurity protection for device management and VPN connections – the things the network can see and is designed to protect, to whatever level its software and policies are designed to do so. But guardDog is especially strong due to the ability to protect the network from what it doesn’t see – the myriad IoT and random devices that seek a connection to the web but aren’t seen and protected. guardDog.ai is the answer to all of these. Equally important is that guardDog’s technology is proactive and even pre-emptive – the AiR services detect suspicious behavior based on dynamic and perpetually updated data on all known and emerging hacking and can block and take pre-emptive action before the attempted connection can attempt an exploit. So, guardDog is the means of shutting down attempted hacks within milliseconds and proactively ensuring they never get the chance to steal the data, plant the malware, send the phishing message or attempt the ransom attack.

VMblog:  What specifically does your company offer a VMware shop or a VMware implementation?  What problems do you solve for them?

Bookman:  We are a primary example of a VMware partnered implementation that brings additional value to VMware shops or implementations that already work on and within their architecture. We also make it possible to create roles in full Attack Surface Management easy to set up and fulfill within your own current infrastructure team - in fact we could train and equip an ASM Monitor within less than an hour. 

VMblog:  How does your company work with VMware?  Where do you fit within the VMware ecosystem?

Bookman:  guardDog.ai can provide its protection software via Tanzu containerization, bringing big value to VMware shops as a key function and application they can obtain without the need for hardware implementation, and allowing them to tap the power of virtualization (and containerization) to many many thousands of implementations at once. So a single remote IT resource or MSSP can provide for the organization what even a fleet of on-site security specialists would be hard pressed to provide – and perhaps most especially can provide the protection in most cases pre-emptively, rather than in remediation after an attack has occurred.

VMblog:  VMworld has typically been a launching platform for new products.  At VMware Explore, will your company be announcing anything new?  If so, can you give us a sneak peek?

Bookman:  We’re announcing a partnership with VMware to make our implementations entirely virtual where desired, to enable remote deployment and management of thousands of implementations at once.  You can learn more about the partnership and the launching of our VMware implementation of the Fido 3 technology here.

VMblog:  VMware will be covering big topics in their keynote, but what big changes or trends do you see taking shape in the industry for 2022 and heading into 2023?

Bookman:  The trends continuing in containerization are a big theme that continues to open many possibilities.

VMblog:  Are you giving away any prizes at your booth or participating in any prize giveaways?

Bookman:  Yes – we'll be running Rubic’s Challenge activities in booth 1914 throughout the event.