Deepak Raghunathan, CEO of Cloudmon, speaks exclusively to GEC Media during GISEC 2025, sharing insights on unified observability, AI security, and the evolving role of CISOs in a digital-first world.
Cloudmon, a 23-year-old tech firm headquartered in Philadelphia with regional offices in the Middle East and India, is making strides in transforming organizational operations through advanced visibility and observability solutions. With a strong presence in Dubai, the company is focused on redefining how unified observability enhances system performance and decision-making across industries.
Can you tell us about the technologies Cloudmon is featuring at GISEC 2025?
We’re showcasing Cloudmon as a unified observability platform. Think about your daily life—ordering a coffee through Talabat, streaming a movie on Netflix, shopping on Amazon, or transferring money via your banking app. Each of these actions involves a complex set of digital interactions and infrastructure components. But as an end user, your focus is only on the mission—getting your coffee, your movie, or your transaction completed.
Behind the scenes, all of this depends on your device’s reliability, your network (Wi-Fi, 4G, 5G), the cloud infrastructure, APIs, databases, and so much more. For one simple coffee order, there are dozens of technical systems working together. Cloudmon’s role is to observe and correlate all those facets—devices, networks, endpoints, systems—and present a unified picture of how the entire transaction is performing.
We’re entering an AI-driven era where bots, humans, and agentic systems interact fluidly. You won’t always know what’s human or machine. Cloudmon ensures every IP address and system is observed and measured for its performance, security, utilization, productivity, and behavior—all in real time.
With the rise of AI, this year’s theme—‘Securing the AI-Powered Future’—feels especially timely. What do you believe are the key challenges and solutions in making that vision a reality?
That’s an excellent question. Let’s start with what security really means—it’s about defending yourself from known and unknown threats. But to defend something, you must first understand what you’re protecting. That means knowing where your vulnerabilities lie, how your systems interact, how data flows, and what your attack surfaces are.
Many people mistakenly think of security only as firewalls or passwords. But in reality, it’s about identifying weaknesses in your systems, processes, and people. And here’s where observability comes in—it’s the first step to security. If you don’t know what you have or how it’s performing, you can’t protect it.
No system is ever 100% secure. But good observability lets you take mitigative steps. My favorite analogy is how in countries like Jamaica, where car theft is common, many vehicles have physical steering locks. Thieves skip these cars because they’re harder to steal. It’s the same with cybersecurity. Good security is about putting up multiple layers of protection and making it difficult for attackers.
In a world where AI can be both defender and attacker, observability becomes essential. You can’t secure what you can’t see or understand. So while AI evolves, we must continuously adapt, monitor, and refine our defense mechanisms.
Having participated in GISEC for three years now, how would you say this year’s event differs from the past?
Yes, this is our third year, and we’ve grown with each edition. More customers are visiting our booth, more partners are engaging with us, and we’re building stronger collaborations. We believe we’re on the right path with our mission: to help organizations manage every IP address effectively and securely.
Dubai and the UAE offer a fantastic platform. The region is becoming a hub—not just for Asia, but increasingly on a global level. The environment here encourages innovation, collaboration, and growth, and we’re fully committed to continuing our investments and contributions.
Any parting thoughts or key takeaways for CISOs as they navigate 2025 and beyond?
CISOs, IT admins, and infrastructure managers are unsung heroes. We often celebrate firefighters, doctors, nurses, and police officers—and rightfully so. But the professionals keeping our digital systems running securely deserve equal recognition.
From enabling secure banking transactions to powering communications and critical infrastructure, you keep the digital world functioning. You may be invisible to most people, but your impact is monumental. On behalf of everyone at Cloudmon, I want to salute the CISO community and say: we see you, we appreciate you, and we are proud to work alongside you.
