Gerry Plaza serves as Field CTO in the Chief Strategy Office at Netskope. In this role, Gerry focuses his expertise on the vision and strategy around Network and Security Transformation driven by Secure Access Services Edge (SASE). Helping companies understand and deliver the zero trust technology framework used by wide area network and security controls as a cloud computing service directly to the source of connection rather than a data center, providing the flexibility, scalability, and adaptability to support the constant changing nature of business.
Gerry’s career trajectory has taken him through every IT functional role of increasing responsibilities, throughout his 25+ years in the IT Industry. This expansive experience has allowed him to build a deep expertise in Enterprise Architecture allowing him to have a positive impact in every functional area of Infrastructure and Operations from 3-Tier Architecture to Hyperconverged, Virtualization, IP & FC Networking, Network Security, Cyber Security, Cloud, IaaS, and everything in-between throughout Design, Engineering and Operations teams.
Prior to joining Netskope, Gerry was Directory of Systems Engineering at Dell Technologies where he led a large team of elite solutions specialists who partnered with companies in all Industries throughout North America where they helped Companies create a Vision and Strategy plan to solve their business challenges with a roadmap for their future. Gerry and his team led Executives and their teams through consultation to drive business outcomes using a deep expertise of the industry, integration of disruptive technologies, and differentiated offerings, inclusive of Modern Data Center architecture, Strategic Multi- Cloud, and as-a-Service platforms to achieve their transformation goals.
Before joining Dell Technologies, Gerry spent over a decade at MasterCard leading various global teams covering architecture, engineering, operations, and service management with a focus on platform service delivery, digital transformation, technical excellence, quality of service, technology standardization and governance. His team was responsible for all aspects of providing data networking services and security enforcement to support the evolving business strategy of growth and expansion, while delivering cost efficiencies and stability to the overall MasterCard Data Center Infrastructure and Global Network. At MasterCard, Gerry was the driving force behind MasterCard’s transformation from a company that relied on infrastructure to maintain the business into a company that strategically leveraged Infrastructure and a Cloud Operating model as a means to accelerate growth and competitive advantage.
Gerry’s other professional experiences include facilitating Technical Workshops to help build future state strategies for customers. Leading Executive Briefings and Executive Advisory Board conversations with business leaders. Designing and creating strategy frameworks in support of large Data Center builds, migrations and/or consolidations. Helping to accelerate business efficiencies of M&A activity through the integration of independent environments. Collaborating with cross-functional teams in support of the overall business goals for a customer to create a cohesive entity with a shared vision.