How should organisations handle expensive security tools that aren’ t properly configured or utilised?
Stuart Seymour: It’ s a common problem: people buy shiny tools with CapEx budgets, then leave. You’ ve got a lovely car nobody knows how to drive. At Virgin Media O2, our internal people configure, develop and run the tools. We’ re not vendor-locked, we develop our people’ s skills. You always trust but verify – Google doesn’ t understand my environment better than I do. They’ ve built us an exquisite car, but they don’ t understand the country lanes it drives on.
Nick Godfrey: Vulnerability management is a perfect example. You buy a scanner that finds millions of vulnerabilities, but that’ s not helpful. The real problem isn’ t simple patching – organisations can’ t deploy patches because they lack test environments or source code for applications. Solve basic fundamental problems first for a much faster return on investment.
“Solve basic fundamental problems first for a much faster return on investment”
NICK GODFREY SENIOR DIRECTOR & GLOBAL HEAD, GOOGLE CLOUD
112 July 2025