In 2019 after 19 years at Akamai, mostly in IT, I decided it was time for a change.

There is of course, a longer version of this, but in late 2016 we had realized that the journey we had been taking Akamai IT on was actually a Zero Trust journey. Working closely with the Enterprise product team to make this journey a reality for Akamai customers over the last couple of years has been a joy and privilege.

I approached my manager and friend Joe DeFelice (Akamai’s IT CISO) with the idea to double down on the Zero Trust focus - sharing our experience and knowledge in this space with many more enterprises ranging from those who have heard of Zero Trust through those who may have started on their journey but are running into roadblocks.

We spoke about this idea with leaders in Akamai, the overwhelming response was positive and very supportive. Joe and I agreed to stay through March 2020 in order to continue supporting the Zero Trust transformation in IT, product development, and ecosystem expansion.

March 2020. The March that never ended. Fortunately, there was still enough work for Joe and I at Akamai to stay fully engaged. While our dream of doing our part to drive Zero Trust adoption broadly remained alive, it didn’t feel like the right time to be trying to start a new company when everyone was focused on learning how to be productive remotely. We were lucky enough to be able to stay on at Akamai during the pandemic, talking to customers, working with product managers and engineers and staying connected to IT. One thing above all else that I took away from 2020 - the more Akamai customers we spoke to, the more energized about helping companies with Zero Trust I became.

So it is with great pleasure I am writing this long post to introduce the company I am starting with Joe: Procella Technologies. Procella’s focus is Zero Trust and SASE. Our goal is to increase adoption of Zero Trust principals, and ensure enterprises are able to complete their Zero Trust or SASE journeys. If you’re considering Zero Trust or SASE, contact us to see how we can help.