NETAND is a top-rated PAM and IM solutions company, creating values beyond network

“One of the biggest differentiation points of our solution is its detailed database function.”

NETAND is a Seoul-based leading Privileged Access Management and Identity Management solutions company. The company’s continued dedication to R&D, creating the latest and best technology, and experience with variety of customers from diverse sectors have helped it become the industry leader. NETAND serves clients across the country.

The company was founded in 2007.

As a journalist, I find NETAND quite striking. From the emotional branding standpoint to the high energy and motivation I felt just talking with the Chief Executive Officer, Ho Chul Shin, NETAND stands out. It’s the sense of pride I get just doing this interview and learning about the company.

Interview Highlights

Q. What was the motivation behind starting NETAND?

The primary driving force for most new inventions is a need, hence the proverb ‘necessity is the mother of invention’. Let me tell you—while working as a system engineer for a company previously, I learned that the company was experiencing various types of system failures in the field. It was a real bummer as most of the events happened due to human errors, therefore irking system administrators. The mismatch that bothered the administrators most was users using different passwords or IDs for the same person, causing unintended consequences. It was mind-numbing for the administrators to track these human errors (and security problems), so there had to be a way to tactfully confront these issues. This is how NETAND was set up. Until today, we, at NETAND, continue to address these issues and remain at the forefront.

Q. How have emerging technologies contributed to the success of your business?

There are a lot of success stories to share but it would be too technically oriented. We constantly create new technologies ourselves and already have quite a few new patents in our hands. Moreover, we follow every single advancement in cybersecurity and follow up with the latest trends such as Zero Trust and Just-In-Time network access.

One of the biggest barriers to businesses when it comes to investing in any kind of technology is the cost. Tell us about the affordability of your solutions.

The pricing reflects the quality of our solution, which brings next-generation security technology at reasonable prices. We offer a perpetual license, so that there is no need to constantly renew the license. Another benefit is that we offer great maintenance and customer support service to our customers, which is something they cannot find easily in this sector. Our services and price is aligned perfectly.

Q. As cyber criminals become more sophisticated, they find new, unexpected ways to target systems. How do you gather insights to stay updated?

NETAND constantly improves its technology platform and keeps up to date with recent developments. The NETAND R&D team works relentlessly to upgrade our technology in various ways. Recent technological advancements throughout the world are always followed closely and implemented, if necessary. We constantly gather information through our existing clients and the problems they face with their systems. More functions are added, adjustments are made to fix the existing problems of our new clients, and data is gathered through any hacking attempt made on our existing clients. By following these updates and combined with the hunger to strive for more, we, at NETAND, proudly own more than 50 patents and certificates in the PAM and IM field. Our skilled developers use their strength in technical analysis and creativity to solve any possible issue our clients face or might face in the future.

Q. Cyber security is the top priority of any company. How do you secure your clients’ data without increasing the complexity of their operations?

The in-house engineer team receives both technical and legal updates on our solution to provide excellent security to our clients. Also, they receive quarterly training on compliance and how to ensure all aspects of compliance regulations are met when working on a project. These trainings are not only aimed at our employees, but we also educate the technical team from the client’s side, if necessary. Our solution HIWARE is already compliant with the Data Law Protection laws such as GDPR and PIPL and we have developed our solution in a way that even the engineer handling the project cannot have access to important client data.

Q. How do you monitor the performance of the solution? What guidance and direction did you find most effective to train individuals to use your solution?

NETAND keeps track of its clients systems closely even after selling our product. We always keep an eye on customer satisfaction through surveys and also frequent technical support that we provide, even if it is not requested by the client. We realized that a hands-on and active approach is quite crucial when training individuals on our solution, HIWARE. Also, from the technical point, we provide patches and updates whenever necessary, as well as run random tests to ensure high quality.

Needless to say, we are like deputy CIOs and CISOs for our clients—we put ourselves in their shoes to work out the best security management solutions and deliver long-term value for them.

Q. There are other major players in this segment. How do distinguish your services from the rest?

One of the biggest differentiation points of our solution is its detailed database function. We offer a top-notch Identity Management and Privileged Access Management solution for databases, unlike our competitors. All of the on-premise functions for the system are applicable to our database. Not only that but we also offer Data Masking, Query Control, and many more details. The database is a difficult area when it comes to IAM and we are proud to state that we are a professional in this area.

We also offer our products in a single and user-intuitive interface, which makes the whole process much easier for the administrators. Another convenience is that there is no in-house technician necessary for our solution. We offer training for the designated administrators and they reach the level to be able to carry out the entire system on their own in a few weeks. If they face any problems at any point, our customer service will be ready to help them whenever necessary.

Q. Can you explain about your services in brief?

We help organizations build a strong information security program and save costs by minimizing the time needed to deal with user account related issues. We protect delicate data from your own employees, partners and everyone else with access to your system. More importantly, we authorize, monitor, limit and control user access.

Our HIWARE Identity Management (IM) solution features an automated and integrated approach to managing all user accounts scattered across systems (on-premises or cloud). This enables the IM solution to sync and consolidate all identity types in real-time, without lags in status updates that cyber attackers are always ready to pounce on. The HIWARE IM solution also automates the account and password management process to limit and prevent unnecessary privileges.

We also provide Privileged Access Session Management that enables end-to-end management and supervision of users by controlling all accesses and operations of clients’ IT infrastructure such as networks and servers, monitoring work details in real-time, and saving log records.

Q. How do you market your services?

Our services can be purchased separately or the client can create their module according to the needs of their company. We have flexible licensing options and our clients find it quite easy to custom a deal with us in a way that suits them the best. Also, we provide convenience and better customer service through our local partners and resellers. This means even if we don’t have an overseas office in a country, our clients residing there can still easily receive customer support in any way required.

Q. Do you have any new services ready to be launched?

We currently have the IaaS option for HIWARE, and SaaS option is being developed by our very talented team. We are expecting our SaaS solution to be out within the next year. This new cloud option will bring a lot of new opportunities to connect with our existing and new clients and we are very excited.

Q. What does the future hold for your company and its customers? Are exciting things on the way?

Our sales volume keeps increasing since the year it was founded and we are very pleased that this allows us to invest in many aspects of a business. We invest great budgets in our R&D team to constantly create new technologies and get new patents. The number of our employees keeps increasing and new technological and business investments are on the way.

Also, since a few years ago, we invested a lot in our global team—engineers and global business department. We have a diverse team with a global background which makes it easier to understand and connect with all of our clients. Since the travel restrictions are mostly lifted, we constantly travel to various countries to meet our partners, and existing and potential clients. If you follow our social media pages, you can follow where we are going next and join our seminar!

“We are like deputy CIOs and CISOs for our clients—we put ourselves in their shoes to work out the best security management solutions and deliver long-term value for them.”

“We, at NETAND, proudly own more than 50 patents and certificates in the PAM and IM field.”

“We have a diverse team with a global background which makes it easier to understand and connect with all of our clients.”