Translated from 日本語 • View original Hello. This is ISAO's new PR officer, Harada.
It's been two and a half months since I joined ISAO, and the first time I was involved in distributing in-house NEWS was when I won the "Trend Micro Partner Engineer Award Grand Prize"It was about.
To be honest, I'm almost ignorant of the engineering community, but when I heard this title, I was genuinely interested in it, saying, "There are amazing engineers at ISAO.
Moreover, according to rumors, he was not originally an engineer.
What does it mean that a person who was not an engineer can win the top prize for engineers? I became even more interested.
So, this time we interviewed Mr. Nishigori, the security project leader of ISAO!
History from 0 Engineer Experience to Top Prize Award
[caption id="attachment_4351" align="alignnone" width="800"]
Trend Micro Partner Engineer Awards at the award ceremony[/caption]
Harada: Congratulations once again on winning the "Trend Micro Partner Engineer Award Grand Prize", Mr. Nishigori.
Nishigun: Thank you.
Harada: The first news release I made at ISAO was about this award, so I was very impressed.
Moreover, individual awards started this year, right? It's really amazing to win the top prize in the first year.
Nishigun: Thank you. In the project I am involved in, we provide a service that protects our customers' servers from so-called "cyberattacks". Therefore, we have introduced Trend Micro's "Deep Security" product to our customers' servers and monitor and operate them, and it seems that they have evaluated their performance.
Originally, ISAO was engaged in a cloud-based server management business called "Kuramane", which has a large number of achievements and has received high praise. It was a project that developed from there and was born from the request for security measures to be taken even for applications on the server.
So this time, I received an award in the security category, and I was in charge of the main part of the introduction of "Deep Security", so I think that was appreciated.
Engineer experience "0" start
Harada: But I heard that Mr. Nishigori was not originally an engineer...?
Nishigun: That's right. Actually, I was originally a new graduate and worked as a game planner. So, at first, I was working on thinking about the characters, stories, and systems of the game.
After that, after changing companies, I worked as a web planner.
I have always been involved in building what kind of site to create, what kind of service to use, and what kind of system to use for users.
As a web planner, it is a major premise to provide good things to customers, but as I get used to creating websites, I often think about monetizing my business as a business. I think this is part of the work of a planner, but as a planner, I was always thinking about how to make a business happen in the second half.
Harada: Do you do web planners up to that kind of thing?
Nishigun: Hmm. Strictly speaking, it may be different from the definition of a general web planner, but my idea is that a planner is not only to provide good services, but also to make the business firmly profitable.
Harada: It's a job that requires a managerial perspective, isn't it? Listening to your story, do you also need marketing elements?
Nishigun: That's right. There is a marketing element in general, but I think it's not really that cool, it's a job where you make choices about what to do and get to the bottom of those choices.
Harada: Mr. Nishigori's definition of "web planner" is very broad, and my impression of being a web planner has changed a lot.
Nishigun: In general, it may be a field that is called a web director or a web producer. As a planner, I have accumulated such groundwork, so I am generally called a web planner.
Harada: I see~. Mr. Nishigori was a web planner.
ISAO's "Challenging Environment" and "Personal Growth"
Harada: There is a corporate culture that requires a "growth environment" unique to ISAO, but please tell us about your career within ISAO so far.
Nishigun: Before I was involved in the current security project, I was involved in a video distribution project called Movie Full Plus as a web planner. I was involved for about 5 years and even made the project monetized.
Harada: How did it change to the current security project?
Nishigun: There was no particular reason. However, I was invited, so I thought I would give it a try. It was the momentum of the momentum (laughs).
Harada: Was that the point of "personal growth" in ISAO?
Nishigun: That's right. It was a completely new field for me, so I started from almost zero intellectually. It was a big challenge after I turned 40. Well, ISAO is an environment where we try to take on more and more challenges, so I think everyone has their own often. In a normal company, it would be like changing departments and various procedures, but ISAO doesn't have that.
Harada: Has it changed so easily? I think it's a big change in terms of job type, but aren't you quite worried? I think that engineering is a field that requires knowledge and experience.
Nishigun: That's right. It may have been a job rotation that is not very normal (laughs). So of course, there were many hardships. However, ISAO has a group of engineers with very high technical skills, so I was really helped and studied, and I managed to do it. That's why I just happened to be in the front of this award, and I think it's an award based on team strength rather than individual strength.
Harada: I see~. I wanted to hear a lot from other engineers at ISAO!
By the way, I am currently deeply involved in a product called "Deep Security" from Trend Micro, which is handled in security projects, but is it something that you can handle even if you have no experience as an engineer like Mr. Nishigori?
Nishigun: I think I can handle it. However, I myself am not yet at the level of an engineer, and there is a wide range of things that experienced people can do.
Harada: I see. Will it increase more and more in the future?
Nishigun: I have been working with this product since the launch of the security project. At the beginning of the launch, we started with the monitoring and operation of one company and two servers.
It has been about 4 years since its launch, but it has increased to more than 200 units from about 30 companies.
The demand for security has increased considerably.
However, when it comes to actual operation, it is difficult and there are many customers who cannot handle it that much, so I think the need for ISAO to protect the customer's server will also increase.
Harada: Are there any cases where you are actually attacked in your daily work?
Nishigun: Before I got involved in this job, I often saw "cyber attacks" on the news, but I felt like it was someone else's business. However, since I started this project, I can see at a glance that when I check the logs every day, I can see at a glance that there are a surprising number of attack alerts, and sometimes there are alerts that are one step before actual damage is done, so I feel that this is a really important job.
Harada: So only a small part of what is covered in the media is there, and how many tens of thousands of attacks are there every day?
Nishigun: That's right. Isn't it something like "billion" (laughs)?
Harada: Billions!? That's more than you can imagine. By the way, do you also know the trend of attacks?
Nishigun: Yes, there is. There are also organized criminal attacks all at once, and there are really varies.
There are a lot of alerts that are one step before the attack.
Harada: What is one step ahead of the attack?
Nishigun: We are one step away from the damage. To put it simply, it's like a burglar breaking into an apartment building and looking for a place where doorknobs are empty one by one.
Harada: It's very easy to understand, but it's really scary to imagine...
Nishigun: That's right. This means that almost any server exposed to the Internet can be attacked. However, I also try not to make them anxious because of mischief.
We may tell our customers if it is a really dangerous attack, or we may not unnecessarily tell them what is not at a level that should be resolved and notified within the team. Some customers want to know everything, while others don't, so we respond to customers according to their wishes.
Harada: I see~. It is important to respond to customers according to their needs.
Future Prospects
Harada: I heard that the demand for security is increasing, but please tell us about the prospects for security projects that you are aiming for in the future!
Nishigun: Once Trend Micro's "Deep Security" product is introduced, it is a product that has almost no cancellations unless there is an unavoidable reason such as the service being terminated.
It can be introduced in various environments, and I think it is a very interesting product. In the future, I would like to introduce this product to all kinds of servers and expand my business. In the future, we would like to develop a security product that can be appealed to alone.
Harada: One last question I would like to ask personally... Can a person with no experience as an engineer like Mr. Nishigori become an engineer? I'm a humanities head who is completely weak in numbers, but can even such a person become an engineer if he wants to become an engineer?
Nishigun: Everyone has no experience at first. I think anyone can become it in terms of whether they can become it or not. It's just a matter of whether you think it's interesting. If you write code, run a program, open an introductory book, and think that kind of thing is interesting to you, you may be suitable for an engineer.
Harada: I see! So, I may still have the possibility of making my engineering debut (laughs).
Hope has arisen! Thank you for the interview today!