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Jan 2, 2019 · 18m · a16z

a16z Podcast | When Large Scale Gets Really Massive -- Managing Today’s Enterprise Networks

Steven Sinofsky · 7m spoken Orion Hindawi · 6m spoken Michael Copeland · 2m spoken
0:00 / 0:00
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This episode of the a16z Podcast features Steven Sinofsky and Tanium co-founder Orion Hindawi discussing how modern enterprise cybersecurity requires replacing slow legacy network management tools with real-time, peer-to-peer endpoint visibility. They explore Tanium's innovative architecture, live incident remediation capabilities like Heartbleed, and the future of scaling IT infrastructure for billions of IoT devices.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →

The host as informed peer 2.2 Guest teaching 2.6 Guest disagreement 0.0 The host pushing back 0.2
05100:0010:002:47–6:51 · The host as informed peer 3/10 Legacy IT Management Limitations and the Security Gap The host facilitates the conversation and demonstrates baseline industry knowledge by noting IBM's acquisition of BigFix. The guests detail how legacy IT management architecture failed to keep up with modern nation-state cyberattacks.6:51–9:10 · The host as informed peer 1/10 The Live Tanium Pitch and Pitch Room Reaction The host asks Sinofsky to describe Tanium's initial pitch room demo at Andreessen Horowitz. Sinofsky shares how Orion demonstrated live querying capabilities that astonished the venture partners.9:10–13:42 · The host as informed peer 3/10 Technical Deep Dive into Linear Peer-to-Peer Ring Architecture The host asks targeted questions regarding system overhead and how to uncover unknown security risks. Orion and Sinofsky educate the room on linear peer-to-peer ring architecture and real-time processing of Indicators of Compromise.13:42–15:58 · The host as informed peer 2/10 Real-World Incident Response and the Heartbleed Case Study The host prompts a real-world case study on the Heartbleed vulnerability. Orion and Sinofsky explain how Tanium enabled instant enterprise-wide remediation while legacy tools left organizations guessing for days.15:58–18:34 · The host as informed peer 2/10 The Future of Network Scale, IoT, and Real-Time Systems Management The host asks how network management architectures must evolve for future scale. Orion outlines extending linear peer-to-peer communication across billions of lightweight IoT devices.2:47–6:51 · Guest teaching 3/10 Legacy IT Management Limitations and the Security Gap The host facilitates the conversation and demonstrates baseline industry knowledge by noting IBM's acquisition of BigFix. The guests detail how legacy IT management architecture failed to keep up with modern nation-state cyberattacks.6:51–9:10 · Guest teaching 2/10 The Live Tanium Pitch and Pitch Room Reaction The host asks Sinofsky to describe Tanium's initial pitch room demo at Andreessen Horowitz. Sinofsky shares how Orion demonstrated live querying capabilities that astonished the venture partners.9:10–13:42 · Guest teaching 4/10 Technical Deep Dive into Linear Peer-to-Peer Ring Architecture The host asks targeted questions regarding system overhead and how to uncover unknown security risks. Orion and Sinofsky educate the room on linear peer-to-peer ring architecture and real-time processing of Indicators of Compromise.13:42–15:58 · Guest teaching 2/10 Real-World Incident Response and the Heartbleed Case Study The host prompts a real-world case study on the Heartbleed vulnerability. Orion and Sinofsky explain how Tanium enabled instant enterprise-wide remediation while legacy tools left organizations guessing for days.15:58–18:34 · Guest teaching 2/10 The Future of Network Scale, IoT, and Real-Time Systems Management The host asks how network management architectures must evolve for future scale. Orion outlines extending linear peer-to-peer communication across billions of lightweight IoT devices.2:47–6:51 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Legacy IT Management Limitations and the Security Gap The host facilitates the conversation and demonstrates baseline industry knowledge by noting IBM's acquisition of BigFix. The guests detail how legacy IT management architecture failed to keep up with modern nation-state cyberattacks.6:51–9:10 · Guest disagreement 0/10 The Live Tanium Pitch and Pitch Room Reaction The host asks Sinofsky to describe Tanium's initial pitch room demo at Andreessen Horowitz. Sinofsky shares how Orion demonstrated live querying capabilities that astonished the venture partners.9:10–13:42 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Technical Deep Dive into Linear Peer-to-Peer Ring Architecture The host asks targeted questions regarding system overhead and how to uncover unknown security risks. Orion and Sinofsky educate the room on linear peer-to-peer ring architecture and real-time processing of Indicators of Compromise.13:42–15:58 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Real-World Incident Response and the Heartbleed Case Study The host prompts a real-world case study on the Heartbleed vulnerability. Orion and Sinofsky explain how Tanium enabled instant enterprise-wide remediation while legacy tools left organizations guessing for days.15:58–18:34 · Guest disagreement 0/10 The Future of Network Scale, IoT, and Real-Time Systems Management The host asks how network management architectures must evolve for future scale. Orion outlines extending linear peer-to-peer communication across billions of lightweight IoT devices.2:47–6:51 · The host pushing back 1/10 Legacy IT Management Limitations and the Security Gap The host facilitates the conversation and demonstrates baseline industry knowledge by noting IBM's acquisition of BigFix. The guests detail how legacy IT management architecture failed to keep up with modern nation-state cyberattacks.6:51–9:10 · The host pushing back 0/10 The Live Tanium Pitch and Pitch Room Reaction The host asks Sinofsky to describe Tanium's initial pitch room demo at Andreessen Horowitz. Sinofsky shares how Orion demonstrated live querying capabilities that astonished the venture partners.9:10–13:42 · The host pushing back 0/10 Technical Deep Dive into Linear Peer-to-Peer Ring Architecture The host asks targeted questions regarding system overhead and how to uncover unknown security risks. Orion and Sinofsky educate the room on linear peer-to-peer ring architecture and real-time processing of Indicators of Compromise.13:42–15:58 · The host pushing back 0/10 Real-World Incident Response and the Heartbleed Case Study The host prompts a real-world case study on the Heartbleed vulnerability. Orion and Sinofsky explain how Tanium enabled instant enterprise-wide remediation while legacy tools left organizations guessing for days.15:58–18:34 · The host pushing back 0/10 The Future of Network Scale, IoT, and Real-Time Systems Management The host asks how network management architectures must evolve for future scale. Orion outlines extending linear peer-to-peer communication across billions of lightweight IoT devices.

speaking balance: gold is the host, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · the host 0% · guest 100%0:00 · the host 0% · guest 100%3:00 · the host 0% · guest 100%3:00 · the host 0% · guest 100%6:00 · the host 0% · guest 100%6:00 · the host 0% · guest 100%9:00 · the host 0% · guest 100%9:00 · the host 0% · guest 100%12:00 · the host 0% · guest 100%12:00 · the host 0% · guest 100%15:00 · the host 0% · guest 100%15:00 · the host 0% · guest 100%18:00 · the host 0% · guest 100%18:00 · the host 0% · guest 100%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 8:36 Sinofsky tests Orion with USB query

In a completely collaborative promotional interview, the closest moment to tension is Sinofsky recalling how he attempted to stump Orion during the pitch demo with a difficult live USB memory query.

 Hardest push from the host ▶ 4:25 Host framing question on legacy IT systems

The host gently steers the direction of the discussion, asserting that older tools were built for a completely different world and asking the guest to validate that premise.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 9:11 Orion explains ring architecture vs hub-and-spoke

Orion breaks down why traditional centralized database polling fails at scale and how local LAN aggregation enables real-time synchronous querying.

 The host holds their own ▶ 4:25 Host brings up IBM acquisition context

The host demonstrates domain background by citing IBM's acquisition of BigFix and framing the historical context of enterprise systems management.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicThe host as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementThe host pushing backWhy
Legacy IT Management Limitations and the Security Gap 3301 The host facilitates the conversation and demonstrates baseline industry knowledge by noting IBM's acquisition of BigFix. The guests detail how legacy IT management architecture failed to keep up with modern nation-state cyberattacks.
The Live Tanium Pitch and Pitch Room Reaction 1200 The host asks Sinofsky to describe Tanium's initial pitch room demo at Andreessen Horowitz. Sinofsky shares how Orion demonstrated live querying capabilities that astonished the venture partners.
Technical Deep Dive into Linear Peer-to-Peer Ring Architecture 3400 The host asks targeted questions regarding system overhead and how to uncover unknown security risks. Orion and Sinofsky educate the room on linear peer-to-peer ring architecture and real-time processing of Indicators of Compromise.
Real-World Incident Response and the Heartbleed Case Study 2200 The host prompts a real-world case study on the Heartbleed vulnerability. Orion and Sinofsky explain how Tanium enabled instant enterprise-wide remediation while legacy tools left organizations guessing for days.
The Future of Network Scale, IoT, and Real-Time Systems Management 2200 The host asks how network management architectures must evolve for future scale. Orion outlines extending linear peer-to-peer communication across billions of lightweight IoT devices.

Statements from this episode (6)

Assertion Partly supported
Sinofsky: Legacy systems like BigFix take days for network inventories
“Like big fix is the state of the art and for a network that size, you're looking at three, four, five day turnarounds.”
Steven Sinofsky Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 4:09
Opinion
Hindawi: Antivirus and firewalls fail against modern insider and APT attacks
“Antivirus falls in that category, firewalls fall in that category. You know, they just are not effective against the insider threat and advanced persistent threat that our customers are facing.”
Orion Hindawi Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 5:22
Assertion Contradicted
Hindawi: Tanium agent uses 0.1% CPU and 7MB RAM
“Yeah.1% CPU, so 0.1% CPU. On a tiny little run time, that's what, like, a mega, you know, two meg installer, seven meg of RAM, 10 meg on disk.”
Orion Hindawi Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 10:44
Assertion Partly supported
Hindawi: Tanium runs on ATMs, POS systems, and heart rate monitors
“So the beauty of this whole thing is it's so lightweight, you can actually put it in VMs. We have people who are putting it on process controllers and ATMs and point of sale devices and the heart rate monitors.”
Orion Hindawi Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 10:54
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Hindawi: Tanium queries enterprise OpenSSL versions across all endpoints in 15 seconds
“Our customers literally could ask an English language question. Tell me all the machines and versions of open SSL for every machine that's got open SSL across the environment and get an answer back in 15 seconds.”
Orion Hindawi Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 13:55
Insight
Sinofsky: Every major corporate CEO is effectively an IT executive
“You know, every CEO of every major corporation is now effectively an IT person. Because every company in Software Eats the World is really a software company.”
Steven Sinofsky Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 15:42
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