Meet Jesse Ralston, NetSec CTO, Palo Alto Networks

Jesse joined Palo Alto Networks in 2008 as a Software Engineer in the Platform team. Since then, he has held various leadership roles managing PAN-OS and Cloud Delivery Security Services Engineering and Product teams. He is currently the NetSec CTO, focusing on forward-looking technologies including new security offerings, AI security, and the use of AI in products. Prior to joining Palo Alto Networks, he was a Software Engineer doing platform development at Cisco Systems.

In this episode, we talk about the hackathons at Palo Alto Networks, how they are set up, and the desired outcomes. We talked about the judging criteria that involve: How innovative is the product? Could it be a real product? How well was the work done during the hackathon? Is it a cross-functional project? How well was the project presented? We also discussed how to increase software development velocity. According to Jesse, the number one challenge is reducing latency: getting everybody in the same room from the different teams that the project depends on. We discussed the importance of cross-team commitment and the use of “war rooms” to facilitate collaboration and reduce latency.