Sankar Ganesh

Allianz SE is the world’s largest insurance company and financial services group headquartered in Germany. Allianz Technology SE is the internal IT services provider for the whole Allianz Group and provides Allianz group companies worldwide with in-house services in the fields of IT infrastructure, applications, and business services.

I started as a Technical Architect (Level 1) since July 2013. I got promoted as a Technical Architect (Level 2) in April 2017, Senior Manager in April 2021 and the as a Group Manager in April 2023.

During this phase of my career in Allianz, I have got excellent international exposure and have worked with clients from multiple regions and countries across the world. Have been to multiple countries like Germany, France, Romania, Thailand, Spain, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Dubai and Australia, worked with the Allianz Operational entities and have Designed and Implemented Security Solutions in those countries. I have also remotely performed Security Consulting, Implementations and migrations for Clients in Canada, Singapore, US, New Zealand, Portugal, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Sri Lanka, Morocco, Egypt, Taiwan, France, Italy, etc.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Network Security Architecture and Consulting
• Global Head of SDWAN Service Delivery (Transitions, Projects, Migrations and Operations) for the Allianz Group, spread across 1100+ locations globally.
• Regional Head of APAC Data Centre Network Service Delivery (Projects and Operations) for the Date Centre LAN (Switches and Load Balancers) for the Allianz DCs and Hosted Carrier Neutral Colocation DCs in Asia Pacific.
• Part of the Global Network and Security Architects community, defining the roadmap for Security and Network services and deployments for the Allianz Group.
• Take part in Commercial and Technical reviews with Customers, Commercial Teams and Vendors and provide inputs to come up with an optimal solution within acceptable costs. Perform Commercial reviews for BoMs, Change Requests and provide approvals.
• RFQ, RFP, Proposal reviews, Vendor shortlisting, Contract negotiation, Commercial reviews and Contract finalization with Integrator.
• Represent the Central AGN Networks and Security Architecture in Customer Workshops and present the Global AGN Solution to Customers.
• Participate in customer account review meetings and work on strategies for improvement in Service Delivery of Network and Security Operations
• Performing appraisal reviews and planning the road map for the team.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Network Security Architecture and Consulting
• End to end transition of AGN Global SDWAN Service from an external vendor to Allianz Technology
• Global Head of SDWAN Service Delivery (Transitions, Projects, Migrations and Operations) for Allianz Group, spread across 1100+ locations globally.
• Represent Central AGN Networks and Security Architecture in Customer Workshops and present the Global AGN Solution to Customers.
• Participate in customer account review meetings and work on strategies for improvement in Service Delivery of Network and Security Operations
• Performing appraisal reviews and planning road map for the team.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Regional Head of APAC Security Services (Projects and Operations of Firewalls, Proxies and Remote Access services across APAC Allianz Data Centres and Hosted Carrier Neutral Colocation DCs).
• RFQ, RFP, Proposal reviews, Vendor shortlisting, Contract negotiation, Commercial reviews and Contract finalization with Integrator
• Contribute as part of Central Security Architects group for defining roadmap and perform evaluations for next generation Security services and deployments for the Group.
• Build and support Equinix based Cloud Interconnect solutions
• Take part in Commercial and Technical reviews with Customers, Commercial Teams and Vendors and provide inputs to come up with optimal solution within acceptable costs. Perform Commercial reviews for BoMs, Change Requests and provide approvals.
• Lead Design and build activities of shared Security services like Proxies, Remote Access Services, Partner Services, etc. for Central AGN Services in APAC and manage migrations of these Internet services.
• Played key role in deployment of Cisco ISE based Profiling and Segregation solution globally for inter – entity segregation.
• Participate in customer account review meetings and work on strategies for improvement in Service Delivery of Network and Security Operations
• Performing appraisal reviews and planning road map for the team.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Work with different Allianz Entities from different countries, understand their environment and design/implement solutions in order to achieve a smooth and secure migration to the Global AGN network
• Perform Security Assessments for new Operational entities and On-boarding with relevant mitigation mechanisms in place. Provide recommendations, Consulting and support Re-design of current setup to incorporate AGN connectivity.
• Design and build Security infrastructure (primarily Firewalls) to securely onboard Allianz Entities on to AGN Global solution.
• Perform Integrator Design reviews and provide approvals. Ensure implementations are performed in line with Allianz Security standards and policies.
• Training/mentoring team members and Performing appraisal reviews and planning road map for the team.
• Collaborated with clients to determine project specifications and scope

Worked as the Delivery Lead for the account KPMG International, managing the Network and Security Operations for the client KPMG International.

• Firewalls – Checkpoint on GAIA / Nokia / SPLAT, Cisco ASA 5500 series, Cisco FWSM
• Proxies and Web Filters – Blue Coat Proxy Switches – Cisco 6500 switches
• Load Balancers – F5

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Team Management of the Network and Security Operations Team which consisted of L1, L2 and L3 engineers
• Technical consulting, Performing relevant troubleshooting for Escalated issues and Projects until closure
• Work on new requirements of the Customer and design and solutions as per Customer needs
• Be part of all critical issues and provide technical guidance to the team, and take ownership till resolution
• Liaise with other Cross Functional domains and Project Managers for critical issues and contribute for the solution
• Main interface with the Global Delivery Center to ensure that the services as agreed in SLA are delivered through coordination of resources and technical ownership for the account
• Participate in customer account review meetings and work on strategies for improvement in Service Delivery of Network and Security Operations
• Analyzing and Preparing RCA (Root Cause Analysis) for critical outages in the account and providing the necessary corrective and preventive measures for preventing similar issues in future

Started in Wipro as L2 Engineer, grew to a L3-Engineer and then got promoted as a Technical Specialist in Wipro’s GSMC (Global Services Management Center) providing Managed Security Services support for about 40+ customers in the APAC region. I have supported a wide range of Technologies like Firewalls, Mail Gateways, Proxies, URL Filters, URL Scanners, IDS/IPS, Authentication Devices, VPNs, etc. across almost all the leading vendors in those Technologies.

• Firewalls – Checkpoint on Nokia/SPLAT/Windows, Cisco ASA 5500 series, Cisco PIX, Juniper SSG and NS series boxes, Fortigate Firewalls, Cyber Guard, Nortel Contivity and Watch Guard Firewalls
• Proxies and Web Filters – Microsoft ISA, Blue Coat Proxy, Trend Micro IWSS, Websense, Surf Control, Proventia Web Filter, Blue Coat AV and Wingate Proxies Mail Gateways – Cisco Iron Port, Symantec Bright Mail, Trend Micro Viruswall, Message Labs and Trend Micro IMSS
• IDS/IPS – Cisco AIPSSM/IPS and Proventia IPS
• Authentication Technologies – Cisco ACS and Steel Belt Radius
• 
  

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Perform new product Evaluations, POCs and high-end implementations, Project transitions from Customer / Current provider to Wipro GSMC
• Planning and executing major migrations, implementations, and changes in co-ordination with System Integration and Enterprise Support Teams
• Working on incidents/changes/Problems escalated by Problem Management Team
• Installing, configuring, managing, and troubleshooting security products like Firewalls, Web and SMTP Gateway Filtering Products, Proxies, VPNs, IPS, IDS, Antivirus products for servers and desktops, Patch Management tools of customers
• Periodically auditing design and configurations of Security Products - recommend and implement the necessary Fine-tuning and hardening of the
• Product configurations
• Designing POA (Plan of Action) for any scheduled installation, up gradation, reconfiguration or maintenance activity. Preparing RCA (Root Cause Analysis) for various Problem calls handled and providing necessary corrective and preventive measures for preventing similar issues in future

Joined HCL through Campus Recruitment right after degree completion in May, 2005. I was placed as an on-site Managed Security Services engineer in a client location. I was managing day to day changes and incidents on Firewalls, Proxies, Antivirus Gateways, Mail and Web Gateways for the Customer.

• Firewalls – Checkpoint
• Proxy and Web Filter – Microsoft ISA and Websense
• Mail Gateways – Trend Micro IMSS and Trend Micro Virus Wall AV Gateways – Trend Micro Office Scan
• IDS/IPS – McAfee IPS, Symantec NIDS and Snort NIDS

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Installing, configuring, managing, and troubleshooting security products like Firewalls, VPNs, IPS, IDS, Web and SMTP Gateway Filtering Products, Antivirus products for servers and desktops, etc.
• Creating and applying access policies in Surf control and Websense.
• Implementing URL access and filtering rules based on category and protocol sets.
• Escalating and working with product vendors for unresolved issues and following up with them till closure.
• Managing and administering mails at gateway level with Trend micro IMSS. Allowing or blocking domain and email IDs in Heuristic spam filter, blocking mails based on message content, attachment size, keyword expressions.
• Creating new policies, filters sub filters, applying disclaimers as per request; managing Virus, Program and Quarantine logs.