From Idea to Outcome: How WWT Is Leading the AI Security Conversation at Scale
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<p class="p1">When it comes to helping the world’s largest enterprises navigate AI, cybersecurity and digital transformation, <a href="https://www.wwt.com/"><span class="s1">World Wide Technology</span></a> (WWT) isn’t just participating, it’s leading. With a global workforce of over 12,000, and a deep bench of trusted technology partners, WWT has positioned itself as a rare blend of scale, security expertise and hands-on innovation.</p><p class="p1">“Our customers are facing massive complexity, fragmented technology stacks, regulatory requirements across regions, and now the added challenge of securing AI,” said Chris Konrad, Vice President of Global Cyber at WWT. “They need a single trusted advisor to help them stitch it all together. That’s where WWT comes in.”</p><h3 class="p1"><b>Security Embedded in Everything</b></h3><p class="p1">Konrad emphasized that WWT doesn’t treat security as a separate conversation. “It’s embedded into everything we do and everything we sell,” he said. Whether the client is standing up a new collaboration suite, migrating data centers, or designing multi-cloud architectures, cybersecurity is an integral part of the design and deployment.</p><div class="code-block code-block-12 ai-track" data-ai="WzEyLCIiLCJCbG9jayAxMiIsIiIsMV0=" style="margin: 8px 0; clear: both;"> <style> .ai-rotate {position: relative;} .ai-rotate-hidden {visibility: hidden;} .ai-rotate-hidden-2 {position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;} .ai-list-data, .ai-ip-data, .ai-filter-check, .ai-fallback, .ai-list-block, .ai-list-block-ip, .ai-list-block-filter {visibility: hidden; position: absolute; width: 50%; height: 1px; top: -1000px; z-index: -9999; margin: 0px!important;} .ai-list-data, .ai-ip-data, .ai-filter-check, .ai-fallback {min-width: 1px;} </style> <div class="ai-rotate ai-unprocessed ai-timed-rotation ai-12-1" data-info="WyIxMi0xIiwyXQ==" style="position: relative;"> <div class="ai-rotate-option" style="visibility: hidden;" data-index="1" data-name="VGVjaHN0cm9uZyBHYW5nIFlvdXR1YmU=" data-time="MTA="> <div class="custom-ad"> <div style="margin: auto; text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/Fojn5NFwaw8" target="_blank"><img src="https://securityboulevard.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Techstrong-Gang-Youtube-PodcastV2-770.png" alt="Techstrong Gang Youtube"></a></div> <div class="clear-custom-ad"></div> </div></div> <div class="ai-rotate-option" style="visibility: hidden; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;" data-index="1" data-name="QVdTIEh1Yg==" data-time="MTA="> <div class="custom-ad"> <div style="margin: auto; text-align: center;"><a href="https://devops.com/builder-community-hub/?ref=in-article-ad-1&utm_source=do&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=in-article-ad-1" target="_blank"><img src="https://devops.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Gradient-1.png" alt="AWS Hub"></a></div> <div class="clear-custom-ad"></div> </div></div> </div> </div><p class="p1">This philosophy is underpinned by <a href="https://www.wwt.com/atc/atc/overview"><span class="s1">WWT’s Advanced Technology Center</span></a> (ATC), a billion-dollar innovation lab that allows clients to test solutions, validate performance, and simulate threats across five data centers and multiple cloud platforms. “We’ve hosted red teams, EDR bake-offs and real-world malware simulations,” Konrad said. “We don’t just recommend products, we validate them.”</p><h3 class="p1"><b>AI Security: The Next Frontier</b></h3><p class="p1">Kent Noyes, AVP of Global Cyber Architecture and Innovation at WWT, joined Konrad to highlight WWT’s growing focus on AI security. “The AI hype cycle is real, but the real work lies in making AI secure, scalable, and trustworthy,” Noyes said.</p><div class="code-block code-block-15" style="margin: 8px 0; clear: both;"> <script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-2091799172090865" crossorigin="anonymous" type="a8c55004b4d59bcb4bb80602-text/javascript"></script> <!-- SB In Article Ad 1 --> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-2091799172090865" data-ad-slot="8723094367" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins> <script type="a8c55004b4d59bcb4bb80602-text/javascript"> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script></div><p class="p1">According to Noyes, there are three top AI security priorities WWT sees from clients:</p><ol class="ol1"><li class="li1"><b>Securing the AI systems themselves</b>—protecting RAG Architectures, LLMs, APIs, model files and the data that they process.</li><li class="li1"><b>Securing how AI is used</b>—monitoring employee access to tools like ChatGPT and other external SaaS-powered AI platforms.</li><li class="li1"><b>Using AI to improve cybersecurity operations</b>—optimizing SIEM systems, firewall management, and alert triage with AI-driven automation.</li></ol><p class="p1">“There’s simply too much data for Security Operations Centers alone to process,” said Noyes. “AI isn’t here to replace analysts, it’s here to augment them.”</p><h3 class="p1"><b>Cutting Through the Noise</b></h3><p class="p1">The pair emphasized that digital transformation efforts often silo AI, cybersecurity and cloud strategies, ironically reinforcing the very barriers transformation is meant to dissolve. “Our goal is to break down those silos and align strategy across the C-suite,” Konrad said. “Security isn’t just the CISO’s job anymore. It’s an executive priority that touches everything from customer data to global compliance.”</p><p class="p1">The consequences of treating AI as a bolt-on technology, rather than integrating it with governance, are stark. Noyes cited numerous enterprise use cases where AI systems were deployed without governance, leading to surface account sprawl and privilege creep, prime territory for compromise and lateral movement by attackers.</p><p class="p1">“Governance is foundational,” Noyes said. “It’s not just about having the tools. It’s also about having the guardrails in place that encourage innovations but protect the business.</p><h3 class="p1"><b>Practical Innovation: From MLOps to MLSecOps</b></h3><p class="p1">Noyes stressed that securing AI requires a different kind of thinking. In the model lifecycle pipeline, for instance, the risks are unique. Malicious models from public repositories like Hugging Face can be downloaded and deployed without proper scanning. “We’re seeing customers build pipelines where model registries are scanned on ingest, access is tightly controlled, and provenance is verified,” he said.</p><p class="p1">WWT supports these efforts through automation tools that help map disparate frameworks (e.g. NIST, ISO, internal policies) into a single reference architecture. This makes it faster and easier for companies to apply consistent security postures across AI deployments. WWT is working to imbue security best practices into MLOps much like the DevOps community has done in the past.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><h3 class="p1"><b>A Global Strategy for a Fragmented World</b></h3><p class="p1">WWT’s global reach is a strategic asset in an age where data sovereignty, local regulations and geopolitical risk define enterprise priorities. From data centers in Amsterdam to engineering teams in Singapore and Mumbai, the company ensures compliance without sacrificing performance.</p><p class="p1">“We’ve seen firsthand how different the expectations are in Japan versus the U.K. or the U.S.,” said Konrad. “You get one shot in some of these markets. Our strength is that we’re already there, with local presence, local trust, and global perspective and a reputation for successful outcomes.”</p><h3 class="p1"><b>From Idea to Outcome: A Complete Lifecycle Partner</b></h3><p class="p1">WWT’s core value proposition is summed up in a simple phrase: <i>From idea to outcome.</i> Whether it’s deploying SD-WAN across 2,000 locations, building a secure AI assistant, or modernizing a data center, WWT takes ownership from strategy to execution. “Too many vendors just sell a license and walk away,” Konrad said. “We’re not one of them. We’re independent, we have a point of view, and we stick with you.”</p><p class="p1">To that end, WWT is investing $500 million to expand its AI capabilities through the newly announced AI Proving Ground, an extension of its ATC that lets customers stress-test AI workloads, validate infrastructure performance, and evaluate new use cases in a secure environment. “It’s like the Chevy Proving Grounds for AI,” joked Konrad. “We want to be the place where innovators and Wozniak-types can push the limits and see what works and what breaks.”</p><h3 class="p1"><b>Securing the Digital Supply Chain</b></h3><p class="p1">Konrad and Noyes also discussed the increasing importance of securing the digital supply chain. Since the <a href="https://www.nist.gov/itl/executive-order-14028-improving-nations-cybersecurity"><span class="s1">U.S. Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity in May 2021</span></a>, enterprise RFPs now routinely require vendors to show how they manage third-party risks, pen-test procedures, and software provenance. “Most of our customers don’t just want point solutions anymore,” said Konrad. “They want help navigating everything from their ecosystem Zero Trust to third-party risk to international compliance. That’s why we build relationships, not transactions.”</p><h3 class="p1"><b>Looking Ahead</b></h3><p class="p1">As the AI wave continues to accelerate, both leaders underscored the importance of education, readiness, and pragmatism. “We’ve gone from being part of the AI security conversation to leading it,” said Konrad. “That’s what makes WWT different, we’re not chasing buzzwords. We’ve been doing this for over a decade. Now we’re bringing it to the forefront.”</p><p class="p1">Noyes echoed that sentiment: “At the end of the day, we’re engineers, not just evangelists. We’re here to help our customers build smarter, safer, and faster.”</p><div class="spu-placeholder" style="display:none"></div>