Brands
Harish Shriyan elevated as Omnicom Media Group CEO
MUMBAI: Omnicom Media Group India COO Harish Shriyan has been elevated as chief executive officer. In his latest capacity, Shriyan will now be in charge of the performance of the group’s four offices in the country and will drive the company’s expansion process to meet the demands of new growth.
Shriyan has been associated with the group since its establishment in India in 2007 and has been serving as the chief operating officer since 2013, Shriyan has developed an unrivalled understanding of its agencies’ niche offerings amidst a highly competitive marketplace. In this new capacity, Shriyan will work closely with the leadership of OMD and PHD, namely Priti Murthy and Jyoti Bansal respectively, fueling the agencies’ continued growth, driving digital transformation and innovation for its clients, and delivering exceptional performance in the Indian market.
Omnicom Media Group CEO South East Asia and India Torie Henderson says, “Over the past decade, Shriyan has played an integral role in establishing Omnicom Media Group’s presence in the Indian market. This promotion is a testament to his hard work and dedication over the years, as well as the respect and trust he has earned from our staff, clients and partners. He has a clear mandate to drive innovation, digital transformation and performance for our clients and I am delighted that he has risen to this challenge.”
Harish Shriyan adds, “Having been with the group for just over a decade, the agencies and its people have become like family and I can’t think of a better place or team to be a part of. I am excited to take on this new challenge and work closely with our talented management team on the next chapter for our agencies, especially at a time when the media and marketing landscape is transforming so rapidly and profoundly. There has never been a more exciting time to work in the industry, with emerging opportunities allowing us to make an even bigger impact on our clients’ brands. I look forward to raising the bar even further for our agencies, our people and our clients.”
Brands
Google completes $32 billion Wiz deal to boost AI and cloud security
Wiz joins Google Cloud but keeps multi-cloud support across rival platforms
NEW YORK: Google has completed its $32 billion acquisition of cloud security company Wiz, marking the biggest deal in the tech giant’s history and signalling a major push to strengthen security in the era of artificial intelligence and multi-cloud computing.
The New York-headquartered cybersecurity firm will join Google Cloud while continuing to operate under the Wiz brand. Crucially, the company will maintain support for multiple cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud, reflecting the reality that most large organisations run their systems across several cloud providers.
Google said the acquisition is designed to help organisations build and scale applications more securely as businesses and governments increasingly move critical systems and data to the cloud. At the same time, the rapid adoption of generative AI has introduced new cybersecurity risks, with attackers also using AI to launch faster and more sophisticated attacks.
Wiz has built a reputation for simplifying cloud security. Its platform maps entire cloud environments, identifying vulnerabilities, potential attack paths and misconfigurations before they can be exploited. By connecting insights from code, cloud infrastructure and runtime environments, it allows security and engineering teams to detect and fix risks early in the development cycle.
Bringing Wiz into Google Cloud will create what the company describes as a unified security platform capable of detecting, preventing and responding to threats across cloud and AI environments. The combined offering will also integrate Google’s own security capabilities, including threat intelligence tools, security operations platforms and the cybersecurity expertise of Mandiant.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the move reflects the growing importance of security as more organisations rely on AI and cloud technologies. “Keeping people safe online has always been part of Google’s mission,” he said, adding that the partnership will help organisations innovate with greater confidence.
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, said the goal is to make security an enabler rather than a roadblock for businesses building modern applications. He noted that the combined technologies will simplify the complex task of protecting hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
For Wiz, the acquisition opens the door to global scale while keeping its core philosophy intact. Co-founder and CEO Assaf Rappaport said the company remains committed to an open, multi-cloud approach and will continue supporting customers regardless of where their workloads run.
Over the past year, Wiz has expanded its platform to address emerging risks tied to AI applications, including tools that help organisations monitor AI usage, detect AI-specific vulnerabilities and secure AI workloads during runtime.
With Google’s infrastructure, artificial intelligence capabilities and security ecosystem now behind it, Wiz plans to accelerate development of its platform while continuing to serve enterprises, governments and start-ups operating across different cloud environments.
For Google Cloud, the acquisition adds a powerful piece to its security puzzle as competition intensifies among global cloud providers. For customers, it promises a future where building fast in the cloud does not have to come at the expense of staying secure.
