How do you secure a world where trusted internal traffic now travels over the public internet? That's the question I put to Doug Merritt, CEO of Aviatrix, in this thought-provoking conversation recorded for Tech Talks Daily. Doug brings decades of experience from his time leading Splunk and other major technology players, and he now finds himself at the forefront of reshaping how enterprises think about cloud security.

We discuss why the cybersecurity landscape is more treacherous than ever, especially as AI accelerates both defense and attack capabilities. Doug explains why the old "castle and moat" mindset no longer applies in the age of cloud workloads, where perimeters are atomized and workloads are ephemeral. He outlines how identity, endpoint, and network security form a three-legged stool—yet too many organizations focus on one leg while neglecting the others.

Doug also shares why embedding protection directly into the network fabric changes the rules for defending the cloud, and how his team at Aviatrix is helping companies close dangerous visibility gaps. We explore the rise of agentic AI, the growing sophistication of lateral movement attacks, and why even trusted identities can pose risk in distributed environments. As we look to the future, Doug argues that the path forward is clear: build on strong foundations, simplify the noise, and make network visibility a first-class citizen in enterprise defense.

What do you think—are most organizations ready to shift from bolted-on tools to truly embedded cloud security? I'd love to hear your thoughts after listening.

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