Aryaka Taps Google Cloud Leader Shailesh Shukla As New CEO

The SASE specialist's new CEO comes armed with more than 25 years of experience in cloud, networking, and cybersecurity, having worked for the likes of Google Cloud and Cisco Systems.

Aryaka officially has a new leader at a time when the stakes are getting high for players in the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) market.

The SASE specialist has brought on former Google Cloud Vice President Shailesh Shukla as its CEO and chairman, effective immediately.

Shukla is taking the reins from Darin McAreavey, who has filled in as the company's interim CEO and CFO. McAreavey took over for Matt Carter, who served as Aryaka's president and CEO from 2018 until August 2023. Carter has since moved on to IT service provider Intrado where he was named CEO in October.

Shukla, for his part, joined Aryaka as an independent board member in September, serving as Aryaka's executive chairman of the board.

Shukla is no stranger to the tech space with more than 25 years of experience in cloud, networking, and cybersecurity. Before his sabbatical in which he helped his partners by splitting time between the Bay Area and India, he served as vice president and general manager at Google Cloud for three and a half years where he helped build the multibillion-dollar networking and security business at the tech giant. Before his time at Google, Shukla spent a year as vice president and general manager for IT firm Neustar, and before that, he was chief operating officer for CDN provider Instart Logic, which is now part of Akamai, for three years. He also worked for Cisco Systems for more than five years, with his most recent role being vice president and general manager for the company's software and applications group.

Shukla is taking the Aryaka job at a time when interest around SASE is peaking. Channel partners are helping their customers secure increasingly complex and distributed applications that are running on hybrid and data-center based IT infrastructures, and end users are geographically dispersed. Aryaka's managed SASE and SD-WAN offerings help to combine networking and security, backed by its global private network, according to the San Mateo, Calif.-based company.

The tech veteran in his new role as CEO is ready to work hand-in-hand with the channel, Shukla told CRN via email.

“Enterprise customers rely on their channel partners to suggest, deliver, and manage real-world solutions to the challenges of providing reliable, high-performance security and networking capabilities for distributed applications and users. In turn, we rely on and partner with the channels. I personally have had the benefit of working closely with enterprise channel partners at Cisco and Juniper and know the value of those relationships,” he said. “As the new CEO of Aryaka, I am looking forward to a collaborative, solutions-oriented and economically attractive set of relationships.”