People Behind DriveNets: Shunsuke Sasaki

“The People Behind” is a blog series meant to share stories of the amazing individuals behind DriveNets. From developers and engineers to sales managers, we’ll get to the heart of the team behind the disruption of the networking industry, so you can get to know them a little better!   

This week, meet Shunsuke Sasaki. Shunsuke is a Senior Pre-sales Engineer with many years of providing technical solutions for network innovation. He has put a strong emphasis on network virtualization and automation, joining DriveNets after more than 13 years at Cisco. 

What brought you to DriveNets?    

Shunsuke arrived at DriveNets from Cisco. “My previous manager at Cisco had joined DriveNets 3 months before me,” Shunsuke said, “He introduced me to DriveNets, explaining what DriveNets is doing with disaggregation how they are using software-based solutions with the hardware technology of today, and that DriveNets could do in the networking space what VMware did for compute and storage.” 

What are your job responsibilities now?    

Shunsuke serves DriveNets as a senior pre-sales engineer, focusing on tier-1 service providers in Japan. 

“I get to propose the DriveNets solution to customers, sharing with them the model for running the network on software.” 

This gives also Shunsuke the opportunity to also work on localized technical marketing projects like blog writing as well as be involved at local industry events like Interop. For example, Shunsuke has been a strong contributor in the new DriveNets Blog in Japanese.

Why should Service Providers prefer the DriveNets solution over the competition?    

Service providers understand that in order to survive and keep growing profitably, they must do something different. This means converting their hardware-based infrastructure to software. “Basically service providers understand they need to change,” said Shunsuke, “they need to change the way they build and operate networks to improve their profitability and reduce costs.” 

The solution is to build and operate networks like cloud providers, such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and more. They solved the same issues, as service providers are facing. Hyperscalers developed a cloud computing infrastructure that can grow efficiently to address customer demands both in terms of resources and services -offering better network quality. Competition is coming from the incumbent vendors. “DriveNets competes with the traditional product and the business model, and the service providers prefer DriveNets over the traditional vendors,” he added.

What is the most exciting part of working in DriveNets?    

DriveNets is a flat organization.  

“I get to have weekly project call with Ido, our CEO,” said Shunsuke, “I can talk to the CEO every week. That’s not so usual by other B2B companies.” 

The company isn’t weighed down by many layers of hierarchy. “Everyone in the company has a startup mindset, and brings a ‘can do’ spirit – ready for the challenge!”

How do you like to start your working day?    

Shunsuke is the first one to wake up. He starts his day by making breakfast for the whole family.  

Do you have a favorite quote?   

“If you do not enter the tiger’s cave, you will not catch its cub.”
“虎穴に入らずんば虎子を得ず”

Japanese proverb 

What are three things people don’t know about you?  

• Going on long bike riding treks 
• Train trips – both long and even slow local trips, going to the far end of the  Japanese peninsula 
• Played the tuba in high school/university – hopefully will resume in near future