449: Cybersecurity and the New CMO Profile with Brian Goldfarb, CMO of SolarWinds

Brian Goldfarb is the Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at SolarWinds . After earning his A.B. in Computer Science and Economics from Duke University , Brian initially explored a career on Wall Street but soon transitioned to product management at Microsoft , marking the start of his two-decade journey in the tech industry. At Google , Brian played a key role in launching the Cloud Platform. He later led platform marketing at Salesforce , and before joining SolarWinds, he served as CMO at both Splunk and Tenable . Now, after nearly a year with SolarWinds, Brian oversees the company’s global marketing strategy, covering its industry-leading observability, database, and service management solutions.

SolarWinds is a leading IT management software provider that helps businesses monitor and manage their IT infrastructure, applications, and networks. Known for its user-friendly and scalable solutions, SolarWinds serves a broad range of industries, focusing on identifying and resolving IT challenges. SolarWinds continues to deliver solutions that empower IT professionals to maintain reliable and secure environments.

In today’s show, Alan and Brian dive into cybersecurity, discussing SolarWinds and the solutions they offer. They examine the major cybersecurity incident that impacted both the company and the industry and how SolarWinds successfully recovered from it. Additionally, they explore what marketing looks like at SolarWinds, how the role of CMO has evolved, and what we should consider about the future of this role.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Insights for successfully recovering from a massive cyberattack
• Tips for creating a strong marketing structure
• The profile of the modern CMO and how it has evolved

Key Highlights:

• [01:15] Brush with fame on a game show
• [03:08] Career path to CMO at SolarWinds
• [05:29] Story behind Kubernetes 
• [07:23] Scope of SolarWinds
• [10:39] Recovering from a massive cyberattack
• [14:25] How marketing is structured at SolarWinds
• [15:52] What CMO role should be focused on
• [17:56] How the CMO role interacts with the rest of the team 
• [21:20] “Lack of novelty is not a bad thing”
• [27:30] An experience from your past that defines you
• [30:24] Advice to your younger self
• [31:36] A topic that you and other marketers need to learn more about
• [33:11] Trends or subcultures others should follow
• [36:30] OOH Advertising’s impact internally 
• [37:30] Largest opportunity or threat to marketers today

Visit our website for links to resources mentioned in this episode and ways to connect with the guest!