… from Autonomous Systems to Critical Infrastructure and Next-Gen Enterprise IT Environments.
In a unique interview conducted inside a Waymo autonomous vehicle driving through San Francisco, Roy Chua and Galeal Zino explored how NetFoundry’s zero-trust networking technology is reshaping secure connectivity for critical infrastructure, autonomous systems, and next-gen enterprise IT environments.
Zino explained that NetFoundry enables the creation of private, secure global networks between any endpoints—ranging from autonomous vehicles and drones to APIs and edge devices—without relying on traditional VPNs, MPLS, or private APNs. By embedding identity, authentication, and encryption directly into endpoints via SDKs or agents, NetFoundry delivers zero-trust by design, even across public infrastructure.
Zino highlighted real-world deployments with Fortune 500 banks, critical infrastructure operators, and industrial automation firms. He emphasized that simplicity and embedded security are key to adoption, especially in use cases like Agentic AI, supply chain collaboration, and manufacturing digitization. NetFoundry’s recent funding from SYN Ventures will support further global expansion.
Major Topics with Timestamps
00:00 – 00:22: Introduction; San Francisco Waymo ride context
00:22 NetFoundry’s use in autonomous systems; emergency response scenario
01:39 – 02:11: The risks of centralized orchestration and cyberattacks
02:11 – 02:48: Zero-trust V2X solution with Lockheed Martin and Auburn University
02:48 – 03:33: Explaining NetFoundry to an enterprise CXO
03:33 – 04:18: Difference from VPNs and private APNs
04:18 – 05:35: Industry adoption: finance, healthcare, utilities, and military
05:35 – 07:29: Zero-trust by design; reversing traditional security models
07:29 – 08:05: Manufacturing and industrial automation use case (German OEM)
08:05 – 09:20: The real weakness: trust, identity, and key management
09:20 – 10:26: Sovereign key model; customer-controlled encryption keys
10:26 – 11:21: NetFoundry’s expansion beyond early adopters (retail, hospitality)
11:21 – 12:36: Application-specific networks for AI and data sovereignty
12:36 – 13:21: Reflections on San Francisco’s complexity and analogies to networking
13:21 – 16:12: How to deploy NetFoundry (SDK, agents, gateways); embeddable ZTNA
16:12 – 17:02: Per-application policy enforcement and supply chain security
17:02 – 19:05: Zero-trust gateways for cloud VPCs (AWS, Azure, GCP)
19:05 – 20:26: Just-in-time access models; avoiding legacy IP-based identity
20:26 – 22:08: Overlaying ZTNA on top of TCP/IP; recent venture funding
22:08 – 23:37: Global expansion strategy; importance of simplicity and investor alignment
https://ngi.fyi/enroute-netfoundry-galealroy2
- NetFoundry, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, is a software-defined networking company specializing in zero-trust networking-as-a-service. Its platform enables businesses to create private, secure, and high-performance application-specific networks over the public Internet without requiring traditional VPNs or MPLS. NetFoundry’s core technology is built on open-source initiatives, notably OpenZiti, which the company stewards to foster a developer-friendly and programmable networking model. The company was spun out of Tata Communications in 2016 and is led by CEO Galeal Zino, who previously served in leadership roles at EarthLink and Cbeyond. NetFoundry’s solutions are used in sectors ranging from industrial IoT to secure remote access and embedded networking for SaaS providers. The firm partners with major cloud providers including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, and its technology is integrated into platforms such as Microsoft IoT Plug and Play.