Vijayalayan Sadanandham
Technical Product Manager
Hard work, humility, learning and travel: Flipping through the pages of Vijayalayan’s Cross Identity tenure
There is no substitute for hard work that is coupled with unwavering faith. Vijayalayan represents this with grace.
Vijay holds a B.E and an MBA. He has been with Cross Identity for the last 8 years. Starting out as a Senior Consultant and then going on to be a Security Architect, today he is the Technical Product Manager for our product, Identity Plus. He is (ISC)² Certified Information Systems Security Professional” (CISSP).
Vijay describes his life as a series of ups and downs, wherein he has worked hard to overcome all the curveballs life threw at him. At the same time though, he never forgets to enjoy the simple things in life – be it a stroll on the beach, some good cinema or a hearty game or two.
Cross Identity Journey
On his Cross Identity journey, he says that every project here brings new challenges which give him ample learning opportunities. He gets to work on a lot of cutting-edge technology, which when combined with the right amount of support and guidance from his peers has made his journey truly exciting.
He works on the end-to-end lifecycle of most of his projects—requirement gathering, architecture, design, development, customization, implementation, testing and hand over. He is involved in a project from the first day to its date of completion. As a result, he has both the exposure and expertise to handle the entire lifecycle of a project. He has been a key player in several implementations of Identity Management, Access Management, Identity Federation, Privileged Identity Management, Access Governance solutions amongst others.
He says, “I love new challenges at work as well as the learning they lead to. I get easily bored with monotonous tasks but at Cross Identity, I’ve always had the opportunity to be a part of new projects. In the 8 years here, I’ve had the chance to implement different solutions. Besides, every project is different from the other and each one presents steep learning curves.”
Team spirit, and constant learning
When asked on his thoughts about his team, he says, “Not to brag, but each member of my team brings something unique to the table. They’re all dedicated and are willing to go that extra mile. They contribute to their fair share of the workload while fully understanding their responsibilities. They are always happy to assist others.”
Vijay constantly strives to stay updated with technology and says improving technical skill is an ongoing endeavor. He believes that there is no substitute for hands-on learning. He’s a believer in ownership and likes it when one can take up the whole project from start to finish and then understand the flow and all the risks that it comes with. He says, “If you get hung up, do your own research to try to fix the issue yourself before you seek help from others”.
Like he rightly points out, we all inevitably face challenges at work. But his belief in being steadfast is laudable. He says, “If you have a positive attitude and put your best effort, eventually you will overcome any test that you may face. I never give up, no matter how hard the challenges are and how many times I fail.”
When asked about his aspirations for both himself and Cross Identity, he says, “I would like to develop my skillsets in Enterprise Information Security and Cyber Security as a member of (ISC)² -CISSP. I believe that Identity Plus is going to be one of the major players in the IAM Industry in the near future and we are constantly working in that direction”
Parting words and more
As someone with rich experience and understanding of industries, he has words of wisdom for his juniors, “Cross Identity allows you to learn and grow with excellent guidance. Management cares deeply about its employees and works towards employees’ professional growth, based on their potential. They place a lot of faith in their juniors as well and are willing to assign high-visibility projects to them, which gives them the right platform to grow in the organization.”
An avid traveler, he has visited multiple cities in India and has travelled far and wide to different places, including, Singapore, Malaysia, and the US. He recounts his first trip to the US from Cross Identity for an implementation project, “Ordering anything to eat or buying anything was a nightmare at that point. There were way too many choices! Plus, as new visitors, we tend to convert dollars into rupees and feel like everything is overpriced. It took a long time to get rid of that habit and having lived abroad for long enough now, I now look back to those days and feel both humbled and happy.” With this one little anecdote, Vijay sure talks a lot about both humble beginnings and adapting to new ways.
Vijay has truly been an integral part of Cross Identity and continues to be so. His dedication and efforts have been inspiring to all of us. We strive to constantly learn from you and grow together.
