SolarWinds is a company that provides IT management software that helps organizations monitor and manage the performance and health of their entire IT environment, including networks, servers, applications, and databases, across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid deployments. Pulse 2.0 interviewed SolarWinds CMO Brian Goldfarb to gain a deeper understanding of the company.
Brian Goldfarb’s Background
Can you tell us more about your background? Goldfarb said:
“My journey into marketing wasn’t exactly planned. I started out as an engineer, but early on someone redirected me—thankfully—and said, “Hey, you should check out product management.” This actually turned out to be product marketing. At the time, that term barely existed in a real way, and I thought, “No way, I’m an engineer.” But they were right, and that decision launched my career in a direction I never anticipated.”
“From there, I spent 10 years at Microsoft, where I worked on developer tools and eventually Windows Azure, which really got me into the cloud space. From there, I had the opportunity to go to Google, where I helped launch the Google Cloud Platform—an amazing experience that taught me a lot about bold thinking and building from scratch.”
“After, I spent time at Salesforce learning directly from Marc Benioff, which was like going to the B2B marketing masterclass, before moving into security and infrastructure marketing at Splunk and Tenable. I even tried the startup route, which gave me a new appreciation for scale, leadership, and how personal things can get when founders are involved. All of that led me to SolarWinds, an incredible brand with a great opportunity to write a new chapter.”
“As CMO, I lead all aspects of marketing globally—demand generation, brand, communications, analyst relations, and everything in between—but what really gets me out of bed in the morning is change.”
“At SolarWinds, we’re not just talking about product launches or campaign rollouts. We’re in the middle of a full-scale brand transformation. We’re moving from being known as a toolbox provider to a modern SaaS platform. That takes more than messaging. It’s about rewiring how the organization sees itself, how we talk to our customers, and how we show up in the market.”
“Internally, I’m building a team and a culture that’s agile, reflective, and relentlessly focused on our customers. Externally, I’m communicating clearly, authentically, and in a way that connects with the people who’ve trusted us for decades—as well as the ones just meeting us now.”
Exciting Aspect Of Work
What excites you most about your work right now? Goldfarb reflected:
“What really inspires me is how our AI-powered incident response platform is changing the game for IT teams. We’re now at a point where customers can start receiving actionable insights—and even automated recommendations—before a human even logs into their systems.”
“This is helping us reduce time-to-resolution from hours to minutes, and in some cases, from minutes to seconds. When you’re an IT pro on call at 3:00 a.m. and your phone’s blowing up, that matters. We want to be the platform that makes your life easier, your response faster, and your customer’s experience better. We’re seeing that happen more and more.”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges, and how did you overcome them? Goldfarb acknowledged:
“One of the biggest ongoing challenges has been rebuilding trust and evolving our platform following the cybersecurity incident in 2021. That moment reshaped how customers think about resilience and forced us to ask: How can we help them respond to issues faster, smarter, and with more confidence?”
“That’s what led us to acquire Squadcast and launch SolarWinds Incident Management. It wasn’t about adding a tool—it was about closing the loop between observability, service management, and real-time action. Customers don’t just want alerts—they want intelligent, automated responses.”
“Now we can give them that within a single, integrated portfolio to maximize operational resilience by correlating alerts, improving decision-making, and accelerating issue resolution. This unified approach, powered by SolarWinds AI, enhances performance, availability, and control across complex hybrid IT ecosystems.”
“I see that as a clear signal: we’re not just recovering—we’re building something better. And we’re doing it in a way that meets the real-world needs of modern IT teams.”
Customer Success Stories
When asking Goldfarb about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“One moment that stands out happened in an email campaign for a product launch. We got a lot of replies—many of them not very kind, to be honest. A lot of skepticism. One customer, a CIO, sent a pretty frustrated message on a Saturday morning. I personally responded to her. No assistants. No bots. Just me.”
“Ironically—and a little poetically—her organization was having a system outage that very day. Our rep followed up and offered support, noticing their systems were down. That whole sequence—the initial complaint, our proactive outreach, and the help we offered in real time—was this perfect moment of walking the talk. To me, that’s what being customer-centric really looks like.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates SolarWinds from its competition? Goldfarb affirmed:
“What really sets us apart is our roots. We’re a practitioner-first company. Our software is built for the IT pros who are in the trenches every day. And after the SUNBURST incident in 2021, we didn’t run or point fingers—we took responsibility. We learned. We improved. And now we’re helping the industry do the same. That kind of honesty and resilience is rare in tech.”
“Right now, we’re one of the only companies bringing together observability, service management, and incident response into a single, unified platform. That vertical integration gives us a real edge. Most of our competitors can do one or two of those things—very few can do all three, especially with the depth and affordability we offer.”
Future Goals
What are SolarWinds’ future goals? Goldfarb emphasized:
“We’re in the middle of a transformation—moving from a toolbox model to a fully modern SaaS platform. We’ve already launched our new platform, and we’re continuing to expand our capabilities across AI, automation, and data integration.”
“But there’s another goal that’s just as critical: changing how people think about us. A lot of folks still see SolarWinds as that tool they used 10 years ago in their server room. That’s not who we are today. We’re building enterprise-grade platforms that can scale with modern IT environments—from hybrid to cloud-native. Changing perception is hard, but it’s the key to unlocking our next chapter.”
Lesson Learned
What is the most important lesson you’ve learned? Goldfarb concluded:
“Transformation is hard. I’ve learned (sometimes the hard way) that leading through change isn’t just about having a great plan. It’s about how you treat people during the process. You have to honor the past, even while you push for the future. If you walk into a new organization and tell people everything they did before was wrong, you lose them.”
“Creating psychological safety is critical. People need space to reflect, question decisions, and evolve without fear. I try to foster that. And I’ve found that when people trust you—when you’re consistent, fair, and human—they’ll follow you through even the toughest transitions.”
“Also, as an executive, I’ll say this: it gets lonely. You’re not really part of the team in the same way. So, I value my peer groups and external networks a lot. And yeah, I’ve got a newborn at home, so my current self-care plan is just trying to get some sleep. That’s the honest answer.”
