Quantum meets reality at RSAC 2025. In this Brand Story preview, we speak with SandboxAQ about Active Guard — a SaaS platform designed to be the unifying layer across cryptographic and identity management systems. Marc Manzano joins us to share how they’re solving real problems, enabling automation, and redefining how security teams prepare for the future.
We’re on the road to RSAC 2025 — or maybe on a quantum-powered highway — and this time, Sean and I had the pleasure of chatting with someone who’s not just riding the future wave, but actually building it.
Marc Manzano, General Manager of the Cybersecurity Group at SandboxAQ, joined us for this Brand Story conversation ahead of the big conference in San Francisco. For those who haven’t heard of SandboxAQ yet, here’s a quick headline: they’re a spin-out from Google, operating at the intersection of AI and quantum technologies. Yes — that intersection.
But let’s keep our feet on the ground for a second, because this story isn’t just about tech that sounds cool. It’s about solving the very real, very painful problems that security teams face every day.
Marc laid out their mission clearly: Active Guard, their flagship platform, is built to simplify and modernize two massive pain points in enterprise security — cryptographic asset management and non-human identity management. Think: rotating certificates without manual effort. Managing secrets and keys across cloud-native infrastructure. Automating compliance reporting for quantum-readiness. No fluff — just value, right out of the box.
And it’s not just about plugging a new tool into your already overloaded stack. What impressed us is how SandboxAQ sees themselves as the unifying layer — enhancing interoperability across existing systems, extracting more intelligence from the tools you already use, and giving teams a unified view through a single pane of glass.
And yes, we also touched on AI SecOps — because as AI becomes a standard part of infrastructure, so must security for it. Active Guard is already poised to give security teams visibility and control over this evolving layer.
Want to see it in action? Booth 6578, North Expo Hall. Swag will be there. Demos will be live. Conversations will be real.
We’ll be there too — recording a deeper Brand Story episode On Location during the event.
Until then, enjoy this preview — and get ready to meet the future of cybersecurity.
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Keywords:
sandboxaq, active guard, rsa conference 2025, quantum cybersecurity, ai secops, cryptographic asset management, non-human identity, cybersecurity automation, security compliance, rsa 2025, cybersecurity innovation, certificate lifecycle management, secrets management, security operations, quantum readiness, rsa sandbox, cybersecurity saas, devsecops, interoperability, digital transformation
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Guest: Marc Manzano,, General Manager of the Cybersecurity Group at SandboxAQ
Hosts:
Sean Martin, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast [@RedefiningCyber] | On ITSPmagazine: https://www.itspmagazine.com/sean-martin
Marco Ciappelli, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining Society Podcast & Audio Signals Podcast | On ITSPmagazine: https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/marco-ciappelli
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This Episode’s Sponsors
SandboxAQ:
https://itspm.ag/sandboxaq-j2en
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Resources
Learn more and catch more stories from RSA Conference 2025 coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/rsa-conference-usa-2025-rsac-san-francisco-usa-cybersecurity-event-infosec-conference-coverage
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Catch all of our event coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/technology-and-cybersecurity-conference-coverage
To see and hear more Redefining CyberSecurity content on ITSPmagazine, visit: https://www.itspmagazine.com/redefining-cybersecurity-podcast
To see and hear more Redefining Society stories on ITSPmagazine, visit:
https://www.itspmagazine.com/redefining-society-podcast
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🎙️ Sandbox AQ – Pre-RSAC 2025 | Brand Story Conversation
Participants: Sean Martin, Marco Ciappelli, Marc Manzano
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Sean Martin:
Marco.
Marco Ciappelli:
Sean.
Sean Martin:
We’re on the quantum bus to San Francisco.
Marco Ciappelli:
Wow. We just went from gas to electric to quantum-powered. I think it’s powered—
Sean Martin:
—Powered by quantum. I don’t even…
Marco Ciappelli:
…know how that works, but it sounds pretty cool to me.
Sean Martin:
Not many people do. That’s the funny thing.
Marco Ciappelli:
Exactly. We need the expert to tell us how that works. But no matter how we get there, this is about going to RSAC in San Francisco—2025. Full of excitement, community, and networking. A lot of new innovative companies in the Sandbox. DARPA will be presenting, and of course the big expo where many established firms showcase what they’re all about.
And in this case, Sean… I don’t understand it, so I’ll leave it to you.
Sean Martin:
I’ll let the expert, Marc Manzano, talk about what he does at Sandbox AQ and all the cool stuff they’re doing. Talk about innovation—RSA has become synonymous with that for cybersecurity, and from my perspective, Sandbox AQ is incredibly innovative.
Marc, thrilled to have you on the show.
Marc Manzano:
It’s my pleasure. Thanks a lot for having me, Sean, Marco. We’re definitely excited to be in San Francisco in just a couple of weeks for the show. We have some really exciting announcements coming up about our product offering: Active Guard.
I’m the General Manager of the Cybersecurity Group at Sandbox AQ. Sandbox is a spin-out from Google that works at the intersection of AI and quantum technologies. Within our cybersecurity group, we lead product development and the business side focused on solving massive problems for the enterprise.
Right now, our focus is on modernizing cryptographic asset management and non-human identity management. These are two huge pain points for enterprises today. Infrastructure is becoming more complex by the day, and our goal is to provide a single pane of glass solution that helps security, IT, and DevSecOps teams work more efficiently—without relying on expensive professional services.
It’s a SaaS platform that delivers value from day one. As soon as you log in and connect your first integrations, you get immediate value. That’s our product philosophy.
We’ll be at RSA in the North Expo Hall, Booth 6578. We’d love people to stop by. We’ll have some great swag, and some limited special giveaways at set times—we’ll announce those through our communication channels.
We’re very eager to show what we’ve been building. If you’re curious about what a modern platform for cryptographic and non-human identity management looks like, please come by. The full team will be there—ready to host live demos, chat, or schedule follow-ups.
Marco Ciappelli:
You made it really easy for us. That was perfectly said. I’ll just add that the curiosity level for this kind of innovation is definitely high. A lot of companies present similar ideas with a different spin—but this feels like you’re truly building the future.
What kinds of questions or conversations do you expect to have at the booth?
Marc Manzano:
We’d love to hear product feedback—especially real-time reactions during demos. What are people struggling with? What can’t they solve today using their current tools?
The more we hear, the better. Our goal is to close gaps that exist in today’s cybersecurity ecosystems. We see ourselves as the security glue—a solution that enhances and connects existing tools through interoperability and shared data. These tools all provide value individually, but together, they can be so much more—and that’s what Active Guard enables.
Sean Martin:
If there’s one thing organizations should look for in their security operations or risk program that would signal, “Hey, we should visit the Sandbox AQ team”—what would that be?
Marc Manzano:
Great question. If you’re struggling to manage digital certificates in a fully automated way, come talk to us. That’s one of the core use cases for Active Guard. We help apply policies to automate certificate rotation, renewal, revocation—you name it. No more worrying about expired certs.
We’re also ready to help organizations become quantum-ready—especially those in regulated industries. Active Guard was built with compliance in mind. It exports audit-ready data and supports predefined rule sets aligned to different regulatory frameworks.
And lastly, if you’re trying to understand your non-human identity ecosystem—what secrets exist, who’s using them, when they’re accessed, and how to respond to anomalies—we’ve got you covered. If a credential is compromised, we help you detect and mitigate it fast.
Sean Martin:
I’m genuinely excited to have a deeper conversation with you on location in San Francisco. We’ll definitely be by the booth to check out the demos and hear what the community is saying.
To everyone listening or watching—stop by the Sandbox AQ booth. Grab some swag, stay for the conversation, and prepare to have your mind blown by the kind of challenges you may not even know are coming… and how Sandbox is already solving them.
Marc, thanks so much. Looking forward to it.
Marc Manzano:
Thanks for having me.
Marco Ciappelli:
Thank you.