Pivotra-AI at BlockAPT
An AI-powered cybersecurity platform integrating SIEM, SOAR, endpoint security and AI/ML with CSMA principles across SaaS and on-premises environments.
AI · Cybersecurity · Founder · Table tennis champion
AI-driven defence.
Infrastructure that
thinks for itself.
Technology leadership at the intersection of AI, cybersecurity and digital resilience. Building secure, resilient and intelligent infrastructure — with governance at the core.
Over 20 years across enterprise networking, cybersecurity and mission-critical systems. Today, Founder & CTO at BlockAPT, and Technical Director at Total Uptime Technologies.
Marco Essomba
Reading, Berkshire · United Kingdom
20+
Years building and defending critical infrastructure
2019
Founded BlockAPT in London
100%
Uptime SLA behind Total Uptime managed services
5×
Senior British League titles with London Progress
Next speaking appearance
MCDEC Dîner d’affaires 2026
Paris Marriott Opera Ambassador Hotel · Paris, France
Reception from 18:30 · Round table at 20:30 (Paris time)
Strategic round table
From money transfers to value transfers
Transferring value means protecting it first.
I’ll join the MCDEC strategic round table to discuss how the diaspora’s capital, skills, networks and knowledge can support productive, sustainable investment in Africa.
Diaspora, finance & the knowledge economy: investing differently in Africa’s future.
MCDEC’s LinkedIn announcementAI at the core
The Pivot Intelligence Model (PIM)
My research into explainable, governed autonomous cyber defence. PIM is designed to correlate security signals — Who, What, When, Where, How and Action — to support intelligent decisions while keeping accountability and governance central.
Discuss AI for your securitySix correlated signals
- Who
- What
- When
- Where
- How
- Action
PIM — explainable, governed defence
Research into correlating security signals to enable autonomous cyber defence that remains explainable and governed. Autonomy without governance is a risk.
AI agents & MCP at Total Uptime
Exploring AI agents and Model Context Protocol for governed infrastructure automation in mission-critical environments, grounded in application delivery and digital resilience.
Recognised & featured by
- LORCA
- UK Cyber Security Awards
- CyberSecurity Breakthrough Awards
- Engati
- Verdict UK
- CyberTalks London
Selected companies & client experience
BlockAPT
- Total Uptime Technologies
- QDEx Labs
HSBC
Barclays
Bank of America
Lloyds Banking Group
BT
NHS
Deloitte
Transport for London
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Sourcefire (part of Cisco)
- NTT
- 2e2
- Arrow ECS
- Grand Paris Express
- UK Government
Technology & vendor expertise
F5
BIG-IP LTM · DNS/GTM · APM · ASM/AWAF · BIG-IQ · iRules
Cloudflare
Edge security · DNS
Zscaler
ZIA · NSS · ZDX
NGINX
Application delivery · WAF
- EdgeNexus
Application delivery · GSLB
Broadcom / Blue Coat
ProxySG · CAS · Reporter
Cisco
ASA · routing & switching
Sourcefire / Snort
IPS · IDS
Juniper Networks
Network security
- Check Point
Firewall · NGX
- RSA SecurID
Strong authentication
- Forcepoint / Websense
Web security
- Clearswift MIMEsweeper
Email & web content security
- IronPort
Email security
- McAfee / Trellix
Web gateway · endpoint protection
Splunk
SIEM · SOAR · visibility
VirusTotal
Threat intelligence
Kali Linux
Penetration testing
Metasploit
Penetration testing
Amazon Web Services
Cloud architecture
Microsoft Azure
Cloud architecture
Google Cloud
Cloud architecture
Oracle Cloud
Cloud architecture
VMware
ESXi · virtualisation
Unix / Linux
Systems · Bash automation
Riverbed
Aternity
- SevOne
Network observability
- ServiceNow
Enterprise workflows
Selected professional experience and technology expertise; logos do not imply endorsement.
01Where I spend my time
Security, resilience & intelligent infrastructure
From Pivotra-AI and PIM research to mission-critical application delivery and governed infrastructure automation.
01
Autonomous, explainable defence
Research into the Pivot Intelligence Model: correlating Who, What, When, Where, How and Action signals so detection gets faster, response gets sharper, and an automated decision can still be explained to a human afterwards.
Pivot Intelligence ModelAI opsExplainability
02
Unified security operations
Most organisations do not have a security problem so much as a complexity problem. I build the layer that pulls security, risk, compliance, cloud and operational tooling into one intelligent command surface — vendor-agnostic, so no single supplier owns the architecture.
Cybersecurity MeshSIEM + SOARSingle pane of glass
03
Application delivery & resilience
An application can be perfectly healthy and still be unreachable. DNS, load balancing, GSLB, WAF and multicloud networking have to be designed as one system, because that is how they fail — and how they survive.
ADCGSLBAnycast DNSFailover
04
Governed infrastructure automation
Exploring AI agents and Model Context Protocol (MCP) for mission-critical infrastructure, where intelligent automation must preserve operational control, availability and resilience.
AI agentsMCPAIOpsGovernance
02The two roles
One thesis, held in two places
Founder & CTO
BlockAPT
2019 — present
Leading the architecture and development of Pivotra-AI: BlockAPT's AI-powered cybersecurity platform unifying security operations, intelligence, automation and response.
Pivotra-AIAI/MLSIEM / SOAREndpoint securityCSMAPIM
Technical Director
Total Uptime Technologies
Alongside BlockAPT
Enterprise application delivery, digital resilience and intelligent infrastructure for mission-critical environments, spanning hybrid and multi-cloud architectures.
ADCDNS / GSLBWAF / WAAPObservabilityAI agentsMCPMulti-cloud
03Working with me
Four ways people bring me in
Security & resilience architecture review
A structured read of how your security stack and application delivery layer actually behave together — where the duplicated spend is, where the single points of failure sit, and what a simpler architecture would look like.
Output
Findings, a target architecture, and a prioritised fix list
Technical diligence for investors
An independent read of a platform's real engineering depth before capital goes in: architecture, vendor dependency, security posture, scalability claims, and what the roadmap is genuinely committing to.
Output
Written assessment and a direct conversation with the deal team
Platform & product strategy
For teams whose product has outgrown its first architecture — modularisation, vendor strategy, pricing and deployment models, and the build-versus-partner calls that decide the next two years.
Output
Roadmap, decision framework, and regular working sessions
Board & executive briefings
Cyber and resilience briefings written for people who sign off budgets rather than configure firewalls — what the risk actually is, what it costs to carry, and what good looks like.
Output
Tailored briefing, Q&A, and a one-page summary
04The other arena
National champion before founder
Two Wilmott Cups with West Middlesex. Five consecutive Senior British League Premier Division titles with London Progress. Competitive table tennis was the first education in pressure, pattern recognition and recovery — and it shows up in every incident room since.
05Selected writing
Thinking, in the open
Oct 29, 2026
AI Agent Governance: Secure Infrastructure Automation
Giving an AI assistant access to information is one thing. Letting it change production infrastructure is another — so identity, least privilege and human accountability have to be built in from day one.
Oct 22, 2026
MCP for Enterprise Infrastructure
What changes when AI stops only explaining a problem and starts investigating it across DNS, load balancers, security controls and telemetry — and what that means for running infrastructure.
Sep 25, 2026
SOC 2 Type 2 and Operational Resilience
Any provider can claim its platform is secure and resilient. The harder question is whether the controls behind that claim have been independently examined over time — and why that matters for mission-critical services.
Next step
Build the next generation of infrastructure
I welcome conversations with technology leaders, entrepreneurs, investors and strategic partners building secure, resilient and intelligent infrastructure.