Arun ShankarTwo events topped the list in May. The first was GEC Media Group’s virtual security symposium, where the region’s top security decision makers were recognized. This was a face-to-face event with 100+ attendees, while maintaining social distancing and non-contact engagement with masks.
Some of the keynote speakers and participants at the event, commented that this was their first face to face event after a span of more than a year, and while they felt a bit rusty, it was good to be back.
The second event was Gisec 2021, the region’s leading security industry exhibition and conference. This was also an in-person event with stringent and strict, non-contact and socially distanced visitors, touring the event and attending the conference.
Gisec 2021 witnessed the presence of at least four country pavilions namely Israel, Germany, Turkey and Poland. A large number of exhibitors were first time participants into the region. Microsoft and distributor Spire Solutions had the largest sprawl in Gisec 2021 with the presence of channel partners and vendor partners respectively.
The choice of speakers and the quality of the presentations at the Gisec conference was exceptional, with combined global and regional insights and comparisons made during the presentations.
However, what was particularly brisk and therefore interesting was the activity at the Connexions lounge. This was the venue for pre-arranged, face to face, one on one meetings. It almost seemed as if the participants were trying to catch up for time lost in the previous 12+ months. Turn these pages to catch a glimpse of these events through our image gallery pages.
In our lead feature this month, Sascha Giese at SolarWinds, takes us through the restructuring of this enterprise networking vendor and its products. The approach adopted by SolarWinds to rebuild the confidence of the technology industry, whose vendors and channel partners are its primary customers, is a secure by design approach.
This applies both to best practices in security policies and software development. SolarWinds wants to transform the security of organisations through programmes, policies, teams, and culture.
Security analysts rank the SUNBURST supply chain attack, that crippled SolarWinds’ customers, as one of the most sophisticated cyberattacks in history. The attack makes clear that current software development procedures, many considered as best practices, are no longer safe. Because of the complexity behind the attack the same strategy may have been used to attack other vendors as well
SolarWinds could reconstruct the events as logs were still available dating all the way back to 2019. Keeping logs for 90 days, which is the default for many devices, is insufficient and should be reevaluated. US government and private-sector experts have stated their belief that a foreign nation-state conducted this intrusive operation. Turn these pages to learn more.
As the pace of digital transformation picks up, vendors are scrambling to realign their partner programmes with net new market opportunities, meeting customer expectations, and aligning with hyper scalar market dynamics. We present some of these initiatives being adopted by NetApp.
We wish our readers a prosperous summer season ahead.
