‘Like a Superheroes’ Convention’ – Day One.

The Cloud and Security Expo 12 – 13 March 2019 ExCel London

On my way home from day one of the Cloud and Cyber Security Expo (‘Expo’ or ‘the show’ from here), I was amused to see a large poster at Tower Hill tube station. By the insurers Hiscox, it was encouraging small businesses to get themselves covered in case of cyber attack. This is rather like closing the stable door after the horse had disappeared over the horizon, so it was ironic that they used horse imagery in the ad. No, the best course of action, for organisations large and small, is to have watertight cyber defence strategy. When you get this right insurance ought to be irrelevant. I was therefore bemused to note, though, that several of the exhibitors at the Expo – having insisted on the absolute efficacy of their products – told me that cyber insurance wasn’t too bad an idea.

Be that as it may, on to the show itself, which was held earlier this week at the vast ExCel centre near Docklands, east of London. In its seventh year, the security dimension of this wider Cloud and DevOps exhibition has grown in proportion with the battleground of relentless attacks from cyber criminals worldwide. Focussing on business-to-business technology, many of the big names in data security were present: Sophos, Mcafee, Malwarebytes, ESET along with industry big guns Oracle and Symantec.

I’ve experienced more of these types of show than I care to remember, but Expo had a fabulous vibe. Most of the stands were incredibly busy most of the time. It was often the case that you had to really speak up over the hubbub. The hall seemed like an enormous beehive.

I particularly enjoyed visiting the QBS Cyber Village, a simple concept which worked wonderfully well. A unique stand on the show, it was where super-distributor QBSD shared space with ten of their key partners in the security space. Some of them had travelled from across the world to be there.

Thomas Ellenberger of Swiss Cyber Gate had flown in from Zurich to demonstrate CargoServer. With the fast-growing use of file transfer with millions using ubiquitous free products such as WeTransfer and DropBox, CargoServer provides a private managed file transfer platform for secure, fast and traceable file movement with sophisticated permissions management capabilities. Already firmly established as a trusted provider in Switzerland, this young company expects QBSD to help them penetrate a wider European market and particularly in the UK.

It was great to chat to Kal Boperai from Panda, a well-established security brand who have been keeping several steps ahead of cyber criminals for decades. Like many coming from beginnings in anti-virus, Panda had spread its wings massively into the provision of smart, intelligence-led defence solutions, boasting zero beaches since its landmark 2015 generation of continuous EDR systems. This Spanish multinational is working with QBSD to build on its existing successes in the UK and beyond.

Mike Lewis from iThreat CyberGroup of New Jersey who have been working with QBSD for the past year. The company has enjoyed great success with law enforcement, legal professionals and key government agencies but is now very much established in the commercial sector, Johnson & Johnson being one of their many valued customers. CyberTOOLBELT is a set of threat prevention solutions which constantly investigates and analyses ‘badness and bad actors’ from – over the years – literally trillions of domains. Added to the opportunity to meet potential new customers, Mike was pleased that the show allowed him to enjoy catching up with many people iThreat already worked with.

ManageEngine has a comprehensive suite of Active Directory management tools used by 60% of Fortune 500 companies. Their security tools are very much to the fore among the 90+ IT management products they offer. Based primarily in California and Chennai, India, it’s vital that they are represented globally by partners who can properly represent what they have to offer. “It’s important for us to have a great licensing partner here,” said Shinoth Padmanabhan, Lead Technical Consultant, who was looking forward to meeting some of their many UK customers at the show.

I spent some time chatting to James Thackrah, Partner Account Manager with back-up specialists, Acronis. QBSD had already been representing the company for some years, but now the two will be working together increasingly closely in a relationship aimed to make the company even more competitive. “We see the value of what they do”, remarked James. The distributor will be servicing the channel with Acronis’s flagship – the award-winning Backup 12.5. This true hybrid, fast backup system for on-site, remote, cloud and all devices includes Active Protection which has thwarted over 200K ransomware attacks so far. Full validation and authentication come with Acronis Notary.

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 It was a great pleasure – and most reassuring – to meet so many enthusiastic professionals in the vanguard of the war against cybercrime. I left feeling very upbeat and looking forward to writing more about Day 2.

Author: Mike Paterson