Palo Alto Networks is on the road with international industry analyst firm IDC for the latest installment of the Middle East IT Security Roadshow.Stopping in key cities, the roadshow will arrive in Abu Dhabi (May 11), Muscat (May 15), and Amman (May 17), following successful runs in Kuwait City, Manama, Doha, Jeddah, and Riyadh.
Security maintenance remains the number-one challenge facing the region’s chief information officers (CIOs), according to IDC. Greater awareness of security incidents’ impact on business has driven a rise in spending on security solutions and technologies; this year, information security spending across the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa is expected to reach a record high of $2 billion. In this space, top investment priorities include threat management, compliance remediation, security management, automatic malware removal, and mobile security.
With many countries in the region implementing core digitalization initiatives such as smart cities and smart governments, the security landscape is evolving rapidly. Tarek Abbas of Palo Alto Networks said, “As the pace of technology quickens, we need to come together when it comes to protecting organizations’ most crucial asset in a digital economy – information. We encourage a prevention mindset at the executive level and increasingly see our customers moving in this direction. Our approach integrates people, process and technology to secure organizations against known and unknown cyberattacks targeting cloud, virtual and physical network environments.”
The roadshow seeks to strengthen relationships between vendors, end users, and CIOs and discuss opportunities and challenges on diverse security-related topics affecting businesses in the region. By engaging with companies that plan to exploit the potential of digital, IDC hopes to educate them about the associated risks, and stress the importance of investing in security.
Megha Kumar, IDC MEA’s research director for software, said, “The Middle East’s IT decision makers rank cybersecurity solutions as the most critical technology for enabling the digital transformation of their organizations. As the digital economy becomes a reality, security strategies will need to encompass internal systems as well the systems used by end users and suppliers. As such, IT managers must look to build proactive security mitigation plans while supporting the businesses’ overall digital transformation agenda. This will be a key focus of IDC’s IT Security Roadshow 2017.”
