GISEC is one of the premier security-focused events in the region and this year’s event could not have been timed better, considering the recent mayhem created by WannaCry. Starting 21 May, the 3 day event is the only security event in the region that brings together the highest number of senior government officials and members from a variety of entities, along with 6,000+ decision makers across the key industry verticals.
The event has seen returning participation from a number of companies, like SonicWall, Bulwark, Cisco, Carbon Black, etc. since its inception in 2013. Participating for the third time, Carbon Black finds that an event like GISEC calls attention to critical issues facing the region and provides an opportunity to learn, educate and network with leading security professionals. “When a single conference can provide those answers, as well as bring together the sharpest minds and best-in-class technologies in the security arena, there is a lot to be excited about,” stated Brian Hazzard, VP, Product Marketing at Carbon Black.
At GISEC channel partners can look forward to exploring innovative technologies and pioneering best-practices. It allows them to choose the right vendor that has the right vision, the right commitment and the right portfolio for the changing ICT scenario in MEA. The value-added distributor, Arrow will be joining GISEC for the very first time to showcase solutions for endpoint security, web security, cloud and data center security, among others. “Our goal is to enable solution partners to understand, execute and deploy comprehensive security solutions across a spectrum of delivery platforms, from data and endpoint security, threat prevention, and security analytics, to automated security and monitoring solutions,” explained Vimal Kocher, Managing Director for the Middle East region of Arrow’s enterprise computing solutions business.
At last year’s event, Sophos got the opportunity to understand market requirements, promote its solutions and increase visibility in the region. For Sophos, this security event is the perfect platform to reach out and communicate the company’s ‘synchronized security’ strategy. “We are excited to meet existing and potential customers and partners and share our highly innovative and simple-to-use and manage security solutions with them. We will focus on ‘synchronized security’, showcase our extensive portfolio of next-gen endpoint, network and encryption security solutions,” added Harish Chib, VP Middle East & Africa at Sophos.
Building on its experience of four years at GISEC, Cisco has seen this event grow exponentially year on year. At this year’s event, Cisco will address the evolving role of security in digital environments and discuss new ways for enterprises to secure themselves with a simple, open and automated solution in a digital world. “We are excited to show how cybersecurity has the potential to play a big role in a business’ economic growth and success. At GISEC we hope to share with customers and partners that in order to defend against advanced attacks and thrive in today’s digital world, we need more effective security,” said Scott Manson, Cyber Security Leader for Middle East and Turkey at Cisco.
For Mimecast this is an opportunity to meet with key decision makers and inform the local market on the company’s cyber security expertise in email. To demonstrate this, Mimecast will be conducting live email hacks at the event. Experts from Mimecast will also educate their visitors on how organizations in the Middle East need to consider cyber resilience this year and beyond. “We are excited to talk about our Email Security Risk Assessment (ESRA), an analysis report measuring the effectiveness of email security systems. We will be demonstrating Mimecast Targeted Threat Protection and explain how our advanced email security services can help protect our customers against spear-phishing, ransomware and impersonation attacks,” stated Brian Pinnock, Cyber Resilience Expert at Mimecast.
Bulwark gained a high level of brand and product awareness from last year’s participation and is returning this year with focus on boosting the IT security, communications & technology industries in the Middle East region. When asked about their reason for being part of this security event, Jose Thomas Menacherry, Managing Director at Bulwark Technologies said, “We see that customers are becoming more and more aware of the security threats and the necessity of having adequate solutions to protect their digital assets and physical resources in this world of connected devices. The recent cyberattack is an awakening call following which many customers are looking for solutions; we are here to provide them.”
“Every year we meet new prospects, from private small, medium or large enterprise to government and non-government organizations. We hope to meet more of the tech community at GISEC this year too,” explained Florian Malecki, International Product Marketing Director at SonicWall.
This event provides a wonderful platform to demonstrate and showcase security products and solutions and serves as a means to gain knowledge about the latest technologies through face-to-face discussion with technology experts.
“This year we are looking to expand our footprint by meeting new potential customers and partners. We are very excited about showcasing our latest SD-WAN and WAN optimization solutions,” said Bhaskar Peruri, Regional Sales Manager for the Middle East at Silver Peak.
Carbon Black will be present at the event with their strategic distributor in the region Westcon. “In addition to showcasing our latest endpoint protection, detection and response solutions, we will use GISEC as an opportunity to meet with partners that are interested in joining Carbon Black and Westcon’s channel programme and as such enable us to continue to build and grow our business in the region,” explained Hazzard.
There are a lot of different opportunities that this event offers to those in the security industry. While some participate in this event to grow business prospects and partner network, others are here to increase their brand footprint or understanding the industry better and developing business opportunities. The conference has emerged to be a common ground for enterprises, technology vendors and partners that would like to share latest trends in security and discuss best practices to handle security threats.
