When it comes to the local IT channel community meetings, CompTIA always strives to drive conversations about the most pressing concerns affecting the industry. This is why we made security the focus for our latest ANZ Channel Community meetings, held in Sydney and Melbourne on the 15 and 16 of March, respectively.
Security is one of the most important topics in IT today. The threat landscape is evolving at an ever-increasing pace, as is the technology to protect companies from threats. This is an area with an enormous amount of change and emerging challenges, but also an enormous amount of opportunity for the channel.
Some of these challenges, as well as opportunities, were highlighted by Damien Manuel, chief information security officer for Blue Coat Systems, in his keynote presentation at the meetings. Damien outlined how the security landscape has changed, and how the threat landscape is continually evolving as it adapts to new defences.
Damien suggested that a number of things channel solutions providers can do to help organisations adapt to the changing threat landscape. One of the most important things for channel providers to do is to really take the time to listen to customers and identify exactly what their business needs are when it comes to security.
Security has gone through its own evolution over the years. It used to be approached in an ad-hoc way, with single-issue solutions for specific threats. Now, we are seeing the arrival of business-aligned security, where security is designed to enable the business and its goals.
Damien’s advice was echoed in the vendor panel discussions held during the two meetings. The panel discussions featured representatives of leading vendors in Australia, such as Intel Security, Cisco, FireEye and CyberArk.
Throughout the wide-ranging topics discussed, one theme shone through clearly: channel providers should really spend time to discuss security with their customers, get to know their business needs, and stay engaged so they can provide ongoing advice as needs arise.
These latest meetings come less than a year after CompTIA launched its Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) Channel community. Thanks to the involvement of some great organisations and passionate people, it already feels as if we’ve been in the local market much longer than that, with the many relationships we’ve built, the members we’ve gained, and the conversations we’ve been able to drive.
And this is just the beginning. The ANZ community offers local IT channel professionals an extensive network of peers with whom to share insights and information in a non-competitive environment. The kind of collegial discussion offed by our regular channel meetings helps to progress businesses and the industry alike, and we hope more of you will join the conversation.
We look forward to seeing you at our next meetings in June. To join us, or for more information, please visit the community page.
