Cracking cyber security at first Irish expo

The Irish Management Institute (IMI), Dublin, was the setting on Wednesday, 29 November for Ireland’s first cyber security expo, Cyber Expo Ireland. With over 600 attending on the day, the delegates were welcomed into what can only be described as a practical but serious demonstration of the latest global cyber security software available on the market.

Exhibitors from the US, Europe, Britain and Ireland provided a real sense of how the technology has advanced to keep one step ahead of the rapidly progressing cyber crime industry, and featured re-sellers were on hand to advise as to how to integrate these into existing customer infrastructures.

Michael Conway, director of Renaissance, who organised and hosted the event, stated: “The response we got from the whole security ecosystem is that this has been an event that has been badly needed in the industry and that they look forward to being part of it again next year. This is really a great endorsement for the months of preparation that has gone into pulling an event of this magnitude and quality together.”

Cyber security impacts all our daily lives. It is often seen as an IT issue, but in truth it is a business issue and that was evident in the cross-section of people representing Ireland’s enterprise from both the private and public sectors who attended the event. In addition to the world-class exhibitors and re-sellers on hand during the day, the subject-matter experts were in great demand with a range of talks and conversations taking place. Some of the most requested expert advice sought was around cyber training and awareness for executive teams, IT data forensics and electronic discovery (disclosure and regulatory demands), along with the legal and financial impacts of general data protection regulation (GDPR) and data compliance.

Renaissance also took this opportunity to launch their new partnership with US giant CA Technologies. Louise Ashbrook, senior director, partners and channel at CA Technologies, explained: “We required a distributor with experience of the cyber security market and an existing re-seller channel that can take the CA Security portfolio to this market. Given their extensive experience of the Irish market and their existing portfolio of complementary products, we are confident that Renaissance is the right partner to create demand and success for the CA solutions in this market.”

Renaissance has been a trusted partner to Irish re-sellers and their customers now for over 30 years. They are continually introducing new, cutting-edge and industry-leading data security and compliance solutions into the Irish market and have helped introduce in excess of 20 new security solutions over the past five years. Renaissance has built its reputation in the Irish marketplace by offering excellent pre/post-sales service to its extensive network base, and by an ongoing desire to bring added value to its customers. This expo has extended that value.

“It’s not just the innovative solutions set that we see as an opportunity,” says Michael. “We also see great potential for our re-sellers here in Ireland to sell and deliver managed service offerings that take these solutions and create recurring revenue models. This can only be a positive for both our companies and our economy.”

It was a full day, from the trade breakfast in the early morning to the main expo throughout the day, culminating in a more relaxed session after the formal close and the wine reception ably hosted by Irish stand-up comedian, columnist and broadcaster Colm O’Regan.

Michael went on to say: “We have spent a long time engaging with business and technical leaders across Ireland to make sure we designed an expo that covered the key topics and challenges that our companies are dealing with on a daily basis. Based on feedback both during and since the expo, I believe the structure and content were on point, so, with this enthusiastic response, our focus will now be on the plans for the Cyber Expo Ireland 2018!”