EMA Research Blog: Navigating IT and Security Horizons

Cisco Live is happening in Las Vegas this week. It remains one of the biggest annual gatherings of network infrastructure professionals in the world. It is also a venue for Cisco to showcase its latest products and services, and it is a place where Cisco lays out its overall vision to address customer requirements.

Another RSA conference (not RSA, not #RSA, but “THE RSA Conference” – those that bought the conference do not want it to be associated with RSA the company, which leads me to wonder why they didn’t just rename the thing to something else more securityish) is in the books, and I thought I would share a few thoughts about things I saw and vendors that I met with at the conference.

According to the RSA Conference website, there was a total of 641 vendors exhibiting or sponsoring the conference in the over 738,000 square feet of exhibit space dedicated within the two-million-square-foot Moscone Center. I had meetings scheduled with approximately 20 of these vendors and met with a small handful of additional vendors on the expo floor as time permitted. I didn’t keep track of how far I walked this year, but the entire Moscone Center complex is approximately 87 acres in size. For comparison, the United States Capitol building is only 4 acres. I made several laps around the expo floor each day, as well as walking around the entire complex throughout various parts of the day. Needless to say, my feet are quite tired, but with the conversations I had with vendors, it was worth it.

IT organizations have always relied on multiple tools to manage and monitor their networks. This reality is a legacy of the evolution of network management tools. Initially, vendors offered point products that solved very narrow sets of tool use cases like device discovery, device metric collection, config management, traffic monitoring, and so on. Network engineers needed a sprawling toolset to address all aspects of operations.

The RSA Conference 2024 is upon us, and this year promises to be a treasure trove of insights for security professionals. We're particularly excited to explore the latest advancements in areas like AI-powered security and cloud protection. To enhance our analysis, we're putting Google Gemini, a large language model, to the test. Can it navigate the vast amount of information available about the conference and identify the themes that matter most? In this blog, we’ll explore the conference through the lens of Google Gemini, offering previews of sponsor briefings, session topics, and emerging trends that will shape the future of cybersecurity, and we’ll also examine Gemini’s ability to analyze text data.

For most IT organizations, network automation boils down to change management. Network engineering teams implement tools that automate their processes for all manner of changes, including network software patches and upgrades, configuration changes, and security policy updates.

To offer more affordable and compact solutions, some solution providers are pitching triggered or “smart” packet capture solutions as an alternative to always-on capture.

In an era rampant with cyber threats, the security of passwords and identity remains a critical concern. According to HaveIBeenPwned.com, over 12 billion credentials were compromised online as of March 6, 2024. This staggering figure underscores the vulnerability of password-based authentication systems. Most (if not all) of these involve compromised passwords, and often expose not only a compromise to the originally affected domain or web application, but also multiple accounts utilizing the same email address and password.

The Dynatrace Perform 2024 conference delivered a plethora of insights and forward-looking perspectives this month. Throughout the conference, the event encompassed keynotes, breakout sessions, customer panels, and hands-on training, offering a holistic view of the latest trends and innovations in the tech industry. The overarching theme, "Make Waves," encapsulates the imperative for transformation and disruption in the tech industry. It underscores the need to drive substantial change and progress amidst evolving trends.

More than 41% of DDI (DNS, DHCP and IP address management) teams lack sufficient influence over their companies’ cloud strategies, according to my research. This stat was published in my market research report, “DDI Directions: DNS, DHCP, and IP Address Management Strategies for the Multi-Cloud Era.” The report was based on a survey of 333 DDI-focused IT professionals.