Tech Field Day

For most small businesses reading this article, I�ve lost them with the headline. A Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) is likely to be something they�ve never heard of, let alone considered. Yet more small businesses are becoming Cloud-friendly, especially with their adoption of Software as a Service applications. Funny thing is, some security-focused IT professionals would never consider using Cloud services without a CASB.

I had the pleasure of spending some time with a company called Forcepoint, in Austin, Texas, as a Tech Field Day delegate. David Coffey (VP Research & Development) says �How do you secure things that you don�t own or manage?� IT Pros understand that challenge. Traditionally we�ve focused on securing the devices that you use and the networks that you access. We�ve put firewalls between your PC and the Internet and we�ve prevented you from using random USB sticks. Today�s challenge for IT is ensuring security from your iPad in an airport lounge, to corporate data in the Cloud.

As part of the?Tech Field Day Extra?crew at?Interop 2016, I got to sit in on a great presentation by?Avi Freedmanfrom?Kentik.

I?d?never heard of them, which is not surprising given my Australian-based SMB world, but I sat with an open mind as Avi talked about Enterprise (and larger) networking concepts. It?s always so great when a presenter makes it ?real world? enough that you can see the benefits, without necessarily understanding all the tech under the hood. Seems that the world is hearing about Kentik though as their customers already include yelp, Pandora, Box, and openDNS.

As part of the?Tech Field Day Extra?crew at?Interop 2016, I got to sit in on a great presentation by?Avi Freedmanfrom?Kentik.

I?d?never heard of them, which is not surprising given my Australian-based SMB world, but I sat with an open mind as Avi talked about Enterprise (and larger) networking concepts. It?s always so great when a presenter makes it ?real world? enough that you can see the benefits, without necessarily understanding all the tech under the hood. Seems that the world is hearing about Kentik though as their customers already include yelp, Pandora, Box, and openDNS.

Sometimes it�s great to sit down for a presentation with no preconceived ideas. It makes it interesting to listen to a guy up the front in a company t-shirt, who you�re not viewing as the �Vice President of Marketing & Product Strategy�. The title doesn�t actually do justice to Neil Holmquist from Spirent Communications.

The internet would tell me that Neil has a 15 year career with Spirent, beginning as an engineer. It would also give me a ton of information about the telecommunications testing company itself, founded in 1936 and listed on the London Stock Exchange.

It’s the morning before I leave for 18.5hrs of travel. Stating the obvious, Australia is a long way from America (and I’m only going to the West Coast). But I’m beyond thrilled to have been given this opportunity.

To my non IT friends and family, I’m going to Silicon Valley for a conference.

That conference is Tech Field Day’s Virtualization Field Day 6 http://techfieldday.com/event/vfd6/ If you’re awake during San Jose’s day, you can even see live video streaming of the day on that page. If you have twitter, play along with the hashtag #VFD6