RSA 2022: A Reminder That Cybersecurity is a Team Sport

Wow, RSA 2022 is upon us. The last in-person RSA, back in February 2020, seems like it was so long ago, but I feel a bubbling excitement across the cybersecurity industry for this event. For me, RSA has always been a powerful reminder of two things: 

First, cybersecurity is a team sport. 

We can’t protect our customers from cyber threats if we, as vendors, don’t work together. There are always new attack surfaces, new attack techniques, and the “bad guys” don’t stop; they are always using the best new weapons. Each vendor will showcase its latest technology and threat research at RSA, but for the security professionals attending, it’s about meeting with multiple vendors at once. Comparing and contrasting, and more importantly understanding how everything can fit together to solve their unique security challenges.

As a Technology Alliance/Business Development professional, my responsibility is to ensure my company works well with other security and IT operations vendors. My teams enable our customers to leverage existing and potential IT and security investments. We also work together with our partners to simplify and explain how things interoperate, integrate, and address security issues. Our integrations are for end customers and service provider partners that build comprehensive solutions. We are helping to field the best team for each customer.

Second, RSA can be overwhelming. 

Historically, there are hundreds of vendors exhibiting on the floor, and hundreds more attending the event to interact with customers, prospects, and partners. One of my favorite RSA pastimes is to bring an intern or someone new to cybersecurity and take them to the center of the show floor to appreciate just how many vendors and people are at the RSA event. The challenge was always, how do we simplify this for customers? How do we help them? What vendors do we work with to solve problems that are relevant to our customers? 

How can we help? 

At RSA this year we will be showcasing multiple integrations across the Cyber, IT Ops, Networking and Cloud Ecosystems. In the Netskope booth, located at #449 Moscone South, we will have a demonstration pod dedicated to showcasing how Netskope works with all of our ecosystem partners to help customers better leverage valuable data, take actions, and protect their valuable digital assets. We will be hosting our partners in the Netskope booth throughout the RSA event so customers can hear directly from our partners how we provide value together. Booth visitors will have the opportunity to get an inside look into how the Netskope Cloud Exchange helps customers leverage the power of Netskope’s telemetry and integrations with existing IT and security investments. Leading partners, including CrowdStrike, Mimecast, Google, AWS, Microsoft, Aruba EdgeConnect, SentinelOne, Tanium, and Mandiant, will be on hand demonstrating joint solutions. These won’t just be demos, but technical experts on hand to answer your questions. We will also have a few joint presentations throughout RSA highlighting some of the newer integrations with Aruba, Mandiant, CrowdStrike, and Google BeyondCorp Enterprise.

It won’t just be on the show floor either. We’re also getting together at various social events and private meetings. These events are a great place to understand how channel partners deliver multi-vendor solutions and solve real security concerns, like zero trust, SASE, and XDR.

Please let us know if you want to attend a joint private meeting or just come join us for a cocktail one evening. Here are some of the social events we will be co-sponsoring with our solution provider and technology partners. Check out the registration pages to see who you can meet.

Monday, June 6

• XDR Alliance RSA Happy Hour – Register
  Partners hosting together with Netskope include Armis, CyberArk, Exabeam, Expel, Extrahop, Mimecast, Recorded Future, SentinelOne, VMWare  
• Guidepoint Security Happy Hour – Register
  Guidepoint has brought together 24 different security vendors from across the cybersecurity ecosystem

Tuesday, June 7

• Optiv After Party – Register
  Optiv has brought together 16 different security vendors from across the cybersecurity ecosystem
• FOMO After Party – Register
  SentinelOne, Armis, and Torq are hosting a great event and including Netskope’s sponsorship 
• Mandiant Taco Tuesday – Register
  Mandiant is hosting some more intimate events with Netskope and others

Wednesday, June 8

• Mandiant Wine Down Wednesday – Register
  Mandiant is hosting some more intimate events with Netskope and others

What can you do?  

Act like Ted Lasso: don’t be judgmental; be curious and come ask questions. RSA is a great opportunity to engage, learn, compare, and contrast. This applies not only to customers, but also security vendors. We can all get smarter and find ways to help better protect our customers from emerging and persistent cyber threats. Cybersecurity is a team sport, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Hope to see you in San Francisco the week of June 6, 2022.