RSA Conference pulls in UK security crowd

Large swathes of the UK security channel converged on San Francisco this week, meaning one thing only: it was RSA Conference time again.

Resellers and distributors bound for the five-day junket agreed attendance this year was vital to remain one step ahead in a bleak market.

Since 1991, the RSA Conference has grown into a behemoth, able to suck in end users and vendors from around the world. This year, more than 300 exhibitors were touting their wares and end users were able to select between some 250 sessions.

While UK security channel players are already gearing up for Infosecurity in April, those who made the 26-hour round trip to RSA Conference were convinced it offers several advantages over its European competitor.

The most obvious is that it is viewed by many vendors as the best place to debut new technology.

Dave Ellis, e-security director at distributor Computerlinks, who attended RSA Conference for the first time this year, said: “The US market is slightly ahead of Europe.

“Vendors use RSA as a springboard to launch new technologies, so it can give UK resellers a feel of what is happening before it occurs in Europe.”

Mike Burkitt, technical director at Launchpad Europe – which helps tech startups enter the European market – agreed. “This is the kind of show resellers have to attend to mingle with their peers and hopefully return with leads, contacts and some technology they can be first to market with in the UK channel,” he said.

Innovation rewarded

One of Launchpad’s partners, Israeli outfit Hacktics, is one of 10 finalists in the contest to find RSA’s most innovative company, said Burkitt.

“There are quite a few Israeli companies that do not come to Infosec as it clashes with a religious holiday, or they do not feel they are getting bang for their buck,” he explained.

Burkitt added that the event held a special attraction this year.

“To overcome a shrinking market you have to be innovative,” he said. “The people responsible for security at end users and technical experts in the channel really have to be ahead of the game as it is reactive technology.”

A different theme has been chosen every year since 1995 and this time organisers went Egyptian as the influence of the Rosetta Stone on deciphering hieroglyphs was celebrated.

And proponents of the show argued its ability to offer rare air time with end users would provide important clues on how to unravel the customer-spending riddle.

As one of the UK’s larger security integrators, MIS regularly sends delegations to RSA Conference, but was unable to attend this year.

Etienne Greeff, director of MIS, said: “It was just a ­timing thing. Security resellers can become insular: they tend to spend too much time with other resellers and vendors and do not get to hear about security issues from an end user point of view. That is what RSA is about.”

Burkitt agreed: “At Infosec and Storage Expo you meet people on the floor and end users will typically take a day off. At the American shows customers usually take three days off.”

However, not all UK channel players see the need to cross eight time zones to get the security market lowdown.

Rob Gupta, managing director of Trend Micro and Juniper partner Secon, said: “We are not on the hunt for new manufacturers – we want to do more with our existing ones. It is important to see what the market is doing and what trends are out there, but a lot of that you can do locally.”

Intermediary worth

Ahead of the show, Launchpad conducted a poll of more than 100 users who underlined just how important intermediaries are to startup vendors.

Three quarters of the mainly US and UK respondents said they had consulted with some kind of technical advisor in 2009, whether that is a consultant, reseller or systems integrator.

“Regardless of how innovative your technology may be, vendors must befriend the channel community to succeed in new markets,” said Burkitt.

The research also found that security was respondents’ top priority when considering cloud vendors.

Ellis said: “Security as a service will be a key theme at RSA Conference and data leakage prevention will still be an important one."