Infosec 2015: A place in the sun

Now in its 20th year, Infosecurity Europe 2015 painted a picture of a security market heating up, reports Jack Gilbert

The warm June sunshine poured through the colossal curved roof of London's Olympia and onto the hordes of exhibitors below throughout this year's Infsoec.

All week, the gigantic structure of Olympia's glass roof made the venue feel like a glasshouse as the days warmed up, causing the hordes of IT security executives in attendance to shed blazers and many beads of sweat.

But it was not just sunshine that buoyed the thousands of exhibitors and attendees at the event, now reaching a landmark 20th year. The message from many of the exhibitors was that the economic upturn is lighting up the security market, and there was a sense of confidence and a feeling that customers are now happy to splash their cash on security.

This boost in the security climate was seen with the government announcing it has ploughed £860m into the National Cyber Security Programme over five years to 2016. The announcement came in the Cyber Security Breaches Survey, commissioned by the government and conducted by PwC, which found that 90 per cent of large organisations said they suffered a breach in 2014, up from 81 per cent in 2013.

Grahame Smee, managing director of Exertis VAD Solutions, felt the event reflected an upturn in the cybersecurity industry as a whole.

"The show seems really busy and that's great for our industry. There seems to be a lot of innovation, with a lot of new vendors coming along with strong technical propositions, and that's great too," he said.

"Maybe it's a reflection of the whole economic climate, but this year it feels busy and there is a buzz. Certainly from our business we have seen people spending money which they perhaps weren't doing 18 months ago."

'Ostriching'

The event was again marked by a privation of Symantec and McAfee - now rebranded as Intel Security (although John McAfee did make a special guest appearance) - but this gave a chance for many start-ups and new boys to get their chance to shine.

There was the usual peacocking, which has become the norm at the event, with one vendor employing a couple of guys to brave the heat and dress up as ostriches, while Barracuda Networks was offering the chance to perfect your swing with a virtual golf machine.

But once again the so-called "booth babes" were all fully clad.

The place to be

As always, securing a prime location was key to coming away with a successful Infosec experience, and cloud security vendor Elastica managed to bag a very profitable spot on the second floor as the masses came and went from the week's keynote speeches.

Alex Raistrick, Elastica sales director, said: "We have been getting some real opportunities from the event. We have been really busy because the keynote stage is behind us; we have been getting a lot of traffic."

The event's numbers were spurred by the last-minute cancellation of a train strike which was planned for Thursday and Friday. Although official figures on overall numbers are yet to be released, many people observed how full the event was.

"No train strikes is very good news. There were lots of worries about it because people would not have come on Thursday; it would have been a real pain," Raistrick said.

This year's Infosec was relocated from its previous home in Earls Court, and moved back to Olympia in Kensington, a change which pleased Raistrick and many others.

"They seem to have tidied the place up, I like it. It's lighter here and the way it's been set out, it's very spacious," he said.

Trend Micro splashed out on a large and eye-catching stand this year right at the centre of the stage floor and Matt Poulton, enterprise sales director, was pleased with the new location, describing it as a "refreshing" move.

Poulton also felt that the event was indicative of a wider upswing in the security market.

"Looking around yesterday, I don't think there are as many people just perusing. People have come here for a reason this year," he said.

"The economic situation has evolved and people know what they are going to do over the next few years. You also have the emergence of the smaller vendors having a bigger presence; I think that's more present than in previous years. Also there is no Symantec or McAfee, and that allows the niche vendors to promote their technology."

Alex Teh (pictured below), joint managing director of distributor Infinigate UK, was equally positive about the event and what it showed about the industry.

"We are seeing a lot vendors and resellers increase their interest at Infosec this year. I think the industry now is growing again which is resulting in a lot of increasing investment in marketing and PR," Teh said.

Represented with a dominating stand this year was British security vendor Sophos, which also made waves this week by announcing its intention to IPO on the London Stock Exchange and hopefully bag £65m in the process.

Sophos chief executive Kris Hagerman claimed the move shows the vendor is now a market leader.

"The important thing to keep in mind is we view this as an exciting milestone on the way to bigger things for the company. We have become recognised by the industry as one of the true leaders, both in our product set and increasingly for our channel approach," Hagerman said.

Infosec always serves as a barometer for the wider security market, and according to Graham Jones, UK managing director at distributor Exclusive Networks, the market is now all about response.

"We have moved on to the fact that breaches happen, full stop. So it's gone from defend and detect to alleviate and mitigate, and that's what we are seeing here. It's far more 'OK, you have been breached, let's show you how we can fix the breach quickly', and a lot of the new stuff is all about that," Jones said.

Thirsty work

Despite all the positive feeling during Infosec, one concern raised was the timing of the event, with Trend Micro's Poulton questioning the date the organisers chose.

"I feel that June is a stupid time of the year to have it. It's the last week of the quarter and people are going on summer holidays. People have new budgets at the beginning of the year, so March or April would be a good time. It [Infosec] is too late in the quarter," Poulton said.

But while some attendees may have had issues with the timing of the event, the pub landlords at the locals around Kensington certainly didn't, as after each day the masses descended on the nearest public houses to cool off from the baking sunshine.