Cyber Security and Cloud Expo, Kensington Olympia, 25/26 April 2019. Roving reporter Mike Paterson explores the show. Lanyard on neck again, I was quite surprised to find myself at a show like this so soon after a similar large multi-track IT exhibition which was held at the Excel just last month. But the fact of the matter is that was East and this was West and London can easily sustain two such shows in close calendar proximity: this expo, it seems to me, was every bit as busy and buzzy as the previous. It was not unlike a convention of meercats. The stands enjoyed traffic and the floor presentation theatres were all well-attended, some of them standing room only. But to be fair, the two shows were somewhat different in emphasis, but still focussing on four highly topical themes: IoT (Internet of Things); Blockchain; Cybersecurity; and AI & Big Data. The fact of the matter is that all of these increasingly overlap one another: it must be a bit of a headache for some vendors to decide in which sector to position their stand. For example, growth in IoT introduces vulnerabilities which need addressing by Cybersecurity. Virtually all business systems employ AI; and so on. Whatever your business, I find that attending shows like this really helps you to take the pulse of what’s going on at the sharp end of technology, while learning new things. Just chatting to vendors, I now know a lot more about IoT, for example, than I did this time last week. 
I soon saw a familiar vendor and some familiar faces: ManageEngine, represented as before by Shinoth Padmanabhan, who was supported on the stand by two dedicated ManageEngine product managers from QBS Distribution: Shubham Goel and Ikramul Khaled. The QBS men were in remarkably sprightly shape after their company’s Mayfair banquet the previous evening which celebrated the firm’s 32 years in business. All three of them were working hard to field brisk traffic of delegates who seemed genuinely curious about ManageEngine’s product range. 
ManageEngine, which is part of the Zoho Group, is headquartered in California. It has 180,000 customers worldwide of whom over 7,000 are based in the UK. It has chosen QBS Distribution, as one of Europe’s premier software delivery platforms, to help them grow rapidly in the territory. Shinoth is pleased with how business is growing here. I asked him whom they were trying to reach primarily and how their products could help them. “That depends on what components from our portfolio we’re talking about, but primarily we’re talking to IT managers. But if we narrow this down to, say AD360 or Log360, security officers would obviously be involved as well. Overall, we aim to ensure the more effective management of IT systems in a very uncomplicated way which essentially makes their job a whole lot easier.” 
ManageEngine offers over 90 products and tools which broadly speaking fall into six solution areas: IT Service Management; Active Directory Management (which includes AD360); Office 360; Network, Server and Application Management; Endpoint Management; Advanced IT Analytics; Application Development; and – increasingly and critically important – Security Operations Management. 
Of their security offerings at the show, ManageEngine is putting the spotlight on Log360 which is a tool for security information and event management (SIEM). Log360 is an amalgam of powerful security features from other ManageEngine modules such as EventLog Analyzer, O365 Manager Plus, and Cloud Security Plus. It analyses all user activity in real time to instantaneously trigger alerts of unauthorised or unusual activity, protecting organisations from hacking, identity theft etc. Log360 has particularly strong reporting functionality, both ready-made and fully customisable. In addition to the obvious ongoing security monitoring, this delivers regulatory compliance to myriad mandates, including GDPR. In short, it’s what ManageEngine describes as a “One-stop solution to all Log Management and Active Directory Auditing”. It has been recognised for two consecutive years in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for SIEM. This is just scratching the surface. Contact QBS Distribution to learn more about Log360, AD360 and, indeed, all about the benefits for a reseller to partner with ManageEngine and how their solutions can help you and your customers. Find out more about ManageEngine at www.manageengine.com Find out more about the show at https://www.cybersecuritycloudexpo.com/global/ Want to talk? Contact managedpublishers@qbs.co.uk for more information.
Co-Author: Mike Paterson