The Channel Futures Think Tank Podcast No. 16: Cybersecurity, SaaS Best Practices and an IoT World Update

You learn from a reliable source that there’s a new security threat that may impact your customers. Maybe it’s something akin to the recent Spectre scare. Maybe it’s something you barely understand.

What do you say? And when? Do you automatically update your software? Or your customer’s? Or do you consult first instead?

The answers aren’t as clear as you might imagine. For insights, we turn to Tim Foley, director of information security at Dataprise, a Rockville, Maryland, MSP. Foley is our first of three featured thought leaders in this podcast. He is joined by Lenovo Software Chief Revenue Officer Sal Patalano and IoT World Creator and Informa EVP Gavin Whitechurch.

In this episode, Foley offers wisdom on the cadence, timing and substance of communications with customers in times of cybersecurity mishap. He also offers a surprisingly revelation: Foley believes the good guys in cybersecurity are closing the gap between themselves and malicious hackers. The reason? Increased collaboration among cyber defenders.

In recent years, cybercriminals have made huge gains at the expense of the security community by sharing tools. Now security pros, who were once predisposed to keep everything from best practices, threat analyses and latest alerts to themselves, are following suit.

Once, “we were kinda out there fighting our own battles against a giant army. It wasn’t working out well. But through organizations like InfoGard, (ISC)², ISACA and a lot of these others governing bodies that have put together safe areas where security leaders can come together and talk about their experiences … things are changing,” Foley says.

His perspectives are well worth a listen.

Foley is followed by an interview that Think Tank member Theresa Caragol did with Lenovo Software CRO Patalano. Caragol is the founder and CEO of Achieve Unite, an organization that works with vendors and telecom providers to embrace best practices throughout their partner programs. As always, Patalano has some interesting things to share — on careers, millennials, SaaS best practices and more.

Patalano’s big advice for 2018? Channel practitioners must get better at plugging into the “buyer’s journey.”

“If you’re coming into the end of a buyer’s journey, you must understand how you’re going to insert yourself in a way that leads to you getting the business,” Patalano says.

Finally, we wrap with Informa’s own Whitechurch. He’s the brains behind the Internet of Things World 2018 event, which is slated for May 14-17 in Santa Clara, California. This year, headline speakers include Walter Copan, Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and NIST; Ron Guerrier, chief information officer at Farmers Insurance Group; and Tracy Zhen, president of Zipcar, among others.

Here’s hoping you enjoy this episode of The Channel Futures Podcast. For more, subscribe to us on iTunes or check us out on SoundCloud.