Barracuda’s European tour: 5 cities in 5 days

While holiday season may be over, our Barracuda team decided to renew their passports in order to commence on the European #cudatour17.

Starting with Noordwijik, they bravely decided to embark upon a whistle-stop tour of five cities in just five days, moving onto London, Vienna, Frankfurt and ending in Paris. All in aid of talking to partners about key industry topics such as GDPR, data protection and ransomware, and how Barracuda solutions can help their customers address the changing cyber threat landscape.

[clickToTweet tweet="5 cities in 5 days! Check out the recap on our European Roadshow #cudatour17 #infosec #publiccloud" quote="5 cities in 5 days! Check out the recap on our European Roadshow #cudatour17"]

Barracuda’s European team was joined by some of our executives over from the US to share the Barracuda story so far and plans for the future, including: Sanjay Ramnath, VP Security Products and Business Strategy, Product Management; Alon Yaffe, VP Product Management, Data Protection; and Kaivan Jesung, Director, Product Marketing Operations.

Partners were also able to hear about the real-life challenges faced by customers like Swansea City Football Club, Corialis, Smart Production, Fiets XL and PGA European Tour, who shed light on how they have secured their users, data and networks using Barracuda. Guest speakers included Austrian lawyer, author and privacy activist Maximilian Schrems who became known for his campaigns against Facebook for privacy violation along with GDPR expert Maximilian Hartung.

The overarching theme throughout the tour was how digitalisation is now permeating through everything we do: bringing within it its own threats and new platforms for attackers to compromise. Our experts talked partners through exactly how customers can embrace digital transformation without risking data, networks or compliance.

Each event started with a welcome from Chris Ross, SVP International, who outlined Barracuda’s future vision for the New Year, how Barracuda’s partners are key to that vision and teased the day’s sessions to come.

 

@ckr_uk @barracuda Chris Ross sharing the Barracuda vision with our UK partners. #cudatour17 pic.twitter.com/HnvOetbbby

— Chris Hill (@Mr_Chill) September 20, 2017

Sanjay Ramnath talked the audience through the shifts taking place in network infrastructure that are challenging the very role of the firewall. He stated that traditional firewalls aren’t cloud ready, as they primarily focus on perimeter security, which is why organisations will need to invest in cloud generation firewalls to fully protect themselves as we move into the cloud era.

Sanjay also focused in on two areas that are increasingly becoming boardroom level concerns: ransomware and GDPR. He talked partners through the various attack vectors that need to be covered in order to combat this aggressive form of malware. While noting that GDPR is primarily a legal issue, Sanjay said that technology can help organisations meet certain criteria, although it’s by no means a panacea to the regulation if used alone.

 

"Don't pay ransomware as by doing so you are supporting cyber criminal activity" Sanjay Ramnath VP Security Products #cudatour17 @barracuda pic.twitter.com/LreJWB2eB6

— Joanna Arnett (@asiaarnett) September 20, 2017

Alon Yaffe then addressed the issue of data protection in the age of the cloud. Alon pondered that even though cloud and virtualization have changed the way businesses think about infrastructure, there’s never been a greater need to protect data against corruption, human errors, and advanced persistent threats.

 

"Just having another copy doesn't mean having a backup" Alon Yaffe, VP Storage #backup #cudatour17 @barracuda pic.twitter.com/vWavHgeyoi

— Joanna Arnett (@asiaarnett) September 20, 2017

To end the day, Jason Howells, Director EMEA MSP Business, discussed the findings of a new report revealing that 91% of solutions providers report revenue from managed services and 45% either already offer some form of managed services or plan to in the next 12 months.

In total, we spoke to 350 partners, from over 8 countries, with a total of 30 sessions delivered by 15 experts. Phew! A big thanks to our inspiring speakers and for everyone who attended. See you next year!

Barracuda EMEA Partner Roadshow 2017 Post Video from Barracuda EMEA on Vimeo.