Takeaways from RSAC 2022
By Peggy Tierney Galvin, Chief Strategy Officer, Force4 Technology Communications
As we prepared for RSA Conference 2022, we felt both excitement and trepidation. As many of us remember, RSAC 2020 was the last major tech tradeshow before the COVID pandemic shutdown. And two years later, the pandemic – while stanched by vaccines and milder variants – is far from over.
Yet looking back after a week, it’s clear that for meetings, mingling and marketing, RSA Conference remains in a category of its own.
Here are our top takeaways from this year’s event.
1. Still the epicenter for critical investor, partner and customer meetings
During the shutdown, sales and marketing calendars were thrown into disarray when in-person meetings were cancelled. Based on the excitement, energy, packed meeting rooms, restaurants and schedules at RSAC we saw, that pent-up demand was back in full swing.
2. The theory of everything – industry leaders presenting the results of their M+A activities bundled together as a “platform”
The results of the decades-long buying spree from the likes of Google, Microsoft and Cisco were everywhere at RSAC. Now the hard part – cobbling together the new product and solution lines, developing new messaging, wooing analysts, calling the result a platform and hoping something sticks.
3. SASE and XDR were the acronyms of the year
Examples of these platforms abounded in the show’s acronyms of the year: secure access service edge (SASE) and extended detection and response (XDR). Many of these are being promoted by the same industry giants we mentioned above. An opportunity for nimbler competitors as the post-acquisition companies will be slower to synthesize their solutions and value prop.
4. Not a lot of encryption – an opportunity?
We were surprised to see far fewer encryption vendors than in previous years when quantum-ready encryption was the name of the game. If you’re an encryption vendor, now’s a great time to rise above the noise with a fresh perspective for partners, analysts, investors and prospects.
How was your show? And what inspiration did it give you for your own business goals? Reach out and we can brainstorm some options together.
