EDGE 2024 in photos: Day 2 breakout sessions Reseller News – New Zealand

Partners from Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) were spoiled for choice when it came to information during day 2 of EDGE 2024, with numerous breakout sessions available.

After the first half of the sessions in the main plenary area, attendees split up for the day’s breakout sessions. Within the first set was Arctic Wolf director of sales engineering for A/NZ Steve Hunter discussing about the real cost of a cyber breach in A/NZ. Meanwhile, Cisco A/NZ managing director partner and route to market sales Rodney Hamill talked about uniting AI and secure networking for cyber resilience. NextDC head of sales Steve Martin unpacked emerging AI trends and how partners can find new opportunities. Additionally, Check Point Software Technologies global head of MSP David Meister, A/NZ head of channel Leo Lynch and NZ country manager Mark Baker presented on the rising sophistication of AI-powered cyber attacks.

The next set of breakout sessions included Tech Data cloud business leader Robbie Upcroft, Orca Tech A/NZ general manager Craig Ashwood and Nexon Asia Pacific head of cyber security Paul Edmondson talking about the combination of security and hyperscaler marketplaces. Also within the second set was Microsoft partner developer manager Daniyel McAvoy, Dicker Data Microsoft Cloud general manager Sarah Loiterton and NZ general enterprise manager Lisa Muir exploring current trends, future developments and strategic preparations MSPs should take to tap into AI. At the same time, eSentire chief channel officer Bob Layton, regional general manager for Asia Pacific and partner ecosyste, Mert Mustafa and head of security architecture Haris Chaudhry focused on managed detection and response or SOC-as-a-service through the lens of partner profitability, customer protection and peace of mind. Lastly, keynote speaker Nancy Rademaker provided a sneak peek on the art of presenting.

After the day’s breakout sessions concluded, attendees returned to the main plenary to Iles again, this time revealing an industry snapshot into Australian IT decision makers to highlight opportunities and priorities for partners. This was followed by Amazon Web Services head of channel and alliances for Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) public sector Andrew Winter to provide an update on the cloud giant’s movements across the region. Wrapping up the second day of sessions was O’Sullivan with a panel on what CIOs want from partners, where she was joined by Abano Healthcare CIO Nisha Clark, former Village Roadshow CTO Michael Fagan and Gold Coast Health CIO Sandip Kumar.