What Red Hat learns at our Security Symposium events: a product manager’s point of view

Recently, I was asked to speak at one of Red Hat’s regional events, the Security Symposium series, which was an absolutely easy decision to make : Yes, I would much enjoy attending, speaking and, most importantly, listening at this event. Which brings me to why I wrote this post: What have I learned from participating in these events? What might you learn by attending?

What follows is a brief summary of some of what I’ve heard at these events:

• Security responsiveness is a board-level discussion now. No longer considered just a duty of operations or late night IT staff, how an organization responds to the latest vulnerabilities has the highest level of visibility.

• Everyone needs help automating security compliance. Management at scale is on almost everyone’s mind. How do you rapidly and consistency address security compliance configuration?

• Hybrid and multi-cloud security challenges are numerous . From learning what new tools to use to understanding who is responsible for what aspect of security, the "cloud" is forcing conversations and dismantling old assumptions.

• Knowing what tools you already have available is just as important as understanding what’s next on the roadmap. Enterprise-class software is, by definition, full of a variety of general-purpose features. You likely may not even know of key utilities present today to help you solve problems (such as using OpenSCAP for security compliance and CVE vulnerability scanning).

• Everyone learns by sharing. OK, this isn’t security specific, but in these forums, customers share their concerns and find others who have gone through similar issues. Want to know how to get funding for security investments? Or how to quickly use some automation scripts for remediation? Perhaps how to best secure data in a PCI-DSS environment? Trust me, you’re not the only one with these questions (and answers!)

So, in a nutshell, being able to attend these Security Symposium events and talk to customers about their issues and solutions is really one of the best aspects of my role at Red Hat. So, yes, come join me, and your peers, for a coffee in Seattle, June 6 where we can talk about these issues and more.

Security Symposium