Reuters Erdal Ozkaya speaks at Microsoft Azure roadshow
Leading value added distributor, emt Distribution’s CISO Erdal addresses the Microsoft Azure community at the roadshow
DUBAI, UAE – 24th May 2015: emt Distribution, the leading global value added distributor in Middle East today announced that its Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) was among the key speakers at Microsoft Azure roadshow that was held recently at Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.
Ozkaya will also be addressing the Microsoft Azure community that will be gathered at the roadshow in Kuwait on 2nd June 2015.
Azure is the Microsoft cloud platform, which nothing but a growing collection of integrated services–compute, storage, data, networking, and app that help businesses move faster, do more, and save money. It is the only major cloud platform ranked by Gartner as an industry leader for both infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS). This powerful combination of managed and unmanaged services lets enterprises build, deploy, and manage applications as per their choice.
Azure supports any operating system, language, tool, and framework– from Windows to Linux, SQL Server to Oracle, C# to Java. It puts the best of Windows and Linux ecosystems at together to build great applications and services that work with every device. It runs on a growing global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters across 19 regions, giving a wide range of options for running applications and ensuring great performance.
During the roadshow, Ozkaya made a presentation, and discussed the details about Microsoft Azure Security at length. He explained the fundamentals of Azure security, including threat defense, network security, access control, and data protection as well as the commitments Azure makes to safeguard the privacy of customer data.
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Reuters Erdal Ozkaya speaks at Microsoft
CISO Insight
Industry events remain one of the most effective ways for security leaders to stay current, build peer networks, and discover approaches that no vendor whitepaper can teach. The hallway conversations — where practitioners share what actually worked and what failed — consistently deliver more actionable intelligence than formal presentations.
Why Cybersecurity Events Matter for Practitioners
The cybersecurity industry moves at a pace where knowledge has a short half-life. Techniques cutting-edge 18 months ago may already be outdated. Threat actors evolve continuously, and defenders must keep pace. Industry events serve as concentrated knowledge-transfer mechanisms where practitioners absorb months of developments in days. Beyond the formal agenda, events create opportunities for informal knowledge exchange that drives real operational improvement — CISOs discussing challenges, incident responders comparing detection approaches, architects debating implementation strategies. These peer interactions produce insights impossible to replicate through online content alone.
Building a Strategic Approach to Industry Engagement
For CISOs managing limited time and travel budgets, selectivity is essential. The most valuable events combine technical depth with strategic relevance, attract genuine practitioners rather than just vendors, and provide structured networking. Regional events often deliver more value per hour than mega-conferences because the community is smaller and more focused. I recommend mixing one or two large international events with several focused regional forums for the best balance. The connections made at these events prove invaluable during incident response, technology evaluations, and career transitions.
Frequently Asked Questions
How should CISOs choose which cybersecurity events to attend?
Prioritise events aligned with current strategic priorities that attract peers from your sector and provide genuine peer interaction beyond vendor presentations. Look for strong speaker curation, hands-on workshops, and structured networking opportunities.
What is the ROI of attending cybersecurity conferences?
Returns include peer intelligence informing strategy, practitioner-based vendor evaluations, talent pipeline development, and professional growth. CISOs who invest in event attendance consistently report that connections prove valuable during incidents and transitions.
Related reading: Visit our CISO Career Hub or the Cyber Resilience Hub.