SpiceWorld Virtual 2021: Top Highlights & Insights From Leading Tech CXOs

Here’s a look at the top highlights from day three of SpiceWorld Virtual 2021, featuring expert opinions and insights about automation, enterprise communications, and much more.

SpiceWorld Virtual 2021: Top Highlights & Insights From Leading Tech CXOs

Last Updated: October 1, 2021

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In an evolving business environment, protecting data privacy is getting tougher. In an interactive fireside chatOpens a new window hosted by Spiceworks director of community Sean Dahlberg and featuring Mark DePalmaOpens a new window , chief technology officer, SWZD and Elizabeth Ronco, VP of product at SWZD, the panel spotlighted the role of data privacy and why it is a crucial IT practice. Also, follow along for expert opinions and insights about automation, enterprise communications, and much more.

Day 3 of the SpiceWorld Virtual 2021 conference saw an interactive fireside chat hosted by Spiceworks director of community Sean Dahlberg featuring Mark DePalma, chief technology officer at SWZD and Elizabeth Ronco, VP of product, SWZD. The trio discussed the value of conferences like SpiceWorld in enabling developers and organizations to come together and share ideas about digital transformation. Day 3 also featured interactive discussions around enterprise communications, serverless security, automation, and more. 

Let’s look at the top highlights from Day 3 of SpiceWorld Virtual 2021!

Spiceworks’ Top Execs Lay Out Product Roadmap and Privacy Compliance

Fireside chat hosted by Spiceworks Director of Community Sean Dahlberg featuring Mark DePalma, CTO at SWZD and Elizabeth Ronco, VP of Product, SWZD
Elizabeth Ronco, VP of product, SWZD; Sean Dahlberg, Spiceworks director of community; Mark DePalma, CTO, SWZD

During the fireside chat, Ronco underlined some of the questions that the company is keen to address. 

“We knew we couldn’t get back to the good old IT days, but (we asked ourselves) can we make a new golden age of IT tools and applications that are free, that remain free? IT pros manage a lot of hardware, but we know they’re shifting toward a world of constantly managing more software or services. A lot of the companies they support are experiencing remote work. So, how do we develop our tools to meet that new narrative?” said Ronco.

“We’re also in the middle of a generational shift in the workforce. Millennials are obviously getting older, Gen Z is entering the workforce, and they have different ways. All this will permeate a shift in how we develop our tools and how we deliver value to our IT professionals,” she added.

Ronco also highlighted the importance of the tech event for the company and IT industry and said, “SpiceWorld is huge because it’s the one time of year where we can really give a platform, not only to what we’re doing and be extremely transparent with our users about what we’re developing but give them a chance to be transparent with us.” 

DePalma, on his part, affirmed the company’s commitment to data privacy and said they are striving very hard to follow all the guidelines that are out there, including GDPR and CCPA in the U.S. 

“We are very, very concerned about privacy and respecting everyone’s privacy, on a personal level. We’re really striving hard to make sure that we’re following those best practices and guidelines to make sure that we’re respecting everybody’s privacy, giving everybody the opportunity to opt out or get what we call data subject access request fulfilled, so they can figure out what kind of data we do have, and give you the choice to either have it removed or to opt out from certain pieces of things that we’re offering here,” he added. 

DePalma also said that the company is very sensitive about data, whether it’s personal or not. He was referring to the intent data pieces that are not necessarily at the individual level. “We try to respect everyone’s privacy and this is something I can assure you that we’re going to continue to take very seriously going forward,” he added.

Commenting on the company’s future ads strategy, Ronco said, we want our ads experience to be lightweight. We want our experience to provide the information you need to decide whether to ignore the ad or look at the ads. 

“Ads are not just about making a purchase decision. They are also informative and tell you what brands are out there, what they are doing and what they are producing,” she adds. Ronco noted, the ads may not be more, but they may be different. So, the number of ads might go up in some parts of the experience and simultaneously go down in other parts. 

See more: Tech Spending to Boom in 2022: Cloud, Security, Hardware to Drive 26% Growth in IT Budgets

How Can IT Pros Communicate More Effectively With Senior Management

In one of the key sessions from day three, Derek BrinkOpens a new window  of Aberdeen Strategy & Research, SWZD, spelled the urgencyOpens a new window for IT teams to learn and practice effective ways to make a business case before senior executives in the language they understand and respond to. 

Brink called attention to the fact that companies worldwide are spending tens and billions of dollars every year on cybersecurity, and it is estimated to grow even further. The fact that there are thousands of solution providers highlights the complexity and cost of managing a large portfolio. Brink believes it is crucial to understand from a senior executive’s perspective why we need to spend more when we have already spent so much. 

“To explain it to them it is important that IT pros speak the language of risk,” said Bink. He meant that they should focus more on communicating the risks so that senior executives can make a more informed decision to reduce that risk. Brink explains this can be achieved by a) explaining the risk under the status quo, b) why the risk is unacceptable, c) how the recommendations made by the IT team can mitigate the risk. 

“So we are basically explaining to them how an incremental investment would bring down their risk to an acceptable level. If we do a good job of this, we can get them to support and allocate the necessary resources,” Bink added.

See More: SpiceWorld 2021: Steve Wozniak On Evolving Developer Roles, Data Transparency & More 

Rethinking Security in Serverless World

Serverless environments have a different security landscape than virtual machines or container applications. The problems in each emulator differ and should be dealt with accordingly. During a sessionOpens a new window on ‘Blowing Up Serverless Security with IAM and How to Avoid It,’ Josh StellaOpens a new window , the co-founder and CEO of Fugue, explained the need to be cautious with native attacks in a serverless application considering less exposure with serverless attacks.

Stella discussed the need to rethink security in a serverless world because of many misconfiguration vulnerabilities involving IAM. They either are not covered by compliance or recognized by security teams or only appear in the full context of the environment. “These vulnerabilities are easy to overlook during security audits and are incredibly common in serverless environments making the environment conducive for the hackers to attack,” he said.

Cloud service providers are responsible for hardware and security, while the customer is responsible for security within the cloud. “The actual physical plant that makes up the cloud will secure the infrastructure. You definitely want to use a tool that can evaluate the configurations and warn you about security and compliance issues,” Stella added. 

See More: SpiceWorld Virtual 2021- 4 Key Highlights from Day 1 

Adopting the Automation Goal

Sarah Lahav, CEO of SysAid

Sarah LahavOpens a new window , CEO, SysAid

Leading a sessionOpens a new window on ‘Putting Your Users at the Center – Using Automation and Experience,’ Sarah LahavOpens a new window , the CEO of SysAid, brought forth pragmatic ways to help teams fully utilize automation for better IT services and support along with customer satisfaction across the organization.

Automation revolutionizing business is not just a differentiator but an indispensable element of modern organizations. It enables faster working with enhanced customer experience, she said. 

The pandemic has been one of the leading events that induced automation in organizations dealing with employees and customers. Based on an annual survey by SysAid, Lahav shared the goals of the IT/admin that have shifted from 2020 to 2021. 

Automation which was in the second position has now become the first goal within an organization. “Everybody understands that automation provides you an edge over the competitors. The next step in IT evolution is automation and the demand of automation policies,” she stated.

The other goals include CX/EX, self-service, and visibility and insights that Lahav laid out in the insightful presentation.

Which of these sessions from day three of SpiceWorld Virtual 2021 did you like the most? Comment below or let us know on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you.

Ojasvi Nath
Ojasvi Nath

Assistant Editor, Spiceworks Ziff Davis

Ojasvi Nath is Assistant Editor for Toolbox and covers varied aspects of technology. With a demonstrated history of working as a business writer, she has now switched her interest to technology and handles a broad range of topics from cybersecurity, cloud, AI, emerging tech innovation to hardware. Being a philomath, Ojasvi thinks knowledge is like a Pierian spring. The more you dive in, the more you learn. You can reach out to her at [email protected]
Abhijit Ahaskar
Abhijit Ahaskar is an Assistant Editor at Toolbox. He has over 11 years of experience covering B2B technologies, including cybersecurity, automation, AI, IoT and cloud computing. He has previously worked at Mint, PCQuest and MyMobile. You can get in touch with him at [email protected]
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