Network Security Guru’s 5 Bets On Azure, AWS And Cisco-Splunk – CRN

Network security all-star Sentinel Technologies is growing and hiring to keep up with the massive customer demand for cloud, networking and managed security as channel partners play an ever-increasing role in shaping the IT landscape.

“Three really hot areas that are probably our highest percentage growth overall are in cloud—a lot with AWS, Azure and then Microsoft Modern Workspace,” Robert Keblusek, Sentinel’s chief innovator and technology officer, tells CRN.

“That’s followed by our Fortis managed security offers, with a great deal of it around an Azure or an AWS IaaS [Infrastructure as-a-Service] with customers looking to harden it, secure it, looking to adopt some of the security standards that they’ve done for the years, and bring it into those spaces,” said Sentinel’s CTO. “Those have been really brisk growth areas for us.”

[Related: Google Hires 5 New Execs From AWS, Databricks: Here’s Who]

Sentinel Technologies is a top national partner for the likes of Cisco, VMware, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, with a focus on providing a wide variety of network and security services. The Downers Grove, Ill.-based company made CRN’s prestigious 2023 Tech Elite 250 list.

Keblusek has been Sentinel’s innovation and technology leader for years, first starting his IT career in 1993. In an interview with CRN, Sentinel’s CTO explains the five hottest market trends and vendor partnerships Sentinel is betting on.

Big Bet No:1

Cisco’s $28 Billion Splunk Acquisition Has ‘Tremendous’ Potential

The Splunk acquisition is one that has a tremendous amount of potential. I know it’s going to take some time for them to actually get into the Cisco organization. There’s a lot of roadmap that, we even as partners are not privy to, but there is a huge payback for them if they can make that work.

If Cisco can make a large data lake around observability and cybersecurity, it will be huge. Because they have the networks in most corporations and all of that feeds a lot of signal, in terms of logs and analysis of what’s happening. If they can take all of that signal and improve the customer experience and improve AI that’s helping to run those networks—those would be big bets that I think some somebody like Splunk could be a nice acquisition for Cisco.

For example around observability, if you’re having performance issues or user experience issues—where is it? Diagnosing where that is in a distributed environment like cloud SaaS, cloud IaaS, traditional data centers, traditional networks—finding that user experience issue is becoming more and more of a challenge.

But when you take a look at Cisco’s investments in things like ThousandEyes, AppDynamics and now Splunk—they’re going to have a tremendous platform for being able to identify those things. Then also offer suggestions to an IT organization, from an operational perspective, on how to improve those experiences. They could do that potentially proactively before the user see it.

Click through to read Keblusek’s four other big bets on AWS, Azure, cybersecurity and the channel.