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DSAG Technology Days – Review
New Normal IT is
From May 3 to 4, 2022, the German SAP customer group met for its Technology Days in Düsseldorf. For the motto of the congress, the user group opted for a forward-looking design based on the famous Georg Luka saga Star Wars. The headline “New Normal IT is” underlined the theme of the event.
Even the headline suggested that constant change leads to new challenges and opportunities that need to be mastered. This is the so-called “New Normal” that many organizations need to get to grips with.
Although many participants, including myself, were still somewhat hesitant to attend a face-to-face event, the event was very well attended. So, it was finally possible again to exchange ideas with like-minded people in a direct conversation on the topic of SAP and securing SAP systems. I went to Düsseldorf to talk about NextGen Cybersecurity for SAP together with our partner Fortinet. Together with Julian Peterson we had the opportunity to tell the SAP community about the new approach in our presentation in Session Track of the Security & Vulnerability.
My personal highlights
- In the keynote, Sebastian Westphal introduced himself as the new DSAG Board Member for Technology. In his sovereign opening speech, which I unfortunately had to listen to from the car, he repeated the demand for more insight and transparency around SAP security, which his predecessor Steffen Pietsch had already presented in 2020.
- As a spokesperson for German SAP user companies, he also recalled the Log4J vulnerability, which also affected SAP customers. The SAP customers wished for a more competent way of customer communication, which would have been necessary for a more efficient approach during the explosive time.
- The panel discussion in the Hyperscaler-Roundtable, which was not round at all, was also very exciting. There were representatives from Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services at the table. Particularly thanks to the sharp questions from the moderator Katrin-Cecile Ziegler, there was no chance of dullness.
If you were not able to attend the event, here you can find a summary including the recorded keynotes I mentioned: DSAG Technologietage (German)
NextGen Cybersecurity for SAP
In addition to the keynotes, there was also an exhibitor area and various field reports and expert session in the different subject areas of DSAG. We were lucky to be invited by DSAG to fill a speaker slot.
Under the headline: “NextGen Cybersecurity for SAP”, Julian Peterson of Fortinet and I presented new concepts that emphasize collaboration between enterprise teams in the fight against the cyber threat. Organization can and must better leverage existing expertise to achieve effective protection of SAP systems. It is only through intelligent interplay that defenders can successfully defend their digital assets. Unfortunately, we also must realize that the attackers are getting more and more organized.
When it comes to protecting SAP in particular, the team game unfortunately does not yet work effectively. For example, network experts, SAP basis administrators, information security analysts and SAP developers need to sit down at the same table to assess and minimize the risks a company faces from a successful attack on SAP. The business departments need to be given a fundamental understanding of architecture and technology.
To revisit DSAG’s theme of “New Normal”, this means that new methods and processes must be developed to embed IT security into the DNA of organizations.
Should you want to learn more about how you can make better use of the existing capabilities in your organization, I invite you to contact us directly. In addition, there is also the opportunity to meet us in person at our booth at the DSAG Annual Congress in Leipzig.