In conversation with Bilal Baig, Regional Technical Director, MMEA, Trend Micro as he shares Trend Micro’s GITEX Global 2024 experience and how they are using AI in simplifying cyber security
Please tell us about your GITEX 2024 presence, the innovations you showcased and how are they addressing the current market needs or challenges?
We have been taking part in GITEX for more than 10 years and every year it becomes more and more exciting to be here. It makes it our best week of the entire year. This year GITEX has created a dedicated cyber valley, which shows how cyber security is core to any business transformation or any of the existing business and when you compare and contribute these factors together, we highlighted our AI platform this year. We have been implementing AI in our solutions from quite some time, but now the focus is on highlighting how we are actively able to predict the attack using AI and how it is going to unfold.
The Tech landscape in the Middle East is rapidly evolving. How do you plan to optimize opportunities in this region?
Couple of weeks back we spoke about AI fighting AI. So, what we are doing is to be ahead of the curve. There is a lot of growth and transformation in this industry. UAE market showed growth from Half a billion to $1 billion and Saudi market grew from $3 billion to $6 billion. So as the region is evolving, all the vendors and all the technologies must be keeping pace with that. The market is becoming more and more sophisticated in terms of technology but also on the other side we see the sophistication in the attacks as well. So, our strategy is more of a balanced approach. The UAE vision of AI for 2031 speaks about how they want to transform all the economic development based on AI. With these multiple factors involved and with rapid growth in the region, we are in a great spot with tremendous opportunities.
Sustainability is a key focus for Tech companies worldwide. Can you share your sustainability approach?
We are moving our footprint from the customer premises of managing their servers and bringing it to a single platform. For example: if a customer is running 1000 servers to manage our solution, now they move to a centralized system where they don’t need to manage that. When it comes to sustainable development, consolidation and centralization is the way to move forward.
How are you integrating AI in your offerings and helping companies with their AI adoption goals?
There are multiple approaches to how we are adopting AI. One is prediction on how the attackers will take different paths to attack and take the prevention course. Second is how to help the analyst who is new in the field and does not have enough cyber security knowledge in the region. When an existing analyst wants to understand a very complex attack, our built in AI can actually contextualize and make that an easy language. For example: just like chat GPT the user can ask AI for an explanation or a step-by-step approach on where the attack came from and how it spread.
How was the response at GITEX 2024, any new announcements or launches you are excited about?
GITEX is a major event for us and we see massive number of customers, not from UAE alone but outside the region, from Africa, Turkey, North Africa and other GCC countries too. We welcomed all of them and showcased our offerings, particularly how we utilize AI. It was also exciting to see, greet and meet different companies coming up with AI related inventions and to see how it is transforming us and our lives.
