“Advanced Security Expert ”

SMB TechFest celebrates its 12th year anniversary. Its core mission is to provide advanced education and business growth for its global base of Technology Solution Providers (TSP’s) and IT Professionals (IT Pros). Dave Seibert leads the organization with his 40 years of technology and industry experience, and he has developed a platform and network that enables in-depth learning on the latest technologies. The technology industry is fast passed and always transforming. Most modern-day businesses are now technology lead or technology-first. It is the competitive edge businesses need and demand. Through the training and resources of the organization, TSP’s can now stay abreast on leading technologies to best provide for their business clients. Key areas include security, cloud, disaster recovery, business continuation preparedness, risk management, threat containment, and work anywhere.

Dave uniquely delivers leadership by leveraging his fortune 50 corporate IT experience. He also headed a national service company and later founded a Solution Provider firm. Dave began his technology career in the early ’80s. He was inspired by leaders Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and Steve Jobs. Combined, they created the technology landscape most know today. Personal computing and its early creativeness were their contributions. Dave listened to them speak live (in-person) and met two of them early on. It’s a true statement that successful people surround themselves with successful leaders. As a high-profiled technologist, he followed their insights, which greatly helped mold Dave into a technology leader.

Moore’s Law is even more accelerated in today’s cloud and security first technology world. Combine this with Mobile Device Management (MDM), Internet of Things (IoT), work from anywhere, and one has the challenge and opportunity facing most businesses. SMB TechFest establishes the roadmap and foundation for Technology Providers to learn and implement best-of-breed solutions for SME (Small Medium Enterprise) businesses. The organization also connects its professionals to learn from each other. There is more business strength and knowledge together than each Technology Provider individually.

“SMB TechFest establishes the roadmap and foundation for Technology Providers to learn and implement best-of-breed solutions for SME (Small Medium Enterprise) businesses.”

Today’s products and solutions advance and change faster than ever before. A key role of SMB TechFest is to introduce new technologies. Many of today’s platforms are migrating from on-premises to cloud and applications to SaaS (Software as a Service). These allow organizations of all sizes to onboard the latest solutions and at an affordable monthly consumption model. While enterprises still build internal custom applications, it’s more common for SMB (Small Medium Business) to deploy readily available cloud applications.

“We continue to educate on both these existing solutions and emerging solutions. Our technology professionals can rapidly learn what is new, what has been improved, and the best of breed platforms to enhance the competitiveness of their clients,” says Dave. “We consolidate the array of these technologies and platforms, and then provide rapid learning to our IT professional members. This recipe of success stands us above most our competitors and it does the same for our members with their business clients.”

The company’s best-case studies focus on security, regulatory compliance, and proactiveness. Most businesses are not truly equipped or prepared to address these essential needs. “Once our training platform has been implemented, a clear roadmap is established to address these essentials and parallel needs like cloud deployment, access from anywhere, and SOC services (Security Operations Center),” explains Dave. “The key benefit after implementation are risk reduction, enhanced employee productivity, and cost improvements through better standards.”

The next plans for the company in active deployment are advanced cyber-threat preparedness. The threat landscape exponentially grows as global bad actors and Nation-state attacks increase. Traditional applications and services are insufficient to protect a business from these advanced threats. “We are introducing greater Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) into our platforms. Combining these with advanced cloud security offerings will harden the business protective services needed in the days ahead.” According to Dave, businesses believe they are not targets for attack, ransomware, or theft of their Intellectual Property (IP). “It’s been stated there are only two kinds of companies: those that have been hacked, and those that will be. It is inevitable,” he says. “The time is now to establish a Managed Detection & Response (MDR) platform and develop an Incident Response (IR) plan. These will provide to better protect and safeguard your business operations.” IE