AWS Re:Inforce 2023 Expo Hall: Cloud Security Front and Center
Plus, CISO CJ Moses made a late-afternoon announcement at a media-only briefing that you’ll want to know.
![AWS Re:Inforce 2023 Show Floor Feature AWS Re:Inforce 2023 Show Floor Feature](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt0cbf805fa23afe18/6523f656b57670b152476b0f/AWS-ReInforce-2023-Feature.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
CJ Moses (middle) isn’t just the CISO of AWS, he’s also a semi-pro car racer. Moses caught up with the crew of media in town for re:Inforce on Monday night at K-1 Speed in Anaheim. The go-kart race in which he participated was competitive and laugh-out-loud fun — and we didn’t check to see where Moses placed. It was probably No. 1.
And what a way to spend the evening before his keynote speech on Tuesday morning. Click here to read that story. Once Moses wrapped up the opening salvo for re:Inforce, Channel Futures hit the expo hall to bring you the fun. Go to the next slide.
Attendees were greeted by large company signs and bright lights, beckoning them to check out the ubiquitous cloud security offerings.
You can’t tell from this shot but the CrowdStrike booth had several dozen people crowded around it as a speaker talked about pressing security matters.
Diversity, equity and inclusion are important topics in tech and AWS highlighted those realities by featuring a welcome lounge for all.
The Deloitte booth attracted a group of happy colleagues — perhaps partly because the integrator is one of the first to join the AWS’ new Global Partner Security Initiative?
AWS re:Inforce attendees take advantage of the company’s new virtual reality platform that gives data center tours without actually letting people into any of those ultra-secure buildings. The fewer humans inside a data center, the better, CJ Moses said during his keynote. Still, customers and other parties need to be able to verify AWS’ claims and capabilities. A VR approach does just that, Moses said.
The AWS Builders’ Fair gave attendees a chance to try their hand at various hot new projects. AWS Builders’ Fairs are demo opportunities for real-world use cases relying on AI, machine learning, coding and more. Speaking to the booth in this shot, specifically, Chaos Kitty is a security chaos engineering game that puts customers in the seat of an incident responder.
It looks like AWS provided a foosball table just for attendees to un-adult for a minute and have some fun.
Part of the AWS re:Inforce expo hall focused on showcasing opportunities for cybersecurity startups. After all, who’d want to dive into that fray alone?
The AWS Challenge Lounge drew plenty of participants. The Lounge serves as a chance to navigate real-world security scenarios, “to sharpen problem-solving skills, get help and clues from AWS experts, and have fun,” AWS says. It’s gamified learning, essentially, and people can take part in teams or go on a solo adventure.
Kyndryl, the managed services spinoff of IBM, is on a roll in the cloud computing sector. The company is one of the initial members of AWS’ new Global Partner Security Initiative. Kyndryl and AWS have officially worked together since February 2022.
Not to be left out, PwC, another global integrator, was touting its AWS capabilities at this week’s re:Inforce. Like Kyndryl, PwC is an initial member of AWS’ new Global Partner Security Initiative, introduced and highlighted by AWS CISO CJ Moses on June 13.
The Fortinet booth drew a sizable crowd as a speaker explained how the vendor’s FortiFlex platform works.
Cloudflare just teamed up with Kyndryl to deliver managed network modernization services. A core component of this offering comes in the form of Cloudflare’s zero-trust platform.
Another big name in security, Palo Alto Networks, joined AWS re:Inforce on the show floor to demo and talk cloud security.
Cloud security vendor Wiz went awesomely old school with a giant Pac-Man game for attendees to tackle.
CrowdStrike made a splash with its giant bad-actor statue, emphasizing the point about not getting caught in the Wizard Spider web.
The action and movement on the AWS re:Inforce show floor were non-stop.
The AWS Village at re:Inforce housed a variety of opportunities to explore AWS-specific offerings including professional services, training and certification, and identity and access management.
In our article covering the AWS re:Inforce keynote, we touched on the launch of the Global Partner Security Initiative. CISO CJ Moses cited Atos, Deloitte, PwC, Accenture and Kyndryl as the five initial partners to join. Here are a few more details on what that program entails, as information was a little scant at the beginning.
The initiative targets global system integrators for joint development with AWS on security and compliance services. The efforts will use generative AI to develop security services and managed services for multicloud enterprises. These organizations, according to AWS, are looking to create cloud environments that feature less risk while meeting regulatory obligations.
Expect four “priority use cases,” AWS said as the Global Partner Security Initiative launches. They are:
1. Managed Detection and Response
2. Cyber Resilience Emergency Recovery
3. Security-led Cloud Migrations
4. Continuous Regulatory Compliance
On the next slide, we round out our attendance at 2023 AWS re:Inforce with a special announcement from Moses.
We round out re:Inforce happenings with a look at a late-breaking development on Tuesday afternoon. At a media-only briefing with CISO CJ Moses, AWS took the wraps off its Cyber Insurance Partner Program.
The initiative helps customers (SMBs, in particular) find affordable policies through vetted providers, “in minutes,” Moses said.
“As an AWS user, you’re able to apply for insurance based on verified information and get quotes in an average of two days,” he added. “Now you’re paying the insurance premium you should based on the level of security you have within AWS.”
This is a vital addition to the AWS portfolio, Moses noted, not only so customers can get the cybersecurity insurance they want but that in many regulated spaces, they need.
We round out re:Inforce happenings with a look at a late-breaking development on Tuesday afternoon. At a media-only briefing with CISO CJ Moses, AWS took the wraps off its Cyber Insurance Partner Program.
The initiative helps customers (SMBs, in particular) find affordable policies through vetted providers, “in minutes,” Moses said.
“As an AWS user, you’re able to apply for insurance based on verified information and get quotes in an average of two days,” he added. “Now you’re paying the insurance premium you should based on the level of security you have within AWS.”
This is a vital addition to the AWS portfolio, Moses noted, not only so customers can get the cybersecurity insurance they want but that in many regulated spaces, they need.
AWS RE:INFORCE 2023 — Just like the cloud security sector itself, the 2023 AWS re:Inforce conference was nonstop.
The two-day event kicked off early on Monday night with some go-kart racing between members of the media and AWS CISO CJ Moses. When he’s not talking cloud security, Moses, if you didn’t know, is a legit semi-pro car racer. We start the slideshow above with a look at some of the fun that featured good-natured racing, a generous spread and lots of opportunities for press to network.
We shift (pardon the pun) from go-karting to the AWS re:Inforce 2023 expo hall. So much was happening on the show floor. We captured a lot of it for you and, naturally, every booth, discussion and activity centered on cloud security. After all, as cloud deployments become more widespread, bad actors (and even inadvertent human error) ramp up at the same time. Cloud security is perhaps the hottest topic right now (OK, OK, next to generative AI). In spite of the seriousness of the nature of cloud security, there was fun to be had on the show floor. Click the image above to start your journey on a path to pelple you know, or at least recognize!
And stay tuned to the very last slide.
Moses shared a piece of breaking news during a press briefing at AWS re:Inforce 2023that didn’t make its way into the keynote. Any AWS partner – managed service provider, system integrator, consultant, etc. – keen on cloud security and cybersecurity protections will want to know this latest development.
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