Over 270 exhibitors from 18 countries came to Nuremberg to present their products and solutions for more IT security at it-sa 2021. They met around 5,200 trade visitors from 18 countries from 12 to 14 October. The restart on site, after a virtual event had taken place instead on the it-sa 365 platform in 2020, was thus a success. "As expected, it-sa was smaller than last time in 2019, but for the participating companies it was an extremely effective marketing tool. The exhibitors at it-sa 2021 were impressed by the high calibre of the contacts they made and in-depth professional discussions on concrete projects." explains Frank Venjakob, Director it-sa.
For the first time, it-sa was held in Halls 7 and 7A and Congress@it-sa in the modern NürnbergConvention Center Ost, which is directly adjacent to the exhibition. This year, the annual conference of the IT security officers of the federal states and municipalities was once again a highlight of the congress events at it-sa. On the eve of the trade fair, Albert Füracker, Bavarian State Minister of Finance and Regional Identity, hosted a state reception.
The trade fair participants agreed on the growing importance of cyber security. Figures presented by Bitkom at the opening press conference show that spending on IT security in Germany has risen continuously and a further increase in investments in corresponding hardware, software and services is to be expected. For 2021, Bitkom estimates spending at 6.2 billion euros, which is 9.7 percent more than in the last record year of 2020. Bitkom puts the expected growth for the next five years at an average of 9.5 percent. At the European level, however, the prioritisation of IT security in individual countries is far apart, ECSO Secretary General Luiggi Rebuffi points out in an interview.
Knowledge transfer in four forums - now available online
Knowledge transfer traditionally also takes place at it-sa in the open forums, which have become real crowd-pullers. Three Knowledge Forums and the International Forum with English-language contributions offered information from the areas of "Cloud & Mobile Security", "Data Center Security & Identity and Acess Management", "Management & Compliance" and "Network&Application Security" with over 130 contributions, including the product-neutral it-sa insights. One of the highlights of the supporting programme was the special keynote by AI expert Hans-Christian ("Chris") Boos. He appealed to his audience to be aware of the responsibility in the development of AI-based security tools - humans are still decisive here. Recordings of the entire it-sa 2021 forum programme will remain available free of charge to registered users of it-sa 365 after the show.