A lot of our business over the years has been built at tradeshows, getting in front of potential customers and showing them the power of the Sentinel IPS product. That’s why we still make it a point to attend several throughout the year. That includes going to several of the Data Connectors shows around the country.

It’s always a great time, meeting potential customers and reconnecting with those who’ve already decided to partner with Sentinel.

While attending is great, we really like it when we get to give a presentation at these shows, and this year we’ve been presenting at most of the Data Connectors we’ve attended. Presenting gives us a chance to meet so many more people and to talk about a variety of things, not just our product. That increased exposure gives us a chance to learn things that we wouldn’t have otherwise.

These shows are good window in to what’s coming for SMBs – which, honestly, is our main focus. For instance, higher-speed connections with 10Gbps hardware is becoming more common – particularly on the inside of the network – although the higher price point means it’s still limited to the larger organizations.

Here are three more things that we learned at the Data Connectors shows.

Visibility is all the rage. From end points (Bit9+CarbonBlack) to SIEM (LogRhythm) there are a lot of products that are focusing on providing visibility into different parts of the network. Everyone has a different spin on the same idea, and it’s not a bad one. To some extent, it’s rehashing of old-school layered security, with a focus on detection, not just protection: Get visibility across your entire network, so when you are breached you’re not left completely in the dark. It’s not if, but when.

There are a lot of innovations in network security, and it can get pretty confusing. There are several new security products hitting the market. They are all trying to differentiate themselves from the competition. New products are great, especially if they are effective, but more products creating more market niches make it difficult for the consumer to choose which is the best fit for them.

Face-to-face is still a valuable way to do business. If you know anything about us, you know that we appreciate the ability to remotely manage a product. But you also know that we really appreciate working directly with people. That’s what drives our desire to deliver the personal support experience that so many of our competitors can’t. But being at these Data Connectors shows really reminded us how powerful that face-to-face relationship can be.

By the way, we aren’t done with Data Connectors shows yet. We still have two more that we’ll be attending in 2015. We will be in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Oct. 29 and in Austin, Texas on November 12 … If you’re going to be at either of those shows, stop by and say hello! (And make sure to check out our presentation, of course.)