Security staff at Jisc are proving their worth on a global stage, recently earning two top ten placings in international competitions.
Analytics giant, Splunk, whose services are available to Jisc members, runs contests at its conferences, allowing delegates to practice using its platform to solve real-world problems.
Up against around 400 other teams, the Jisc team was tenth overall and third for the European, Middle East and African region at Splunk’s main international virtual conference in October 2020.
Proving this success was not a fluke, the team was also fourth at Splunk’s online global partner summit in March 2021, competing against professional and managed services consultants from all over the world.
Senior cyber security specialist Neil Toyne, infrastructure engineer Jamie Lane and senior systems administrator Gary Ballentine are led by captain and senior security architect, Mike Longley.
All team members work with Splunk as a core part of their job, but, as Longley explains, the competitions provide valuable experience.
“While we’re all familiar with Splunk’s capability, the contests are run in such a way that it pushes us to think quickly outside the box. Points are awarded for finding the root cause of a problem, but extra points are available if we answer questions within a certain timeframe.
“I like the combination of competition and training and that element of competitiveness and pressure really brings out the best in us. It’s fun, too. At the end of the day, what we learn means we are better able to support members who are using Splunk through our managed services.”
Further information
Splunk helps turn large amounts of machine data into useful insights, can highlight security issues, helps the efficient management of the IT estate and analyses machine data across a wide range of business platforms.
Registration is now open for Jisc’s annual security conference (9-11 November), focusing this year on nurturing a culture where cyber security is on the radar of every student and staff member, not just IT teams.
No comments:
Post a Comment