Omdia Analyst Summit at Black Hat USA

Senior Director, Research

Maxine Holt leads Omdia cybersecurity research, developing a comprehensive research program to support vendor, service provider, and enterprise clients in the areas of infrastructure security, security operations, data security, and identity, authentication, and access.

Maxine rejoined Omdia (as Ovum) in 2018, following two years at the Information Security Forum (ISF) developing research in areas including Protecting the Crown Jewels, Securing Collaboration Platforms, and Building Tomorrow’s Security Workforce. Prior to the ISF, Maxine spent 15 years in research at Ovum, including security, having started her career as a software developer in the financial services industry and working in consulting for the financial services and internet sectors. Maxine is a regular speaker at events and contributes articles to high-profile publications in cybersecurity.

Managing Principal Analyst

Eric Parizo supports Omdia's Cybersecurity Operations (SecOps) Intelligence Service research practice, guiding vendor, service provider, and enterprise clients. He provides thought-leading analysis on technologies, trends, and innovations in enterprise security operations centers (SOCs), and specifically the thread detection, investigation, and response (TDIR) lifecycle.

In addition to SecOps, he assists in supporting Omdia’s Infrastructure Security Intelligence Service, contributes to Omdia Cyber’s coverage of mergers, acquisitions, and other overarching market trends in North America, and oversees Omdia Cyber’s social media efforts, including the Omdia research page on Dark Reading.

Eric has been covering, researching, or speaking on topics related to enterprise information technology for approximately 20 years. Prior to joining Omdia (formerly Ovum) in 2019, Eric spent four years at GlobalData (formerly Current Analysis), where his research focused on tracking and analyzing enterprise network security product segments, as well as top-tier enterprise security vendor technology and strategy.

Eric previously spent 15 years as a technology journalist and a multimedia editor at leading B2B publisher TechTarget, most recently serving as executive editor for the Security Media Group. He is a nine-time ASBPE award winner, the B2B publishing industry's most prestigious award for excellence.

Senior Principal Analyst

Fernando Montenegro is a Senior Principal Analyst on Omdia’s cybersecurity research team, based in Toronto, Canada. He focuses on the Infrastructure Security Intelligence Service, which provides vendors, service providers, and enterprise clients with insights and data on network security, content security, and more.

Fernando’s experience in enterprise security environments includes network security, security architecture, cloud security, endpoint security, content security, and antifraud. He has a deep interest in the economic aspects of cybersecurity and is a regular speaker at industry events.

Before joining Omdia in 2021, Fernando was an industry analyst with 451 Research. He previously held a variety of operations, consulting, and sales engineering roles over his 25+ years in cybersecurity, always focusing on enterprise security at organizations including vArmour, RSA, Crossbeam, Hewlett Packard, and Nutec/Terra. Fernando holds a Bachelor of Science in computer science and different industry certifications.

Principal Analyst, IoT Cybersecurity

Hollie Hennessy provides insight into the fascinating and fast-moving domain of IoT cybersecurity.

Hollie has a range of experience in research. She began her career in the legal sector, writing and researching for expert witness reports on the labor market. She then moved into product testing, with a consumer protection focus. In this role, she was responsible for managing comparative tests of various technology products, as well as regular testing and investigative work into the security of these products.

She has published articles in Which?, one of the UK's largest subscription magazines, produced by the country's largest consumer organization; and Computing magazine.

Principal Analyst - Digital Enterprise Services

Adam Etherington is part of Omdia’s Digital Enterprise Services practice, within the Global Service provider Enterprise and Wholesale Team. He covers telecommunications service providers, consulting, systems integrators, and managed services across cloud, cybersecurity, and emerging B2B managed services.

Adam joined Omdia in 2020, having spent more than two decades at some of the world’s largest telecoms and IT services vendors performing various roles across; strategic consulting, corporate strategy, business planning, market intelligence, product management, business development, IT solutions architecture, and managed services operations.

He is passionate about bringing clear insights to help enterprises and service providers understand and leverage business outcomes enabled by information technology.

Senior Analyst - Infrastructure Security

Ketaki Borade supports Omdia’s Infrastructure Security research practice. She is responsible for qualitative and quantitative analysis of key vendors in the service. She provides insights into technology, market trends, and competitive landscape.

Ketaki brings her eight years of experience in consulting and syndicate research to this role. Ketaki has researched the semiconductor market for three years with MarketsandMarkets. Prior to joining Omdia, she worked with Canalys for five years as a cybersecurity analyst. She was leading the North American security practice for endpoint security, network security, email and web security, and vulnerability management with channels insights. Ketaki has a bachelor's degree in electronics and telecommunications and a master’s degree in operations.

Senior Analyst

Don Tait is Omdia’s Senior Analyst for the cybersecurity team, bringing more than 20 years of research, consulting, and insights experience to his role as a lead analyst in the area of identity, authentication, and access.

Don has provided analyses on smart cards, payment and banking cards, near-field communications (NFC), and contactless credentials. He has presented the findings from his reports at many events and has written feature articles on his areas of expertise for leading journals and publications. Prior to joining Omdia, Don was a telecoms research analyst at Frost & Sullivan, responsible for the firm's broadband services subscription. He was also a marketing consultant at MSI Reports Limited, where he wrote industrial, healthcare, and telecommunications reports. Don has a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in business studies from Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland. He is based in the UK.

Principal Analyst

Andrew Braunberg supports Omdia's Cybersecurity Operations (SecOps) Intelligence Service research practice, guiding vendor, service provider, and enterprise clients. He provides thought-leading analysis on technologies, trends, and innovations in enterprise security operations centers (SOCs), and specifically on the proactive technologies used to avoid breach, such as vulnerability management and attack surface management.

Andrew has been covering, researching, or speaking on topics related to enterprise information technology for approximately 20 years. Prior to joining Omdia (formerly Ovum) in 2022, Andrew spent five years at NSS Labs where he led the analyst group and worked closely with the company’s security product testing team.

Prior to NSS, Andrew spent more than a decade at GlobalData (formerly Current Analysis), where he managed the Enterprise team and was the firm’s principal security analyst. Over his career, Andrew’s coverage has ranged from endpoint malware suites, to network security appliances, and solutions for protecting cloud-based assets.

Alex Smith leads Canalys’ channels research department. He manages a team of analysts and consultants responsible for a comprehensive portfolio of advisory services that look into the go-to-market strategies of technology vendors and the trends affecting the global IT channel ecosystem. This portfolio of research includes the Channels Analysis services, Partner Program Analysis, Candefero research products and consultation services designed to help vendors assess, benchmark and develop their channel strategies.

Since 2007, Alex has been following the major IT sectors, including PCs, enterprise software, networking infrastructure, security, servers and storage, assessing market trends and their effect on the IT channel community. He has been one of Canalys’ key client-facing analysts, developing several research programs, and has presented at multiple industry and customer events. He is also a regular speaker at the Canalys Channels Forums. In 2012, Alex relocated from the UK to Palo Alto, California to support local clients and further develop the channels research business. He is now based in our Portland, Oregon office.

Prior to joining Canalys in 2007, Alex obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce, with a Finance Major, from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. The course focused on financial practices, including derivatives, statistical modeling and portfolio management. As part of his degree, Alex studied multiple business disciplines, including strategy, marketing, logistics and economics. Alex previously worked for an oil exploration company in Calgary, Canada as a Financial Analyst, where he supported internal business planning.

Alex has roots in both Thailand and the United Kingdom and has spent time in the Middle East and North America.

Principal Analyst, Data Security

Adam Strange is responsible for delivering a comprehensive analysis and insight program focused on data security within the Omdia cybersecurity research function, supporting vendor, service provider and enterprise clients. Adam brings comprehensive experience of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a series of UK-based channel and global vendor organisations.

Adam has spent his career working in enterprise IT and cybersecurity. He joined Omdia in Feb 2023, from data classification vendor Boldon James where he ran the marketing communications function. Prior to that, Adam worked within the cybersecurity business at BAE Systems, where he specialised in managed security, fraud prevention and anti-money laundering services in UK government and the Financial Services industry. Previously, Adam spent 8 years at Oracle UK promoting secure database solutions both directly and with partners. Before Oracle, he lead the enterprise solutions marketing team at Computacenter. Adam has an MSc in corporate management from Cranfield University.

Senior Principal Analyst

Rik Turner is a senior principal analyst in Omdia's IT security and technology team, specializing in cybersecurity technology trends, IT security, compliance, and call recording. Rik provides analysis and insights on market evolution and helps end users determine what type of technology and which vendor they should pursue.

Rik has also worked in Omdia's financial services technology team, with a specialization in capital markets technology. Prior to joining Informa (now Omdia), he worked as an IT journalist, specializing in networking and security. He was also a foreign correspondent in Brazil, where he worked, among others, for the Financial Times and The Economist.

Senior Analyst

Jon supports Omdia's Managed Security Services pillar, with a focus on Managed Detection & Response (MDR). He covers the analysis of security providers and their offerings, along with trend analysis to bring you what's hot and what's passé, with a spotlight on the APAC region.

Jon was previously a cybersecurity analyst at a forex trading company, and consulted at a boutique firm specializing in cybersecurity frameworks. He brings a business-led approach to security through experiences at a programmatic marketing MNC and a fintech start-up group. Jon has a bachelor's in Economics, and studied at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Tsinghua University.

Analyst, Cybersecurity

Elvia is an experienced analyst in Omdia’s cybersecurity team covering various market areas with a demonstrated history of working in the management consulting industry. Her specialized coverage includes SecOps and enterprise awareness training. Elvia has been creating databases and analyzing market trends for over three years in media and entertainment, ICT, and cybersecurity.

Elvia previously served as a research analyst at Frost & Sullivan, where she researched a full range of markets in the following industries: enterprise storage, broadcasting, cinematographic cameras, VR, and 360° video. Before entering the research industry, Elvia was engaged in a variety of roles in project management, sales, and public relations.