October, 2026
This is a repeating eventOctober 27, 2027 9:00 am
it-sa
Event Details
it-sa
27. – 29. October 2026 | Nuremberg, Germany
Official Website: https://www.itsa365.de/en
The strategic misjudgment at it-sa is treating it as Europe’s largest catalogue of cybersecurity products. This fundamentally misreads its role as the central European operations center for enterprise risk management, where the tactical battle against threats converges with the strategic imperative of business resilience, regulatory compliance (like NIS2, DORA), and maintaining digital sovereignty. Success here is defined by a vendor’s ability to demonstrate not just threat detection, but how their solution enables secure business operations, facilitates compliance reporting, and integrates into a company’s unique risk posture.
Strategic Snapshot
it-sa is the definitive European platform for operationalizing cybersecurity as a core business function. It brings together CISOs, IT security architects, data protection officers, and risk managers to translate the overwhelming landscape of threats and regulations into actionable, integrated security architectures and vendor partnerships that protect critical business assets.
Why This Fair Matters in Germany’s Exhibition Ecosystem
Hosted in Nuremberg, a major hub for industrial and digital trade fairs, it-sa operates at the heart of Europe’s most stringent data protection and security regulatory environment. It attracts senior security leaders from Germany’s industrial Mittelstand, multinational corporations, and public sector entities who are legally and financially accountable for breaches. For a security vendor, validation here requires demonstrating deep integration capabilities with complex IT/OT landscapes, clear compliance mapping (e.g., to BSI-Grundschutz or ISO 27001), and a viable roadmap for addressing emerging regulations like the EU Cyber Resilience Act. It signals that you are a partner for building defensible systems, not just selling point solutions.
Who This Fair Is For — and Who Should Skip It
Ideal for:
- Providers of integrated security platforms and architectures (XDR, SIEM, SOAR, IAM/PAM) that unify visibility and response across hybrid environments.
- Specialists in critical infrastructure and operational technology (OT) security, offering solutions for industrial control systems that bridge the IT/OT divide.
- Companies focused on data security, privacy-enhancing technologies, and encryption that enable both protection and compliant data use.
- Consultancies and managed security service providers (MSSPs) with proven methodologies for risk assessment, implementation, and managed detection and response (MDR) tailored to European regulations.
Not ideal for:
- Suppliers of consumer-grade antivirus or simple VPN solutions without enterprise management consoles, reporting, or integration APIs.
- Start-ups with purely theoretical threat intelligence or AI claims, lacking validated use cases, third-party testing results, or interoperability with major security ecosystems.
- Exhibitors with a fear-based, hype-driven sales approach, unable to engage in nuanced discussions about total cost of ownership, operational overhead, and specific regulatory requirements of German and EU law.
The 3–5 Day Moment vs. the 365-Day Reality
it-sa provides the critical European forum for evaluating the integration potential of security tools, understanding the evolving regulatory landscape, and assessing vendors’ ability to act as long-term partners in a rapidly changing threat environment.
The strategic rupture occurs in the “implementation and operational integration gap.” A security product may showcase superior detection rates in a demo, but if its deployment requires a 12-month integration project, a dedicated team of specialists to operate, and generates alerts that cannot be correlated with existing tools, it becomes a burden. Enterprise buyers invest in operational capabilities and risk reduction; the vendor’s proven ability to deliver a working, integrated solution with clear metrics for mean time to detect (MTTD) and respond (MTTR) within the client’s environment is the ultimate measure of value, far beyond a feature list.
Strategic Next Step
Before exhibiting, rigorously audit your solution’s operational readiness and ability to deliver measurable risk reduction within complex enterprise environments. For a framework on establishing the trust and proof required in this sector, review our analysis of trade fair visibility in Germany.
Explore the Ecosystem
Trade Fair Marketing Strategy for Germany
German Trade Fair Event Directory
Strategic FAQs for Exhibitors
How should a security vendor’s messaging shift from technical features to board-level value?
Connect your technology directly to business outcomes and liability reduction. Instead of “advanced heuristic analysis,” frame it as “reducing the financial impact of a breach by enabling containment within X minutes.” Demonstrate how your solution automates compliance evidence collection for NIS2 or GDPR, directly reducing legal and regulatory risk for the organization.
What is the primary concern of a CISO evaluating a new security tool in 2026?
Tool sprawl and integration debt. They are drowning in alerts from disconnected systems. The most compelling vendors are those who can clearly articulate how their platform reduces complexity by replacing multiple point solutions, integrates via open APIs with existing investments, and provides a unified workbench for analysts.
For a company specializing in OT/IoT security, how do you bridge the cultural and technical divide with IT security teams?
Position yourself as the translator and bridge. Don’t sell an IT tool for OT; sell a purpose-built platform that speaks the language of operational continuity (uptime, safety) while providing the threat visibility IT demands. Showcase use cases where you helped both teams meet shared objectives, like securing a new smart factory without disrupting production.
Why is having a clear “sovereignty” and data residency narrative essential for the European market?
European regulations and corporate policies increasingly mandate that security data—especially about critical vulnerabilities or incidents—must not leave jurisdictional boundaries. You must be able to guarantee where your software runs, where data is processed, and have a legal entity accountable under EU law. This is a non-negotiable baseline for public sector and many corporate contracts.
How can a smaller, niche security firm compete with the consolidated platforms of large vendors?
Dominate a specific, high-stakes threat vector or compliance requirement. Instead of a general “security platform,” be the undisputed expert in, for example, SAP security, cloud workload protection for a specific provider, or automated DSGVO/GDPR gap analysis. Integrate deeply with the major platforms, positioning yourself as the essential “best-of-breed” component that completes their offering for a critical need.
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