With the role of data seeming to have no end in sight to its expanding importance to all sorts of businesses, the means to manage and analyze that data is finding a broader base of adoption. But as new audiences join in with this tech, finding new ways to keep that data safe is also booming in importance.

On the first day of Splunk.conf 2016, John Walls (@JohnWalls21) and John Furrier (@furrier), cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, kicked off the event with a look at Splunk’s current role in businesses, as well as where its development and expansion efforts are aimed.

The next generation

Furrier began by highlighting the main point of pressure for Splunk: “All of their customers are enjoying the functionality of the core Splunk products, but now we’re moving to a new generation.”

Walls agreed, adding, “It all does come down to ease of use, making these things more simple, because the more products we get, the more complex it gets.”

And according to Furrier, “As they keep modernizing and progressing, they’ve got to keep track of what the customers want. … This year, it’s right out in the open … all these things are converging around the bottom line, the benefit is security.”

Securing the surfaces

“Splunk is clearly targeting security and giving their customers the means to manage that turbulent world,” Furrier continued, moving on to address the Splunk4Good initiative for “giving away technology to help people and society become better. … There’s some business benefits, but it’s primarily for societal good.”

Furrier also touched on the changing face of technology’s boom areas: “The new technology growth companies are non-tech companies! That’s where Splunk will grow. … IT’s changing … the world is shifting … IT now has to be everywhere. … IT is now horizontally scaling within the processes of the businesses.”

But as these avenues for technological adoption expand and userbases become more diverse, expanding from the former constraints of the IT department to virtually all users within an enterprise, there are some downsides. Most notably, the challenge of creating a secure environment with so many users is one that will need to be tackled.

“What happens when you get the surface area of technology spread out [over a business] is you also spread out the area of attack,” Furrier said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of Splunk.conf 2016.

Photo by SiliconANGLE