With no slowing in sight for the production of data, finding ways to manage it is naturally a swelling industry. But beyond simply finding ways to manage the data is the need to do it in ways that fit with the complex sets of laws governing transmission of that data across national lines.

Richard Wilson, head of Portfolio and Strategy for Systems Integration, UK and Ireland, at Atos IT Solutions and Services A/S, met with Stu Miniman (@stu) and Brian Gracely (@bgracely), cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, at this year’s Red Hat Summit to talk about what his company is doing to meet those needs, its focus on security and the impact of Europe’s turbulent political changes.

Facilitating new eras

Canopy Digital Connect was highlighted as Atos’ main product currently, described by Wilson as “a cloud-based, secure platform” and systems integrator that “enables organizations to share data.” Wilson summarized Atos’ role as facilitator in these dealings by saying, “We kind of like to think of ourselves as working with our customers as we move into this new era.”

While Miniman was curious about the effect the vote for Britain’s exit from the EU would have on Atos’ business, Wilson said that he and the rest of the company are still waiting for clarification and confirmation of the exact fallout from “Brexit.” While they look for these answers, they’re also looking to engage with governments there and elsewhere, as the question of “How can you join up government systems to help citizens and drive down cost?” is one that the company is trying to answer with its platform.

More than clouds

“We are seeing quite a rapid rollout of cloud-type services in the UK,” Wilson acknowledged, though he emphasized that Atos’ role was somewhat different from the usual cloud services provider. “We see ourselves as an integrator,” he said. “And the question is: ‘What are our customers are looking for?’… We kind of see ourselves at the heart of the ecosystem, bringing all these solutions together.”

With Canopy Digital Connect meant to address the various regulations within and between countries, driving down cost to the system and improving ease of use for citizens are some of their top priorities, Wilson explained. But with the exact details of those regulations changing regularly, Atos has its work cut out for it.

The secure draw

Moving on to address the reasons behind Atos’ presence at the Red Hat Summit, Wilson explained, “Our secure platform runs Red Hat Linux” because “open source kind of ticks all the right boxes for our customers.”

He continued: “We’re kind of investigating options in the UK to see if we can move it into private sectors there,” he added, noting that Atos is starting to make new investigations into other use-cases, such as digital product securing, while furthering its presence in the regulatory realms.

But with an open-source base, there’s a greater level of appeal to potential customers, and while Atos has no plans to become complacent, the extra levels of scrutiny and resultant security are certainly a plus. As Wilson put it, open-source software “was a key driver in development, because that’s what our customers wanted.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the Red Hat Summit.

Photo by SiliconANGLE