Data Trust in the Age of AI: Impressions from VeeamON Tour Turkiye 2026

Istanbul, June 9, 2026 — Today, the heart of the IT world was beating in Istanbul, at Wyndham Grand Levent. I was there for the VeeamON Tour Türkiye 2026. The main theme of the event this year was a trio that sits right at the center of our current agenda: Data, AI, and Trust.

In this new period dubbed the Agentic Era, we discussed how corporate data will be integrated with AI and, most importantly, how security and recoverability will be ensured during this rapid transformation. I’d like to share my observations and the jam-packed agenda, from the early morning registration right through to the evening cocktail.

The Cyber Resilience Journey Begins

The opening speeches were delivered by Kürşad Sezgin, Veeam Türkiye Country Manager, and Tim Pfaelzer (GM & SVP, EMEA), who took the stage for the Global Keynote. The hall was packed to the brim, and the energy was incredibly high. The focus of the speeches was on how to bring strategic IT vision together with flawless on-the-ground operations.

As the Cyber Resilience Journey diagrams rolled on the giant screens on stage, it was heavily emphasized that cyber resilience in modern architectures is no longer just a backup issue — it is a holistic strategy.

AI is Truly Everywhere (But Is It Secure?)

The most highly anticipated parts of the event were undoubtedly the AI integrations. The Veeam team explained how AI is making data management smarter and more proactive. However, another striking moment on stage was Erkan Ercan’s Red Hat AI Introduction presentation, followed by deep dives into LLMs (Large Language Models).

Timelines showing how rapidly open-source AI models have grown over the last few years were displayed on the screens.

In a world with so many models, how will we ensure security while feeding corporate data to these models for Inference? This is exactly where the topic of AI Governance with Securiti AI gained massive importance. The technical architectural details shared on stage regarding the process of safely feeding data to LLMs were highly illustrative.

There were also visionary statements about the potential of AI. The moment a famous quote from Sam Altman was cited on the stage screens was probably one of the most photographed moments of the day: With AI, there will be single-person, billion-dollar companies. This vision only increases the burden (and the excitement) on our shoulders as IT leaders.

Practical Solutions from the Field and the Partner Ecosystem

The afternoon sessions focused more on actionable, real-world guidance. In this ecosystem, solutions from hardware partners are just as critical as the software itself. In particular, the presentation on HPE and Veeam’s StoreOnce-based Purpose-Built Backup Appliance (PBBA) solutions provided a clear, field-ready example of Immutability and Hardening. We had the chance to examine exactly how enterprise data is protected in hybrid cloud environments through detailed technical schemas.

Throughout the all-day sessions, hearing real-world success stories — like the data security transformation journey of Tavuk Dünyası CIO Cihan Adar with FixCloud — was highly inspiring. Additionally, Serdar Kuzuloğlu’s talk titled The Increasing Burden of Data gave us all pause for thought by adding a philosophical and sociological perspective to the heavy technological details.

Conclusion: Tomorrow’s Data Security Begins Today

VeeamON Tour Türkiye 2026, just as promised in its agenda, showcased how autonomous systems and AI are fundamentally transforming our IT infrastructure. In our conversations with colleagues during the mini-cocktail after the raffle and sponsor awards ceremony, the main takeaway remained the same: The future has arrived. As IT professionals, we are no longer just responsible for storing data; we are tasked with managing it securely in the AI era and ensuring it is recoverable under absolutely any circumstances.

A huge thanks to the entire Veeam Turkiye team and the sponsors for this wonderful event.