INDIAECM012014 “BEING STORAGE-AGNOSTIC IS A BOON” /31 RAISING THE BAR Redundant IT infrastructure can have serious repercussions on functioning of any organization and GCAA has braced up to avoid any of those. With the astute leadership of GCAA higher management along with H.E Saif Mohammed Al Suwaidi -Director General’s encouraging support, IT department has excelled in the area of automation and strongly progressed towards the Smart government initiative. /28 WESTCON SIGNS DISTRIBUTION PARTNERSHIP WITH FORESCOUT /16 WWW.ENTERPRISECHANNELSMEA.COM PAGES 48 VOLUME 01 | ISSUE 06 JANUARY 2014
Transcript
INDIAECM012014
“BEING STORAGE-AGNOSTIC IS A BOON” /31
RAISING THE BARRedundant IT infrastructure can have serious repercussions on functioning
of any organization and GCAA has braced up to avoid any of those. With the astute leadership of GCAA higher management along with H.E Saif Mohammed Al Suwaidi -Director General’s encouraging support, IT
department has excelled in the area of automation and strongly progressed towards the Smart government initiative. /28
WESTCON SIGNS DISTRIBUTION PARTNERSHIP WITH FORESCOUT /16
W W W . E N T E R P R I S E C H A N N E L S M E A . C O M
PA G E S 4 8V O L U M E 0 1 | I S S U E 0 6J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 4
False Cover MEA.indd 1 21/01/14 7:25 am
AUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTOR FOR:
ENTER A NEW LEVEL OFVALUE ADDED DISTRIBUTION
MINDWARE HEAD OFFICE:
Cayan Business Centre, 10th Floor, Tecom Area,Al Barsha, Dubai, U.A.E. | Tel: + 971 4 4500600
Advts.indd 1 20/01/14 8:45 pm
LOGICOM ADDS COMMVAULT /14
CONSOLIDATING THE CHANNEL /27
W W W . E N T E R P R I S E C H A N N E L S M E A . C O M
PA G E S 4 8V O L U M E 0 1 | I S S U E 0 6J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 4
Looking at the crystal ball, the industry experts are predicting a big scope and healthy growth for IT business till the end of this decade and beyond. /32
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I N F O M E D I A
MEA05JANUARY 2014
EDITORIAL
Middle East Till 2020
Led by UAE, the entire Middle East till 2020 is going to change the order of global economy. The region is going to be the focal point of major global happenings. Of course we may not see the excitement going out of the roof soon but yes it is the most lucrative market for sure.
The biggest benefactor is the entire infrastructure developer industry and it will take other industries on its stride. It is expected that the aggregate GDP should by 2020 reach
US$2 trillion, which will make up 1.7% of the world GDP. From the specific countries’ point of view, Dubai will add at least 1.5 per-
centage points per year to its GDP by virtue of its holding the World Expo 2020. Apart from the development of infrastructure for the grand spectacle in 2020, the country is going to see some of the amazing infrastructure development till 2020. For example MEED Projects estimated the total value of contracts awarded in the UAE during 2013 will close out at approximately $30 billion, but 2014 will see number of awards increasing to $35 billion.
The multi-billion-dollar Mohammad Bin Rashid (MBR) City comprises four things family tourism, retail, arts and entrepreneurship. It will include a park capable to receive 35 million visitors. There will be over 100 hotel facili-
ties to meet the needs of visitors. It will hold the Mall of the World, the largest shopping mall in the world. It will also have the largest art galleries in Mena.
The Bluewaters Island worth of 6 billion dirhams will be one more tourist hotspots in the world. It will feature a demarcated retail, residential, hospitality and entertainment zones and will house Dubai Eye, the world’s largest Ferris wheel.
Besides, there are thousands of projects coming up in the country, which will change the financial outlook of the country.
Similarly, Abu Dhabi is going to spend $100 billion until 2020 on infrastructure. Construction projects will remain the most active with $30 billion worth of projects to be awarded in the next seven years, followed by the oil & gas sector with a project pipeline valued at $25 billion. Similarly, KSA will spend USD 293 billion on infrastructure projects – including hard infrastructure like transportation, power and water and soft infrastruc-ture like schools and hospitals, etc. till 2020. Qatar to witness $120bn projects by 2020 and countries like Oman and Bahrain are also aggressive on 100s of billions of worth project.
It has therefore prompted us to bringing out a report on the impact of such projects on the IT industry. Happy Reading and Happy New Year to all of you! ë
MEA
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2013V O L U M E 0 1
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D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 3
W W W. E N T E R P R I S E C H A N N E L S M E A . C O M
INNOVATIONS /45
NEC DISPLAY 32-INCH V323 LCD DISPLAY
NEC Display 32-inch V323 LCD display, a high-performance
addition to its commercial-grade V Series that utilizes
LED backlighting for improved power consumption and a slimmer cabinet
depth.
FEATURE
Evolution of Channel Partners /24Donning Multiple Roles
Looking at the crystal ball, the industry experts are predicting a big scope and healthy growth for IT business till the end of this decade and beyond. /32
ACHIEVING THETECHNOLOGICALEXCELLENCE
COVER STORY
MY VIEWS /31“BEING STORAGE-
AGNOSTIC IS A BOON”
MIKE RESSELER, PRODUCT STRATEGY
SPECIALIST, EMEA EVANGELIST, VEEAM
SOFTWARE
MY VIEWS /42
“Rising demand of integrated security solutions”NAZIR KAZI,AVP - MEA & AFRICA, ESCAN
CORPORATE STORY /28
Raising the BarRedundant IT infrastructure can have serious repercussions on functioning of any organization
and GCAA has braced up to avoid any of those.
CONTENTS
06 JANUARY 2014
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CONVERGED STORAGE ARCHITECTURE-your path to the Cloud
A u t h o r i z e d M i d d l e E a s t Va l u e A d d e d D i s t r i b u to r
StorIT Distribution fzco P.O.Box 17417 Jebel Ali FreeZone Dubai, United Arab EmiratesTel: +971 4 881 9690 | Fax: +971 4 887 1637 | Email: [email protected] | www.storit.ae
DSG Holds Workshop on Information SecurityDubai Smart Government (DSG) recently organized an introductory workshop to highlight its latest services and solutions complementing the Dubai Government’s Information Security Regula-tion (ISR). The workshop, which was attended by representatives of information security sector in all Dubai government entities, is aimed at boosting investments in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure development, promoting government performance and achieving a high status within the global knowledge economy.
The workshop complements the efforts exerted by DSG to fulfil its obligations after the Informa-tion Security Committee has earlier this year adopted DSG’s Information Security Regulation in implementation of resolution No. 13 for 2012 on information security at Dubai Government which was issued by the Dubai Executive Council. The aim was to enhance information security and pro-tect its technical systems in line with an integrated framework and a unified strategy for information
security that will ensure the creation of a secure and reliable environment to preserve government information efficiently as well as maintain customer data privacy.
H.E Ahmed Bin Humaidan, Director-General, Dubai Smart Government, said: “The introductory workshop addressed major strategic themes to create an integrated digital environment to process government transactions according to the highest standards of security, reliability and transparency. Spreading information security culture between local government entities and strengthening mechanisms for notification of emergency incidents affecting the security infrastructure are the top most agenda of DSG, which has recently adopted the ISR to accelerate the transition towards the smart government model.”
Furthermore, the workshop shed light on the importance of spreading awareness about informa-tion security among government employees and clients.
INFOR PARTNERS WITH AUTOMATION CONSULTANTSInfor has signed a partnership agree-ment with ILA Advanced Technology - the holding company of Automation Consultants during Cairo ICT 2013. Automation Consultants is an Egypt-based provider of cloud-based soft-ware and IT products and systems. As part of the partnership, Automation Consultants will sell and implement a comprehensive range of Infor’s public sector applications throughout Egypt and the Middle East as part of their Automation Business Cloud (ABC) services.
ABC products and services incorporate a comprehensive set of offerings for the public sector in the Middle East with specific Infor applications to address some the most pressing challenges within the region through a single cloud market place for the business and government sectors.
IMDAAD TO DEPLOY FLEET-MAN GPS TRACK-ING SOFTWAREImdaad will install FleetMAN, a GPS-based fleet/asset tracking and monitoring system, for the vehicle management cycle of its fleet of vehicles from initial acquisition until its final disposal. FleetMAN is developed by Dubai Technologies, a specialist in the field of supply and implementation of transport systems.
Through the FleetMAN solution, Imdaad can perform duties such as vehicle profiling, trip planning, main-tenance, driver identification and dispatch efficiently. It will empower the FM company to handle all its vehicle related tasks such as financing, maintenance, telematics etc.
H.E. AHMED BIN HUMAIDAN, DIRECTOR GENERAL OF DSG
08 JANUARY 2014
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STRIKE A SMARTER WORK-LIFE BALANCE WITH PLANTRONICS VOYAGER LEGEND CS
Plantronics unveiled Voyager Legend CS, the latest addition to its Voyager headset line. Designed to provide mobile flexibility without sacrificing in-office productivity, the Voyager Legend CS headset system blends all the features of the Voyager family – precisely tuned audio, Smart Sensor technology and intuitive voice enabled controls – with connectivity for both the mobile phone and desk phone.
Whether today’s workers are in the office or a non-office environment, they require a headset that provides a high level of audio quality and can move with them throughout the day.
Ooredoo Bags More Accolades
Westcon Group has achieved MEA “Commercial Distributor Partner of the Year 2013” by Juniper Networks, the industry leader in network innovation.
“According to some independent market analysis, the MEA region is expected to have one of the fastest-growing Internet penetration rates globally, so effective, secure high-performance networking is a key business driver for service providers and enterprises in Middle East and Africa,” said Mario Georgiou, area partner direc-tor for Juniper Networks, Middle East & Africa. “Because we operate an indirect go-to-market model, Juniper’s channel partners are fundamen-tally important to our customers’ experience and Juniper’s success. Westcon Middle East has been a great example of an effective partnership to build the best networks for our shared customers this year. ”
Westcon ME received its award on December
4th during Juniper’s regional partner summit, an annual event designed to bring together key distribution and reseller partners to review best practices and discuss Juniper’s strategic plans and objectives for the coming year. Partners attended this year’s event from Egypt, Jordan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan, Oman, South Africa, Qatar, U.A.E. All attending partners work with Juniper Networks within the Juniper Partner Advantage program.
Ooredoo has received two more major global awards, as the company continues to enjoy its most successful year of honours ever. At the “Convergence to Oman 2013” conference this month, the SAMENA Council presented two key accolades to the company.
The Ooredoo Chairman, His Excellency Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al Thani, received the prestigious “Best Telecom Leader” award for his role in driving the transformation of Ooredoo around the world, and for his important contribution to the global communication industry.
Ooredoo also received the “Best Innovative Service” award for Ooredoo Mobile Money services, which now support more than one
million customers in Qatar, Indonesia and Tunisia.
The SAMENA Telecom-munications Council is a tri-regional association that represents over 40 telecom-munications operators in 25 markets .
Dr. Nasser Marafih, Group CEO, Ooredoo, said, “These awards are an important reflection of the range and diversity of
services that Ooredoo pro-vides to enrich the lives of people around the world. The international recognition of our Chairman,
His Excellency Sheikh Abdullah, demonstrates the incredible role he has played in raising standards and transforming the communica-tions industry, both nationally and around the world.”
Sheikh Abdullah has continued to raise Qatar and Ooredoo’s profile around the world in 2013. At the recent ITU Telecom World event in Thailand, Sheikh Abdullah challenged telecoms operators, regulators and partners to work together to support new broadband infrastructure projects and enhance access for all.
OPTIMUS LAUNCHES MAN-AGED VIDEO SERVICEOptimus has launched its cloud based managed video as a service product in the MENA region. As per the release, Maelys is an extremely scalable and powerful video as a service solution and based on the needs of the local market for better collaboration. Initially being offered to only a few selected partners and customers; Optimus’s foray into business development has changed the face of distribution in the regional market.
Optimus’ Managed Video Service offering would include endpoint subscription wherein subscribers will be able to place & receive calls on the video unit. This product will enable subscrib-ers to activate the facilities of unlimited video calling, plug n play activation and central directory. Behind every call made with Maelys is a worldwide network that features PoPs (points of presence) in key cities throughout the world, powered by Videxio.
Maelys will include personal video accounts which have enabled Self-Service Registration, Smart Roaming and BYOD.
SHEIKH ABDULLAH BIN MOHAMMED BIN SAUD AL THANI
Juniper Felicitated Westcon ME
WESTCON ME TEAM
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OKI to Showcase Colour Printers at SGIOKI Europe is showcasing the indus-try’s first 5 colour, A3 digital LED printer, the ES9541, at SGI 2014 in Dubai, UAE. Targeted at the specialist graphic arts market, the ES9541 offers affordable spot colour in white or clear gloss, at a highly competitive price point, for short-run, digital, print-on-demand performance.
“OKI is extremely excited about the introduction of this pioneering new digital LED print technology which reinforces OKI’s focus on developing innovative technology to benefit businesses,” said Terry Kawashima, Managing Director, OKI Europe Ltd.
“The new ES9541 5 colour printer is an affordable, high definition device that enables you to not only print the full range of process colours using CMYK, but also offers an additional fifth, spot colour, in white or clear gloss. Previously these processes could only be achieved through the use of expensive digital or litho-graphic printing equipment; now it is available to any creative business
or reprographics studio, on demand, offering endless opportunities” Kawashima concluded.
SHIFRA TO DISTRIBUTE CORERO NETWORK SECURITYShifra has signed a distribution deal with Corero Network Security, a leading provider of First Line of Defense solutions for Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) and cyber threat protection. The deal will see Shifra extend its portfolio of security solutions in the region.
“We are excited to partner with a leader like Shifra and look forward to our products and solutions having an extensive reach,” said Paul Lawrence, VP International Operations with Corero. “The Gulf represents a prime area for growth due to its economic strength and widespread usage of online media. Organisations in the region are looking to strengthen their security measures to counteract potential threats, where traditional security solutions are proving insufficient.”
UD SIGNS PARTNERSHIP WITH SHIPCOM MEAThe University of Dubai (UD) has signed an agreement with Shipcom MEA that will provide the univer-sity with hardware and software in exchange for educational and research services. The agreement, which was signed at the university’s campus by University of Dubai President Dr. Eesa Bastaki and Shipcom MEA Managing Director
Quresh Goga, will also open opportunities for collaboration in market-ing endeavors based on Shipcom’s hardware and software technology.
Shipcom will primarily be providing technology by means of Automatic Identification
and Data Capture (AIDC) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), the same technology used in Dubai’s Salik road-toll system. Students from UD’s College of Information Technology (CIT) have used RFID technology in the past as part of some very successful capstone projects.
‘AUTODESK UNI-VERSITY EXTEN-SION DUBAI 2013’ OPENS IN DWTC‘Autodesk University Extension Dubai 2013,’ the preeminent design and engineering conference in the Middle East, opened at the Sheikh Maktoum Hall of the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), with key attendance of professionals from the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC), Manufacturing, and Media & Entertainment industries. The event, which is being hosted by Omnix International, the authorized dis-tributor for Autodesk products in the Middle East, is part of the ‘Autodesk University’, an annual series of Autodesk in-person and virtual user conferences that has already enjoyed two decades of success in the US.
More than 100 million people from around the world use Autodesk software to help realize their ideas. Featuring select customers, partners and executives, the one-day program gave attendees a key insight into implementing the latest product and technology innovations to help solve creative business problems across multiple industries. The event also featured talks and presentations from leading Autodesk technical evangelist Lynn Allen; Nick Manning, EMEA Industry Marketing Manager, Autodesk Media & Entertainment and Pat Williams, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific & Emerging Markets for Autodesk.
NEC DISPLAY SOLUTIONS UNVEILS MDVIEW272NEC Display Solutions Europe has unveiled the MDview272, a 27-inch display that incorporates some of the latest display innovations into a review and referral display for healthcare professionals.
The NEC MDview272 combines the latest display technology with industry standard compliance ‘out of the box’ as well as a range of user productivity enhancements and eco-friendly features. The use of the latest Advanced High Performance In Plan Switching (AH-IPS) panel brings exceptional colour quality and an impressive 3.7 Megapixel (2560x1440) native resolution.“Whether for image reporting in radiology or as a hospital information system monitor, access to the best-in-class displays is imperative for diagnostic review by trained physicians,” said Ian Gobey, General Manager, Middle East and Africa.
TERRY KAWASHIMA, MANAGING DIRECTOR, OKI EUROPE LTD.
DR. EESA BASTAKI, PRESIDENT OF UD, & QURESH GOGA, SHIPCOM MEA MANAGING DIRECTOR
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SECONDS6
Logicom Adds CommVaultLogicom Group has signed a ‘Value-Added Distribution (VAD)’ partnership agreement with CommVault. The contract will enable the company to dis-tribute the data and information management vendor’s products and services into KSA, UAE, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Yemen and Afghanistan through Logicom’s extensive network of resellers and system integrators.
Nicholas Argyrides, Director of Sales & Marketing – Distribution at Logicom Group said, “CommVault’s state-of-the-art data management & security solutions are a seamless fit to Logi-com’s current brand portfolio and they orderly
supplement our channel offerings. As we anticipate a substantial growth in the data storage & backup verticals, we are confident that our collaboration with CommVault will fully address the needs of our enterprise channel partners.”
The distributor intends recruiting a minimum of 15 to 20 new partners within the first two quarters of operation and grow it to 30 partners within FY’2014. Logicom will position Com-mVault both as a stand-alone product and also as a part of its data centre integrated converged architecture offering and are looking at building CommVault into storage value-bundles for its channel partners.
SONY LAUNCHES NEW HANDHELD HD
CAMCORDER
Sony has launched the HXR-NX3 handheld HD
camcorder, the latest addition to the NXCAM line-
up. Perfect for the professional videographer, the
the general availability of Citrix XenDesktop® 7.1
and Citrix XenServer 6.2.
NVIDIA GRID vGPU technology lets employees
use essentially any computing device, including
their own notebooks and portable devices, to
access all their office productivity and design
applications virtually – just as they would at their
desks – from anywhere at any time.
clients, at home or around the office.”
MATRIX TO LAUNCH ITS SATATYA HVR
SERIES AT INTERSEC DUBAI
Matrix will showcase its complete portfolio of
security products encompassing range of Access
Control and Time-Attendance and Video Surveil-
lance Solution.
At this event, the main focus of the company
will be to highlight the new COSEC DOOR PVR
and Door controllers.
ZOTAC ZBOX STEAM MACHINE COMING
SOON
ZOTAC International previews the upcoming
ZBOX Steam Machine mini-PC with Steam OS
at The Consumer Electronics Show 2014 in Las
Vegas, Nev. The ZOTAC ZBOX Steam Machine
is engineered from the ground up for breathtak-
ing gaming performance in a compact mini-PC
form factor that’s a fraction the size of traditional
mini-ITX based gaming systems.
Expect the ZOTAC ZBOX Steam Machine to
reach retailers in the second half of 2014. More
details will be released closer to the launch date.
By 2016, 20 percent of enterprise BYOD pro-grams will fail due to enterprise deployment of
MDM measures that are too restrictive.”KEN DULANEY, VICE PRESIDENT AND
DISTINGUISHED ANALYST AT GARTNER
IN PUBLIC
STARLINK TO PROVIDE VENAFI SECURITY SOLUTIONS
StarLink becomes Venafi’sStrategic Distributor for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa. Venafi is the market leading cybersecurity company in Next-Generation Trust Protection (NGTP). As a Gartner-recognized Cool Vendor, Venafi delivered the first trust protection platform to secure cryptographic keys and digital certificates that every business and government depend on for secure communications, commerce, computing, and mobility. As part of an enterprise infrastruc-ture protection strategy, Venafi Director prevents attacks on trust with automated discovery and intelligent policy enforcement, detects and reports on anomalous activity and increased threats, and remediates errors and attacks by automatically replacing keys and certificates. Venafi Threat Center provides research and threat intelligence for trust-based attacks. Venafi customers are among the world’s most demanding, security-conscious Global 2000 organizations in financial services, insurance, high tech, telecommunications, aerospace, healthcare and retail. Venafi is backed by top-tier venture capital funds, including Foundation Capital, Pelion Venture Partners and Origin Partners.
HI-TECH MANUFACTURING’S LACK PROPER BACK OFFICE FRONT OFFICE INTEGRATION
IDC Manufacturing Insights White Paper sponsored by Epicor titled, “Get Customers Inspired – A Call to Action for High-Tech Manufacturers,” reveals barriers between high-tech manufacturing companies not utilizing modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions to full capacity and the driving factors to implement a customer experience strategy.
The high-tech manufacturing industry is a consumer-driven, fast paced sector where success is fully influenced by meeting those consumer expectations at the end of the value chain.
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Epson will showcase its latest range of printers – including the SC-F7000, SC-F2000, and SC-S70610 from its SureColor Series – at the 17th Annual Sign & Graphic Imaging (SGI) Middle East, the latest edition of the largest and longest-running event for the region’s signage, outdoor
media, screen and digital printing industries running from January 7 to 9, 2014 at the Dubai World Trade Centre. The new SC-F7000 dye sublimation printer and the company’s first direct-to-garment t-shirt printer, SC-F2000, will be the highlight of the Epson’s state-of-the-art stand.
SC-F7000 is the first printer in its category to have each component designed and manufactured by one company to ensure quality, performance and reliability for maximum productivity and lower total cost of ownership. A durable and robust roll-fed Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (CMYK) model, it
supports a range of applications. SC-F2000, on the other hand,
is a high performing printer with a low maintenance and running cost which is perfect for small and medium print businesses. The printer can produce customized designs on t-shirts, caps and bags up to 25mm thick.
SAUDI PRINTING MARKET SUS-TAINS 8 PERCENT ANNUAL GROWTH RATE
Recent market studies indicate that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s (KSA) printing market – the oldest and the largest in the Gulf – is worth an impressive USD 800 million and as it grows steadily at a rate of eight percent per annum. This upbeat growth forecast is underpinned by the thriving publishing segment that is responsible for producing an estimated 5.1 million copies of newspapers daily and nearly 2 million copies of magazines in the Kingdom each month.
Backed by 10 years of significant success, Saudi Print & Pack 2014, the 11th International Trade Exhibition for Printing & Packaging Technologies will be held at the Riyadh International Convention and Exhibition Center (RICEC) from 17 to 20 February, 2014.
Zeyad Al Rukban, Deputy General Manager at the Riyadh Exhibitions Company, said, “The printing indus-try in the Kingdom is the oldest and the biggest in the entire Gulf region. The country’s economic growth, increasing government expenditure, population expansion, rising cultural and educational activities and the growth in retail have all contributed to intensifying printing, advertising and marketing activities. This in turn has created additional demand for printing equipment and services lead-ing to the overall growth of industry.”
Westcon Signs Distribution Partnership with ForeScoutWestcon Group has entered into a distribution partnership agreement with ForeScout. The agreement allows Westcon to enhance its Web Security portfolio through ForeScout’s pervasive Network Access Control (NAC) security solu-tions and distribute these across the UAE, KSA, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.
IT market trends such as Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD), continuous monitoring, contextual security, and security automation are driving NAC opportunities in the region. Enter-prise customers are demanding NAC solutions that can be easily deployed and managed and are capable of providing enterprise-wide device visibility, handling advanced threats and easily integrating with BYOD, SIEM, MDM & APT solutions. NAC platforms are critical to opera-tions of data centric organizations - particularly banks, government ministries, defence, oil and gas, education, and airlines.
Responding to this market demand, Westcon
will distribute the entire suite of ForeScout solutions, including the ForeScout CounterACT platform - along with extended integration mod-ules for SIEM, MDM, vulnerability assessment, advanced threat detection and mobile security.
Steve Lockie, Managing Director at Westcon Middle East, said, “We believe in the benefits of best-of-breed solutions, and ForeScout is the leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Network Access Control. We are further strengthening our endpoint security portfolio by partnering with this industry leader and will leverage our extensive regional expertise to gain a significant share of this growing market segment.”
“We are excited to welcome Westcon to the ForeScout family as an authorized Value Added Distributor (VAD). With its established reputa-tion and proven expertise in emerging technolo-gies, along with well-founded service offerings, the partnership with Westcon is sure to be highly successful and valued by our mutual partners and customers,” said John Hagerty, EMEA director for channels and strategic alliances at ForeScout.
TOSHIBA PARTNERS WITH MTC AND MULTIMEDYAToshiba Gulf FZE announces Memory Technology Corporation (MTC) and Multimedya International FZE as the official distributors for its digital media solutions. The partnership aims to strengthen Toshiba’s reach in the storage segment.
“Both MTC and Multimedya’s in-depth market intelligence, presence in key markets and strong distribution strategy are integral for Toshiba to increase its market share and reinforce its position as a leading storage solutions vendor,” sayss Santosh Varghese, General Manager, Digital Products and Services, Toshiba Gulf FZE.
MTC will be working closely with the reseller channel network to distribute Toshiba Flash and SD products.
Epson to Display Latest Range of Printers
CHANNEL STREET
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WEB CLIPS
PALADION LAUNCHES PKIT
DGlobal full service managed security provider
Paladion has launched PKit, a solution built for
Government Entities to comply with the Dubai
Government’s Information Security Regulation
(ISR).
Addressing the needs of Dubai Government
Entities (DGE) IT decision makers, chief security
officers, and compliance officers for a cost- and
time-efficient ISR solutions, the PKit brings top-
notch information security processes through a
combination of automated tools, built-in features,
ready-to-use content and expert guidance. The
PKit solution is market proven with over 100 orga-
nizations achieving and sustaining international
accredited information security certifications
including ISO27001, PCI-DSS and HIPPA.
MACKEEN TECHNOLOGY OFFERS NEW
ARCHIVING FEATURE
Mackeen Technology has added an intelligent
archiving feature to its Document and Data Man-
agement Solutions that will enable organizations
to maximize efficiency and minimize cost and
risk by reducing document handling complexity.
The unique function is designed to seamlessly
incorporate all information into the digital forms
retrievable at any stage and from any location.
Mackeen will offer Data management and Work
Flow Solutions through four processes – docu-
ment digitizing, records management, workflows
and integration with multiple work systems.
Through these systems, organizations will be
able to store new or old documents digitally, in a
SAR 108 billion for expansion of health and social
services which amounts to 8 per cent increase
in comparison to 2013. The announcement is set
to improve the healthcare and social services
sectors through the introduction of new medical
facilities and upgrades to existing ones. The
Saudi healthcare market has undergone major
development during the last few years supported
by various factors, including an overall increase in
healthcare spending by government.
New Certificate from Red Hat
Red Hat has announced the introduction of the Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) in support of OpenShift
Enterprise by Red Hat, the company’s award-winning private PaaS.
Through the Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Platform-as-a-Service, Red Hat is providing enterprises with confidence that their teams possess the skills necessary to get the most out of their Open-Shift Enterprise environments. The new certification helps tests candidates’ knowledge, skills and ability to create, configure, and manage a cloud application platform.
Ashesh Badani, vice president and general manager, Cloud and OpenShift, Red Hat, “Red Hat is committed to providing services to help enterprises deliver applications faster through improving productivity and increasing operational efficiency, and Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Platform-as-a-Service is another example of that. It builds on Red Hat’s leading certification program, which focuses on hands-on testing of real-world skills. ”
MOVEMENTSNUMBER GAME
FADI KANAFANI has been appointed as the new Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan at NetApp.
TIM YEATON, has rejoined Red Hat in the newly-cre-ated position of senior vice president, Infrastructure Group.
Infor has appointed GARY HOPWOOD as manufac-turing channel manager for the Middle East.
10%growthis expected in the SCM space in 2014.
GARTNER NAMES RIVERBED A LEADER IN APMRiverbed Technology announced its position as a “Leader” in Gartner’s 2013 “Magic Quadrant for Application Performance Monitoring.” This marks the third consecutive time that Riverbed has been named to the Leaders Quadrant for Application Performance Monitoring.
“Riverbed is proud to again be recognized as a leader in the Application Performance Man-agement (APM) market,” said Paul Brady, senior vice president and general manager, Riverbed Performance Management. “Today’s application ecosystem has become much more complex with cloud, SaaS, and mobile applications being accessed by countless devices from people in all locations. Our customers need integrated, powerful and intelligent application monitoring and management solutions that can analyze and master such a complex global environment, and provide actionable information to the business.”
ASHESH BADANI, VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER, CLOUD AND OPENSHIFT, RED HAT
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H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Commends EIASTH.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline & Group, commended the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) for its successive achievements in the space industry and technological innovation which have contributed to the UAE’s pioneering position in the global space industry.
This came during a recent visit by H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed to EIAST Headquarters, accompanied by a high-profile delegation. A team of leading engineers from EIAST further showcased the most important achievements made in 2013, including the successful launch of DubaiSat-2 which has placed the UAE as a prime satellite manufacturer and a global leader in the space industry. The visit also featured a detailed presentation on ‘Khalifa Sat’, the first 100 per cent Emirati-built satellite scheduled to be launched by 2017. H.E. Hamad Obeid Al Mansoori, Chairman of the Board of Directors, EIAST said: “The visit of H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum and the accompanying delegation
reaffirm our leaders’ strong confidence in EIAST. We will remain steadfast in our commitment towards comprehensive scientific development under the supervision of national talents who are able to transfer the UAE into one of the leading global centers in the space industry – a key pillar for building a sustainable future. The successive achievements we accomplished throughout 2013 drive us to continue our quest towards excellence across current and upcoming projects while complying with the leading corporate values of robust scientific research, technological innova-tion, professional commitment, efficiency, and transparency.”
SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC TO SHOWCASE LATEST VIDEO SECURITY TECHNOLOGYSchneider Electric is set to introduce the latest in Video Security Technology by its brand Pelco by Schneider Electric at the 16th edition of Intersec, the largest and most comprehensive exhibi-tion and conference for security, safety and fire protection in the Middle East.
Pelco’s product range includes Fixed and PTZ IP cameras, enclosures, video management systems, as well as thermal imaging products and extreme environment systems that make it a leading supplier in the video surveillance industry. Also included in the launch are eight new series of IP Video Accessories designed to operate in all environments and applications, this gives installers the ability to specify complete, end-to-end solutions by removing all guesswork with tested, compatible, ready-to-install products.
PROLOGIX TO STRESS ON SECURITY NEEDS AT INTERSECPrologix Distribution has announced its participation in the Intersec security and safety expo being held in Dubai from the 19th to the 21st of January, 2014. The company sees the increasing use of security and surveillance solutions by government, educational institu-tions and enterprises as a prime area for growth and hopes to engage with
key decision makers from these sectors during the event.
Sarwan Singh, Managing Director at Prologix, said, “2013 proved to be an eye-opener from a security perspective with business being
exposed to both external and internal threats from both the virtual and physical domains. We have brought to Intersec the most compre-hensive portfolio of security solutions to help them mitigate
such business risks. This start-of-year event is a must attend for Middle East businesses as it will help understand, plan and budget their security spending through the year.”
Furthermore, to attract and incentivize channel partners and customers at the event, Prologix will offer special discounts on all the products being displayed at Intersec.
INTERACTIVE INTEL-LIGENCE CAAS ACHIEVES PCI COMPLIANCEInteractive Intelligence’s cloud-based communications-as-a-service offering has successfully met the Security Standards Council’s Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard 2.0 for Level 1 compliance.
An Independent PCI-Qualified Security Assessor, Intersec Worldwide, conducted the assessment, from which it determined that the Interactive Intel-ligence Communications as a Service dedicated cardholder data environment was compliant with PCI DSS version 2.0 Security Standards.
“Validation of the Interactive Intel-ligence CaaS environment’s compliance with PCI DSS ensures that a company’s payment network meets industry best practices and security controls that card brands have established to keep customer credit card data safe and secure for digital-based processing, storage and transmission,” said Intersec Chief Information Security Officer Jeff Tutton. “Interactive Intelligence cloud customers get the additional reassur-ance of Level 1 validation, which is the highest level offered and means that an independent PCI QSA has reviewed and officially signed off on the compli-ance status.”
“With nearly two decades of experi-ence working with contact centers that are regularly tasked with collecting sen-sitive customer data, we’re no stranger to strict security standards,” said Interac-tive Intelligence Vice President of CaaS Mike Szilagyi.
PHOTO OF H.H. SHEIKH AHMED BIN SAEED AL MAKTOUM INNAGURATING EIAST
SARWAN SINGH, MANAGING DIRECTOR AT PROLOGIX
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HID Global and Temenos to High-light on Secure BankingHID Global announced with support from its partner Temenos, to drive adoption of next generation banking solutions in the Middle East. HID Global and Temenos are hosting an insightful event for financial institutions invest-ing in banking system modernization to enable secure online and mobile financial services with confidence. It will be held in Dubai on 20th January 2014, at the World Trade Centre, Sheikh Zayed Road.
Financial institutions in the Middle East are experiencing an outbreak of sophisticated online attacks from international cyber criminals targeting banking transactions, in more recent cases using a surveillance virus, such as Gauss that eavesdrops on financial transactions. These attacks have resulted in millions of dollars being stolen from banks in the region and even greater negative impact on the reputation of the affected banks. Cyber criminals are now specifically targeting Middle Eastern financial institutions because of the perceived combination of high liquidity and a relatively underdeveloped IT security environment that exposes banks to
increasing unforeseen cyber vulnerabilities.The event will focus on the following:l deploying innovative, cost-effective bank-
ing solutions to support a multi-channel security strategyl launching mobile and internet banking
financial services with trust and confidencel learning about the latest advances to
mitigate against malware and other advanced attacks including spear phishing, pharming, DNS poisoning, Man-In-The-Middle (MITM), Man-In-The-Browser (MITB), SMS and mobile malwarel complying with increased bank security
guidelines responding to evolving threat landscape
“HID Global, along with Temenos, is con-tributing to the concerted cybercrime response needed by today’s financial institutions in the Middle East”, said Christy Serrato, solutions marketing, financial services, at HID Global. “We are fuelling the tide of change with our next generation secure online and mobile banking solutions.”
A10 THUNDER TPS SERIES LAUNCHEDA10 Networks has launched A10 Thunder TPS Series, designed to provide high-performance, network-wide protection against a variety of volu-metric, protocol, resource and more sophisticated Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks and improve service availability for critical Internet infrastructures and public-facing websites.
The Thunder TPS product line is built upon A10’s Advanced Core Operating System (ACOS) platform, which delivers up to 155Gbps
of throughput, thereby helping enterprise and service provider customers address the increasing scale of DDoS attacks. Broad multi-vector attack detection capabilities are designed to secure customers’ networks against a variety of attack types, while support for multiple deployment modes provides the flexibility needed to integrate with various customer network designs.
Thunder TPS is architected with an open design, which allows it to be readily deployed
into a variety of existing network architectures and integrated with third-party attack detection systems. Thunder TPS supports flexible deploy-ment models for in- and out-of-band operations, and routed or transparent operation modes. In addition, aXAPI, an open RESTful API, enables integration to custom or third-party detection solutions, allowing the Thunder TPS to take advantage of the growing ecosystem of multi-level threat protections solutions.
ARUBA NET-WORKS CONDUCTS ROAD-SHOW IN SAUDIAruba Networks is set to host the final leg of its EMEA Mobility Roadshow with an event in Saudi Arabia that will be held at the Holiday Inn, Izdihar on the 6th of January, 2014. The event has been designed for Networking Managers, IT managers, architects and engineers from across various industry verticals and will feature informative sessions and demonstrations to help address the challenges of enterprise mobility.
Manish Bhardwaj, Regional Marketing Manager for Middle East and Turkey at Aruba Networks, said, “Saudi Arabia now has a smartphone penetration of over 60% and the number of organizations subscrib-ing to the Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) trend is encouraging. At the same time, IT should understand that gigabit wireless speeds and the sup-port for more connections, devices and apps are now basic requirements of enterprise mobility.”
He continued, “To increase productivity and innovation, they must turn to solutions that supple-ment these basic requirements with advanced features such as context-based policy control, robust security, intelligent traffic prioritization and assured QoS. As the industry leader in business mobility, Aruba Networks is hosting this roadshow to share this latest information with the Saudi market.”
2X APPLICATIONSERVER XG VERSION 11 RELEASED2X Software has released the much anticipated 2X ApplicationServer XG version 11 in the Middle Eastern markets. This is the latest major update to 2X ApplicationServer XG which enables any desktop or Windows application to be virtualized, centralized and managed in the datacenter and instantly delivered to users anywhere on any device.
2X ApplicationServer XG version 11 focuses on additional core Enterprise functionality which includes Sites Management and Role Based Administration. These enhancements contribute to scal-ability, positioning the product in the Enterprise market. Sites Management allows more concurrent users to work within the same farm while Role Based Administration allows multiple administrators with different roles to simultaneously interact within the system.
2X has also set a new standard in Enterprise licensing for Cloud infrastructure by offering their solu-tion at a cost of $75 per concurrent user. The new flexible pricing enables customers to leverage a user-based licensing model. 2X Software is made available in the Middle East region by EMT Distribution.
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Mobility Solutions Opening Up New Hori-zons For Enterprise IT Mobile solutions have opened up new vistas in cost savings, employee productivity, market reach and engagement, among many others.
MOBILE MAGIC
n W O R D S : JAWAD SQUALL I , R E G I O N A L V I C E P R E S I D E N T ,
E P I C O R S O F T W A R E C O R P O R AT I O N
n P H O T O : S H U T T E R S T O C K
Among the props most remem-bered by fans of the 1960s American space fantasy TV show ‘Star Trek’ was the iconic ‘Com-municator,’ a wireless hand-held device that allowed the protagonists to communicate with their orbiting spaceship over the airwaves. Although work on the development of wireless telephony had already begun as early as 1918 , mass use of cellular telephones was just science fiction half a century ago.
Today, users can easily download their favourite electronic games, video chat with loved ones, prepare office reports and even exchange information with just a tap to a fellow mobile device. Mobility has become such a ubiquitous part of everyday living that many people now have difficulty leaving the house without their precious cell phones or tablets. IT research firm Gartner predicts that mobile devices will become the most common web access tools in 2013, surpassing the beloved PC to become the go-to connection to the internet.
The impact of mobility on busi-nesses has been just as significant. Mobile solutions have opened up new vistas in cost savings,
employee productivity, market reach and engagement, streamlined operations, responsiveness and service quality, among many others. Corporate trends such as ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) and mobile enterprise apps attest to strong industry-wide recognition and appreciation of the huge impact of mobility – a game-changing force which emerged as one of the biggest influencers on enterprise IT in 2012. Cisco’s visual networking index forecast sets a probable 65 per cent compound annual growth rate for business mobile traffic through 2016.
Mobility will be the key catalyst for change for enterprises in 2013 as mobile experiences move more towards the ‘cloud.’ Among the many strategic developments to watch out for in enterprise mobility in the coming months and over the next few years are the consumeriza-tion of IT, machine-to-machine solutions, mobile enterprise security, and mobile applications.
For businesses operating in regions such as the Middle East and Africa where the role of IT in accelerating social and economic development is rapidly expand-ing, mobility is a focal point for
performance and productivity strategies over the next few decades. There are many factors pushing mobility adoption, such as pertinent Government initiatives and support, improved connectiv-ity, growing mobile and smartphone penetration, and a nascent yet steadily growing tablet market.
Traffic from wireless and mobile devices will exceed traffic from wired devices by 2016. By 2017, wired devices will account for 45 percent of IP traffic, while Wi-Fi and mobile devices will account for 55 percent of IP traffic2. In 2012, wired devices accounted for the majority of IP traffic at 59 percent. The surge in mobility adoption among businesses is not just about user convenience or a passing technology fad. Studies have shown that mobility does have a signifi-cant, positive impact on responsive-ness and productivity. According to the Aberdeen Group, the need for instant access to ERP stems from the need to cut costs through efficiency and visibility. Instant access to ERP improves efficiency, especially in organisations with operations in multiple geographical locations or with employees out in the field. While instant access
to data enables decision makers to react to problems without delay and facilitates a quick response to the needs of its customers.
Epicor, a leading developer of enterprise software solutions, has been responding to the rising demand for enterprise mobility through products designed to support the easy deployment and management of mobile devices and services to diverse users over multiple and dispersed locations. This is fuelled by the evolution toward customer needs and being business inspired. This means that technology trends and the dynamic nature of business call for a robust industry specific enter-prise resource planning (ERP) offering that encompasses both the business needs of its customers and the latest technology to facilitate efficiency. Turnkey solutions from Epicor include software that securely, seamlessly and cost-effectively extends business data to mobile and remote users; world-class support from its global service network; and superior device management to provide IT staff with complete visibility and control of mobile devices and applications. ë
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EVOLUTION OF CHANNEL
PARTNERS
Donning Multiple RolesTechnological innovations are changing the business dynamics of IT and channel partners are widening their roles to meet the expectations of end-users and vendors.
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Technology has brought a telling change in business environment almost at every level. When new solutions or products are intro-duced, it surely demands adaptation
from vendors, channel partners and end-users. Hence, the market place changes which in turn requires an improvised way to be approached with. In this context, channel partners who are a key in B2B IT business are also finding them-selves in a new mould.
EVOLVING ROLEBased on a survey conducted by Brocade last year of over 500 channel organizations worldwide, almost half of channel respondents expect professional services to become their main revenue generator by 2020. Yet, for the majority of respondents, professional services accounts for 25 percent or less of revenues today. “Businesses hoping to upgrade their IT infrastructures are now beginning to look to the channel and in this scenario the channel need to act as financial advisors and also offer innovative financing options e.g. subscription based financing and ‘pay-as-you-go’ model,” says Marcus Jewell, VP EMEA, Brocade.
Nidal Othman, Managing Director, StarLink observes that most channel partners have been focusing on volume licenses, networking or traditional security solutions over the last decade
and many have been extremely successful with their business models. “But now that rampant competition exists in the channel landscape, and these traditional technologies have become commoditized and in some cases even have com-pletely saturated market places, channel partners are now looking to differentiate themselves from others to stay profitable and grow by developing focus in one or more of a few things: niche/emerging technology, managed services, consult-ing services, application development/integra-tion, or to develop significant value in their existing capabilities by offering not only product and basic services, but end-to-end comprehen-sive solutions along with technical Pre-Sales and post-sales services so that they depend less on distributors and vendors,” comments Othman.
BLURRING LINESAs the IT industry is moving from products to solutions, so are the channel partners.
Jai Shankar, Senior Marketing Manager, Brother International (Gulf) FZE, comments, “Today’s challenges involve being able to provide services as well. Box movers should also look towards exploring new horizons—they should mull expansion, think like service providers and enhance their overall presence in the markets they service.”
With the undergoing transition, the channel fraternity is widening its role to accommodate
provision of services along with products. “The emergence of new technologies and innovations have distinguished the essential role of today’s service providers—they require more knowledge of the new technology at hand while also being expert channel partners, in able to understand and explore the new technology as well. Box movers, as simply defined, are only mere market takers,” says Ahmed Qasem, Channel Sales Manager, Epson Middle East. However, Stephan Berner, Managing Director, Help AG disagrees that new technological innovations have blurred the line between a box mover and a service provider. He says, “The complexity of new technological innovations is in fact making it very easy to distinguish between box movers and service pro-viders. Advanced solutions today require specific knowledge and skill sets for their implementation. Box movers tend to focus on driving business through sales and therefore do not have the neces-sary technical capabilities. Solution providers on the other hand go far beyond simply fulfilling an order. They work with the customer right from the requirements and risk assessment phase through the implementation and support.”
It is noticed that channel partners providing solutions have a better margin than those just concentrating on products. Othman says that StarLink will definitely choose to be a service provider in a choice between a box-mover and service provider. “Today other than com-
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moditized products, almost all best-of-breed next-generation technologies require a certain level of skill and expertise to sell and then to deploy. Being able to provide such advanced services automatically provides significant profit advantages as services revenue is more profitable than product margins, and specialized services almost always command a premium. By being an advisor to customers, which drives new business (product and services), customers in turn expect far more than just product delivery, but end-to-end support across the project and the life of the product. This can only come from a service provider and not a box mover,” he emphasises.
Jewell points out that channel needs to change their business models and be prudent about which vendors they associate with. “Value-added services is the game changer and where the channel will be able to differentiate itself from competition. The channel organizations that have the capabilities to offer these services will succeed. Gone are the days of pure ‘box-moving’. Professional services and consultancy is where channel need to focus their efforts,” he adds.
OPPORTUNITIESThe changing business environment has opportunities for the channel partners. Also, the solution-based approach is opening up new avenues for the channel. However, industry is of the view that Cloud is still not an area where
channel partners are likely to see a growth in Middle East. The basic reason is that companies are still hesitant in adopting cloud. Othman says, “Over the past few years it can be seen that some customers in this region have started migrating
over their day-to-day operational tools such as CRM, email, file sharing to the cloud to platforms such as SalesForce, Google Apps and DropBox respectively, but overall all critical business-related applications are still very much on-premise. Now this creates for a huge opportunity if MSP and cloud service providers can get it right and convince customers in the region that their data is safe and always accessible.”
When the adoption rate of cloud will increase then surely the partners will have tremendous opportunities. Berner comments, “When we talk about the cloud, it is important to remember that large enterprises are highly unlikely to move to a 100% cloud-based infrastructure. What we will see are either private or more likely hybrid cloud models being adopted. In both these cases, a fair amount of the IT infrastructure will still be maintained within the organization and the task of building these environments will be carried out by channel players.”
Furthermore, in the era of the cloud, SLAs (service level agreements) are going to be vital and customers are going to get far more demand-ing. “Channel players already have extensive experience in providing after-sales support to their customers and support for cloud services is merely the logical evolution of this. So while the cloud will definitely change the way we go about conducting business, you definitely cannot remove the channel from the equation. And in truth, smart channel players will in fact be able to develop entirely new revenue streams,” he adds.
Othman says as technologies that are designed to protect cloud infrastructure become adopted such as virtualization encryption, storage encryp-tion etc, the growth of cloud computing will become exponential.
The other growth area is Managed IT services. “For the Managed IT services segment, we are seeing that channel partners will continue to play both an important and strategic role—providing key logistical and technical services to enter-prises,” says Qasem.
Othman feels that Managed IT services is the future for channel partners. More and more technology is required to secure and give access to the enterprise today, complexity of the network is increasing, the cost of resources are getting more and more expensive every day, and there is a shortage of skilled resources. “The only way for enterprises to scale their business and IT infrastructures is to leverage on managed IT services so channel partners will have to evolve to provide such capabilities to survive and remain profitable,” he adds.
At Help AG, Managed Security Services (MSS) is a strategic and major initiative we will
MARCUS JEWELL VP EMEA, BROCADE
“Gone are the days of pure ‘box-moving’. Professional services and consultancy is where channel need to
focus their efforts.”
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invest into resources, time, and infrastructure the coming years. “MSS build, run, and operate locally in the UAE is key and will be successfully offered only by a few companies, therefore it will distinguish us from most of the other players in the market. Any kind of MSS will be not enough though. Pure Monitoring Services are too incomplete. As a Service Partner to our enterprise customers we have to make sure that additional value added services, such as Incident Response, Rout Cause Analysis, and Remediation Services, only to mention a few of them, need to be added on top of it as well,” tells Berner.
CHALLENGESInnovation moves with a fast pace and it is trying for the channel partners to keep themselves updated with the latest trends. This evolution as every side has its two sides, is creating opportuni-ties is also giving channel partners a tough time.
One of the issues has been the lack of technical expertise in the market as Berner points out. “For us, it has made finding the right people to further strengthen our market position as the leader in IT & Information Security a demanding process. This was and still is challenging as our resources are hand-picked and the hiring process is quiet strict. The good thing though, is that it helps us to re-
NIDAL OTHMAN, MANAGING DIRECTOR, STARLINK-
“Channel partners are now looking to differentiate
themselves from others to stay profitable.”
STEPHAN BERNER, MANAGING DIRECTOR, HELP AG
“While the cloud will definitely change the way we go about conducting business, you definitely
cannot remove the channel from the equation.”
JAI SHANKAR, SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER
BROTHER INTERNATIONAL (GULF FZE
“Today’s challenges involve being able to provide the
services as well.”
assess our internal procedure and processes which is needed for success in the long run,” Jewell adds.
Competition due to an increased number of channel partners, difficulty in achieving differentiation, a shortage of skilled resources, increased cost of resources, the rapid pace of technology change, sophisticated customers with expectations of relationship and expertise, shrinking product margins, the requirement to evolve from volume to value and commodity to specialization are the challenges which Othman feels is troubling the channel community.
EMPOWERING THE CHANNELIn order to give channel partners support in these changing times, vendors have a crucial role to play. Over the last few years, Brother has introduced the Brother Premium Partner Program that aims to help partners achieve their set targets. “Through this program, we are able to provide key training programs and workshops for the sales teams of our partners which help increase their knowledge about our products,” informs Shankar. At present, the biggest chunk of Brocade’s investment in the Middle East is happening in the channel. The company is invest-ing heavily in channel education and channel
incentives. Brocade’s go-to-market model is 100% indirect and partner focused. “Our partners are our extended arms - they represent our architecture and technology and as such channel management is a very important aspect of our overall strategy as the efforts of our channel reflect directly on our bottomline. Brocade’s key focus is developing converged partners with true system integration skills in the IP networking, campus and data centre markets,” says Jewell.
Brocade has begun to organize three technical training programs for the channel every quarter attended by partners from all over - Oman, from Jordan, from Egypt, for Qatar and Iraq. The train-ing runs over four days. “We believe that Ethernet Fabrics is the future of Networking and to ensure that our partners understand the technology, we have come up with a specific educational programme called Ethernet 101,” Jewell adds
FINALLY...The industry is unanimous on the fact that in these changing times the channel partners too have moved out of their basic role.It is impera-tive for them to differentiate themselves in the competing marketing place. The vendors are helping the partners with various programmes to meet the challeneges. ë
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EMERSON NETWORK
POWER
Emerson Network Power started strengthening its presence in the Middle East and Africa when it began catering to the needs of small and medium businesses through
an expanding IT channel. In 2012, Emerson signed a strategic alliance with regional distributor Mindware in the MENA region. “We are now expanding the business towards channel to one and two tier business and Mindware is supporting us in boosting our message to the IT channel,” says Federico Mastroleo, Marketing Manager EMEA, Channel, Emerson Network Power.
Mastroleo says that Emerson Network Power didn’t tap such kind of opportunities earlier and now Mindware is helping them. “They have introduced us to a large community which we didn’t see before. We were always in the kind of business where you have high-level and high-end products,” he adds.
For a certain standpoint of view Emerson Network Power sees itself as a new comer in the business that it is doing since ages but now it is towards different drivers. It has to consolidate its position in the market. “We are not competing with anyone in reality. It doesn’t make any sense to compete in terms of replicating the same mar-keting mix that somebody else did decades ago in the region. So, we are doing a different operation. We are moving from our core established busi-ness and moving to the enthusiast community,” says Mastroleo.
Emerson is in the Middle East region since 1980s. It has been reinforced by the Avocent acquisition in terms of penetration and awareness in various MEA markets. Avocent also brought
Consolidating the ChannelWith its partnership with Mindware, Emerson Network Power is all set to expand its business in IT channel
“This market has cultural distinction too starting from the language. For the first time in Emerson, the relevant things like portal will in Arabic.”
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into its former trusted distributor Westcon. “70% of our portfolio is dealt through Mindware and we have 30% of additional business which is empowered by Westcon,” he informs. Now, Emerson is doubling its market initiatives in the region as compared to the average by Emerson in Western and Eastern Europe. But for the company, being aggressive doesn’t mean adopting low pricing policy but more of the kind delivering products that are more reliable and giving more margin to the partners which is the key. “This market has cultural distinction too starting from the language. For the first time in Emerson, the relevant things like portal will in Arabic. It is a message that we want you to understand us and for that we have to talk your language. This is fundamental otherwise you are just imposing the message,” comments Mastroleo.
According to various market resources, in the region Emerson Network Power currently has 5-6% market share. “We definitely need to ramp up. We are still at the stage we can’t consolidate figures as to how much business from the channel and how much is direct. We are now boosting the business and nurturing all channel investment. Our idea is to move from negligible percentage of business in IT channel to moving up rapidly,” he informs.
For the channel, Emerson will provide all the benefits starting in relation to training, deal registration, and lot of other things like tools to facilitate configuration. An online tool dedicated to partners was missing to speed up any configu-ration. IT channel configurator will be provided exclusively to IT partners. “We are also providing boosts in terms of incentives. What really makes
the difference is that if you do business with us, you can’t compare the same profit, the best level of average profitability in the market,” emphasises Mastroleo. There is also an event in Riyadh this month.
Emerson Network Power believes that distributor is the gate to the market and would be our trusted advisor to get the business even larger. “Infrastructure Business Partners (IBP) is the key initiative to enrol the recruitment. Phase I is done and IBP basically kicks off Phase II partnership program,” he reveals.
FINALLY...Emerson Network Power is widening its core business and consolidating its reach to the IT channel fraternity and Mindware is supporting it to do the same in most effective way. ë
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ENG. MOHAMMED AL SHEHHIDIRECTOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, UAE GENERAL CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITY (GCAA).
“It was a difficult task to manage constant processes, software and infrastructure changes and expanding operations with new locations.”
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& Best Portal categories, Green ICT Award, Best CIO Award, Network Middle East Award, NME Innovations Award, last but not the least, apprecia-tion from State Audit Institution for “Zero Findings” & 100% compliant to the GIA guidelines for the IT department.
“We are building everything in-house instead of buying anything from outside. Our Disaster Recovery system is in Dubai. We have more than 184 external services inclusive of technical services like pilot licensing, aircraft registration, etc. and over 51 internal services. The challenge now is to transform them to mobile services to support the UAE initiative on Smart Government,” he adds.
VISIONAs the information and technology becomes the backbone of business, IT department plays a criti-cal role in helping the Authority provide efficient customer services, reduce risk, and ensure growth and longevity. The GCAA IT Department vision of Standardization, Modernization and Mobiliza-tion of technology was well practiced throughout the years. To support the vision of the depart-ment, IT developed a three years IT Roadmap in line with the Authority strategy and defined two main goals. “The first being to understand and support Authority’s core objectives and translat-ing them quickly and accurately into IT Priorities & secondly to support Authority in achieving its strategic goals and objectives by providing state-of-the-art technology support and high quality services,” comments Al Shehhi.
THE BEGINNINGGCAA IT Department was stressed without a proper service management system for delivery of IT Services to its customers. “It was a difficult task to manage constant processes, software and infrastructure changes and expanding operations with new locations. There was an urgent need for a service management system to improve the customer satisfaction & quality of services with-out affecting the ongoing operations & customer services,” informs Al Shehhi. In the absence of an E-Archiving Solution, the Authority departments were finding it cumbersome to manage the backlog and huge number of manual documents processing. “It was increasingly becoming dif-ficult to store, retrieve, secure and manage large number of important departmental documenta-tion and files due to which inefficiency was evident from departmental day to day opera-tions,” he adds. With the rapid increase in the customer base, Real-Time end user monitoring and ensuring compliance to internal IT policies was increasingly becoming very difficult.
GCAA
Raisingthe BarRedundant IT infrastructure can have serious repercussions on functioning of any organization and GCAA has braced up to avoid any of those.
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The use of advanced Information Technology is at the heart of an efficient civil aviation as it is with other industries. The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) which
is the sole authority for the control and regula-tion of civil aviation in the UAE is on the path of modernizatiion of its IT infrastructure. With the astute leadership of GCAA higher management along with H.E Saif Mohammed Al Suwaidi -Direc-tor General’s encouraging support, IT department has excelled in the area of automation and strongly progressed towards the Smart government initia-tive. Today, under the leadership of Eng. Moham-med Al Shehhi, Director Information Technology, UAE General Civil Aviation Authority GCAA, the Authority has completely transformed to a paperless organization with 184 online eServices and 51 Intranet eServices. Initially, their IT team was very small with limited manpower, in-adequate Infrastructure and limited business applications to support GCAA and its customers. “Under dynamic IT leadership and dedicated team performance, IT Department managed to develop, acquire and implement most advanced IT infrastructure, systems and applications and grew accordingly,” says Al Shehhi. Now, IT department has raised
the standards of its infrastructure, applications and technical support services by transforming manual services to E-services and then to Smart Services and centralized back office operations by implementing ERP system.
THE JOURNEYFrom numerous backlogs of documents, GCAA has moved to paperless functioning and it has to be credited to Al Shehhi.
An IT computer engineer, his mission and vision was very clear from the beginning to leverage IT department on both the standards and technology front. The GCAA soon started getting bestowed with awards. In the Year 2010, Al Shehhi enabled the GCAA UAE to become the first Aviation Authority in the world to obtain Integrated Management System (IMS) for the IT department.
Under his leadership, the IT department of the Authority won two prestigious Shaikh Khalifa Awards in the Year 2012. The first award was for the Best Federal Department category and the second for the Best eServices. The awards were presented by H.H Shaikh Mohammed Bin Rashid personally.
Al Shehhi has also been honored with the GCC e-Government Awards for Best eContent
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SERVICES DEPLOYEDGCAA did a thorough process for vendor evalu-ation and selection. All the vendors were then evaluated by procurement department on the basis of Satisfying technical requirements, Previ-ous projects experience and competence, Product quality, Financial soundness of the service provider to fulfill its obligations, Performance with other customers and End user Support.
Among many of the best-of -breed & sophis-ticated technology projects, below were some of the important projects which were carried out on a high priority basis:n HP Service Manager (HPSM) – Service
PARTNERSHIP WITH EMITACEmitac was identified for acquiring applications and tools due to their professional approach, technical competency, market penetration and reputation owning to their strategic alliances with
global technology giants such as HP, Microsoft, CISCO and Nexthink for providing complete technical and financially viable solutions accord-ing to our business requirements. “Their 24/7 online and onsite customer support for technical queries/issues is commendable. GCAA has executed several projects with Emitac with the confidence that the projects would be carried out on the agreed timeline and with professionalism. As a consulting and solution partner to GCAA, Emitac has demonstrated good understanding of our vision, requirements and IT challenges involved,” he adds.
Emitac has been proactive in providing the right solution to the requirements of GCAA IT, thus helping it to be aligned with the latest technological trends and automation. Emitac helped GCAA in automating its core IT processes such as Change management, Inci-dent management, Problem Management and Help Desk function by providing HP Service Manager.
Manual Documents and files, not only took storage space, incurred cost but also created difficulties in its management and retrieval thus resulting in overall delay and inefficiency
in the day to day departmental operations. Working closely with the IT department, Emitac proposed and implemented an E-Archiving solution helping GCAA in converting all manual documents into PDF format and storing them in the centralized document management system for efficient retrieval, timely distribution, long term safe and secure storage and efficient departmental operations. “Now the question was how to strengthen our internal control systems. For that Emitac proposed and deployed a real time desktop/laptop monitoring system from Nexthink ensuring audit and compliance to IT Security Policies, thus helping us achieve our objective,” informs Al Shehhi.
FINALLY...GCAA IT Department’s future strategy is to modernize the IT Infrastructure to increase agility, efficiency, service quality and to support the growth of the Authority. “We have numerous initiatives on the technology front and shall focus more on the Smart Government initiative related to the mobi-lization of services and support from Emitac like companies is therefore very important,” concludes Al Shehhi. ë
HP SERVICE MANAGER BENEFITSl Automation of core IT processes such asl Incident Management l Problem Management l Knowledge Management l Software and Infrastructure Change Management l Automation of Support and Service Operations and Delivery
E-ARCHIVING BENEFITSl Reduced Documents Storage spacel Reduction of Operational Costsl Fast and Flexible Document Retrieval l Improved, faster and more flexible searchl Improved Document Distribution and Sharingl Improved Document Security l Improved Departmental Operations and staff efficiency
NEXTHINK BENEFITS l Continuous compliance to IT Policies l Reporting of Systems and Network Problemsl Consolidated and Centralized IT Asset Management l Faster Decision Making l Network Monitoring l Management of Applications, Systems and Softwarel Compliance Reporting to IT Policies
SOLUTION INFOGRAPH
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“WE DO NOT BELIEVE IN SELLING DIFFERENT PRODUCTS AND BRINGING
THEM TOGETHER BUT RATHER FOCUS ON A SINGLE SOLUTION FOR
MODERN DATA PROTECTION DISASTER RECOVERY THAT ADDRESSES ALL
THE CHALLENGES OF TODAY”.
“Being storage-agnostic is a boon”
MIKE RESSELERPRODUCT STRATEGY SPECIALIST, EMEA EVANGELIST, VEEAM SOFTWARE
mized specifically for backup workloads, then you will see that after the first backup, the customers can save a lot of bandwidth, uptime, and certainly the amount of data that is being sent. It is also specifically built to give us an insight into the fact that whether it is a good copy, we can restore from that copy or not, flexibility to change the time frame, etc. Hence, our solution certainly helps in addressing the challenges of today.
Is it a single product that you offer containing all these features? We have one solution called backup propagation and all the features are inside it. Depending on the version that customers are going for, like standard or enterprise, then of course, they will get difference in the features. But yes, it remains one single product and depending on the license that customers opt for, they will have access to those features. We do not believe in selling different products and bringing them together but rather focus on a single solution for modern data protection disaster recovery that addresses all the challenges.
In most of the cases, the cost of UV licenses is less than actual annual maintenance renewal for our competitors. And that’s why we say that our products and solutions are affordable
What about compatibility with competition products? As of today, we are working very closely with HP. We have built a plug-in portal where we don’t have to release a new version or service-pack but create a new plug-in for a storage vendor. We are open to have conversations with any storage vendor in the marketplace. It’s not only the tech-nical perspective that we have to look at but also the business or commercial aspect. In the current scenario, we are talking to a lot of vendors and we might soon announce partnerships as well.
Which are the vertical industries that you target?Today, we are pretty large in the SMB market. Last year, we grew very hard in enterprise segment as well and we hope grow even big in the future. The reason for this is that we have added new features in our product that could address the requirements of the enterprise market. And this has resulted in us being picked up enterprise organizations very fast.
We are aware of the fact that based on the ver-tical; the data protection requirement is different. However, we are not targeting any particular vertical industry as such. Every customer is an asset for us. In fact, we have customers in pretty much every vertical. ë
What’s your impression about today’s enterprise storage market?Looking at the enterprise market of today and in our discussion with people on the floor, we have realized that the important thing for those people is to get more out of it that they have already invested in. If you think about buying expensive storage, they try to get more out of it today. For example, if you look at our solution, you will find that we are completely storage agnostic. But on the other hand, we are now really working more together with the likes of HP to make sure that customers can more use of their investment in backup strategy as well.
Another trend that we are seeing in the indus-try is that if you look at the investments, then you will find that deduplication and compression
have become more important to save on storage costs. Hence, we are not only working on our deduplication and compression technologies but also work together with other deduplication platforms. For example, we work with Windows Server 2012 deduplication that together gives pretty good results. This clearly shows that customers today want maximum out of their storage investments.
How does Veeam helps its customers in this situation? When a customer is doing data protection, we make sure that he uses the few good features of our product that could help him resolve those bandwidth issues. If you look at our WAN accelerator, which is custom built by us and is opti-
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The Middle East and Africa IT market, which has grown by leaps and bounds in the last two decades, is expected to grow at a much higher rate till 2020. While the mega events
like Dubai Expo 2020 is seen as a significant con-tributor towards this growth in the Middle East region, the Africa market will get a major boost with more and more foreign direct investments.
The MEA region has been a very high growth market, as the technology spending in this region is forecasted to grow at double the global average. Apparently, the IT spending in this region is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.1% between 2012 and 2017 and will likely continue at similar levels through to 2020.
As per IDC estimates, this market is expected to surpass US$ 105 billion by 2017, which is almost the double the size from over a decade ago. Organizations in this region have much less
legacy IT as compared to more developed mar-kets, and this in many ways, will help the region to leapfrog technology generations much more rapidly. A number of rapidly growing economies, expanding populations, rapid urbanization and ICT focus by governments, by and large, will drive IT spending across the region.
FACTORS DRIVING THE GROWTHAs the enterprises across the MEA region are seeking new ways to build on their revenue stream and identify better ways to deliver the services, the reliance on information technology is certainly increasing. And this trend will surely lead to a spurt in the growth of the MEA IT market in the years to come.
Also, in the coming years, the region will wit-ness a spate of ICT innovations and tech trends. With this, several technology deployments will
move from pilot to production level. Eventually, more and organizations, including private and public sector establishments, will want to profit from ICT.
Ranjit Rajan, Research Director - IT Services and Software, Middle East Turkey and Africa, IDC, says, “Much of this growth will be driven by spending on packaged software and IT services as organizations strive to achieve greater automation, agility and efficiencies on top of their infrastructure deployments. Public infrastructure expansion, communication network growth, e-government initiatives, city-focused mega events (such as the Expo 2020, FIFA World Cup 2022) and smart city initiatives in the Gulf, foreign investments and economic growth in Africa, are some of the drivers for this growth.”
“Technology will continue to drive the demand for data processing and storage. Besides the requirement for new data centers, the upgrad-
n W O R D S : N I V E D A N P R A K A S H < N I V E D A N @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M > n P H O T O : S H U T T E R S T O C K
Achieving Technological ExcellenceWhile MEA’s technology and business services industry has flourished in the last decade, the industry stakeholders will need to break out of the traditional mould that resulted in past successes and step up to the aspirations of 2020. Looking at the crystal ball, the industry experts are predicting a big scope and healthy growth for IT business till the end of this decade and beyond.
MISSION 2020
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ing of current facilities will be a big driver. This growth will drive the requirement for power and with the cost of energy we foresee a major focus on energy efficient solutions/technology. We might see a major shift from buying on price to focusing more on total cost of ownership with rising energy cost,” adds Pierre Havenga, MD at Emerson Network Power, Middle East and North Africa.
MEGATRENDS SHAPING UP THE LANDSCAPE The global ICT industry is in the midst of a once in a 20-25 year transition – to a new platform of technology delivery and consumption. IDC calls this the 3rd platform of technology transformation – a platform that is underpinned by four forces – mobile, cloud, social and big data analytics. By 2020, the share of these forces to worldwide ICT spending will rise to about 40% (from currently about 20%). While the spending on these technologies grows at over 11% CAGR, the spending on traditional IT will remain flat during this period. These technologies will have a significant impact on the MEA region as well.
Adding further, Havier Haddad, Channel and Alliances Director – Turkey, Emerging Africa & Middle East, EMC, says, “We believe that the next phase of transformation will be driven by the ‘3rd platform’, which IDC describes not just as a technology revolution, but also a customer revolution as the transition will likely give rise to models that enable access to and consumption of applications when and where they want. As businesses move from what has been a tightly connected and physically wired environment to a more loosely connected platform made up of mobile broadband, social business, cloud-based services, and big data combined with analytics, it will enable companies to reap the rewards of increased business prosperity and market dominance.”
According to IDC, by 2020, the industry could also see much progress towards the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) wherein various ‘intelligent’ things are connected effectively across networks and enable more rapid transfer of data and delivery of services. With IoT momentum building in 2014, IDC expects to see new industry partnerships to emerge as traditional IT vendors accelerate their partnerships with global telecom service providers and semiconductor vendors to create integrated offerings in the consumer electron-ics and connected device spaces. This kind of collaboration and coordination will be necessary to reach the 30 billion autonomously connected end points and $8.9 trillion in revenues that IDC believes the IoT will generate by 2020.
USD 8.9 trillion,” highlights Abdullah Al-Swaha, Director – Partner Organization and Commer-cial, Cisco Saudi Arabia.
Beginning 2014, markets aligned to big data and other information management initiatives, such as enterprise content management, data integration tools, and data quality tools will begin to see increased levels of investment. Besides, the boom of applications, smart devices, and video on demand will influence the demand for IT infrastructure through 2020 and beyond.
Meanwhile, there will be a surge in the demand of value added services that will help
RANJIT RAJAN, RESEARCH DIRECTOR - IT SERVICES AND SOFTWARE, MIDDLE EAST TURKEY AND AFRICA, IDC
“The growth will be driven by spending on packaged software and IT services as organizations strive to achieve greater automation, agility and efficiencies on top of their infrastructure deployments.”
PIERRE HAVENGA, MD AT EMERSON NETWORK POWER, MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
“We might see a major shift from buying on price to focusing more on total cost of ownership with rising energy cost.”
ACCORDING TO IDC, BY 2020, WHEN THEICT INDUSTRY GENERATES $5 TRILLION INSPENDING, 40% OF THE INDUSTRY’S REVENUEAND 98% OF ITS GROWTH WILL BE DRIVEN BY THIRD PLATFORM TECHNOLOGIES.
“Cisco has identified seven key trends i.e. Machine-to-Machine Connections, Context Aware Computing, Mobile Device Management, Security, Building the Next Internet, Browser Based Video and Collaboration, and Video Mega Trends. Driving these trends is the ‘Internet of Everything (IoE), which is bringing together people, processes, data, and things. The IoE is leading to context-aware computing in which mobile devices will analyze objects’ data to learn about people’s schedules, locations, and needs. We predict that connecting 212 billion things to networks by 2020 will open up a market value of
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enterprises across all verticals and of all sizes to not only store, manage, and automate but also secure the Big Data. This market will also witness an increase in the investment towards cloud computing by service providers. Also, the cloud services will attain the next level with the rise of network functions virtualization that will allow the control and processing functions for services delivery to be virtualized. Software-defined everything too might become reality by then.
TRANSFORMATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES While demonstrating much greater awareness towards information technology in comparison to other global markets, the MEA region has not only emerged a key growth market for all the global IT players but has also served as a catalyst of new opportunities that is bound to continue throughout the remaining decade.
Giving his perspective on the same, Ravinder Janotra, Regional Sales Manager – Middle East,
Cyberoam Technologies, says, “Business and IT decision makers in MEA now realize how the impact of trends like cloud, BYOD, mobility ties with network security and this really augurs well for the business of network security. We foresee that network security business in MEA will experience a significant change and growth under the influence of emerging IT trends and growing adoption of IT throughout all sectors. It has been estimated that likely business from cloud oriented network security from the region of UAE alone will exceed US$70 million by 2019, registering a whopping growth over 45%.”
With the rise in the dominance of Nexus of Forces – cloud, mobility, social, and big data analytics – the MEA market will also see an evolution in the role of both IT vendors as well as service providers. Not only will there be reas-sessment and revamping of product portfolios and coming out industry specific as well as tailor-made solutions but also an increased focus towards providing managed services.
“Service providers will compete with OTT (Over the Top) providers such as Amazon, and we will likely see a mixture of competitive responses from service providers as well as more formal relationships between service providers and OTT players. Also, services providers and top system integrators will need to offer new, differentiated services to win and sustain more customers. In addition, the regional service provider’s and private network infrastructure will need to be modernized to cope with both cloud and mobile needs for high-capacity and highly-reliable connectivity, and we will see this modernization being used as a competitive advantage for service providers,” opines Omar Alsaied, Middle East Carriers Sales Director, Ciena.
VERTICALS AT THE FOREFRONTOrganizations across all verticals are becoming more aware of the benefits of IT, which will lead to major investments going forward. As the government continues to carry out investments in large infrastructure projects, IT vendors will find many opportunities across the vertical industries, primarily in the telecommunications, government, banking and finance, oil and gas, education, manufacturing, and energy. The mega events like Expo 2020 and Soccer World Cup at Qatar in 2022 will further drive investments in travel, hospitality, logistics, healthcare, transport, and retail among others.
Moreover, the public sector has always played a major role in the growth of IT markets in the Middle East. As political stability returns to most
HAVIER HADDAD, CHANNEL AND ALLIANCES DIRECTOR – TURKEY, EMERGING AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST, EMC
“The next phase of trans-formation will be driven by the ‘3rd platform’, which will likely give rise to models that enable access to and consump-tion of applications when and where they want.”
IT VENDORS’ VISION & GOAL FOR 2020 n EMC’s strategy is laid out to lead the 3rd Platform of IDC and help its customers transform. The company engages with its customers more as a technology partner that consults and supports them through every step of their transformation journey. It will continue to make investments in human development in a bid to support government initiatives to boost economic diversity and establish knowledge based economies in the Kingdom and across the region. n Emerson strives to maintain a sustainable growth supported by leading technology, best of breed quality solution offering, and very strong customer focus. The company is committed to continue to invest in the MEA region and be the technology partner of choice. n Technology has transformed and will keep redefining the way Ciena does its business today. The company’s vision for 2020 is to enable growth and enhance productivity. As such, it is focused on ensuring organizations are well placed to take advantage of all the benefits of an on-demand world, ensuring that network services align with on-demand cloud compute and storage services. n Cyberoam is geared to emerge as a trusted network security partner to technology users, business organizations and governments in MEA. The company’s roadmap is not confined only to building innovative and future-ready network security for its customers but it also wants to enable security practices and contribute towards creating cyber-security knowledge capital and skilled manpower for MEA.
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parts of the region and its neighbors, public sector IT spending will be back on the rise, particularly around eGovernment initiatives. Besides, the SMB segment, which was considered as the early adopters of IT trends till some time back, will also be in forefront of adopting all the modern day technologies by the end of this decade.
Out of the technology areas where these investments will take place, cloud computing is seeing a lot of this investment and is an important area of focus. According to recent research by Gartner, $4 billion will be spent on cloud services in MENA region between 2013 and 2017. Secondly, enterprises will also increasingly deploy mobile device management solutions to protect both corporate and personal data. Thirdly, organizations managing mission-critical networks such as SCADA and ICS based systems will demand capable defense and next-generation security capabilities. Fourthly, healthcare and education will also ramp up their IT spend on the back of significant investments from state govern-
of data, IT departments need to make sense of the large and valuable data from a wide variety of devices, from smartphone apps to city infrastruc-ture. Companies will need to create new comput-ing resources through data center software and hardware, designed to work in cooperation with new mobile apps,” explains Al-Swaha.
CHALLENGES TO BE DEALT WITH While the industry has the potential to gener-ate trillions of revenues in 2020, a portion of this opportunity is at risk if continuing problems are not tackled soon. Some of the
“BY 2020, THE INDUSTRY COULD ALSO SEEMUCH PROGRESS TOWARDS THE ‘INTERNETOF THINGS’ (IOT) WHEREIN VARIOUS‘INTELLIGENT’ THINGS ARE CONNECTED.
ments, deploying more advanced solutions for patient care, tele-medicine, e-learning, and digital campuses. And lastly, with the social trend grow-ing, businesses will need to increasingly adopt Big Data analytics solutions to enhance their customer satisfaction and retention.
“The Middle East and Africa will be at the heart of this technological transformation, with Cisco projecting the region to have the world’s-highest cloud traffic growth rate at 57 percent CAGR from 2012-2017. The next generation Internet will be an essential component to enable greater data center virtualization and intercon-nected clouds. With the IoE driving an explosion
OMAR ALSAIED, MIDDLE EAST CARRIERS SALES DIRECTOR, CIENA
“The regional service pro-vider’s and private net-work infrastructure will need to be modernized to cope with both cloud and mobile needs for high-capacity and highly-reliable connectivity.”
“We foresee that network security business in MEA will experience a signifi-cant change and growth under the influence of emerging IT trends and growing adoption of IT throughout all sectors.”
ABDULLAH AL-SWAHA, DIREC-TOR – PARTNER ORGANIZATION AND COMMERCIAL, CISCO SAUDI ARABIA
“The MEA market will be at the heart of the technological trans-formation, with Cisco projecting the region to have the world’s-highest cloud traffic growth rate at 57 percent CAGR from 2012-2017.”
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common challenges that needed to be overcome include reliable and affordable energy supply, political instability, crime and corruption, cost of conducting business, less complex environ-ment to conduct business, and investment from governments into infrastructure.
Rajan is of the view that political instability in some parts of the region, rampant corrup-tion (especially in Africa), and lack of effective governance are some factors that could hamper this growth. Shortage of IT skills, both in quality and quantity, will slow down adoption in both the Middle East and Africa, and hamper capabilities of providers. Human resource-rich centers such as Egypt, Jordan or some parts of Africa will try to capitalize on this opportunity, however, keeping abreast of skills needs especially those relevant to 3rd platform technologies, will continue to be a challenge.
One faction of the industry also believes that the whole process of this technology transforma-tion has to be safeguarded from all the possible and evolving cyber threats, as they can seriously hamper the development process in MEA. And this can only be achieved by creating enhanced awareness about security measures amongst the enterprises and educating them on security best
practices. “The business landscape of the region is ever
changing, with new developments continuously arising, and this requires attention to detail when developing IT skills, making sure that they are specialised to the current environment. We also expect to see Middle East businesses continue to expand beyond the region and there will be an increasing need for more international submarine based connectivity to ensure global businesses can operate seamless IT environ-ments,” mentions Alsaied.
EVOLVING ROLE OF PARTNERS According to IDC, the emergence of the 3rd platform will lead to a shake-out in the channel. Growing competition and falling margins are persuading channel players to move from hard-ware and software resale (box moving) business to a services focused business. Cloud can cause further disintermediation between the vendor and the customer, and force traditional system integrators to reassess their portfolios.
“We foresee that channel partners will continue to play a key role in the small to medium business (SMB) segment. Given the range of products
distributed by channel partners, we foresee that there is an opportunity to become a solution provider/system integrator for the SMB segment where IT skills might not be similar compared to large entities,” asserts Havenga.
While giving his views on the same, Janotra says that MEA region is required to build a solid cyber resilience to sustain ICT led socio-economic transformation and make the progress more lucrative and inclusive for everyone. With this, channel partners in IT can envisage a greater role beyond box selling and become end-to-end experts. This will help them explore new business models and maximize their growth prospects.
“We will also see a change in roles as service integrators become value add resellers; resellers will probably focus on services reselling vs. systems or become service providers; and end users in many cases become service providers for their own stakeholders in addition to becoming service providers for other companies as well. Distributors will also continue to flourish as they bring together a variety of services from different vendors and bundle these onto an outsourced IT infrastructure and market the services as white-label cloud services portfolios,” concludes Haddad. ë
MIDDLE EAST IT SPENDING FORECAST(BILLIONS OF U.S. DOLLARS)
SOURCE: GARTNER (MARCH 2013)
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SECURITY
The awareness about IT security is growing in the Middle East region, which has led to an increase in the uptake of enterprise security solu-tions in this market. Proof of this lies
in the successes that both the security vendors as well as system integrators have had over the last couple of years in this domain.
One such strategic information security con-sulting company, Help AG, has tasted this success too. In fact, the company has become a familiar name to reckon with in the field of security ser-vices and solutions. Founded in Germany in 1995 and being present in the Middle East since 2005, Help AG provides leading enterprise businesses across the region with strategic consultancy combined with tailored information security solutions and services that address their diverse requirements enabling them to evolve securely with a competitive edge.
After Dubai, the company started its operations in Abu Dhabi in the year 2009, and in September 2011, it opened up offices in Doha and Qatar.
“As an organization, we started way back in 2005 here in Dubai, with a complete focus on IT information security services and solutions. At that time, security was considered as a niche area. In fact, it is still perceived the same if you look at the investments going into enterprise organiza-tions. But the importance is rising year-on-year. Earlier, security used to be at no. 10 in any CIOs’ priority list, which gradually moved up to no. 7 and then in last couple of years, it climbed up to no. 3 position. We believe that in 2014, security
Defining the Security Posture for enterprisesThe Middle East security market is all set for rapid growth, as organizations in the region realize their vulnerability to increasingly complex cybercrimes.
n N I V E D A N P R A K A S H < N I V E D A N @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >
would be their top priority and accordingly you will see the spending behavior of the large enterprises,” says Stephan Berner, Managing Director, Help AG.
He further adds, “Security is just not about plac-ing a hardware or software or next-gen firewall. Any type of technical security control needs to be implemented as per the information security policy of an enterprise organization. The key factor here is not just spending $500 on a product but investing a right amount of money into a company who is able to implement in a proper way. And that’s why; Help AG became the number one security consulting company in the UAE and going to be number one in Qatar two years from now.”
OVERALL PERFORMANCEWhen the company started in 2005 in this region, it was relatively small and did a business of US$700,000. Over the years, it grew the business in a conservative way. The company ended the year 2010 with US$8.4 million; touched US$11.2 million in 2011; then in 2012, it garnered revenue of $16.5 million; and it is looking to close the year 2013 at an estimated figure of $27 million.
Currently, 70 percent of the Help AG’s business comes from solutions and the rest 30 percent from services. Going forward, the company is going to maintain the same ratio of revenue contribution from the business segments. It is because the company believes that in order to grow the services business there is a need for an army of people who could act as consultants.
“It is evident with the fact that at the begin-ning of 2012, we are 28 people and now, the number has grown to 60 (70 percent technical). And in 2014, we are planning to add another 30 people across all the core functions like security consultants, security analysts, business develop-ment, back office administrators, and strategic consultants to serve our existing as well as prospective customers,” adds Berner.
FOCUS AREAS Help AG solely focuses on IT security and it is very much evident with the fact that within the UAE, the company covers about 15 to 20% of high end security market. The company has an experienced strategic security consulting team providing companies and organizations with quality IT consultancy services to ensure a suc-cessful certification process to create added value to their customers/key stakeholders.
“In the UAE as well as Qatar market, there are not many IT information security specialists. And we consider ourselves are specialists of this domain. For us, security is the core function. What we see at the IT spending of an organization, until 2012, security was part of the infrastructure budget for most of the enterprises. But in 2013, many vertical industries had kept a separate IT security budget to spend. And this is going to further increase in 2014 and henceforth. And that’s where we are well positioned and not going to deviate our business model. Today, we are considered as trusted advisors of information security,” asserts Berner.
Since Help AG focuses solely on IT security, it comes as no surprise that the main verticals that have been driving the company’s business have been those in which security is essential to conducting business. These include banks and financial institutions, telecom, government entities and sectors like oil & gas and critical infrastructure which are increasingly being targeted by attackers.
“In 2012, 22% of our business came from government, 20% from financial institutions, 14% from education sector, 12% from oil & gas, and 8% from healthcare. These are the vertical markets that we focus on. Today, 9 out of the top 10 banks or government organizations in UAE are our customers. The same holds true for oil & gas sector. Our focus is on enterprise organiza-tions having more 1000 users,” points out Berner.
CORE STRENGTHS Help AG has emerged as the only security player who is authorized to provide level 1 and level 2 support services on behalf on principle vendors like F5 Networks, Juniper Networks, Palo Alto Networks and Infoblox.
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STEPHAN BERNERMANAGING DIRECTOR, HELP AG
“We engage with our customers - right from the beginning, wherein we help them build the information security strategy and by doing so, we start to deliver security assessment services.”
Explaining further, he states, “As a security vendor, we do not just sell products but solutions to the customers based on their business require-ments. We engage with our customers - right from the beginning, wherein we help them build the information security strategy and by doing so, we start to deliver security assessment services. We look into the organizations’ current set-up; do risk assessment and business impact analysis; and basis on this, we can identify what are the technical security controls missing from that organization. It’s not about implementing encryption solution or a DLP solution, but about policies, procedures, processes, and people. From strategic security consulting point of view, we follow these 4Ps.”
As part of its services, the company is aggres-sively focusing on security analysis for vulnerabil-ity assessment and penetration testing; detailed
LIST OF SERVICES FROM HELP AG’S SECURITY ANALYSIS DIVISION
n VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT AND PENETRATION TESTING: Help AG will assess all targets which range through Microsoft based system, Unix / Linux, networking device and services, VOIP, Wi-Fi (personal / enterprise), and web application.
n DETAILED WEB ASSESSMENT: Help AG’s security team is qualified with advance software development backgrounds as well as ethical hacking. Help AG believes that utilizing such resources is the only adequate approach to perform a detailed web assessment.
n MOBILE HACKING:Help AG offers this service for both mobile apps and browser based mobile interfaces. The conmpany’s auditors will utilize Help AG’s smart phones whether Apple, Android or Symbian which are prepared with all necessary tools to perform an efficient mobile security assessment.
n CONFIGURATION REVIEW:Configuration review can be performed against networking devices or other platforms. Help AG offers this service as per the following goals - compliance with a strategic standard and base lining against a technical standard for hardening the environment
n ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW:Help AG offers an architectural review targeted toward securing the network. This can be accomplished through – Analyses of gateway layer(s); Analyses of switching layer; Analyses of security devices such as firewalls, web application firewalls, IPS; Server multitier analyses; Zone segregations; Failover and HA structure; Traffic flow; Logging and monitoring.
n SOURCE CODE REVIEW:Help AG offers source code analyses and software assurance maturity audits within three different scopes - One-time source code analyses engagement; Source code analyses on-demand executed by Help AG; and Source code analyses on-demand (support module) executed by the client with support from Help AG.
n SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT POLICY:Help AG can address all aspects of a software development policy by implementing the following policies for its clients, including internal software development policy, coding and programming best practices, and contractual amendments for third party providers.
web assessment; mobile hacking; configuration review; architectural review; source code review; and software development policy.
Some of the other unique strengths, capa-bilities and initiatives of Help AG include unmatched technical capabilities with over 80% of staff appointed in technical roles and capability of in-house development and enhancement of vendor solutions to meet precise requirements of customer even when vendor solutions falls short of expectations. Besides, the company has introduced Help AG ‘Learning Lab’ sessions which is course material developed and delivered by Help AG. These have been extremely well received by the customers who have been looking for vendor neutral and unbiased description of technical problems without the focus on pushing technology solutions or boxes.
FUTURE OUTLOOK Apparently, it has also chalked out growth plans for coming years as well. For 2014, the company is targeting to do a business of $34 million, then around $44 million by end of 2015, and finally, around $57 million by 2016.
“In 2014, we will be consolidating our existing product portfolio in technical security controls. As an organization, the strategic initiatives, which are already running for the last six months, will be implemented in 2014. This includes managed security services and Help AG’s Coordinated Threat Mitigation (CTM) services. We are going to serve market specifically in these areas. As part of our services, security analysis is another area that we are keenly focusing on, which we believe is an ever growing business line,” concludes Berner. ë
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CISCO
Cisco believes that the principles of openness that made the Internet a thriving ecosystem over the past 20 years can be applied to create and grow a networked platform
for connecting people with products, services and information. This same network can also provide a means for cities to manage services, provide city-wide information, learn how citizens use managed services, and deliver business opportunities.
Drawing on examples from current strategic partnerships – taking place via smart city initia-tives in places like Barcelona in Spain, Nice in France and Hamburg in Germany, amongst many others - experts and analysts agreed that Dubai’s Smart City plans could create one of the world’s most connected and sustainable urban centers.
Having secured Expo 2020, Dubai’s rapidly accelerating Smart City bid comes at an opportune time. Frost & Sullivan estimate that the global market potential for smart cities - infra-structure development, technology integration, and e-government, energy and security services - could reach $3.3 trillion by 2025.
“The way we will move around in and interact with the city of Dubai is being revolutionized, and companies like Cisco are working very closely with both government and businesses to guide
and support this momentous change. The era of inert buildings, unresponsive citizen services, and lack of logistical transparency is over, and Dubai has everything in place to become an exemplary smart city pioneer, not only throughout the region but also on a global scale,” said Rabih Dabboussi, Managing Director, Cisco UAE.
The global need for cities to adapt is intensify-ing. Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) predicts that cities in the future will account for nearly 90% of global population growth, 80% of wealth creation, and 60% of total energy consumption.
According to analysis by McKinsey, one billion people will enter the global “consuming class” by 2025 – a rise of 70% from today. To cope, cities will need to construct floor space equivalent to 85% of all of today’s urban building stock – an area the size of Austria.
Cisco’s Smart+Connected Communities (S+CC) – A Reality Today
Cisco is currently involved in over 90 S+CC projects worldwide, all of which feature an open-architecture platform that enables Cisco, its partners and customers to create and deploy new smart services and applications.
To learn about cutting-edge Cisco smart city technologies in action, a delegation of Dubai
government representatives recently visited Barcelona, one of Cisco’s most prominent S+CC engagements.
The Born District of Barcelona is using Cisco Smart+Connected City Wi-Fi and sensing devices to improve liveability for citizens, create a smart city blueprint and demonstrate thought leadership in the region. City Wi-Fi is also the foundation for infrastructure-based management services. For example, environmental smart sensors report in real-time on variables such as temperature, noise, humidity, gas and dust-particle concentration. The data gathered helps to paint a picture of the city’s overall liveability, and also generates alerts when actions are required.
Smart parking sensors, for instance, help citi-zens find open parking spaces via a smartphone app, whereas waste containers are equipped with sensors that signal when they become full or are emitting odours above a set threshold. They also emit data to inform optimal pickup routes. Other innovations include smart street lighting sensors that can detect movement, including people and animals, and adjust light levels accordingly.
Cisco’s reputation is already well established in the technologies, standards and experience of smart cities, with the company having supported the development and growth of the Internet.
Cisco Intends to Support Dubai’s Smart City AmbitionsHaving secured Expo 2020, Dubai’s rapidly accelerating Smart City bid comes at an opportune time. Senior Cisco executives outlined the company’s blueprint for creating a sustainable, smart and connected city.
n W O R D S : S A N J AY M O H A PAT R A < S A N J AY @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >
SMART GOVERNANCE
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RABIH DABBOUSSI, MANAGING DIRECTOR, CISCO UAE
“The era of inert buildings, unresponsive citizen services, and lack of logistical transparency is over, and Dubai has everything in place to become an exemplary smart city pioneer, not only throughout the region but also on a global scale.”
monitoring. The applications gather information from about 200 wireless devices and sensors deployed along the 800-yard-long Boulevard Victor Hugo. The shared network platform makes it possible to transform raw data from these sensors into the actionable intelligence that, when scaled, has the potential to transform Nice into a smart city.
Meanwhile, in the city of Hamburg, Germany, Cisco is using Smart+Connected City Wi-Fi to improve service delivery to mobile citizens in order to boost the local economy, and to provide smart parking via the Hamburg Port Author-ity. City Wi-Fi also provides the foundational platform for enabling IoE innovations such as traffic congestion management and automated water metering, resulting in greener and more efficient city infrastructure management. On the public safety and security front, the City Wi-Fi
solution improves situational awareness by accelerating incident detection and it can trigger a combination of automated response, real-time collaboration and escalated decision support for optimal city operations and planning.
According to Amr Salem, Cisco’s Dubai-based Managing Director for Global Smart+Connected Communities, it is Cisco’s track record with projects of this nature that marks it out as an ideal partner to support the delivery of Dubai’s smart city strategy.
“Dubai has to be commended for its leader-ship’s smart city vision and for its commitment to making it a reality,” he said.
“Dubai’s strategy is a carefully considered, robust plan structured to benefit residents, busi-nesses and visitors, and it is emblematic of the city’s receptivity to cutting-edge technology. The fiber optic networks, high-speed wireless Internet and sensors set for deployment across Dubai will mean a continuous flow of improvements that will benefit everything from education, healthcare and transport to utilities and general security.”
Salem added that Cisco’s approach to address-ing these needs is to leverage the network as the foundation for managed city and business ser-vices. This foundation layer will then incorporate all manner of mobility, security, cloud computing, virtualization, collaboration and video—as well as other evolving technologies—and rely on, and accommodate, a diversity of cross-functional, open-architecture applications that package and distribute information and services. ë
Today, it is helping to take things to the next level through The Internet of Things and its next incarnation, The Internet of Everything (IoE). IoE could connect 50 billion people, processes, data and things by 2020.
“We can deliver the intelligent network —a network that listens, learns and responds—on a scale like never before,” explains Dabboussi. “The rise of the smart city is intimately linked to Cisco’s IoE strategy, which we estimate has a value of $14.4 trillion USD.”
Another example of Cisco’s smart city expertise is the recently launched “Connected Boulevard” in Nice, France. An ambitious proof-of-concept project built to demonstrate the benefits and value of IoE for both residents and city leader-ship, the project includes four types of city services—smart circulation (traffic), smart light-ing, smart waste management and environmental
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ORGANIZATIONS IN THE MEA REGION ARE COMMITTED TO SECURITY TO
STAY RESILIENT TO ATTACK, REDUCE RISK OF DATA COMPROMISE, AND
PROTECT SENSITIVE DATA AND REPUTATION. WITH ATTACK VECTORS
INCREASING EXPONENTIALLY, IT’S THE RIGHT TIME TO MAKE AN INVESTMENT
IN INFORMATION SECURITY BUSINESS.
“Rising demand of integrated security solutions”
NAZIR KAZI, AVP - MEA & AFRICA, ESCAN
The MEA IT industry has grown by leaps and bounds in the last two decades. How do you foresee the MEA IT business evolving till 2020? According to EMC, the technology spending in the Middle East is forecasted to grow at double the global average. The Middle East IT industry has been undoubtedly a very high-growth market in the recent times. According to Gartner, IT spending in the Middle East and Africa was estimated by 14.3 per cent in 2013, in contrast to flat or declining budgets in North America and Europe.
Looking at the current scenario of IT security landscape wherein threats for IT users across all segments and verticals are only increasing, IT security is a serious issue. This has created new business opportunities. Businesses have assigned budgets on the IT security applications. As Information security becomes vital worldwide,
MY VIEWS
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and not just in MEA, security software market has brought new opportunities for IT security market.
What kind of growth expected out of IT business by 2020?What are the factors that will drive this growth in the region? As mentioned, IT industry in MEA has been undoubtedly a very high-growth market in the recent times. With the constantly rising internet usage graph, threats in the cyber security landscape will surely continue to grow. They are expected to be more sophisticated in terms of both – technology and social engineering, and will be targeted to cause extensive and irrepa-rable damage to the IT infrastructure. IT users across all segments and verticals are equally at risk. The increasing number of endpoints in the network has made endpoint security a critical component to consider in terms of IT security strategy.
The growing trend of IT consumerization, cloud computing and virtualization in businesses will continue to grow, thus leading to increasing risk of data leakage. Today as IT is increasingly becoming the backbone of every business, threat management cannot be avoided. Hence, demand of integrated security solutions that provide comprehensive protection to digital life of IT users as well as business is constantly increasing. This has led to the increasing market for security solutions.
Highlight some of the megatrends that will drive IT business landscape and create new opportunities for the industry by 2020?The increasing usage of wide range of endpoints and mobile devices is the major concern today. The biggest driver of growth will be mobility that includes smartphones and tablets. This is creating new opportunities for IT security business.
What kind of transformational opportunities does the evolved landscape present for the MEA IT business? As mentioned, increasing usage of internet as well as wide range of endpoints in the IT infrastructure will lead to IT security concerns. Moreover, managing security because of these endpoints will also be a challenge. As far as the emerging trends are concerned, mobile computing, virtualization, cloud services, and social networking continue to be the emerg-ing IT trends. This will lead to the demand of
integrated security solutions that not only fulfil security needs but also help manage the networks effectively from a single console.
Which all new verticals and customer segments that will largely invest in IT? In which areas, do these investments will take place? In MEA, government, banking and education will largely invest in IT. As mentioned that today IT has become pivotal need of users across all vertical and customers segments. IT users continue to increase the time spent online and Internet increasingly becoming an integral part their lives in all major aspect right from education to shopping, banking, entertainment as well as social networking. As far as businesses are concerned, IT is increasingly becoming crucial to every business. Hence, with continuous advancements in the IT landscape, the need to protect networks and all related digital devices in it from evolving cyber security threats has led to an increase in the demand of IT security software.
As a leading player, what will be the contribution from your end to build the domestic market?
Amidst of increasing cybercrime, to ensure secured computing environment to IT users and businesses, we have special designed security solution that are tailor-made to fulfil their IT security needs. To create mass awareness about IT security, we have strategic plans for various marketing activities such as road shows, ad campaigns, branding, etc. eScan has its presence on all major social media platforms. We use these platforms effectively to communicate with our customers and keep them updated about latest trends in IT security landscape as well as interact with them.
Being a channel centric brand, we have a special partner program for our esteemed partners that facilitates them with sale, marketing and technical support to ensure that they reach effectively to the customers. We provide them special training to ensure
that they understand the IT security needs of customers and accordingly offer them IT security solutions.
We have already initiated strategic alliances with businesses with various IT-related and mobile brands such as Samsung to ensure that eScan is available in all major retail outlets. This will enhance eScan’s visibility as well as market penetration in SMB and corporate market segment.
How will the role of channel partners evolve with these changing times? How significant will be their contribution in the growth of IT business by 2020? Today, channel partners are more updated about the technologies than before. They take interest in ensuring that they have updated knowledge about the products and related technologies so that they can understand the needs of their customers better and offer right product to customers.
While MEA’s technology and business services industry has flourished in the last decade. Industry
stakeholders will need to break out of the traditional mould that resulted in past successes and step up to the aspirations of 2020. Please comment. Yes, we firmly believe that MEA’s technology and business services industry has flourished in the last decade. With increasing number of digital devices in IT landscape, ensuring IT security and managing it is a big challenge. Hence, industry stakeholders will need to break out of the traditional mould.
What’s your vision and goal for 2020? Please outline your roadmap to achieve this goal?We aim to be the foremost IT security brand that will ensure most advanced security to the IT users across all verticals and segments in MEA. ë
“WE AIM TO BE THE FOREMOST IT SECURITYBRAND THAT WILL ENSURE MOST ADVANCEDSECURITY TO THE IT USERS ACROSS ALLVERTICALS AND SEGMENTS IN MEA”
MY VIEWS
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Voicing the DevicesManually operating devices is soon going to become a passé and Nuance Communications is redefining the human-machine interface in an innovative way.
TECHNOLOGY
n W O R D S : ANIL KUMAR , D I R E C T O R S A L E S , N U A N C E
C O M M U N I C AT I O N I N C . , M I D D L E E A S T , C E N T R A L & E A S T E U R O P E ,
B A L K A N S A N D T U R K E Y
n P H O T O : S H U T T E R S T O C K
The advancements in gesture and voice recognition technol-ogy are touching new heights in the current technologically advanced times. Human and machine interaction has become more interactive. Forrester’s workforce survey reveals that 37% of information workers who have smartphones use voice command at least occasionally. Nuance Com-munications, a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers is taking the technology to even greater level. “We voice-enable any device. You can talk to your coffee machine soon. Essentially, what we are trying to do is break the barrier of interfacing with the machine through keyboard or typing. The largest one among the input mechanisms is voice,” says Anil Kumar, Director Sales, Nuance Communication Inc., Middle East, Central & East Europe, Balkans and Turkey.
According to Frost and Sullivan, the surge in smartphones, tablets, and PCs that support these tech-nologies will propel innovations
and consumer electronics industry will witness a large scale adoption in the coming 3 to 5 years. Dragon is one of the products by Nuance which is totally based on speech. “For the mobile app, you are bio-metrically authenticated and your voice becomes your password. We are the only one doing this in the world. The mobile app has a high level of conversation capability. You can just talk like you talk to a person and it understands what you are saying. The whole concept of natural language understanding is started and that’s how Siri was born,” explains Kumar. Siri uses natural language user interface for Apple’s iOS.
With the voice recognition technology by Nuance a lot of work which was done by humans is eliminated. For example, whatever the doctor says goes into the medical files directly thereby killing the transcription time. “So, this is a big piece of what we have contributed. We do similar things with government, enterprises like banking or telecos,” informs Kumar. In this manner, Nuance
is increasing self-service. Many things that were done through agents no longer require a human to do them. It goes into an automated box. “We set up all the grammars and do everything for the customers. The potential is humungous as every language can be understood. We have compat-ibility for 78 languages and take about six months to build up a new language,” he adds.
Samsung integrates Nuance’s voice technology across handsets, tablets, TVs and wearables also. Samsung’s new GALAXY Gear wearable device and Samsung GALAXY Note 3 integrate Nuance’s voice and language capabilities as part of Samsung’s expanding lineup of S-Voice powered devices. It is the first use of Nuance’s voice and intelligent systems-based technology into the wearables’ category as part of a larger expansion of Nuance Cloud Services. “We have a cloud based service but as per UAE banking they are not allowed as our cloud is in the US,” he says.
Nuance works with OEM
partners, local distributors or implementation partners. “Cisco, Avaya, Genesys are our three big-gest channels worldwide and we work with their partners locally. For mobile applications, we work with Accenture,” says Kumar. Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) is the licensing component by Nuance.
In fiscal 2013, Nuance reported GAAP revenue of $1,855.3 million, a 12.3% increase over GAAP revenue of $1,651.5 million in fiscal 2012. “We own about 85% of the market worldwide. Voice recogni-tion or anything to do with that comes from the Nuance family. We are a two billion company and 900 million comes from healthcare,” reveals Kumar.
FINALLY...Nuance is eyeing a phenomenal growth with an aim for 200% YoY growth for next three years. “We have signed large telecos and we are doing POCs with them. We are running a large airline in Dubai. We are seeing over 100% growth YoY,” concludes Kumar. ë
GUEST TALK
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NEC Display 32-inch V323 LCD display, a high-performance addition to its commercial-grade V Series that utilizes LED backlight-ing for improved power consumption and a slimmer cabinet depth.
Delivering a greater than 40 percent decrease in power consumption compared to its predecessor, the V323 large-screen display maintains its remarkable brightness and adds a full HD panel. Its edge-lit
LED backlight enables a slimmer cabinet depth and lightweight design, providing flexibility for a variety of installations. Integrated temperature sensors and fans protect display installations.
The V323 also features
KEY CAPABILITIESn Commercial-grade LCD
panel and components, which enable extended run times
n LED backlighting technol-ogy for reduced power consumption
n 1920 x 1080 full HD native resolution, which provides stunning clarity
n 320/450 cd/m² bright-ness (typical/maximum) and 1300:1 contrast ratio for brilliant imagery
n DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI-D (in/out), VGA 15 pin D-sub (Composite, Component, S-Video), which enable connectivity to a wide range of peripherals
n RS-232C, Ethernet (RJ45), IR Remote, DDC/CI for external control
n Built-in, 10-watt speakers enhance the experience with superior sound
n TileMatrix, which facilitates video walls up to 10 x 10NEC Display 32-inch
V323 LCD Display
Epson Middle East’s first-ever direct-to-garment t-shirt printer - the SureColor SC-F2000 with the garment printing market expected to be worth over EUR 200 million by 2014, small to medium businesses. Combining high performance with low maintenance and running costs, the latest addition to Epson’s textile printer line up enables businesses to offer new t-shirt design and print services.
Online t-shirt shops, production t-shirt printers and even corporate users will benefit from the SC-F2000 as its ink is crack-resistant and is soft against the skin. Users can configure the system to suit their needs by choosing from two sets of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (CMYK) ink for white garments or CMYK with up to four white inks for coloured garments.
Epson’s Garment Creator software is bundled with the package, which includes a cost calculation function that allows users to estimate the print cost by calculating the amount and cost of the ink used for each print job. This is useful when setting a tax rate or discount. The software enables designers to unleash their creativity and easily produce customised, eye-catching designs of up to 25mm thick on t-shirts, caps and bags.
built-in, 10-watt speakers and an Open Pluggable Specification (OPS) com-pliant expansion slot. This future-proofs the display and allows for the seamless integration of a computer or other NEC/third-party accessories. Moreover, video, RS-232 control and power are passed internally from the display to the computer, eliminating additional cabling and simplifying installations.
KEY CAPABILITIESn Displays the L800 photo printer from its Ink Tank Systems rangen Micro Piezo printhead technology and prints up to 1,800 high quality 10x15 cm photos to deliver an ultra-low-cost per photon Can quickly print on white and dark-coloured t-shirt without sacrificing print quality.
INNOVATIONS
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HP Z1 G2HP Z1 with Windows 8 Touch and Intel Thunderbolt capabilities makes it the most powerful, innovative and fully featured all-in-one workstation.
Ideal for knowledge workers and specialists in CAD, graphic arts and university education, the HP Z1G2 offers fast data transfer speeds for compute-intensive workloads and new technologies like Thunderbolt offer the flexibility for high-performance external expandability. Whether it’s being used by an engineer creating 3-D components, an architect designing buildings or a videographer editing event footage, the HP Z1G2 gives creative professionals the power they need to bring ideas to life faster.
The HP Z1 G2 is joined by three new all-in-one PCs ideal for use in small and midsize business (SMB) and enterprise environments, including the HP Slate21 Pro All in One, HP’s first commercial Android all-in-one PC. The HP Slate21 Pro offers seamless integra-tion with Android-based phones and tablets, along with access to efficient manageability tools, security enhancements and apps available through the Google Play app store.
HP is the only workstation vendor to offer Thunderbolt as an option across both desktop and mobile workstations. Thunderbolt enables cutting-edge creative work, and the addition of this technol-ogy to the HP Z1 G2 expands HP’s leadership in innovation and demonstrates its commitment to the professional market.
KEY CAPABILITIESn The power of Thunderbolt. Connect in a flash with up to four times USB 3.0 bandwidth using optional high-performance Thunderbolt 2.0 ports located on the side of the HP Z1G2.n Professional display. Let ideas shine on the HP Z1 G2’s brilliant next-generation, 27-inch diagonal IPS display. Choose from 10-point touch with stunning edge-to-edge glass or non-touch with antiglare capability.n Tool-less chassis. Change most parts or make upgrades without tools or a service technician. Simply snap open the chassis and customize as needed.n Bold and bright. A wide range of 3-D professional graphics options, including NVIDIA Mobile Quadro GPUs, gives users the power they need to bring their creations to life.
Schneider Electric Pelco IP CameraSchneider Electric Pelco IP camera lines, the Sarix Enhanced Range with SureVision 2.0 and the Sarix Professional Range are available in the market and offers a complete line of IP cameras for any lighting condi-tion, application and environment, the press release announced. The additions deliver on the company’s commitment to creating an IP-driven product portfolio and enhancing customer-focus.
The two ranges add to Pelco’s continually expanding IP camera offering in Saudi Arabia, following the introduction of the Sarix Value Range cameras earlier this year, part of more than 50 new IP cameras to be released in 2013. All of the new Sarix cameras integrate with major third-party video manage-ment systems through the Pelco API, and other third-party software and systems through the open ONVIF Profile S standard, and work seamlessly with Pelco video management systems.
The Sarix Enhanced is well suited for the most difficult lighting conditions and available in a wide range of indoor, environmental and vandal options, including box cameras and domes.
The Sarix Professional Range delivers choice to customers, allowing users to mix and match technical options. The Sarix Enhanced is well suited for the most difficult lighting conditions and available in a wide range of indoor, environmental and vandal options, including box cameras and domes. Additional benefits include:
KEY CAPABILITIESn Performance IQ: Equipped with SureVision 2.0 technology, delivering advanced low-light capability, true wide dynamic range (WDR), and anti-bloom technology for industry-leading image quality. n Performance processing: Offers full HD video (up to 30 ips) with 1080p resolution using H.264 compression for optimized bandwidth and stor-age efficiency and up to two simultaneous video streams for the most demanding applications - such as Prisons and city surveillance.n Optimized design: Features an optimized modular design for quick install, built-in analytics, and advanced features for a premium user experience. n Mission critical: Designed with superior reliability and fault tolerance for mission-critical applications, these rugged fixed IP cameras ensure users always get the video needed. n The Sarix Professional Range delivers choice to customers, allowing users to mix and match technical options.
The first and only full integration of servers, storage, networking and management in only 5U.Up until now, there hasn’t been an IT solution designed specifically for an o�ce environment.Enter the new Dell PowerEdge VRTX powered by the Intel® Xeon® processor, an integratedend-to-end solution built specifically for the growing o�ce. It’s the only 5U PowerEdgeshared infrastructure platform design based on input from over 7,000 customers, featuringfour integrated servers, 48TBs of storage, networking and systems management to simplifyall aspects of IT. You inspired it. We built it.
To see how we can redefine your o�ce IT, visit www.dell.com/ae/vrtx
