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THE REGION’S
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CIOs PLUS: Ge going green | the ‘mobile first’ approach | open-source storage | Closing the skills gap
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EDITORIAL How we chose the winners
Jeevan Thankappan Group Editor Talk to us: E-mail: jeevan.thankappan@ cpimediagroup.com
Each year, we set the bar for our CIO 50 Forum & Awards high and the sixth edition was no different. In such a short span of time, CNME’s CIO 50 Awards, the regional version of IDG’s CIO 100 Awards, has become an index of sorts for high achievement in the field of IT. Nominations for the 2014 list were solicited through our website from mid-November through January this year, and we received more than 100 complete, qualified questionnaires. The candidates had to provide details about a range of topics, from strategies to the IT environments they have fostered in their businesses. The completed nominations were evaluated by CNME’s editorial team, and whittled down to the final 50. I must admit that most of these nominations were good-to-great projects but the winners were chosen for outstanding IT projects; they deliver the kind of business impact that has become the hallmark of our Awards over the years. What really underpinned the winning projects was the need for speed and innovation. Our honourees, whose work translates into impressive business value, encompassed many industries, ranging from non-profits to multi-billion powerhouses. They demonstrated that not only were they able to create new value using IT but also that they could do so in innovative ways. Be it pioneering a new technology or applying a familiar technology to new purposes, the winners this year are trailblazers in many ways. It was also heartening to see that, even in the midst of challenging economic conditions, shoe-string IT budgets, and increasing clamour for better return on investment, these IT leaders have found a way to carry their businesses to the next level. These CIOs bear testimony to the fact that IT can make a real difference to the business, despite the challenges it faces. Through its life, CNME has supported, and to some degree, helped define the CIO community by providing a platform to share your opinions and challenges. We will continue to play that pivotal role and I am quite delighted to announce that next year, we are going to expand the scope and breadth and make it the CIO 100 Awards, which will embody the spirit of innovation in this region.
Chairman Dominic De Sousa CEO Nadeem Hood COO Georgina O’Hara Editorial Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 1513 Editor Tom Paye tom.paye@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 1499 Online Editor James Dartnell james.dartnell@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 1501 Contributors Randy Bean Mary Brandel
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EDITORIAL
Approaching ERP
Tom Paye Editor Talk to us: E-mail: tom.paye @cpimediagroup.com
Can you remember what life before ERP was like? I’ll hold my hands up straight away and admit that I can’t; I was but a young child when ERP systems began to see rapid growth through the early 1990s. However, I can imagine that, without ERP, business processes were seriously slow by today’s standards. Fast-forward to today, and almost every large organisation uses ERP in some form. Even SMBs are beginning to get in on the action. Being able to automate back-office functions is so important these days that you’d be labelled insane if your business didn’t have an ERP solution to rely on. Indeed, it’s getting to that point with some front-office functions, too. But ERP has come so much further in recent years—like much of the rest of the IT arena, it’s become about delivering a competitive business edge. Is your ERP solution due for an upgrade? Chances are that your line-of-business managers will be looking to get more than seamless automation out of the investment—they’ll want to see the solution improve the way that your business operates. In January, I was honoured to be on the judging panel for this year’s SAP MENA Quality Awards—my group judged the medium-sized implementation category. We studied five SAP implementations from the previous year, and scored the organisations on how much value the implementation had provided to the business. I’m happy to report that all of the candidates sought to not only get by with their implementations, but also to derive real business value out of them. The Middle East is waking up to next-generation ERP. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, I’m not at liberty to disclose the results of the awards. I can, however, say that the winning company brilliantly defined what it wanted to get out of its implementation, and then went about achieving just that. The business benefits were myriad—the solution didn’t just save the organisation money; it drastically improved how the company operated on a number of important levels. There’s another example of how ERP can revolutionise a business’ operations in this issue of CNME. Head to page 32 to find out how Fair Point Furniture, an up-and-coming furniture retailer in Sharjah, used Microsoft Dynamics to dramatically improve its business. It’s a relatively small company, but the case study should serve as the ideal template for any retail-based ERP implementation. The biggest take-away from any of these examples, however, is that ERP solutions need to be tailored to your business. The companies I’ve mentioned chose their vendors because the solutions matched their requirements precisely. What's more, the old adage that there are only two ERP vendors out there no longer stands—if you include vendors like Microsoft and Infor, you'll see that there’s a solution out there for anyone. All you need to do is clearly define your problem.
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Our Strategic Partners
Contents
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Strategic IT Transformation and Big Data Partner
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ISSUE 265 | February 2014
CIO 50 awards: the winners
28
35
10 New responsibilities Based on exhibitor testimonials at this year's Intersec security exhibition, CIOs are increasingly being called upon to manage their organisations' security operations.
going for green
24
In the driving seat
14 Brave new world Converged infrastructure is being heralded as an answer to the problems posed by third-platform IT. It was with this in mind that CNME held a roundtable discussion with HP on Middle Eastern attitudes towards the concept.
24 CIO Spotlight Benvir Padda, Director of IT, Legatum
28 Going for green GE's recently opened Ecomagination Centre in Masdar City is anything but a standard IT implementation. Yet its success lies in using technology to convey a wider message about driving sustainability in the Gulf. 32 Changing dynamics When it implemented Microsoft Dynamics AX 12, Fair Point Furniture in Sharjah completely changed the way it was able to do business, providing itself with a strong platform on which to grow. www.cnmeonline.com
February 2014
Computer News Middle East
7
Our Strategic Partners
Contents
Strategic ICT Partner
Strategic IT Transformation and Big Data Partner
Strategic Technology Partner
ISSUE 265 | February 2014
42
The 'mobile first' approach
Features 40 Fresh thinking CNME's fifth annual CIO 50 Awards ceremony recently provided a platform for some fresh perspectives on technical opportunities and threats in the Middle East.
42 The 'mobile first' approach How accurate is IDC's predication that CIOs will soon be forced to take a 'mobility first' approach to building networks?
48
48 Open up Recent murmurings from across the globe point to a resurgence of the open-source storage idea. Is the Middle East ready to get on board?
open up
54 State secrets What do governments in the Middle East need when it comes to security?
60 Mind the gap With trends moving forward so quickly, businesses are being forced to import talent from abroad. How can the local IT scene ensure a healthy availability of local talent?
66 Ringing in changes Can regional telecoms providers go beyond vanilla services and offer more value to consumer and business markets alike?
54
state secrets
Regulars
20 Short takes We round up the top stories to take our eye in the last month.
74 Insight The ugly truth about virtualisation: mobility brings back I/O problems. 78 Interview Shaygan Kheradpir, Juniper Networks' new CEO, explains how he's settling into his new role, and unveils bold plans for 2014.
ringing in changes
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66
80 Product Watch We look at the bargain-basement Motorola Moto G, two new tablets and an award-winning printer from OKI.
82 Column CNME’s man about town, James Dartnell, warns against the risks of getting bogged down in Big Data.
Intelligent scanning for smart business
Introducing the new ScanSnap iX500 from Fujitsu. Made to make your life easier. · · · ·
www.ScanSnapit.com/ME
Built in Wi-Fi for documents straight to tablet or smartphone Scans business cards to A4 double-sided and even A3 Fast scanning, up to 50 sides per minute Creates searchable PDFs
Drop a mixed handful of documents into the new Fujitsu iX500 scanner; anything you like from business cards to A3. Then just press the blue button. In less time than it takes to read this, the first page will be scanned and the image ready to be viewed. It can even scan both sides at the same time with no loss of speed. The iX500 will deliver perfect results: pages facing the same way and all images straightened. The new GI-processor performs the intelligent image enhancement responsible for great looking images. They can be easily stored as searchable pdfs to make finding them again child’s play, or if you want them on the move just use the in-built Wi-Fi to send the documents straight to your tablet or smartphone.
All names, manufacturer names, brand and product designations are subject to special trademark rights and are manufacturer‘s trademarks and/or registered brands of their respective owners. All indications are non-binding. Technical data is subject to change without prior notication.
in depth Intersec
New responsibilities Based on exhibitor testimonials at this year’s Intersec security exhibition, CIOs are increasingly being called upon to manage their organisations’ security operations.
I
n times past, the line between security and IT was clearly defined. But as more security technologies have made the switch from analogue to Internet Protocol (IP), that line has blurred, with CIOs and IT heads becoming increasingly responsible for an organsiation’s security. Such was the overbearing theme at this year’s Intersec exhibition, held in January at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre. An estimated 25,000 visitors attended the three-day event, which hosted 22-percent more exhibitors compared with Intersec 2013. While many visitors were attracted to the zones dedicated to fire and rescue, homeland security and policing, a great deal more flocked to the commercial security and information security zones, where the lines between security and IT had become intertwined. “Security is now changing from analogue to IP. From the end-user point of view, the key person to decide on security systems is changing from the security manager to the IT and network managers. Our
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business partners are now more dedicated to IT, and we’ve changed our resources to accommodate that,” said Noriyuki Hayashi, Senior Sales Manager, System Solutions, Panasonic, which commanded a large stand at the event. For Panasonic, which has a rich history in manufacturing CCTV solutions, the transition is an important one to consider. According to Hayashi, having to make products that appeal to both IT heads and security heads has necessitated diversifying into broader security product categories. This is particularly true in the Middle East, where each department almost always wants best-of-breed products. "The demands from the market— compared to other regions—is not only specifically about the CCTV anymore. Customers want a wide product range from one resource or vendor. We’re very strong in CCTV, but in order to meet the Middle East market requirements, we’re trying to expand our business as a manufacturer,” he said. New innovations such as facial recognition technology, then, were given www.cnmeonline.com
prominence at the Panasonic stand. Hayashi said that new capabilities, such as being able to match someone’s face with a database, garnered plenty of attention. And Panasonic wasn’t the only vendor to notice the trend. According to Chris Williams, Director of Wavestore, a vendor that specialises in video recording and management systems, his stand attracted plenty of interest based on the biometric facial recognition system on show. “We were able to demonstrate how effective the latest generation of software is at simultaneously capturing multiple faces and how a positive detection of an individual on the database can be displayed on the Wavestore client monitor,” he said. Whatever the market is interested in, however, it’s a safe bet that these newer technologies will fall under the remit of the CIO, rather than the head of security. In a post-show statement, Wavetech reported strong interest from IT pros and systems integrators—an indication that the CIO’s field of responsibility, whether he likes it or not, is growing ever wider.
in depth Fluke Networks
Keeping it simple CNME last month participated in an exclusive roundtable with Fluke Networks in a bid to hash out issues surrounding IT operations, and discuss methods on how to improve efficiencies. 12
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S
implicity was the word of the day when CNME hosted a roundtable session on improving efficiencies in IT operations with Fluke Networks last month. The vendor has struggled over recent years to allay perceptions that it simply deals in cabling, so it wanted to show regional CIOs that its solutions can make a real difference when it comes to streamlining IT operations. Yet it was clear from the getgo that this roundtable was much more than a simple vendor pitch – the idea was to get to the bottom of what really matters to CIOs, and how to solve issues that crop up in every type of business. The roundtable was attended by around 10 of the region’s leading CIOs, as well as the top brass from Fluke Networks. On-hand to discuss the issues of the day were Arif Kareem, President, Fluke Networks; Doug Roberts, Managing Director, Enterprise Products, Fluke Networks; and Werner Heeren, the company’s Regional Sales Director. Roberts opened proceedings by explaining what, Fluke believes, are some of the big issues facing CIOs these days. Soon, the conversation turned to operational expenses, and how CIOs can
begin to reduce them so that they can invest more into innovative projects. The numbers Roberts produced, however, caused some contention among the CIOs in the room, who felt that the figures didn’t reflect the reality of doing business in the Middle East. For example, the research that Roberts provided suggested that CIOs have to allocate around 8 percent of their OPEX to licensing. “I don’t think that’s right—our figure for licensing is around 25 percent,” said Arun Tewary, CIO and Vice President of IT, Emirates Flight Catering. Murmurs of agreement followed from around the table. Indeed, it soon became clear that, despite research houses providing tangible figures, CIOs don’t put much stock in individual reports. If the major research firms such as Gartner, IDC, and Forrester, however, all say the same things, then the research can be counted on. “You can’t just listen to one firm—it doesn’t reflect the reality,” Tewary said. For example, the numbers provided suggested that bandwidth expenses were relatively low compared to other expenses. But the CIOs in the room believed that bandwidth expenses ate up large chunks of their OPEX. They did,
"According to this research, 82 percent of IT professionals rank application performance as a major problem or concern. The application is what's going to matter in the new era of IT." www.cnmeonline.com
however, acknowledge that they get good services for shelling out so much. Debates on research, aside, Roberts was soon able to bring things back to topic, and he began to explain about where Fluke Networks sees the future of IT going. “According to this research, 82 percent of IT professionals rank app performance as a major problem or concern,” he said. “The application is what matters in the new era of IT.” The conversation moved towards the importance of focusing on the end-user. But to do this, IT first had to work out where time was being wasted in other operations. Roberts explained that, with Fluke’s help, CIOs could dramatically improve their mean-time-to-repair rates, simply by deploying a tool that could identify faults much more easily. And though the roundtable wasn’t intended as a product pitch, the CIOs were keen to learn about this tool, so Roberts obliged. What followed was a healthy discussion on Fluke’s Visual TruView solution, a unified application and network performance monitoring and troubleshooting appliance. Roberts explained that the solution could identify problems within the infrastructure much more quickly than traditional appliances can—what’s more, the vendor was soon releasing software tools that add more functionalities to it. This got the CIOs interested, with some welcoming further discussions about proof-of-concepts. They had come to work out issues surrounding IT operations, and it looked like they walked away with at least one possible answer. February 2014
Computer News Middle East
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in depth HP Roundtable
Brave new world C Converged infrastructure is being heralded as an answer to the problems posed by third-platform IT. It was with this in mind that CNME held a roundtable discussion with HP on Middle Eastern attitudes towards the concept.
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onverged infrastructure has become a hot topic in recent months, with industry leaders putting forward bold new claims about the future of IT. This brave new world, however, is fraught with challenges to traditional IT—new trends dictate that networks and data centres neeed to thought about differently, the visionaries claim. To embrace this future, they say, CIOs need to think about converged infrastructure, and conform to newly formed standards while focusing on software and applications. It was with this in mind that, alongside its annual CIO 50 Awards conference, CNME hosted a roundtable discussion, in partnership with HP, on how the Middle East can react to emerging challenges—and indeed how thinking about converged infrastructure can address those challenges. The discussion was attended by more than 10 of the region’s leading CIOs, and chaired by Hossam Darra, Chief Technologist, Cloud and Pre-Sales Director, Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa, HP, who kicked things off with his predictions for the future of IT. “We can see a shift in trends and
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in depth HP Roundtable
industries—IT consumers demand a lot. When I see new the generation coming up and the way in which they deal with tech, I can understand what’s coming in 10 to 15 years, and a new style of IT will emerge,” he said. “I have a teenager—he’s 16 years old—and I see him playing a game with his friend in Switzerland. He’s consuming video conferencing bandwidth and consuming gaming bandwidth. Now, I still get the chills when I see video conferencing, but with the youth of today, it’s a given. These kids are going to be your new IT operators and consumers, and they expect things to work seamlessly.” To address the challenges that the future will bring, then, Darra explained that HP has created a strong business unit that will focus on converged systems. The unit pursues simplicity, softwaredefined networking and data centres, and attempts to provide CIOs with systems that require less hands-on configuration, and that behave according to events and applications. “The deployment of tech is going to be history; you’re going to have software that manages your infrastructure. It will be much easier to manage your data centres,” he said. These claims certainly hit a chord with the CIOs in the room, though some weren’t entirely sold straight away. Ahmed Yahya, CIO, Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, chimed in, asking what real business benefits could be gleaned from converged systems and software-defined data centres. “With all respect to big vendors, you’re selling technical solutions, not business solutions,” he said.
Darra admitted that, yes, he had seen some implementations that focused too much on the technology—“It’s a toy, a gadget,” he joked. But he maintained that HP’s new business unit did take into account business needs when discussing converged infrastructure with customers. “We do workshops, we ask you to invite the business users. We define what’s important to them, and then we sit with IT people. We say, 'This is what your users are looking for,'” he countered. Naturally the conversation then went towards the issue of vendor lock-in. Sebastian T. Samuel, CIO, AW Rostamani Group, agreed that business requirements had to be taken into account, but ventured that it was the end-users who drive business requirements.
"Everyone participates in OpenStack. In the near future, you'll be able to add the networking as well. We've also designed maps for famous applications. In the SQL database, you download the map, and it'll be provisioned automatically."
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“When you talk about converged infrastructure, we need products that run across multiple platforms. Can your systems work across different technologies?” he asked Darra. Darra was quick to point out that HP worked hard to avoid locking in its customers. As an example, the vendor started working on its cloud system in 2008, and the platform supports open standards such as OpenStack. "Everyone participates in OpenStack— it’s designed to provision easily. In the near future, you’ll be able to add the networking as well. We’ve also designed maps for famous applications. In the SQL database, you download the map and it’ll be provisioned automatically. We’re trying to make your life easier,” he said. The conversation then deviated towards regulation, and what governments are doing to improve industry standards. Darra explained that HP was attempting to work on improving standards such as OpenStack and OpenFlow. He invited the CIOs to attend workshops or view HP’s learning videos on YouTube to find out more. For those in the room, the advice seemed genuine—no doubt Dorra and his team will find themselves dishing out more advice on converged infrastructures in the months to come.
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The Rise of the Millennials What marketers and managers need to know today GI generation
Silent
Baby broomier
GEN Xer
Millennial
Generation Z
1901-1926
1927-1945
1946-1964
1965-1980
1981-2000
2001-Present
Who are the millennials? AKA
THE NEXT BOOMERS
TION NEXT GEN-Y ECHO GENERA NET GENERATION
76,370,030 BOOMERS
millennials in the United States
27.4% Millennials
26.6% Gen X
26.4%
BABY BOOMERS
51%
6.6% Other
13% Silent GI Gen
Total US population
Mobile workforce
69%
14% Black
5% Asian 1% other
49%
The gender divide
89%
prefer to choose when and where they work rather than being placed in a 9-to-5 position
45%
will choose workplace flexibility over pay
56%
think technology helps people use their time more efficiently
41%
have no landline at home and rely on their cellphones for communication
32% Gen X
25%
Millennials 5% Silent GI Gen
White
61%
38% Baby Boomers
Most culturally diverse generation
US Total Labour force participation
THEY ARE AN ALWAYS-CONNECTED MOBILE GENERATION
believe office attendance is unnecessary on a regular basis
SOURCE: Badgeville
19% Hispanic
53% Over half of millennials said they would rather GIVE UP THEIR SENSE OF SMELL than GIVE UP THEIR TECHNOLOGY
58%
Mobile commerce
of mobile shoppers are millennials
41%
have made a purchase using their smartphone
2%
more likely than the average shopper to be influenced by smartphone apps
50%
use their smartphones to research products or services while shopping
31%
millennial smartphone owners planned to make a holiday purchase on their smartphone in 2013, vs 17% of adults 35+
MILLENNIALS AS
Employees
Consumers SPENDING POWER
BUSINESS IMPACT
Global Workforce
Big purchasing power
75% 2025
Median salary is
$39,700 15%
More than
85%
are already managers
1 in 10
Millennials makes over
$100,00
61%
High pay
Flexible work schedules
JOB LOYALTY
A promotion within a year
58%
50% More vacation or personal time
"love to shop" compared to 40% of adults overall
8%
Millenials spend more on apparel then those aged 35-44 even though they earn 22% less
20%
Travel spending rose in 2010, making millennials the fastest-growing age segment for travel
65%
are more likely to eat out with friends and coworkers than non millennials
MILLENNIALS ARE NOT LOYAL TO COMPANIES, BUT ARE LOYAL TO BRANDS
91%
60%
expect to stay in jobs for less than three years
45%
MILLENNIALS ARE PREDICTED TO SURPASS THE SPENDING POWER OF BABY BOOMERS BY 2013
of hiring managers and human resource executives believe this group has a stronger sense of entitlement than older workers
56%
billion per year
Millennials love to spend money
Managers say Millennial's expectations include:
74%
$600
$1.4
trillion by 2020
of companies have higher turnover with millennials
have switched careers at least once already
1/3 says their current job is their career
$24,000
average cost to replace each Millennial employee
BRAND LOYALTY
48% 77%
say word-of-mouth influence their product purchases vs 17% for TV ads
participate in loyalty reward programs
95%
want brands to court them activity want brands to entertain them
70%
80%
say they always come back to brands they love
short takes Month in view
Saudi IT services market grows 11.3% Despite experiencing a slower-thananticipated year, the Saudi Arabian IT services market posted healthy yearon-year growth of 11.3 percent in 2012, according to the latest insights from IDC. The market’s expansion was largely driven by increased demand for both project-based and support-and-installationbased services. Heightened competition resulted in a significant reshuffling of the top 10 IT service
WHAT’S HOT?
providers in 2012, with some of the leaders experiencing a decline in their market shares despite posting reasonable revenue growth. And in spite of a slowdown in public sector IT spending, the Saudi IT services market remained extremely concentrated, with the top 10 providers accounting for 50.2 percent of the total market in 2012, compared to 48.7 percent in 2011, reflecting the dominance of large IT services providers in the Kingdom.
Apple CEO Tim Cook admitted that the vendor had underestimated the appeal of its flagship iPhone 5S when it launched the less-expensive iPhone 5C. Analysts called into question whether the twophone strategy was one that Apple should continue.
Oracle reports rapid cloud uptake in Dubai Oracle’s Alfonso Di Ianni, Senior Vice President, East Central Europe, Middle East and Africa, has said that cloud adoption in Dubai has seen a marked upswing in the past 12 months. Speaking to journalists at an Oracle conference held in Dubai, Di Ianni said that, in the UAE, more than 100 customers had moved business applications onto the Oracle cloud over the past year. “Businesses in the UAE today are no longer asking the question ‘should we put our applications in the cloud?’ but rather ‘which aspects of our business can be run more effectively in the cloud?’” he said. Di Ianni went on to say that subscriberbased business software offered in the cloud is just one of the newer technologies that can support Dubai’s Smart City initiative.
SAP last month announced plans to increase its total revenue to at least €22 billion ($30 billion), with revenue from its cloud business expected to grow up to €3.5 billion by 2017. The business software maker reported earlier that total revenue for 2013 was €16.8 billion, up 4 percent from the previous year.
SAP Despite a seventh straight quarter of declining PC shipments, Lenovo widened its lead over HP and Dell on a worldwide basis during the fourth quarter of 2013, with the Chinese vendor being one of the few PC manufacturers to show positive growth. IDC reported that the PC market slipped 5.6 percent during 2013, while Gartner said the dip was 6.9 percent.
Lenovo Still hampered by slow hardware sales, IBM reported a 5.5-percent decline in revenue for the fourth quarter, even as it managed to post a 6-percent gain in net income. Because of the sluggish revenue, IBM senior management will forgo their bonuses for the year, said Ginni Rometty, President and CEO, IBM.
IBM
Global smartphone shipments top 1 billion
The global smartphone market topped 1 billion shipments for the first time in 2013, covering about one-seventh of the world’s population, according to research by IDC. Smartphone shipments were up 38.4 percent in 2013 from 725 million units in the previous year, according to data from IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.
ACQUISITION WATCH
Lenovo Group has agreed to buy IBM’s x86 server hardware business and related maintenance services for $2.3 billion, it was announced last month. Lenovo will pay $2.07 billion in cash for the IBM business unit, topping up its offer with shares.
With Windows 8 bearing a good share of the blame for the declining PC market, HP is falling back on Windows 7 for its latest marketing push. The world’s second-largest computer maker recently began promoting PCs loaded with Windows 7 on its US website, stating that the old OS was “back by popular demand”.
Windows 8
WHAT’S NOT? 20
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Worst passwords of 2013 revealed
“123456” is finally getting some time in the spotlight as the world’s worst password, after spending years in the shadow of “password”. Security firm Splashdata, which every year compiles a list of the most common stolen passwords, found that the change in leadership is largely thanks to Adobe, whose major security breach in October affected upwards of 48 million users.
Kaspersky: 1 in 3 UAE users reject mobile banking
More than a third of UAE users do not feel safe making e-payments on their smartphones or tablets, according to research from Kaspersky Lab. Smartphone users do not trust the reliability of mobile device protection when shopping or banking online, according to research conducted by B2B International in conjunction with Kaspersky. The survey shows that 37 percent of respondents in the UAE would never use a mobile device for making online transactions, such as paying for goods in online stores. Meanwhile, 27 percent of smartphone and tablet owners do not feel comfortable using their devices for online banking. And only 22 percent of tablet and 27 percent of smartphone users globally are unconcerned about entering financial information from their gadgets. Android is the world’s most popular mobile operating system and is most frequently attacked by cyber-criminals.
Thuraya unveils SatSleeve for Samsung Galaxy devices Mobile Satellite Services operator Thuraya has launched the latest edition of its SatSleeve, which allows Samsung Galaxy users to turn their smartphone into a satellite phone. Designed for Android-based smartphones, it is compatible with the Samsung Galaxy S3 and S4, and allows users to make phone calls, send SMS messages and access social media apps via Thuraya’s satellite network when they are unable to connect to a terrestrial GSM network. Users dock the Android smartphone into the SatSleeve and operate it normally via the Thuraya Satellite network. It has a built-in SOS button, which allows users to call one predefined number, and is functional when the smartphone is not attached. Thuraya’s satellite product lines are available in three forms: Land Mobile, Thuraya’s SatSleeve offering, primarily aimed at consumers; Land Data, which is ideally used in industry; and Maritime, bestsuited for shipping voyages.
ACQUISITION WATCH
US President Barack Obama’s proposed changes to the National Security Agency’s surveillance programmes don’t go far enough, a number of technology and digital rights groups said last month.
VMware has reached a deal to acquire mobile management specialist AirWatch for $1.54 billion. The acquisition extends VMware’s product portfolio from data centres to enduser devices.
TRA reveals expected FedNET completion data The UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has said it expects the first Electronic Federal Network (FedNET) in the country to be established by July 2015. FedNET aims to provide highspeed connectivity and integration between the various e-government systems of UAE government departments. The network hopes to connect all federal institutions to raise efficiency and reduce costs, achieving a transition to smart government. “This project seeks to create the necessary national infrastructure to enable the provision of all government services via mobile platforms,” said H.E. Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, mGovernment Director.
Dell opens Dubai Solutions Centre for CIOs
Dell has opened its Dubai Solution Centre to help customers in the EMEA emerging region explore, test and deploy end-to-end solutions. The 330-square-metre facility consists of a data
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centre, customer meeting rooms and labs. The new centre highlights a wide range of cloud computing, software, data centre and end-user computing solutions, and is Dell’s fourteenth solutions centre. The centre was opened by His Excellency Ahmed Bin Abdul Aziz Al Shihi, Underminister of Economy. Dave Brooke, General Manager, Dell Middle East, said, “Dell is growing its business in the Middle East at a phenomenal rate, and the Dubai Solutions Centre is a first of its kind in the region. The Dubai Solutions Centre will provide a one-stop resource for customers who want to develop and test next-generation solutions that meet their unique business needs.”
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Analysis: Saudi IT services market grows 11.3% in 2012
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Reviews: 3 powerful laptops built for serious business
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Android heads to desktops as reliance on Internet grows
Lenovo launches four new phones, Vibe Z best offering
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Software-defined networking – the future of networking?
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C-level executives unsure how to maximise value of Big Data
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Is the concept of ‘control’ a pipe dream?
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Acquired former competitor! Need more power & cooling on the fly for 10 new servers today!
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©2014 Schneider Electric. All Rights Reserved. Schneider Electric, APC, InfraStruxure, and Business-wise, Future-driven are trademarks owned by Schneider Electric Industries SAS or its affiliated companies. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. www.schneider-electric.com • 998-3860_GMA-GB_Note3
CIO Spotlight Benvir Padda
In the driving seat Benvir Padda has never been one to take things easy and see where he ends up. From a young age, the Legatum IT chief always made sure that things were never left to chance.
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F
or Benvir Padda, Director of IT, Legatum, being in control has always been a matter of necessity. Whether that means taking care of all things technology at the Downtown Dubai financial firm, or quitting his university course after one year to engineer a move into the networking business, Padda has always been compelled to be master of his own destiny. Born and educated in Crawley, 30 miles south of London, Padda’s family moved to South Wales, United Kingdom, when he was 16. He began his IT training there at Afan College, Port Talbot, where he fondly recalls how in the midst of achieving his first qualifications, he found time for a bit of mischief, “Like a lot of other young guys who were into IT I loved certain computer games,” he says. “The online interaction you could achieve from playing games like Doom really impressed me, and spawned my initial fascination with networking.” A cheeky grin spreads across his face. “The Novell and BNC networks really impressed me back in those days, and really inspired me and a couple of friends to start a cat-and-mouse game with the college network administrators. We eventually succeeded in acquiring their passwords, and gained all the subsequent admin privileges. My interest in networking really took off after that.” After four years in the Welsh town, his family returned to Crawley, and he began a computing degree at Thames Valley University in west London. The move was to be a brief one; after a year on the course, Padda decided he’d had enough. “The course just
“At that point I realised that hard work simply wasn’t enough. I had always believed it to be a pre-requisite of success, but at that stage it counted for nothing. I believe that recognising and fostering talent is a key duty of any good company.”
wasn’t right for me; I preferred networking to programming – which the course mainly entailed – and I had an entrepreneurial hunger inside myself that needed satisfying,” he says. “At that age I just wanted to get my hands dirty. I left the course and started sending out my CV.” He landed a job as a Support Engineer at pharmaceutical research firm Covance, where he “Effectively started from the bottom, working both as a means of first and second line support.” In 1998, after a year at the company, Padda’s youthful zeal had been recognised by his employers, and he was promoted to being in charge of European Support, where he was responsible for the company’s other Euro offices. He describes his role as being the “Flying IT doctor” of the company, as he was so frequently travelling across the continent, eliminating technical threats. Soon enough, the ambitious 23-year-old’s dream job became vacant. The chance to become European Team Leader was one that Padda had coveted. His pursuit of the role opened his eyes to the harsh reality of corporate culture, “They said I was too young for the position,” he recalls. “At that point I realised that hard work simply wasn’t enough. I had always believed it to be a pre-requisite of success, but at that stage it counted for nothing. I was more than qualified, but I was essentially a victim of prejudice, if my age was what discounted me.” From that point, Padda was clear about the type of organisation he wanted to work for, “I believe that recognising and fostering talent is a key duty of any good company. Covance didn’t do that, so I left.” In 1999, he joined airline ticket reservation firm Galileo International, working as a Senior LAN analyst in Windsor, at the company’s EMEA head office. He was immediately charged with overseeing Y2K operations, as well as establishing company offices in the EMEA region. Whilst providing technical support to the Dubai office, he met Galileo’s GM, and Padda joked about being offered a full time job in the Emirate. Luckily for him, his colleague didn’t see the funny side. In 2001 he proudly accepted the role of Network Designer for Galileo’s MEA office, where he was responsible for implementing online systems for booking flights, hire cars and hotels. The contrast in his treatment from his time at Covance lives fresh in the memory, “At Galileo I had the chance to build; I was www.cnmeonline.com
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CIO Spotlight Benvir Padda
TIMELINE 1976 able to influence IT strategy, and I had fantastic exposure to the industry,” he says. “My mentality evolved into believing I could grow as a manager, and could really shape my career.” Following the 11th September terrorist attacks on New York’s World Trade Centre in 2001, Galilieo decided to downsize in the in the region, cancelling the plans to build the $1 billion global IP network. While their faith in the Middle East was extinguished, Padda’s endured. He was convinced of Dubai’s long-term potential, and decided to stay. He took a sabbatical, and resumed work as Assistant Manager of Infrastructure at Dubai Duty Free in 2002. Whilst there, he was responsible for implementing point-of-sale infrastructure, revamping hardware and training 800 staff. In 2004 financial firm Legatum came knocking for his services, and enlisted him to head up global IT operations, and implement strategies for the group. He has since been a mainstay at the company; the opportunity and trust granted to him clearly hitting the right notes. In his 10 years there he has overseen a plethora of projects, including implementing a tier three data centre, a unified communication strategy, and setting up operations in London, Middle East, Far East and U.S. “We’ve come a long way in 10 years. I’ve had to align business and IT objectives, and have always had to ensure first class customer service,” he says. “I’ve been in charge of implementing a document management system, and building a custom front end, which is unlike anything else in the market. We’ve also installed Aruba WiFi throughout our building in DIFC and have ultimately created a world class infrastructure.” Looking back, Padda’s decision to plan for a future in Dubai seems inspired. He says that he never doubted the region’s potential, “When I moved to Dubai back in 2001, it was something of an unknown. A lot has changed since then, but back then I felt a connection with the place, I thought “This is a city that’s going places, this is somewhere that wants me to grow with it.”” The city’s current technology initiatives continue to impress the man, “I love the fact that Dubai has an ‘Internet City’, an area dedicated completely to technology. This is a city that’s embracing technology, as everyone should. Just look at Dubai’s mission to become a smart city, that tells you all you need to know about the ambition of the place.” So who has inspired Padda? “People in the public eye who I really looked up to were entrepreneurs like Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. Branson & Gates both dropped out of school, but they knew what they wanted to do, and that’s what I respect. They weren’t afraid to take a risk and make things happen for themselves, and I think you have to admire that,” he says. “On a personal level, the founder of Legatum and the values of the company have truly been life changing for me, the phrase ‘The Most valuable thing in life is not ‘what we get’ but ‘who we become’ is one that I live by. In order to do that, you must always maintain two things: control but also display humility” 26
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Born in Crawley, United Kingdom
1992 Began 4-year IT college course in Wales
1997 Leaves programming course after one year at Thames Valley University
1998 Lands technical support role at pharmaceutical firm Covance
1999 Quits Covance and joins ticket reservation firm Galileo
2001 Moves to Dubai job with Galileo
2004 Joins financial firm Legatum as Director of IT
22907
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On location GE
Going for green GE’s recently opened Ecomagination Centre in Masdar City is anything but a standard IT implementation. Yet its success lies in using technology to convey a wider message about driving sustainability in the Gulf.
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n a world where the success of an IT project is almost always defined by either the return on investment (ROI) or the benefits it brings to the business, GE’s latest endeavour is refreshingly different. Having committed itself to helping the Middle East become more environmentally aware, the company in January launched its Ecomagination Centre in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi. The centre is a world-first for GE, and it builds on the company’s ‘ecomagination’ initiative. The idea is to increase customer productivity and drive cleaner energy solutions—hence the centre’s location in Masdar City, one of the most sustainable cities on the planet. The centre is set to showcase advanced technology solutions and offer training on the challenges and opportunities in advanced energy and water efficiency, according to its marketing material. But according to Fady Sleiman, CIO, 28
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Middle East and Africa, GE Corporate, the centre has an even more important function—it will serve as an incubator of worldchanging ideas. “The concept of Ecomagination really is to make the company look at solving problems in an environmentally friendly way, and also solving problems in order to get to an environmentally friendly solution,” he says. “With this centre, it’s an incubator. People get together, they talk about problems, and that’s how GE has always been successful. We find out what problems there are and we try to solve them.” As an endeavour in IT, then, the success of GE’s Ecomagination Centre can’t be quantified in terms of ROI, or even indeed in terms of the benefits that it might bring to GE. Despite this, it still makes for an implementation that’s worth analysing.
For starters, GE had to start completely from scratch when it began the centre. Granted, there was an empty shell of a building, but even that had to be re-designed, given that there were limitations on what building materials GE could use if it was to create an environmentally friendly venue. If the centre was going to be all that GE wanted it to be, then, Sleiman had to do some serious thinking about the technology involved. “Everything was done from scratch. We got a few organisations, we had the internal team, and the IT contractors that were helping, but we really wanted to make it best-in-class. At the same time, we really had to think about how we could make this centre as simple to use as possible for everyone. It’s an 840-square-metre property, it’s full of technology inside, but we needed to make it simple to maintain, operate and to update content as well,” he says.
To achieve these goals, then, Sleiman decided that the centre should feature a wealth of touch-screen devices. These would provide visitors with an interactive learning experience, helping them to understand the biggest challenges when it comes to achieving a sustainable world, and what is currently feasible in terms of current levels of technologies. The project was co-owned between GE—to meet internal standards—and systems integrator ITServ, which did a “great job”, Sleiman says. Sourcing the right displays, however, wasn’t easy—after all, Sleiman and his team wanted best-in-class solutions. They scoured the globe for some of the most impressive technologies available, and eventually landed on an Australian solutions provider. “The displays were actually designed and built in Australia. We have a CRM based over there for the information. The reason why www.cnmeonline.com
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On location GE
is because some of the expertise that we required wasn’t locally available, so we had to look at that from outside,” Sleiman says. “The concept of what we’re trying to do is a real interactive experience for anyone who visits the centre. We have the latest in touch-screen technology. It’s all to do with bit rate refresh and the sensitivity of touch and everything. We actually used an NEC product called YouTouch. When we got an IT contractor to do the content for us, from Australia, they purchased the screens from Australia and then they shipped them here. Everything had been tested, so they brought it here and, while we were doing the construction, we wirelessly connected everything, and integrated and updated the content remotely.” The centrepiece of the space is an enormous, interactive table made of nine 55-inch screens. The idea is that the display will walk visitors through a number of different scenarios that a city might go through. Sleiman says that it was no mean feat to integrate everything once the displays had arrived from Australia. “You can imagine, if you go to the centre and see it, you’ll see the sheer scale of trying to bring something of that size together. It’s nine 55-inch screens put together under the table that mimic all the operations of the city. It’s a pretty cool piece of technology,” he explains. Naturally, it’s no good having such impressive hardware if the software and application side isn’t up to scratch. Again, to achieve the wonderous experience that Sleiman wanted visitors have, the company looked beyond the shores of the Middle East, landing on a little-known outfit in Hong Kong that Sleiman describes as an expert in the field of interactive displays. “It’s a converged technology skillset, so we got Imagination, which is the group that created it, based in Hong Kong, and they developed that for us. Obviously all of the requirements were from the whole team, so we worked across the commercial team, the communications team, the innovation team, and the IT team,” he explains. “The software itself is strong, content-based technology. The typical programming is Java-based, but these guys are experts in that domain. Really, if you think about it, they’re reflecting emotion on a monitor that reflects above itself. It’s kind of specialised—it’s not just programming; it’s light reflection and everything.” Also included in the centre is a smart meeting facility, which Sleiman says was put together by ITServ. Again, he explains that the systems integrator met all the requirements that GE put forward.
“The use of technology, I think, has been the underlying, fundamental success to this centre. It’s really about educating, it’s about showcasing, and it’s about making people aware.” 30
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Fady Sleiman, CIO, Middle East and Africa, GE Corporate In the future, Sleiman wants to take what GE has learned with the Ecomagination Centre in Masdar, and apply it to a new Innovation Centre in Turkey. Again, the idea is to educate visitors on how to solve some of the world’s biggest problems, and to demonstrate what can be done with the technology that is currently available. Indeed, it’ll be similar in scope to GE’s first Innovation Centre in the region—a facility based in Saudi Arabia’s Dhahran Techno Valley. And while the centres in Saudi Arabia and Turkey aren’t as focused as the Ecomagination Centre in Abu Dhabi, Sleiman still believes that they all share benefits from the technological implementations. “The use of technology, I think, has been the underlying, fundamental success to this centre,” Sleiman says of the Masdar City-based facility. “It’s really about educating, it’s about showcasing, and it’s about making people aware. When I was going through the content at the end, and I saw the storyline of what’s happening, it really made me think about things. I think that’s something that we tend to miss, and I think that the centre really brings that back to people.” Indeed, when it comes to solving issues such as climate change, and encouraging people to consume less energy and reduce their carbon footprints, Sleiman believes that it will ultimately be technology that saves the world, so to speak. This is why, he says, he’s given his full backing to projects such as the Ecomagination Centre—after all, technology will be the driver for a more sustainable world. “I think that the only way of doing this is through technology— technology is the only thing that’s going to help us,” he says. “That’s the whole point of the centre—we know that this is where GE can make an impact. And as governments push for these green initiatives, it’s a good thing for GE and it’s a good thing for the environment.”
On location Fair Point Furniture
Changing dynamics When it implemented Microsoft Dynamics AX 12, Fair Point Furniture in Sharjah completely changed the way it was able to do business, providing itself with a strong platform on which to grow.
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f there was ever an example of how a well-integrated ERP system could utterly change how a business operates, this would be it. Fair Point Furniture, an up-and-coming furniture retailer based in Sharjah, set up shop in May 2012, though its back-end IT system was hardly fit for purpose. For one thing, for the first seven months of its existence, the company used different software applications for different divisions. This meant that there was no real-time information between divisions, reports could not be customised, and managing stocks and logistics was difficult. “The point-of-sale guy would not know whether the inventory is there or not. People would see a chair they wanted, but then they’d have to just buy the one on display. And if we did have it, we wouldn’t know where it is in the warehouse,” says Mohamed Noaman, the recently appointed Head of IT at Fair Point Furniture. Naturally, then, Fair Point began searching for a properly integrated ERP system that would give the company full visibility 32
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across its operations. Unfortunately, the company wasn’t spoilt for choice when it looked at the market. “We started to search around for an ERP system. You know the market here—there are two different ways, either Oracle or SAP, particularly if you’re a big company,” Noaman jokes. Happily, however, Microsoft had just entered the ERP market with its own offering, Microsoft Dynamics, which includes a suite of various ERP functions. With a strong focus on SMBs, Microsoft’s AX 2012 solution—a retail-oriented part of Dynamics—seemed to be the perfect fit for Fair Point. “We found Microsoft and we preferred that for a number of reasons,” Noaman explains. The biggest advantage was that it would mean Fair Point was running Microsoft solutions end-to-end, making the design and implementation of the system much easier. The other major advantage was that the project would be completed by Al-Futtaim Technologies, which provided Fair Point with a strong set of service-level agreements.
“We started to search around for an ERP system. You know the market here – there’s two different ways, either Oracle or SAP, particularly if you’re a big company.” Mohamed Noaman, Head of IT, Fair Point Furniture
Al-Futtaim set about implementing the ERP system straight away, using the Sure Step methodology. The systems integrator was set to implement Dynamics AX 12 for Fair Point’s finance management, supply chain management, and retail. The pressure was on Al-Futtaim to make this implementation work, not only because Fair Point desperately needed to upgrade its systems if it wanted to make the right business decisions, but also because this was the first AX 2012 retail implementation in the world. In terms of finance management, then, Al-Futtaim implemented the system with functions such as general ledger, cash and bank management, payable accounts, receivable accounts, fixed assets, budgeting and reports. With the supply chain management, Fair Point were given new capabilities such as procurement sourcing with workflow processes, sales and marketing for non-retail customers, inventory and warehouse management, product information management (so that all products could be properly categorised), and reports.
Perhaps most importantly, however, AX 12 was used to link the back-end with the point-of-sale (POS) machines on the shop floor. This meant that inventory could be viewed, in real time, on a POS machine, and it also meant that orders from the POS machines could be filled much more quickly. Promotions and sales could also be integrated much more easily, and a new system for returns and refunds could be managed much more easily. “In AX, the retail and the back-office in the supply chain is connected. At the retail level, if a customer says he wants, say, 10 office chairs, you can check it and see if there’s enough stock. You get two images of the shop and the warehouse and you can see both at the same time,” says Noaman. The system also allows Fair Point to analyse its customers’ buying and spending habits—a functionality that the previous system lacked. This means that the company’s buying team is better equipped to make buying decisions—Fair Point now knows exactly what its customers want. What’s more, according to Noaman, when Fair Point begins to expand across the UAE, it’s simply a question of purchasing more AX licences—the backbone of the system is already in place, meaning it’s completely scalable. The only bone of contention with this implementation comes with the end-users, who initially struggled with the new ERP system. Indeed, Fair Point has struggled with a high turnover of staff over the past year, making it difficult to train up the workforce as a whole. However, with the company now enjoying a welcome period of stability, the issues are being ironed out. What’s more, Al-Futtaim has been on hand to offer training for Fair Point’s employees, thanks largely to the impressive SLAs that were signed before the project began. On the whole, however, Noaman believes that the implementation has had an extremely positive impact on Fair Point and its business. “The owner’s life is different now. Whenever he needs a report, he takes it in the right way, and he can see exactly what the customers need—he sees what’s getting fast movement, or slow movement,” he explains. “Right now, as an IT section, we are very happy.” www.cnmeonline.com
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Shrink the servers and everything else follows. It’s time to build a better enterprise. Together. Data centers that power the internet can waste 90% of the energy they consume. That’s unsustainable. So working with IT leaders, HP has come up with a completely new kind of server: HP Moonshot. It’s 80% smaller, consumes 89% less energy, and costs 77% less. Building technology to power the next internet, it matters. Visit www.hp.com/middleeast/moonshot and watch the Moonshot video.
Make it matter.
HP Moonshot powered Intel® Atom™ processor
HP research comparing Moonshot servers with traditional x86 servers; cost comparison based on estimated total cost to operate. © 2013 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Source: James Glanz, “Power, Pollution and the Internet,” The New York Times, September 22, 2012. Intel, the Intel logo, Intel Atom and Intel Atom Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.
STRATEGIC IT INNOVATION PARTNER
Solutions world Last month saw CNME host its annual CIO 50 Awards and Forum in Dubai, an event which recognises the top CIOs in the region. The award ceremony, a regional version of the prestigious IDG CIO 100, honours the head IT decision makers of 50 organisations that have shown innovation, intelligence and intuition over the past 12 months. This year’s winners are revealed over the next four pages.
Saif Al Ketbi Abu Dhabi Ports Company
Ahmed Yahya Sheikh Khalifa Medical City
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cover story CIO 50 Awards and Forum
Dr. Saeed Khalfan Al Dhaheri Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Col. Anwar Abduallah Al Mulla Abu Dhabi Police
Ali Radhi MBC
Ahmed Ebrahim Al Ahmad Nakheel
Esam Alfalasi Ministry of Economy
Hamed Al Hameri (on behalf of Dr. Jamal Al Hosani) National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority
Hisham Mohammed Iran Dubai Taxi Corporation
George Yacoub SEHA
Arnab Debroy Metito Overseas
Anas Taraben Dubai Refreshments
Maisam Zaidi ALEC
Ajay Rathi Meraas Holding
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Juma Al Ghaith Dubai Customs
V. Suresh Jumbo Electronics
Esam Hadi Aluminium Bahrain
Jamal Abdulla Al Romaithi Ministry of Presidential Affairs
Krishna Roy Chowdhury Qatar National Library
Kirit Shah Landmark Group
Alok Srivastava Masdar
Ibrahim Najjar DP World
Khalid Bu Hindi Sharjah Police
Ali Mohamed Al Ali Abu Dhabi Health Authority
Dr. Jassim Hajji Gulf Air
Muhammed Ali Albakri Saudi Airlines
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cover story CIO 50 Awards and Forum
Nadeem Busheri Dubai Islamic Bank
Arun Tewary Emirates Flight Catering
Joseph Aninias University of Wollongong in Dubai
Farid Farouq DWTC
Jaison George KPMG
Sreedhar Reddy Aldar Properties
Einstein Johnson Rosario MedNet
Eng. Ibrahim A. Al Saggaf (on behalf of Eng. Yahya Ibrahim Abdulrahman), Saudi Electricity Company
Thameem Rizvon Kamal Osman Jamjoom Group
Kasim Ahmed (on behalf of Ameer Hussain) Arabian Geophysical and Surveying Company
Roy Verrips Grand Hyatt Doha
Sami Al Shammari Oryx GTL
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Madhav Rao EMKE Group
Mohammed Saeed Al Shehhi GCAA
Dr. Hazem El Khatib Abu Dhabi Department of Finance
Ronald Dsa OSN
Ali Ghunaim Canadian Specialist Hospital in Dubai
M. N. Chaturvedi Al Shirawi Group
Ali Nimer IRENA
Saji Mathew Economic Zones World
Sebastian Samuel AW Rostamani
Affan Al Khoori Aswaaq
Samer Alamari Alshamel Travel
Abdulla Ahli Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology
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cover story CIO 50 Awards and Forum
Fresh thinking CNME’s fifth annual CIO 50 Awards ceremony recently took place at Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai, and provided a platform for some fresh perspectives on technical opportunities and threats in the Middle East.
C
NME’s fifth annual CIO 50 awards ceremony not only served as the perfect way to congratulate the region’s IT chiefs, but was also an esteemed forum for five keynote speeches from industry experts. In light of Cisco’s prediction that, by 2020, there will be 50 billion devices that are connected to the internet, the so-called “explosion of data” will play a key role in businesses gaining a competitive advantage. The potential for Big Data analytics was high up on the agenda at the awards, with several keynote speakers highlighting opportunities for future development. Kicking off proceedings was Ifran Jeraj, Director, Solution Architecture, ICT, Etisalat, whose speech, The Digital Revolution, focused on the obligation of enterprises to fully utilise social media, mobility, Big Data and cloud to drive business evolution. “HMV music store is a prime example of what can go wrong if a businesses do not become digital,” he said. “In 2003, the iTunes store opened and it combined early elements of cloud, Big Data and social media. HMV did not embrace the change, and it went into
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administration. Likewise with Borders book store failing to match Amazon; it’s essential that businesses capitalise on digital advantages to remain competitve.” He went on to highlight the importance of disruptive technologies, including 3D printing, advanced robotics and nextgeneration genomics. The always-colourful Arun Tewary, VP of IT, Emirates Flight Catering, used his keynote to discuss technology evolution across centuries. He emphasised that technology’s evolution up to this point is just the beginning. He said, “Telecommunications, computers and information technology are the highest-impact technologies in history. The future is what matters, and the way we’re going, we run the risk of drowning in data.” MBC’s Head of IT, Ali Radhi, was next up, and his talk, Commercialising Big Data, echoed points made by Jeraj about the importance of Big Data analytics. He described three key steps that would ensure an organisation can get the biggest commercial value out of Big Data: “First of all, the right data to analyse must be chosen. www.cnmeonline.com
Then you must build models that predict and optimise business outcomes, and then you transform your company’s capabilities through data analysis.” Dr Hazem El Khatib, IT Director, Abu Dhabi Department of Finance, and Esam Hadi, Manager, IT, Aluminium Bahrain, both took the opportunity to highlight how modern infrastructures had transformed their respective organisations. El Khatib explained that, by implementing an ERP system, he had decreased the time needed for payroll processing and purchasing cycles amongst numerous other business objectives. Hadi, meanwhile, discussed the implementation of his HR Info Hub, which provides employees with information interactively. Basil Ayass, Regional Marketing Director, Dell Middle East, took on the role of master of ceremonies for the event, and had some sage advice for his high-achieving audience: “Every CIO in this room has seniority. Some have master’s degrees, some PHDs. But there is still undoubtedly so much that we can all learn from Big Data; we do not know everything as we are.”
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FEATURE
Mobility
The ‘mobile first’ approach IDC recently predicted that CIOs will be forced to take a ‘mobility first’ approach to building networks, whereby mobility solutions and BYOD policies are integrated into infrastructures. How accurate is this prediction, and is the Middle East really ready to put mobile first? James Dartnell investigates.
I
T departments are outdoing each other in the contest for unpopularity across the workplace. If you thought restricting access to certain websites on office time was bad, see the look on the face of an employee who has been told that they can’t use their smartphone or tablet at work, or use it at home to check work emails. I certainly don’t envy the CIO who is charged with explaining that to hundreds of disgruntled employees. There are a number of reasons why CIOs will be taking a tougher line with BYOD. Security threats are rife, with attacks to mobile devices and applications common. The concept of ‘any device, any time, any place’ has meant that BYOD is an issue CIOs can no longer wish away, with the prospective rewards of 42
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network WORLD
increased productivity and faster decision making too great to ignore. The general consensus in the IT industry is that those who bury their heads in the sand and dismiss the effects of the trend will suffer in the long term. With a proliferation of smart devices, an increase in mobile malware and the malicious sharing of missioncritical information, something has to be done. “Until recently many CIOs could safely ignore the impact of mobile, knowing that the majority of their staff would continue to use fixed devices or at least corporate-provided mobile devices,” says Richard M. Marshall, Research Director, Gartner. “Now, however, mobile momentum is such that companies must include them in their policies: either accepting BYOD and corporate-owned devices or banning personal devices
and providing equivalents. Either way, CIOs must act.” According Cisco’s Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2012 to 2017, in the Middle East and Africa, there will be 849,226,090 mobile users in 2017. The expected increase in mobile traffic is partly due to continued strong growth in the number of mobile Internet connections—personal devices and machine-tomachine applications—which will exceed the world’s population, which the United Nations estimates will be 7.6 billion by 2017. The need to do business anywhere has led to mobility becoming the expected norm among workers. This means fast connectivity is a matter of necessity, says Ralf Haubrich, Vice President, CEEMEA, Sophos: “Information and mobile office
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FEATURE
Mobility
“With the Middle East being one of the world’s most connected regions, there will be a rise in the always-connected user trend. This drives the need for solutions that truly empower people to work and collaborate from anywhere and securely access apps and data on any of the latest devices, as easily as they would in their own office.” Sowri S. Krishnan, Vice President, Mobility, Cognizant
have been a major driver of mobile technologies over the last few years and since information goes at the speed of sound, so must the modern office follow.” Speed is not all that is needed, according to Ahmed Youssef, BDM, MEA, Alcatel-Lucent: “In the mobile enterprise, user experience matters. It must be intuitive and available over wires or wirelessly, providing the user freedom to seamlessly move between whichever media and device they prefer at that particular time.” BYOD is underlining the distinction between corporate and personal devices, with users now viewing their own equipment as better than what is provided by their employers. With a broader range of mobile devices connecting to the network, this necessitates bandwidth that goes beyond the planned capacity of office Wi-Fi, and extended gateways. In other words, BYOD is having a massive impact on how CIOs think about their infrastructure. “For those CIOs serious about embracing BYOD, attention to the supporting infrastructure is critical to their success,” says Glen Ogden, Regional Sales Director, Middle East, A10 Networks. “Mobile devices behave very differently over the network to fixed devices, therefore it is necessary to deploy an infrastructure that truly supports their use. Smart devices connect over a multitude of mediums, often with their own connection profile, be that Wi-Fi, Edge/GPRS, 3G or LTE. An application needs to be adequately protected from this confusing environment to allow it to serve all users in a manner appropriate to the way they connect.” Nonetheless, although it may be necessary to implement an infrastructure that supports mobility, 44
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this is not straightforward. Current infrastructures have not been designed for the operational management and security demands of enterprise mobility. Increased productivity and new business processes are the carrot, while complexity and security risks remain the proverbial stick. So how are these security concerns bestaddressed? “An integrated solution that supports the five key areas of enterprise mobility—user and app access, app and data protection, device management, threat protection, and secure file sharing—provides complete mobile protection,” says Amer Chebaro, Regional Manager, Gulf and Levant, Symantec. Manish Bhardwaj, Regional Marketing Manager, Middle East and Turkey, Aruba Networks, believes there are two main ways of dealing with BYOD security issues: containerisation, which has three sub-methods, and a converged infrastructure. “MDM’s most recent evolution is known as containerisation: a separate zone is carved out on the user‘s device, in which authorised enterprise apps and data reside, with policy controls applying only to the container’s contents, not the entire device,” he says. “Three different containerisation examples are: the sandbox, where enterprise applications and data are put into an encrypted space, or folder; virtualisation, where multiple virtual machines run simultaneously, and a hypervisor allows IT to securely manage the enterprise’s virtual domain, while the user manages the personal virtual domain; and the wrap, where each application is dynamically wrapped with a layer of security and policy. The other option is putting network, application, and
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FEATURE
Mobility
“For those who have adopted BYOD solutions as part of their infrastructure, keeping up to date with the latest innovations taking place in the consumer device space is also paramount. These advancements are empowering users with a host of fresh applications and communication services for sharing video, audio and other kinds of multimedia assets.” Asfar Zaidi, Principal Consultant, Huawei Enterprise Middle East
device management together in one integrated system.” Niraj Singh, Business Services Director, Vodafone Qatar, believes that remote control is imperative to a robust mobility strategy. “Part of our recommended security protocol is ensuring that all devices are able to be controlled remotely, when required, ensuring that remote lock and wipe can be instantly deployed, for those occasions where devices are lost or stolen, safely securing confidential company data,” he says. What sorts of innovations can a mobility-first approach bring, then? “Mobile provides many new ways of working, but the key innovation for many businesses is streamlining information flow,” says Gartner’s Marshall. “Suddenly, mobile workers can see all the information they need in a timely manner. Managers can approve requests between meetings. Everything moves faster, decisions are freed up. “Other areas of innovation are only limited by
“While some draconian approaches (such as denying all personal devices on the corporate network) might be warranted for extremely secure organisations, most organisations want to adopt a BYOD policy that offers some flexibility for users while enforcing corporate policies and adopting best practices.” Alain Penel, Regional Vice President, Middle East, Fortinet
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imagination in theory, although back-end systems and corporate inertia can be limiting factors. Use of location, built-in cameras and other sensors have huge advantages in automating processes that previously required separate devices or forms to be filled in.” Abdulla Hashim, Senior Vice President, ICT, Etisalat, says, “A mobility-first approach can bring mobile business intelligence and analytics on tablets and smartphones that help in quick decision making, which is vital to any organisation. It can also bring mobile collaboration, in which clients augment traditional unified communications and collaboration tools, where integration is implemented at the server side.” Osama Al-Zoubi, Senior Systems Engineering Manager, Cisco, is clear on how businesses can take advantage of the mobility-first approach. “Ultimately, the benefits to any organisation that embraces BYOD initiatives can be lucrative,” he says. “The ability to quickly respond to user needs, boost user productivity, realise significant cost savings and enable greater collaboration within the enterprise are but a few of the benefits that can be reaped from this growing trend.” Put simply, the stubborn, old-fashioned CIO will ultimately miss out in the long term. Rejecting BYOD will cause office morale to plummet, as well reducing productivity and efficiency of task completion. It seems clear that IT executives have one of two options: bury their heads in the sand and become a hate figure for their entire organisation, or have an in-depth look at how to implement the infrastructure needed to carry the business forward with this exciting technology.
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FEATURE
Open-source storage
Open up
Unlike other open-source technologies, open-source storage has hardly taken off in the Middle East, due largely to the perception that it is a niche pursuit. But recent murmurings from across the globe point to a resurgence of the open-source storage idea. Is the Middle East ready to get on board? 48
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Strategic Technology Partner
storage advisor
I
t would be easy to say that, in the Middle East, open-source storage has even less of a foothold than in the rest of the world. Ask any CIO, and there’s an enormous chance that he will have procured his storage solution from a big-name vendor—open-source doesn’t even come into the conversation. And yet supporters of open-source storage have been making more noise over the past couple of years, particularly as Big Data—and, inevitably, Hadoop— have garnered more headlines. Open-source storage solutions that used to be considered extremely niche have been used for various new applications, and these applications are getting users across the world excited about the possibility of doing things a little differently. “While open-source storage solutions have existed for a long time, they were mostly relegated to being niche solutions. However, there are clear winds of change now. A growing number of organisations are increasingly drawn to open-source frameworks (such as OpenStack, Hadoop) for reasons of flexibility, customisation and cost,” says Arun Chandrasekaran, Research Director, Gartner. In the Middle East, however, it can fairly conclusively be said that the big storage vendors control the market. And while CIOs might not be content having to write out big cheques for these vendors, they have yet to find reliable solutions with which to replace them. “The reality, until some time ago, was that there were very few data storage vendors who would provide reliable solutions. These vendors could demand premium prices because of the SLAs, the reliability, R&D and the millions of dollars invested by these companies in reference architectures and
environments,” says Shashikanth N., Sales Manager, StorIT Distribution. “However, with increased consolidation of the industry and the components becoming reliable, the cost of the total storage started coming down. Inversely, the need for storage or the capacity and performance increased. Hence, the companies which have years of investment and innovation have been able to sustain and demand the premium price for the quality of delivery.” That said, there has been a shift when it comes to the cost of traditional storage, Shashikanth says. He believes that the focus has now begun to shift to software, rather than components, though this shift didn’t exactly work out in the customer’s favour. “Companies which relied on OEM equipment were at the mercy of the development at the OEM and the companies which invested in their own R&D of software, like EMC, sustained and stood as leaders. CIOs had fewer choices and their applications also did not throw them any new challenges to see a drastic shift from the silos,” he says. What’s more, according to Chandrasekaran, customers are wary of moving away from the vendors that they have been traditionally with. One of the factors behind CIOs being willing to hand large cheques over to the big vendors, he says, is that it’s a daunting task to migrate. “Storage migration projects are not only complex but users stick with specific storage solutions and incumbent vendors, due to fear of data loss and operational disruption. Unlike servers, which are stateless, changing storage suppliers requires data movement and often taking an application down,” he explains. But say a migration is on the cards, should an open-source solution be considered in this day and
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FEATURE
Open-source storage
age? What’s more, why aren’t more CIOs thinking about open-source? According to Megha Kumar, Research Manager, Software, IDC, the second question is easy to answer. He believes that one of the main barriers to opensource storage uptake in the region has been skills. “In a region that already suffers from finding the right technical expertise, finding the skills to manage an open-source storage system would be a challenge.” The other key barrier, Kumar says, is awareness: “CIOs are not aware of their open-source options, or the level of functionalities that are available. This is slowly changing as telco and transportation organisations in the region have begun exploring opensource frameworks such as Hadoop.” Indeed, Big Data and Hadoop seem to provide one of the main arguments for adopting open-source storage. Zaher Haydar, Senior Regional Manager, Systems Engineers, EMC, explains that his company is keeping a close eye on open-source storage developments, as they could help the industry to create solutions that are more suitable for Big Data environments. “We believe open-source is a good trend, especially when it comes to applications around Hadoop, Big Data and analytics. It is helping the industry to create newer solutions that are more robust,” he says. Haydar’s words do, however, come with a proviso. He explains that, to really get the best out of opensource, proprietary technology should be added to the mix. After all, the big-name vendors have been masters of storage for decades, meaning that they still add a lot of value to the overall proposition. “There is always room for some proprietary code that has specific, optimised features that have matured over many releases over many years,” he says. The big question, though, is whether open-source storage can save on costs while delivering the same—if not better—performance as the big-name storage does. Unfortunately, experts differ in their answers. IDC’s Kumar, for example, explains that, yes, open-source storage can provide greater levels of cost-effectiveness. What’s more, with open-source, there’s no vendor lockin, he adds. However, EMC’s Haydar doesn’t buy the argument that open-source storage will always be cheaper. “The proposition that open storage is inherently cheaper does not hold easily. There are lots of best practices that we have been fine-tuning and developing over the years in order to optimise the storage infrastructure. These best practices are helping the customer in reducing their TCO for storage infrastructure. The new open storage solution can’t 50
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A growing number of organisations are increasingly drawn to opensource frameworks (such as OpenStack, Hadoop) for reasons of flexibility, customisation and cost.” Arun Chandrasekaran, Research Director, Gartner
easily replace all these existing best practices and they are not mature and tested enough in order to support mission-critical systems. This is why the adoption is very low and will continue to be like that for some years to come,” he says. Aside from cost, however, there are other benefits to at least considering open-source storage, as StorIT’s Shashikanth explains: “Any open-source technology has a few basic fundamentals wherein the community has developers and contributors from different sources. In the storage industry, this was possible as consolidation of the hardware happened and the power got transferred to the software layer. This gave the code development community the power to use the overlaying software to derive the best out of the commodity hardware or compute,” he says. “Open-source storage is commoditised and can be transformed to newer technologies. This is easier and the specific needs of a community can be customdeveloped and is neither affected by the hardware variance nor vendor-dictated. The biggest advantage of cost of retention, servicing, using and phasing out the systems just got substantially lowered with no or minimal affect on performance.” Unfortunately, such arguments are hardly doing wonders to convince CIOs in the Middle East. Even Shashikanth admits that the traditional storage vendors are known for their resiliency in missioncritical environments. “CIOs buy into traditional storage because it’s a one-stop shop,” he explains. And Gartner’s Chandrasekaren conveys a similar point: “Traditional storage continues to maintain its appeal for enterprise applications that demand high availability and performance. In addition, the external controller-based (ECB) disk storage market is not homogeneous. Storage procurements are closely tied to use cases such as server virtualisation, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), transaction processing, analytics, collaboration, back-up and archiving, which allows
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FEATURE
Open-source storage
“With increased consolidation of the industry and the components becoming reliable, the total cost of storage started coming down. Inversely, the need for storage or the capacity and performance increased.” Shashikanth N., Sales Manager, StorIT Distribution
vendors to innovate and differentiate for specific workloads and use cases,” he says. Luckily, however, CIOs do not need to go completely open-source when it comes to storage. A number of vendors are already experimenting with open-source storage, and coming up with their own solutions, based on open-source. Companies like Red Hat and solutions like Hadoop pay testament to that fact. As a result, according to Kumar, more openKYO_BusinessEntry_SmeAdvisor_17.5wx11hcm_revised.pdf
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source alternatives will begin to see uptake within the region. “Companies will begin to engage with organisations that provide open-source storage software and provide support at a cost,” he says. Opensource solutions are already impacting the storage world, though their uptake in the Middle East, he warns, will be dependent on the availability of skills and support. 1:28 PM
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FEATURE
Government security
State secrets What with the need to protect state secrets, it’s little wonder that governments around the world are stepping up their spending on security solutions. But what do governments in the Middle East need when it comes to security, and are newly formed government entities set to revolutionise the way that states think about security?
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security advisor
Strategic IT BYOD Partner
H
ow governments use IT for national security wasn’t really brought to the public’s attention until 2010, when the Stuxnet computer worm was discovered. Speculated to have been created by the United States and its allies, the worm was designed to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, spreading via Microsoft Windows and targeting Siemens industrial control systems. According to some reports, the malware caused uranium enrichment at the Natanz nuclear facility to halt several times. And while there has been no confirmation from any government, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) suggested that Stuxnet was “a reasonable explanation for the apparent damage” that the facility had seen throughout 2009 and 2010. Stuxnet wasn’t the first time that cyber-warfare between nations had been employed, but it was the first publicy known intentional act of cyber-warfare to be implemented. Naturally, governments around the world were quick to respond upon hearing the news. Fast-forward to today, and government spending on cyber-security—as in the enterprise world—has gone through the roof. According to Alaa Abdulnabi, Regional Pre-Sales Manager, RSA, this is down to the fact that governments aren’t prepared to take any chances when it comes to national security. And if that means spending more on cyber-protection, so be it. “With all the surrounding threats and the increase in cyber-attacks on governments’ critical infrastructure, spending on security can only increase, and we are certainly seeing that governments are making it top priority. In simple terms, national security is not the right domain to be economic and try to cut costs because it cannot be compromised,” he says. www.cnmeonline.com
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FEATURE
Government security
Abdulnabi points to an IDC report on security spending by governments. According to the report, overall security spending has been trickling upward at an average rate of about 4 percent per year, with the US federal government alone expected to spend $7.3 billion on cyber-security in 2017. According to Alain Penel, Regional Vice President, Middle East, Fortinet, the government sector accounts for 35 percent of the vendor’s total revenue for the Middle East. And it’s easy to see why governments are so caught up with security. Aside from the spook caused by Stuxnet, Penel points towards other threats that governments are keen to mitigate against as factors in increase spending. “Government spending is on the rise and will continue to increase. This largely corresponds to the increased threats to sensitive data being compromised by organised hacker groups,” he says. Hacker groups such as the Syrian Electronic Army are now recognised as a force to be reckoned with— the group has compromised the websites of several high-ranking organisations over the past 12 months. Other hacktivist groups have also garnered headlines, so government organisations are doing all they can to protect themselves. And according to Natalya Kaspersky, CEO, InfoWatch Group of Companies, it’s not just the threat of hacktivism that has governments on their toes— some countries in the region may see their critical infrastructures being threatened. “Some countries in the region still have IT infrastructures that are supplied with worldwide monitoring capabilities, which can influence the processes in these receiving countries. This influence can be realised as infrastructural attacks like, for example, the Stuxnet virus targeted at Iran nuclear sites. Or as imposing certain information to cause
“When we talk about the necessity for protection, it depends on a country’s threat model. If a country considers such access to its infrastructure a threat then there is a strong necessity for protection.” Natalya Kaspersky, CEO, InfoWatch Group of Companies
The government sector accounts for
35%
of Fortinet’s revenue in the Middle East
“Entities like NESA are key to co-ordinating efforts to enhance cyber-security by bringing together the various clusters and agencies within governments.” Muhammed Mayet, Chief Technology Officer, Security, Dimension Data MEA
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disorders like was the case in Egypt, for instance,” she says. “So when we talk about the necessity for protection, it depends on a country’s threat model. If a country considers such access to its infrastructure a threat then there is a strong necessity for protection.” Indeed, according to Abdullah Hashim, Senior Vice President, ICT, Etisalat, a government’s first priority is to protect against damage to critical infrastructure. “A targeted cyber-attack on a country’s information infrastructure can cripple communications, deny access to public services and cause massive economic losses. The first priority for governments is to defend their critical infrastructure assets, including communications, energy and utilities, oil and gas, citizen services, and banking and finance infrastructures, as these are the primary targets for compromise,” he says. Naturally, governments are also worried about ensuring the privacy of their citizens’ data, and they’re keen on cracking down on cyber-crime, too. To this end, some governments have been taking a more proactive approach when it comes to cyber-security. For example, the UAE recently formed the National Electric Security Authority (NESA)—a clear indication that the country’s government is taking cyber-security seriously, according to Glen Ogden, Regional Sales Director, Middle East, A10 Networks. “NESA’s inception clearly, shows how important a credible and properly regulated defence against cyberattacks is to any region’s national security,” he says. However, he also advises that individual government departments need to take responsibility for their own networks. A centralised agency can only do so much, after all. “Whilst entities like NESA help to raise the profile of threat defence, each government or ministry still needs
FEATURE
Government security
to take action to ensure the region as a whole is fully protected, top to bottom,” he explains. The point, though, of organisations like NESA is to coordinate national responses to the growing problems associated with cyber-security. And according to Muhammed Mayet, Chief Technology Officer, Security, Dimension Data MEA, they are hugely important to forming a national front against cyber-threats. “Entities like NESA are key to co-ordinating efforts to enhance cyber-security by bringing together the various clusters and agencies within governments. A failure to collaboratively implement a comprehensive cyber-security plan will result in many gaps, which could be exploited. NESA, by bringing together all the relevant parties, can effectively address this risk,” he says. Naturally, however, the flip-side to using IT for cyber-security is using technology for cyber-attacks. And some governments across the region are wellknown for their involvement in state-sponsored hacking. The aforementioned Syrian Electronic Army is a prime example of this, and other entities have popped up in recent years, says Ray Kafity, Regional Sales Director, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, FireEye. “Cyber-espionage, or state-sponsored hacking, will continue to expand globally, as governments will not relinquish their ability to conduct law enforcement and counter-intelligence activities,” he says. He also acknowledges that the biggest security event of 2013 was probably the revelations that former US security contractor Edward Snowden made about the country’s National Security Agency. If there was ever an example of a state using technology for nefarious purposes, this would be it. That said, the consensus seems to be that states need to protect themselves not from other states, but from motivated rogue hackers. This is particularly true
“In simple terms, national security is not the right domain to be economic and try to cut costs because it cannot be compromised.” Alaa Abdulnabi, Regional Pre-Sales Manager, RSA
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“Cyber-espionage, or statesponsored hacking, will continue to expand globally, as governments will not relinquish their ability to conduct law enforcement and counter-intelligence activities.” Ray Kafity, Regional Sales Director, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, FireEye
in the Middle East, according to some who believe that most Middle Eastern countries tend to stick together by sharing information. “The biggest threat is not from government or state-sponsored hacking —we don’t believe that’s truly the threat against which the region should protect itself,” says Yassine Zayed, Executive Vice President, Nexthink Middle East. “The real risk is a combination of the increase of targeted hacktivism and the lack of technologies in place to detect it. Governments need to invest in technologies and procedures to be able to execute end-user IT analytics for security, to be able to immediately detect any abnormal activity. Hackitivism is a major threat, which tries to harm the reputation of governments, just to make noise in the media and to make a political point.” Zayed says that these types of malicious attacks always use the advanced persistent threat (APT) methodology, and that they target end-user devices. He advises looking at products that provide all-round network visibility and real-time analytics. Meanwhile, Dimension Data’s Mayat suggests taking the lessons learnt from the private sector, engaging in a consultative approach to determine the biggest risks. Unfortunately, governments really do need to think about these issues carefully, as the risks posed by cyber-attacks are too great to ignore. The point is made poignantly by A10 Networks’ Ogden: “Typically, governments in our region have a high level of physical security in place already,” he says. “Unfortunately, modern threats tend to favour logical security breaches rather than physical penetration of a government entity, meaning that new strategies are required to cope.”
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FEATURE
The skills gap
Mind the gap Much has been made of third-platform technologies such as cloud, mobility and Big Data analytics. However, with trends moving so quickly, businesses are being forced to import skills from abroad in order to get the best out of these new trends. How can the local IT scene ensure a healthy availability of local talent? Â
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integration advisor
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he problem with finding the right talent isn’t limited to the Middle East, according to some. The technologies that CIOs are urged to harness these days can still be described as emerging, meaning that the talent required to run such technologies is also emerging. If the third platform of computing has shown us anything yet, it’s that most organisations aren’t ready to embrace it. “The skills gap is a global phenomenon, specifically when it comes to cloud, mobility and Big Data analytics, as well as applications,” says Travers Nicholas, Manager, Systems Engineers, EMC. Because of this, Nicholas opines, a new approach needs to be taken when it comes to hiring the right talent for emerging technologies. “What we’re seeing is that successful organisations are adopting a new approach that combines an element of talent sourcing and internal training. Finding the talent
is the biggest challenge for organisations, which is why they must also focus on internal training,” he says. “Traditionally, it was all about finding the right talent ‘out there’, however today, it is equally important for us to identify candidates already within the organisation, who are capable of learning, and possess the skills and willingness to make the transition to the third-platform technologies. Once those people are identified, it is about supporting them through the learning process.” Despite organisations improving their methods of training skilled employees, some claim that the skills gap between the Middle East and the rest of the world is getting larger. They say that this is www.cnmeonline.com
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The skills gap
especially true when it comes to third-platform trends, meaning that, if the Middle East is going to embrace them, organisations here need to re-think how they attract new talent. “The skills gap in the Middle East is vast, and the rapid rate of expansion in the region is set to widen that gap in 2014. Whilst the internal development of expertise continues to grow, it remains, however, too slow to keep pace. With emerging technology introduced from western corporations increasing, local talent is simply not sufficient to meet the demand,” says Stefano Capaldo, Regional Manager, Middle East, Firebrand Training. Capaldo explains that a number of factors have contributed to the shortfall in regional IT talent. He points to a lack of development at grassroots levels, explaining that secondary school education does not focus on the skills required for a career in IT. He also says that the region takes an outsourcing approach to IT, which undermines the development of local talent— “Locals lack the appetite to learn IT,” he says. What’s more, the region simply lacks the volume of local experts needed to cope with the range of expansion, he adds. These points are echoed by Kerry Kwoutsikos, Regional Manager of Resellers, Middle East, QlikTech, at least when it comes to Big Data analytics. “Whilst there is a significant gap between specialised skills in ICT and the local talent pool, the gap is even more severe when relating to Big Data analytics,” he says. “The key reason for the lack of specialist skills is partially due to the increased number of businesses using data analytics. The rise of Big Data, cloud and mobility are a fairly new phenomenon and businesses are led to leverage this new opportunity immediately.” Rajesh Abraham, Head of Product Development, eHosting DataFort, explains that the Middle East’s high
“To ensure that businesses find the right people to implement and manage their projects, they need to have a hiring strategy which focuses on finding the right IT skills specific to the technology.” Rajesh Abraham, Head of Product Development, eHosting DataFort
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“The skills gap is a global phenomenon, specifically when it comes to cloud, mobility and Big Data analytics, as well as applications.” Travers Nicholas, Manager, Systems Engineers, EMC
turnover of human capital—due to the transient nature of expatriate life—also plays a factor in the widening skills gap when it comes to IT in the region. “The IT industry struggles to find suitable replacements for specialised staff and rapid technological advances impacts the availability of superior talent. It is becoming imperative to re-train existing IT professionals and encourage them to pursue necessary training and certifications on a regular basis,” he says. Despite the doom and gloom, one voice stands out as saying that the regional IT skills gap is not as severe as it may seem. Indeed, he believes that organisations have, on the whole, acknowledged the problem, and are taking encouraging steps towards addressing it. “The gap is not severe. Though there are not many people with the new skill sets, there is an increasing surge in the number of people who are re-skilling and learning new techniques. In the areas where there is demand, like mobility, yes, the gap exists and it needs to be addressed, but organisations are aware of it and are scheduling new training sessions, and hiring people with expertise in the new technologies,” says Biswajeet Mahapatra, Research Director, Gartner. Perhaps a bigger worry for the Middle East, Mahapatra suggests, is the ability to identify just what skill sets you need for a particular project. This can often be where organisations let themselves down, leading to a perceived lack of skills, whereas the problem could simply be in not identifying what talent is actually needed. “The most important thing is to first understand the skill sets required for the right kind of project. All new projects will have elements of different technologies, but you do not need the best-in-class for all the components. You will require a solid understanding of the project, appropriate vendors to set up the correct enterprise architecture and the right people to implement it,” explains Mahapatra.
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FEATURE
The skills gap
In the areas where there is demand, like mobility, yes, the gap exists and it needs to be addressed, but organisations are aware of it and are scheduling new training sessions, and hiring people with expertise in the new technologies.” Biswajeet Mahapatra, Research Director, Gartner
“To do that, one needs to have a clear understanding of the current available skill sets and have a training plan aligned with upcoming projects to ensure that the people with the right acumen work on the new technologies, and are available and ready at the right time. For some projects, you require external help, which can be implemented by hiring a few experts in niche areas, or get external consultants, who would help the existing talent to ramp up faster.” Abraham, from eHosting DataFort, agrees that enterprises need to identify what sort of talent they need before beginning the hiring process. Indeed, he believes that this is the key to ensuring that businesses find the right people to implement and manage their projects. “To ensure that businesses find the right people to implement and manage their projects, they need to have a hiring strategy which focuses on finding the right IT skills specific to the technology. This includes having the necessary training and certifications, experience with the product or technology and how they can utilise that experience in solving problems on the job, the right soft skills such as communication, problem solving skills and the ability to adopt and learn new technologies,” he says. Firebrand Training’s Capaldo adds that the local
“Whilst there is a significant gap between specialised skills in ICT and the local talent pool, the gap is even more severe when relating to Big Data analytics.” Kerry Koutsikos, Regional Manager of Resellers, Middle East, QlikTech
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culture of getting a bargain should be challenged— hiring cheap doesn’t always mean hiring right. “Governments will pay for highly qualified experts, yet the benefits of training to SMEs is still underappreciated and therefore under-funded,” he says. According to EMC’s Nicholas, the onus is also on employees themselves to stay updated about emerging trends. “If you stop learning, you stop being relevant because the technology industry changes and evolves so quickly,” he says. “You must continue learning and the thirdplatform transition is probably the most significant transition we will see in our life times from a technology perspective. So it is one that everyone should have a plan for; every individual, every business unit, every IT department, every application department and every enterprise, needs to have a strategy for the third platform.” Middle Eastern organisations are beginning to wake up to the need for skilled employees, and Capaldo expects the skills gap between here and the western world to begin closing as time goes on. “The western world has been implementing emerging technologies longer than the Middle East, and maintains the wealth and infrastructure necessary to develop the skill set of expatriates more quickly. However, as the Middle East accumulates wealth and continues to invest in the infrastructure necessary to train local expertise, that gap will begin to close,” he says. According to Gartner’s Mahapatra, the region is already home to a highly talented workforce. All that’s needed is for organisations to manage that talent intelligently. “There are brilliant people in all areas in this region,” he says. “If organisations are ready to pay the right compensation, and invest in training and exposure, then there is no area where people in this region will be lacking.”.
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FEATURE
Beyond telecoms
Ringing in changes Can regional telecommunication providers go beyond vanilla services and offer more value to consumer and business markets alike? It might sound like a tall order, but that’s what they need to do to stay in the game.
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telecoms WORLD
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he Middle East telecoms landscape shows one unique characteristic— it is still steeped in the traditional voice business. While, in the rest of the world, operators have adopted new business models for value-added services to offset the declining ARPU (average revenue per user), in this region, voice still remains the predominant revenue earner for service providers. Though they have invested heavily in next-generation network technologies to cater for the growing bandwidth and QoS demands, the push up to now has been towards voice. But now, with increasing competition and near saturation point in most markets, telecoms providers are forced to bite the bullet and go beyond just mobile and internet services to encompass application and integrated services to shore up their sagging bottom lines. “It is a widely established fact that Middle East telecoms operators are already going beyond the traditional telecoms services, such as voice and Internet or data. This is an essential move for the telecoms operators to overcome slow-paced growth from the traditional telecoms services. As part of this move, telecoms operators are looking at ways to capitalise on the demand for ICT services such as managed and cloud, vertical-specific services, and digital services,” says Paul Black, Director of Telecommunications, IDC. Niraj Singh, Business Services Director, Vodafone Qatar, agrees that telecoms operators have both a huge opportunity and responsibility to lead and innovate in this field. “Vodafone is fortunate to have deep expertise built up over many years and in many different markets around the world, as well as partnerships with global pioneers such as Google and Microsoft, ultimately driving us towards providing integrated solutions to customers. So we’re firmly positioned to drive integration and convergence in both the consumer and business markets. This is a strong differentiator for us,” he says. As telecoms competition intensifies across the Middle East, customer experience is also taking centre stage, placing increasing stress on the operators to incorporate a wide diversity of services to attract new customers while retaining existing ones. “Traditionally, regional operators have been focused on the deployment of basic telecoms infrastructure, customer acquisition, and development and delivery of data-oriented services, among others.
Today, their focus has started to shift from customer acquisition to engagement-building and stickiness creation. As such, the regional telecommunications market is evolving from being purely service-focused to now being driven by customer value management and customer experience,” says Juan Jose De la Torre, Vice President, Mobile and Web, Intigral. Another notable trend in the regional telecoms sector is the growing focus on digital services as a way to not only fulfill the needs of customers, but also to leverage their assets into OTT (over-the-top) services, which are usually delivered on mobile operators’ networks. While, globally, OTT players are perceived as a threat to telcos, many major operators in the region have chosen to collaborate. and open up their platforms for developers. Singh explains why: “Over-the-top players provide fantastic offerings. They deliver some really powerful applications that are changing consumer behaviour and raising the bar on how services are delivered. Naturally, OTTs rely on robust and efficient networks, which in turn drives the demand and consumption of faster data and richer content, both in the business and consumer markets. Ultimately, we’re co-dependent, silent partners in a sector that has unlimited growth and untapped potential. “For enterprises, we have consistently found that businesses regard IT and telecommunications as a very complicated area, with too many suppliers involved and too much finger-pointing if things go wrong. What we offer is a complete, fully secure, integrated solution which embraces OTT services in accordance with the CIO’s needs, along with the benefit of a dedicated customer care team and a support team that physically attends the premises if required.” De La Torre echoes a similar opinion and says that telecoms operators should embrace OTT players as an important way to differentiate themselves and support their core telecoms services and products: “OTT services would be a threat if not approached with the right strategy, but it can also become an opportunity for telcos with a win-win situation.” Gamal Hegazi, Solution Architect Leader, AlcatelLucent, adds that there is a strong need for regional telcos to reach for more value by generating revenues through applications and content. “The GCC operators adopted a walled-garden approach earlier but it is now leading to more open business models to encompass a co-operation model between OTT players and operators,” he says.
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Though the improvements in network technology have enabled telecom operators to join and collaborate in the OTT space, Black from IDC points out only a minor portion will be able to monetise these services. “The middle markets, in the last few months, have witnessed proliferation of OTT services in various forms. Although OTT services continue to gain popularity, the ability to pay for these services remains low throughout the MEA region. Despite trying different business models, both media companies and telecoms companies have only been able to generate limited interest among the consumers. In order to tap in to the latent demand that OTT services offer, the value chain players will have to take a holistic view of the opportunity and clearly define their respective roles. In other words, regional telcos will have to decide whether they will compete with pure-play OTT providers or collaborate with them. Some regional operators, such as Zain, Mobily, Nawras, STC, Viva, and Etisalat, are showing inclination to collaborate with OTT providers and act as channel partners for the services offered by them,” he adds. Dial a cloud In the past 18 months, many domestic telecoms companies have aggressively entered the increasingly crowded cloud marketplace. But what is the core strategy for these telecoms? Is the cloud a very natural place for them to go? And do they really have a chance of competing against industry leaders? “As anticipated by IDC in 2013, the Middle East telecoms operators have approached cloud services with vigour over the last several months. Many regional telecoms operators, such as Etisalat and du in the UAE, Mobily in Saudi Arabia, Batelco in Bahrain, and Ooredoo in Qatar, have already invested in infrastructure as a service (IaaS). As they started gaining valuable experience, operators are now looking to expand their portfolio to include software as a service (SaaS). For 2014, we maintain a positive outlook for the cloud services market and believe that regional operators are well placed to capitalise upon the cloud opportunities,” says Black. Niraj from Vodafone, which has partnered with the likes of Microsoft and Google, says the cloud space is evolving fast and still has a long way to go. “The growth opportunity is two-fold: firstly in educating businesses on the benefits of realising the full potential of the cloud by encouraging and stimulating wide spread adoption. And secondly, advancements in cloud technology mean that it is fast becoming a much more 68
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“Over-the-top players provide fantastic offerings. They deliver some really powerful applications that are changing consumer behaviour and raising the bar on how services are delivered.” Niraj Singh, Business Services Director, Vodafone Qatar
powerful business tool. CIOs have the opportunity to transform how their services are delivered to their employees. Mobility sits at the heart of this transformation.” As telecoms providers iron out their cloud strategy, experts say they need to move quickly and cautiously. “Most telcos are now looking at cloud as a new growth area that level the competition between them and Internet players. Business cases are being drafted and market segements investigated to make the right targeting towards businesses, especially the SMBs. This is an area that needs detailed market understanding and prototyping to make the best reach and product positioning. It is not much a technology or solution challenge as much as it is a marketing and positioning challenge,” says Hegazi from Alcatel-Lucent. Do telecoms providers have an edge over others in the cloud marketplace? Though this is a new direction for carriers, they do offer some advantages—namely, they already have a large, nation-wide network infrastructure and have an opportunity to provide value-added services wrapped around their core strength, which is connectivity. “Cloud computing takes advantage of several traditional telco capabilities, such as data centres and multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) networks, and provides them with much-needed revenue diversification opportunities. Telcos’ established enterprise customer relationships, ability to offer service bundles, and ability to integrate billing, provide them with the advantages necessary to expand footprints in the cloud services market,” says Black. Rise of the machines According to various studies, M2M communications is now the fastest growing segment in the telecommunications industry, with annual growth of 28.2 percent, much ahead of business fibre deployments and business VoIP.
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FEATURE
Beyond telecoms
M2M means much more than smartphones and iPads, with a wider range of devices that can be hooked up to the Internet. What can telcos do to maximise opportunities in this space? Singh says, “There is huge potential for growth in so many sectors, such as healthcare, consumer goods, transport, banking, FMCG, security—even family pet welfare! In order to sustain this growth, we continue to build out our strong infrastructure to meet the associated technological demands. “A great example of how we’re doing this is with our global deal with BMW, where all new vehicles are embedded with a Vodafone SIM. This provides many practical functionalities, of course, but it’s also there to save lives. On impact, the vehicle automatically contacts emergency services, instigating an immediate search and rescue, saving minutes or sometimes hours for accident discovery and action. The technology is saving lives.” With growing awareness about the potential benefits of M2M services, the majority of Middle Eastern enterprises are already working on some form of
28.2% The annual growth of the M2M communications segment
M2M service roll-out plan. As per IDC’s 2013 Middle East Enterprise Communications Survey, a majority of the survey respondents also favour service providers that can either develop or customise their own M2M applications. “In order to fulfill these requirements, telecoms operators will have to take the central role in developing a technical ecosystem around M2M, including devices, innovative applications, and delivery platforms, and should aim to provide business intelligence and/ or analytics services on top of these applications. Regional telcos should aim at launching more innovative, industry-specific M2M applications and gain application development capabilities,” says Black. With the continued liberalisation and uptake of 4G networks, there is a signification growth opportunity for telecoms service providers to leverage network resources and skills to move beyond commodity bandwidth to providing value-added services. In fact, it’s imperative for telcos to chart new courses to maintain their revenues and avoid being relegated to providing dumb pipes.
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Insight Six Sigma 2. It can help you determine what’s working and what’s not “Numbers don’t lie, and Six Sigma techniques eliminate the emotion of what may be perceived as ‘wrong’ with a process,” says Nikk Gilbert, Vice President, CUNA Mutual Group. “By capturing metrics and allowing for more objective discussion, progress can be made more effectively.” 3. It can help improve service(s) “Providing great IT service is about more than just meeting service level agreements (SLAs) based on averages, like the mean time to respond or target delivery time,” says Scott Marx, Managing Consultant, CompuCom, an IT outsourcing specialist. “IT organisations’ client satisfaction is also based on predictability,” specifically minimising the “variation in service quality” to consistently deliver great service, he says.
6 Reasons to adopt Six Sigma It may have been originally intended for use in manufacturing, but the Six Sigma methodology is proving to be most helpful across a wide range of industries.
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ince General Electric adopted Six Sigma, a process-improvement strategy developed by Motorola in the 1980s, the term has become a catch phrase for quality improvement. Originally intended for use in manufacturing and the supply chain as a way to reduce or eliminate defects, the data-driven, process-improvement strategy has since been applied to other sectors and services, including IT. So how can a process-improvement strategy such as Six Sigma benefit your IT organisation? We asked IT as well as Six Sigma and other experts. They provided six reasons why adopting a process-improvement strategy makes good business sense, no matter what business you are in.
1. It can help you make better decisions “IT organisations usually have large numbers of change initiatives running in parallel, addressing a wide range of factors,” says Jim Shulkin, Vice President of Marketing at Daptiv, a project management software provider. “Implementing [a process-improvement strategy, whether it’s Six Sigma or] project portfolio management (PPM) helps you decide which projects to undertake, [how to] streamline existing processes and then drive through and monitor [them] to achieve strategic objectives,” Shulkin says. “For IT organisations specifically, PPM involves managing the process of translating the strategy and objectives into the right projects and then focusing on the execution of these projects towards the delivery of overall strategic objectives.” www.cnmeonline.com
4. It can help you decrease downtime “IT organisations strive for 99.999 percent uptime,” says Luke Clink, Security Program Strategist, Rook Consulting, an IT risk and security consulting firm. “Whether it’s Six Sigma or another process-improvement strategy, adopting such a strategy will help IT organisations be more successful,” by helping to decrease downtime, Clink says.
5. It can improve security “As the security threat landscape evolves, CIOs and their security teams must ensure appropriate processes to scale and protect the company’s assets,” says Clink. “Similar to finding defects in operational processes, identifying vulnerabilities in security controls and processes is critical, not only for the success of the business, but the protection of its environment as well,” Clink says. “A formal process-improvement strategy enables such success and protection.” 6. It can reduce miscommunication “A project team will have a variety of skills, from technical to operational,” which can sometimes lead to miscommunication, says Gilbert. “Six Sigma, LEAN and other strategies, however, create great opportunities for team building and collaboration,” by bringing everyone together to work toward a common goal and providing a way to objectively measure and discuss what’s working and what’s not. February 2014
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Insight Virtualisation
The ugly truth about virtualisation According to Steve Duplessie, Founder and Senior Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group, mobility has brought back I/O problems after two decades.
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erver virtualisation has revolutionised the way we deploy systems in our data centres. It has sparked a gold rush along the way, creating outlandish wealth. It has also left a wake of destruction, and it very well may cause catastrophic failures in a lot of shops. It certainly is going to raise blood pressure and cause hair loss among admins. The good parts: Server virtualisation lets you bring a virtual machine online in minutes, gets you enormous utilisation gains on your hardware, and enables mobility unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. The bad parts: Server virtualisation has created an on-demand expectation from the business that hasn’t been fully vetted yet. Mobility, specifically the ability for a virtual machine workload to take on migratory attributes, creates massive performance problems, not only for that workload, but for all the other workloads on the same physical kit. Worse yet, you can’t see it. You only know it when the phone rings and everyone is screaming at you. The solution to date: Lose all the benefits and make sure your workloads don’t move, eliminating any utilisation gains, causing you to actually manage more stuff (physical and virtual) instead of less, and costing you more money to boot. The problem: Storage. Plain and simple. It’s a storage problem, my dear Watson.
Specifically, it’s an utter lack of QoS (quality of service) in 99 percent of storage systems that simply were not built to be “adaptive” to changing requirements. Storage is mainly a one-size-fits-all thing. It has X drives and Y controllers and can do Z I/Os per second. Period. That’s fine if X, Y and Z meet the requirements of what’s thrown at it - but it’s hell if it doesn’t. In the old world (say, 2011) we built a system (physical in production, virtual in the lab) that was “fixed” to an application, or a series of applications (i.e., workloads). Thus, we could test and deploy said workload and know exactly how it would perform because it was fixed. Nothing changed. In the new world order (December), we build workloads (Exchange, Oracle, etc.) inside a VM and plop them on a physical machine. We make sure the storage works. We treat it like it is “fixed”. It works great! Then something happens. That workload moves elsewhere, or another workload suddenly appears next to it - and all of them start fighting for the I/O resources of the storage. The storage can only do so much, so it starts to arbitrate. Now your I/O performance on each workload starts to suffer. Now your phone starts lighting up. Because storage is still largely “dumb”, the only way to solve the problem is to go back in time and build fixed systems - which is absurd, but true. www.cnmeonline.com
But there is a way out! Storage has to get smarter. Storage for transient workload operations cannot be architected like storage for fixed workload operations. You need a better mousetrap. You need a storage system(s) that can be adaptive - ideally in real time - to changing workload requirements. You need to guarantee performance, not hope for performance. That’s how you get the phone to stop ringing. If physical machine A, with seven workloads on it, dies and those seven workloads move elsewhere - if you don’t have I/O capabilities that can A) handle increased load, and B) adapt their I/O profiles to satisfy more important apps first someone is going to be upset. Simple as that. In a perfect world, all you have to do is make sure all of your storage is flash. No disks anywhere, and you probably don’t have a real problem (although, even then, I could show you how it would screw up without QoS). Presuming you aren’t the US government printing money at will, you probably can’t afford to do that. You will have disks, and normal storage systems. Therefore, you will inevitably have these problems. If you run server virtualisation, and run multiple, mixed workloads - you will have this problem. Thus, from now on, start looking for smarter storage. You need storage that can A) handle a high I/O load (much higher than what you need for normal operations), B) delineate between workloads in terms of importance, and C) guarantee the outcome. You need QoS. This is a fantastic new problem, by the way. We haven’t had I/O problems for 20 years or more. All storage systems were “good enough” in the fixed-workload world. Mobility changes everything. By giving yourself awesome utilisation on your physical servers, you end up having to give yourself terrible utilisation on your storage (which is way more expensive than your servers, lest you forgot) in order to guarantee that performance levels meet minimum requirements if a bunch of workloads move over to you. It’s a conundrum. If your storage were smart and selfoptimising, using the right combination of intelligent caching, flash and disk - and could deliver QoS at a granular enough level - you’d be perfectly aligned. Hey, industry, go build that. February 2014
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Analyst corner Cloud
Cutting through the cloud hype Cloud computing has passed the phase of overenthusiasm and unrealistic projections, writes David Mitchell Smith, Vice President and Fellow, Gartner.
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loud computing is no longer a new concept, and many organisations have been consuming cloud services for the past several years. The use of cloud computing is growing, and by 2016 will increase to become the bulk of new IT spending, according to Gartner. While still a very visible and hyped term, I believe it has now clearly passed the phase of over-enthusiasm and unrealistic projections. There are signs of fatigue, rampant ‘cloudwashing’ and disillusionment, particularly from highly visible failures such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Apple. Despite this, it remains a major force in IT. What we are now seeing are businesses changing their buying behaviours. Improving efficiency, delivering operational results, reducing enterprise costs and improving IT applications, infrastructure and legacy, are all top business priorities for CIOs, according to Gartner’s CIO Agenda Survey for 2013. For example, Australia and
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New Zealand CIOs ranked cloud computing as their number-two technology priority this year, after mobility. Although it is unlikely businesses will completely abandon on-premise models or soon buy complex, mission-critical processes as services through the cloud, there is a movement toward consuming services in a more cost-effective way and toward enabling capabilities that are not easily done elsewhere. Gartner believes cloud computing will reach an important transitional point in 2014, as many organisations will look to move cloud computing past the early phase of it being used for low-hanging fruit and constrained business cases, into more widespread, production adoption. We believe businesses will spend 2014 considering and planning how they will use cloud services for more strategic and value-generating business cases. The time is ripe for transition because businesses and providers are both evolving, and patterns
for hybrid cloud, applications and risk management are taking shape. As aspects of the cloud move into mainstream adoption, each technology needs to be looked at and assessed separately. No doubt there will be misunderstanding and confusion specific to each aspect of the cloud, not just to the overall term. Driving a lot of this confusion is ‘cloudwashing’. Technology vendors are grabbing hold of the term cloud and using it for marketing purposes in an attempt to jump onto the cloud bandwagon, even though what they are offering isn’t really cloud computing. Hosting solutions, for example, which have a pay-per-user-permonth pricing model, but without shared elastic capabilities, are being labelled ‘cloud’. As cloud is used to apply to an everwidening set of external services, without regard to sharing, elasticity and the other characteristics that set it apart, the term becomes even more unclear. Often what we see are companies that buy these cloud services, then be surprised to find that they do not get the agility and cost savings promised by cloud computing. Since it does not live up to its overinflated expectations, cloudwashing is creating a sense of disillusionment. Cloud computing is really about a very simple idea—consuming and/or delivering services from the internet. There are, however, many issues regarding the types of cloud computing and the scope of deployment that make the details not nearly so simple. Everyone has a perspective and an opinion, and although some aspects are coming into focus, confusion remains the norm. Many misconceptions exist around potential benefits, pitfalls and, of course, cost savings. Cloud is often part of costcutting discussions, even though its ability to cut costs is not a given. There are also
“Technology vendors are grabbing hold of the term cloud and using it for marketing purposes in an attempt to jump onto the cloud bandwagon, even though what they are offering isn’t really cloud computing.” many reasons to talk about the capabilities enabled by cloud computing: agility, speed and innovation. These are the potential benefits that can be overlooked if hype fatigue sets in. Although the term “cloud computing” is relatively new, it incorporates derivations of ideas that have been in use for some time. Hosting, software as a service (SaaS) and virtualisation are well-established and are being used in many ways. The prevalence of inexpensive computing power, inexpensive bandwidth and companies that have developed extensive capabilities in managing large data centres are all relatively new and are all required for the cloud to come to fruition. Some concepts born in the cloud have begun to take on largely hyped lives of their own. Private cloud computing and platform as a service (PaaS) are now more hyped than the term “cloud”. Big Data is becoming a popular term and phenomenon. One term in particular, “hybrid cloud computing”, is in many ways replacing cloud computing as a catch-all category that vendors (and businesses) are using as the overall umbrella term. Cutting through the hype surrounding cloud computing is a no doubt a challenging process. It is important to be educated to assess how your business can leverage the
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benefits of cloud computing. While the term is being used in many contradictory ways, cloud heralds an evolution of business—no less influential than the era of e-business— in positive and negative ways. Overall, there are trends toward cloud platforms and massively scalable processing. Virtualisation, service orientation and the Internet have converged to sponsor a phenomenon that enables individuals and businesses to choose how they will acquire or deliver IT services with reduced emphasis on the constraints of traditional software and hardware licensing models. Services delivered through the cloud will foster an economy based on delivery and consumption of everything. Developing a business case for using a cloud computing solution largely remains an unstructured process because of the hype. As a result, organisations fail to identify or communicate the key benefits of the right solution. This results in poor backing for strategic initiatives, insufficient funding and correspondingly poor results. To be successful, it is important to understand the context of the current cloud computing market and the key trends, understand the potential risks and opportunities, then determine how you can apply these trends to benefit your organisation.
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Face to face Shaygan Kheradpir
Shaygan Kheradpir, CEO, Juniper Networks
Head in the Clouds As Shaygan Kheradpir settles into his role as the new CEO of Juniper Networks, the former Barclay’s COO/CTO is looking to the future. Boasting a deliberate dependence on its partners, and a focus on excellent execution, Kheradpir takes a ‘no excuses’ approach to providing customers with tailored solutions. In 2014, Kheradpir is looking to continue Juniper’s ‘carrier class’ support of cloud providers, and build bridges for those who are taking their first steps skyward.
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ou’ve been in the job for two weeks now, how are you finding it so far? In an odd way it’s like coming back home - but on the other side of the market, rather than the customer side. Obviously, the language is familiar, the DNA is familiar. We’re just drilling in, getting more familiar with the team, the rhythm of the business. They’ll take me through the fourth quarter earnings, but obviously I was not here officially. But I asked a lot of questions. So we sort of know who bought and what they bought, but not why did they buy it. I know the world is changing, so we’re looking at what this new cocktail looks like from the buyer’s perspective, and what could have very big implications for us. So you’ve put your own stamp on the company already—are partners excited about the new direction? You know it’s funny? I haven’t seen a single partner who didn’t say, ‘Yeah, let’s talk tomorrow.’ They get it because the partners are really close to the customers—they see and feel and touch this stuff all day long. So we’re really pushing at an open door.
Retaining this partner focus seems to be a big part of where you’re pushing Juniper? I think in these times when things are changing so quickly, the partners have become so much more important. They understand who the customer is. It’s like crossing a river. We have a clear point of view of what the other side of the river looks like, and we know how to build the bridge generally, but the biggest thing is how we collectively get the customers onto the bridge. The information that the partners have is essential to making it happen. With networking going through so many changes, such as SDN, the future is all unchartered—has it been quite hard to develop a long term strategy when no one’s been here before? There are so many different customer types. You’ve got traditional service providers, cable companies, web 2.0 companies, you have enterprises—some who are beginning to behave like an SP, and then you have classic enterprise. So you look at the first
“Of course, we help and support the customers who are cloud providers, but there’s also a whole set of other customers who for whatever reason are not going there. So who’s going to help them build their cloud? I think this is where the forces are amassing—cloud builders.” four categories, and when you zoom out— what are these people all trying to do? They’re all trying to build the cloud. Of course, we help and support the customers who are cloud providers, but there’s also a whole set of other customers who for whatever reason are not going there. So who’s going to help them build their cloud? I think this is where the forces are amassing—cloud builders. So it all falls right in the sweet spot for Juniper and its partners.
Juniper has seen quite a bit of senior staff turnover in 2012 and 2013—is that an advantage for you starting a new direction, or symptomatic of problems in Juniper? I am new here, I’ve only been here two weeks. But what I do see is a lot of experienced people. I think on the channel side I have senior leaders with some 40 years of experience from all over the industry. And attrition, sometimes it just comes with the territory, and sometimes it opens up the fresh air for the others to move up. So I haven’t been here for the last year or the year before, but the team that’s on the ground here looks to me to be quite experienced. There aren’t that many companies that can pull off this kind of a show with this many partners. External sales strategies aside—where do you want Juniper to be in 12 months’ time? I think that at the top levels to make sure that we are all acting as one Juniper. This may sound easy, but there are a lot of moving parts here—to focus our entire company around our customers, and really pull in our great ‘go to market’ people with our awesome ‘art of the possible’ people. To help our customers, to start building that bridge of clouds and high IQ networks, www.cnmeonline.com
and getting them on the bridge. There is a lot of opportunity in 2014 for businesses. Typically it starts with the smart buyers, and then the rest will follow. Five years from now this new market will all be normalised. All the methods and procedures we are creating will be well known and replicated, but that’s the plan, that’s our opportunity.
So you see these ‘High IQ’ networks as your key market differentiator, enough to push you ahead of Cisco and other rivals? Everyone’s trying to build clouds. Traditionally if you had told people about the MX router the image that would come up is wireline service provider. But now you see customers all buying the exact same stuff— the PTXs, the MXs and the SRXs and so forth. Everybody is in all these high-end segments, and they all want to build clouds. From the customer perspective, hardware is not how they look at it anymore. They don’t look at it and wonder—am I going to buy security, and then switching, and then routing, and then transport. They just say, I want to build a cloud with these attributes: It can’t go down, it can’t get hacked, it has to have multi-tenancy, it has to be open framework architecture, it has to scale out. That’s how customers think about it and that’s how we now think about it. Most of these attributes are carrier class characteristics. We’ve just fast forwarded in time to new technology, and who has that? Juniper. We are a carrier-class company.
Last words? I’m a big believer in focus around the customer. We want a disciplined execution around business fundamentals. Execution with a no excuses mentality. That focus is a big deal. February 2014
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PRODUCTS
Launches and releases
PRODUCT WATCH
PRODUCT OF THE MONTH
A breakdown of the top products and solutions to launch and release in the last month.
Product: Moto G Vendor: Motorola What it does: The Moto G is the new smartphone release from Motorola for consumers who need both functionality and affordability. Priced at nearly a third of the cost of its high-end competitors, the Moto G boasts a 4.5-inch HD display, the newest Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core CPU and an all-day battery life. Though it comes loaded with Android 4.3 Jellybean, Google guarantees an upgrade to KitKat 4.4. Dual micro-SIM slots allow for a userfriendly transfer between networks and Google provides 50 GB of free storage on Google Drive for two years for all Moto G owners. What you should know: This phone marks an important moment in mobile Internet technology. Its relatively small price tag has taken the smartphone out of the luxury market and placed it solidly in the hands of average consumers. However, to maintain affordability, Motorola has had to compromise on a few features. The phone lacks a microSD slot to expand storage capability and though the processor is powerful, the 1GB of RAM limits its abilities. These shortcomings are almost unnoticeable for an average user and if sales in the Middle East mirror those in the US and UK, the Moto G will be the region’s new window into the Android platform.
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Product: Encore WT8 Vendor: Toshiba
Product: MB700 Series Vendor: OKI
What it does: Built with students and gamers in mind, this eight-inch tablet from Toshiba is the first from the company to run on Windows 8.1. The tablet’s Intel Atom processor with 2GB of RAM launches and runs Windows programs and apps, including the preinstalled Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013, with undeniable agility. Its impressive 64GB storage capability allows the user to store an extensive library of apps, documents, games and media. What you need to know: The Toshiba Encore WT8 comes with quite a few new tricks up its sleeve. The Toshiba-developed app, TruCapture, copies physical media such as paper documents and whiteboards via the tablet’s camera, then crops and adjusts the image for easy review. The tablet’s InstantGo technology wakes the Encore from standby to live in 0.3 seconds. InstantGo also syncs content so that the user can remain up-to-date on all Windows devices. Finally, the Xbox SmartGlass feature transforms the tablet into a second screen for the Xbox 360 or Xbox One for a console-like gaming experience.
Product: Iconia A1-830 Vendor: Acer What it does: Unveiled in Dubai in early January, the Iconia A1-830 is a sleek update to last year’s Iconia A1. This new incantation of the Iconia includes myriad design upgrades, including a brushed aluminium rear cover that lifts this budget-priced tablet above its occasionally flimsy feeling brethren. Despite its 7.9-inch LED backlit display and aforementioned metal finish, the Iconia A1-830 is surprisingly light, weighing in at a mere 380 grams. And the 1024 x 768 resolution IPS display and 4:3 aspect ratio provides an excellent viewing experience for its price point.
What it does: OKI has hit the Middle East with another series of award-winning printers. The MB700 Series offers a range of A4 mono MFPs suitable for micro, small and medium workgroups. OKI has ramped up the series’ capabilities with an embedded open platform, sXP (smart Extendable Platform) which offers enhanced workflow integration and document management. The platform allows businesses to flow from physical, paper-based media to a digital output and back with ease. What you need to know: Despite its recent release, the MB700 Series has already made an impression with small to medium businesses in the Middle East and Europe. The series has taken home some significant awards, including the Better Buys for Business Editor’s Choice Award, the Editor’s recommendation by IT w Administracji and the Office Oscar 2013 for innovation by OEN Office Equipment News in the UK.
What you need to know: In today’s market of quad-core processors, the dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom Clover Trail+ processor and 1GB of RAM may seem a bit light for tablet power-users. The Iconia A1-830 does provide both front- and rearfacing cameras, stereo speakers and a microSD card reader that supports cards up to 32GB. A 7.9hour battery life, sturdy design and attractive pricing makes the Iconia A1-830 a solid choice for travel and everyday use.
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Column The word on the street
James Dartnell
Bogged down in Big Data
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robability law states that if enough monkeys were to type on typewriters for long enough, they would eventually produce the works of Shakespeare. To some, that may seem incomprehensible. IT chiefs across the Middle East may have the same sense of infinity as they battle against the daunting tide that is Big Data. A recent study by auditor KPMG revealed that 85 percent of CFOs and CIOs did not know how to analyse the data that they had collected. Meanwhile, 54 percent said that their greatest barrier to success was an inability to identify the data worth collecting. ”Unless businesses tackle the problem of data collection and analysis one step at a time, they run the risk of crashing and burning.” said Alwin Magimay, Head of Digital and Analytics, KPMG UK. Seems simple enough; don’t get bogged down in too much detail. Speaking at CNME’s recent CIO 50 awards, Arun Tewary, VP of IT, Emirates Flight Catering, was wary of the catch-22 of more connected devices, “In this day and age, we have technology, but information is missing,” he said. “We run the risk of drowning in the age of
CNME’s man about town gives his spin on the latest IT news and trends. 82
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information pollution." But in difficulty lies opportunity, and one Middle East case proves that, with a resourceful strategy, real value can be derived from Big Data. Dr Jassim Haji, IT Director, Gulf Air, initially sampled Microsoft software but found his organisation restricted by hidden costs. He subsequently trained his staff to sample a variety of methods, and now has an open-source system through which Gulf Air is only partially supported by vendors. Haji’s case shows two important factors. KPMG’s study found that several organisations had highlighted a variety of data sets that they believed would provide crucial insight, but when it came down to it, social media was their best indicator over customer preference. Haji used this to his advantage. Secondly, he trusted his own team and saved costs on over-complicated, drawnout processes by keeping things in-house. Another speaker at our CIO 50 awards, Ali Radhi, Head of IT, MBC, outlined his strategy for ‘commercialising Big Data’. “Big Data comes in three categories: exploratory analytics, predictive analytics and casual interference techniques,” he said. “Companies must choose the right data to analyse, build models that predict and optimise business outcomes, and use this to transform their capabilities. The real challenge in all this lies in algorithm tuning.” When it comes down to it, that’s more or less what it takes. Back to the monkey analogy; with typewriters, you could be waiting a while for a fully formed re-print of Hamlet to emerge. But give the monkeys the right algorithm, and the rest is history.
Redefining office IT. PowerEdge VRTX. Redefining office IT. PowerEdge VRTX.
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 office environment. Enter the new Dell PowerEdge VRTX powered by the Intel® Xeon® processor, an integrated end-to-end solution built specifically for the growing office. It’s the only 5U PowerEdge shared infrastructure platform design based on input from over 7,000 customers, featuring The first and only full integration of servers, storage, networking and management in only 5U. four integrated servers, 48TBs of storage, networking and systems management to simplify Up until now, there been an IT solution designed specifically for an office environment. all aspects of IT. Youhasn’t inspired it. We built it. Enter new VRTX powered the Intel® Xeon® processor, an integrated To seethe how weDell canPowerEdge redefine your office IT, visitby www.dell.com/ae/vrtx end-to-end solution built specifically for the growing office. It’s the only 5U PowerEdge shared infrastructure platform design based on input from over 7,000 customers, featuring four integrated servers, 48TBs of storage, networking and systems management to simplify all aspects of IT. You inspired it. We built it. To see how we can redefine your office IT, visit www.dell.com/ae/vrtx
Dell PowerEdge VRTX is a trademark of Dell Inc. Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. ©2013 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
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HP simplifies storage powered by Intel® Xeon® processors ** Source: IDC Disk Storage System Tracker Q1 June 2013. Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. Microsoft, Hyper-V and SQL Server are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.