Computer News Middle East by Computernews Middle East

WHERE TECHNOLOGY MEANS BUSINESS issue 257 | june 2013 WWW.CNMEONLINE.COM

THE

SPAGHETTI INCIDENT SEHA, DP World and Ooredoo implement enterprise architecture to align their ‘spaghetti-like’ infrastructures

PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZ

Enterprise app stores: are they the future of it?

etisalat - IFC not in

EDITORIAL

The case for chief mobility officer

Jeevan Thankappan Group Editor Talk to us: E-mail: jeevan.thankappan@ cpimediagroup.com

Reams and reams have been written in technology trade publications about enterprise mobility and how it improves employee productivity and customer engagement. Earlier, we have reported how ‘anytime, anywhere’ access to enterprise information is on top of the agenda for many CIOs. While the influx of smartphones and tablets coupled with easy availability of bandwidth has fuelled the need for mobility in many regional enterprises despite security concerns, most of them still don’t have a clearly defined mobility strategy in place. Recently, some of the vendors, especially Symantec, have called for a rethink on the traditional IT organisational structure to take advantage of mobility, and stressed the need to establish a chief mobility officer. Symantec points out the traditional structures were suited to managing PCs and laptops, and trying to adapt it to meet the demands of mobility is the “IT equivalent of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.” This makes sense because typically IT organisations are built around a CIO at the helm, with network, security, and application development teams underneath. Though all these groups have a role to play in the mobility strategy of an enterprise, no single group is in charge of mobility, resulting in chaos when it comes to enterprise mobility. In this context, I think the argument for a chief mobility office is a very valid one. Or, a team focused on enterprise mobility that can ensure mobile technologies are integrated into the existing infrastructure and networks without any hassles. Though the clamour for mobility has reached a crescendo among business executives, it’s a tad bit disappointing to see that most of the big IT vendors aren’t really delivering on the mobility front. According to a recent survey by Appcelerator, traditional mega vendors such as IBM, HP and Oracle are not showing leadership in mobile technology. In stark contrast, SAP has taken the lead in this space by offering 70 mobile applications with 200 more in the pipeline. The vendor, according to my colleague Tom Paye, has also rolled out a redesigned app store, which it hopes will encourage customers to purchase enterprise apps on their mobile phones. If the Appcelerator survey is to be believed, 2013 will be the year when the number of new homegrown mobile apps surpasses the number of homegrown PC apps. Interestingly, mobile development is also expected to outpace Web development. No doubt, mobility is a game changer, but I am not sure how many regional businesses are prepared to take the plunge and harness its power. Hopefully, we should see the rise of chief mobility officers who work in parallel with CIOs and CISOs this year.

Publisher Dominic De Sousa Group COO Nadeem Hood Editorial Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 4409109 Editor Ben Rossi ben.rossi@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 4409114 Assistant Editor Joe Lipscombe joe.lipscombe@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9136 Online Editor Tom Paye tom.paye@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9103 ADVERTISING Commercial Director Rajashree R Kumar raj.ram@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 4409131 Sales Managers Michal Zylinski michal.zylinski@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 4409159 Sami Sabbah sami.sabbah@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 4409152 Antony Crabb antony.crabb@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 4409108 Circulation Circulation Manager Rajeesh M rajeesh.nair@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 4409147 Production and Design Production Manager James P Tharian james.tharian@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 4409146 Designer Analou Balbero analou.balbero@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 4409104 DIGITAL SERVICES Digital Services Manager Tristan Troy P Maagma Web Developers Erik Briones Jefferson de Joya Photographer and Social Media Co-ordinator Jay Colina webmaster@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9100 Published by

WHERE TECHNOLOGY MEANS BUSINESS issue 257 | june 2013 WWW.CnMeOnLine.COM

Registered at IMPZ PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 4 447 2409 Printed by Printwell Printing Press

If you’d like to receive your own copy of CNME every month, log on and request a subscription: www.cnmeonline.com

Regional partner of THE

SPAGHETTI INCIDENT SEHA, DP World and Ooredoo implement enterprise architecture to align their ‘spaghetti-like’ infrastructures

PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZ

EntErprisE app storEs: arE thEy thE futurE of it?

© Copyright 2013 CPI All rights reserved While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.

EDITORIAL Our events

The Italian Job

Ben Rossi Editor Talk to us: E-mail: ben.rossi @cpimediagroup.com

Being of Italian descent, I am pretty partial to a nice bowl of spaghetti bolognese. But in IT circles, it’s not quite as sought after. This month, you’ll read about how DP World, Ooredoo and Abu Dhabi Health Services (SEHA) have turned to an enterprise architecture (EA) tool to avoid a “spaghetti incident”. We fill our magazine each month with hoards of new technologies that are on the radar of enterprises to bring about commercial gain. But the trouble with new technologies is it’s not long before they become old. Then the big challenge is how you get all the different services, systems and components that make up your IT infrastructure to align and inter-relate. Before you know it, you have a spaghetti-like architecture as well. EA has yet to completely take off in the Middle East, with a lack of awareness the main reason for that. But as trends like cloud, mobility and Big Data continue to force organisations to consider new approaches to IT, I can see EA becoming a very popular tool for CIOs to maintain a clear and whole picture over their infrastructures. On top of our EA case study this month, we are loaded with more CIO stories, including a technology refresh at Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD), a hosting solution for Trinity Holding, and an IPv6-based solution for Tawazun. Our CIO Spotlight this month falls on the IT Director of Kamal Osman Jamjoom Group, Thameem Rizvon. We’ve had a very busy month for events — both our own and covering overseas conferences. For the former, we organised the Middle East’s first event focused entirely on Big Data, a hospitality-focused mobility roundtable with Huawei, and a large-scale ICT Forum with Etisalat. For the latter, we jetted off to EMC World in Las Vegas, and BlackBerry Live and SAP Sapphire, both in Florida. Analyses of all these events can be found in the front section of the magazine. As you can see, mobility and Big Data were big themes for CNME in May, and to reflect that, we’ve also covered both in length in our Solutions World and Storage Advisor sections, respectively. Futhermore, find out why MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) have yet to catch on in the Middle East (page 80), whether enterprise app stores will ever catch on (page 56), and why only a fraction of regional enterprises currently have data loss prevention (DLP) policies in place (page 68). As we enter June, the heat of the summer may now be upon us, but that won’t stop us from continuing to load extensive and insightful content into CNME each month. Enjoy your read.

Big Data

Symposium

Our online platforms

Our social media

facebook.com/computernewsme

twitter.com/computernewsme

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

linkedin.com/in/computernewsme

Fujitsu recommends Windows 8.

Touch the difference lifebook.ts.fujitsu.com

Fujitsu STYLISTIC Q702 Attach or touch – the hybrid business talent The Fujitsu STYLISTIC Q702 is the perfect choice for mobile professionals looking for high-performance without compromising on versatility. With its attachable keyboard option, this lightweight hybrid tablet PC enables easy content creation and consumption. Either use it as a tablet when traveling or attach the keyboard and convert the STYLISTIC Q702 into a traditional notebook for additional usability in the office. The 29.5 cm (11.6-inch) display with pen and finger input support offers you excellent flexibility while optional 4G/LTE completes the picture of a professional tablet.

with the 3rd gen Intel® Core™ vPro™ processor family – Enriches your life. ■ Up to Intel® Core™ i5 vPro™ processor ■ Windows 8 Pro 64-bit ■ Notebook and versatile tablet PC in one starting from only 850 g, dual digitizer for pen and ﬁnger input, and optional attachable keyboard to convert the tablet into a traditional notebook

■ Ultimate security with Advanced Theft Protection, ﬁngerprint sensor and optional Trusted Platform Module (TPM) ■ Maximum connectivity with optional embedded 3G/UMTS or 4G/LTE (incl. GPS), WLAN and Bluetooth

Our Strategic Partners

Contents

Strategic ICT Partner

Strategic IT Transformation and Big Data Partner

Strategic IT NetworkingPartner

Strategic Technology Partner

ISSUE 257 | June 2013

An appealing prospect: Are enterprise app stores the future of it?

12 48

CBD’s dilemma: increase capacity of refresh technology?

56 36

CIO Spotlight: KOJ Group’s Thameem Rizvon

CNME hosts the Middle East’s first Big Data event

IT on the fly: Working during disasters

IN DEPTH 10 One jump ahead CNME partnered with Huawei to discover how hotels and residential buildings can “jump on the mobility bandwagon without falling off”.

15 By definition There may have been a few people who spat out their coffee the morning they read that EMC had unveiled what it called the “world’s first” software-defined storage platform.

19 SAP goes soppy at Sapphire Twenty-thousand people, three days, one place — last month SAP arrived in Florida for what appeared to be more of a graduation party and less of a business conference during Sapphire Now.

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

22 Black to basics The noticeable change in focus by BlackBerry was hard to miss at BlackBerry Live in Orlando, Florida.

How do you feel about the title “Cloud Master”? No matter where you are in your cloud journey, unleash the power of cloud computing with HP. How will your business adapt in a rapidly changing world? Cloud computing can push your business forward—but it can also introduce new challenges, such as cloud silos and sprawl. Steer clear of complexity by using the right delivery model for your business. Learn more by downloading the CIO-HP Cloud Dossier. Brought to you by HP.

The power of HP Converged Infrastructure is here. Get the CIO-HP Cloud Dossier Cloud Convergence: Redefining the IT Delivery Strategy at hp.com/go/cloudconvergence

w© Copyright 2012 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

Contents

Our Strategic Partners Strategic ICT Partner

Strategic IT Transformation and Big Data Partner

Strategic IT NetworkingPartner

Strategic Technology Partner

ISSUE 257 | june 2013

Features and case studies 44 Safe investment Tawazun deployed Huawei’s IPv6 based solution across its vast industrial site, aiming to ensure faster surveillance response times and a stronger technological backbone.

The spaghetti incident: DP World, SEHA AND OOREDOO implement enterprise architecture (EA)

52 To boldly go Mobility is revolutionising the way the enterprise functions and businesses are quickly adapting to a new way of living.

64 Can you crack the code? CIOs and IT decision makers are going above and beyond to tame, harness and decipher their unstructured data. 76 Regional expertise CIOs have been deploying solutions and applications which are keeping the region relevant, and though most global brands have a presence here in the Middle East, the landscape owes much to locality.

82 MVNO can do Ben Rossi examines why — contrary to other regions — mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) have yet to play a major part in the Middle East’s telecoms industry.

Regulars

Ticking time bomb: Are Middle East enterprises about to explode with data breacheS?

26 Infographic The landscape of Big Data

Product watch: Nokia introduces its latest Lumia

28 Short takes We round up the top technology stories to take our eye in the last month.

36 CIO Spotlight Thameem Rizvon may not have followed in his family’s medical roots, but IT Director of KOJ Group is just what the doctor ordered.

96 Product Watch Nokia is hoping to build on the success of Lumia 920 with the new lighter and thinner 925 model.

33 8

98 Word on the street CNME’s man about town, Joe Lipscombe, gives his spin on the latest IT news and trends. This month, he asks questions about the ethical implications of Big Data.

Trinity Holdings embraces outsourcing

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

in-depth Mobility roundtable

One jump ahead CNME partnered with Huawei for a leadership roundtable conference to discover how hotels and residential buildings can “jump on the mobility bandwagon without falling off”.

38% of hotel-goers said free Wi-Fi is a must when choosing a hotel.

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

ot many hotel CIOs would disagree that the number one challenge facing the industry right now is the mobility trend, driven by the bringyour-own-device (BYOD) phenomenon. The question is, however, how serious are they taking it in the Middle East? An exclusive roundtable prepared by CNME and hosted by Huawei on May 29 set out to answer just that. Huawei’s Enterprise Business invited IT executives from construction companies, hotels, and property development companies, as well as consultants, to a leadership roundtable conference to find out how hotels and residential buildings can “jump on the mobility bandwagon without falling off”. Today’s travellers demand their smart devices to be quickly and seamlessly connected wherever they are. They want to update their social networks, check their emails, and even participate in virtual board meetings — all whilst sitting in the hotel lobby with their laptop, smartphone or tablet. www.cnmeonline.com

This reality is changing the priorities of the hospitality business. It’s causing hotel owners and their teams to reanalyse the factors driving their business, and question how they can capitalise on it whilst maintaining a high level of security. The roundtable showed attendees how they can harness the latest mobility technology to drive business, yet assure their clients that their network infrastructures are reliable, stable and secured from cyber threats. Asfar Zaidi, Principal Consultant, Huawei Enterprise, Middle East, kicked off the event with an introduction into the trend. Zaidi went through the IT trends revolutionising the hospitality industry, pointing to cloud, mobility, social media, bandwidth demand, personalised systems, integration, and energy management systems. Joe Tesfai, CIO, Atlantis the Palm, said in-room mobile controls should be added to that list. According to Zaidi, mobile multimedia is leading the “third wave” of the hotel experience. The first wave was the fixed

“The biggest aspect is the cabling infrastructure. You have to get that 100% right, and we did that very well. Retrofitting is very expensive. Preparing for mobility is indeed an expensive task.” phone era in the 90s, the second wave was the IP phone era — where the location was still fixed — in the 00s, and now the third wave this decade is all about anytimeanywhere and self-serving access.

Zaid went on to cite research which asked hotel-goers what amenity is a must when choosing hotel accommodations. Number one on the list (at 38%) was free Wi-Fi. In another report, 48% of business hotel-goers said free Internet access was important when choosing a hotel, compared to 49% saying quality of service, and 47% saying price. This sparked a debate in the room about whether hotels should charge for Wi-Fi. The hotel CIOs in the room were of the opinion that — due to the high cost of bandwidth in this part of the world — Wi-Fi should be charged because it is not otherwise sustainable to offer high-speed Internet. However, consultants in the room questioned the logic in offering things like free breakfast to guests, but not free Wi-Fi. Expanding on Huawei’s own hotel mobility technologies, Zaidi emphasised the importance of implementing a “complete solution”, which includes “one-stop” service with convenient adaption to the corporate business systems, a “cloud-pipe-device” without security vulnerabilities, and an effective MDM (mobile device management) platform to keep track of all the devices. As a case study for this, he referred to Shanghai Tower, which will open in 2015 as the fourth highest building in the world. Shanghai Tower has worked with Huawei for a complete end-to-end solution based on a “green building design”, and to suitably set the tower up to embrace mobility and BYOD. However, the point was made that Shanghai Tower was in a position to map out its infrastructure from scratch to allow for the mobile evolution, whereas hotels and building built prior to the introduction of smartphones and tablets are in a far more difficult position. Tesfai said Atlantis was built in 2008 just before the iPhone kicked off the “mobility evolution”. Subsequently, whilst Atlantis built a very expansive Wi-Fi infrastructure, it was only designed to cater for laptop Wi-Fi. “It didn’t cover balconies and bathrooms,” Tesfai said. “Nobody did at the time because it was before the smartphone evolution happened. Now we have to fix the gaps, and Internet is very expensive in the UAE. We need to increase the pipe of Wi-Fi by a large amount, whilst at the same time stopping malicious activities. www.cnmeonline.com

“The biggest aspect is the cabling infrastructure. You have to get that 100% right, and we did that very well. Retrofitting is very expensive. Luckily we didn’t have to do that — we just have to change the access points. But preparing for mobility is indeed an expensive task.” Shebin Hassan, Executive Director, Flora Hospitality, said the size of the hotel also makes a big difference, and testified that setting up for BYOD can be very costly. “When you have 1,600 rooms, Wi-Fi has got to be controller-based and it’s got to be intelligent, because if you need to manage it centrally you need the right facilities,” Hassan said. “What we did with our existing hotels a few years back was make sure we had an access point in every room. I have two properties near the city centre. They’ve got 298 apartments, but because these are studios, one-bed and twobed apartments, we’ve got 772 rooms including living rooms, meaning we have 772 access points.” Hassan said doing this would normally be very expensive, but by opting for nonbranded, cheap access points, which were not controller-based and just worked in the room, Flora was able to save costs. “However, there is a risk with going with that model because if your power trips or something like that, somebody has to go from the Wi-Fi room all the way to the guest room to fix it.” In Flora’s new project to build a hotel next year, it has tested five to seven brands and found that controller-based access points are Dhs800 or more, whilst ordinary ones are no more than Dhs150. “We felt that having controller-based access points would be a desirable feature rather than an essential feature," he said. But Flora has ultimately decided to keep a criteria for access points to be BYOD-based, because anytime there is a hanging issue, somebody just has to reset from the switch. Whilst the roundtable was quite UAEcentric, the general feeling was that mobility is a serious priority across the Middle East, and Africa too. june 2013

Computer News Middle East

in-depth Big Data Symposium

What’s the BIG deal? Big Data finally took to the big stage for the first time in the Middle East when CNME hosted the Big Data Symposium in Dubai – the first dedicated Big Data event in the region.

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

hough very few companies have yet to implement Big Data solutions, the curiosity, confusion, and hype combined was enough to fill out the ballroom where guests were treated to rare insights into the IT trend which is sweeping across the globe with gusto. The agenda began with Kumar Prasoon, CIO of Al Safeer Group who discussed a term coined fuzzy analytics. Demonstrating several case studies where analytics in business have proven to increase productivity, improve personalised customer experience and employee skill sets, Prasoon shed as much light on the topic as he did raise interest and mystery. “The huge volume of Big Data is coming from different sources, and each one has its own behaviour. But the analyses of these need to be done with a human touch,” he stressed. Following the keynote, Walid Gomaa of HP MENA gave his presentation on unleashing the power of Big Data where he discussed the three Vs; variety, velocity and volume. “From buzzword to reality,” he said. “It’s about controlling the complexity of this data

and its forms, dealing with the exponential rate of growth and the volume.” He also stressed that the correct skill set and planning was needed in order to harness Big Data — it’s not a simple technology trend. "It’s not plug and play," he said. "You need the right software and solutions, and to provide the right information and services that encapsulates the data.” In the final stage of the first act, prior to the break, the crowd was treated to a rare case study from Gulf Air’s IT director, Dr. Jassim Haji. The case study in question previously won him an implementation award at CNME’s Network World Awards earlier in the year. Gulf Air has been rolling out Arabic Sentiment — a basic data analytics tool which analyses all socially posted comments about the airline’s service in any Arabic dialect. “The importance of social media to your business is very high — anybody can say anything about you. How do you review competitors if not on social media? How do you track your market situation? “So we came up with a tool. We wanted to know how to define feelings from text — are people happy or sad? We targeted the Arabic language. With 422 million

“Perhaps the CIO doesn’t associate Big Data with one of the most important things. But why should the CEO invest in Big Data solutions? Because it will make them money — simple.”

native speakers, there are a lot of views that you can use to your benefit. If you let them speak without analysis, you’re going to lose out.” Dr. Haji and his team developed a linux dictionary by inserting buzzwords commonly found in social posts around airlines, and with much work, has produced a tool which he claims is 84 percent accurate — a percentage which will continue to rise. But it wasn’t just social media which was highlighted as a driver of data growth. Alaa Abdulnabi of RSA used the example of ComScore which reportedly records 31,000,000,000 transactions per day. “We’ve birthed a new role; data scientist. One of the most wanted jobs at the moment. The ability to use tools and algorithms to interact with the data is going to be huge. A lot of intelligence needs to be withdrawn from that data,” stated Abdulnabi. AT Kearney’s Federico Mariscotti then took to the stage to discuss the next move in pushing forward with Big Data. We’ve all heard the word being passed around, but now that it is here, what’s next, he posed. “Perhaps the CIO doesn’t associate Big Data with one of the most important things. But why should the CEO invest in Big Data solutions? Because it will make them money — simple,” he said. “I might be biased, but I love Ferrari and I’m trying to convince my wife to get one. It’s like Big Data — she knows it looks good, she knows it sounds good, but she just isn’t convinced,” he joked. Drake and Scull’s Corporate IT Director, Terrance Sathyanarayan, has high hopes for the Middle East though, and delivered the following information with a great degree of enthusiasm, happily received by the audience. “70 percent of data management professionals consider Big Data an opportunity. We have a 58 percent cumulative annual growth rate for the next five years. By 2018/2019, it’s going to be www.cnmeonline.com

CNME says: The turnout, the engagement and the overall buzz surrounding the event quite simply goes to show that Big Data is being taken very seriously in the Middle East. Though perhaps not at the level where each and every company is ready to deploy solutions, the interest in the topic is as high as any other IT trend we can remember. The harnessing of Big Data will be a key differentiator in business moving forward, with the growth of data, specifically unstructured, only set to increase. This message appears to have made its way underneath the skin of companies across the region, and Big Data is a concern which is causing CIOs to reconsider what is hype and what is reality.

a big, big requirement. So we’re probably early adopters,” he explained. Then for another rare insight, Mohammad Al Hassan of Abu Dhabi Police, explained how the police force is using Big Data analytics to decipher data which will ultimately provide them with things like the fastest routes to accidents, which type of vehicle to send to the scene, and information on the accidents or cases. “My job is saving human life, reducing human suffering, and protecting property. I’m always looking for Big Data to support me in my decisions,” he said. Then came the final presentation from Cognizant’s Ragavendra Rao, who discussed using Big Data as a way of getting to know your customer — an element which could prove to be a winning move in business. “To quote Darwin; it’s not the strongest who survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one who is adaptable to change,” he said. Following this, the event came to a close with an in-depth panel discussion which addressed the concerns of the audience, who piled on their questions. june 2013

Computer News Middle East

in-depth Etisalat ICT Forum

Broader than broadband When you’ve built yourself up to become one of the Middle East and Africa’s largest telecoms operators, it can be difficult to then position yourself as a top-notch ICT supplier, too. However, at its recent ICT Forum, held in partnership with CNME, Etisalat proved with gusto that it had much more to offer than just a decent broadband rate.

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

he high-profile conference, which attracted a 300-strong audience of IT professionals, was designed to showcase what else Etisalat can offer to the enterprise. From private clouds and cloud security to M2M and mobile device management, Etisalat had all the bases of enterprise IT covered. It’s no longer about 4G data rates and international calling deals at Etisalat — it’s about providing anything that enterprise IT demands. During a keynote session, Mehdi Kurishi, Senior Director of Product Management and Marketing, Etisalat, said as much. He explained about Gartner’s nexus of forces and IDC’s third platform of computing to drive home the point that the enterprise’s IT needs are changing. And Etisalat wants to be there to accommodate any businesses that want to adapt. His points were then echoed by Abdulla Hashim, Senior Vice President, ICT, Etisalat, who delivered the keynote session’s closing remarks. He said that it was vital that companies take advantage of the emerging trends of Big Data, cloud, mobility and social.

What percentage of IT budget was spent on information security, if any?

What are the primary drivers behind any M2M project you are involved in implementing?

Is your organisation willing to use/adopt cloud computing for (parts of) your IT?

44%

35%

30%

26% 24%

23% 11%

13% 10%

1. 1% or less 2. Between 2% and 5% 3. Between 6% and 10% 4. Between 11% and 25%

“You do not want to miss the boat,” he asserted. Following this, a packed day of up-tothe-minute talks ensued. Jyoti Lalchandani, Group Vice President and Regional Managing Director, IDC, delivered an analyst’s insight into the evolving role of the CIO. Following this, Nidal Taha, Middle East Vice President, Zservices, Zscaler,

"There are a few key trends sweeping the market; Big Data, cloud, mobility, social. These are vital for the next era of IT. You do not want to miss the boat."

1. Enable new services 2. Creating op. efficiency/reduce costs 3. Improving existing services 4. Others

explained to the audience how Etisalat’s Zscaler-powered cloud security offerings can transform the way in which people now view the cloud. Later on, Zakaraya Alashek, Senior Manager of Mobility Solutions and M2M, Etisalat, touched the growing number of opportunities that are emerging from machineto-machine solutions. Indeed, some of his predictions seemed utterly fantastical, but the technology was available today, he said. Pramila Rani, Senior Manager of Professional Services, Etisalat, then brought things back down to Earth with a talk on Etisalat’s successes in implementing various projects — some were huge governmental projects that simply had to be delivered on time and without a single foot being put wrong. “But this isn’t a sales pitch,” she stressed. “I’m simply stating the facts so that you can make an informed decision.” Soon after, Antoine Chamieh, CEO, LG-Orbis Systems, took to the stage to explain about smart surveillance. Only six percent of incidents are captured by staff using CCTV because they can only be monitoring screens for 20 minutes at a time, he said. But using analytics and Big Data to assist in surveillance, corporations had a much better chance of catching out incidents www.cnmeonline.com

1. We are already using cloud computing 2. We expect to adopt within 12 months 3. We see it viable in the long term 4. Insufficient knowledge to judge 5. We have no intention to adopt

as they happen, he explained. The final speaker of the day was Jitendra Kapoor, Manager of Hosting and Cloud Computing, Etisalat. His talk focused on Etisalat’s cloud offerings, which include public and private clouds hosted at the firm’s data centre in Jebel Ali, Dubai. This meant that local businesses who are not allowed by law to host their data outside of the country, could now get on board with the latest cloud technologies. The event was more than a simple schedule of talks, however. Apart from holding a panel discussion with the day’s speakers at the end, Etisalat wanted to make its ICT Forum more interactive than most events. Delegates were given keypads upon entrance, and then asked questions about the topics being raised by the speakers. They could vote on the answers that best applied to them using these keypads, providing an insight into how the room felt about these issues. Some of the results are shown here. And given what the rest of the results showed, it seemed clear that the region’s IT professionals are indeed looking to take advantage of emerging IT trends. All Etisalat wanted them to know is that it was now able to provide them with a means to do this. After all, Etisalat’s product portfolio is now much broader than broadband. june 2013

Computer News Middle East

in depth EMC World 2013

By definition There may have been a few people who spat out their coffee the morning they read that EMC had unveiled what it called the “world’s first” software-defined storage platform, EMC ViPR.

oftware-defined storage as a term in itself is not new in the industry, and neither are solutions that tout themselves as just that. However, the basis for EMC’s claim stems from the definition of softwaredefined storage, which is something that is yet to be settled among the industry’s elite players that are all trying to be seen as leading the new paradigm. The term rose to prominence as an ingredient of what VMware called the software-defined data centre (SDDC) at its annual virtualisation conference, VMworld, last year. An SSDC is a data centre in which the entire infrastructure — networking, server, storage and security — is virtualised, automated and managed by software. The storage element is significant because, with an inflection point in the industry appearing imminent, those vendors that get it right will be securing a 16

Computer News Middle East

jUNE 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

sizeable chunk of the market. According to the man behind EMC’s delve into software-defined storage, Amitabh Srivastava, President, Advanced Storage Division, every attempt at defining it up to now — including EMC’s — has been wrong. “Everyone is defining software-defined storage in their own way,” Srivastava told CNME at EMC World 2013 in Las Vegas, where the platform was launched. “Because there is currently no fixed definition of it, a lot of them are taking an appliance that was built a few years ago and, just because it runs software and there are hardware intervals running on a virtualised system, they’re calling that software-defined storage. “I don’t think so, because softwaredefined storage is all about building it for the cloud and the software-defined data centre. It’s not about a single array; it’s about an entire storage infrastructure which is highly scalable and available, because that’s the end goal. “That is why ViPR is really designed with the goal of how it can take your storage infrastructure and arrays to this massive cloud infrastructure that can plug into this software-defined data centre. None of these systems are even talking about any of the stuff we are talking about.” In any device, the data path is where the data comes in and out of the array, and the control path is used to really manage the arrays. According to Srivastava, all previous systems claiming to be software-defined have been built first of all as an appliance, and always in the data path. ViPR manages both planes and decouples them from each other to allow them to be used together. Customers can also use only the control plane to manage the underlying intelligence of the storage arrays through policy-based automation, which EMC called a “radical departure” from prior attempts to virtualise storage. “We looked at all the systems and approaches of the past, and realised that putting in the data path is not the right architecture if you are really trying to go to the cloud,” he said. “What ViPR does is decouple the control path and the data

“We are the only ones looking at the problem holistically, and really trying to get to the places where we can add value to the customer, who save lots of dollars because their management and operation costs are going down, and they are being provided a path to the cloud.” Amitabh Srivastava, President, Advanced Storage Division, EMC

path, and it is the only one that does that. “By decoupling it, if you just want automation, you can just do it with the control path and you don’t have to mess with the data path. We believe this is a requisite for a truly software-defined storage platform because, when you virtualise, you have to preserve the value of the underlying arrays.” Srivastava also claimed that previous systems have not been built as a highly distributed and scalable architecture, which means objects cannot be built on top of it, another important aspect of softwaredefined storage.

Built for volume ViPR is designed to deal with the vastly growing data by allowing enterprises to drive towards the operational model of Web-scale data centres without having to hire thousands of technical experts to build a custom environment. The platform offers the ability to view objects as files, and provides file access performance without the latency inherent to object storage. It also provides the capability to be implemented entirely in software, and will run against EMC, nonEMC and commodity hardware. EMC is essentially trying to do for storage what VMware has already done for servers — abstracting, pooling and automating the infrastructure. First and foremost, EMC ViPR is designed for cloud environments, and specifically service providers. However, the company is also touting ViPR as suitable www.cnmeonline.com

for the many enterprise IT departments that are transforming themselves to offer IT-as-a-service and building out their own internal Web-scale clouds. Whether EMC’s definition of softwaredefined storage is what the market wants will only be determined by the customer response, but Srivastava said he is confident he and his team have got it right this time. “We are so confident it will be our definition because nobody knows storage better than us, nobody knows enterprise better than us, and nobody knows cloud better than us,” he said. “We are the only ones looking at the problem holistically, and really trying to get to the places where we can add value to the customer, who save lots of dollars because their management and operation costs are going down, and they are being provided a path to the cloud. That’s why we are confident we will succeed.” Should software-defined storage catch on, as many predict, Srivastava identified the Middle East as a region where CIOs can now jump ahead in storage innovation—if they’re willing to take the opportunity early. “Whenever industries are at an inflection point—as the storage industry is now with the emergence of softwaredefined storage—there is a major opportunity to leapfrog,” he said. “So I think many Middle East CIOs will be thinking why they should build a traditional IT infrastructure when they can leapfrog and build a software-defined data centre from the get-go.” jUNE 2013

Computer News Middle East

in depth SAP Sapphire Now

SAP goes soppy at Sapphire Twenty-thousand people, three days, one place — last month SAP arrived in Florida for what appeared to be more of a graduation party and less of a business conference during Sapphire Now.

ith approximately 80,000 people tuning in digitally around the world, SAP’s board of executives preached to a near 100,000 strong crowd in Florida — and the message could not have been clearer; it believes HANA is the future of business. SAP’s co-CEOs, Jim Snabe and Bill McDermott, along with the company’s cofounder, Hasso Plattner, and other executive board members, all took to the stage to do little more than glaze the crowd with supposed success stories of a technology they claim is the greatest innovation in the last 20 years. “HANA will be the platform for every single thing we do going forward,” stated McDermott during his opening address. “It’s the fastest-growing database and the fastest-growing software product in business ever,” claimed Snabe during his keynote on day two. And Plattner joined in on the final day, saying that HANA is giving the power back to the mathematician. “Look at what these brilliant minds can do with these predictive analytics. HANA, with the power of mathematics and design, is the key to achieving the unthinkable.” But Sapphire Now wasn’t just a parade — the company made several major announcements, covering multiple business areas for SAP, most of which were still

HANA-related — demonstrating either the versatility of the platform or perhaps SAP’s bourgeoning faith in the technology. On the opening day, McDermott revealed that SAP is now working in the sports and media industry, its 25th vertical. With case studies from sports equipment innovators Under Armour, NFL team the San Francisco 49ers, and the NBA, McDermott demonstrated that, with HANA, SAP is now a business-to-business-to-consumer company and that tackling the user experience is its number-one priority. “Behind every transaction you run is an employee, a customer, a supply manager — we need to be caring for the human. This is

“Look at what these brilliant minds can do with these predictive analytics. HANA, with the power of mathematics and design, is the key to achieving the unthinkable.” www.cnmeonline.com

the message,” he said. Snabe took to the stage on day two to announce that all of SAP’s software solutions are now fully available in the cloud — bringing to a close a three-year commitment from the company to deliver this. At the same time, Snabe revealed that Business Suite as a database on HANA is now generally available. “It was our promise to bring all of our software solutions to the cloud and we have done that. Speed is critical in business now, and the scalability and availability of your applications in the largest global cloud platform will be the difference,” he said. On the final day, it was Plattner who opened proceedings by quashing common myths surrounding HANA. “I was looking through the freedom of speech legislation — I could not find the freedom to make up facts,” he stated. With a keen interest in attracting more and more start-ups, Plattner addressed issues which may stunt the uptake from smaller and newer businesses. “Adopting HANA is disruptive to business? It is not disruptive,” he claimed. “Most of the changes are happing in the data layer. Applications are not fully re-written at all, rather they are re-factored and simplified due to the full use of SQL and stored procedures — this transaction is not disruptive to business.” SAP believes that start-ups will be the june 2013

Computer News Middle East

in depth SAP Sapphire Now

future of business, and with more and more adopting HANA and creating applications on top, exciting things are happening. Over 430 start-ups have adopted HANA as a platform, many of which are already developing their own applications — something SAP refers to as “co-innovation”. “Co-innovation is the future of business,” said Snabe. “What we’re seeing now is companies coming to us with ideas for applications and asking whether they can be run on HANA — this is co-innovation.” This was focused on with great stress as Plattner claimed that one of the most hurtful myths about HANA was that it wouldn’t support third-party applications. “We preach that over 60 percent of use cases are outside of SAP — cancer treatment, sports statistics, etcetera. Not to mention over 430 start-ups are now on HANA, building amazing things.” SAP appears to have truly piled all its recent energy into HANA as a platform, and Snabe believes that technologies such as this, in a critical time of business competitiveness, will be the difference. During his keynote, he talked about how Darwinism could be compared to business today. His closing statement was thus: “In nature, there is a natural selection. It’s about being at the table, not on it. We see this in business; there is a natural selection in business. Like in nature, changes happen in quantum leaps, changing the rules of the game, but there is one big difference. In business, evolution is not random; it’s deliberate — deliberate by companies which are brave enough to define the future.” SAP wasn’t subtle in claiming that it’s the company to achieve this, but competition may view this one of two ways; a wake-up call, or an unnecessary song and dance that SAP now has to support. 20

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

Sapphire by days

“Simplified, we harvest six and a half

Day 1 SAP announces that its Afaria mobile

billion pieces of data per car, per race.

management solution is now available

Combined, that’s double the amount of

in the cloud, hosted on Amazon Web

data than the human population. Suddenly,

Services, for €1 per device, per month.

HANA provides you with a way of asking

Sanjay Poonen, President

that population a question, simultaneously,

and Corporate Officer for Mobile

and provides you with an answer in half a

Communications, said that SAP had

second — it’s mind blowing.”

also signed a strategic partnership with

Dennis added that the speed with

mobile app-based security company

which HANA has improved its data

Mocana, in order to provide ready-to-go

access is beyond comprehension, giving

mobile app management.

McLaren the ability to analyse, simulate,

“Customers can now leverage all

and predict the future.

the scalability and manageability which made us leaders in this industry in a

Day 3

cloud-based solution. We don’t usually

SAP announces Fiori, a set of 25

pride ourselves on price, but €1 per

easy-to-use applications for the most

device, per month is unbelievable.”

frequently used transactions, available

This price system makes Afaria the solution with the lowest cost of ownership in its category.

across a broad range of devices, to be published on Google Chrome. Member of the executive board, Vishal Sikka, revealed that Fiori will be available through the SAP Marketplace.

Day 2 Snabe introduces McLaren as a customer

“It’s 25 applications available across

case study. The British racing team has

your desktop, smartphone, and tablet,”

been using HANA for over a year, and

he said.

Ron Dennis, the company’s chairman,

Fiori is built in tandem with SAP’s

said that he believes HANA is a

new partnership with Google, which has

historical feat of engineering.

been drafted in to help the company

“You speak about people that changed the world, you speak about Darwin and natural selection—for me, I

deliver a set of new applications with a heavy focus on design, look and feel. “These beautiful applications are

truly believe that if HANA was a person,

optimised on Chrome, the most secure

she’d go down in history as changing the

and modern browser on the Internet,”

world,” he said.

said Google.

www.cnmeonline.com

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 notication.

in-depth BlackBerry Live

Black to basics The noticeable change in focus by BlackBerry was hard to miss at BlackBerry Live in Florida, with the news of yet another smart device release on BB10 and the eyebrow-raising plan to offer the popular BlackBerry Messaging (BBM) on other platforms grabbing the headlines. Aparna Arya reports.

he BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) offering has given customers the option to manage BlackBerry devices whether it is a government or a company network, and the company is now providing that feature so that customers can manage non-BlackBerry devices. Moreover, it is also providing security for data regardless of what devices the customers use — a signal of intent? Even though the move has long been in the pipeline, the official launch of BES 10.1 has made way for enterprise customers to begin upgrades in the second half of the year — a development that might also boost sales for the company’s new line of Blackberry 10 smartphones.

Middle East carriers have launched the BlackBerry Z10 so far

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

The BB10 OS introduced a new member during the event; the Q5 — the second QWERTY based smartphone in the range. However, the difference being that the Q5 will be targeted at consumers in the emerging markets. “BlackBerry is excited to bring a new BlackBerry QWERTY smartphone, the BlackBerry Q5, to our customers in selected markets around the world,” said Thorsten Heins, CEO, BlackBerry. “The BlackBerry Q5 gives you the best of everything with its cutting-edge BlackBerry 10 functionality and a physical QWERTY keyboard.”

The future of mobile computing At the conference, the company also laid out a bold vision for its recently released operating system that powers its new line of devices. “BlackBerry understands mobile better than anyone else — it’s in our DNA,” Heins claimed. Elaborating on this further, the enterprise update session of BlackBerry Live www.cnmeonline.com

gave the participants a chance to know in detail how the BlackBerry Enterprise System (BES) 10.1 scores over BES 10. There are four important features of BES 10.1 which bear mentioning; a regulated level enterprise mobility option, single server deployment, high availability, and new reporting and dashboards.

Enterprise buying in Even though winning customers in the smartphone market won’t be easy for BlackBerry, organisations, both government and corporate, have already started installing BlackBerry Enterprise Services that allow them to run BlackBerry 10 devices. In fact, The New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications confirmed it intends to deploy some 2,000 BlackBerry 10 smartphones by this summer, while one of Canada’s top banks, BMO Financial Group, endorsed BlackBerry 10 as its platform of choice. Talking about security, Scott Totzske, SVP, BlackBerry security claims that there

IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU.

IT’S ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMER.

You don’t buy communications products for your own benefit. You buy those products so you can better service your customers. Our products and cloud-based services are developed to help you deliver the best possible experience to your customers – turning that superior experience into a competitive advantage for your business. Give your customers choices in the media types they use to contact you. Give your employees immediate access to information and documents so they can respond more quickly to your customers. Provide automated self-service that allow your customers to complete transactions without frustration. Each customer is unique. The service you deliver should be unique as well. Now you can deliver more.

www.inin.com/ae-sa

in-depth BlackBerry Live

really is no competition for Blackberry when it comes to security. “There is nothing more secure than a Blackberry device. We build everything from the ground up.” According to Totzske, the combination of hardware, software and infrastructure is unique to BlackBerry and it’s the totality of the security that differentiates them from the rest. This security is available on Android and iOS through secure-workspace, where there is separation of personal and corporate work space. “Our industry is defined by innovation and the pace of innovation has picked up a lot. Security in BlackBerry depends on how we look at evolution of security. We look at the modern smartphone, how the user interacts with it, what do organisations need to do their job and balance these tasks,” remarked Totzske. The event also highlighted the importance of smartphones for emerging economies in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Smartphone uptake is exploding in these emerging markets as a product of rising wealth, brand desire, access to education, and a need for key services in health, welfare, education and finance. For instance, 28 Middle East carriers have launched the BlackBerry Z10 so far, and 15 have launched Q10. What’s more, BlackBerry supports 50 app developers in the region to develop Arabic content. Mobile is an engine of growth and, in many ways, emerging markets are further advanced in mobile service innovation. Many businesses in these markets are built first for mobile and, in some areas, a lack of telecoms infrastructure is in fact driving mobile internet innovation. At the same time, alongside this growth, the industry also needs to play its part in supporting local governments to address socio-economic challenges, to enable progress, and to build mobile ecosystems for sustained growth in the future. All the panelists were unanimous in their viewpoint on how the emerging markets should be viewed – as unique centres for innovation. Discussions also focused on what customers want when it comes to apps. 24

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

“BlackBerry understands mobile better than anyone else — it’s in our DNA.” Thorsten Heins, CEO, BlackBerry

BlackBerry has done extensive research to identify trends based on demographics, region, gender and more. Jeff Murphy, Senior Product Marketing Manager, BlackBerry, provided some customer insights. He pointed out that research done by BlackBerry user demographics showed that BlackBerry customers are mature (the 35 to 64 age group are the highest users) and smart (most are employed graduates). The research showed that the applications used also vary with age. For instance, the age group of 25 to 34 uses maps, weather and social networking the most – though many popular ‘main-stream’ apps still remain unavailable on BB 10.

What kind of apps are people looking for? To understand that, Murphy said, developers need to look at two characteristics — frequency and favourites. Social networking apps (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) stand out in www.cnmeonline.com

both — they are the favourites and are used most frequently. According to research done by BlackBerry, region wise, if developers look at developed and emerging economies, there are discrepancies in what people would like. While social networking tops the chart for both, moving on, emerging economies show more preference for weather and eBooks as compared to instant messaging and finance for developed countries. Based on age, the priority for the target audience in the age group of 14 to 24 is games, while for 35 to 44, the preference is weather. Moreover, in a push toward social networking that features characteristics of Instagram and Facebook, BlackBerry introduced BBM Channels, which allows users to “subscribe” to channels and connect to and receive updates on their favourite brands, publications and celebrities. Is this a comeback for BlackBerry? With the Q5 making its debut and the BBM going multi-platform. Will it revive BlackBerry’s fortunes? Heins and co certainly hope so, but sentimentality doesn’t sell devices – not anymore, at least.

Unleash the full potential of BYOD HP BYOD Solutions Built on HP Intelligent Management Center– a single pane-of-glass wired and wireless management system, HP BYOD Solutions enable seamless on boarding, managing, and monitoring of any device on your network. HP BYOD Solutions are: • Simple • Scalable • Secure Find how to enhance productivity and minimize risk with a comprehensive solution from HP Networking at hp.com/networking

© Copyright 2013 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

streaming video takes up more than

smarthphone

1/3 of internet

would have been the

traffic during

top

normal

most powerful computer

in the world in

1985

television-watching

5 video

h urs

streaming websites are

youtube.com, vimeo.com metacafe.com, hulu.com veoh.com

more than

1.4 billion consumers are

92% spending data was created

22%

of their online time

using social platforms

of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

in just the past two

years

120 Milli n you$600 can people in the U.S. now

own

smartphones up 30 million in just the

past year

For

buy

a disk that can

store all

music

of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

30+ Billion

pieces of data are added

to acebook

the end

every month h urs

of 2012 of video are comscore added to 1.4 trillion digital interactions was capturing

per month

youtube

every minute Source: Mushroom Networks

short takes Month in view

Saudi Ministry of Health deploys cloud to fight disease The Saudi Ministry of Health recently announced it has implemented IBM’s Public Health Solution for Disease Management in Jeddah, Mekkah, Taif and Qunfudah. The cloud-based system will be in place throughout the rest

of Saudi Arabia within three to five years, a statement from the two organisations said. The solution helps to manage the risk of infectious communicable diseases by providing public health professionals with a secure

application to collect, share and analyse health information. This would help Saudi Arabia’s health community to better manage outbreaks of SARS, influenza and other communicable diseases, the statement said. The solution will also allow better communication among health professionals, further aiding the fight against outbreaks.

‘Tablets are doomed’

Yahoo confirmed it will acquire the popular blogging service Tumblr in a deal worth about $1.1 billion, which is expected to close in the second half of this year. “Per the agreement and our promise not to screw it up, Tumblr will be independently operated as a separate business,” Yahoo said in a statement.

Computer News Middle East

PC sales in China and high growth in smartphones shipments helped boost Lenovo’s net profit for its fiscal fourth quarter by 90 percent year-overyear. For the quarter ended March 31, Lenovo’s net profit was $127 million. Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing celebrated record-breaking revenue at $7.8 billion, growing four percent from the same period last year.

Lenovo Samsung Electronics reported global channel sales of over 10 million units of the Galaxy S4 in less than a month after its global launch. The new smartphone has outstripped its predecessors in first-month sales. The Galaxy S3 reached the 10 million mark 50 days after its launch in 2012, while the Galaxy S2 took five months and the Galaxy S seven months to reach the milestone.

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins said he believes in five years there will be no reason to have a tablet anymore. “Tablets themselves are not a good business model,” he said.

Yahoo: We won’t screw up Tumblr

WHAT’S HOT?

Etisalat launches mobile plans for SME segment

Samsung

Etisalat reaffirmed its commitment to the UAE’s SME sector with the announcement of revamped business packages for mobile. The new plans, dubbed ‘Business Ultimate’, can be customised to target specific SME needs, Etisalat said. Four bundled packages, starting at Dh99 per month and going up to Dh999 per month, comprise of local and international calls, SMS, local data and smartphones at a zero up-front cost. The smartphones on offer constitute the latest models, and include the Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE, the BlackBerry Q10 and the iPhone 5. All of these devices were offered exclusively with the Business Ultimate plan for the first month. Etisalat said it wanted to offer superior propositions to the SME market with the Business Ultimate plans, so even the Dh99 package offers 130 minutes of local and international calls each, 130 SMS messages and 130 MB of local data. Packages costing Dh199 per month and Dh399 per month are also available, Etisalat said.

june 2013

HP reported a 32 percent drop in profit for its second fiscal quarter, due partly to slower sales of PCs and servers. HP’s revenue for the quarter, ended April 30, was $27.6 billion, down 10 percent from the same period last year. Revenue from HP’s massive PC division fell 20 percent in the quarter.

Twenty-six years after founding Huawei, CEO Ren Zhengfei recently gave his first ever press briefing, which he used to highlight the global importance of addressing cybersecurity.

www.cnmeonline.com

Dell reported another quarter of declining profits as CEO Michael Dell continues his fight to take the company private. Dell’s profit for the quarter, ended May 3, was $130 million, down 79 percent from $635 million a year earlier. Dell’s PC division was particularly hard hit. Sales for the quarter were down 9 percent to $8.9 billion, and the group’s operating profit skidded 65 percent lower to $224 million.

Dell

WHAT’S NOT?

GCC IT industry to grow 10 to 25 percent in 2013 The IT software and services sector in the GCC is forecast to grow between 10 and 25 percent, according to a recent survey by technology solution provider Omnix. The survey was made up of a questionnaire targeting market strategists in the Services Top 100 IT companies, as well as senior management representatives from organisations such as Microsoft, Cisco, Autodesk and Motorola Solutions. The trends that were identified included a shift toward e-services, providing multi-channel engagement for customer and citizen e-services, and portal marketing sales. In terms of priorities, the survey found that cloud computing, Big Data, security, and increased mobility featured most heavily. Highlighted challenges included rapidly evolving technologies, a lack of IT training and skills — particularly in project management — long sales cycles and limited budgets. However, government spend and general economic growth in the region were mentioned as big driving forces for the regional IT sector’s growth in 2013. “Healthy oil prices, private sector expansion and an increased push towards government e-services is what will underpin the continued steady growth of the regional IT sector,” said Rabih Dabboussi, Managing Director, Cisco UAE.

Windows 8 won’t hit critical mass in enterprises: Forrester

New CEO

After a vetting process that lasted a little more than six months, Intel has named Brian Krzanich as its next CEO, succeeding Paul Otellini.

IDC: MENA businesses should prepare for cloud transition Businesses in the MENA region face significant transition and data storage challenges as the regional cloud market continues to grow, according to a report from IDC. IDC said that emerging markets, which include the MENA region, will witness the fastest growth in cloud spending anywhere in the world, collectively growing at 44.1 percent until 2016. “There is a growing maturity among both vendors and organisations in terms of the discussion they have been having around cloud,” said Sony John, Research Manager, IT Services, IDC MEA, in a recent statement. “A lot more organisations are clear about the concept, but are still struggling to deal with some of the challenges — especially around security and connectivity in a public cloud environment.”

‘Renegade’ business execs drive IT strategy Business executives are increasingly bypassing the IT department and spending their own budgets on technology as “it’s too important for their business to leave to IT”, according to Forrester Research. Forrester’s report, “Tracking the Renegade Technology Buyer”, uncovers the motivations and technology spending priorities of over 1,000 business executives. Of the 891 respondents that had a budget over $1 million, 824 spent their own money on hardware, software, telecoms or IT services. Twenty-four percent of the 891 spent over 21 percent of their budget on technology, accounting for over $31 billion in expenditure. Senior management and sales and marketing were the top spending business functions, and financial services/insurance and telecom/utilities led the pack in “renegade” buying. “The high business spenders are not doing it because it is faster or cheaper than central IT, they are doing it because they see technology as too important to their success not to be involved,” said Forrester. In parallel to this, says the report, senior management are more relaxed in dealing with technology, with 33 percent saying their “technology IQ has increased” and that they are more comfortable working with IT.

www.cnmeonline.com

Taj Elkhayat has been announced as Riverbed Technology’s new general manager for the Middle East and North Africa region.

Windows 8, the most significant upgrade to Microsoft’s operating system since Windows 95, will not achieve enough adoption in enterprises to be considered a standard, according to Forrester Research. By the time the next major Windows upgrade is released, Windows 8 will be in less than 50 percent of workplace PCs, unable to overtake its predecessor, Windows 7, Forrester said.

UAE cloud security market poised for growth The UAE is showing a greater demand for cloud security solutions, as cloud uptake in the region continues to increase, according to the latest report from Frost & Sullivan. In its recent “State of Cloud Computing Security in the UAE” report, Frost & Sullivan said that the country’s cloud security market generated more than $8.7 million in 2012. The research firm expects this number to reach $72.3 million by 2019. Frost & Sullivan said that the UAE is one of the June 2013

most spammed countries worldwide, though this has not deterred industries such as retail and logistics showing interest in cloud-based models. And as cloud-based solutions gain traction over the next few years, businesses will be looking to adopt cloud-specific security plans. Frost & Sullivan admitted that the UAE has yet to witness a complete shift to cloud computing, but said that the benefits offered by cloud computing will encourage adoption across the country.

Computer News Middle East

Find us online

www.cnmeonline.com

Analysis: Google woos developers as software becomes more important

Read more online

Reviews: Open Drive: manage all your cloud storage networks

Read more online

http://bit.ly/15rAbLt

http://bit.ly/13vrsFW

Briefs: make iOS app design easy and stress-free

Intel may look to outrun foundry competitors with new CEO Krzanich by Agam Shah

Read more online

http://bit.ly/12XuF0m

http://bit.ly/10QRd1y www.cnmeonline.com

Insight: Blogs: BYOD: Keep your eyes on the enterprise Paul Wright, Manager of Professional Services and Investigation Team, Middle East, India and Africa, AccessData Read more online

http://bit.ly/18IseFm

Your best friend’s perfect girlfriend Joe Lipscombe, Assistant Editor, CPI Technology

Read more online

Computer News Middle East

Read more online

http://bit.ly/147ZthH

Linux code is the ‘benchmark of quality’, study concludes

ComputerNewsME Here we are for #BigDataSymposium - the first dedicated big data event in the region. Buzzing crowd. http://bit.ly/1aQ9YGR 19 May 13 · reply · retweet · favorite

ComputerNewsME #Booo - it’s the final day of #SAPPPHIRENOW

Read more online

http://bit.ly/16AnMJ3

Amazon Web Services will continue to disrupt enterprises, IT vendors http://bit.ly/10QRiCi

june 2013

ComputerNewsME We’ve had some great speakers so far at the #Etisalat #ICTForum at the Grand Hyatt Dubai http://bit.ly/ZD4e3m 28 May 13 · reply · retweet · favorite

Read more online

http://bit.ly/15sx6db

Should your business start accepting Bitcoins?

CNME Tweets:

www.cnmeonline.com

Still lots to be done however! Final keynote is about to begin. http://bit.ly/ZlRKuK 16 May 13 · reply · retweet · favorite

on location Trinity Holdings

Holding down the fort Trinity Holdings has grown a substantial amount over its 30-year history, so it stands to reason that the demands on IT within the company have increased greatly. It was this demand that led to Trinity collaborating with eHosting DataFort, which brought the company up to speed with a top-quality connectivity solution.

rinity Holdings is home to over 3,000 employees and boasts some very high-calibre customers. The company specialises in offering engineering solutions for the region that aim to “shape the future”. Throughout its history, Trinity has always relied heavily on its in-house IT department to come up with the solutions at any given time of need, and to this day, the company is proud to disclose that all its IT-based solutions are designed, implemented and perfected in-house, with very little input from the outside network.

With nine members working across over 350 computers and 25 servers, Trinity has had its work cut out in recent years. As Raghunandan Tharoor, Group Manager, Systems and IT, states, “As the company continues to grow, so do the demands.” Over the years, Trinity has identified the need to upscale its existing connectivity and speed to match the growing demands of its group companies. So the firm set out to find a solution provider.

www.cnmeonline.com

june 2013

Computer News Middle East

on location Trinity Holdings

The task at hand What Trinity was finding was that, with each element of the business feeling increasing pressure and demand, IT couldn’t maintain its level of service due to poor connectivity and speed from the data centre. “We had a solution set up for connectivity and speed,” says Raghunandan. “But that was a long time ago and the solution was just good enough for what we needed at that time. Like many companies, Trinity was working on a tight budget, therefore it compiled a very specific list of requirements for vendors to follow, in order to ensure that the partnership was right, the tasks were addressed and the costs were kept to a minimum.” Trinity went into the market and researched solutions which could improve the speed and connectivity – that was when the company found eHosting DataFort (eHDF). “We told them our limitations, as well as our requirements – we gave them a very specific list of challenges that needed to be addressed, as well as how much we could spend for the project overall,” Raghunandan recalls. eHDF came up with a few options and finally Trinity made a decision to implement a solution from Cisco. Once eHDF had explained the technical side of the solution, as well as tested that the connectivity would match and that the infrastructure would fit the solution, Trinity gave eHDF the green light to get the project up and running. The idea was to have eHDF provide the extra speed and connectivity for its network, managed off-site at eHDF’s data centre, fully managed and controlled from a central hub, ensuring zero worries or concerns for Trinity from then on. “We started off small with about three locations all connected. However, now we’re close to about 10 to 12 locations,” Raghunandan says. “The initial planning from eHDF took not more than a month – they came in, checked out our entire suite and infrastructure and, within around five weeks, the project was completely executed.” Part of the service level agreement from eHDF states that it is accountable for the entire connectivity and speed of the network. And according to Trinity, the job so far has been executed flawlessly. “We used to be able to cater to around six or seven employees at one time – now the maximum is in the hundreds and the improvement has been tenfold. If ever there is a time when we need

“We started off small with about three locations all connected. However, now we’re close to about 10 or 12.”

to adapt the infrastructure and build on it, eHDF will take care of this centrally. The hub at their data centre plays a vital role to us here,” Raghunandan says.

No sign of slowing The eHDF solution has been running smoothly now, without trouble, for over six years at Trinity. This makes it an impressive legacy already, it would appear. However, the IT department continues to push the technological limits at the company, and a hybrid virtual environment is becoming the primary focus now. “IT is integral to all business needs now – from our perspective, we’ve never been more important. The company recognises this and we have good budgets and support at the moment,” says Raghunandan. “Apart from what’s at eHDF’s data centre, we have all servers and network devices locally – this is another example of our team’s specialisations. The websites are even done in-house – 80 per cent of the IT activities are designed, implemented and managed in-house.” The rarity of Trinity’s external solution quest speaks volumes, and the partnership with eHDF seems to show no sign of slowing. “We plan to continue our relationship with eHosting DataFort; they’ve been very good to us.” The engineering solutions company continues to shine in the market – the IT being a key enabler in that. What this successful partnership has done is contribute heavily to a fast growing, expanding and maturing company.

www.cnmeonline.com

june 2013

Computer News Middle East

CIO Spotlight Thameem Rizvon

Thameem Rizvon, IT Director, Kamal Osman Jamjoom Group

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

Not what the doctor ordered Though he derives his inspiration from his family with 11 doctors so far, medicine wasn’t on Thameem Rizvon’s prescription. The Tiruchirappalli, Indiaborn man followed the footsteps of his only tech-minded brother, and today directs the IT team for one of the largest retail groups in the Middle East.

hameem knows a thing or two about family values — he’s the youngest of seven children. He was born and raised in his native India behind three sisters, all doctors, and three brothers. Thameem says that his inspiration has always come from his high achieving family. His father, a journalist, and ever doting mother, set standards high in education and career advancement for Thameem and his siblings, and it’s fair to say that they were all prepared to rise to the challenge. What’s more, Thameem’s wife is also a doctor now at the emergency unit of Al Baraha Hospital, Dubai. According to Thameem, she deals with one third of Dubai’s medial emergency cases. “She’s busier than I am a lot of the time, I don’t know how she does it,” he says.

“My expertise always lied in business development, and the consulting company offered me a fairly good opportunity. The company had offices in India, Singapore and the U.S., but they outsourced into Saudi Arabia. We took a look at Saudi and saw some opportunity, so the company asked me to head out there.”

Up until 1994, Thameem was schooled in India. He travelled to Bangalore to study engineering in computer science, and after graduating decided to pursue opportunities in the IT field. He then took up a job in the IT education sector in a company which offered IT education and consultancy services. After a couple of years in this role, Thameem moved into the consulting part of IT; business and resource consulting. “My expertise always lied in business development, and the consulting company offered me a fairly good opportunity. The company had offices in India, Singapore, and the U.S., but they outsourced into Saudi Arabia. We then took a look at Saudi and saw some opportunity, so the company asked me to head out there and manage the start-up of an office.” Thameem spent an initial six months in Saudi Arabia setting up operations for the new office and helping the company move into the IT sphere, before heading back to India. However, very little time passed before he was back again. In 1999, he returned, spending more than two years there before changing roles and finally joining Kamal Osman Jamjoom (KOJ) Group in April 2002. “They had approached me some time before, back when they were a customer of mine, but I couldn’t accept. I had to stay with my current post in Saudi and ensure that operations got up and running to a point where it was sustainable before moving on.” Thameem began life at KOJ as IT manager back when the company was close to 90-stores strong. The retail group now boasts 700 stores worldwide. “It was an interesting company to move into — it was on the verge of growth. That was exciting. The company had a vision and a mandate for growth. Few companies have the vision, from within Saudi, to be international,” he says.

www.cnmeonline.com

june 2013

Computer News Middle East

Mismanagement of print costs businesses between 1-3% of revenue annually If companies printed in duplex, their paper costs could be reduced by 30%

Take control of your spiralling print costs. Print is often the forgotten business cost, yet solutions are readily available to ensure businesses have maximum visibility and control of their print output. In its latest White Paper, SMB Buying Considerations for Smarter Business Printing, IDC sounds a note of caution that when printer usage is left unchecked there is potential for costs to spiral out of control. Print smart, print OKI. To download the IDC White Paper scan the QR code or visit www.okime.ae/corporate/thought-leadership

CIO Spotlight Thameem Rizvon

“Nobody would have even considered a career in computing back then. I considered being a doctor, or a pilot, but I quickly realised I wasn’t a book worm. I once borrowed my sister’s medical book, but used it as a pillow.”

Thameem joined Kamal Osman Jamjoom Group (KOJ) in April

2002

TIMELINE

“From day one, they believed in people — good people come first. I was inspired by this; inspired to work for them as they grew.” And of course, as they grew, the IT opportunities grew, and after three years, Thameem stepped up to become the group IT manager, and stayed in this position before being promoted to IT director of the group in 2012. However, it was in back in 2003, prior to taking his promotions, that Thameem decided to make the move to Dubai. “My father was proud that I was out making money. Though he would have preferred me to follow my three brothers, who are U.S. citizens, he is happy with what I am doing and urges me to reach even greater heights of success. My brother was my inspiration. He studied engineering science in one of the premium Indian institutions in the 80s when computers were brand new,” he recalls. “Nobody would have even considered a career in computing back then. I considered being a doctor, or a pilot, but I quickly realised I wasn’t a book worm. I once borrowed my sister’s medical book, but used it as a pillow. I watched her read it and it just wasn’t for me. I liked toys — breaking them and fixing them.” Thameem describes himself as having always been more of a technical person, perhaps demonstrating his wisdom in his choice of career. “I’m passionate about IT — specifically about what it can do for business. This is why I set up the CIO Arabia group — a forum which allows CIOs to come together and learn from each other, totally free. This one and the other one — “Middle East Oracle User Group” — are my babies.” Outside of this, Thameem says he has little time with his family, and wishes he could divide his attention a little better. However, he says that spending time with his wife and two sons is his favourite thing. “Otherwise I love my toys,” he says. “Driving around in my Porsche, listening to music from the Bose system.” Thameem says that he would love to go driving with some of his friends — part of a driving group — but feels motorcycles are a little too much for him. www.cnmeonline.com

1994 Achieves his Bachelors of Engineering degree in Bangalore, India

1997 Moves to Saudi Arabia to head up operations as Business Development Manager for a consulting company

2002 Becomes IT Manager at KOJ Group

2003 Moves with the board to Dubai, UAE to lay foundation for the Group’s growth

2005 Becomes Group IT Manager

2012 Starts role as IT Director at KOJ

june 2013

Computer News Middle East

on location DP World

Joseph Foster, Corporate Enterprise Architect, SEHA, Ibrahim Al Najjar, Manager, IT Planning and Support System, DP World, and Steven Leslie Green, Assistant Director IT Architecture and Applications, Ooredoo

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

The spaghetti incident In 2009, DP World in the UAE decided to set up its own IT department separate from the shared services the global organisation operates. But with the inheritance of systems and technologies came the realisation of inconsistencies and redundancies. It turned to an enterprise architecture (EA) tool to obtain a complete view of its IT.

n the short period of time since DP World was formed in 2005, the organisation has grown to one of the largest ports operators in the world, with a portfolio of over 65 terminals across six continents and a staff of 28,000. For years, the IT operations of DP World in the UAE were supported by the ITC (Information Technology Centre), the IT back bone for DP World’s parent company, Dubai World. However, in 2009, DP World UAE decided to set up its own department to be responsible for all IT functions, and thus be independent of the ITC. With this transition came immediate challenges, explains Ibrahim Al Najjar, Manager, IT Planning and Support System, DP World. “When we started to deploy our IT, we inherited many services, systems and technologies, but we did not really have a proper view of the whole picture and how they inter-relate,” Al Najjar says. “We had inconsistencies, redundant systems doing the same things, and systems using different technologies that were not coherent of what we wanted in the future.” In order to achieve such a view across its entire IT functions, DP World wanted to define its enterprise architecture (EA) and identify all the components that made up its IT services. Furthermore, the organisation had many initiative in its

“EA is like something that allows you to write a strategy — you want to grow and achieve things and expand, but it’s not going to be possible if you do not have properly planned support. That may be what’s causing the confusion about EA — people don’t see the whole cycle.”

roadmap for the future, which required a clear understanding of what was happening across its IT so it could build on top of it. This need for DP World to know its EA inspired the decision to implement a relevant tool, thus signalling a selection process to find the right vendor for the project. “We followed our normal procurement process where we tender it out to multiple vendors with our requirements and then we review their proposals, and go with whichever fits our requirements technically and commercially,” Al Najjar says. Following this process, the contract was awarded jointly to Orbus and its Middle East partner, HTP Global Technologies. The chosen solution was Orbus Software’s iServer Enterprise Architect with TOGAF 9 ‘out-of-the-box’ accelerator and Application Portfolio Management (APM) extension. “We went with Orbus mainly because they met our requirements and the proposal from them offered us the least transition from our current practice because they use the same tools we are familiar with,” Al Najjar explains. From negotiation and procurement to implementation, it took a couple of months, but the tool was just one stage of the whole exercise. Before that, DP World did an intensive study, which was not with Orbus, to identify all the components of its architecture. The tool itself went live at the end of 2010, which Al Najjar says was a smooth implementation because the initial work was done. “We used the TOGAF framework and since the tool supports these standards, it was a straightforward implementation. By using iServer and this deliverable-based approach, DP World was able to capture, visualise, socialise and manage its baseline EA information in a central architecture repository and collaborative environment in less than 12 weeks.” DP World also acknowledged that establishing a trained and experienced EA workforce takes time. In parallel to arranging relevant training and certification courses for DP World staff, support and guidance to collate accurate information quickly was also necessary. DP World has seen direct and indirect benefits since implementation, Al Najjar continues, but the biggest of all is the clearer view his team now has on DP World’s continuous improvement and future development.

www.cnmeonline.com

june 2013

Computer News Middle East

on location DP World

As a key example of this, the organisation is now developing Jebel Ali Terminal 3 with completely different operation models than what is currently has. Subsequently, it needs to redefine its standards, operations and procedures, and the systems and components it requires. To design that, it needs to build on top of what it has, which is where EA comes in. “This EA saved us a lot of time because we already have it in place,” Al Najjar says. “We just took that and from there we designed a new model for our operation. “For us it was just one step forward towards our initiatives, but if we did not have EA in place, it would have been a massive exercise.” DP World’s implementation of an EA tool stands out in the Middle East, where the technology has been lacking in awareness and understanding. Al Najjar believes this is because the topic is broad and, to a certain extent, can be abstract to people. “What it helps and serves is not just in one thing, but in many different aspects,” he says. “EA can be a document or a foundation platform for you to build your future plans. “It’s like something that allows you to write a strategy — you want to grow and achieve things and expand, but it’s not going to be possible if you do not have properly planned support. That may be what’s causing the confusion about EA — people don’t see the whole

DP World operates over

65 terminals across six continents

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

cycle. They don’t see what other things they can do by implementing an EA tool.”

Gaining traction Whilst many anticipate the technology to gain significant traction in the Middle East, DP World is not the only firm to embrace it so far. Ooredoo, the exclusive telecommunications provider in Qatar, and Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) are also early implementers of EA in the region. Steven Leslie Green, Assistant Director IT Architecture and Applications, Ooredoo, says current architectures are “accidental”. “Accidental architecture evolves over time into a complex, costly, difficult, and slow-to-change information systems architecture, which has to react to changing priorities and strategies,” he says. “The vision is a coherent set of standardised building blockbased business processes, applications, data and infrastructure, intended to ensure quality and predictability of core transactions, along with flexibility, agility and efficiency.” Joseph Foster, Corporate Enterprise Architect, SEHA, calls silos of processes, tools, data, and more importantly, knowledge, the “enemy within” for many large organisations. It is the enterprise architect’s responsibility, he says, to break down those barriers, put existing resources to efficient use, and to build new services and infrastructure that could be leveraged by different verticals. “Every large organisation, by the virtue of being an enterprise, has some kind of architecture,” Foster says. “More often than not, this default architecture is scattered, less efficient and not well understood — at the very least, implicit. “A well-run EA practice will make this architecture efficient and explicit. They will make the interdependencies and relationships among various systems and verticals more visible.”

www.cnmeonline.com

Does your fibre system tick all the boxes?

LANmark-OF : Competitive Fibre Optic Solutions 40G

100G

• Micro-Bundle cables save up to 50% trunk space • Slimflex cords offer 7,5mm bend radius saving 30% space in patching areas • Pre-terminated assemblies reduce installation time • MPO connectivity enables cost efficient migration to 40/100G

www.nexans.com/LANsystems

LANmark-OF brings the best fibre technologies together to ensure maximum reliability and lowest operational cost.

OF brochure

Accelerate business at the speed of light

info.ncs@nexans.com

Global expert in cables and cabling systems

on location Tawazun Holdings

Safe investment Quickly expanding strategic investment company, Tawazun, recently teamed up with Huawei in order to commit to its mission to develop the UAEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s defence sector. The company deployed Huaweiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s IPv6-based solution across its vast industrial site, as it aims to ensure faster surveillance response times, a stronger technological backbone, and the capabilities for flexibility and expansion.

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

ased in Abu Dhabi, the strategic investment company, which focuses on specialised manufacturing and industry, had a clear vision in regards to its security and surveillance capabilities, and set out into the market in order to track down a service which could improve its CCTV streaming quality and relay surveillance infrastrucutre. In conjunction, the company made it clear from the off-set that it wished to dramatically save costs, improve efficiency and significantly reduce its power consumption, as a way of keeping in line with the UAEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vision for a greener nation.

www.cnmeonline.com

june 2013

Computer News Middle East

on location Tawazun Holdings

The solution in brief Huawei provided Tawazun with its smart campus solution based on IPv6. The product provides a core network, allowing increased communication which is instantaneous across its 70+ locations. It covers the entire surveillance infrastructure, including CCTV. Designed on IPv6 Dual Stack architecture and Cluster Switching Technology (CSS), the robust system aims to provide reliability which compensates failing single devices and protects mission critical data.

The major challenges facing the company, which it wished to address, were improving the physical security backbone infrastructure to cover its current requirements, as well as its flexibility in order to expand without compromising its security strength. “We had requirements from the beginning, in a sense of looking at the system and identifying where we can have flexibilities, and where we can expand while staying secure,” says Mohammad Saif Al Mansoori, IT Director, Tawazun. “So we did some surveys and found a benchmark we wished to reach. We had a business objective to get a robust technology and to achieve virtualisation — Cisco, HP, and Huawei could all provide this. So we looked at local response times from Gartner; how strong each were locally, how they coped with upcoming issues, and how cost effective they were.” Mansoori and his team selected Huawei, which he says was marginally better than HP and Cisco in the areas he was testing. “They had a high bandwidth switch, a better price, as well as the backbone quote. They stood far higher than the other vendors.”

Implementing on campus Mansoori says that the implementation was fairly quick, as well as relatively stress free, thanks to a number POCs (proof of concepts) and test environment set-ups, which ensured that all issues and concerns were identified and rectified prior to the live roll out.

“They had a high bandwidth switch, a better price, as well as the backbone quote. They stood far higher than the other vendors.” 46

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

“It took six months to roll it out, including product evaluation, sizing the requirements, number of switches, and the implementation across the 70+ sites,” he adds. “When we were evaluating, we integrated with the other vendors and did a small POC to see how it would work. We also had a replica copy test environment, which Huawei set up, and if and when we came across challenges, we fixed them then and there. This is another reason why we managed to get everything sorted so quickly. During the actual implementation we had no issues, due to this carbon copy we’d already made.”

New requirements for staff The implementation itself was only completed in the last two months, and Tawazun is now monitoring the entire thing while it waits for specific staff members to take part in training for the new technology. “The good thing about Huawei, and HP, who we use as a service, is that when bringing in the technology, they also incorporated the training. Now the implementation is finished, we’re just waiting for the training to begin, which is in the pipeline and will probably start within the next month,” Mansoori claims. “It will take two types of training; the new IPv6 technology, and then the virtualised switch. It’s really just a matter of sending people out, bringing them back, and merging their training with our in-house team.” Tawazun is confident that the project should last for around three to five years, and claims that the upcoming calendar month is all about backbone infrastructure. “It’s all about the extension of the project next year — more sites, more layers.” “We’ve already achieved benefits with the implementation. We’ve seen drastic change from the old infrastructure to the new one. When you see 800 cameras streaming in perfect clarity, you can see the quality of faster response times, it’s hugely increased. As we add more to the solution, you can begin to see a total centralised response. This was the objective we set out to achieve, and you can see it happening day-by-day.” Power saving On top of all this, Tawazun still maintains that a clear requirement was to share the nation’s vision by reducing its power consumption. The savings made in the data centre and environment are noticeable, Mansoori claims. “It’s important because we’re growing constantly. We’re almost 20 kilometres in diameter now — this makes a big difference when you’re trying to save power. Huawei came with a product which could save efficiency and cost. “Any solution we bring in, we look at power consumption. We have a strict list of objectives and 90 percent are met by this. Over time, we hope the product will prove itself more and more.”

www.cnmeonline.com

BIG DATA

TRANSFORMS BUSINESS Learn more at www.EMC.com.

EMC2, EMC, the EMC logo, and where information lives are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. ÂŠ Copyright 2011 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

on location Commercial Bank of Dubai

The dilemma When the Commercial Bank of Dubai’s storage capacity was running out, it faced a dilemma familiar to many — increase capacity and face the maintenance costs, or take on a complete technology refresh.

aving used HP storage for around eight years, it was no surprise to Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) that capacity was running out. Inevitable action was required. CBD did of course have the option to carry on with its current technology, simply adding more storage capacity and storage controllers onto it. “We looked at what maintenance costs we were paying and what would have been the capital investment to increase capacity,” says Indranil Guha, Head of IT Infrastructure, CBD. Guha and his team also did a case study on how much it would cost to go with a complete refresh of technology with a three-year warranty as it comes, plus the maintenance costs in years four and five, and also including years six, seven and eight. 48

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

Indranil Guha, Head of IT Infrastructure, and Gangiah Sonaimuthu, Section Head Systems and Storage, CBD

www.cnmeonline.com

www.helpag.com

;/0:°0:°56;°(5°iP(+

It°is°an°exit.°<UJVU[YVSSLK°L_P[°WVPU[°MVY°`V\Y°JVYWVYH[L°KH[H °:LJ\YL°`V\Y°I\ZPULZZ°^P[O°/LSW(. °/LSW(.°

PZ°HU°PUMVYTH[PVU°ZLJ\YP[`°ZLY]PJLZ°HUK°ZVS\[PVUZ°WYV]PKLY °2UVÛ°MVY°P[Z°\UTH[JOLK°[LJOUPJHS°L_WLY[PZL°HUK°Z\WWVY[° Zer]PceZ,°/elW(.°\nderZtHndZ°tOe°correlHtPVn°Ietêen°tecOnPcHl°Hnd°ZtrHtegPc°PnMorTH[Pon°Zec\rPt`°Hnd°IrPngZ°ò\°tOL° IeZt°Zol\tPVnZ°H]HPlHIle°oU°tOPZ°WlHnet

:[YH[LNPJ°*VUZ\S[PUN

TLJOUPJHS°:LY]PJLZ

:\WWVY[°:LY]PJLZ

on location Commercial Bank of Dubai

scoring system. It then takes the technical score and weighs it up with the financial offer, before giving a final score. But having found several companies to be “neck-to-neck” in their offerings, CBD asked each vendor to re-submit their financial offers at their best bottom-line prices. “At the end of the day, it did come down to price, because all were proposing their latest and best technologies,” Guha says. The two clear contenders for CBD were HP and Hitachi. The temptation was there to remain a customer of HP. What’s more, CBD was also impressed with HP’s 3PAR solution and commitment to help with data migration. At the same time, Hitachi lacked references in the local banking industry. However, other aspects made up for that. “After the final financial offers came in, we found that Hitachi was winning overall,” Guha says. “Purely because, technically, they were similar to others, but, price-wise, they were much better.” “The model we chose was one of the leading ones in the market with all the features we were looking for at a very competitive price and very strong commitment from the Hitachi top management.” CBD also opted for the Symantec back-up solution. “With that, we also saw a big commitment from both Symantec and the partner,” Guha adds.

A worthy risk The decision to change service provider was not made only as the best financial decision, but also for the benefit of the market, Guha says. “When you go for different technology provider, there’s an element of risk for any user. We were ready to take that risk in the interest of the bank’s financial model.” And while CBD was changing its technology provider, the functioning wasn’t drastically different, due to the fact that HP is an OEM for Hitachi. “So one degree of comfort level was already there that we knew we had already been using a technology that was manufactured by Hitachi and branded as HP,” Sonaimuthu says. “But technology-wise, it was a complete deviation from what we bought eight years ago. The model we chose was the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform 400 (VSP400), which has things like thin provisioning, deduplication, bidirectional replication, and compression.” After the contract with Hitachi was signed in December, the hardware was delivered in January. But with the project needing to go live by the end of February, the race was on to complete a project that usually takes a minimum of three months in just six weeks.

By doing the technology refresh, as opposed to paying the maintenance over three years, CBD has saved

Dhs1.7M 50

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

“What we worked out was a straight-forward, clear business case in favour of having a technology refresh, as opposed to maintaining the old technology and buying additional capacity. There were clear technological advantages with opting for new technology.” “This is because the business case I had shown to the IT steering committee was based on stopping the maintenance contract and utilising that money in this project,” Guha says. “Had it not been ready to go live on February 28, we would have had to pay three months extra maintenance costs.” Thankfully, the IT team’s careful planning meant that the migration aspect of the project, which is normally the biggest challenge, was easy and smooth. “To help with the transition, we planned a virtual layer over the storage,” Sonaimuthu says. “People really dread migrating from one technology to another, but we could hook up the HP storage under the virtual layer, and then the server sees the virtual — so it sees a storage, and it doesn’t know which product. And then we end up copying between products.” This foresight meant CBD only had to endure around six hours of downtime, and the migration could be done at a faster pace. The physical tests were done in the two to three weeks of time CBD had in January, and then it had 28 days to migrate 35TB of data. “We started with non-critical systems first to get the confidence level up and the practice, because in the first round of copying, you don’t know how long it will take,” Sonaimuthu says. Guha chimes in, adding that “it was a very stressful six weeks. Hats off to the team. They worked many extra hours and were extremely committed to deliver the project. Not to take any credit away from the partners, MDS, Hitachi and Symantec, who all also put in the extra hours alongside us whenever we called them late and at weekends.” Whilst CBD had to race to complete its storage implementation in extraordinary time, it was able to take more time with the back-up solution, which went live on May 15. The hard work has paid off. By doing the technology refresh, as opposed to paying the maintenance over three years, CBD has saved Dhs1.7 million. That figure increases further over five years. The implementation has also received critical acclaim, with CBD picking up the Storage Project of the Year award at the Network World Middle East Awards 2013. “We are very happy,” Guha says. “And what has made us even happier is that we have been able to live up to the commitments that we gave to the top management, right up to the CEO level.”

www.cnmeonline.com

Anywhere, anytime, your device is as safe as working in the office

Introducing the Huawei Mobile Office Security Solution Thanks to mobile technology, the workplace is becoming borderless. But how can you maintain security and keep control? The Huawei Mobile Office Security Solution allows employees to choose their mobile device while ensuring a tightly secure mobile office environment. They get a common, predictable user experience. You get the ability to easily manage mobile devices and control security risks. It’s the best of both worlds. • A consistent experience is unified across platforms with secure access inside and outside the company • Zero data leakage and zero disclosure of sensitive data is ensured thanks to a secure sandbox that isolates corporate and personal data • Complete lifecycle-based security management covers Acquire, Deploy, Run, and Retire phases • A secure and converged mobile application platform is preloaded with a secure browser, secure PushMail and basic OA For details, please visit enterprise.huawei.com

HUAWEI ENTERPRISE ICT SOLUTIONS A BETTER WAY

FEATURE

Enterprise mobility

For Star Trek fans, it seems like a long time ago since the Starship Enterprise attempted to boldly go where no man had gone before. However, the enterprise is on the move at warp speed again â&#x20AC;&#x201D; mobility is revolutionising the way the enterprise functions, and businesses are quickly adapting to a new way of living. CNME talks enterprise mobility.

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

STRATEGIC IT INNOVATION PARTNER

SOLUTIONS WORLD

here are many ways in which Star Trek and IT are related. Both have produced some fantastic gadgets and machines capable of doing things which our grandfathers would either laugh at or scurry behind a chair to get away from. Both outline technical missions. And both certainly have a forward-thinking vision capable of changing the way we see things. Okay, Star Trek is fiction, but the fact that the enterprise is moving at warp speed certainly isn’t. Enterprises have never been more versatile, free-moving, available, flexible and scalable as they are today. This comes down to a few basic points; the incomprehensible innovation of industry, the vision of CIOs with the backing of CEOs, and the opportunity to work from multiple platforms at any time, from anywhere. Mobility has allowed business to open itself up and expand beyond the realms of the office. “Previously, employees were very much deskbound. As mobile technology has ramped, devices now facilitate greater flexibility, which provides employees with the ability to access work-related

www.cnmeonline.com

applications or data from different places, and on multiple devices in a secure way. Employees can as easily work from home, the office location, or a café, on a laptop or tablet,” says Tavis Butler, Relationship Segment Leader, Lenovo MEA. Nader Baghdadi, ME Regional Director, Ruckus, adds, “According to research provided by IDC, the world’s mobile worker population will reach 1.3 billion by the year 2015, which will represent 37.2 percent of the total workforce. In the Middle East, mobility is definitely seen as a trend — one that alters the way in which employees view the concept of work. A welldesigned WLAN infrastructure, along with good mobile cellular technology, are, however, integral to the existence of a good environment for workers that is mobile in nature.” With this in mind, experts across the globe are placing an emphasis on mobility, describing it as a key trend which CIOs need to get on board with. Captain Kirk wants the enterprise to get out there. “Enterprise mobility practices need to be a top priority for today’s CIO. It is not a question of ‘if’ — end users will use mobile devices to connect to the corporate network, so it is in the CIO’s best

june 2013

Computer News Middle East

FEATURE

Enterprise mobility

interest to provide a secure way to connect. The increase in mobile work usage also empowers employees to have more flexibility, which often has a positive effect on the overall work environment. From a CIO’s perspective, it is essential to understand this is one trend that will not go away and requires the IT department to shift traditional mind-sets on what solutions and practices will best protect corporate data,” says Ray Wizbowski, Vice President, Strategy and Marketing, Identity and Access Secure Solutions, Gemalto. And as Richard Marshall, Research Director, Gartner, says, not getting on board with mobility could have a significant impact on your business, not only now, but in the future, for multiple reasons. “Mobility is one of the nexus of forces shaping the future of business and IT. Ignoring it will result in companies being left behind, as they will not be able to operate at the same pace as their mobileenabled competitors. Enterprise mobility can also help attract top talent with the dual promise of freedom of movement and innovative culture,” he says.

37.2

percent of the total workforce will be mobile workers by the year 2015.

The dawn of mobility Most IT trends, themes and solutions are birthed from issues that need solving. However, the new school of IT paraphernalia can associate itself with a mixture of industry demand along with striking innovation. Sowri S. Krishnan, Vice President, Mobility, Cognizant, says that businesses constantly face the challenge of increasing efficiency and reducing costs. Increasing visibility into existing processes and activities provides a way to improve performance. “To improve visibility, businesses require the collection and dissemination of detailed information on their fleets and delivery activities, and increased

“From a demographics perspective, increasingly, work is becoming an activity that we do, not a place where we go. Extended connectivity through smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices gives employees tremendous flexibility and even increased productivity.” Hani Nofall, Director of Intelligent Network Solutions, GBM

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

“Mobility is one of the nexus of forces shaping the future of business and IT.” control over the productivity of their resources and assets. Enabling critical applications onto mobile devices will extend the reach of the enterprise and provide visibility to improve processes where the real cost savings exist,” he says. Hani Nofall, Director of Intelligent Network Solutions, GBM, outlines two reasons why mobile technology has become crucial. “From a technological perspective, the number of mobile devices is rapidly increasing, as is data usage. This is being driven by the uptake of smartphones and tablets. The users of these devices are demanding access to the Internet, applications, and all forms of information, including work information, wherever and whenever. “From a demographics perspective, increasingly, work is becoming an activity that we do, not a place where we go. Extended connectivity through smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices gives employees tremendous flexibility and even increased productivity,” he says. So now would seem an appropriate time for CIOs to view mobility as a top priority — perhaps even the top priority for the coming 18 months if they’re to get their workforce operating at their peak, as well as ensure employee satisfaction. “Mobile technology has already had an enormous impact on the wider business community. Indeed, it is now being described as one of the most significant changes since the Internet,” says Hatem Bamatraf, Executive Vice President, Enterprise, du. “It is therefore hardly surprising that smartphones and tablets are now having a big impact in the workplace. Mobile technology has become a much bigger issue than just the technology it runs on. It is now having a transformational impact on the workplace, as an emerging driver of workplace reform.” Osama Rasoul, Sales Manager, Borderless Networks

cognizant - not in

FEATURE

Enterprise mobility

“Data protection is one concern for an organisation. These risks have been associated with laptops for a long time, but mobile gets more attention, since mobiles are known for their constant mobility and proneness to risks such as device theft or data loss.” Mathivanan Venatachalam, Director of Product Management, ManageEngine.

1.3bn The size of the mobile worker population by 2015, according to IDC.

Architectures, Cisco, adds: “Enterprise mobility should be a top priority for CIOs — not just to manage the inevitable influx of unsecured devices at work, but because of the potential of other financial benefits that can come from mobility solutions. The business benefits will vary based on an employee’s role and work requirements, but Cisco estimates that the annual benefits from BYOD range from $300 to $1,300 per employee, depending on their job role.”

Risky business Enterprise won’t fully invest in a trend, however, without being clear on the risks associated with it. With cyber security reaching such sophisticated levels, and the related risks being so damning, enterprise must first do its research. Where are the pitfalls in mobility, and where do they range from downtime to full-blown data breaches? “Data protection is one concern for an organisation. These risks have been associated with

“Cisco estimates that the annual benefits from BYOD range from $300 to $1,300 per employee, depending on their job role.” 56

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

laptops for a long time, but mobile gets more attention, since mobiles are known for their constant mobility and proneness to risks such as device theft or data loss,” says Mathivanan Venatachalam, Director of Product Management, ManageEngine. “The same goes for mobile applications — there are millions of applications available, some of which can compromise security, leading to a data security threat. But every technology trend comes with a threat, and only when there is a stabilisation of these technologies, simultaneous enhancement in security will evolve.” Chris Weddell, Director, Business Solutions Group, MEA, Misys, offers a view from the financial sector, an area with multiple layers of risk in regards to applying mobility policies. “In the financial services sector, we recognise that the issue of trust still plays a major role in the adoption of mobility solutions. It is one thing to enquire on your bank balance on your smartphone, but to transact using the device is quite different. It is worth noting, however, that the economic downturn has exerted increased pressure on local financial institutions to ensure that their services are safe and compliant with strict industry and government standards.”

Talking to a device Mobility has helped with the upsurge in M2M (machineto-machine) solutions. This is another technology which is set to enhance certain verticals. Again, the uptake is slow, and perhaps CIOs don’t see the relevance. But experts believe they will. “M2M communication allows devices to communicate with each other using the transmission of data over wired and wireless networks. M2M can directly rely on mobility depending on the field of use — in healthcare services, for example. Mobility is critical for the success of M2M technologies with projects such as mobile health and mobile screening,” explains Nassir Nauthoa, General Manager, GCC, Intel Corporation. And Jaco Hattingh, Group General Manager, Enterprise Mobility, Dimension Data, concludes saying, “This is a new, important trend as it allows making use of existing IT infrastructure to leverage saving into areas that fall outside of its domain. In the long term, M2M also offers the potential to automate a significant amount of manual tasks today, thus leading to cost savings. As M2M matures, we will see it taking over more repetitive tasks in the organisations.”

FEATURE

Enterprise app stores

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

strategic it networking partner

network WORLD

An app ealing prospect With a quarter of global enterprises predicted to have an enterprise app store within four years, CNME delves into the drivers and challenges of the trend.

hen asking the CIOs of most organisations these days what is currently on their radar, besides the usual talk of technology refreshes or ERP upgrades, the trend increasingly taking centre stage is mobility. A full feature on enterprise mobility can be found in the Solutions World section of CNME this month, but something that is yet to catch on â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

www.cnmeonline.com

particularly in the Middle East â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is the concept of an enterprise app store. Applications that run on mobile devices are a vital ingredient to achieve a truly mobile enterprise. An enterprise app store basically resembles a public app store like Appleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s App Store, but is built particularly for an enterprise to manage corporate-sanctioned apps on PCs and mobile devices.

june 2013

Computer News Middle East

With Siemon rapid shielded installations...

...donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to be difficult

The fastest, highest performing terminations everytime Authorised Distributors for Siemon Covering: UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Yemen MART NETWORKS MIDDLE EAST FZC. 18th floor Burjuman Tower, Dubai, UAE. Contact: K Pramod Kumar Shetty

w w w. s i e m o n . c o m

Tel: Mobile: Email:

+971 4 509 6894 +971 55 195 9699/50 488 4639 salesmea@mart-networks.co.uk pramod_shetty@mart-networks.co.uk

Enterprise app stores

“In the Middle East, enterprise app stores are in the very early stages of implementation. We continue to see demand for apps that extend typical business applications like sales force automation (CRM), workflows and approvals, but device costs and security challenges are keeping them away from multi-app deployment scenarios.” Bhavish Sood, Research Director, Gartner

Mobile apps can be grouped into two categories. The first is generic apps created for the consumer market or generic enterprise apps created by vendors, like SAP, Salesforce.com and Oracle for enterprises. These apps are not custom built or customised for the enterprise. They range from apps from airlines that help the travelling employees, to apps that access SaaS applications. The second category is custom apps developed for a particular enterprise. Enterprises create custom apps to support their particular business needs and to create a competitive advantage. Custom apps can be broken down into two groups. First are apps developed by vendors for a wide range of enterprises that are then customised for a particular enterprise. Then there are custom apps just for the enterprise, like adapting an existing business application to a mobile device. Organisations will develop apps that follow into both of these categories and that their employees depend on. However, enterprises need to figure out how they will distribute, secure and control the apps their employees use before they get out of control — the answer is through an enterprise app store. According to recent research from Gartner, a quarter of enterprises will have one of these by 2017. “Apps downloaded from public app stores for mobile devices disrupt today’s IT security,

25%

of global enterprises will have an enterprise app store by 2017

FEATURE

5 reasons to build an enterprise mobile app store 1. They improve quality control. One way to make sure employees don’t download bogus apps is to create an enterprise app store where they can get companyapproved apps. Analyst Michele Pelino, Forrester Research, says app stores ensure the correct versions of apps or content are being used. “If you don’t have some way of controlling that, you have people using different versions or apps that you don’t want them to get access to,” she says. 2. You can gather user feedback. With a corporate app store, IT has greater visibility into user habits than with a consumer app store. IT can monitor user behaviour or measure productivity and create recommendation engines to suggest relevant apps to try out. It’s a two-way street — employees can also use the store’s feedback section. 3. They can impress the business execs. Managing the complex ecosystem is a challenge for IT, but enterprise app stores are a step toward simplifying that, says Rohit Sharma, Head of the Mobility Practice, Virtusa. Sharma says IT can prove its value to management by using an app store to manage the apps for BYOD programmes and eventually for distributing desktop software, too. “The message [IT] is sending to the internal audience is that they care about it,” he says. 4. They give the tech staff a break. A survey by Partnerpedia, a mobile app management company, found that 86 percent of enterprises want a self-service model where employees download apps themselves, thus freeing the IT staff for other tasks. The concept of an app store is well understood by employees who have used a public app store, the firm says. IT can also automate the procurement of software licences from app stores, according to Gartner, and push out updates. 5. They’re more secure than public app stores. According to Forrester, 60 percent of firms are supporting personally owned devices, which makes security tougher to manage. With an enterprise app store, IT can prohibit the use of apps that tend to spread malware. If users complain when they can’t use preferred apps on their devices, IT can set up a passageway to consumer app stores. Then, if the app is accessed through the corporate app store, IT can still control its use.

www.cnmeonline.com

june 2013

Computer News Middle East

Enterprise app stores

application and procurement strategies,” says Bhavish Sood, Research Director, Gartner. “Bring-your-own-application (BYOA) has become as important as bring-your-own-device (BYOD) in the development of a comprehensive mobile strategy, and the trend toward BYOA has begun to affect desktop and Web applications as well. Enterprise app stores promise at least a partial solution.” However, the greater control that enterprise app stores promise is only possible if it is widely adopted. Typical security and procurement policies, which limit application choice, can doom the effort to failure, Sood says. “IT security, application, procurement and sourcing professionals must work together to successfully apply the app store concept to their enterprises,” he says. “When successful, they can

60%

of firms are supporting personally owned devices.

“Bring-your-ownapplication has become as important as bringyour-own-device in the development of a comprehensive mobile strategy.” increase the value delivered by the application portfolio and reduce the associated risks, licence fees and administration expenses.” Whether the Middle East reflects Gartner’s global prediction will depend on how common the enterprise issuance of smartphones and tablets becomes in the region, Sood adds. “More organisations in the region issuing company-owned devices will eventually lead to more enterprise app stores. For now, they are in the very early stages of implementation. “We continue to see demand for apps that extend typical business applications like sales force automation (CRM), workflows and approvals, but device costs and security challenges are keeping them away from multi-app deployment scenarios.” www.cnmeonline.com

FEATURE

Be smarter than iTunes Enterprise app stores are designed to give an iTunes-like app store experience. However, they have to be smarter than iTunes, says Steve Schmidt, VP, Corporate Development, Flexera Software. To do that, he says the following aspects must be considered, and given how expensive enterprise software is, failure to do that can create an unbearable pain. Cost: Most consumer apps are free or very cheap. Enterprise apps can cost hundreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars per user. How do you contain costs? What do you do if a manager needs to approve an expenditure before an app can be downloaded? How does the cost get tracked back to the appropriate office or department? Complexity: Consumer apps are designed around the devices that will be downloading them. So you know an iTunes app will work on your iPhone, but employees have apps running on multiple devices. The enterprise app store needs to be a lot smarter to get the right app to the right device so that it will work properly. Environments: Consumer app stores also only need to contend with one or so physical operating systems — iOS 6, or Android 4.2. Most companies have complex environments that also include Windows, virtualised environments, private and/or public clouds, and SaaS. How does the app store know who the user is and what that user is going to need? Compliance: When you pay for an app and download it in iTunes — as long as you don’t try and hack into the app and resell it — it’s hard to fall out of compliance. Generally you have rights to use the app perpetually, and you have access to upgrades when they come out. But businesses generally buy licences in bulk for groups of users — and the terms of how those licences get deployed and used are complex. How can an iTunes-like app store manage that complexity? Managing the software licence lifecycle: Consumer apps are often disposable — you can forget about them or delete them without a meaningful economic downside. But because of the cost and complexity of implementing enterprise apps, they have to be kept track of, used and re-used. If the employee who downloaded an app leaves the company, what do you do with that licence? If the employee doesn’t use the app, how do you return it to the licence pool so the investment isn’t wasted?

june 2013

Computer News Middle East

FEATURE

Tapping into unstructured data

Unstructured data:

Can you crack the code? It was author Simon Singh who wrote in his famous book, The Code Book, that man has long been naturally curious to crack and break codes to discover true meanings. Nowhere does this opinion stand truer today than in the IT industry, where data scientists, CIOs and IT decision makers are going above and beyond to tame, harness and decipher their unstructured data. Joe Lipscombe reports.

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

Strategic Technology Partner

storage advisor

simple motive for code cracking has always been the benefits of what lies beneath the complexity. As with the universe-load of unstructured data, CIOs want to break it down, lay it out, and extract from it some kind of business value. The power of Big Data has been highly talked about for some time, but it appears as though, if this issue of CNME is anything to go by, the time is finally upon us when organisations are ready to tackle it head on. “Every day, we create two and half quintillion bytes of data — so much that 90 percent of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. Eighty percent of that data is unstructured,” says Ahmed Auda, Business Unit Executive, IBM Middle East Software Group. “By 2020, the growth of Internetconnected devices and sensors is projected to reach 50 billion — a prediction that supports IDC’s estimate that the total volume of the digital universe, comprised of 90 percent unstructured data and calculated at 1.8 zettabytes in 2011, will increase by a factor of 50 in 2020,” adds George DeBono, General Manager, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Red Hat. Deciphering the data With the many statistics and jargon surrounding Big Data now widely known, companies are beginning to take note. The question is still whether or not they can find value in investing. Allen Mitchell, Senior Technical Account Manager, MENA, CommVault Systems, says they can. “Most companies, organisations and vendors are aware that continued data growth will make a big difference in the coming years,” he states. “With this, more www.cnmeonline.com

june 2013

Computer News Middle East

FEATURE

Tapping into unstructured data

“Various verticals are getting an idea of what data they have and the promise it holds, but the journey to the promise is just getting started. The Middle East is no exception, with banking and health certainly on par with any region.” Kevin Leahy, Group General Manager for Data Centre Solutions, Dimension Data

90%

of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years.

and more organisations are willing to explore the strategic potential of Big Data solutions. Senior executives should begin considering how their companies manage, and begin to drive business benefit from Big Data. The companies that succeed in turning Big Data into actionable information will have a clear competitive advantage over companies that are aware of it but don’t know what to do about it.” Karthik Krishnamurthy, Vice President, Enterprise Information Management, Cognizant, believes that to be true — stating that ROI is instant. “Companies can start benefitting from information as soon as they provide meaning to the data and put action behind the meaning. With social platforms, sensors, and ‘everything Internet’, the dots are just waiting to be connected. To harness the information and capitalise on the advantages on a scalable basis, they have to think of information on an enterprise-wise level and in a global environment,” he says.

“Companies can start benefitting from information as soon as they provide meaning to the data and put action behind the meaning. The dots are just waiting to be connected.”

Computer News Middle East

June 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

Bringing data back home Globally, Big Data solutions have been brandished for some time. Microsoft has announced solutions in real-time data analytics, Oracle is never one to miss the boat on a hyped trend, and SAP loves to take any opportunity to flaunt its HANA platform. That doesn’t even scratch the surface — but what’s the impression of Big Data solutions here in the Middle East? Regularly, we often hear talk of skills gaps where certain verticals are concerned. But the Middle East is a fast-learning region. “Various verticals are getting an idea of what data they have and the promise it holds,” says Kevin Leahy, Group General Manager for Data Centre Solutions, Dimension Data. “But the journey to the promise is just getting started. The Middle East is no exception, with banking and health certainly on par with any region. “In the health sector, for example, images are obviously important, but the hard part that no-one yet knows is how to take all that data and somehow learn the patterns by analysing it. They could then use those patterns to predict patient potential for disease and perform proactive procedures.” Aaron White, General Manager, Hitachi Data Systems, Middle East and Turkey, adds, “There is a clear and present need from organisations in the region to be able to make data-driven business decisions based on the analysis of this data. Businesses in the Middle East are often in a better position to take advantage of analysis of unstructured data as they often do not have the legacy or volume constraints of many other parts of the world.”

Off to a flying start Start-ups and SMEs are feeling increasing pressure in business, and investments made early on are critical. They must be relevant and cost-worthy, and Peter Ford, Managing Director, Cisco Consulting Services, believes tapping into unstructured data could be vital for them. “In addressing the issue of unstructured data, SMEs and start-ups need to focus on unlocking the value of the data. For smaller businesses where budget is often a constraint and return on investment is of critical concern, recognising the business problem they are trying to solve — increasing sales, impacting revenue growth, understanding customers better — followed by putting in place the right strategy and tools, are essential.” Leahy adds, “The first thing is to define the data in detail, the ownership rights, the business value,

FEATURE

80%

Tapping into unstructured data

of all data in the world is currently unstructured.

price policies, if appropriate, and then build that in up-front, which allows incredible levels of access, automation and control. Take Akami as an example. Their entire business came out of building algorithms to place unstructured content at the appropriate places on the Internet based on usage and access rights.”

“Many are treating the term as just another buzzword for managing and analysing data to better understand the business.”

Securely does it Of course, with all big implementations following shifts in the IT landscape, security becomes an issue. And perhaps more so when data is concerned — after all, we’re discussing exponential growth of personal, corporate and sensitive information. “The key security concerns are; what information is sensitive; where is the sensitive information; who is it sensitive to; how can the sensitive information be located; and at what point does it become sensitive (for example, personally identifiable) information?” says Krishnamurthy. “For example, what information about the customer’s online purchase is sensitive? The issue here is not just the purchase; it is how the customer made the purchase. A customer spends an hour-and-a-half purchasing a handful of herbs and ointments they believe help suppress cancer. How would the online company know that those specific item combinations indicate that customer may have cancer? And would they have to take additional security measures to protect that information because of privacy regulations?”

“Every day, we create two and half quintillion bytes of data — so much that 90 percent of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. Eighty percent of that data is unstructured.” Ahmed Auda, Business Unit Executive, IBM Middle East Software Group

Computer News Middle East

June 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

DeBono gives another view: “Possibly the biggest security concern around unstructured data is it being accessible to people, either within the organisation or external, who have no business need for access. Availability and confidentiality have an inverse relationship. As data is made more available, the confidentiality is bound to suffer, and vice versa.” And White makes another point, saying that is it important to remember that if you cannot see your data, you cannot protect it. “Therefore organisations must take steps to ensure all data is recognised, with full visibility over all types of assets, including unstructured data, in order to fully comply with laws and regulations,” he says.

Here to stay The colossal uprising of unstructured data, and the struggle to tame and unlock it, appears to be a battle that will continue to scratch at the IT industry. However, it does at least seem that this will lead to unique and exciting business opportunities which may change the way in which society works and lives. Unstructured data is here to stay, Ford says. “It represents the ever-increasing deluge of information, as terabytes, petabytes and exabytes threaten to swamp us with an influx of unfiltered, unstructured, unprocessed and seemingly unmanageable information.” Big Data is not just another hype word, but a mature and fully self-supporting trend which deserves the attention it’s currently receiving, Mitchell adds. “The concept of unstructured data or Big Data appeared on the technology and business scene around 2010, and since then, it has excited many executives with its potential to transform businesses and organisations. Many are treating the term as just another buzzword for managing and analysing data to better understand the business. But there is more than hype; there are considerable business benefits from being able to analyse data on a consistent basis. Companies that excel at Big Data will be able to employ these technologies with business benefit, and be able to produce new products and services as a result,” he says.

FEATURE

Data loss prevention

Ticking time bomb The last year has shown more than ever how careful businesses need to be with their data. However, recent reports suggest that only a fraction of Middle Eastern enterprises have data loss prevention policies in place. Does this make the region a ticking time bomb about to explode with data breaches? Tom Paye investigates.

emember the premise of the latest James Bond movie, Skyfall? The British Secret Service’s boss, M, loses a hard drive containing the names of every undercover NATO operative working around the world. The main antagonist, Raoul Silva — a former MI6 operative and self-proclaimed computer genius — then goes about using the list to reap havoc in an attempt to ultimately kill M. Skyfall might have been the most successful Bond movie of all time, but there’s not an IT pro in the world who would say that the technology-related parts of the premise were anything like reality. Apart from the ease with which baddie Silva is able to hack one of the most technologically advanced government entities on the planet, there’s little chance that MI6 would have allowed the data on that hard drive to be lost, even if the drive itself was. In real life, any spy agency worth its salt would 70

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

have implemented some kind of data loss prevention (DLP) solution — just as any organisation intent on keeping its data secure would. DLP differs from traditional security in the sense that it focuses entirely on protecting information as an asset, according to Rob McMillan, Research Director, Gartner. “Without DLP, there are few options to protect information as a discrete asset; most technical security controls are focused on the protection of infrastructure, rather than information,” he says. “It provides organisations the opportunity to control the release of information in real time using a policy-based approach, with control decisions based on both the business rules (i.e. the policies) and the actual content of the information. “It also provides an ability to give staff real-time tutorial on the decision that they make with regard to an organisation’s information, thus providing a new and effective form of user awareness.”

security advisor

Strategic IT BYOD Partner

However, Paul Wright, Managing Director of Professional Services and Investigation Team for the Middle East, India and Africa, AccessData, says that DLP is not such a clear-cut term. “In the eyes of some, data loss prevention is purely and simply a marketing tool. They say that there is no such thing. The reason being, other than switching off all computers and networks, it is impossible to guarantee that you have prevented data loss. The best that can be aimed for and achieved is data loss detection or deterrence,” he says. “Many DLP users only have selective features switched on. To turn on all the features would completely disrupt an organisation’s business and networks and is why it is exceptional to find organisations running DLP in full-blown mode. It should be noted that, even then, it will not guarantee preventing data loss.” If you really want to keep your data secure, then, www.cnmeonline.com

june 2013

Computer News Middle East

FEATURE

Data loss prevention

there are differing views on how effective a DLP solution will be. Perhaps this is why the Middle East has been slow to jump on the DLP bandwagon, as a recent report from the InfoWatch group suggests. “Let’s take KSA [the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia] as an example,” says Natalya Kaspersky, CEO, InfoWatch. “Joint research conducted with our local and regional partners suggests that 80 percent of companies in the Kingdom operate without internal data security systems in place. That’s the bad news.” But why is this such bad news? Do traditional methods of securing data and networks simply not suffice anymore? And does this mean that the Middle East is soon to witness huge numbers of data breaches? According to Kaspersky, the risks associated with not having any DLP solutions in place are substantial, particularly when talking about government organisations or financial institutions. “On a global scale, 2012 was the year of leaks from government organisations. There has been a noticeable increase in the proportion of leaks which emanated from government sources, demonstrating that the public sector is not paying sufficient attention to the issue,” Kaspersky says. “Other areas of impact include the financial sector (more specifically banks). Data loss resulted in over $2 billion in direct losses globally in 2012 as a result of over 2 million records being compromised. And that’s only what was reported in public.” Indeed, the InfoWatch report said that, given companies in many Middle Eastern countries are not forced to disclose data leaks, the region could have lost much more as a result. One expert suspected that the Middle East could have lost billions all on its own, all because proper procedures were not put in place to ensure the safekeeping of data. But if companies really are losing so much due to data leakage, why are they not doing something about it? “Businesses are lax because legislation is lax,” says Miguel Braojos, Vice President of Sales for Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, SafeNet. “And although most of them are aware of the dangers of not protecting their data, few of them are actually implementing DLP. Their approach is more reactive than proactive.” That said, the high-profile attack on Saudi Aramco last year has jolted the region into action. Braojos says that some government and financial institutions in the region are beginning to adopt DLP 72

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

“Without DLP, there are few options to protect information as a discrete asset; most technical security controls are focused on protection of infrastructure, rather than information.” Rob McMillan, Research Director, Gartner

solutions, as the consequences of data loss are more serious in these sectors. Kaspersky, meanwhile, says that Saudi Arabia is expected to invest $400 million in DLP over the next five years, and that InfoWatch’s research shows similar interest in the technology across the region. So if we take it as a given that CIOs need to begin investing in DLP solutions, what should they be looking out for from vendors? In other words, what should a decent DLP solution be made up of? “There are a number of components which are important. The first, and probably the most important, is setting some parameters for how data is classified,” says Nicolai Solling, Director of Technology Services, help AG. “The other requirements are more technical and deal with how well classification of data is performed, and then finally how well data is enforced.” Muhammed Mayet, CTO, Security, Dimension Data MEA, says that a good solution begins with identifying and prioritising data within the business. “Once this has been done, the business has a better understanding of the level of sensitivity and confidentiality of the data that lives within the

InfoWatch research suggests that Saudi Arabia is set to invest over

$400m in DLP over the next five years.

“Joint research conducted with our local and regional partners suggests that 80 percent of companies in the Kingdom operate without internal data security systems in place. That’s the bad news.” Natalya Kaspersky, CEO, InfoWatch

www.cnmeonline.com

CounterACT 7

Best-in-class NAC, Now Even Better Easy, Agentless, Works out-of-the-box

For More Information .

Office # 2204, Shatha Towers, Dubai Internet City, P.O Box: 500804, Dubai, UAE

Tel: +971 4 4330560

Fax: +971 4 4537281 Email: sales@nanjgel.com

W W W . N A N J G E L . C O M

    

NS/R/22513/4

Data loss prevention

business,” he explains. “The choice of technology needs to be appropriate for the business, taking into account network DLP (data in motion), endpoint DLP (data in use), and file or storage DLP (data at rest). Also key is the integration between the DLP technology and the existing ICT infrastructure.” Another thing to ask vendors is whether or not their solutions cater for BYOD, a trend sweeping the IT world that shows no signs of going away. Of course, having company data on a personal mobile device is a risk in itself, so can DLP solutions return an element of control to network managers? “The questions of where mobility fits into a DLP policy is a great one,” asserts Gartner’s McMillan. “Some DLP platforms now support mobile devices, but this is still relatively new. However, it is certainly an emerging space and many vendors are developing solutions.” Of course, even once a CIO finds a good DLP solution, and decides that it would fit perfectly into the company’s infrastructure, there’s always the matter of justifying the expense to the CEO and CFO. Mayet says, “It is critical that any proposed DLP solution has the support of key stakeholders that own the affected data.” But according to Haroon Iqbal, Sales Manager, WatchGuard MEA, it shouldn’t be a problem convincing these stakeholders, as the costs of implementing a DLP solution should be justifiable. “The costs for a good DLP solution depends on the amount of security needed, which can vary according to the amount of sensitive data a business needs to secure, the critical nature of that data, the size of an organisation, number of employees,

FEATURE

“The choice of technology needs to be appropriate for the business, taking into account network DLP (data in motion), endpoint DLP (data in use), and file or storage DLP (data at rest). Also key is the integration between the DLP technology and the existing ICT infrastructure.” Muhammed Mayet, CTO, Security, Dimension Data MEA

“Businesses are lax because legislation is lax. And although most of them are aware of the dangers of not protecting their data, few of them are actually implementing DLP. Their approach is more reactive than proactive.” Miguel Braojos, Vice President of Sales for Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, SafeNet

www.cnmeonline.com

and the specific work style of that organisation,” he says. “The question to ask is not the cost of DLP, but the cost of data loss, and that will help put the investment in perspective.” But what if the CIO simply can’t find the budget to invest in a DLP solution? What other ways are there for him to protect his data? Dimension Data’s Mayet says that this is unlikely: “In a perfect world, educating your end users and increasing their awareness of the impact of data loss or leakage would be sufficient. However, in reality, every policy and procedure requires a monitoring mechanism and an enforcement tool. Without a DLP solution, businesses cannot effectively track and secure their data.” However, Braojos, from SafeNet, believes that encryption can offer just as much protection for an organisation’s data in lieu of a DLP solution. “Organisations have sensitive data everywhere, and with cloud and virtualisation, there are many vulnerable spots,” he explains. “But by using data encryption, it doesn’t matter who has it. Encryption is like the anti-DLP. You don’t care who sends it out or steals it because they would not be able to read anything.” Traditional security solutions also have their part to play, but however a CIO decides to proceed, the consensus among many experts is this: company data in any format is a hugely valuable asset, and it needs to be protected. Indeed, it’s something that M should have realised in Skyfall. With so many data protection options now available to organisations, she had no excuse for losing the names of those undercover NATO agents. june 2013

Computer News Middle East

FEATURE

Middle East experts

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

integration advisor

Regional expertise The Middle East is a strong growth market with a knack to leap-frogging technology and delivering impressive implementations. CIOs have been deploying solutions and applications which are keeping the region relevant, and though most global brands have a presence here, the landscape owes much to locality.

he Middle East has bred local talent through rapid growth of IT infrastructure and demand for technology. IT has further evolved into an embraced culture that penetrates socio-economics and increasingly utilises technology for personal and business use, making more people tech-savvy. The region continues to see an influx of internationals, but the local pool is still filling up and end-users are becoming ever more confident with resources closer to home. Moreover, some local companies may be more inclined to reach out to local integrators which demonstrate cultural knowledge and understanding. This adds another dimension to the integrations landscape.

“Regional and local experience proves to be an added advantage for local integrators, as there is more ease in the implementation process, and also helps in easily managing multiple stakeholders and their requirements,” says Anurag Verma, Telecom Operations and Managed Services Lead, Smartworld. “Also, the experience of executing local projects makes it easy for these integrators to manage cross-cultural influences easily. For the local economy, it helps in training and building local talent and generates local employment opportunities.” In a growth region, local integrators would be wise to tap into behavioural aspects that would benefit locality. “Knowledge of the local market and its unique characteristics, understanding www.cnmeonline.com

the behavioural aspects of the customer relationship, presence and close proximity to customers, and the ability to provide postdelivery support, are parameters that stack up in favour of a local integrator,” says Seyed Golkar, Director of Business Solutions, GBM. He focuses on these four examples in detail. In terms of knowledge of the local market and its unique characteristics, he says we often see that pressure, imposed by the business, forces the customers to engage integrators, while the business requirements are still fluid and not very well thought-through. Because of this, agreed-upon requirements and set definitions about the scope often change at the expense of the project timeline. Local integrators understand this and know that earlier engagement minimises this risk. june 2013

Computer News Middle East

FEATURE

Golive

Middle East experts

Some integrators see their job as done when the system is delivered.

The next point he covers is the behavioural aspects of the customer relationship, which he says in order to successfully operate in the region, an integrator must have a degree of flexibility and patience at times beyond the norm in other regions — in particular, the West. Local integratos have a much better understanding of this behavioural aspect of the customer relationship. They are therefore better equipped to work with the customers in order to satisfy their needs and desires in ways that a Middle East customer sees as flexible and customer-friendly. Thirdly comes benefiting from internationally accepted best practices and procedures. He believes that an experienced local integrator can blend these skills with the internationally accepted best practices and procedures, thus delivering the best of both worlds to its customers. And lastly, Golkar discusses post-delivery support. He claims that there is a tendency to think an integrator’s job is finished when the system is delivered and is in production use. From a customer’s perspective, on the other hand, delivery and go-live is only a stepping stone to getting a system that helps to address a specific business need. In other words, life only begins when the system goes live. The ability to give the customer the support and attention during this important stage is vitally important for an integrator, he says. A local

“The dedication to grow and further develop has been the key aspect that has driven this region to curb the challenges and adapt cohesive measures to achieve short-term as well as long-term goals.” Anurag Verma, Telecom Operations and Managed Services Lead, Smartworld

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

“Easy access to the local market has allowed inexperienced companies to establish a local presence and start to offer services that are often insufficient.” Seyed Golkar, Director of Business Solutions, GBM

integrator is much better positioned to respond to this need.

Cultural challenges Of course, regionally speaking, customers in the Middle East will face challenges unique to the region — whether that be based on infrastructure, legislation, or legacy. But Verma feels like this has helped the Middle East to adapt to new standards. “The Middle East, as with all other regions, has challenges that are known and understood by its regional players. Amidst this, the dedication to grow and further develop has been the key aspect that has driven this region to curb the challenges and adapt cohesive measures to achieve short-term as well as long-term goals. Therefore, the economies of scale are considered when putting together the achievement plans,” he states. He adds, “Integrations is a continuous learning process, accompanied by challenges that have been perceived and eventually minimised or absorbed, like the feasibility of market share and resources to deploy and deliver services. “Having established itself in the IT market and bringing the key market players closer to the region today, local integrators enjoy the benefits from major improvements of means and processes. This has also introduced tools that transform work plans to another level. The increased capacity and demand will bring in more challenges that will continue to be scrutinised and absorbed as we move forward.”

Let the right ones in However, there may be a concern that ease of market entrance could cause complacency, the experts say. This could ultimately lead to poor practices and complications in business. “Easy access to the local market has allowed inexperienced companies to establish a local presence

FEATURE

Middle East experts

and start to offer services that are often insufficient to meet the needs of the customers,” Golkar says. “Underestimating the complexities and intricacies involved in delivering solutions to customers in this market will mean such companies get into contracts at prices that are just too low for delivery of a quality service. Naturally, some customers fall for this and, unfortunately, end up paying dearly in the long run due to lost time, delays in realising business benefits, and engaging in the vicious start-stop-restart cycles. My advice is to pay the right price for the right quality of service at the beginning, and get it right the first go — paying less, but multiple times, is just a false economy.”

pay up

The experts advise paying for a quality service rather than doing it on the cheap.

Growth of local confidence “Simply put, customer needs are customer needs, and as technology advances to claiming more

market share, they are now putting their trust and confidence on the local market — a decision that is based on the excellent performance that they have seen in the local scene,” Verma states. This has built more trust for customers to prefer local providers since they can understand the region’s requirements and would be able to deliver services more swiftly and unequivocally. Providers in the region are seeing more and more success, and this is set to continue growing as more complex technologies announce themselves and local customers want trusted and loyal integrators who know the infrastructure, know the legislation and know the culture. Golkar concludes: “Customers in this region are starting to appreciate the local talent, which, supplemented with international talent and experience, forms the critical ingredient for a successful development of the local intellect.”

Your Partner Towards ITSM ITIL Helpdesk & Desktop Management • ISO/ ITIL Consultancy & Training • IT Compliance & Security Data Center/Network Monitoring & Management • AD Audit & Management • Disaster Recovery & Planning

Consulting-Solution-Training

Website: www.elitser-me.com Phone: +971 4 4542741

Email: info@elitser-me.com Fax: +971 4 4542742

FEATURE

MVNOs

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

strategic telecom partner

telecoms WORLD

With Saudia Arabia’s telecoms regulator, the CITC, set to award the country’s first three mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) licences in the coming quarter, Ben Rossi examines why — contrary to other regions — they are yet to play a major part in the Middle East’s telecoms industry.

Over the last decade, MVNOs have become part-and-parcel to the telecoms market of practically every developed country in the world. They were first introduced by regulatory authorities to drive much-needed competition in countries where early-entrant mobile network operators (MNOs) were considered to hold significant, and unhealthy, market power. The concept is that the MVNO, unlike the MNO, does not own the radio spectrum or wireless network infrastructure over which the service is provided to customers. Instead, it enters an agreement with an MNO to obtain bulk access at wholesale rates, and then sets its own retail prices and attracts its own customers. For the first time, it provided a very time-efficient and cost-effective route for companies to enter telecoms markets, as they are not faced with the burden of building out the necessary infrastructure. Whilst MVNOs were being forced into some markets for the benefit of the customers, other MNOs simply saw a chance to make some easy money by selling excess capacity that would otherwise not be used. www.cnmeonline.com

As word spread on this opportunity, so did the numbers. There are now over 600 operating around the world, with the United States, Europe and Australia particularly brimming with them. However, in the Middle East, MVNOs have yet to prosper. Oman and Jordan remain the only two markets to have issued licences. Oman leads the pack with six operational MVNOs, whilst Jordan has one. Additionally, transcontinental Turkey has one MVNO, as well as seven ”pre-MVNOs”, which are MNO sub-brands that do not require an MVNO licence. Saudi and Qatari regulators have rebuffed similar attempts by MNOs in their own markets, but Saudi is finally expected to issue three MVNO licences in the third quarter of this year. Even in the Middle East markets where MVNOs have been introduced, the majority act as “discount” operators, according to Claes Hagel, Vice President, Head of Communication Services, Ericsson MEA. “They are often targeting ethnic market segments and offering specialised services, often in the migrants’ home language, typically offering lower rates for international calls to and from home countries,” Hagel says. june 2013

Computer News Middle East

FEATURE

MVNOs

“In the majority of Middle East countries, the market is still growing, so the MNOs are not yet motivated to open up for hosting MVNOs, which results in MVNO regulatory framework not being ready.” Claes Hagel, Vice President, Head of Communication Services, Ericsson MEA

The number of MVNOs operating around the world exceeds

600

“Some of the active discount types of MVNOs are targeting niche markets like university or municipality employees, sports clubs, the banking and insurance sector, or a fixed operator offering mobile services. There are multiple types of MVNOs in general, typically focusing on specific, untapped segments in the market and offering specialised services to the chosen market segment.” MVNOs are yet to take off in the Middle East because the region’s telecoms markets have remained tightly regulated and largely driven by incumbent operators, according to Anurag Verma, Telecom Operations and Managed Services Lead, Smartworld. ”Despite this, we are currently witnessing rapid changes in the industry and expect more countries opening up to these innovations and changes soon,” Verma says. Hagel attributes the lack of Middle East MVNOs to the fact that most of the region’s telco markets are still growing. From the MNO’s perspective, Hagel says, a common driver for being open to hosting MVNO operations is the promise of new revenue to combat market saturation and decelerated sales growth. But considering this is not a problem for many Middle East telcos, which continue to prosper, the trend has not caught on. “In the majority of Middle East countries, the market is still growing, so the MNOs are not yet motivated to open up for hosting MVNOs, which

results in MVNO regulatory framework not being ready,” Hagel says. However, he adds, the trend is changing. “The Middle East represents a new growth area for MVNO operations, and the MVNO regulatory framework is already being finalised in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, while some signs of regulatory activities can be seen in Sudan and Lebanon.” Until the uptake of MVNOs do catch on in the Middle East, the big loser remains the customer. MVNOs are typically very lean in organisational set-up and are therefore able to offer cheaper rates, which subsequently drives down prices across the whole market for customers. “This lean set-up enables an MVNO to offer new services faster to the market, which is very much tied to the ability of an MVNO to be independent from an MNO and able to offer differentiated services to the end user,” Hagel says. Furthermore, MVNOs can uniquely position themselves to cater to specific customer segments that standalone MNOs may not reach out to, according to Izhar Ahmad, Director, External Relations, Samena Telecommunications Council. “MVNOs often offer attractive services such as games, music, applications, movies and other entertainment-based, value-added services,” Ahmad says. ”In essence, MVNOs are being known for effectively segmenting the markets by offering customised services to specific communities, expatriates, a specific area, a certain age group, and other demographicsbased segments.” Such segments are typically perceived by MNOs as too small to be addressed directly, adds Amr Goussous, Principal, Booz & Company. “An example would be having call-centre agents that speak the language of a specific ethnic expatriate community.” Ahmad refers to a general perception that, because the MENA region is very large, with various operators having already made large investments on enhancing network scale and capacity, there is a lot of room to make use of the available network capacity.

“Some of the active types of MVNOs are targeting niche markets like university or municipality employees, sports clubs, or the banking sector.”

Computer News Middle East

June 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

www.eset.com/me

YOUR ENDPOINT SECURITY SOLUTION ESET – LEADING IT SECURITY TECHNOLOGY IN DEFENSE OF YOUR BUSINESS ESET was Awarded “Fastest, Best Overall Performance” by Passmark Software Comparative Analysis, July 2012 Multi-layered protection for your endpoints includes heuristic detection, cloud-powered scanning, web control and more. ESET Remote Administrator gives IT staff complete control of endpoint security − from a single console. ESET Middle East Tel-04 3754052

Proven. Trusted.

FEATURE

MVNOs

”Arguably, MVNOs can help make better use of such capacity,” he says. ”Furthermore, most countries in the region currently do not have MVNOs, which in itself is an indicator of opportunity for MVNOs. ”Essentially, MVNOs can thrive in the Middle East by developing marketing strategies and service offerings that resonate with a limited and well-defined slice of the telecoms market.” However, MVNOs acting as a strong catalyst for healthy competition can only happen under the right licensing and wholesale pricing frameworks. “Alternatively, MVNOs will find it very difficult to sustain a viable cost structure and could become very disruptive by irrationally undercutting prices in the market,” Goussous says. “This could lead to value destruction and impede the ability of operators to continue investing.” Ahmad agrees, saying that MVNOs will only succeed in this region if certain regulatory support mechanisms, and an enabling environment, are created. ”Additionally, for MVNOs to succeed, they need to avoid over-segmentation of the market, keep a strong “prepaid” customer base where applicable, and maintain closeness with MNO-owned sub-brands,” he adds. Should this happen, MVNOs with special branding and positioning will continue to attract users and further increase the already high mobile penetration rates Middle East countries are posting, Verma says. Hagel believes the hard-to-sustain infrastructure spending for mobile broadband, along with network sharing scenarios, will begin to lure Middle East MNOs to the model over time. When that happens, he expects the MVNOs to take 10 to 15 percent of the market share, which

“Without the right licensing and wholesale pricing frameworks, MVNOs will find it very difficult to sustain a viable cost structure and could become very disruptive by irrationally undercutting prices in the market. This could lead to value destruction and impede the ability of operators to continue investing.” Amr Goussous, Principal, Booz & Company

The number of countries with MVNOs in the Middle East sits at only

reflects the global figure and what has already happened in Oman. Adel Belcaid, Principal, Booz & Company, adds that a number of Middle Eastern markets exhibit favourable conditions for the introduction of servicebased competition. “Markets are saturated, competition on the mobile side is limited to two or three players, and they have attractive demographics for microsegmentation,” he explains. “Moreover, with increased demand for digital services and ubiquity of access, business models for MVNOs beyond just mobile services could become viable. “However, MVNO prevalence will remain largely dependent on the appetite of regulators to introduce competition to their markets.”

Face to face with Tom Farrell

Rolling back the years It’s not an easy place to be, the smartphone market — but Nokia isn’t shying away from the challenge of once again reigning supreme. Much like the glory days of the ‘80s and ‘90s, Nokia is back with a portfolio of stylish, colourful, playful and innovative devices that it believes can direct it back toward the smartphone summit. Tom Farrell, Vice President, Nokia MENA, talks trends, transition, and competition.

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

hanks to the sudden emergence of BlackBerry, Apple and Samsung, you’ve had to majorly change your outlook in the last decade — how does Nokia see this? I think Nokia has always gone through renewal — it’s 147 years old. We started as a conglomerate, and the big change came in the ‘80s, when we decided to concentrate fully on this emerging market called telecommunications. To go from where we were then to what we went to was much less radical than the change we’re going through now. That DNA of renewal has always been here — so in that sense, not a huge amount has changed for us.

You were once strong market leaders — what happened? It’s been well documented that we might have missed the boat in the smartphone market, and we’ve commented well on that in the last two years. We lost a bit of focus, and had a bit of complacency, sure. But it certainly wasn’t a lack of innovation in the labs — we had great products before this new wave even came. All top brands in history have had moments like this. Our industry has its very disruptive moments — we saw this convergence happening; pure telecoms of voice and SMS to Internet, apps, brand, everything. It changed the game. Having said that, we have had a new strategy in place since February 2011, based on Stephen [Elop]’s new leadership. We released our third consecutive profitable quarter as a group, we’re expanding our portfolio, and we’ve got some momentum now.

How much of this growth and momentum is down to your partnership with Microsoft? Plenty. We launched the new Lumia 920 with Windows 8 in Q4 last year. It was very impressive; 4.4 million units. We built on that in Q1 this year; 5.6 million, and the Windows phone OS has by far the highest growth in terms of operating system, so there’s a lot of momentum there.

It’s important because, back in the day, it was all about price and colour. Now it’s about this thing they call an ecosystem — the brand, the apps, the device, the operator — it’s everything in one. We could have gone alone with this, but we wanted to differentiate ourselves and we’re doing that with Microsoft. The Nokia brand is still very much alive in the hearts of people. The way to bring it back to life is with great new products. We’re still maintaining the values, but with great phones that have extra stuff inside the device. There are some models that people will never forget — your models like 3210 and 3330 — then came the original BlackBerry and the first iPhone. These

“It’s been well documented that we might have missed the boat in the smartphone market... We lost a bit of focus, and had a bit of complacency, sure... All top brands in history have had moments like this.” have a sentimental place in history. Does Nokia have another one of these stored in its locker? We never forgot how to absolutely push the barriers of innovation. We have amazing guys in the labs that are doing mind-boggling stuff. We never lost that ability to provide some disruptive quality — our trouble was marketing that. We’ve always done things that others could not. Even recently, with the 920, the first device with a built-in wireless charger and with a floating lens. If you look at the city lens, based on our mapping platform, nobody has this innovation. We’re very much in a turnaround mode, yes, but we’re moving upwards now. I think the competition can talk for www.cnmeonline.com

themselves — but you can never say what’s coming next. I’ve always underestimated how fast things can change. This industry attracts so much hype and false assumptions, and one major one is that if something is working today then that’s it, that’s the way it has to go from now on. History tells us if there’s a market that can change in one quarter, it’s this one. What interesting changes do you see in the market? Well, for the first time ever, we’ve seen a higher sales percentage for smartphones than feature phones. We’re seeing massive growth in the high-end now, which is interesting. Just think about how quickly the guys here jumped on 4G. Saudi has the highest YouTube consumption in the world — this part of the world really wants to consume new technologies and that’s a great thing and very exciting for our market here. However, on the other hand, the lower market also wants the opportunities to do more with technology — which again is something new. They want to browse the Internet and have apps, things like that. The whole dynamic has changed in the lower market. Asha is our lower-end offering, and it’s practically a smartphone but with a condensed browser for data saving, for example. But overall it is a smartphone still, which is what the customers are demanding.

You say you’re onto a good thing now — what’s next for Nokia? We’re very excited because we have a strong base here, and now, with Lumia, we also have a strong product. Lumia is our future for now, that’s our push product — you’ve seen by the results that this is going in the right direction. In this industry, there is never an equilibrium. Either you’re pushing to leap ahead or you’re standing still and being walked over. Hardly any company has enough people, capital and ideas to create something that customers want. This is why we’re confident — we have great resources, great people, great partnerships, and great vision. If you’re standing still, you better have some good friends because it’s so intense. To survive in this market, you need three things; deep pockets, good people and great ideas. june 2013

Computer News Middle East

analyst corner Darin Stewart

taming

By Darin Stewart, Research Director, Gartner.

he age of information overload is slowly drawing to a close. The enterprise is finally getting comfortable with managing massive amounts of data, content and information. The pace of information creation continues to accelerate, but the ability of infrastructure and information management to keep pace is coming within sight. Big Data is now considered a blessing rather than a curse. Even so, managing information is not the same as fully exploiting information. While Big Data technologies and techniques are unlocking secrets previously hidden in enterprise data, the largest source of potential insight remains largely untapped. Unstructured content represents as much as 80 percent of an organisation’s total information assets. While Big Data technologies and techniques are well suited to exploring unstructured information, this ‘Big Content’ remains grossly underutilised and its potential largely unexplored. Gartner defines unstructured data as content that does not conform to a specific, pre-defined data model. It tends to be the human-generated and people-oriented content that does not fit neatly into database tables. Within the enterprise, unstructured content takes many forms, chief among which are business documents (reports, presentations, spreadsheets and the like), email and Web content. Each of these content sources has mature disciplines supporting them. Business documents are shepherded through their lifecycle by ECM platforms. Email is managed, monitored and archived along with other text-based communication channels. Ever

more sophisticated Web content is matched by equally sophisticated Web content management tools. But each of these platforms is focused on management and retention rather than analysis and exploration. They can, however, provide a robust foundation that will support a Big Content infrastructure. Enterprise-owned and operated information is only part of the Big Content equation. The potential for insight and intelligence expands dramatically when enterprise information is augmented and enhanced with public information. Content from the social stream can be a direct line into the hearts and minds of customers. Blogs, tweets, comments and ratings are a reflection of the current state of public sentiment. More traditional Web content such as news articles, product information and simple corporate informational Web pages become an extension of internal research when tamed. More formal data sources are emerging in the public realm in the form of smart disclosure information from various areas of government in the U.S. and Linked Open Data across the globe. All of these unstructured (and semi-structured) information sources become valuable extensions to enterprise information resources when approached in a Big Content manner. This approach combines the technologies and techniques of Big Data with the unique capabilities of advanced content management and enterprise search. This is a powerful combination that facilitates knowledge discovery in ways not previously possible. Internal documents, email and collaboration artifacts can be combined with public Web and social content to uncover product issues before they become an embarrassment. Purpose-built, unified search indexes and applications can illuminate intellectual property holdings by bringing together innovation indicators across the enterprise while also providing a unified www.cnmeonline.com

view of how it fits into the broader market and patent landscape. In most cases, the raw materials facilitating these use cases already exist in the enterprise. Many organisations have solutions in production and are answering previously unanswerable questions as a result. Big Data and Big Content answers and insights do not come easily nor inexpensively. Unstructured content will be plentiful across the enterprise, but it tends to be isolated, unorganised and unmanaged. Even when a content management system (CMS) has been employed to support content and an enterprise search engine is in place, they have not been deployed or maintained with an eye to analysis. They are necessary, but not sufficient, components of a Big Content solution. Big Data technologies and techniques can be employed to bridge the gap. Even where a mature Big Data practice exists, however, factors unique to unstructured content must be taken into account. The answers to many critical business questions are often contained within the unstructured content scattered across the enterprise. By refining, reconciling and integrating those content resources with enhanced Big Data technologies and techniques, Big Content enables the sort of deep, nonobvious analysis previously reserved for structured data resources. june 2013

Computer News Middle East

Face to face Gagan Mehar

with flight reservations. Obviously, for them, performance is important — they want to serve as many customers as they can per hour. The more transactions per hour, the better, of course. With their data in main memory, they could start dealing with more requests and more reservations, therefore confirming more transactions per hour. The thing with us is that we can resolve challenges by allowing hundreds of terabytes of data to be stored in-memory while always guaranteeing performance. If you can focus on business and not data, that’s a good thing.

Gagan Mehar, Chief Evangelist, Terracotta

Creating memories Software AG-acquired Terracotta is making big moves in Big Data; its in-memory tools have seen 2.5 million deployments. Chief evangelist Gagan Mehar talks to CNME about the hype surrounding Big Data and the company’s love/hate relationship with SAP’s in-memory technology, HANA.

hat does your role as chief evangelist entail, and what is the market view from your point of view? My role is to go out and talk to customers and share our products with them. I discuss with them how to use our products in the most effective fashion. Also, I write a lot of blogs and speak at a lot of events and conferences. There’s a lot of travel involved — it’s a global role. The market is fairly crazy at this point; that’s

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

why I’m travelling a lot. There’s a big demand on Big Data solutions, though some people are confused. People ask me a lot if they need a Big Data solution — there’s a lot of opportunity, and that’s good. I tell them not to be afraid. What does Terracotta provide? We’re in in-memory, so we move data into memory to improve performance. Companies are using this to reduce costs and grow revenue. For example, one of our customers is in travel — one of the largest that deals

www.cnmeonline.com

You have some big players dealing with inmemory technology right now. How do you differentiate yourselves from companies like SAP and its HANA technology? [He laughs] HANA comes up in every conversation we have. Thanks to SAP, most customers now know what in-memory is. But HANA is a database, and we’re not. We work on any commodity server at the application layer. We don’t need anything specific to run our product — it’s purely software. It’s a Java product, so if you have a Java problem, we can insert it into your application directly. For this reason, our deployments only take between six and eight weeks. HANA deployments take around six months. Cost is also a big factor, too. It’s always more expensive to have HANA. Moreover, SAP rarely has customers that are using HANA outside of SAP. The only good news for HANA is that it does work beautifully with Warehouse — it runs Warehouse much faster. Regarding start-ups, though, if they can analyse their data in real-time then that will be key. Some start-ups have in-memory already built in directly, because they know they’re going to need it — nearly everyone is going to be using it. Are the major vendors aware of this, and how will this affect you? Of course. Microsoft recently announced something in this area, no doubt Oracle is working on their own solution, too, and I believe Gartner said this will be a main trend in the coming years. But what we do is at the application level. We allow customers to integrate quickly and improve performance — Microsoft and Oracle would take a lot longer. It’s not something we’ll ever end up competing in.

PARTNER EXCELLENCE CONFERENCE & AWARDS 2013

12th June 2013

Godolphin Ballroom, Jumeirah Emirates Towers Join the premier partner gathering in the Middle East as they discuss the latest trends that are together changing the IT landscape at Reseller Middle East’s Partner Excellence Conference 2013. Then, watch as the best of the region walk away with prized trophies in recognition of their efforts at Reseller Middle East’s Partner Excellence Awards 2013.

www.resellerme.com/awards SPONSORSHIP ENQUIRIES Rajashree R Kumar Commercial Director raj.ram@cpimediagroup.com Tel: +971 4 440 9131

STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGY PARTNER

Merle Carrasco Key Account Manager merle.carrasco@cpimediagroup.com Tel: +971 4 440 9134

STRATEGIC IT BYOD PARTNER

Nasir Bazaz Sales Manager nasir.bazaz@cpimediagroup.com Tel: +971 4 440 9144

STRATEGIC IT VAD PARTNER

SILVER SPONSORS

NOMINATION ENQUIRIES Jeevan Thankappan Group Editor jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com Tel: +971 4 440 9109

GOLD SPONSORS

Insight Working during disasters

IT on the fly

The art of quickly building, then dismantling, IT operations, so you can always do your job — even when disaster strikes.

eith Robertory was staring down a project of epic proportions. Last autumn, as the East Coast prepared for Hurricane Sandy to strike, Robertory was planning to create and run an entire IT shop. He’d have only hours to organise staff and get systems running. He just needed to know where to go. Robertory heads the disaster services technology group at the American Red Cross. It’s his job to make sure Red Cross aid workers have the on-site technology they need to do their jobs, even when a hurricane takes out everything else. “When most people go to an IT person and talk about disaster, they’re picking up servers and running away. We’re doing just the opposite. We’re taking equipment into the disasters where infrastructure is the worst,” he says. Robertory has an unusual talent in a profession where practitioners often talk about multi-year deployments — he can build and dismantle an entire IT department on the fly. “We assume there’s no infrastructure, [so we ask], how can we get soup to nuts done?” he says. Robertory and other IT executives who work in similar circumstances say the temporary nature of their operations

Computer News Middle East

june 2013

forces them to focus on the essentials — the systems that their organisations need most in order to be as efficient and effective as possible. Their lessons on how to run successful IT shops in extraordinary situations can be applied in even the most ordinary of conditions.

Boxed and ready For Robertory, focusing on the essentials means quickly delivering the equipment and connectivity that aid workers need. Sometimes, like in the case of Hurricane Sandy, he knows up to a week in advance that his services will be required, even if he doesn’t know exactly where they’ll land. Other times, he has no warning. Either way, he’s ready to deliver everything from Windows laptops to networking gear. “Anything that you’d see in a normal office environment we have boxed up in ruggedised cases ready to go,” he says. Robertory keeps a mix of technologies in the cases to ensure that his teams can get something up and running fast. If land line phones don’t work, for example, they can go with cellular or satellite. As part of this modular approach, he adds new technologies that seem to make sense while retaining those that have performed well in the past. www.cnmeonline.com

“When most people go to an IT person and talk about disaster, they’re picking up servers and running away. We’re doing just the opposite. We’re taking equipment into the disasters where infrastructure is the worst.” The cases are shipped to disaster zones, where volunteers who make up Robertory’s on-the-ground IT teams set up shop. In the Hurricane Sandy response effort, volunteers built the IT infrastructure at a staging area in White Plains, New York, and used satellite communications until they had data circuits pulled in. The set-up was later moved to a vacant floor in a Manhattan building, where the Red Cross could use the existing network infrastructure. The equipment comes with detailed instructions for volunteers to follow. Robertory says the goal is to have a clear, concise plan so volunteers don’t get bogged down. “We have a 15-minute rule. If it takes you more than 15 minutes to figure something out, ask for help or [work on another piece of equipment]. We just keep moving. That’s one of the secrets to our success,” he says.

Organised by

UAE

17TH JUNE

QATAR

KSA

19TH JUNE

23RD JUNE

CNME Middle East Data Centre Road Show In the 3rd week of June CPI will be hosting the CNME Middle East Data Centre Road Show which will take the format of 3 one day, single stream conferences across the region. Each seminar is designed to educate technology professionals and business leaders on the best way to design, build and operate a successful data centre with a selection of speakers including analysts, industry

experts and sponsor case studies and will bring together 100+ IT decision makers, per event. The conferences will run as a step by step guide to navigate the key areas involved with the design, build and maintenance of a data centre and we are looking for partners for each of the various stages to be positioned as our preferred partner for each.

Register at www.cnmeonline.com/datacentrebuild For sponsorship enquiries: Stuart Lynch Project Sales Manager stuart@cpidubai.com Tel: +44 7514 807 117 / +44 1277 216 96

Cabling Partner

Rajashree R Kumar Commercial Director raj.ram@cpimediagroup.com Tel: +971 4 440 9131

Cooling Partner

For agenda-related enquiries: Jeevan Thankappan Group Editor jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com Tel: +971 4 440 9109

Strategic Technology Partner

For registration enquiries: CPI Events Team +971 4 368 6900 bitevents@cpidubai.com

VAD Partner

PRODUCTS

Launches and releases

PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

PRODUCT WATCH A breakdown of the top products and solutions to launch and release in the last month. Product: Lumia 925 Vendor: Nokia What it does: The sober colours of the Lumia 925 (available in black, white and grey) contrast with the bright colours that the 920 sports. At 139 grams, it is also 50 grams lighter than its portly predecessor, and 2.2 millimetres thinner at 8.5 millimetres. However, other features remain the same â&#x20AC;&#x201D; namely the 4.5-inch screen, the 1280 x 768 resolution, and the 8.7-megapixel camera. What you need to know: One of the main features distinguishing the 925 from other Lumia phones is the aluminium frame around the edge, which also works as an antenna. Nokia is hoping to build on the small measure of success it saw during the first three months of the year when it sold 5.6 million Windows Phones.Â The 925 will cost about $610 and global sales are expected to start in June.

Computer News Middle East

JUNE 2013

www.cnmeonline.com

Product: Aspire P3 Ultrabook Vendor: Acer

Product: Desire 600 Dual-SIM Vendor: HTC

What it does: The Aspire P3 Ultrabook is the latest attempt on the market to find a hybrid between a notebook and a mobile device. Whilst Acer’s claim that the Aspire P3 “redefines” the computer is a little questionable, the concept of having Ultrabook specifications built into a mobile device will impress many. Most impressive, however, is its promising battery life. Powered by either a i3 or i5 processor, Acer quotes the P3’s run-time at six to eight hours. What you need to know: Weighing 1.39 kilograms and measuring 19.75 millimetres, the P3 was introduced along with other new Acer products, including the Aspire R7 and Iconia tablets. With PC shipments continuing to decline, this new line of Acer products highlights the company’s eagerness to target businesses that are outfitting their mobile workforces. Since it runs Windows 8, it can handle all Office programs as well as legacy Windows programs that are important for many businesses.

What it does: The HTC Desire 600 Dual-SIM is the first mid-range handset to offer HTC’s latest Sense 5 experience, HTC BlinkFeed and HTC BoomSound. HTC BlinkFeed is displayed on the phone’s 4.5-inch, super LCD2 display and aggregates social streams and news. BoomSound offers dual front-facing speakers, complete with exclusive built-in amplifiers as well as Beats Audio integration. What you need to know: Dual-SIM card holders give users the freedom of having two phones in one, making it easy to switch between multiple mobile accounts. Running the “dual active” system, the HTC Desire 600 Dual-SIM allows users to have two SIM cards active all the times, enabling them to receive a call on one line, even if they are already using the other. The new HTC Desire 600 DualSIM will be available with mobile operators and major retailers in MEA from early June 2013.

Product: Ascend Mate Vendor: Huawei What it does: The Ascend Mate has an IPS+ LCD screen, which is similar display technology to the one used by Apple on its iPhone 5. The screen doesn’t have a full HD resolution, instead making use of the more common 1280 x 720 resolution found on most of last year’s flagship devices. It is powered by Huawei’s own 1.5 GHz quad-core processor and the company says the 4050mAh, non-removable battery can last up to two days of “ordinary usage” on a single charge. What you need to know: Huawei has unveiled its supersized Ascend Mate smartphone to the Middle East market, where it will hit shelves in June. Embracing the “phablet” trend popularised by Samsung’s Galaxy Note devices, Huawei goes even larger with a 6.1-inch display. The company says it is designed to fit comfortably in a single hand, but at 6.5 millimetres thin at its narrowest part, and 9.9 millimetres thick overall, not everyone will agree. It weighs almost 200 grams, making it one of the heaviest smartphones on the market.

www.cnmeonline.com

jUNE 2013

Computer News Middle East

Column The word on the street

Joe Lipscombe CNME’s man about town gives his spin on the latest IT news and trends.

Computer News Middle East

Ethics and enthusiasm

was back on my travels last month — Florida, to be exact. I was one of the 20,000 people present at Sapphire Now. You probably didn’t see me. Here’s something educational — America is a big place, and America does big events. The convention centre in Orlando is the size of Dubai, the mounted screens are the size of buildings, and the show floor is the size of a shopping centre. This isn’t rare for America — just order a medium-sized McDonald’s in any state and you’ll see that generally the scale of the States is incomprehensible, especially to a young chap from England (a small island somewhere in Europe). Add to this the personalities. Americans have wonderfully large personalities — they were built for TV. Booming lungs with whisky vocals, rumbling laughs and back-slapping anecdotes. SAP’s American Co-CEO, Bill McDermott, is one of these. When he steps on stage, you’re guaranteed a number of woop woops and hell yeahs — it’s the American way. “Mobile [moball, as he says], Big Data [big datter, as he says], and cloud [he says that normally] are game changers! Woo!” The enthusiasm of Americans is really contagious — even for a cynic like myself, who finds sheer joy in frowning at adverts and using the word “ghastly” at any opportunity. And the enthusiasm around things being big just so happened to grab my attention at this event. I’m talking about big datter, sorry, data (it really is contagious). However, my attention was grasped less on the glory and more on the gloom. The fact that this technology gives companies the ability to personally research, approach and divulge individuals’ lives — online or not — does beg the question, what are the ethical implications? I spoke with an executive at SAP and he told me about a new mobile service it’s running with HANA, which will see it team up with service providers all over the world. The gist is that it will

June 2013

take data from all subscription-based devices being used in certain places, apply analytics to that data, work out exactly who these people are and what they’re doing, allowing companies to then manipulate and carve personalised advertising and seamlessly slip it into their paths, unbeknownst to the user. Perhaps the word “manipulate” is a touch harsh, but not inaccurate. This technology will allow companies in the future to create a totally personalised world — much like a sci-fi movie. It could, eventually, tell you exactly what food you should eat on any given day, how much exercise you must do, or whether or not you should pay the doctor a visit for any number of reasons. Imagine a world where every single thing you interact with is strategically placed there as a result of someone watching your every move. It’s basically the plot to The Truman Show, but instead of cameras watching you, it’s your smartphone and your tablet. SAP did tell me, it must be said, that for this particular service, it will demand total anonymity. SAP won’t receive any data from the service providers — all the personal data will be extracted before it’s passed on. So essentially SAP will have raw data, not personalised data. But that still won’t restrict it from being able to provide the service providers with exact information on its customers. And what’s more, the service providers will already have the personal information anyway; they’re just getting SAP to do the dirty work. It’s like hiring a private detective to spy on your wife. The political, cultural and social impact that Big Data can have is overwhelming. However, regulations surrounding consumer data privacy may need to be reconsidered. Another concern that this raises is that regulations will, of course, be different geographically, causing confusion around what’s allowed and what isn’t allowed depending on where people are doing business. Where this leads in the future, I couldn’t possibly say. However, if a man with a sandwich board starts to appear around every corner I turn, I might have to consider dumping my smartphone.

2013

Take Action On The Fly

Even when you’re on the go, business keeps buzzing— and for that, there’s enterprise content management from Laserfiche. With a simple keyword search, virtually any document in your firm can be on your PC, smartphone, or tablet in seconds. Compliance standards are easily met, scalability is built in, and unlike other systems, it gets up and running quickly.

Laserfiche gives the technical and operation teams on our vessels access to information through satellite links with a central, secure repository. It increases efficiency, facilitates compliance and helps us control the costs of managing ships worldwide. Shakil Ahmed,

Go to laserfiche.com/cnme, or call +961-1-294504 x 1176.

Manager of Information Technology Qatar Shipping Company

turnÄąng data growth Äąnto revenue growth Competition is an expensive strategy; operators are looking beyond connectivity for sustainable differentiation. Frontrunners invest differently, aligning network, marketing and device strategy, putting their money where they make a difference on the bottom line. This is why frontrunners donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just invest in superior quality; they put their brand on the line to prove it, by creatively illustrating and comparing it in ways that people can relate to.

ericsson.com/unplug