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EDITORIAL

Publishing Director Rajashree Rammohan raj.ram@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5685 Editorial Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5678

Game changers Last month, CNME’s 2016 CIO 100 Awards honoured IT leaders who have distinguished themselves by creating business value through the innovative use of IT. These transformation leaders have translated vision into reality, using technology to create new revenue streams and create lasting business growth. This year, more than 300 organisations submitted their projects to be judged by our in-house experts and we were impressed by the innovative, business-savvy use of technology across all of our CIO 100-winning companies. We put emphasis on projects with faster turnarounds, and kept costs in line while keeping a focus on core business needs. How do you succeed in business even in a challenging economic climate? These awards are proof These awards that technology-enabled innovation can not only are proof that pay off fast, but also produce handsome dividends beyond the next quarter. Doing less with more is technologygoing to be the IT mantra this year, and the business enabled transformations these winners have led serve as a innovation during model for IT heads to learn how to innovate and keep such hard times the lights on at the same time. can not only During the Forum, which preceded the awards pay off fast, but ceremony, we assembled some of the best in business, also produce who shared their success stories from the past year and handsome strategies designed to help their peers find innovative dividends beyond solutions to today’s pressing IT challenges. We will the next quarter. soon come out with a special edition that features the winners from this year, showcasing how they applied technology to drive business value and innovation. Keep an eye out. Talk to us:

E-mail: jeevan.thankappan@ cpimediagroup.com

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EDITORIAL

Our events

What if... We are well into 2016 now, and I promise I am done with making technology predictions for the coming year. Instead, these days, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been contemplating what a future, and moreover the present, would look like without the technology that we, as consumers rely on every day. Inarguably, there is no industry that has not been touched by information technology these days. In fact, more often than not, technology has become the primary enabler. Industries such as healthcare and oil and gas would all but come to a halt without the technology and information solutions that keep them going. Organisations leverage technology to bring their employees together on the same page, to communicate changes in processes, and to streamline HR policies. In addition, technology is used to reach out to customers, deal with customer service issues and fulfill commitments to consumers. Increasingly, I am left to wonder what a world without this type of communication technology would look like, particularly in terms of customer service. Â Increasingly, I Modern consumers expect customer service am left to wonder issues to be addressed through technology. what a world When an order goes awry on an e-commerce without this type site, for example, we expect that rather than of communication waiting in line, or holding on the phone, that technology would we are able to chat directly with someone on look like. the site at that very moment. Customers want to pay their bills online, or even via a mobile app, foregoing the paper and stamp that we were accustomed to just a few years in the past. Companies that opt to maintain traditional methods of customer service are all but dead in the water. In fact, disgruntled customers often use this same technology to voice their complaints to a wider audience. If customers are not provided with the necessary technology to address their needs, they will find their outlet elsewhere. Without communication technology, customers are left to fend for themselves. Companies need to make themselves available in every way possible, or face the consequences. Talk to us:

E-mail: annie.bricker@ cpimediagroup.com

CONFERENCE

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Contents

Strategic ICT Partner

Strategic Technology Partner

ISSUE 289 | february 2016

CIO SPOTLIGHT: Al naboodah group enterprises' mario foster

32 Value visibility

64 The new storage disruption

52 The digital customer

66 Secured credentials

56 On the move

72 Nimble management

60 Manning the floodgates

78 The big move

Abu DHabi Education Council

King Fahd university

www.cnmeonline.com

cio 100 awards 2016 winners

IKK Group CIO Zohdi El-Saadi shares the company's journey of enhancing visibility and security on its endpoints.

As digital consumption changes, telecom operators are expected to provide services that modern customers demand.

With BYOD becoming the norm in the workplace, CIOs are faced with challenges of keeping the network resilient and secure.

We take a look at how can enterprise data management can help organisations ensure data is managed to its full potential.

Scott Davis, Chief Technology Officer, Infinio, discusses storage-class memory (SCM) and why it's the technology to watch out for.

While most known data breaches are caused by external attackers, organisations should also stay vigilant of potential insider threats.

Perforce Software's Christopher Hoover shares what to look for in a Git management system to further enable your DevOps ambition.

Five questions to consider before deciding to shift your organisation's business critical applications to the cloud. february 2016

CIO Speaker series

MICT Qatar delivers improved e-government experience for users Proactive management, visibility and diagnostics drive service improvements To deliver state-of-the-art e-government services ictQATAR needed state-of-the-art software management capabilities. It implemented HPE Business Service Management software to support the overall e-government vision of more efficient and accessible government services. One of the most important benefits of using HPE BSM is ictQATAR is now more proactive in its infrastructure management. The improved proactivity and diagnostics provided by HPE BSM has allowed ictQATAR to quickly raise the availability of their infrastructure platform from 94 to over 99 percent, and expects to drive further improvements in the near future.

Read more at www.cnmeonline.com/hpe

“The Hewlett Packard Enterprise Software deployment at ictQATAR has helped us transform from a reactive to a proactive IT Operations function, providing improved service delivery and enhanced user experience for our external customers. Furthermore, HPE BSM enabled us to continuously improve our operation and monitoring activities by depicting the holistic view and the linkages between business and technology.” — Walid Galal, Government Infrastructure Operations Department Manager

1 terabyte = 1000 gigabytes

1 petabyte = 1000 terabyte

1 exabyte = 1000 petabyte

1 zettabyte = 1000 exabyte

1TB

1PB

1EB

1ZB

Big Data is projected to grow into a

$53.4 billion $10.2 billion

90%

market by 2017, up from

of the data in the world today has been created in the last three years alone

in 2013

more than 570

new websiteS are created every minute of the day

All of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s digital data equals about

900 exabytes

70%

by 2018

The United States alone could face a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 people with deep analytical skills as well as 1.5 million managers and analysts with the know-how to use the analysis of Big Data to make effective decisions.

of which is created by individuals

THE LANDSCAPE OF SOURCE: MUSHROOM NETWORKS

M bile Global mobile data traffic grew

81% in 2013

Which is why of companies are running two or more Big Data projects

68%

over 500 million mobile devices and connections were added in 2013 Mobile traffic in 2013 was nearly

18 times

China will account for more than

1/5

the size of the entire global Internet in 2000

of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s data by 2020

IMPACT OF DATA

Poor data across businesses and the government costs the US economy $3.1 trillion per year.

Accessing 10% more data equates to an additional income of $65.7 MILLION for the average Fortune 1000 company

vide

Percentage of all online traffic that was mobile video

53% in 2013 69% in 2018 100 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute

The White House administration is investing

$200 million into Big Data research projects

Average online cart sizes increase

10-15%

as a result of personalised advertising using customer information obtained through Big Data

BIG DATA

1 – 3 March | Dubai, UAE gartner.com/me/symposium

The World’s Most Important Gathering of CIOs and Senior IT Executives Business redefined If you haven’t felt the velocity of change yet, you will. The digital wave is sweeping through every industry, enterprise and organization. For an entire generation to come, digital will continue to define and redefine business. At Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2016, 1 – 3 March, in Dubai, UAE, CIOs and senior IT executives will discover the precise speed, agility and leadership skills needed to harness this massive wave of technology change. From personal development to process reinvention, innovation is now your business. Gartner is here to help you own it.

For a full list of analysts, including one-on-one availability, and to build YOUR customized agenda, visit Gartner Events Navigator at gartner.com/me/symposium © 2015 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Gartner is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. or its affiliates. ITxpo is a trademark of Gartner, Inc. or its affiliates. For more information, email info@gartner.com or visit gartner.com.

Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2016 at a Glance: • Three days • 680+ attendees with 200 CIOs • More than 100 analyst-led sessions, round-tables and workshops • Exclusive CIO Program • Tracks aligned to your mission-critical priorities • More than 25 Gartner analysts on-site • More than 40 solution providers • Exclusive Women CIO & Senior IT Leaders Forum

James Dartnell Deputy Editor, CNME

Column

Green with Ibtikar

his is somewhat belated, but well worth a mention. In December, CNME was invited to participate as a judge in National Bank of Oman’s ‘Ibtikar’ - Arabic for innovation - annual event. Our Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan was scheduled to attend, but had to pull out at the last minute, sending me instead. I can honestly say I was filled with boyish excitement at the prospect of being the only external judge in an enterprise technology contest. The contestants had a great incentive for success – top-ranking ideas would be backed by NBO as its own future innovations. I began the day unsure of what to expect. This was the first time I’d officially been appointed ‘judge’ of anything. By the end of the day, if I’d said I was impressed at the standard of technology innovation on offer, I'd have been selling it short. www.cnmeonline.com

I’m in no doubt that everyone at NBO would prefer for me to preserve the anonymity of the entry content, but I will put on record my admiration for the breadth of solutions on offer. From 22 entries, artificial intelligence, mobile application, unified communications, Big Data and social media solutions among others were pitched to an audience of 200, and no two submissions were at all similar. Each made an inventive and unique case for how they could drive business through technology – none were ‘tech for the sake of tech’ by any stretch. The four judges’ selections were almost identical, with the clear winners showing levels of creativity that I have come to expect from any top enterprise IT team. To think that these contestants came from a range of departments throughout the Bank – not just IT – was refreshing to watch, and must be hugely encouraging for the Bank’s senior management to see.

The culture of enthusiasm for new ideas at NBO was evident, and clearly the product of an organisation that lets its employees express themselves with new ideas. The event was not short of its quirks either, caricature sketches of the firm’s executives and staff adorning the walls, with green-dyed food on offer at lunch, all in the spirit of Ibtikar. Perhaps most importantly, as company CIO Faizal Eledath pointed out, the event reinforced a range of values in the contestants over the eight-week build-up period, and tested their 'grey matter' to the limits. Innovation has become something of a sticky buzzword in recent years. I have no doubt that what I saw in Muscat will be a great platform for the company to kick on with its IT initiatives, whilst serving as a superb developmental and team-bonding exercise for employees. Other firms should take note of real Ibtikar. february 2016

opinion

Emad Sallam, Client Solutions Marketing Manager, Dell Middle East

The right way, shape and form Emad Sallam, Client Solutions Marketing Manager, Dell Middle East, discusses the importance of device form factor in getting the best out of employees.

mployers expect it. Employees desperately strive for it. But despite all the attention ‘worker productivity’ gets, it’s still a mystery to most of us. Dell’s Evolving Workforce report found that seven out of ten employees say they do their best work in a corporate office, at a desk. Yet seven out of ten employees who do at least 75% of their work at home report that’s where they’re most productive. And when asked about the remote workforce in general, employees are sharply divided as to whether they think people working at home are as productive as those in the office - 52% saying yes, and the rest saying they didn’t think so or weren’t sure. We might not be sure which environmental factors make one person more productive than another, but technology providers have long recognised that the more natural and uninterrupted the work experience is, the better people can perform. Brighter, bigger screens on ultraportable devices You might not think of a screen as an element that would affect productivity, but consider how the screen size impacts the size and weight – and ultimately the portability – of a device. Brighter and higher-resolution screens also make it easier for workers to use their devices outside during the day, removing another common impediment to remote productivity. Imagine how much more general contractors, police officers, paramedics 14

february 2016

and other ‘field workers’ can do when their devices are easily usable even in glaring sunlight.

Small, backlit keyboards that don’t feel cramped Likewise, a keyboard might not seem related to productivity at first blush, but if its size and layout don’t feel comfortable to workers, it can stand in the way of a natural workflow. One way this issues can be addressed on smaller devices is to keep primary keys larger, while reducing the size of lesser-used keys like Backspace. In addition, backlit keys can be important for workers who travel (think red-eye flights) or work at night. This small detail can make a big difference in worker productivity on a day-to-day basis.

Touch interfaces with styli While we don’t have to convince anyone that touch will be the status quo across devices in the future, it’s worth pointing out that touch creates a much more natural interaction with those devices, leading to greater productivity, especially when compared with a traditional mouse-driven interface. Commercial-grade materials As the lines between personal device use and work use have blurred over the past few years, hardware manufacturers have responded with more commercial-grade consumer products. To fully support mobile productivity, mobile devices will continue to become lighter, stronger and faster at the same time, relying

more on carbon fiber casings to achieve the requisite combination of durability and lightness. Biometric sensors One of the biggest concerns companies have about mobile workers is security. Devices can be lost or stolen, and it’s difficult to ensure workers are taking proper precautions to avoid security risks (updating software, avoiding unsecured networks, locking their devices). As a result, some companies place highly restrictive security policies in place, which can drastically slow down the process of logging into Wi-Fi, performing Internet research, sharing files, and performing other crucial dayto-day tasks. Devices need to include biometric sensors such as fingerprint readers or 3D cameras. These features are becoming more common on devices as consumers and pros alike recognise the benefits of biometrics for security and productivity. Productivity may be a personal battle, but technology can play a big role in supporting or inhibiting workers as they fight that battle. From the keyboard to the screen, a device’s form factor can mean the difference between an employee comfortably finishing a report on the airplane or pushing it off to another already-stress-filled day. So perhaps it’s time to think not only about where your employees work, but how. To contribute most meaningfully to your employees’ success, select machines designed with their productivity and comfort in mind.

www.cnmeonline.com

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short takes

Month in view

Citrix names new CEO

Mark Hurd, Co-CEO, Oracle

Kirill Tatarinov, Citrix

Citrix announced that Kirill Tatarinov has been appointed as its new president and CEO. Interim president and CEO Robert Calderoni will continue his role as executive chairman on the Citrix board of directors, focused on driving the execution of the firm's strategic plan. With 30 years of industry experience, Tatarinov has a long and successful track record overseeing product strategy and commercial operations in software and services. “I am honoured to join Citrix during this exciting time,” said Tatarinov. “Citrix is an iconic company with a world-class brand, innovative products, and a large installed base, including 99 percent of the Global 500. Citrix is a key enabler of digital business. Across every industry and region, the secure delivery of apps and data is a strategic imperative for organisations of all sizes. I look forward to working alongside Citrix’s leaders, talented employees, and dedicated partners around the world to push the boundaries of innovation and create greater value together.” 16

february 2016

Oracle to debut Middle Eastern data centre in Abu Dhabi Oracle announced that it will launch its first Middle Eastern data centre in Abu Dhabi, but the company did not specify when and where that will be in 2016. Co-CEO Mark Hurd also announced that Oracle will hire more than 250 cloud sales professionals for the region. The move comes as the company has more than doubled its workforce in the Middle East in the past three years. In the course of 2016, Oracle will also open new offices in Abu Dhabi, Dubai Internet City, Amman and Riyadh. “When I was here last year, I discussed how we were ‘planning’ to have a data centre in the Middle East, but these plans are becoming a reality,” Hurd said. “We’re introducing this centre for improved latency and a more comprehensive localised service, as well as giving us the opportunity to tackle data sovereignty issues. We have a great partnership with the Government of Abu Dhabi and are committed to the growth of cloud in the region.” The data centre in Abu Dhabi, according to Oracle, will allow them to better manage the service level objectives and data governance for customers throughout the Middle East. The system environment at the data centre in the UAE will be built using Oracle Engineered Systems.

When asked about the possibility of exploiting opportunities in Iran, following the lifting of economic sanctions after the country satisfied the UN’s nuclear watchdog - the International Atomic Energy Agency - that it had complied to a July 2015 accord, Hurd said, “As soon as the United States government has undergone all its necessary processes and regulations, we will follow up with any opportunities that may be available.”

2/3

of G2000 companies worldwide will have digital transformation at the centre of their corporate strategies by 2017 Source: IDC

www.cnmeonline.com

Panasonic has announced that it will invest up to

$1.6

billion on Tesla Motor’s Gigafactory as part of its attempt to cement its future in automotive electronics

Cisco helps businesses address shadow IT Cisco has announced the launch of Cloud-Consumption-as-a-Service, a new software-as-a-service product that discovers and monitors public cloud services used by organisations. When combined with detailed analytics and benchmarking from Cisco, the company highlighted that the new solution can help businesses reduce security risks and better understand and manage costs. “Organisations are facing an explosion in cloud use as business teams are going around the IT department to use public cloud services that they feel will help their business,”

Intel completes Altera acquisition Brian Krzanich, Intel

Intel has completed the acquisition of Altera Corporation (Altera), a provider of field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology. According to the company, the acquisition complements its product portfolio and enables new classes of products in the high-growth data centre and Internet of Things (IoT) market segments. “Altera is now part of Intel, and together we will make the next generation of semiconductors not only better but able to do more,” said Brian Krzanich, CEO, Intel. “We will apply Moore’s Law to grow today’s FPGA business, and we’ll invent new products that make amazing experiences of the future possible – experiences like autonomous driving and www.cnmeonline.com

machine learning.” Altera will operate as a new Intel business unit called the Programmable Solutions Group (PSG), led by former Altera Vice President and General Manager Dan McNamara. Intel stressed that they are committed to a smooth transition for Altera customers and will continue the support and future product development of Altera’s many products, including FPGA, ARM-based SoC and power products. In addition to strengthening the existing FPGA business, PSG will work closely with Intel’s Data Centre Group and IoT Group. Intel expects the acquisition to be accretive to non-GAAP EPS and free cash flow in the first full year after close, consistent with prior guidance.

said Rabih Dabboussi, General Manager, Cisco UAE. “This, in turn, is creating a huge challenge for IT leaders as the risks from security and compliance to data protection and business continuity increase. Cisco’s Cloud-Consumptionas-a-Service offering gives CIOs better visibility and insight into what services are being used and what they can do to control them. It helps our customers mitigate cloud risks, uncover redundant services to reduce costs, and compare providers and benchmark usage. Ultimately, it helps organisations strategically manage their cloud use and gain insight into their cloud roadmap.”

Microsoft to invest $1B in cloud services to non-profits Microsoft has announced its plans to donate $1 billion in cloud services to non-governmental organisations and researchers, in a bid to provide access to these services to communities that can’t afford them. According to the company, its new division, dubbed 'Microsoft Philanthropies', will provide NGOs with the full suite of Microsoft cloud services, including Microsoft Azure, so that they can run applications and make use of computing and storage power, CRM Online to manage relationships with donors and beneficiaries, and the Enterprise Mobility Suite to manage all of their devices, applications, and data. The other leg of the Microsoft programme is the expansion by 50 percent of donations for its current Microsoft Azure for Research programme, which has so far provided free cloud computing resources for over 600 research projects on six continents. The company is also planning to donate cloud services combined with last-mile connectivity for underserved communities around the world. february 2016

Motorola Razr series

Released in 2004, the Motorola Razr was widely considered to be the start of a new trend in mobile devices â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the era of the flip phone. The Razr promised everything that sci-fi and action movie aficionados could have wanted from a mobile â&#x20AC;&#x201C; that slick, nonchalant ending to a do-or-die phone call with a simple snap of the device. This would all come in the form of a thin, aluminium clamshell profile, with an electroluminescent keypad made out of a single metal wafer, and an industry standard mini USB port for data, battery charger and headphones too boot. Within two years, the Razr had sold a massive 50 million handsets, albeit via a reduction in price, after the phone had initially been marketed as a high-end product. Big things were on the horizon. Sadly, this promise was relatively short-lived. Thinking it was onto a winner, Motorola neglected its duty to move with the market, and beginning its life as a stylish and consumer-friendly product, the clamshell phone design fell victim to touchscreens. Nonetheless, the Razr V3 retains its place in history, becoming the shining star of the series, shifting over 130 million units in its shelf-life. It featured a 2.2-inch screen and 0.3 megapixel camera, qualities that would soon pale into insignificance with high photo and screen resolution quality.

february 2016

www.cnmeonline.com

Internet of Things is in our DNA

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Creating a new technology breakthrough in the UAE

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Etisalat Enterprise The power of ICT & global services

CIO

Spotlight

Dubai dream

After a long wait, Mario Foster has finally secured his long-desired move to the UAE. The Al Naboodah Group Enterprises CIO has spent his career working in Canada and Saudi Arabia, both as an IT decision-maker and for internationally renowned vendors, but is now spearheading a range of transformation initiatives.

february 2016

www.cnmeonline.com

orn and raised in Kuwait to Canadian and Jordanian parents, Mario Foster completed his high school education in 1988, before opting for a change of pace by returning to his filial roots. Studying for a university course in computer science in Canada, Foster obtained his Bachelor’s degree before obtaining a Masters in the management of information systems. Determined to shore up his education, he made it his mission to obtain professional certifications, and achieved his Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) qualification after graduating. This desire for diplomas would be a running theme throughout his career, as he later became a Cisco Certified Network Associate and Certified Information Security Manager (CISM). Foster kicked off his career with a two-year stint at British Columbiabased firm Campus Computers, where he worked as a tech support engineer. He feels the experience got him off to a good start in the working world. “It was a great way to apply the knowledge I’d acquired up to that point,” he says. A huge change of pace was to follow. Foster answered an online advert for a job at Microsoft’s offices in Toronto, and was hired in an infrastructure and network support role. “The culture was totally different from Campus,” he says. “Moving from a company with a small amount of staff to a wellstructured multinational corporation with lots of policies, standards and procedures was a shock.” Foster went on to spend five years at the software giant, moving into an infrastructure consulting role later on in his tenure.

www.cnmeonline.com

“I really grew in my time there,” he says. “I progressed quickly and proved to myself that I could cope with Microsoft’s expectations.” His development at the firm stoked a desire for more learning. Foster took the bold call to put his career on hold while studying for an MBA in information technology management in Ontario. "I was determined to better myself by studying a number of things,” he says. “The management and finance of IT, strategy and planning were skills that I knew I would need in order to succeed in business as well as technology.” Foster was awarded his MBA in 2000, and was on the hunt for a role in the burgeoning US IT market. His passion for IT security drove him into a consultancy role at RSA’s headquarters in Boston, and it was to be the start of something special for Foster. “I learned so much there,” he says. “It was easily the most exciting time of my career. They’re a company that really cares about service quality and good daily practices, and those habits have had a great impact on my work.” Foster spent his first three months at the firm being trained on products before being moved into a senior deployment consultant role. He became a product specialist, focusing on two-factor authentication solutions, and was soon heading the firm’s security infrastructure in its professional services organisation. Foster left the firm on a high, spending his last two years as RSA’s head of infrastructure. In 2005, he realised a longrunning ambition to return to the Middle East, where some of his family were based. A huge personal change was on the cards, as he moved to Saudi Arabia to become manager

of Riyad Bank’s security operations centre. “It took my knowledge of security operations to the next level,” he says. “IT security in a bank is no joke. You have to be alert and organised 24/7, and always be available to make decisions. I would often be called at three or four in the morning as SOC operators needed my approval, or I would be in the centre from 12-4am if we were rolling out new solutions.” Foster was not enamoured with life in Riyadh, and after two-and-a-half years, he decided to return to Canada with his family. His next career stop would be as director of IT for insurance firm Empire Life, and the unfamiliar industry would provide a fresh experience. “I needed more of a broad business and IT brain rather than just being focused on security,” he says. “Working in insurance also brought new challenges. I had to learn a range of business-related applications as well as anti-money laundering regulations, which everyone in the industry has to know.” Although Foster was refreshed by the experience of working in Canada again, he nonetheless found the relentless cold weather “depressing”, and once again sought a move to Saudi Arabia. This time, he joined Rawabi Holding – a family business made of 19 companies – as group IT manager in 2010. Foster found the pace of life in Al Khobar more to his liking, but his job provided a stern test. “Life was more relaxed than in Riyadh,” he says, “but providing IT services across various lines of business was a new challenge. You have to meet different expectations, and every company thinks it should receive your full attention.” Foster progressed to february 2016

CIO

Spotlight targets – upgrades for the firm’s the role of group CIO, where for the IT infrastructure, connectivity first time, his work was split “50/50” and speed of applications. He also between IT and business initiatives. focused on virtualising the firm’s After three years at the firm, Windows environment, and is now Foster was approached by Rawabi’s “70 percent” of the way through sister company Pan Gulf Holding to this process, saying work should be be its CIO. “Al Khobar is a small city, complete by the end of 2016. Foster and I still don’t know how they got also established an IT governance and my number for that role,” he quips. planning division for the firm. Transitioning from an oil and gas Looking forward, Foster is set to specialist to a manufacturer gave spearhead a range of exciting new Foster fresh experience in ERP initiatives for Al Naboodah, albeit implementation. “Across my last with the caveat of a limited budget. few roles I’d worked with a range “It hasn’t increased for 2016, but of vendors in this respect,” he says. we’re still expected to achieve more “At Rawabi I implemented Oracle with it,” he says. “The last three E-Business Suite, I had also worked weeks have been with Microsoft very stressful in Dynamics, and now we were “The management terms of planning, but good things implementing and finance of are undoubtedly SAP. This was all IT, strategy and on the horizon.” fantastic, broad Among the Groupexperience.” planning were wide initiatives Throughout skills that I knew are plans for a new his time in I would need in tier 2 data centre Canada and Saudi Arabia, Foster order to succeed in and an employee had harboured business as well as self-service ERP, while the hopes for a dream technology.” commercial division move to Dubai. is due to launch “I always wanted an e-commerce the lifestyle and platform, the firm’s travel agency a longevity that the UAE could offer,” he new online booking engine, and an says. Unfortunately for him, the cards electronic document management that he’d been dealt were never quite system for the construction division. in his favour. “Every time I applied Cloud MENA and Zayed University for jobs in Dubai, either another advisory board member Foster names one would materialise in Saudi or I his father and Bill Gates as personal wasn’t selected.” Finally, Foster was and professional idols. “I would approached by a headhunter, and always see my dad getting up very joined Al Naboodah Group Enterprises early to work hard and deliver real as company CIO in March 2015. quality,” he says, “and given his status He began his tenure by as a true modern tech entrepreneur, initiating a restructuring process I always love to hear Bill Gates’ within the department, focusing thoughts on technology and the world on hiring staff with specialist at large.” skills that could address his top 22

february 2016

TIMELINE 1988 Graduates from high school in Kuwait

2000 Completes IT management MBA

2000 Begins five-year stint with RSA in Boston

2005 Becomes Riyad Bank's SOC manager

2007 Takes first IT Director role at Empire Life

2010 Joins Rawabi Holding

2015 Named Al Naboodah Group CIO

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Architect

IT to be a continuous value creator. This is the era of relentless disruption—driven by app-centric IT that capitalizes on cloud, mobility, and data-driven insights. In this New Style of Business, IT needs to lead, not just support. HPE and MIS can help you that optimizes workloads and accelerates application development and testing. Now your IT can become a Gain insights for your infrastructure to accelerate opportunity and take your business further, faster. For more info: info@mis.com.sa | Tel:+966 (92) 000 0334

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case study

Abu Dhabi Education Council

Making the grade Perhaps one of the most important foundations for any nation’s success is its education system. Endeavouring to meet the high standards of the UAE's capital, Abu Dhabi Education Council implemented a modern enterprise management solution to create an integrated system within its networks.

stablished in 2005, the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) was organised under a mandate issued by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, UAE President, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and the Ruler of Abu Dhabi. Under this mandate, ADEC became the governing educational authority in Abu Dhabi. The organisation is responsible for the management and administration of the emirate’s public schools and has also been tasked with the creation of planning strategies in conjunction with the Ministry of Education, within the framework of the UAE’s general education policies. While the Council was established in 2005, its ICT department was created only early 2007, recalls Khaled Hassan, manager of ICT operations and infrastructure, ADEC. Located in a

february 2016

smaller office back then, there were only a few ICT services offered by the department, which included core infrastructure services, such as active directory, Internet, desktops and office automation applications. In 2009, with around 270 schools already under its wing, ADEC had to work with a mix of operating systems and networking services within its infrastructure. While the adoption of new solutions signals positive growth for the Council, coping with such a large scale system presented a few challenges in terms of monitoring the effectiveness of services. As ICT became a major driver for organisations in the country, ADEC also began to look at its own long-term strategies in the space. The Council decided to create its own data centre to keep up with its growing network. “We wanted to come up with an approach that would connect all the schools with the

headquarters," Hassan explains. "We also wanted to have a centralised IT model that would provide all business ICT services, ensure the quality of the IT infrastructure and secure our electronic data.” ADEC considered a number of potential management solution vendors that had a strong presence in the market. However, they found that although some of these vendors’ offerings were ideal for their requirements, they were not necessarily the most cost-effective option available in the market. “We wanted to implement a network management solution for maintaining and supporting services and my colleague, Muhammad Affan recommended that we try ManageEngine,” recalls Hassan. “We reviewed their user reference list, did a bit of background research and spoke to their current clients about their experiences using the Council’s

www.cnmeonline.com

solutions. We also got in touch with those companies who had switched from other enterprise management solutions providers to ManageEngine. After hearing what they had to say, we decided to request for a proof of concept for the ServiceDesk Plus - IT Helpdesk software. With the POC complete, we saw that they were able to meet our expectations.” Pleased with the results of the ServiceDesk Plus implementation, ADEC then added more of the vendor’s solutions including ITSecurity products such as Password Manager Pro and Eventlog Analyzer. “Having ManageEngine solutions as the core management solution at ADEC, we were able to predict any issue before it turned into a crisis. Solutions the Eventlog Analyzer is instrumental in recording issues and identifying the root cause,” Hassan adds. The solutions have helped improve ADEC’s operations by identifying any auditing and noncompliant gaps within its systems. Along with its local systems integration partner, the vendor provided the Council with roundthe-clock support. “One of the mandates that we were required to follow for maintaining the ISO 27001 certification was to have a password service,” explains Hassan. “The Password Manager Pro allowed us to help our clients set up their own passwords and reset it in the event that it was locked due to failed or unauthorised attempts. We had tried to acquire a similar solution from other vendors but only ManageEngine was able to present their solution with less complex terms.” The Council also implemented the Exchange Reporter Plus - a webwww.cnmeonline.com

Khaled Hassan, Manager, ICT Operations and Infrastructure, ADEC

february 2016

case study

Abu Dhabi Education Council

based analysis and reporting solution for Microsoft Exchange Servers, from 2011 onwards. In 2012, ADEC signed a partnership with Etisalat to connect all the schools in one single network, thus setting up an ICT infrastructure and technical support project which involved 257 public schools in Abu Dhabi. “After we accomplished the project that connected all the schools to our data centre, we realised that it was time to provide our business critical services to our stakeholders. That’s how we developed our Operations and Infrastructure department.” The Operations and Infrastructure division is responsible for ADEC’s core infrastructure services. The applications deployed under this function include identity management solutions, active directory, mail services, storage, servers, collaboration services and communication services. ADEC’s core infrastructure currently includes two data centres - a Tier 4 strategic data centre as well as a Tier 3 disaster recovery centre, which has now become a state-of-the-art data centre, hosting the Council’s business critical and core infrastructure services.

ADEC is consistently working towards acquiring new qualifications that could further raise the quality of its services. It aims to achieve more certifications, such as the ISO 22301 for business continuity management system. Various projects and new technologies are also being initiated by the organisation. The Council has also implemented VMware solutions for the virtualisation its data centre, which is near completion. Since the organisations’ IT management needs have further increased in identity and access management in Windows environments, ADEC went for ADManager Plus - a Windows Active Directory Management and Reporting Solution, and ADAudit Plus - a realtime Windows Active Directory Auditing software. “The way we look at it is that if there are things that we cannot control and manage due to not having the right tools, it can result in us not being able to perform our jobs properly,” Hassan says. “Proper deployment and management of these solutions for large scale environments are

“If there are things that we cannot control and manage due to not having the right tools, it can result in us not being able to perform our jobs properly.”

february 2016

of utmost importance, especially if you are a service provider for the educational sector catering to over 180,000 students and 15,000 employees. We have to ensure that we have high availability for these services and at a high quality performance which answers the needs of our stakeholders.” Recently, ADEC also started using ADSelfService Plus - web-based, enduser password reset management software for resetting passwords. Reiterating the good relationship between ADEC and ManageEngine, Muhammad Affan, ITIL Service Manager, ADEC, emphasises that they are very happy with how the solutions provider collaborates and keeps an open line of communication with their teams. “ManageEngine has performed exceptionally in terms of assisting us from the integration of the solutions up to dealing with any systems-related problems we face. The team has also been very responsive, not only in ensuring that processes within our networks run seamlessly, but also in helping us identify any gaps within our systems before it can make any significant damage in our operations.” To ensure that they continuously provide the best quality of services to their stakeholders, ADEC regularly evaluates all the solutions they implement. “We see to it that the programmes and solutions we have will provide long-term advantages for us. With ManageEngine we provision any new services they have to offer, when relevant, our team also continuously coordinate with them in refreshing the solutions we currently employ,” Hassan concludes. www.cnmeonline.com

case study

King Fahd University

Brain power King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals’ specialist courses are worldrenowned. With formidable alumni including the CEOs of Saudi Aramco and Saudi Electricity Company, the University depends on the first-class delivery of education services, with mobility now at the core of that aim.

“Lectures used to be tutor-centred, where 400 students would listen to a professor at a time, but that trend is gradually declining.” A university is like a small city,” says Dr. Hosam Rowaihy, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals’ (KFUPM) Director of Information Technology. “Education is going through an interesting time. Lectures used to be tutor-centred, where 400 students would listen to a professor at a time, but that trend is gradually declining. We’re also now talking about flipped classroom learning, where students watch lectures at home, then discuss materials in class. Education is becoming more student-centred.” KFUPM’s impressive track record is evident. Although it is perhaps unsurprising given Saudi Arabia’s position as the largest supplier of oil in the world, the University nonetheless boasts Saudi Aramco and

february 2016

Saudi Electricity Company CEOs Amin H. Nasser and Ziyad bin Mohammed Al-Shiha among its formidable alumni. Around 80 percent of KFUPM’s students are undergraduates, with the remainder

www.cnmeonline.com

undertaking postgraduate courses in a variety of research fields. As its name suggests, its research leans heavily towards investigations in petroleum engineering and geosciences, as well as offering courses in general engineering and computer science. Aside from being an educational facility, the University has also made its mark within the oil and gas industry itself, having recently established an R&D park for some of the world’s major oil and gas players to deepen their understanding of the industry. On campus, however, students are now more demanding than ever when it comes to the ways they can access educational services. “Today, students are very well connected, and want to see everything on their mobile device,” Rowaihy says. “Learning

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management systems, where students can collaborate for assignments, are also transforming the education process. All these services have to be delivered quickly, and to any device.” As well as depending on IT to run basic systems like HR, finance and KFUPM’s supply chain, Rowaihy is tasked with ensuring technology can also drive educational operations. “Most of our faculty and students

live on campus, so we need to run things like the medical centre system and our own security and residential departments,” he says. “We also have to run our own satellite systems. On top of this, new demand always comes from the students; it’s a dynamic environment where new ideas and programmes are created.” Driven by the need to support these operational demands, KFUPM had been a long-serving customer of Ellucian. Formerly known as SunGard Higher Education, KFUPM used the firm’s SIS solution for a range of education technology services, before a 2012 rebrand. “We moved to SunGard Banner in 2007,” Rowaihy says. The SIS solution had run on mainframe computing, which was high in OPEX. The move to Banner, however, instilled fresh confidence at KFUPM. Nonetheless, a few years down the line, it became apparent that KFUPM was in serious need of an upgrade to its Banner solution, which had otherwise served it well until that point. With KFUPM receiving 30,000 annual applications for the 3,000 places on its specialist courses, Rowaihy spotted clear patterns in KFUPM’s applicants’ behaviour that was eye-opening for the IT team. “More than 60 percent of our applicants were applying for our courses using a mobile device,” he says. He confesses that these figures remained a shock even in the age of mobility. “As a technologist, even I was surprised at that number. Given the importance of a university application course that’s something I’d never do.” In addition, KFUPM had also received reports of students facing difficulties in registering for classes, and in a number of other administrative areas. “Students want to register for courses at certain times, and if they don’t match the availability, this can be frustrating,” Rowaihy says. In 2013, after a period february 2016

case study

King Fahd University

of consideration, he decided that an upgrade to the Ellucian package would be necessary to support demand for mobile education services. After consulting with his staff, he opted for an upgrade to the Ellucian Banner 8.5 suite. Delivering a seamless transition would require great attention to detail from Rowaihy’s IT staff. “There were lots of challenges in the change,” he says. “The team spent days and nights working on the migration process, testing over 120 scenarios to ensure the application ran seamlessly. We are very detail-oriented, so are very averse to seeing a system go live and realise it has any flaws.” Across the board, the upgrade has provided enhanced performance to KFUPM’s IT department, making them more responsive. “Students can now register for courses in a matter of seconds, which is a major boost for our operations,” Rowaihy says. “Higher education organisations have to undertake a lot of reporting, in terms of statistics, admissions and registrations, and this has all since been made smoother, as well as checking grades and accessing work portfolios.” The ability to incorporate other services into KFUPM’s portal has also proven a useful value-add. “We’ve been able to build many other services in the portal, like issuing printing credits and car parking permits, which provides greater ease of access and satisfaction to our students,” Rowaihy says. He has also overseen the integration of KFUPM’s learning management and registration systems, meaning students’ schedules are automatically synced, allowing ease of access to course materials. In the process of upgrading the application version, Rowaihy and KFUPM also took the opportunity to enhance the University’s hardware, and is now experiencing the benefits of more powerful servers running the app. Beyond the confines of KFUPM, 30

february 2016

“More than 60 percent of our applicants were applying for our courses using a mobile device. As a technologist, even I was surprised at that number.”

the project has served as a fantastic PR exercise in terms of generating further interest around the University. The IT department has received fantastic feedback on social media sites regarding the upgrade, and with higher education organisations offering more competitive courses in the Kingdom, the service has added extra gloss to an already sought-after institution. “Although most students already know whether they want to enroll at KFUPM as we are quite specialised, the upgrade has certainly done us no harm in conveying as a student-friendly organisation,” Rowaihy says. Looking forward, Rowaihy is keen to continue partnering with Ellucian to continue delivering timely services to KFUPM’s students and staff. The IT team are now working – in partnership with students – to move KFUPM towards implementing the

latest version of Ellucian Banner in 2016. The main purpose of the upgrade is to ensure that KFUPM’s mobility mandate is fulfilled; that students can access all their services seamlessly through mobile devices. “I believe that the future will be centred around open technologies that allow integration,” he says. “The time of silos is passing, and everything should now talk together. Services like interacting with faculty members have to be considered under the umbrella of education services, and Ellucian has opened their applications so that they can be easily built upon.” Rowaihy is also mindful that the opportunities brought by mobility could be counterbalanced by corresponding threats. “We have no choice but to support BYOD, so security concerns will be a crucial and unavoidable consideration for us in the coming months and years,” he says. www.cnmeonline.com

case study

Isam Khairi Kabbani Group

value visibility After a period of strong growth for the firm, Isam Khairi Kabbani Groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tech-aficionado acting chairman demanded greater efficiency from IT. Company CIO Zohdi El-Saadi set the ball rolling by spearheading a game-changing project to enhance visibility and security on IKKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s endpoints.

february 2016

www.cnmeonline.com

Visibility is half the battle when it comes to control over anything, and IT is no different.” Once given the freedom to drive change, Zohdi El-Saadi knew exactly what his employers needed from IT. The IKK CIO had long desired the use of modern analytics to keep the company secure from the range of daily threats it faced. The firm offers a diversified portfolio of products and services, specialising in construction services, but also operating in the manufacturing, and furniture industries to name but a few. Its IT had also been operating in different silos. At the start of 2010, IKK’s chairman announced plans for a five-year strategic roadmap for the company. IKK had been performing particularly well across some of its KPIs and projects, but a number of aspects of IT had become an issue. Many of the Group’s 60 companies had their own data centres, which generated unnecessary OPEX and created operational difficulties for senior management figures. Thankfully, change was sought. “Our acting chairman was an IT guru, and he was determined for us to minimise cost and increase efficiency in our IT,” El-Saadi says. IKK set itself on a path of change. “We began to merge company data centres into a virtualised environment,” El-Saadi says. “We centralised IT for the Group, and began to transition IT away from being a source of expenditure.” As the company expanded, El-Saadi recognised the need for greater visibility into IKK’s endpoints. Although overall progress had been made in the company’s IT operations, security monitoring remained an issue on individual machines, and

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from that perspective, things had become unmanageable for IKK. “Over a period of three years, the number of PC users grew by around 3,000,” he says. The expansion created a great deal of hassle for the IT department. We decided that we needed a solution for improved security, and so we could gain insights into what was happening on each machine.” In addition to this requirement, ensuring the efficient use of software licences would also be critical. The firm had been wasting cash on unused software products, and El-Saadi knew this had to be stopped. “It was very common for user x to have software y and make absolutely no use of it,”

“A lot of the older generation did not buy into what we had proposed,” he says. “Many people – especially those who are not in touch with more modern technologies – believe that IT is solely a cost centre, so we had to work hard to convince them of the benefits of service-oriented ideas in what we wanted to achieve. They found it very hard to see past the possibility that an implementation would just disrupt operations and sales.” he says. As well as having to convince IKK’s senior management of the benefits of Nexthink’s solutions, El-Saadi also had to overcome a large degree of suspicion from the

“Visibility is half the battle when it comes to control over anything, and IT is no different.” he says. “Once other aspects of our IT had been taken care of, we had to put a stop to a practice that was careless.” El-Saadi begun a search for a tool that could identify security threats and provide the necessary info to his team for appropriate action. He identified Nexthink as a potential partner, and underwent a proof of concept process on a range of the firm’s modules to see what suited IKK best. It quickly became clear that the security module would be a must for threat analysis, while the V5 analytics module was what was needed to see how IT resources were being consumed. Although IKK’s acting chairman bought into the vision of making the company more tech-savvy, El-Saadi nonetheless faced opposition from other key figures within the company.

company’s everyday PC users. They were understandably skeptical at having an increased, direct level of monitoring to the activity on their machines. “I took the time to carefully explain to a number of employees that we weren’t ‘spying’ on them and their browsing activity when they found their PCs had been restarted,” he says, “just that we were monitoring the usage of apps. This was by no means straightforward with some people but if you’re patient and empathic with the staff then they will eventually accept what you are explaining.” Via much toil, El-Saadi managed to convince the senior management and staff members that the solution was what IKK needed. Installation work began, and with a number of office branches across the Middle East needing updates, the upgrade february 2016

case study

Isam Khairi Kabbani Group

“I took the time to carefully explain to a number of employees that we weren’t ‘spying’ on them and their browsing activity when they found their PCs had been restarted.”

process had to be gradual and carefully planned. “We started off with the main cities in which we operate,” ElSaadi says. “For us, those are Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, Dubai and Doha. Then, we worked on remote branches one by one.” Following the successful implementation of the software, El-Saadi did not have to wait long to feel its benefits. “I immediately liked Nexthink,” he says. “It was easy to understand, and from the very first dashboard, it easily allows you to drill down into machines and diagnose problems in real-time.” The benefits of the software extend beyond identifying technical problems, with the process of resolving faults now also facilitated. “We can now isolate problems into a zone with no fuss,” El-Saadi says. “This could have taken 34

february 2016

days before, and used to be a process of elimination as to what the fault could be.” The broader effect of these changes is clear: IKK is now facing less serious issues relating to IT security. Tangible benefits have not been hard to identify. “Consider that it would have taken work spread across three days for one of our IT guys to solve a security issue, and that we had 50 incidents per day in the Jeddah office alone, the cost of resources was large in this respect,” El-Saadi says. “We can now identify problems extremely quickly. If a machine is failing due to the installation of an app, or a hard disk is reaching 80 percent capacity and causing problems, we know.” The upgrade has proved invaluable in terms of saving IKK

costs on software licences. “It’s absolutely fantastic,” El-Saadi says. “Nexthink’s software has a 90-day no-use policy, so if a user does not use a particular licence on their machine, we can reallocate it to another machine, which obviously saves costs. We can also remove licences altogether if we have a number that are redundant.” El-Saadi speaks highly of the support received from Nexthink, both during and after the implementation. “To us, they’re a partner, not just a vendor,” he says. “They didn’t lose interest once all the work was done from their end, which was fantastic.” The firm can now direct its efforts to a range of other IT and business initiatives. “The work has had a very positive effect for IKK’s IT and the business as a whole,” El-Saadi says. “We’re now in a position where we can implement a vast HR service, and when you consider that we didn’t even have an HR department five years ago, it represents huge progress.” www.cnmeonline.com

Setting the pace of innovation The 2016 CIO 100 Awards winners show how IT can become an integral and powerful force for executing business growth strategies. Business transformation and corporate growth were the hallmarks for the winning projects of this year. Many of these projects were also at the heart of evolving organisational strategies â&#x20AC;&#x201C; blurring the lines between IT and business.

A T Srinivasan Qatar Airways

Abdul Razack Dileep Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council

Abdulla Al Bastaki Roads and Transport Authority

Abdulrahman Al Barguthi Al Foah

february 2016

www.cnmeonline.com

Abdulrahman Aloniazan Arab National Bank

Afra Al Shamsi UAE University

Ahmad Al Madani General Pension & Social Security Authority

Ahmad Al Nasser UAE Ministry of Labour

Ahmed Ebrahim Al Ahmad Nakheel

Ahmed Ishaq Al Kooheji Saudi Diesel Equipment Company

Ajay Rathi Meraas Holding

Alaeddin Al Badawna ADMA-OPCO

www.cnmeonline.com

february 2016

Infor CloudSuite™ Industrial

Infor CloudSuite™ Healthcare

Ali Ghunaim Canadian Specialist Hospital

Ali Mohamed Al Ali Health Authority- Abu Dhabi

Alia Alkindy EGA Ras Al Khaima

Aliasgar Bohari Zulekha Hospitals

Amit Kanchan Landmark Hospitality

Amro Jaber Ahmed Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

Arnab Debroy Metito Overseas

Baraa Khamis Executive Affairs Authority

www.cnmeonline.com

february 2016

Dr Hazem El Khatib Abu Dhabi Department of Finance

Dr Saif El Ketbi Abu Dhabi Airports Company

Dr Tariq Taha Bank Dhofar

Dr. Ahmed Altheneyan Ministry of Defence, Saudi Arabia

Esam Alfalasi Ministry of Economy

Esam Hadi Aluminium Bahrain

Fady Sleiman Waha Capital

Fahem Al Nuaimi Ankabut

february 2016

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Faizal Eledath National Bank of Oman

Farid Farouq Dubai World Trade Centre

Fuad Al-Ansari Takreer

George Yacoub SEHA

Girish Chouhan Motivate Publishing

Gopi Krishnan Qatar Islamic Bank

Hamad Rashid Suwaid Qatar Gas Transport Company

Hasan Naji Al-Bahrani Well Surveillance Group -Kuwait Oil Company

www.cnmeonline.com

february 2016

Hessa Obaid Al Suwaidi Ministry of Public Works

Husam Saleh University of Sharjah

Hussam Al Nowais twofour54

Imad Taha Belhasa Group

Jassim Haji Gulf Air

Javed Abbasi GISBA Group

Jawed Akhtar Ebrahim Khalil Kanoo

Younis Othman (on behalf of Juma Al Ghaith) Dubai Customs

february 2016

www.cnmeonline.com

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Based on internal testing January 2015 of an HP ConvergedSystem 200-HC StoreVirtual with HP OneView for vCenter version 7.40, HP OneView InstantOn version 1.00, and VMware vCenter Server version 5.5. © 2015 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

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Kirit Shah Landmark Group

Kumar Prasoon Al Safeer Group

M N Chaturvedi Al Shirawi Group

M Sarangi Port of Fujairah

Madhav Rao EMKE Group

Mahmoud Kamal Habtoor Hotels

Maisam Zaidi Al Jaber Engineering & Contracting

Shabeer MP (on behalf of Mazen Chilet) Abu Dhabi University

www.cnmeonline.com

february 2016

Mehmet Akdeniz Emirates Palace

Mohamed Imaduddin Al Faraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;a Group

Mohamed Sabah Tecom Group

Mohammad Shahzad Gulf Precast Concrete

Mohammed Jameeluddin UAE General Civil Aviation Authority

Mohammed Khaled Regulation & Supervision Bureau

Mohammed Raffi Jotun Powder Coatings

Mohamed Saeed Al Shehhi Statistics Centre

february 2016

www.cnmeonline.com

Mubarik Hussain Petroserv

Muhammad Iqbal Bindawood

Khalid Alumari (on behalf of Muhammad Albakri) Saudi Arabian Airlines

Mustafa Shabbir Poonawala Supreme Consulataitive Committee Kuwait

NSN Murthy Avivo Group

Pierre Doueihy Indevco Group

Prasanna Rupasinghe Kempinski Mall of Emirates

Rabih Merhy Amwaj Rotana

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february 2016

Radi Karnib Hilton Worldwide Northern Emirates

Rahul Mistry Marsa Malaz Kempinski, Doha

Ramesh Cidambi Dubai Duty Free

Ramy Abdelwahab National Marine Dredging Company

Khawla Albadi (on behalf of Robert John Webb) Etihad Aviation Group

Roy Verrips Hyatt Hotels

Rushdy Mubarak Radisson Blu

Rusty Bruns American University of Kuwait

february 2016

www.cnmeonline.com

Saeed Al Ghailani Department of Transport

Sajeesh Nambiar Bukhatir Group

Saket Prakash Wagh Enhance Oman

Sami Al Shammari Oryx GTL

Samir Khan African Eastern

Samir Mayani Khalifa Butti Bin Omeir Group

Sean Yeong Ping Chian RAK Investment Authority

Sebastian Samuel AW Rostamani

www.cnmeonline.com

february 2016

Sofiane Benna Masdar Institute

Sreedhar Reddy Aldar Properties

Suhayeb Jaabo Magnolia RM Investment

Sulaiman A. Al Bassam General Civil Aviation Authority, Saudi Arabia

Suresh Kumar ADSIC

Syed Abdul Majeed Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons

Tariq Al Usaimi National Bank of Kuwait

Terence Sathyanarayan Drake & Scull

february 2016

www.cnmeonline.com

Thameem Rizvon KOJ Group

V Suresh Jumbo Electronics

Vignesh Unadkat Thumbay Group

Vinay Sharma Gulftainer

Vishal Sood Perma-Pipe Middle East

Mazen Alharidi (on behalf of Wissam Ismail) Al Noor Hospitals

Yaqoob Alawadhi Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority

Zohdi El-Saadi IKK Group

www.cnmeonline.com

february 2016

Telecoms World Digitalisation

The digital customer The face of the telecom customer is changing. Our smartphone obsession has long since transformed our devices from a simple means of communication, to an irreplaceable machine that takes care of our every need. rom banking, to planning our lives, tracking our health and more, consumers use their mobile devices for everything. As the customer changes, it is inevitable that telecom operators who provide services will also follow suit. The telecommunications industry has been critical to the process of digitisation across other sectors, yet the industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own efforts to transform the way it markets, sells, and supports its services have lagged. To improve, telecom operators must offer a more integrated omnichannel experience and develop new products and services to better meet the needs of their customers.

february 2016

The change in digital consumption is especially true for this generation of digital natives. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Millennials are the largest generation of consumers today," explains Henrique do Vale, Head of Sales, Applications and Analytics, MEA, Nokia Networks. "Numbering 80 million in the US, research shows that 87 percent of this group of consumers have between two and three tech devices to hand, 50 percent are more likely to research a product online, and 43 percent are likely to purchase online. They are media agnostic, using the phone, e-mail, Web chat, IM and social media interchangeably." The telecom provider strategy for growth is being developed by the demands of this changing www.cnmeonline.com

consumer. “Mobile operators have a pivotal role to play in digitalisation,” says Anis Chemli, Telecommunication and Banking Director for the GCC and Levant, Gemalto. “They are looking to deliver greater value by providing cloudbased services, mobile IDs to secure access to digital service and mobile payment services.” By addressing these services head-on, and becoming a primary provider, operators can evaluate and change their pricing models and create a platform for growth. “By deploying Smart City-conducive services, mobile operators can scale up the value chain and can justify value-based pricing models rather than volume-based pricing models, as is currently the case,” says Chemli. do Vale agrees that this new model will be a catalyst for growth for telecom operators, but sees additional overarching benefits as well, “Digital infrastructure is a key element that will boost further growth by enabling new and innovative services to make the world a better place to live and work. Broadband is the enabler of progress in many industries, from education, health, and more. The benefits are on one side – a better environment, business conduct, communication, and on the other side – cost savings,” he says. Providing an expanded pallet of services is not the only thing that has begun to change for telecom operators. Along with their generally changing expectations, customers also expect a different way to interact with their provider. “To stay relevant in this new phase, telecom operators are going the extra mile to redefine their relationship with customers and digitising their core business for customer-friendly business processes, which have potential benefits,” explains Fares Hamad Fares, VP Corporate Communication, Etisalat UAE. “By providing compelling online digital experiences as well as service automation and more efficient and straightforward processing of financial transactions, telcos are seeking to improve customer satisfaction, enhance revenue streams and save costs.” The danger of not changing this operatorcustomer relationship is very real. The customer, particularly the digital native, is increasingly likely to jump ship if their demands are not met. “Given their new, digital experiences, they expect www.cnmeonline.com

“By deploying Smart City-conducive services, mobile operators can scale up the value chain and can justify value-based pricing models rather than volume-based pricing models, as is currently the case.” Anis Chemli, Telecommunication & Banking Director for GCC & Levant, Gemalto

instantaneous service and are puzzled when it is not available anywhere, anytime through any medium,” says do Vale. “Not only is their tolerance for failure limited – 73 percent of generation y will leave after one bad experience – they have no hesitation to go public with their dissatisfaction: 85 percent will tell others about their poor experience - including posting messages, photos, videos and more online - an experience that many major brands have experienced first-hand, not always to their liking.” Chemli agrees that the customer service relationship between consumer and operator must change and adapt to market demands. “Mobile operators, now more than ever before, need to adopt a customer-centric approach and implement enhanced communication channels to further engage with their subscribers and meet their evolving needs.” This change is no longer optional, it seems. The competition in the market is such that quality of services and experience have become make-or-break in terms of a mobile operator’s customer retention strategy. “Such solutions enable mobile operators to identify and solve subscriber issues in terms of network quality and device performance, based on perceived user experience. As a result, customer service costs are significantly reduced while subscribers enjoy a frictionless user experience,” says Gemalto. There are, admittedly, a few challenges that operators must address in this shift in services. Providing affordable mobile broadband connectivity to support a generation of heavy users, not to mention an expanding network of connected, broadband hungry devices, is no small task. High capital and operating february 2016

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Telecoms World Digitalisation expenditure requirements for the core network, radio access network, fibre transmission and international connectivity are just a few. “Many factors – technical, environmental, economic and regulatory – need to be addressed to provide appropriate solutions. And where the local policy environment is supportive, and regulatory conditions offer practical flexibility, operators will need to thoroughly assess the commercial and technical feasibility of possible sharing arrangements,” says Chemli. Fares sees another challenge. “A digitalised business is different from simply digitised marketing,” he says. “A digitalised business involves the application of analytical digital technologies to gain insights to provide a better customer experience from the information collected through digitised marketing. The challenge I foresee is that while companies understand that digitalisation is a near-term strategic growth imperative, many are far from prepared to meet it effectively and efficiently.”

“To stay relevant in this new phase, telecom operators are going the extra mile to redefine their relationship with customers and digitising their core business for customer friendly business processes, which have potential benefits.” Fares Hamad Fares, VP Corporate Communication, Etisalat UAE

The expectations of the telecoms customer are changing, and to survive, telcom operators must adapt with them. Contemporary operators need to not only provide the digital services that modern customers demand, they need also to transform their processes to use these services to connect with the customers themselves. The mobile phone, and by extension telcom providers, are simply put the heart of the digital revolution.

network World Mobility management

On the move As the BYOD trend becomes the norm in any office, fresh demands are placed on the enterprise. A range of challenges results for CIOs, chief among them the need to ensure a network is resilient and secure enough to cope with thousands more mobile devices accessing company data.

february 2016

o one can doubt that mobility is the present and the future. Although laptop and desktop usage will remain widespread for years to come, with employees still preferring certain devices for productivity, businesses everywhere are nonetheless veering towards a dependence on smart, mobile devices. The power to access almost any application, workflow and process via a smartphone or tablet is already delivering faster decision-making and higher productivity. However, what most users – who now take all these services for granted – will not appreciate, is the powerful and compliant IT infrastructure that is needed to drive this. At the core of this is the network, which is seeing an explosion of devices and data push it to the limits. “The traditional enterprise network perimeter has continued to break down over time,” says Ashley Woodbridge, Customer Solutions Architect, Cisco UAE. “Employees now insist on using mobile devices to work anytime and anywhere to remain productive in today’s competitive marketplace. However, more devices mean a continued expansion of the surface an enterprise needs to protect from an attack. It also means your IT staff has to struggle to create a delicate balance between security and productivity. This balance becomes more difficult to obtain as employees bring their own devices into the workplace and attempt to access network resources.” Looking forward, the scope of enterprise computing is sure to be transformed with the advent of mobility. While estimates vary, it is safe to say that mobile traffic created on networks has increased by more than a factor of 20 between 2010 and 2015. Woodbridge offers up some eye-opening predictions that show the extent of the strain that will be placed on networks as a result of mobility. “According to the Cisco Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast, 2014-2019, smartphone numbers in the MENA region will more than triple from 197 million in 2014 to 652 million in 2019, and the region will post the world’s fastest www.cnmeonline.com

mobile data traffic growth rate, increasing 15fold,” he says. “To put that into context, MENA’s mobile data traffic is set to grow twice as fast as fixed IP traffic in the region, reaching 1.49 exabytes per month by 2018.” As network speeds are enhanced over time, growth in bandwidth demand runs in parallel. While enterprise employees will demand the use of video streaming, collaborative communications and cloud applications on their mobile devices, legacy networks will feel the strain. Manish Bhardwaj, Senior Marketing Manager, Middle East and Turkey, Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, feels upgrades to existing networks will be needed to meet demand. “Since mobile devices operate primarily over Wi-Fi, organisations must ensure that they have pervasive Wi-Fi networks operating at the latest 802.11ac speeds,” he says. “Capacity planning should focus on a number of devices, but also an understanding of where devices will roam and what types of applications they will operate.” While the benefits of mobility are transformative for both business and society, the risks it brings can be inhibitors to innovative initiatives. Topping this list of concerns is security. As security threats become more advanced, demanding more from CISOs, tackling user ignorance around best practices is an unavoidable issue in the use of mobile devices. Against a backdrop of mobile malware vastly increasing ever since 2011 when mobile payments were first introduced, and in a world where phishing is an easy means to ensnare

“Innovation in mobility over the coming years will be focused on unifying the device, application and network environments more seamlessly to ensure a truly mobile experience.” Manish Bhardwaj, Senior Marketing Manager, Middle East & Turkey, Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company

www.cnmeonline.com

average users, CIOs need to be especially vigilant of the threats that face their business. Especially at risk is the business’ network, where attackers spend an average of 220 days before being noticed by security teams. “As more and more employees are using devices for both personal and business activities, the issues with potential loss of confidential company data increases as IT departments are in less control,” Woodbridge says. He goes on to highlight an alarming statistic that illustrates the extent of both technological and education initiatives that must be driven by IT leaders. “On a more local level, according to the Cisco Middle East ICT Security Study, 65 percent of employees do not understand the security risks of using personal devices to the workplace.” At the core of protecting the network is the need to select the right mobile device management (MDM) strategy. Opting for the right MDM solution is not always a straightforward matter of technology. While secure and efficient solutions must be deployed, the issue of policy must also be addressed. Balancing security and employee satisfaction is key, but the CIO’s decision will have implications for the network. “A secure BYOD deployment now means implementing a solution that goes beyond what MDM delivers today,” Bhardwaj says. “The approach needs to integrate network, application and device management in one cohesively holistic solution. Innovation in mobility over the coming years will be focused on unifying the device, application and network environments more seamlessly to ensure a truly mobile experience.” A range of MDM options are emerging in which the network plays a key role. While a range of containerisation opportunities are available for CIOs who wish to directly modify the application policies on a user’s device, network-related options are an emerging alternative. Customising application policies within the enterprise allows company IT policy to apply solely to those – and not all the user’s personal – applications. On-demand VPN february 2016

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network World Mobility management

capability – where the user is not required to manually open the connection - meanwhile, allows mobile apps to automatically establish a virtual private network connection with encrypted traffic. Away from the security aspect, network QoS allows latency-sensitive apps to be allocated priority over the network. Looking forward, mobility solutions vendors are sure to be forced to partner with networking firms. As standards demand increases, the relationship between device and application firms and networking companies will become inextricable. Bhardwaj believes that these partnerships will become a necessity. “Wireless LAN vendors will enter the market to link network context into application management,” he says. “More partnerships will form between focused vendors such as MAM, MDM, and WLAN vendors. The market will experience further consolidation as IT looks to minimise the number of management consoles it uses. The focus of the EMM market will shift

“MENA’s mobile data traffic is set to grow twice as fast as fixed IP traffic in the region, reaching 1.49 exabytes per month by 2018.” Ashley Woodbridge, Customer Solutions Architect, Cisco UAE

to managing employee interactions and applications over multiple devices.” He also sees the deployment of mobile-ready networks as a necessity in driving lowering OPEX costs, and a challenge that is at the top of CIOs’ agendas. “We hear from customers that there is more scrutiny in place within IT in network access strategies than ever before,” he says. “That scrutiny is focused on how to get ahead of the mobility curve, but doing so while being very cost-effective. It is critical for customers to turn a challenge into an opportunity by rethinking how to re-architect their LANs.”

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solutions World Enterprise data management

Manning the floodgates

The influx of data over the past decade has left organisations with more data to manage than ever. The ability to effectively obtain and strategically manage data has since become a competitive differentiator among enterprises. DC predicted that over 44 zettabytes of data will be generated around the world by 2020. Social media metrics, wearable devices and sophisticated data mining tools are seen as the primary contributors to the upsurge in data, further driving the need for data management. Although many enterprises are significantly investing in enhancing their core systems and new technologies, most of their efforts still fall short; since data is now recognised as a strategic asset, simply tweaking existing systems is no longer enough. Strategically redefining the way information is gathered, stored, defined, governed, analysed, and utilised are key to truly harness the benefits of data. Enterprise data management (EDM) ensures data is managed to its full potential to guarantee that the right information continues to get to people when and how they need it to do their jobs effectively. It is an important process in understanding and controlling the economics of data in your organisation. Although having an EDM strategy in place is not essentially a requisite to benefit from your data, the proper application of EDM can help ensure better integration, control, and usability of the information gathered.

february 2016

“Most organisations in today’s IT landscape are facing similar bottlenecks when it comes to managing their data,” says Amer Chebaro, Regional Director, Gulf and Levant, Veritas. “Challenges faced by enterprises today are mainly around formulating ways to manage the unprecedented upswing in data volumes. Moreover, while the data surge will only continue in the next five years, IT budgets in most organisations are not increasing at the same rate, at the same time talents with the apt skillsets required are hard to find.” Amjad Zaim , Senior Associate, Technology and Analytics, Booz Allen Hamilton MENA, complements this notion, explaining that organisations worldwide are confronted with the mounting challenge of having to innovate in a very competitive digital marketplace. “This is further complicated by rapidly-changing consumer and market behaviours. For decisionmakers, the need to make accurate, intelligent and timely business decision from a wide range of disparate data sources, both internal - such as customer, finance and human resources - as well as newly emerging open data from social media and the web has become more critical than ever.” Having a sound EDM strategy can pave the way for enterprises to unlock a number of www.cnmeonline.com

opportunities for growth. Data, when utilised properly, can enable organisations to devise a more precise and competitive business strategy. “An effective strategy for EDM,” explains Zaim, “has to answer all the fundamental questions about how to best serve the right data product to the right user in the most reliable, secure, and ethical manner.” He elaborates that although Big Data technologies and infrastructure are key enablers for massive data storage, consolidation and analysis are but just a few pillars of an EDM strategy. An overarching EDM strategy needs to examine and incorporate all the essential non-technical challenges across the entire data lifecycle while aligning all stakeholders’ needs and benefits. Some of these will include answers to the following: • How to best govern the data and who has ownership and stewardship of data. • How to protect individuals and data privacy by enacting the right policies to manage data access, data sharing and data security. • How to map these policies into a set of processes related to data governance and data management across the enterprise. • How to build a common language for data sharing through unified data standards and terminologies. • How to maximise the integrity and the quality of the information through implementing an enterprise-wide programme for routine data audits and data qualities? Meanwhile, Chebaro says that Veritas recommends a four-point EDM strategy which includes identifying dark data, eliminating obsolete, redundant and trivial data, defining a workable governance strategy, and increasing business agility through cloud adoption. “The first point refers to data that is unknown or does not fall into any specific classification within the organisation,” explains Chebaro. “A survey conducted by Veritas surprisingly uncovered that several companies in the UAE have 49 percent dark data. So, identifying dark data is a key element to an EDM strategy and this is complemented by the second

www.cnmeonline.com

“While the data surge is expected to only continue in the next five years, IT budgets in most organisations are just not increasing at the same rate, at the same time talents with the apt skillsets required are hard to find.” Amer Chebaro, Regional Director, Gulf and Levant, Veritas

point which is the elimination of redundant, obsolete and trivial data.” According to Chebaro, data that falls under these categories should be either deleted, stored in the cloud, or archived outside the organisation’s core infrastructure. “Thirdly, companies should devise a workable governance strategy,” he says. “This involves educating people within the company on how to differentiate which data should and should not be stored in the corporate network. Knowing the difference between the two can impact both cost and security requirements of the infrastructure. Lastly, increasing business agility through cloud adoption. Currently, only 20 percent of UAE organisations are able to adopt cloud technologies, according to a study by EY. This is very low compared to other nations in the EMEA region. Organisations should boost their initiatives in adopting technologies as this can be instrumental in enhancing business agility.” As with many things in enterprise IT, there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to formulating an EDM strategy. “The majority of market verticals in MENA are still struggling with the nuances of EDM for unstructured data, specifically how to properly leverage the value of their data,” says Zaim. “Both the telecom and the retail industries are leading the way in the deployment of EDM in response to data monetisation initiatives. Recently, there has been an increase in interest and number of february 2016

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solutions World Enterprise data management

initiatives in the health sector albeit at a very managed pace.” Adding to this, Chebaro points out that various organisations have their own EDM strategies in place in one form or another. Nevertheless, it is definitely prevalent in highly governed verticals – these are the industry segments that are required to adhere to strict local or international compliance policies. “Companies in these sectors are also those that use data confidentiality and security as part of their unique selling points, such as the banking and finance, and healthcare sectors,” he explains. Today, numerous technologies that can help businesses better their EDM strategies are available. Technologies like Hadoop allow companies to easily manage vast amounts of data in a simple and practical way. It can also condense big problems into smaller elements so that analysis can be done quickly and cost-effectively. “Hadoop can facilitate data analytics at scale,” says Zaim. “It can also enable analysts to probe and analyse terabytes of fast-moving data in seconds. Keep in mind that Hadoop is now a 10+ year-old technology, introducing MapReduce techniques to the masses, but it sparked a new industry of analytic computing platforms. Emerging Big Data technologies are getting faster, easy to use and more sophisticated, thus, creating increased opportunities for organisations to manage and analyse massive amounts of data, efficiently and effectively through a business-oriented view.”

“An effective strategy for EDM has to answer all the fundamental questions about how to best serve the right data product to the right user in the most reliable, secure, and ethical manner.” Amjad Zaim , Senior Associate Technology and Analytics, Booz Allen Hamilton MENA

www.cnmeonline.com

Chebaro shares the same view, stating that since the beginning of the digital age. zettabytes of data are now being. “Most, companies doing business from that time period until now have been storing large scales of data and applications. Hadoop and other similar technologies are useful in horizontally scaling and analysing significant amounts of data. It deals with both structured and unstructured data across the organisation and enables organisations to extract their value.” When it comes to storing and managing the organisation’s data, questions often arise on whether it should be in the cloud or onpremise. Many enterprises today are built from the ground up on cloud infrastructure, both for production IT and internal IT operations. However, the vast majority of large enterprises still run much of their IT operations internally. According to Chebaro, data management solutions often vary from one customer to another, but looking at a data management strategy in general, the flexibility offered by hybrid cloud infrastructure is a more strategic option. “Currently, there are cloud providers who are offering low data storage costs if you would like to manage or store your data that are non-business critical and do not need to be accessed in a matter of sub-milliseconds then the public cloud serves your needs well. “However, for business critical data which needs to be secured and accessed quickly,” he adds, “it is apt to consider keeping it on-premise instead. Now, it is unavoidable for organisations to have to deal with surging volumes of both structured and unstructured data, therefore, opting for a hybrid cloud is highly reasonable.” Zaim agrees, stressing that a hybrid cloud environment provides organisations with the opportunity to balance the benefits of private and public cloud. “They can use this environment to experiment and rapidly integrate new external data sources into a processing platform with relaxed policies,” he says. “However, the value of integrating data and applications on the public cloud with their private cloud environment should consider the increased occurrences of data privacy violations and cybersecurity attacks.” february 2016

Insight

Scott Davis, Chief Technology Officer, Infinio

The new storage disruption

torage-class memory (SCM), also known as persistent memory, may be one of the most disruptive storage technology innovations to look out for in the next decade. This technology has the potential to be even more disruptive than flash, both from a performance perspective and with the way it will change both storage and application architectures. SCM is a new hybrid storage/ memory tier with unique characteristics, which makes it neither a memory nor a storage. Physically, it connects to memory slots in a motherboard, like traditional DRAM. While SCM is slightly slower than DRAM, it is persistent like a traditional storage and its content is preserved during a power cycle. Compared to flash, SCM’s orders of magnitude are faster and can deliver performance gains equally on both read and write operations. It has another benefit over flash as well – SCM tiers are significantly more resilient, not suffering from the malware that flash falls victim to. SCM vs. current industry solutions Interestingly, SCM can be addressed at either the byte or block level. This gives operating systems, software and hypervisor developers significant flexibility regarding the medium’s applications. For example, it’s 64

february 2016

conceivable that operating systems will initially treat SCM as block storage devices formatted by file systems and databases for compatibility purposes. However, next-generation applications may choose to access SCM directly via memory-mapped files. Hypervisors can abstract and present isolated SCM regions directly to different VMs as either execution memory or a flash-like storage resource. Let’s consider how DRAM is used today. For decades, applications have stored data temporarily in DRAM – that is, volatile memory. At specific execution points data structures were reformatted and placed into 512-byte blocks. They were then written (along with metadata) to disks structured as either files systems or databases for persistence. Built into that metadata was a significant amount of information that protected against failures and corruptions. Now, contrast that to how SCM will be used. Since SCM is persistent, the content it stores remains in memory, not just in the case of planned reboots, but also during unplanned crashes and downtime. The medium is also byteaddressable, eliminating the need to package data into coherent 512-byte blocks. The combination of keeping a memory structure ‘live’ with bytelevel granularity, while eliminating the necessity of an intermediate copy, will revolutionise application design.

SCM in practice It will only be in late 2016 SCM technology will be available to organisations – and that will take place with an initial implementation from Intel with its 3D XPoint technology. HP and SanDisk have also announced a collaboration for SCM, although it will likely only become available in 2017 or later. As with any new emerging technology, early SCM implementation may only be appropriate for specific industries and applications. The initial price point and performance capabilities may appeal only to certain use cases before reaching a more general audience. As it reaches the mainstream, operating systems, software and hypervisor developers may choose to integrate SCM into legacy architectures at first, rather than rewriting applications to provide all the benefits of the new technology. This will, however, still provide a technology that is both significantly faster and more resilient than flash, as well as denser and less expensive than DRAM memory technology. In-memory computing, HPC and server-side caching may be some of the early adopters of SCM on the application side, which help bring this new technology broadly to the market. www.cnmeonline.com

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Idan Tendler, CEO and CoFounder, Fortscale

Steering clear of insider threats

lmost all data breaches involve the use of legitimate login credentials. Guarding against these ‘insider threats’ requires the ability to detect when cybercriminals are using stolen credentials. Sadly, traditional network security tools are not effective in identifying or mitigating these threats. However, a new breed of user behaviour analytics solutions has been designed for this specific purpose and is proving effective. It’s true that employees or other insiders can often be traced to a data breach. However, the largest and most damaging data breaches are generally at the hands of outside hackers, organised crime, opposing governments, competitors or hacktivists. While they are not insiders themselves, these criminals almost always depend on obtaining login credentials belonging to insiders, especially those that have administrative privileges. The number one objective of a cybercriminal is to obtain login credentials for individuals with access to sensitive data. Once that has been accomplished, the imposter poses as a privileged insider, penetrates the system and copies the information they're after. Whether by outsiders or from within, the unauthorised or negligent use of insider login credentials and privileges are the common denominators in nearly all cybercrimes. Given this broader definition of insider threats, there are numerous activities related to the use of login credentials and user activities that must be monitored to guard against cybercrime. 66

february 2016

Compromised service account. Service accounts are used by operating systems and various applications to perform automated background tasks. These accounts, usually unmonitored, own high access rights and are under constant risk of attack and compromise. Their activity should be monitored to ensure they are not accessing systems they shouldn’t be, or transmitting data to unauthorised recipients and so on. Exfiltration attempts. Data exfiltration is a big concern in many organisations. Detecting data leaks has become more difficult as additional technologies and methods to transfer data emerge. Monitoring abnormal user behaviour such as accessing data that’s not normally dealt with by the user, or transmitting data to unusual destinations can detect data exfiltration attempts. Credential sharing. Studies show that more than 20 percent of employees share their passwords with someone else, even though it’s strictly against policy. Monitoring simultaneous, remote, or unusual usage of user accounts can help detect and mitigate credential sharing. Snooping users. In search of sensitive or valuable data, rogue insiders and malicious outsiders scan corporate systems hoping to find and access information they can sell or use for their own gain. Detecting and investigating such unusual user behaviour can ward off impending cybercrimes. Departing employee. Employees who are preparing to leave an organisation may pose a security threat. Even though departing employees may carry a high risk of

data exfiltration and even sabotage, very few tools can effectively monitor their actions and detect suspicious behaviour. Security personnel need to implement solutions designed to specifically and automatically monitor the accounts of departing employees and raise alerts if their behaviour is suspicious. Unauthorised third party access (business partners and other suppliers). Contractors, business partners, and other service providers often have access to sensitive corporate data. However, they are not usually subject to the same security practices and policies as the hosting enterprise. As a result, applications or devices may become infected with malware designed to steal login credentials. It’s especially incumbent on the hosting enterprise to monitor the behaviour of all third party users. Network misconfiguration. By monitoring normal user behaviour, an anomalous act can often detect an improperly configured security setting. For example, if an employee accesses a system that’s outside of their normal work pattern, it often indicates a hole in the security policies or settings. Correcting the misconfigurations in a timely manner can prevent imminent and future attacks. Detecting insider threats is essential in today’s environment and doing so calls for the diligent use of a number of cybercrime prevention techniques. Whether it’s a malicious employee or an outsider using compromised credentials, businesses must be on alert and maintain vigilant monitoring, focusing their attention internally on user behaviour and suspicious activity to thwart potential insider attacks. www.cnmeonline.com

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ANALYST VIEW

Alexander Linden, research director at Gartner

The Algorithm Economy Will Start a Huge Wave of Innovation

lgorithm marketplaces are set to proliferate in the next five years. Several analytical vendors have recently opened algorithm marketplaces that enable algorithms or code snippets to be bought and sold. They will see substantial growth. In fact, by 2020, Gartner predicts that the three leading marketplaces will offer more functions than all other analytical vendors combined – transforming 68

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the analytics and broader software market in the process. Algorithms are the DNA of software. They codify the macrosteps of how computers already run large parts of the world. Gartner believes that the predominance of algorithms will only increase in the digital age, especially with the growth of the Internet of Things. Algorithm marketplaces are similar to the mobile app stores that created the ‘app economy’.

The essence of the app economy is to allow all kinds of individuals to distribute and sell software globally without the need to pitch their idea to investors or set up their own sales, marketing and distribution channels. An algorithm marketplace takes the app economy one step further. It allows algorithms and other software components to be brokered. These algorithms are not stand-alone apps, but are meant to be used as building blocks within tailored solutions.

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Marketplaces will create a spiral of reuse – another profound aspect of a marketplace is its ability to allow algorithms to be reused. Whole teams of developers have direct monetary incentives to create quasi-standards such that the involved outputs of algorithms are more compatible with the inputs of others. Easier quality assessment – advanced end-users who are building cutting-edge solutions face a complex algorithm selection process. Many algorithms are unproven and of variable quality, especially in the open-source domain. Marketplaces’ usage statistics, feedback and collaboration mechanisms can create higher levels of testing and easier quality assessment for end users. It’s clear that the traditional software market is on the brink of a major overhaul. With marketplaces set to proliferate in the next five years, analytics and IT leaders must act now to proof their own analytics architecture. The potential rewards are huge. Start considering algorithm markets as a novel way to obtain specialised solutions to difficult business problems. Start comparing your existing algorithms against the state-of-the-art ones found in marketplaces. Gartner clients can learn more in the report 'Algorithm marketplaces are bringing the app economy to analytics'.

The essence of the app economy is to allow all kinds of individuals to distribute and sell software globally without the need to pitch their idea to investors or set up their own sales, marketing and distribution channels. The impact on the analytics and software market will be revolutionary for these reasons: More software and more granular software will be commercialised – the current software ecosystem allows only whole products to be commercialised — not functions or features. This conventional wisdom ends with algorithm marketplaces, as software distribution costs become marginal, which is increasing the use cases for third-party software in an organisation. www.cnmeonline.com

More cuttingedge software can now be commercialised – while the number of existing algorithms is significant, very few engineers or scientists commercialise their algorithms, mostly due to the limited prospects of real success. With marketplaces dramatically reducing the barriers to entry, end users will benefit from more advanced software functionality.

february 2016

Opinion

Taj ElKhayat, Regional Vice President, Middle East and Africa, Riverbed Technology

the Key to agility

one is the time when IT assets were limited to a handful of data centres. Users and applications are no longer bound by one unified MPLS network. Enterprise perimeters are also not limited to a few centralised Internet breakouts anymore. Today, businesses are increasingly mixing off-premise assets with their existing IT infrastructure. Many have moved commoditised workloads like collaboration (Office 365) to SaaS. Some are moving custom workloads tied to their critical business process to IaaS (in Amazon or Azure). Productive users are everywhere, not only on-premise but also on the road or at home. The Internet is becoming the backbone of enterprise communications. As enterprises are becoming more hybrid, the shape of the network itself is also dramatically changing. The underlying networks are getting more diverse in terms of performance and security. MPLS is now combined with the Internet, using a variety of transports from DSL to fiber and even 4G/LTE. Branches are now directly connected to the Internet. Onpremises assets are directly tied to offpremise assets to form hybrid cloud workloads. Users in the branch are connecting to off-premise applications and users at home are connecting to on-premise applications. The traffic mix and communication requirements are getting richer and more dynamic. . HD Internet video can rapidly create contention even on fiber. Unified communication and collaboration (UCC) is dramatically increasing traffic variance and branchto-branch flows. The network has never been so heterogeneous and distributed. The 70

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complexity of configuration and change management of network elements has never been so high. Architectures built for the network as it was 10 years ago are rapidly losing relevance. Over the past few years, a novel architecture has emerged to solve similar problems at the data centre level: software defined networking (SDN). SDN provides multiple benefits that can be summarised by having a network that is able to support the most modern data centre workloads and create OPEX and CAPEX savings at the same time. Today, vendors are emerging with solutions to deliver guaranteed application performance to modern users and workloads of the hybrid enterprise, by applying the SDN principles to the WAN in the form of so-called SD-WAN solutions. SD-WAN is emerging as a gamechanging technology at the frontline of the enterprise - branch offices, manufacturing sites, retail stores, consulting offices, and all the other tens, hundreds, or even thousands of remote locations where business must get done. For IT and business leaders, SD-WAN offers cost-effectiveness, agility, and levels of automation that are essential when accommodating dynamic business and application requirements. While the market for an SDWAN solution begins to grow, the requirements for an excellent SD-WAN solution appear clearly: Optimisation capabilities for onpremise and cloud-based applications like Office 365 or Salesforce.com. A network and application-aware path selection capability to direct traffic on the appropriate network (MPLS, Internet and so on). Dynamic tunnelling with central

control plane allowing secure backhauling of branch traffic to the corporate data centre across the Internet. A simple interface to zScaler or other cloud-based security services enabling local Internet breakouts without requiring further investment in on-premise Internet security appliances. Inbound QoS to manage local Internet breakouts and protect business Internet against surges in recreational Internet. Deep and wide visibility on all assets interconnected by the SD-WAN with holistic visibility on network usage, performance and integration with end-user experience monitoring of on-premise and SaaS applications. In addition, a proper SD-WAN central management console is one that marks the start of an era of dramatic improvement of manageability and usability of control capabilities. While some capabilities like optimisation are praised for their ease of use, for years, control capabilities like QoS, path selection or VPN that the industry has delivered have been a nightmare to manage. Ideal SD-WAN management consoles expose to the users an intuitive interface and management plane based on high level abstractions like applications, sites, uplinks or networks that match the way they see their IT environment. Ideal SD-WAN solutions rely on a control plane designed to support intent-based configuration that provides a translation of global parameters into local policies. Thanks to SD-WAN, customers should be able to implement new, more efficient, configuration and change management workflows that make hybrid-networking capabilities really usable. SD-WAN has the potential to deliver to the business, the performance and agility they need for business critical applications, while controlling and reducing network costs at the same time. www.cnmeonline.com

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AltaVault Increasingly, businesses are adopting cloud back-up solutions. Working with the cloud to back-up data reduces costs and streamlines the process making it a clear choice for enterprises of all size and sector. To support these changes in the industry NetApp recently released AltaVault. A flexible, secure cloud back-up product, AltaVault is designed to allow customers to take advantage of the growing opportunities for cloud backup. The benefits of cloud-enabled technology are clear – lower costs, improved security and more agile back-up accessibility. It is no longer a question of whether or not enterprises will adopt cloud solutions, but when and which products will be utilised. Those that make the decision to forgo the cloud will inevitably be left behind. Cloud computing and storage is not a flash in the pan trend – it is here to stay. However, there is no need www.cnmeonline.com

to do away with valuable legacy systems. AltaVault provides a solution for all cloud back-up schemes, while protecting your company’s investment in existing back-up application products and procedures. The new technology from NetApp functions in both a physical and virtual capacity. vSphere and Hyper-V are supported along with instances in Amazon Web Services and Azure. In that cloud services are being adopted by a range of businesses, scalability is often the number one concern before adoption new technology. AltaVault is extremely scalable – nearly six times more scalable than the competition - with a range of 8TB to 57PB capacity. Back-up data is deduped and compressed prior to being stored in the cloud. The inline deduplication and compression process provides a data reduction ratio of up to 30:1. There are a number of companies flooding the market, trying to provide cloud solutions to the enterprise. NetApp has successfully set itself apart from the competition in terms of performance, efficiency, data

protection and ease of use. Top concern at NetApp is security, and AltaVault is no exception. AltaVault Enterprise encryption and processes ensure that back-ups remain protected in the cloud. Sending data to be stored with AltaVault is also simplified. AltaVault sends data to NetApp StorageGRIDE Webscale – an object storage software – as well as most public and private object stores. The result is robust and cost-effective archives which can be supported physically, virtually or in the cloud with AWS, Azure clouds or FlexPod. The data sent is protected, even in flight, using FIPS 140-2 level 1-complient encryption. With a set up that takes less than 30 minute via an intuitive management console moving to cloud-enabled technology such as AltaVault is a minimal time investment with an enormous potential for cost-reduction. Businesses of any size would be remiss not to move data back-up and other traditionally “clunky” processes and technologies into the cloud. february 2016

Opinion

Christopher Hoover, Global Vice President of Product Strategy, Perforce Software

Nimble management

evOps adoption has grown with the changes in product development lifecycles, but the expansion has not worked out well for companies using the Git code management system. Git has become ubiquitous for good reason. Most, developers love its flexibility, speed, and its ability to branch locally and inplace for juggling lots of tasks. However, things are a bit different when you stir in DevOps. Here are some specific challenges Git poses for DevOps and suggestions for addressing those challenges. Performance. Git’s protocol for transferring data over the network is very efficient, so initial DevOps impressions can be highly favourable. But a number of performance-related issues tend to bubble up from the details of Git’s internal implementation over time, especially when handling large files or large numbers of files. For example, working with content in Git alone is an all-or-nothing proposition, which means every clone of a repository includes every file in that repository. Many users have long desired support for narrow cloning, the ability to limit the files and folders included in a clone/fetch operation, but Git still doesn’t support this feature. Second, Git doesn’t handle large binary assets well. Such content can quickly bloat the size of a repository. Best Practices: • Standardise on a Git management system that offers narrow cloning • Use shallow cloning as much as possible to limit file revisions • Employ an external store for your large binary assets such as Git LFS 72

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Organisation. The performance problems just mentioned often lead to ‘Git sprawl,’ which refers to the proliferation of small repositories in order to maintain acceptable performance. Git sprawl may not complicate developers’ lives all that much at first, particularly if care is given to divide content along logical project boundaries. But its burden falls immediately on DevOps’ shoulders because having everything in the right place at the right time is essential for builds, testing and the rest of the development pipeline. Getting a fresh copy of hundreds or thousands of repositories for a single build can be a lot of data transfer, even under the best of circumstances. Organisations that practice component-based development will have to deal with the additional complexity of handling component versions. There also remains the concerns on overall branching strategy given the need for consistency across all of those projects, components and repositories. Best Practices: • Look for ahead for handling large numbers of small (usually < 1 GB) repositories • Build a branching strategy around the shape of your teams and internal processes • Use build artefact management systems to simplify component referencing issues

Hosting. One of the key questions any organisation embracing Git must face is how to host and manage repositories, and the resulting answers greatly affect

DevOps and information security. Developers want hosting that makes it easy to create new projects, clone or fork and push their work, but this desire for simplicity is often at odds with DevOps’ need for scalable hosting. Shrinking continuous delivery cycles, in conjunction with Git sprawl, can easily lead to servers failing under the load. Git management systems vary widely in this regard, some offering only single-server topology and others providing clustering and even high availability. A robust DevOps pipeline requires considering all of these factors as well as a plan to handle disaster recovery. Developers’ wishes may also contradict the need to secure the intellectual property they create. Git’s design offers only authentication, not authorisation. That is, Git offers a mechanism to ensure that the person committing is who he or she claims to be, but it leaves the question of what that person can do entirely to the file system. You’ll want to consider how to shape your security battlefield to accommodate all the necessary roles and permissions. This is especially true if you’re relying on third-party teams. Git hosting grows even more difficult for organisations spanning the globe. Be sure your Git hosting solution makes it easy to synchronise work across servers in different locations around the world; anything else is just setting up your DevOps team to fail. Best Practices: • Prefer a Git hosting solution with broad scalability options and high availability • Don’t treat disaster recovery as an option; have a solid plan and exercise it often • Make sure your Git hosting solution gives you all the security and flexibility you need www.cnmeonline.com

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Opinion

Jacob Chacko, Business Lead, SMB and Commercial, Middle East and Turkey, Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company

Mobile dilemma

he finance sector tends to be more susceptible to having data security problems, however, it goes beyond external threats from hackers and more often than not also faces insider threats. Key players in the finance industry are in agreement that there are major global threats to the success of the banking and finance industry. One that ignores boom and bust cycles, doesn’t care much about stock market fluctuations and wouldn’t bat an eyelid if interest rates suddenly jumped ten points. But this threat is also an essential and highly successful ingredient in the revival of the finance industry’s fortunes. What is this unwitting, non-malicious threat? It’s your mobile-tech carrying employees themselves. You’ve heard of Generation X (you might be one yourself), Generation Y (you probably employ a few of these), and Generation Z (the Internet’s digital natives), but there’s another category to add to the list: #GenMobile. Brought up in a world where mobile devices are an integral part of everyday life, #GenMobile is defined by a productivity-focused attitude that finds it as easy to share a status update as it does a password or mobile device with a colleague. And this is why your #GenMobile workforce is both an asset and a threat to your business. To identify the true nature of this new type of employee, Aruba Networks recently surveyed 11,500 workers in 23 countries, asking them detailed questions about their work, their approach to data and their 74

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take on corporate and personal security in a technological landscape dominated by mobile devices. #GenMobile are generally between the ages of 18 and 35, highly-effective and mostly indifferent to computer security. Given the finance sector’s risk-averse take on data security, you’d be forgiven for dismissing the idea of a ‘threat’ from your own highly trained staff. However, an alarming four out of every ten finance organisations admitted to having lost data through the misuse of a mobile device, which is 25 percent higher than other industries. Professionals in #GenMobile, as the name suggests, are 100 percent comfortable with mobility, flexible working and using multiple mobile devices to get the job done. They will stop at nothing to get their work tasks completed, and 51 percent say that mobile technologies enable them to be more productive and engaged at work. This fervent need to get things done means 56 percent has a tendency to disobey their managers to complete a task — while three-quarters are happy to take IT issues into their own hands without getting in touch with their IT department. Sharing is also a risk factor, as 60 percent of respondents reported being happy to let others use their work mobile devices at least once a month, while a fifth don’t have passwords on their mobile devices at all, in part to make sharing easier. You won’t be

surprised that security only limps into the top five of office tech concerns for #GenMobile.

Five tips to turn a threat into a safe bet So what do you do? Lockdown all mobile devices? Implement a highly restrictive password policy? Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater just yet — this new generation is already contributing to the overall health of the finance sector. They bring big-thinking creativity, better collaboration and new ways of doing things. These are all beneficial for organisations, especially in an era when consumer behaviour is changing at an incredible speed. Yet, the impact of a security breach is both seismic and often irreparable. Here’s five ways to make sure your organisation is prepared for #GenMobile: 1. Over a third of businesses don’t have a basic mobile security policy in place. Make sure you have a policy covering roles, devices, locations and other contextual attributes. 2. Create enforcement rules that extend from applications to devices to the network. 3. Make sure your security measures and policies map back to your organisation’s business objectives. 4. Training is vital: all staff should have needs-assessed training to help them understand why policies are in place and how they can help. 5. Take heed of feedback - it may improve your IT workflows and performance. www.cnmeonline.com

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Launches and releases

Brand: Samsung Product: R6 360

Brand: Canon Product:

imagePROGRAF PRO-1000

What it does: Canon’s imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 is a new professional grade photo printer designed for art schools, graphic artists, designers and professional photographers. The device is equipped with 12-ink pigment based system, as well as a 1.28-inch print head and processing engine. According to Canon, the imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 produces quality prints up to A2 in approximately six minutes. At approximately 723 x 433 x 285 mm in size, the company highlights that the imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 is compact and occupies less space than traditional large format printers. What you should know: The device has a new ‘crystal-fidelity’ feature, which ensures photos taken with Canon EOS cameras can be reproduced with precision. It also has wireless and cloud connectivity allowing users to print from a variety of devices and popular apps.

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What it does: The R6 is a new egg-shaped wireless multi-room speaker by Samsung. The device sports a wireless omnidirectional studio-quality sound feature, and is compatible with a variety of mobile devices. It has a built-in Wi-Fi and is controlled by Samsung’s Multiroom app on devices running Android (2.3.3 and above) and iOS (6.0 and above). It comes in black and white colour variations. It can also streams audio up to 192kHz/24-bit, and uses a one-inch tweeter at the top and a five-inch driver at the bottom to radiate audio in a 360 degree sound field. What you should know: Two R6s can be grouped together or connect them to other Samsung multi-room speakers, the M3, M5, M7 and R7, to use them as surround sound speakers.

Brand: Western Digital Product: My Cloud

What it does: My Cloud is WD’s answer to traditional NAS devices and cloud storage services. The multi-functional device combines traditional backup storage, a DLNA enabled NAS device and personal cloud storage capabilities, making it a serious expansion from the My Book series on which the My Cloud design is based. My Cloud is currently offered in 2TB, 3TB, 4TB and 6TB devices, each equipped with an Ethernet and USB 3.0 ports on the back of a mock-metal chassis. Gigabit Ethernet read speeds reach 92.4MBps (739.2Mbps) with write speeds of 71.9MBps (575.2Mbps) and both Windows and Mac operating systems are supported. Features offered by My Cloud include photo and video backup for tablets and smartphones and automatic backup of computers. Any connected device to the My Cloud can access and stream data from any location through the My Cloud mobile app and web access. What you should know: For all of its functionality and capability, the My Cloud could run at twice the price of its lower functioning counterpart My Book. However, consumers will be delighted that most models are priced at a mere $30 above their non-cloud counterparts. february 2016

Backlog

5 W

questions to ask before shifting business critical apps to the cloud

hether you’re looking to move to the cloud, considering the diversification of your cloud portfolio or simply looking to compare performance and value across clouds, consider these five key questions before making any decisions: How do you monitor your Internet infrastructure? While you may be monitoring your internal infrastructure and applications, you should also know about the external Internet connections that your customers rely on to connect to your business. If connections to a specific data centre go down or a cloud provider can’t reach important markets, your system admin should have the tools necessary to route traffic to another centre to keep your services operational. And if you’re experiencing latency or quality degradation, your IT team must know how to monitor for these issues and how to optimise performance. Another thing to consider is knowing your ‘mean time to innocence’ - finding out how quickly and precisely you can determine when a customer-impacting issue is caused by your own application, data or compute environment. If you are a global company, how do you ensure global availability on the cloud? If you have end-users 78

february 2016

accessing your Internet assets at all hours of the day from points around the globe, you need to ensure your end-user experience is equal no matter where or when a customer accesses your website, app or content. Determining availability means understanding if your service is available to customers and partners. This is especially important in understanding the connection performance to your selected cloud providers and CDNs. Distributing hosting on multiple cloud vendor sites protects customers from single site or single regional outages ensures that you have strong availability around the globe. It is also recommended that you monitor your global network to determine load levels. Is using just one cloud provider sufficient or should you consider using multiple providers? While not all cloud providers are created equal, using multiple services is the only foolproof business continuity and risk mitigation strategy. It also can be an effective strategy to manage cloud costs based on peak usage, cost spikes and global load balancing. Using a variety of CSPs gives your company access to multiple cloud instances (locations), allowing you to meet customers in local markets and leverage local connections. With an advanced DNS-based traffic management solution with geo-location,

you can control which cloud instances serve which customers, and by working with the right tools you can manage this from one place. What are the biggest risks to optimal Internet performance? The biggest risk is simply in not knowing the real-time state of your performance. It is important to know where the Internet latency issues are. Errors can occur within the network, at the CDN or ISP level, with your SaaS providers or with a customer connection. Understanding your connections and monitoring, controlling and optimising them is the true test of Internet performance and in understanding and mitigating against weak spots in your network. How do I keep my site up in the event of an outage? Outages are game changing for your business and they happen with surprising regularity – more than 3,000 times every day on the global Internet. And it is difficult for most companies to detect an Internet connection failure without a way to measure between your customers and your assets. Constant monitoring of your Internet-facing architecture is the only true way to ensure you will not be affected by outages for a prolonged period.

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ISSUE 289 | february 2016

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