Computer News Middle East June 2019

ISSUE 328 | JUNE 2019 TAHAWULTECH.COM

SMART DUBAI DELL TECHNOLOGIES WORLD 2019 VIRTUSTREAM AND MORO HPE DR FABIO FONTANA AND LORENZO GONZALES

VERITAS REGIONAL VP EMERGING REGION JOHNNY KARAM UIPATH DIRECTOR OF AI AND ANALYTICS FLORIN MANOLE

FOOD FOR THOUGHT HOW THE UAE IS USING AI TO FIGHT FOOD WASTE

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If you want to win the digital transformation bingo, you might just be in the right part of the world.”

A

s Ramadan comes to an end, and the abundance of buffet iftars become just a memory, this month’s cover feature looks at how the latest technologies can help businesses cut food waste and its cost.

London-based start-up Winnow is aiming to save their clients one billion dollars a year in food costs, and they seem to be on the right track as UAE-based EMAAR Hospitality Group recently announced they have saved 1.3 million Dirhams in food costs thanks to the use of Winnow’s AI technology. Winnow’s CEO and Co-Founder Marc Zornes and Director for the MENA region Ignacio Ramirez spill the beans behind their successful venture on page 16.

Talking about AI – We sat down with Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s VP and Managing Director for the Middle East Dr Fabio Fontana and Global Presales Strategic and Chief of Digital Innovation ME Lorenzo Gonzales to discuss the company’s approach to this revolutionary technology and the inspiration behind the first Digital Life Garage in the region. According to Dr Fontana, if you want to win the digital transformation bingo, you might just be in the right part of the world. More on page 20.

I know everyone will be wondering what our new editor looks like, so just turn to page 55 where Mark Forker, the newest addition to our team, breaks down the ongoing trade war between the United States and China, while also giving me a nice way to introduce him to our readers.

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CONTENTS

Transformation and Technology Specialist Partner

Advanced Computing Partner

ISSUE 328 | JUNE 2019

16 Food for thought

12 6

20

HPE INTERVIEW

10

Dell Technologies World 2019

24

Abstracting data complexity

32

SMART DUBAI

FOUNDER, CPI MEDIA GROUP Dominic De Sousa (1959-2015)

Publishing Director Natasha Pendleton natasha.pendleton@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9139 ADVERTISING Group Sales Director Kausar Syed kausar.syed@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9138

News CNME rounds up the biggest regional and global developments in enterprise technology, including the announcement of Amazon. ae, the partnership between Dell Technologies and Abu Dhabi Ports and Sky News Arabia new VR studio.

Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, took the stage at Dell Technologies World in Las Vegas to discuss the future of the industry and to announce a series of tie-ups with other major players.

Veritas’ Regional Vice President Emerging Region Johnny Karam unveils the findings of their recent study about the opportunities and challenges of modern data management.

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Wi-Fi 6: The IoT Engine for Every Business Huawei Middle East’s Managing Director and Vice President of Enterprise Business Group Alaa Elshimy gives his take on the future of WLAN technology with the advent of Wi-Fi 6.

30 Automating success

UiPath’s Director of AI and Analytics Florin Manole explains how to best approach RPA, the importance of Centres of Excellence and what RPA means for the workforce.

40 Mitigating the Risks of Multi-Cloud

Veeam’s Middle East Regional Head Claude Schuck explains how businesses can successfully implement multi-cloud to power their digital transformation.

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EDITORIAL Managing Editor Michael Jabri-Pickett mjp@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9158 Editor Mark Forker mark.forker@cpimediagroup.com +971 4440 9153

VIRTUSTREAM AND MORO

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Printed by Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing © Copyright 2019 CPI All rights reserved While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.

NEWS

SKY NEWS ARABIA INTRODUCES VIRTUAL REALITY NEWS STUDIO

Sky News Arabia announced the introduction of new virtual news studio using the latest in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology in its biggest enhancements since the channel’s launch in 2012.

As part of its continued efforts to set the bar for world-class journalism in the region, Sky News Arabia has

announced vary enhancements such as new programming line-up and new presenters, as well as cutting-edge broadcast technology and a digital-first approach to content creation.

The new virtual news studios will be the first in the region, making Sky News Arabia at the front of newsroom technology in the Middle East and

North Africa. Three new shows will be launched using the new state-of-theart technologies, including a daily sport show live from the AR set.

Hailing the announcement as a “fantastic moment”, Sky News Arabia’s Head of News, Hani Abuayyash, said: “We have raised the game for newsbroadcasters in the region, with new ways of showcasing our content and stories that ensure we continue to serve our audiences in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as having a global outlook.”

Sky News Arabia is also launching made-for digital programming designed to appeal to a new generation across the region. These programs have been specifically designed for digital channels and will feature youth news, humanitarian stories, travel, current affairs and a look back at some of the most significant historical events.

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DELL TECHNOLOGIES HELPS ACCELERATE ABU DHABI PORTS’ DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Abu Dhabi Ports and Dell Technologies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will see them combine their expertise in maritime and IT to develop tech-based concepts, solutions and services for the maritime industry.

As part of the agreement, Dell Technologies will help Abu Dhabi Ports leverage high value-added JUNE 2019

technologies such as blockchain and AI to accelerate their digital transformation journey. The strategic partnership will also see the two organisations work together in an exchange of industry best practices and expertise needed to develop truly integrated smart ports.

Abdullah Al Hameli, Executive Vice President – Corporate Support at Abu Dhabi Ports, said: “We are delighted to

partner with Dell Technologies on our ongoing digital journey. Dell has long been a leader and pioneer in IT, and we look forward to combining their knowledge and insights with that of our own maritime experts. “ Over the past few years, Abu Dhabi Ports has made significant strides in harnessing innovative digital solutions for trade and port communities. In 2018, it launched Silsal, a blockchainbased solution aimed at streamlining trade flows and supply chains.

The signing took place at Dell Technologies World 2019 in Las Vegas – the annual flagship event hosted by Dell Technologies that allows decision makers, customers, partners and analysts to discover how to learn new capabilities, reinvent processes, innovate faster and create value that will change the game across industries. www.tahawultech.com

UAE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION PARTNERS WITH MICROSOFT

The UAE Ministry of Education announced it will join forces with Microsoft to upskill its employees in the fields of data science and AI. The agreement will see Microsoft support the ministry in its vision to upskill its workforce in line with the latest technological trends through

the Microsoft Learning Partners Programme, in particular in the areas of data science, AI, big data and others.

The Microsoft Professional Programme aims to help IT professionals develop future-ready skills through online courses, labs and expert mentoring. The program

UAE ORGANISATIONS DEMAND MORE FROM THEIR DATA: VERITAS

The Value of Data study, conducted

by Vanson Bourne for Veritas, revealed that UAE businesses are demanding more from their data management investments, despite most of the ones surveyed sharing they achieve 125% return on the amount they invest.

The study showed that out of the 100 UAE IT decision makers www.tahawultech.com

surveyed, 88 percent of organisations in the country expect to see a higher average return than the $2.25 USD for every $1 USD they invest in improving data management at the moment.

When asked, UAE businesses shared that the key factors preventing them from improving their ROI are the lack a lack of the right technology to support

focuses on the skills currently in demand such as AI, data science, IoT and cybersecurity.

His Excellency Hussain Ibrahim Al Hammadi, UAE Minister of Education said: “As part of its strategic objectives, the Ministry is working continuously to develop the skills of its employees in line with the latest global trends related to IT, AI and Cybersecurity. The focal areas related to the future and the associated skills must be mastered.”

Anthony Salcito, Microsoft’s Vice President Worldwide Education, said the partnership will bolster the talents of the Ministry of Education’s employees to deliver real value in the UAE education sector for years to come.

The signing ceremony took place during BETT MEA 2019, the worldrenowned education-technology conference being held in the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.

data management (42%), a lack of internal processes (33%) and inadequate employee engagement or training (61%), as well as an absence of support from senior management (44%).

Jyothi Swaroop, vice president, Product & Solutions at Veritas, said: “Mismanaging data can cost businesses millions in security vulnerabilities, lost revenues and missed opportunities, but those that invest wisely are seeing the incredible potential of their data estates.”

The research also underpinned the value of prioritizing day-today data management. Of the organisations that are investing in the proper management of their data, four in five (83%) say they are already experiencing increased data compliance and reduced data security risks, while 76 percent are seeing reduced costs. Driving new revenue streams or market opportunities has also been shown to be a result of investing in data management.

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7

NEWS

SOUQ.COM BECOMES AMAZON.AE

Amazon and Souq have announced Souq.com will be replaced by Amazon. ae, a new online shopping experience for customers in the UAE. The move comes almost two years after Amazon purchased Dubai-based online retailer Souq.com for $580 million – its priciest international acquisition to date.

In a statement released by Amazon, Ronaldo Mouchawar, Co-Found of Souq and Vice President for Amazon MENA, said: “Amazon.ae brings together Souq’s local know-how and Amazon’s global expertise, something we believe will be of significant benefit to UAE customers. Our combined team in the region has grown to over

3,600 employees, and each and every one of us is thrilled to invite UAE customers to join us on this journey, where we will continue to grow our product range, ensure great prices, and provide a convenient and safe shopping experience.”

Amazon.ae features over 30 million products from local and international business, including products previously available on Souq, as well as five million products from Amazon US. The new website follows the same structure and layout as the other Amazon websites all over the world, and users will also be able to access the website through the Amazon App. For the first time ever at Amazon, Arabic language will be featured on both the mobile app and the website to cater for customers who prefer to shop in Arabic.

8

ORACLE SUPPORTS SAUDI VISION 2030 WITH NEW INNOVATION HUB

Oracle announced the opening of its first innovation hub in Saudi Arabia to reinforce its commitment to support the Ministry of Communications and Information technology’s strategic objectives to drive the implementation of Saudi Vision 2030. The new hub is dedicated to driving the implementation of latest digital technologies including Artificial JUNE 2019

Intelligence; Blockchain; Machine Learning; Internet of Things (IoT) across the country’s public sector, corporate entities and academia.

Located at Oracle’s Riyadh office, the new innovation hub was inaugurated by His Excellency Eng. Haitham Abdulrahman Al-Ohali, Vice Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Saudi Arabia

at an event that was attended by key dignitaries and executives.

His Excellency Eng. Haitham Abdulrahman Al-Ohali said: “Digital transformation is a vital part of the Kingdom's Vision 2030. We live in an age where data is the ‘new oil’ and given the rapid global economic changes that are unfolding around us, we are constantly moving ahead to keep Saudi Arabia up to pace with the fourth industrial revolution”.

His Excellency Eng. Haytham Abdulrahman AlOhali added: “We welcome Oracle’s initiative to establish an innovation hub in Riyadh to support our vision and enable the country’s tech entrepreneurs to enter the digital economy”.

The new innovation hub will also act as a platform for Oracle customers, partners and other stakeholders to better understand the potential of emerging technologies and co-create industry specific innovations with top Oracle experts. www.tahawultech.com

DELOITTE AND SERVICENOW ANNOUNCE STRATEGIC AGREEMENT

ServiceNow John Donahoe

Deloitte and ServiceNow, a leading enterprise cloud-based provider of digital workflows, signed a new strategic agreement to accelerate organizations’ enterprise digital transformation.

The two organisations plan to jointly develop, coordinate and bring to market new products, assets and solutions built on the Now Platform® to help clients deliver seamless digital experiences across the enterprise, improve workflows and enhance productivity.

“We’re excited to take our relationship with ServiceNow to a whole new level,” said Janet Foutty, Chair and CEO, Deloitte Consulting LLP. “This collaboration will pair Deloitte’s business process transformation, organizational change management and technology implementation expertise with ServiceNow’s platform to create new enterprise solutions that help drive every part of our clients’ digital transformation efforts.”

In addition to new technology offerings, clients will have greater access to Deloitte’s IP and accelerators — best practices to deliver projects more efficiently — in an effort to improve processes, revenue, retention and productivity.

The initial priority industry sectors include but are not limited to government and public services, telecommunications, media and high tech, life sciences, banking, energy, healthcare and manufacturing.

As part of this agreement, Deloitte will serve as the Lead Launch Partner for ServiceNow’s Finance Operations Management product. Over time, Finance Operations Management will include a variety of applications supporting digital workflows across the finance organization.

The agreement was announced at ServiceNow’s Knowledge 2019 conference in Las Vegas.

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www.tahawultech.com

JUNE 2019

EVENT Dell Tech World

THE WAVE OF INNOVATION DANIEL BARDSLEY REPORTS FROM THE ANNUAL DELL TECHNOLOGIES WORLD IN LAS VEGAS, WHERE FOUNDER AND CEO MICHAEL DELL DISCUSSED THE FUTURE OF TECHNOLOGY AND ANNOUNCED A SERIES OF TIE-UPS WITH OTHER MAJOR PLAYERS IN THE INDUSTRY.

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T

echnology’s transformation of society is set to accelerate, Michael Dell, Dell Technologies' founder and CEO told delegates at his company’s annual gathering in an upbeat assessment of the ability of innovation to solve the world’s problems.

Speaking at Dell Technologies World in Las Vegas, Dell highlighted the impact that technology has had – and will continue to have – on businesses and on people’s lives.

The world will see what Dell described as “a massive wave of innovation” with people who are “coming from totally different perspectives” becoming involved in efforts to solve major problems.

“Technology has been a great force for good over the past three-and-a-half decades because of that,” said Dell, whose company this year marks its 35th anniversary.

He also highlighted the impact on customers and the IT sector of the accelerating pace of innovation.

JUNE 2019

“This is a time of unprecedented progress and an opportunity for all of use to have an outside impact through making [new] models in serving our customers and solving their problems,” he said.

Dell cited artificial intelligence, neural networks, which are algorithms modelled on biological nerve networks, and deep learning, which involves artificial intelligence based around neural networks, as being of key importance.

“When you add 5G, a revolution is taking place. 5G is all about moving data faster, exponentially faster,” said Dell.

Speaking at a panel discussion entitled Making 5G Real, Dell Technologies’ senior vice president and general manager for OEM and IoT Solutions Bryan Jones discussed the potential uses of 5G connectivity.

Jones said: “Only 20 to 25 percent of use cases have been thought about.

The innovation it’s going to unleash has not even been thought about.”

Jones highlighted opportunities

for industrial automation and manufacturing as being among the most significant, saying that in these areas and others, 5G would “open up a completely new set of capabilities”.

Amit Malhotra, vice present for programmes at VIAVI Solutions, a Californian-based company that carries out network testing, said that 5G would not be “4G on steroids”, but would instead involve a more fundamental changes in networks.

“It’s an opportunity for everything with a chip to be connected to the cloud.

Everything from mobile devices, cars [and] smart cities with millions of smart meters,” he said.

“All of these endpoints require very different types of network characteristics: very high-speed but bursty performance for streaming; very distributed by low-bandwidth connectivity for smart meters.

“When we talk about 5G from a network perspective, we’re talking about rearchitecting the network completely.”

Discussing Dell Technologies’ position www.tahawultech.com

Michael Dell, Founder and CEO, Dell Technologies

This is a time of unprecedented progress and an opportunity for all of us to have an outside impact through making [new] models in serving our customers and solving their problems” in the UAE, officials said that Dell was strengthening its position in the Emirates in sectors where it had traditionally not been a major player here.

“With digital transformation in my region, I like to believe we read the future right and read our customers’ needs,” said Mohammed Amin, Dell Technologies’ Dubai-based senior vice president for META. The UAE is “taking the right measures, making the right investments” to position itself at the cusp of digital transformation.

“They have the will, they have the money, they have the political authority,” said Amin.

Per capita annual spending on IT in the UAE is slightly above $40, according to Amin, who described this as the highest in the Meta region.

He suggested that the figure would eventually approach the amount spent in developed markets such as the United States and Europe, which he said was approximately $110.

Another key reason given by the www.tahawultech.com

company for its expansion in the region is the 2016 merger of Dell and EMC. Fady Richmany, Dell Technologies’ senior director and general manager in the UAE, said the merger had “played very well” by significantly increasing the scope of Dell’s offering to customers.

Also, the customer bases of Dell and EMC had tended to be complementary, giving the merged entity a significantly bigger list of major clients.

“We’re uniquely positioned to deliver end-to-end transformation,” said Richmany.

The annual gathering also saw a string of announcements involving tie-ups between Dell Technologies and other major players.

The Las Vegas event, which brings together more than 15,000 IT specialists, has seen the launch of three joint offerings with Microsoft and with VMware, the software virtualisation company that is four-fifths owned by Dell.

The trio of companies announced improved compatibility in their cloud computing infrastructure, in their virtual desktops and in their

workspace technology.

CEO Michael Dell, along with Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella, and Patrick Gelsinger, the CEO of VMware, announced that the companies will now offer what is described as “a fully native, supported and certified VMware cloud infrastructure” on Microsoft’s cloud service, Microsoft Azure.

Speaking at a briefing session with journalists after the main announcement, Gelsinger said that VMware’s strategy had been to “keep open interfaces”.

“Customers want fewer, more strategic vendors,” he said.

The other main collaboration announcements between Dell, Microsoft and VMware included an improvement in the capabilities of Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop.

This will use VMware Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure.

The third main initiative involved the management of Office 365, with the launch of a “cloud-based integration” with Azure Active Directory and Microsoft Intune.

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THE PERFECT SYNERGY

DUBAI-BASED COMPANY MORO PARTNERED WITH VIRTUSTREAM, A DELL TECHNOLOGIES COMPANY, TO OFFER BUSINESSES ACROSS THE MENA REGION AN UNPARELLALED COMBINATION OF CLOUD SERVICES. VIRTUSTREAM EMEA VICE PRESIDENT PAUL DUFFY AND MORO CEO MOHAMMED SABUNCHI DISCUSS THE GOALS AND AMBITION BEHIND THE AGREEMENT.

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www.tahawultech.com

FEATURE Virtustream

I

n the first decade or so of the cloud’s adoption, it was often the non-missioncritical applications that were transferred to external servers.

This “low-hanging fruit”, as one report described them, might consist of general-purpose applications, the type of thing that, were they to go down, would not present a business with insurmountable problems.

More recently, however, businesses have been moving beyond transferring just these 9/5 applications, as they are sometimes known.

There is now a trend for companies to also move to the cloud their “24/7” or mission-critical applications, the ones that are the very lifeblood of their existence.

Among the providers offering businesses the opportunity to transfer their most significant missioncritical applications to the cloud are Moro and Virtustream, which have formed a partnership that is already generating significant interest in the local marketplace.

We wanted to establish a level of maturity in a very short time; the obvious choice was to go with Virtustream. There are multiple capabilities that we cannot find with any other technology.” www.tahawultech.com

It is perhaps no wonder that customers are turning to these providers for some of the most important aspects of their digital transformation, because both Moro and Virtustream have significant factors in their favour.

Based in Dubai, Moro is a semigovernment entity that is backed by Dubai Water and Electricity Authority (DEWA).

Virtustream, meanwhile, is part of Dell Technologies, among the world’s largest and most respected technology companies and one that has spent more than $20 billion (Dh73.5 billion) on research and development.

The two partners recently gave details of their services at an EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) summit in London organised by Virtustream.

Since launching operations in 2017, Moro has expanded rapidly

Mohammed Sabunchi, CEO, Moro

in five main areas of business: data centre and managed services, system integrated services, digital services and security services, and cloud services.

The partnership between Moro and Virtustream comes under the cloud services banner.

Mohammed Sabunchi, the CEO of Moro, says that it made sense for a newly formed and fast-growing company like his to join forces with Virtustream.

“We wanted to establish a level of maturity in a very short time; the obvious choice was to go with Virtustream. There are multiple capabilities that we cannot find with any other technology,” he says.

“The more we knew about it, the more we realised it’s almost a perfect match for what we want to offer to our end-users.”

Together, the companies offer what is described as a multi-zone environment on a single infrastructure platform enabling multiple workloads.

Sabunchi says that there was a lack of hyperscale data centres in the region, hence the demand is there for a company like Moro, which describes itself as “a world-class data hub providing hyperscale solutions”.

There is no lack of ambition behind this statement: Moro says that its aim is to become the number one data and digital transformation hub in the region.

On top of the fact that it is a semigovernment entity, Moro says that it has a number of other selling points: state-ofthe-art facilities and technologies; operational agility; a customercentric focus; and top-tier partnerships JUNE 2019

13

FEATURE Virtustream

14

with leading technology providers, such as Virtustream.

Moro states that it offers customers the best of both worlds, since it combines these international partnerships with the top-level skills of its in-house experts, plus deep local knowledge and cultural understanding.

Moro offers a wide array of services, ranging from – to name just a few – Internet of Things as a Service (IoTaaS) to SAP HEC – SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud Services, through to a full array of other data centre and managed services, cloud services and professional services.

“What Moro is about is creating a digital hub for the clients to come and have a single contact for every element,” says Sabunchi.

“We’re probably one of the most exciting organisations set up in the Middle East. We’re specialised in offering digital services, cloud services.”

Virtustream can trace its history back to 2009, and in

subsequent years the company expanded rapidly on the back of significant venture-capital funding. In 2015 Virtustream was acquired by EMC which itself was taken over by Dell later the same year.

“Virtustream is a Dell Technologies business. We get a huge lift form being part of that ecosystem,” says Rory Read, the president and CEO of Virtustream.

When it came to rolling out its cloud services for the missioncritical applications of enterpriseclass businesses and organisations, Paul Duffy, Virtustream’s EMEA vice president, says the company was faced with the decision of whether to go it alone or to form partnerships with local companies in different geographies.

“Do we build out our own network of data centres or do we leverage key partners that have the local language and culture?” he says.

Key customers make a decision and quickly others follow in the region.

There are fantastic opportunities for us and Moro.”

Paul Duffy, EMEA Vice President, Virtustream

JUNE 2019

The company chose the latter approach and, as well as the partnership with Moro, within the GCC it has forged a similar agreement with Mobily, the Saudi Arabian telecommunications company. Globally, Virtustream has nine partnerships to offer customers the chance to have mission-critical applications migrated to, and run in, the cloud.

Among Virtustream’s key offerings in the marketplace is the Virtustream Enterprise Cloud, a full stack platform designed to run the most highly mission-critical applications.

Virtustream highlights the way that it can offer customers an “unparalleled combination” of security, compliance, accreditations and privacy protection, which is what many companies will be looking for to secure their most mission-critical applications.

For the moment, the Middle East captures a relatively small proportion of Virtustream’s business, at around four per cent of the total. But the company’s partnership with Moro has gone well so far and the two companies have high hopes for their continued success together.

“If we look at the opportunities we have closed with Moro [already], it’s multi-million and multi-year,” says Duffy.

These contract wins should, in turn, help the partnership to secure more deals, since business in the region is, says Duffy, “very much relationship based”.

“Key customers make a decision and quickly others follow in the region.

[There are] fantastic opportunities for us and Moro,” he says.

“The innovation that’s going into Dubai, that’s leading the rest of the region.

They’re driving that digital approach.

“Moro can offer these services to other Gulf nations and even outside of that …

We see Moro as a great partner.” www.tahawultech.com

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FEATURE Winnow

FOOD FOR THOUGHT LONDON-BASED START-UP WINNOW TELLS CNME HOW IT HELPED EMAAR HOSPITALITY GROUP SAVE 1.3 MILLION DIRHAMS IN A YEAR IN FOOD COST THROUGH THE USE OF AI.

T

he food industry is victim to a dire paradox. Global hunger is on the rise, and yet we currently produce enough food to nourish every single person on the planet.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), about one-third of global food production is lost or wasted annually.

To add to the problem, food waste is also one of the much-overlooked causes of global warming. If food wastage were a country, it would be the third largest GHGs emitting country in the world, behind China and the USA. While Europe and North America struggle to educate their consumers, with 95-115 kg a year per capita waste, a study by YouGov showed that the top sources of food wastage across UAE, KSA and Egypt are left-over or discarded food in restaurants (32%) or extra food cooked for celebrations which gets thrown away (30%).

This doesn’t come as a surprise – while Ramadan is known as a time www.tahawultech.com

of moderation and giving, a shocking amount of food goes to waste during the holy month, as buffet iftars and suhoor become the norm in all restaurants and hotels. EcoMENA estimates that one-fifth of the food purchased or prepared during Ramadan ends up in garbage bins or landfills.

While the statistics are clearly staggering, reducing food waste also presents itself as a big money saving and profitable opportunity, and even a bigger opportunity than electrified cars in terms of resource saving. In the UAE, food waste costs the local economy 13 billion Dirhams annually, a number that hasn’t gone unnoticed to the hundreds of hotel and restaurants spread across the country.

Marc Zornes, CEO and Co-Founder of London-based start-up Winnow, saw in the hospitality industry the chance to create the perfect business model, saving organisations money while also reducing food waste, all through the use of technology.

“Fundamentally one of the biggest problems based around food waste is

the lack of knowledge. We don’t have a good understanding globally of where the real opportunities are and what can be done about it. That’s the area where we realised technology could help.” Zornes says.

And indeed, technology can open up some big doors in the food industry.

According to a recent study by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Google, AI can be used to successfully design out avoidable food waste, as Winnow aims to do, as well as sourcing food grown regeneratively and locally, and designing and marketing healthier food products.

On the base of these applications, the McKinsey Global Institute found that AI can generate an estimate opportunity of up to $127 billion a year in 2030, calculated as growth in topline revenue.

“We understood that if we could shine a light on the problem, if we could use data to enable better decision-making and better investments on how to actually reduce that waste, there could be tremendous JUNE 2019

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FEATURE Winnow

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value to actually solving the problem,” says Zornes, also a former McKinsey consultant.

With that in mind, in 2013 Winnow set itself the goal to build an Artificial Intelligence system that would use cameras to identify wasted food.

While computer vision didn’t pose an issue for the London-based start-up, the AI technology proved to be more difficult than imagined. Zornes and his colleagues’ original idea could only come to life earlier this year with the creation of Winnow Vision.

The computer vision-based product uses a camera that sits over the kitchen’s bin to take two pictures, before and after the food is thrown away, identifies what’s new in the bin, and then based on that it runs a classification algorithm, a deep learning model, to identify the product, as well as its weight and cost.

Zornes also stresses the importance of using embedded chips for Winnow Vision. “This is not a cloudbased product, it’s a product that works fully in the kitchen.” He says.

“The main reason behind this decision is that

Marc Zornes, CEO and CoFounder, Winnow

JUNE 2019

embedded technology reduces latency. Kitchens are really busy places, so to be able to minimise in a repeatable way the time that it takes from when food is thrown away to when the system identifies it, you can’t send the data to the cloud. Using embedded chips we can do this in about two seconds. When you turn to the cloud you depend on internet

We want to really leverage the capabilities of deep learning to be able to shed a light on the problem, so that we can reduce food waste as well as the costs deriving from it.”

connection, on latency to the servers, and that’s a hard thing to control, especially in kitchens.”

To make technology a fundamental game changer in the hotels and restaurants’ kitchen, Zornes says AI was the natural and most logical choice.

“We proved that there’s tremendous value in gathering data on food waste, but to effectively gather that data we had to classify and categorise everything that was being thrown away. AI and computer vision made that possible,” he says.

“We’ve engineered the technology to create a virtuous cycle. The more locations implement Winnow Vision, the more accurate the data can be for our existing and new customers. We want to really leverage the capabilities of deep learning to be able to shed a light on the problem, so that we can reduce food waste as well as the costs deriving from it.”

Currently the system takes a little less than a year to be fully autonomous, but one of Winnow’s goals is to make the system “plug and play” from day one, as more hotels and restaurants implement it. Zornes says that he’d like to make it the standard in all hotels in the ME, as “it clearly makes sense ethically and economically to do so”.

TAKE THE PLEDGE In collaboration with the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, Winnow has established a partnership with some of the biggest hotel groups in the country, including EMAAR and Majid Al Futtaim.

The MOCCAE, in line with the world’s Sustainable Development Goal of halving food waste by 2030, called on hospitality businesses to pledge to fight food waste in their kitchens.

The UAE Food Waste Pledge was www.tahawultech.com

endorsed by His Excellency Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, and Winnow was central to the initiative.

Winnow’s Director for the MENA region, Ignacio Ramirez, says the response of the UAE was fantastic and they couldn’t have hoped for more support from the country’s government and hospitality industry.

“Even before the launch of the AI tech, we noticed there was a lot of interest in changing things when it comes to food waste, we had very productive and successful meetings from the beginning.

“Obviously when AI came to the table, everyone was super excited.

The UAE, Dubai in particular, is really future-driven and AI is central to this process. The technology was definitely the main driver, but the MOCCAE is also doing great things just to make a real change and solve the issue.”

Ramirez explains Winnow’s biggest success was achieved with EMAAR Hospitality Group. The global hospitality provider currently counts 12 locations in the UAE, and they have all implemented Winnow Vision in their kitchens.

“They really understood what this was about. We were always very open about the challenges that may have arisen from the technology, but from the beginning they were very receptive of the project. They knew it was going to be a long-term process and that it was going to be a partnership with ups and downs,” says Ramirez.

The bid to reduce food waste for EMAAR was not without challenges.

According to Ramirez, it was important to make sure the hospitality group understood Winnow Vision’s technology is “not like magic”. The system takes time to learn and improve, especially when faced with www.tahawultech.com

The technology was definitely the main driver, but the MOCCAE is also doing great things to make a real change and solve the issue.” more complicated menus. “It’s like a baby that needs to be told what things are”, says Ramirez, “but ultimately they understood that time would only make the system better and more accurate.”

Along with EMAAR Hospitality Group, Majid Al Futtaim and Rotana have also supported Winnow and MOCCAE’s food waste pledge initiative. The ambition is to save three million meals by the end of 2020, with one million saved already in 2018.

ONE BILLION Hotels are just the beginning according to Zornes. Winnow’s future projects focus on making the technology a fundamental game changer for chefs in many different industries, including contract and flight catering, cruises and smaller restaurants.

“Our goal as a business in the next few years is to go from saving our clients 35 million dollars a year in food costs, to saving a billion dollars

Ignacio Ramirez, Director for the MENA region, Winnow

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a year by reducing food waste with our technology.

“If we can manage to do that, we are really going to take a massive bite out of the issue of food waste in the hospitality industry, which can then translate into a broader social change as these organisations share their knowledge with their customers.” He says.

Zornes hopes to meet and exceed their goals, but he believes technology can only go so far to solve the issue.

He explains legislation and regulations are fundamental to help drive the industry at the pace it needs to go and is excited to see such a response in the UAE. “Change is going to require a combination of a lot of investment, some real innovation in technology and progressive regulations and government leadership to help make it a reality.”

JUNE 2019

INTERVIEW HPE Lorenzo Gonzales, Global Presales Strategic and Chief of Digital Innovation Middle East

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Dr Fabio Fontana, VP and MD, HPE Middle East

JUNE 2019

www.tahawultech.com

WINNING THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION BINGO 21

HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE VICE PRESIDENT AND MANAGING DIRECTOR FOR THE MIDDLE EAST, DR FABIO FONTANA, AND LORENZO GONZALES, GLOBAL PRESALES STRATEGIC AND CHIEF OF DIGITAL INNOVATION MIDDLE EAST, DISCUSS THE COMPANY’S APPROACH TO AI AND THEIR UPCOMING DIGITAL LIFE GARAGE INITIATIVE.

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HAT IS HPE APPROACH TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE? FF: We work on three important pillars when we talk about AI: technology, people, and investments.

First of all, we need to address the technology aspect: a recent study

by Gartner says that between 75% and 80% of spending is to pay for the current costs of traditional IT. Only 20% is spent on innovation. www.tahawultech.com

We need to fundamentally change the philosophy of spending. This doesn't just concern the CIO, the transformation needs to come from the top. Take for example the UAE, the first nation to appoint a Minister for AI to drive change. In the same way, the CEO needs to have an understanding of how AI can change the digital transformation agenda of their organisation. You need to start thinking differently and ask yourself: “how can I spend less on operational and more on innovation?”

Another research by McKinsey says that 70% of digital transformation projects fail due to people’s incapability to change. Let’s say the CEO decides to spend 30% on innovation instead of 20% – if they doesn’t also convince their employees, change is not likely to happen.

Finally, when we look at the financial side businesses need to start thinking in a different way about the way they spend their money. It’s not just about CAPEX, organisations need to be more creative than that. Nowadays JUNE 2019

INTERVIEW HPE

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companies tend to have a monolithic approach to the CIO’s spending, to change and to CAPEX spending. We believe the better approach is pay as you grow. For example, HPE’s GreenLake gives organisations the possibility to make a five to seven years plan on a pay as you grow basis.

All these changes, technology, people and financial, need to be addressed

by CEO all together, not one by one.

LG: At HPE we try to take advantage of the technology we have to determine outcomes. There are a lot of possibilities enabled by new technologies, but currently these are approached in a traditional way.

Organisations buy the technology, the solutions, the use case. But the real way to deliver outcomes is by bringing all these together and combining the aspirational outcome with these possibilities in a way that prioritises long term results, while also learning and flexibly adjusting what you can do day after day. When we look at AI, it is used to recognise and “count” people, but it can take this information to do other things. If we do that by design, we can quickly test new ideas, adopt or drop them depending on each case, or even expand and adjust them rather than trying to create new verticals. When we talked about AI, we had a discussion about how to recognise a person, and while we can recognise faces, we can also recognise a voice, or biometrics, or count how many people there are in an area by scanning badges. You can do a number of things and you learn all the time from the information you gather, so you can deliver on a case by case basis.

WHAT IS HPE DOING TO SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENT AI? JUNE 2019

Digital transformation in general, and specifically AI adoption, is about leveraging the full potential of the technology whilst delivering step by step cumulative outcomes that you can rely on.” (LG) LG: Especially with AI in the UAE, we hear a lot of great ideas, great innovators. There are some brilliant young people in the region. We are opening the first HPE’s Digital Life Garage because we want to help to put all of this in the right business context to make it work.

Digital transformation in general, and specifically AI adoption, is about leveraging the full potential of the technology whilst delivering step by step cumulative outcomes that you can rely on. One of the concepts behind the DLG is to create that.

FF: When it comes to AI, HPE is aiming

to have the infrastructure and the application side work together. The DLG is a good opportunity to make this happen – it brings an ecosystem of people together to develop a combination of infrastructure and application pillars. Take as an example the iPhone, it was successful because software and hardware glued together to work perfectly. In the same way AI needs the infrastructure and application combined to work.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THE MIDDLE EAST TO OPEN THE FIRST HPE’S DIGITAL LIFE GARAGE? LG: One year ago, I was assigned to the Middle East to drive digital innovation. At the time the idea was to help this vibrant and innovationfocused ecosystem to grow. We decided to open the first HPE’s DLG here exactly because of this kind of ecosystem and because of the aspiration and momentum that we have here. It’s something very unique www.tahawultech.com

to us. We know we can apply it elsewhere quite easily, but the UAE is where the idea sparkled.

FF: I believe there are three things here than you can hardly find in any other country. First of all, the speed and agility. If you have an idea here, you can have the support of the government very quickly. In any other country where there is constant political party rivalry, it takes time to make decisions, while here every decision is made rapidly.

The second thing that makes this

country unique is its diversity. There are 180 different cultures in the UAE, 31 in our office alone. If you look at the transformations of the last years, it’s all about diversity and inclusion.

You can have a lot of smart, great ideas, but it’s with diversity that you can really make a difference. The last thing is the strong vision the UAE, and the ME region in general, can offer us. Speed, diversity and vision all in one place – It's like winning at bingo!

When it comes to AI, HPE is aiming to have the infrastructure and the application part work together. The Digital Life Garage is a good opportunity to make this happen.” (FF) www.tahawultech.com

WHY DO YOU THINK DIVERSITY IS SUCH AN IMPORTANT ASPECT IN THE TECH INDUSTRY? LG: Diversity is inspirational in what we do. There’s no predefined bias here. I work globally and personally, the level of daily conversation and input I have while I’m here is incomparable. It’s very broad and it gives us the inspiration to create something new.

FF: Removing cultural bias is very important in our industry. I worked in Silicon Valley for many years and obviously I can’t say there isn’t diversity there as well. You can find people from many different cultures, but 90% of them were born and grew up in the US. They have an “American” mindset. The real diversity is here.

People here are themselves. Diversity gives us the possibility to bring people and ideas together, and that’s the central point of DLG. WHAT WAS THE ASPIRATION BEHIND THE DLG? LG: The DLG is a space to co-innovate, where everyone can bring their own contribution to build together outcomes that are more than just the normal business to tech requests. In the past it was just about allowing IT to deliver response, but now you can’t separate business and tech, they are interlinked. My aspiration with the DLG was to bring great minds from different backgrounds together in a room. The main revolution I want to bring to our partners is to build a young ecosystem on top of a traditional approach. I believe it’s all about a combination of the two, putting together the energy and creativity of our youth with the capability to execute of a more experienced person. I think it’s a critical mix to make things really work.

JUNE 2019

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Johnny Karam, Regional Vice President Emerging Region, Veritas

JUNE 2019

www.tahawultech.com

INTERVIEW Veritas

ABSTRACTING DATA COMPLEXITY VERITAS’ REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT EMERGING REGION, JOHNNY KARAM UNVEILS THE FINDINGS OF THEIR RECENT STUDY ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF MODERN DATA MANAGEMENT. 25

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In today’s economy if you don’t manage your data growth and properly tap into it, you’re not in business.” www.tahawultech.com

HY DO YOU THINK UAE ORGANISATIONS EXPECT SO MUCH FROM

THEIR DATA? Data is growing, faster than anybody had expected. This growth has created both risks and opportunities for businesses. The first thing customers started realising is that they couldn't think of data management like they used to.

Organisations can’t just buy more storage. It’s not the right answer: it means higher costs, not enough space in the data centres, and needing more people to manage it.

This growth created a major problem for organisations to rethink about how to approach data.

However, data growth also created a lot of opportunities. Businesses

have tons of data, and with the right visibility and the ability to properly tap into it, they can become really make a difference in such a competitive market. Just think of riding services like Uber or Careem: they use the same cars and drivers traditional services use, but their real advantage over them is the data they gather about their customers.

Tapping into that data gave them a competitive edge. Organisations that can’t do that are losing opportunities from that perspective.

Businesses expect so much from their data because mismanaging it costs them a lot of money and the inability to tap into it makes them uncompetitive. The currency of any organisation today is their data, therefore making the right investment in order to get the highest possible return is crucial JUNE 2019

INTERVIEW Veritas

to any board. We’re seeing more and more customers really understanding this. In today’s economy if you don’t manage your data growth and don't properly tap into it, you’re not in business.

26

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OF MODERN DATA MANAGEMENT AND HOW CAN ORGANISATIONS OVERCOME THEM? The first challenge is cost – If you don’t manage your data the cost will go through the roof. A study we did a few months ago showed that only 19% of data stored by UAE organisations is actually critical to their business. 33% of the other 81% is redundant or obsolete, while approximately half (48%) is completely dark. Most organisations don’t even know their data. As an example, imagine you go to your CFO or CEO and explain to them that out of the four stories in the building you have, only one is useful, two of them are just full of boxes you don’t need, and you don’t even know what’s in the fourth, but at the same time you need more money to get more space. That sums up the main challenge many organisations face.

The second challenge would be securing their data. All organisations have security firewalls, but sometimes malware get past it anyway. So how do you protect the data if something goes wrong and how will you be able to recover it if that happens? With the growth of Ransomware, organisations are JUNE 2019

You can’t fly a plane without radars, so why do you think you can manage your ever so fast-growing data without proper visibility?”

realising they need to know how to recover if security is breached.

The third issue is productivity.

Organisations understand that without the right systems and tools to tap into their data, they lose productivity. Our report shows UAE organisations estimate that they lose over $2 million per year as they struggle with data management challenges, and this is mostly because of people losing time finding what they need.

Lately one of the things we talk to most customers about cloud, www.tahawultech.com

a crucial part to do this based on whatever business classification an organisation may need.

You can’t fly a plane without radars, so why do you think you can manage your ever so fast-growing data without proper visibility?

everyone is considering it. Their biggest concern is where to start, what data should they put into cloud, what data do regulations allow them to put there. In reality the truth is somewhere in the middle. Take a bank for example, while they are not allowed to put end users data in the public cloud, they could use it to store marketing videos that are consuming their disk. This is only possible with right visibility into their data, which allows them to put the right policies in place. Visibility becomes www.tahawultech.com

WHAT IS VERITAS APPROACH TO THEIR CUSTOMERS’ DATA MANAGEMENT NEEDS? Our first step is to get customers data visibility across all platforms.

Nowadays data doesn’t sit in one place, it’s on physical and virtual servers, on cloud, it’s spread across a variety of different places. Then from a business perspective we sit down and agree on the classification of the data, what’s critical to them - the crown jewels so to speak.

Afterwards we can discuss the policy based on that data classification.

Critical data may be stored on an hourly basis, whilst non-critical once a month on the least expensive storage. After that, we start putting the policy and automation in place.

At that point there’s no human interaction anymore, the policy is automatically applied by the system based on the customer’s needs.

Then we provide the simplest way possible to find what they need.

68% of organisations in the UAE estimate they lose over an hour a day looking for data. We make it simple for them to avoid this. With just one click the system can find the data and retrieve it in a matter of seconds. We try to abstract the complexity of data management by

automating and putting the right policies in place.

At the end of the day what our customers really want is to manage cost, to protect their data, and to have visibility of it. Through visibility they can find and use whatever data is critical to them to build a competitive advantage.

WHAT CAN SENIOR MANAGERS DO TO IMPROVE THEIR ORGANISATION’S DATA MANAGEMENT STRATEGY? Sometimes we sit with IT teams and they they tell us they have data they can archive, but the company doesn't have a process in place for senior managers to approve this.

This is why senior managers need to interact more with the IT team, and on the other hand the IT team needs to elevate the conversation.

If they are to manage their data properly and achieve availability, protection and insight, they need to understand their business and IT priorities. This interaction between senior managers and IT needs to happen so they can tap more and more into their data.

UAE organisations that are investing in data clearly achieve major cost savings and better productivity. On average, 70% of those that have invested in data have reduced cost and over 69% said their employees are now empowered to be more productive. I think those stats are a clear reflection on the importance of good data management.

JUNE 2019

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INSIGHT Huawei

WI-FI 6: THE IOT ENGINE FOR EVERY BUSINESS HUAWEI MIDDLE EAST MANAGING DIRECTOR AND VICE PRESIDENT OF ENTERPRISE BUSINESS GROUP, ALAA ELSHIMY GIVES HIS TAKE ON THE FUTURE OF WLAN TECHNOLOGY WITH THE ADVENT OF WI-FI 6.

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A Alaa ElShimy, Managing Director and Vice President of Enterprise Business Group, Huawei Middle East

JUNE 2019

s the Middle East prepares for the introduction of 5G networks, it makes sense that communications standards across the board will be upped in order to keep pace with the increasing demand. Wi-Fi – a staple of everyday connectivity in homes and businesses alike – is one of the most exciting areas where this innovation is coming through. www.tahawultech.com

Some of us will recall when Wi-Fi was first introduced to the world in 1997. Over the past 22 years, it has become an integral part of day to day life, something that we take for granted. It’s also something that we often criticise if it isn’t fast enough to keep up with our growing expectations for speed and reliability in our communications.

Naturally, 22 years is a long time for a technology to develop. Wi-Fi has seen many upgrades over the course of the past two decades, in sync with the world’s digital transformation journey. Now, at the precipice of the 5G era, it is about to experience its next evolution – Wi-Fi 6.

A TRANSFORMATION FOR USER EXPERIENCE With the need to contend with a growing number of connected devices, Wi-Fi has been due for an upgrade.

The High Efficiency WLAN Study Group recognised this back in 2013.

It began to examine the different challenges Wi-Fi would need to contend with in order to keep up with the demands of user traffic. As a result of this, Wi-Fi 6 (also known as project 802.11ax) was initiated in May 2014.

The project’s standard task group was actually led by Osama Aboul Magd, a network innovator at Huawei.

As has become standard across the board with communications technology, a major driving force for the next stage of Wi-Fi was providing a superior user experience. This is an essential consideration for businesses that are prioritising digital transformation – and in today’s world, digital transformation is a necessity if a company is to survive the 5G connected era and what lies beyond. www.tahawultech.com

Wi-Fi is ultimately the first point of connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT). With its larger capacity, it will be a driving force in ensuring the successful implementation of artificial intelligence, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), cloud computing, and many other vast technology applications that define tomorrow’s business world.

In the next three to five years, technologies such as 4K/8K Ultra HD Video, IoT, VR, AR, and automatic guided vehicle (AGV) will be widely used in education, enterprise, and industrial automation. Wi-Fi 6 will meet future development requirements in terms of bandwidth, latency, connection quality, transmission efficiency, and terminal power consumption management.

Based on the actual application scenarios of the customer. Digital enterprise will need to leverage Wi-Fi 6 technology to build a high-quality network with high bandwidth, low latency, and high reliability - all while ensuring it remains maintenance-free.

As the fastest WLAN technology to date, Wi-Fi 6 is leaps and bounds ahead of its predecessors. Solutions such as Huawei’s newly-introduced AirEngine are ready to make

enterprise-class Wi-Fi products a reality, building on technical strengths originating from Huawei 5G smart antenna technology to achieve intelligent optimisation for better user experiences and service continuity. It also has the capacity to perform with excellent results in dense environments, supporting the connectivity needs of high numbers of users.

Think back to the last conference, concert, or major sports match you attended, or that time you were trying to stream a video in the shopping mall or watch an online lecture at university. You might remember how poorly local Wi-Fi performed under the stress of immense demand. Wi-Fi 6 will use available spectrum more efficiently, packing more data into the same air space to provide an enhanced experience for every connected user.

In short, Wi-Fi 6 is one thing that businesses cannot do without in the coming decade. It will be the linchpin of a successful enterprise in the era of 5G and IoT, in which customers of all kinds will expect a seamless experience across all touchpoints— enabled through the application of smart and connected solutions.

Wi-Fi 6 is one thing that businesses cannot do without in the coming decade. It will be the linchpin of a successful enterprise in the era of 5G and IoT.”

JUNE 2019

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INTERVIEW UiPath

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AUTOMATING SUCCESS UIPATH DIRECTOR OF AI AND ANALYTICS FLORIN MANOLE EXPLAINS HOW TO BEST APPROACH RPA, THE IMPORTANCE OF CENTRES OF EXCELLENCE AND WHAT RPA MEANS FOR THE WORKFORCE.

Florin Manole, Director of AI and Analytics, UiPath

JUNE 2019

www.tahawultech.com

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HAT KIND OF INTEREST TO RPA ARE YOU SEEING IN THE UAE AT THE MOMENT? The good thing about RPA is that it’s applicable in most business areas, so we haven’t seen a lot of differentiation between industries. There is definitely a lot of appetite in the financial sector, as there are a lot of back office activities. The public sector has also developed an interest in RPA, because again you have a lot of back office processes that need attention.

Some of these processes are repetitive, so it makes a lot of sense to automate. In terms of our customers – one of the largest customers we have is Etisalat. They are definitely one of the more advanced in their approach.

The other customers are following at a very similar pace to what we have seen in Europe: companies tend to start small with a few workflows, about 20 or 30 robots, to then increase to approximately 50 to 70 in a couple of years, based on their needs.

WHAT IS THE BEST STRATEGY WHEN IT COMES TO IMPLEMENTING AND SCALING RPA APPROPRIATELY ACROSS A BUSINESS? From what we’ve seen with our larger customers, setting up a Centre of Excellence is the first step, because to scale properly you need to have internal capabilities. Setting that up definitely helps departments’ growth, as well as scaling at company level by establishing a specific scaling approach. It really pays off because it usually balances the push between external and internal support. Having people understand the technology and basically educate them in how RPA works can improve the company at all levels. You shouldn’t have to get only technical people; every businessperson needs to understand how the tech works and to have an automation mindset. We see a lot of interest into attended robots, so businesses need people that can leverage the attended robots on their station to automate some of the tasks that they normally do.

WHAT BUSINESS BACK END PROCESSES CAN BENEFIT FROM IMPLEMENTING AUTOMATION? The usual suspects are processing documents and invoices in general, whether in paper or digital format. Of course, most paper gets scanned anyway, so they do end up in an ERP system or something similar. I would say any type of process which puts data into an ERP system – that’s your main automation task to start with when it comes to automation.

DO YOU THINK ORGANISATIONS RISK HINDERING THEIR GROWTH BY BECOMING RELIANT ON ROBOTICS? Most of companies that are implementing RPA tend to start small and also tend to have other types of tools and technology to complement this automation, so they don’t normally rely solely on robotics.

That’s why I said a CoE approach is the best option for businesses, because then they can have mixed capabilities, not only RPA but

RPA will push people to focus on creative tasks and critical activities, it will change the way people approach the work they already do”

www.tahawultech.com

also other technologies that can support the automation. If you design your processes in a way so that the organisation doesn’t depend completely on a particular technology, you can mitigate the risk and could potentially replace some parts of it. For example, in case there is a short outage that impacts mission critical processes, supplementing and substituting those with other technologies can alleviate any problem that may arise.

DO YOU THINK THERE’S A CHALLENGE FOR ORGANISATIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST TO IMPLEMENT RPA IN TERMS OF SKILLS, OR THE LACK THEREOF? I think it’s a fairly easy technology to understand. We have pitched to all kinds of companies and people with different backgrounds. That’s why I said it’s not industry-specific. I don’t see challenges based on industries or people’s background. Of course it’s more natural for people with a technical background to understand it, but for businesspeople it’s easy to grasp especially when they start playing around with the technology. If they want to scale up and invest, it’s easy to understand so that they can bring everybody on board, unlike other more complex technologies like AI. DO YOU THINK RPA IS INEVITABLY GOING TO LEAD TO MASSIVE JOB LOSSES? I don’t think RPA will lead to great job losses, but rather it will lead to transforming jobs altogether. RPA will push people to focus on creative tasks and critical activities, it will change the way people approach the work they already do. It already happened with automation in the manufacturing industry many years ago, people had to change their focus and how they did their jobs every day.

JUNE 2019

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GovTech JUNE 2019 TAHAWULTECH.COM

THE SMARTEST CITY PUBLICATION LICENSED BY DUBAI PRODUCTION CITY, DCCA

‫المدينة‬ ‫األذكى‬

GovTech Smart Dubai

THE SMARTEST CITY CNME TAKES A CLOSER LOOK AT SMART DUBAI, A PIONEERING FORCE HELPING TO TRANSFORM DUBAI INTO THE WORLD’S ‘SMARTEST’ CITY. Her Excellency Dr. Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, Director General of Smart Dubai

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nder the direction and leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, Dubai has become a shining beacon of what can be achieved if you adopt a progressive and open approach to new and emerging technologies, that are fundamentally designed to transform how we live, work and interact with each other.

The transformation Dubai has undergone over the last two decades can’t be underestimated, and it serves as a phenomenal testament to the vision and ambition of Sheikh Mohammed to make Dubai one of the smartest and happiest cities in the world.

A key player in Dubai’s continued progression towards achieving

JUNE 2019

those ambitious goals has been Smart Dubai.

Smart Dubai has spearheaded a whole host of groundbreaking initiatives and programs under the tutelage of Her Excellency Dr. Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, Director General of Smart Dubai, who remains steadfastly committed to delivering on the objectives set out by the Government of Dubai.

The Smart Dubai Office has achieved remarkable success since its inception in 2015 – and has incredibly rolled out over 137 initiatives and 1,129 smart services that give the city’s inhabitants access to its cuttingedge facilities using smart, interconnected systems.

Dubai Pulse: Dubai Pulse is the digital backbone powering the Smart

City movement and has been specifically designed to help spread happiness among all Dubai residents and visitors.

This next-generation digital operating system created to benefit individuals, companies, the private sector and the government. This unique platform offers open and shared data sets from government entitites, as well as Cloud and IoT capabilities.

It was launched by the Smart Dubai Office in partnership with UAE telecommunications operator EITC (du). The platform has been a fantastic success since its launch in 2017, and recently celebrated a major milestone with the Department of Economic Development (DED) successfully migrated all of their data centres and applications to the cloudbased platform. www.tahawultech.com

Mohammad Al Qaizi, Director of Information Technology in DED, said: “The successful migration to Dubai Pulse is a monumental step for the Department of Economic Development in supporting the structural transformation of Dubai into a diversified, innovative service-based economy.

We are thrilled to have du on board to enhance ease of business and customer happiness by fully integrating our operations on to the Dubai Pulse platform. Together we have achieved a milestone that will significantly contribute towards Dubai’s competitiveness and position as a preferred place to live and do business.”

Dubai Paperless Strategy: As aforementioned above Smart Dubai has been tasked with the responsibility of making Dubai not only one of the happiest cities on earth, but also one of the smartest.

They’ve embarked upon a wide range of pioneering initiatives, and one of their most innovative campaigns is their efforts to make Dubai completely paperless by 2021.

The Smart Dubai Office confirmed

35 that phase 1 of the project was completed at the end of 2018, and further projected that they’re well on track to reach their 2021 target.

In addition to this, Smart Dubai also predicted that the process will save up to 130,000 trees annually.

As of date, the Dubai Now application, which will host all the fully-digitised government services once the Dubai Paperless Strategy is completely implemented by 2021, has been downloaded over 900,000 times and has processes over 7 million transactions.

What sets smart cities apart is their ability to meet the needs of their citizens anywhere and at any time”

www.tahawultech.com

The CEO of Smart Dubai Government Establishment, H.E. Wesam Lootah said: “What sets smart cities apart is their ability to meet the needs of their citizens anywhere and at any time without having to visit the Government service centres. This is achieved by fully embracing and humanising advanced technologies.”

Dubai Now offers services under 11 categories - security and justice, transportation, payments and bills, visas and residency, motor vehicles, health, business and employment, education, housing, Islam, and miscellaneous. Soon Dubai Now will allow residents and visitors to access all Dubai government services through the application.

It allows customers to pay traffic fines, pay DEWA, Etisalat or du fees; top up Salik or Nol cards; locate the nearest vehicle registration centre; and many other tasks.

JUNE 2019

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‫مفضل للعيش وممارسة األعمال "‪.‬‬ ‫اسرتاتيجية دبي لالستغناء عن استخدام‬ ‫الورق‪:‬‬ ‫كما ُذكر أعاله ‪ ،‬تم تكليف‬ ‫دبي الذكية بمسؤولية جعل‬ ‫دبي ليست فقط واحدة‬ ‫من أسعد املدن عىل وجه‬ ‫األرض‪ ،‬ولكن ً‬ ‫أيضا واحدة‬ ‫من أذىك املدن‪.‬‬ ‫لقد شرعوا يف إطالق‬ ‫مجموعة واسعة من‬ ‫املبادرات الرائدة‪ ،‬وأحد‬ ‫أكرث حمالتهم ابتكارًا هي‬ ‫جهودهم الرامية إىل جعل‬ ‫دبي بال أوراق بالكامل‬ ‫بحلول عام ‪.2021‬‬

‫ما يميز المدن‬ ‫الذكية عن بعضها‬ ‫هو قدرتها على‬ ‫تلبية احتياجات‬ ‫مواطنيها في أي‬ ‫مكان وفي أي وقت‬

‫أكد مكتب دبي الذيك أن‬ ‫املرحلة األوىل من املشروع قد اكتملت يف نهاية‬

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‫عام ‪ ، 2018‬وتوقعوا كذلك أنهم يف طريقهم‬ ‫للوصول إىل هدف ‪ .2021‬باإلضافة إىل ذلك‪،‬‬ ‫تنبأت دبي الذكية ً‬ ‫أيضا بأن العملية ستوفر‬ ‫ما يصل إىل ‪130,000‬‬ ‫شجرة سنو ًيا‪.‬‬

‫ومنذ إطالقه وحتى‬ ‫اآلن‪ ،‬تم تنزيل تطبيق‬ ‫دبي اآلن‪ ،‬الذي‬ ‫سيستضيف جميع‬ ‫الخدمات الحكومية‬ ‫الرقمية بالكامل بمجرد‬ ‫تنفيذ اسرتاتيجية دبي‬ ‫الالورقية بالكامل بحلول‬ ‫عام ‪ ،2021‬أكرث من‬ ‫‪ 900000‬مرة وتمت‬ ‫معالجة أكرث من ‪7‬‬ ‫ماليني معاملة‪.‬‬

‫وقال وسام لوتاه‪،‬‬ ‫الرئيس التنفيذي ملؤسسة حكومة دبي‬

‫الذكية‪" :‬إن ما يميز املدن الذكية عن بعضها‬ ‫هو قدرتها عىل تلبية احتياجات مواطنيها يف‬ ‫أي مكان ويف أي وقت دون الحاجة إىل زيارة‬ ‫مراكز الخدمات الحكومية‪ .‬ويتحقق ذلك من‬ ‫خالل تبني التكنولوجيات املتقدمة وإضفاء‬ ‫الطابع اإلنساين الكامل عليها"‪.‬‬

‫تقدم دبي اآلن خدمات تحت ‪ 11‬فئة ‪ -‬األمن‬ ‫والعدالة‪ ،‬والنقل‪ ،‬واملدفوعات‪ ،‬والفواتري‪،‬‬ ‫والتأشريات‪ ،‬واإلقامة‪ ،‬والسيارات‪ ،‬والصحة‪،‬‬ ‫واألعمال التجارية والتوظيف‪ ،‬والتعليم‪،‬‬ ‫واإلسكان‪ ،‬واإلسالم‪ .‬وقريباً ستسمح دبي‬ ‫للمقيمني والزوار بالوصول إىل جميع‬ ‫الخدمات الحكومية يف دبي من خالل‬ ‫التطبيق‪.‬‬ ‫يسمح للعمالء بدفع غرامات املرور أو دفع‬ ‫رسوم هيئة كهرباء ومياه دبي أو اتصاالت أو‬ ‫دو؛ وتعبئة بطاقات سالك أو نول؛ وتحديد‬ ‫موقع أقرب مركز تسجيل املركبات؛ والعديد‬ ‫من املهام األخرى‪.‬‬

‫‪JUNE 2019‬‬

‫جوف تك‬ ‫دبي الذكية‬

‫المدينة‬ ‫األذكى‬ ‫معايل الدكتورة عائشة بنت بطي بن بشر‪،‬‬ ‫املدير العام لدبي الذكية‬

‫تعرفت مجلة ‪ CNME‬عن كثب عىل دبي الذكية‪،‬‬ ‫القوة رائدة التي تساعد مدينة دبي يف التحول إىل‬ ‫أذىك مدينة يف العالم‪.‬‬

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‫تحت إشراف وقيادة صاحب السمو الشيخ‬ ‫محمد بن راشد آل مكتوم ‪ ،‬نائب رئيس‬ ‫الدولة رئيس مجلس الوزراء حاكم دبي‪،‬‬ ‫أصبحت دبي املنارة املشرقة ملا يمكن تحقيقه‬ ‫إذا ما تم تبني التقنيات الناشئة بشكل‬ ‫مستمر‪ ،‬واملصممة بشكل أسايس لتغيري‬ ‫طريقة عيشنا وعملنا وتفاعلنا مع بعضنا‬ ‫البعض‪.‬‬

‫ال يمكن التقليل من أهمية التحول الذي‬ ‫شهدته دبي عىل مدى العقدين املاضيني‪،‬‬ ‫والذي يعترب الشاهد األكرب عىل دقة ونجاح‬ ‫رؤية وطموح الشيخ محمد لجعل دبي واحدة‬ ‫من أذىك املدن وأكرثها سعادة يف العالم‪.‬‬ ‫كانت دبي الذكية العباً رئيسياً يف تقدم دبي‬ ‫املستمر نحو تحقيق تلك األهداف الطموحة‪.‬‬

‫قامت دبي الذكية بإطالق مجموعة كاملة من‬ ‫املبادرات والربامج الرائدة تحت رعاية صاحبة‬ ‫السعادة الدكتورة عائشة بنت بطي بن بشر ‪،‬‬ ‫املدير العام لدبي الذكية‪ ،‬التي ال تزال ملتزمة‬

‫‪JUNE 2019‬‬

‫بثبات بتحقيق األهداف التي حددتها حكومة‬ ‫دبي‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫نجاحا ملحوظا منذ‬ ‫حقق مكتب دبي الذيك‬

‫إنشائه يف عام ‪ - 2015‬وقد طرح أكرث من‬ ‫‪ 137‬مبادرة و ‪ 1129‬خدمة ذكية تتيح لسكان‬ ‫املدينة الوصول إىل مرافقها املتطورة باستخدام‬ ‫أنظمة ذكية مرتابطة‪.‬‬ ‫نبض دبي‪:‬‬

‫نبض دبي هو العمود الفقري الرقمي الذي‬ ‫ً‬ ‫يدعم حركة املدينة الذكية وقد صمم خصيصا‬ ‫للمساعدة يف نشر السعادة بني جميع‬ ‫املقيمني يف دبي وزوارها‪.‬‬

‫تم إنشاء نظام التشغيل الرقمي من الجيل‬ ‫التايل لصالح األفراد والشركات والقطاع‬ ‫الخاص والحكومة‪ .‬حيث توفر هذه املنصة‬ ‫الفريدة مجموعات بيانات مفتوحة ومشرتكة‬ ‫من الجهات الحكومية‪ ،‬باإلضافة إىل‬ ‫إمكانيات حوسبة السحاب وإنرتنت األشياء‪.‬‬

‫وتم إطالق املنصة من قبل مكتب دبي الذكية‬ ‫بالشراكة مع شركة اإلمارات لالتصاالت‬ ‫نجاحا ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫رائعا منذ‬ ‫(‪ .)EITC‬وحققت املنصة‬ ‫إطالقها يف عام ‪ ،2017‬كما تم االحتفال‬ ‫مؤخرًا بإنجاز رئييس مع قيام وزارة التنمية‬ ‫االقتصادية (‪ )DED‬برتحيل جميع مراكز‬ ‫البيانات والتطبيقات الخاصة بها إىل النظام‬ ‫األسايس املستند إىل مجموعة النظراء‪.‬‬

‫ويقول محمد القييس‪ ،‬مدير تقنية املعلومات‬ ‫يف دائرة التنمية االقتصادية‪" :‬يعد االنتقال‬ ‫الناجح إىل نبض دبي خطوة هائلة بالنسبة‬ ‫لوزارة التنمية االقتصادية يف دعم التحول‬ ‫الهيكيل لدبي إىل اقتصاد متنوع قائم عىل‬ ‫الخدمات‪ .‬ويسرنا أن تكون شركة ‪ du‬عىل‬ ‫مشاركة معنا يف التحول لتعزيز سهولة‬ ‫العمل وسعادة العمالء من خالل دمج‬ ‫عملياتنا بالكامل يف منصة نبض دبي‪ .‬لقد‬ ‫حققنا ً‬ ‫ً‬ ‫معلما رئيسيًا من شأنه أن يساهم‬ ‫معا‬ ‫بشكل كبري يف تنافسيةومكانة دبي كمكان‬

‫‪www.tahawultech.com‬‬

INSIGHT Gartner

INNOVATE AND DISRUPT WITH EDGE AI GARTNER SENIOR DIRECTOR ANALYST MICHELLE DUERST BELIEVES AI AND EDGE COMPUTING CAN OFFER CONTINUED AND CONSISTENT GROWTH FOR BUSINESSES IN A TIME OF DISRUPTION.

38

W

Michelle Duerst, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner

JUNE 2019

hat if instead of opening the door to a delivery driver, customers used a mobile code to unlock a compartment in an autonomous vehicle? What if the hotel room knew you wanted an early wakeup call with a shower already started at a precise temperature? What if a robot could help those with limited mobility get out of a car? What if emerging technologies could change an entire business?

Shorter corporate lifespans and increasingly fast-paced emerging www.tahawultech.com

technologies force CIOs to constantly innovate and re-examine current uses for technology. Small, incremental changes to existing products are common, but true disruptors explore how technology like artificial intelligence (AI) and edge AI can offer continued and consistent growth.

“The combination of edge computing and AI provides significant opportunities to survive in an increasingly disruptive world,” says Michelle Duerst, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner. “Many executives do not understand how edge computing and AI can raise innovation capabilities, operational excellence and customer engagement.”

INNOVATE WITH EDGE AI Edge AI or AI at the edge is the use of AI techniques embedded in Internet of Things (IoT) endpoints, gateways and other devices computing data at the point of use. CIOs can leverage edge AI and edge computing with augmented and virtual reality, autonomous things, connected cards, digital twins, smart factories, geolocation sensors and visual image recognition. For the business it can raise innovation capabilities, operational excellence and customer engagement.

In 2017, Domino’s and Ford Motor Company actually developed a delivery system that uses autonomous vehicles to deliver pizzas. The system tracks the vehicles with GPS, notifies the customer on order progress and uses a mobile app to send a code to retrieve the food. The companies used edge AI to provide data, geolocation, predicted time frame and personalisation for the updates.

Edge AI enabled Domino’s and Ford to gather valuable insight www.tahawultech.com

into customer experiences ranging from whether customers minded walking outside for the pizza to if it made a difference if the car was in the driveway or at the curb. For Ford, success meant increased self-driving car sales and for Domino’s increased operating efficiency and improved customer experience.

DISRUPT WITH EDGE AI Recently, Marriott International partnered with Samsung and Legrand to use IoT and edge AI to create the world’s first IoTenabled hotel room.

The rooms are highly personalised in multiple locations, allowing customers to set up their rooms exactly as desired based on information stored in the app.

CIOs should begin to have conversations about innovation and emerging technologies with business units. To encourage innovation and outside-thebox thinking, try a “Yes, and” approach instead of a “Yes, but” outlook. Ask business-unit leaders to consider a few questions: 1. How the world is changing, and what are the impacts of those changes?

2. What is the customer experience like and what do customers want?

3. How can they increase personalisation?

4. Which are the best companies or organisations to partner with?

And the big question: How can our product, service or customers benefit from AI edge implementation?

For Japanese carmaker Toyota, the innovation started with existing technology. As car sales in Japan decline, and the need for healthcare options for an aging population increases, Toyota realised it could leverage existing AI edge robotics designed for car manufacturing to assist people with limited mobility.

The company created the Welwalk WW-1000, a wearable robotic leg brace that enables people with partial paralysis to walk, and Project BLAID, which helps those who are blind or low vision gain better environmental awareness. In addition, Toyota is still dedicated to autonomous car development, committing $1 billion to a robotics and AI research center.

Domino’s, Ford, Marriott and Toyota invested significantly in edge AI, but organisations can opt to innovate on a smaller scale. For example, insurance companies have started using drones to assess roof damage. It’s a much smaller investment, but one with a potentially large impact on the business. No matter the size of the initial investment, organisations should look outside traditional models and industries and decide how to best leverage edge AI.

To encourage innovation and outside-the-box thinking, try a “Yes, and” approach instead of a “Yes, but” outlook.

JUNE 2019

39

INSIGHT Veeam

MITIGATING THE RISKS OF MULTI-CLOUD VEEAM MIDDLE EAST REGIONAL HEAD CLAUDE SCHUCK EXPLAINS HOW BUSINESSES CAN SUCCESSFULLY USE MULTICLOUD TO POWER THEIR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION.

40

T Claude Schuck, Regional Head Middle East, Veeam

JUNE 2019

he ways businesses leverage cloud to manage and maximise the value of their data continue to evolve. The years when adopting cloud-based solutions felt like the first step into some brave new world may be behind us, but with every new cloud-consumption model comes new questions. Multicloud, the current variation of cloud deployment, is attracting attention, questions and scepticism from businesses. www.tahawultech.com

Whereas a hybrid cloud is a single entity, an amalgamation of a private cloud with public cloud environments, multi-cloud simply includes multiple clouds. It is a nod towards the fact that businesses are increasingly using different clouds for different purposes. In today’s digital economy, 81% of enterprises are embracing a multi-cloud strategy.

It is common for the IT industry to promote the idea of a one-stop shop model – a single point of failure – to avoid the perceived inefficiency and confusion of dealing with multiple vendors and cloud service providers (CSPs). Data is now described as the oil of the digital economy, a company’s most valuable resource, so as businesses demand an infrastructure which maximises the potential value of that data, IT departments are under pressure to deliver.

For example, a business may wish to store data from its fastest growing business unit in Google Cloud for scalability at relatively low expense but use AWS for its R&D databases to enjoy the benefits of AI and voiceassisted search. Whereas previously the only viable decision for the business would have been to make a judgment call based on its priority needs and budget constraints, the best strategic option is now to adopt a multi-cloud approach.

DATA-DRIVEN TRANSFORMATION There is a movement from organisations to become more data-driven, with business leaders recognising the importance of data in both high-level business strategy and operational decisionmaking. Furthermore, consumers and employees are beginning to www.tahawultech.com

appreciate the true value of their data, which means businesses must ensure that the people who share data with them see the value in doing so through receiving more personalised experiences. People want to know that their data is protected and is secure, but they also want greater transparency about what it is being used for.

Creating this data-driven culture is underpinned by continuous digital transformation – embracing the latest and greatest technologies which allow the business to repeatedly lift its performance levels. According to Gartner’s 2018 CIO Agenda report, making progress towards becoming

Data is akin to running water” a digital business is a top priority for CIOs – and the proliferation towards multi-cloud reflects this trend.

Despite this, the latest Veeam Availability Report reveals that two thirds of senior IT leaders admit their digital transformation has been held back by unplanned downtime. And successful multicloud deployments depend on the availability of all apps and data, at all times. So, businesses looking to take advantage of multi-cloud environments must ensure that their apps and data are always available – and that their culture of data-driven decision-making is fully supported to maintain customer confidence and brand reputation.

AVAILABILITY IN THE MULTICLOUD The complexity of maintaining availability within a multi-cloud environment is the reliance on multiple CSPs. While all major vendors and CSPs will make backup and disaster recovery (DR) solutions available to their customers, each provider has different protocols, service level agreements (SLAs) and capabilities; and the last thing any business wants to hear when disaster strikes is that they are not adequately protected or that recovery has failed.

While no business, regardless of whether it is using multi-cloud or not, can guarantee that it will never experience unplanned downtime, every business can ensure that it is prepared for this possibility.

Therefore, businesses opting for multi-cloud need to ensure that they have an availability solution which sits cross their entire cloud provision, making cloud data protection easy with a seamless process for sending data offsite to the cloud. As well as a reliable backup and DR solution which is interoperable with all major CSP solutions, the platform should provide businesses with full visibility of data availability across their entire multicloud infrastructure.

For businesses using multi-cloud to power their digital transformation in the bid to establish a more datadriven culture across the organisation, data is akin to running water – a utility which all rely on and must be available at all times. Businesses embracing multi-cloud should not be put off by the prospect of working with multiple vendors as certain software-based platforms can give the peace of mind and a turnkey solution to minimising downtime.

JUNE 2019

41

OPINION Site24x7

ESTABLISHING A UNIFIED APPROACH TO IT DEVELOPMENT 42

SITE24X7 PRODUCT MANAGER RAJALAKSHMI SRINIVASAN GIVES HER TAKE ON WHY A DEVOPS CULTURE WITH A CHOICE OF A SINGLE-VENDOR APPROACH FOR UNIFIED MONITORING IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS.

T

oday, the web is not only popular with customers, it has also become the most complex and challenging environment for businesses. After the arrival of Web 2.0, which provided interactive, content-rich internet, customers have grown to expect a certain agility and speed in their online experience, meaning any minor lag can cause steep losses for businesses.

“Slow is the new down” for online businesses. According to Kissmetrics, as many as 47% of

JUNE 2019

online customers expect a web page to load in two seconds or less, and 52% of customers say they remain loyal to the site that loads the fastest. Further, a majority of customers abandon a website or app that takes more than three seconds to load, with 79% of customers never returning to a slow site after a bad experience.

On top of this, around 43% of customers who encounter a bad experience while shopping online tell their friends and family about it.

All of this highlights the implications

your website’s performance has on your business.

Businesses of all sizes have a lot to lose, as every second of delay can lose a business customers—a one percent delay in website loading time can equate to losing seven percent of customers. In late 2018, many users were frustrated when Google services went down. The same year, Barclays made the news for a service outage, a costly incident for any financial organisation. During Black Friday sales—a peak sales period for many businesses in the retail www.tahawultech.com

Slow is the new down for online businesses.”

Rajalakshmi Srinivasan, Product Manager, Site24x7

industry—Facebook’s ad platform suffered an outage. This sparked conversation about what it takes to ensure an uninterrupted, smooth, and fluid user experience.

The key to quickly fixing delays like these lies in establishing a unified approach to IT development and operations, called DevOps. Many companies over the years have accumulated a part-cloud, partlegacy, multi-vendor IT hodgepodge that needs to be addressed first.

Old-school IT development offers a clear separation between www.tahawultech.com

development and operation teams in terms of skill and engagement.

Modern IT, however, relies on merging the two, creating a new path known as DevOps. An engineer on this merged path will be capable of not only writing code and deploying it, but also running it, fixing problems, and providing analysis.

At the organisational level, companies should holistically revamp their IT infrastructure to suit a DevOps approach. Using multiple IT solution vendors complicates the entire workflow rather than

simplifying it. 12 major reasons for IT failure include: handling multiple, complex invoices; a myriad of billing cycles; multiple logins; multiple interfaces—or the lack of a unified one; complexities in both security breaches and the IT solutions built to mitigate them; rising training costs; tough access controls; data teething problems; vested interests; legacy IT; hidden costs; IT solutions vendors going out of business.

To address the challenges across user, application, platform, and infrastructure layers, businesses need to take a unified approach to IT, which will help DevOps achieve more uptime and better performance.

Software is not about how well each layer of the stack works individually, but how well each layer works together to ensure a better end-user experience. IT teams need an all-in-one monitoring solution that can monitor all layers of the full stack, so that everything they need is available in one place. This is why fostering a DevOps culture with a choice of a single-vendor approach for unified monitoring is the recipe for success.

JUNE 2019

43

OPINION Mark Forker

WHO HAS ‘TRUMP’ CARD IN TECH TRADE WAR BETWEEN US AND CHINA?

44

CNME NEW EDITOR MARK FORKER BREAKS DOWN THE ONGOING TRADE WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA BY EXPLORING THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE DISPUTE.

T

he ongoing trade war between the United States and China shows no signs of reaching a resolution as negotiations between the two global economic superpowers remains deadlocked.

However, the topic of technology has now temporarily displaced the thorny subject of tariffs as the main currency in the dialogue between officials in Beijing and Washington, with the US, launching an aggressive offensive against major technology players in China.

JUNE 2019

HUAWEI: Chinese ICT behemoth Huawei is recognized globally as being the leading telecommunications vendor in the development of 5G, with its cutting-edge innovations positioning the technology thoughtleader ahead of its major rivals such as Ericsson, Nokia and ZTE. Huawei is the go-to player for the world’s major communication service providers, but Machiavellian tactics from US authorities is threatening to thwart Huawei’s ability to execute its 5G objectives and aspirations.

US intelligence agencies have deemed Huawei a risk to national security, and as a result the ICT vendor has been banned from the US market following the signing of an executive order by the Trump administration. In addition to this, US companies have been prohibited from buying or selling components or equipment from Huawei.

The US has thus far failed to produce any evidence which indicates that Huawei has engaged in acts of espionage against the www.tahawultech.com

Mark Forker, CNME Editor

United States, and many analysts in the ICT sector have described the treatment of Huawei by the US government as a ‘witch-hunt’.

The incessant smear campaign by the US against Huawei has unsurprisingly triggered an angry response from China, who have claimed that Huawei is being used as a pawn in a bitter trade war between the two countries.

US President Donald Trump has said that Huawei may be part of a future trade deal in a statement that all but confirmed Chinese www.tahawultech.com

Huawei is the go-to player for the world’s major communication service providers, but Machiavellian tactics from US authorities is threatening to thwart Huawei’s ability to execute its 5G objectives and aspirations.”

suspicions that the ICT vendor was being used by US negotiators as part of an effort to force Beijing to bow down to Washington’s demands on tariffs.

Addressing questions about the impact of the White House’s recent executive order, Huawei CEO and Founder Ren Zhengfei said, “What the US will do is out of our control.

To us, the most important thing is to do our job well. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the US companies that we work with. Over these 30

years, they have helped us to grow into what we are today. They have made many contributions to us. As you know, most of the companies that provide consulting services to Huawei are based in the US, including dozens of companies like IBM and Accenture. In the face of the recent crisis, I can feel these companies’ sense of justice and sympathy towards us.”

CHINA MOBILE/FCC: However, Huawei isn’t the only Chinese company that has been JUNE 2019

45

OPINION Mark Forker

46

blackballed by US decisionmakers. The world’s largest telecommunications operator China Mobile, has been engaged in a protracted battle with US regulators in a bid to gain access to the US market.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted unanimously to reject China Mobile’s application to sell phone services in the United States. The chairman of the US regulator Ajit Pai, commented that granting the application would not serve in the best interests of the American public, once again alluding to JUNE 2019

security concerns surrounding Chinese ICT companies.

Pai said, “Granting China Mobile’s application would not be in the public interest. There is a significant risk that the Chinese government would use China Mobile to conduct activities that would seriously jeopardize the national security, law enforcement, and economic interests of the United States.”

APPLE: US smartphone manufacturing colossus Apple has already been affected by increased tariffs that have been imposed on the

multinational conglomerate due to the ongoing trade war between the US and China, but could it get worse?

A series of ICT commentators have predicted that Chinese officials may target Apple as a form of retaliation to the harsh treatment Huawei has been subjected to by the United States.

Apple’s stock has nosedived because of the trade war, and the company had its worst shares performance of 2019 last month.

Sales in China made up 16.6% of Apple’s revenue in the first half of 2019, which is down from 20% in the same period last year. www.tahawultech.com

Apple’s stock has nosedived because of the trade war, and the company had its worst shares performance of 2019 last month. Sales in China made up 16.6% of Apple’s revenue in the first half of 2019, which is down from 20% in the same period last year.”

If China does to decide to hammer Apple with additional operating costs it may have devastating financial consequences for the US firm. However, Apple CEO Tim Cook, has moved to dispel any fears amongst its shareholders that the situation in China will escalate, by pointing to the company’s long-standing relationship with the country, and that any increased tariffs would hurt China more than anyone else.

Cook said, “Sure it would hurt sales. I’m hoping that doesn’t happen. And I don’t anticipate it happening. I know people think www.tahawultech.com

the iPhone is made in China. The iPhone is assembled in China.

The truth is, the iPhone is made everywhere. It’s made everywhere, and so a tariff on the iPhone would hurt a lot of countries, but the one that would be hurt the most is-this one. I believe, there is a healthy level of respect between both sides, so I don’t anticipate increased tariffs from happening. But I’m not promising that it will not, but I don’t anticipate it.”

WHAT’S NEXT? Whether or not China will adopt a similar approach to that of

the US towards Apple remains unclear. The US has sent lobbyists to encourage countries such as Australia and New Zealand to exclude Huawei from their 5G programs and is initiating a similar campaign in Europe. However, thus far European operators have ignored warnings from the US - and have insisted Huawei will play a major role in the buildout of 5G on the continent.

Technology has now been cast center stage in the negotiations between the US and China, and Apple and Huawei are now both reluctantly playing starring roles in this dispute.

How this plays out is anyone’s guess, some in the US believe they have the ‘Trump’ card, but China is well equipped to deal with a US onslaught, and may well decide to take a bite out of Apple.

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REVIEW HONOR

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REVIEW:

HONOR 10I GIORGIA GUANTARIO TRIES OUT THE NEW ADDITION TO HONOR’S BUDGET PHONE PORTFOLIO, AND BELIEVES ITS PHOTOGRAPHIC CAPABILITIES ARE A CLEAR GAME CHANGER IN THE MID-RANGE MARKET.

JUNE 2019

www.tahawultech.com

N

owadays it’s very hard to stand out in the budget phones market with so many devices being released every month, but Huawei’s sub-brand HONOR aims to do just that with its latest release, the HONOR 10i.

The newest addition to HONOR’s line up arrives just months from the release of the HONOR 10 Lite, and although very similar to its predecessor, the triple-lens camera setup really brings it home for the Chinese brand.

Clearly aimed at a millennials’ audience, the phone’s stylish gradient design is a nice addition to the HONOR 10 Lite. The HONOR 10i features a 19.5:9 borderless Full HD+ display with over 90% screen-to-body ratio thanks to the very small notch where the 32MP AI front camera sits.

Although fairly big (154.8 x 73.64 x 7.95 mm), the phone is very light and has a comfy in-hand feels due to its plastic built.

Flipping over to the back, the triple camera stands out on the top left, while a very responsive fingerprint sensor sits in the middle and a 3.5mm headphone jack, USB-C connector and an average speaker sitting at the bottom.

www.tahawultech.com

Following from its predecessor, the HONOR 10i still relies on the Kirin 710 chipset with 4GB of RAM. While a change would have been nice, especially as in the mid-range processor market the Snapdragon 660 wins the race, the Kirin 710 still does the job very well.

The HONOR 10 Lite 64GB storage has been improved to a whopping 128GB, with the same expandable memory capacity of up to 512GB. As mentioned previously, HONOR 10i’s real game changer can be found in its photographic capabilities. The 24MP AI triple-lens rear camera with F/1.8 aperture and 1.8um ISO enhancement effortlessly captures sharp photos.

Overall, the camera performs much better in the daylight, with indoors and night time shots losing some details. The camera features a 0.6X-6X zoom, with a slight loss in sharpness when it comes to close ups, and a 120° 17mm ultra-wide angle lens to capture bigger scenes.

The AI multi-scene recognition is very impressive, with 22 categories of objects and more than 500 recognisable scenarios to apply the best settings to your shots.

The other value proposition of the HONOR 10i is its 32MP front camera.

Equipped with AI “Beautification”, which includes skin tone adjustment, acne removal, face slimming, eye enlargement and much more, the selfie camera can pretty much substitute any photo apps to improve your selfie game. Upon trying it, the selfies resulted a bit too fabricated for my taste, but its range of features are quite impressive and undeniably very appealing to a younger audience.

When faced with everyday use, the phone performed very well. Several open tabs and some hardcode gaming didn’t result in overheating nor it slowed down the device, which was a very pleasant surprise. The battery life is also quite decent, lasting on average a full day.

The smartphone is available in three colours, Phantom Blue, Phantom Red and the more classic Midnight Black, and is priced at AED 999, making the only phone under AED 1000 with a triple camera.

Overall, the HONOR 10i is great value for money, hitting all the right spots to stand out in the market and be a great success within its target audience thanks to its outstanding - and I might add, pretty cool - photographic capabilities.

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COLUMN Glesni Holland

New heights 50

T

he race to 5G has just reached new heights, following Etisalat’s launch of the first 5G-enabled smartphone in the UAE market late last month. The ZTE Axon 10 Pro is now available to access the new network, and all customers will be able to use existing data packs on the 5G network, according to the UAE telco.

5G is not just about faster internet speeds. It also offers lower latency than 4G connections, meaning less of a delay between sending a request and getting a response.

In addition, the network will enable real time video streaming, better gaming experiences and augmented reality on devices – all for a hefty price tag of more than AED 5,555.

But despite this latest move by Etisalat, competition to stay ahead in the seemingly never-ending race to 5G is as rife as ever. UAEbased du has announced that a

JUNE 2019

select group of customers who preregistered will receive the Axon Pro 10 handset for free, following the rival telco’s first-ever data call over the 5G network last month.

For many, this promise of an enhanced network on the horizon may sound familiar. Those who remember the auction of 3G spectrum in the late 1990s and early 2000s will know that at the time, eager telecommunications operators bid huge sums for new 3G spectrum in the expectation of large increases in demand for mobile internet services; but the essential technologies underpinning mobile internet delivery were unfortunately severely under-developed.

And it appears that this new network is by no means faultless.

While regional telcos are expediting their 5G efforts, issues such as poor network coverage in remote areas may still pose a problem – especially while the technology remains in

its nascent stage. In addition, the premium price tag attached to accessing the new network comes at a significant increase compared with products on the market today, with the Axon Pro 10 coming in at over AED 1,000 more than any other high-end smartphone.

Despite this, the more obvious improvements over the current 4G standard can be described with a degree of certainty. Branded as “the main nerve of major digital transformations” in the region by the TRA, the promise of higher coverage, density and availability of mobile services is just one side of the story. This in turn will allow for more devices to operate in a given area while downloading and uploading significantly more data, making way for plans such as the RTA’s self-driving vehicles and Etisalat’s 5G robotic surgery – where anything less than instantaneous transmission and reception could have disastrous consequences. www.tahawultech.com