ISSUE 330 | SEPTEMBER 2019 TAHAWULTECH.COM
SALESFORCE REGIONAL VP RIVERBED REGIONAL PRESALES DIRECTOR MENA VERITAS REGIONAL VP EMERGING REGION AVAYA VP AND CTO
EMPOWERING HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT INJAZAT DATA SYSTEMS OUTLINE HOW THEY’RE HELPING ENTERPRISES DEAL WITH THE CHALLENGES OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
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The acquisition of Tableau by Salesforce has been described as a ‘gamechanger’”
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ur cover story interview in September’s edition of CNME was with Mohamed Al Qubaisi, Chief Technology Officer at Injazat Data Systems, who articulately outlined how the company was helping enterprises deal with the challenges they face when embracing disruptive new technologies. The acquisition of Tableau by Salesforce has been described as a ‘gamechanger’ by experts within the IT ecosystem who believe the megadeal will now equip the global CRM leader with the tools to really compete with industry behemoths such as Microsoft and Google. I spoke to Thierry Nicault, Regional VP at Salesforce to find out how the company has maintained its status as the market incumbent in CRM – and how it is has implemented technologies such as AI and Blockchain into its existing product portfolio. We also had a fascinating discussion with Dr. Jassim Haji, President of the AI Society in Bahrain. Dr. Haji highlighted how the country is adopting an ambitious and progressive approach towards AI in its attempts to become a regional leader in AI. In addition to this, we also conducted interviews with SAS, Riverbed and Avaya. This month we’re hosting the third edition of CPI’s Evolve Digital Transformation Forum at Emirates Towers on Tuesday, September 10th. We’re bringing together some of the industry’s leading experts from the IT sector and technology leaders in the Middle East to discuss everything from AI, Big Data and Cybersecurity. We’ll have full coverage from what promises to be a fantastic conference in October’s edition of CNME. Mark Forker Editor
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CONTENTS
Advanced Computing Partner
Digital Innovation Partner
ISSUE 330 | SEPTEMBER 2019
26 Injazat CTO
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RIVERBED
News CNME rounds up the biggest regional and global developments in enterprise technology, including the announcement of Amazon.ae, the partnership between DEWA and Huawei and the first-ever Emirati astronaut in space.
Raif Abou Diab, Managing Director - Gulf and Levant at HPE, discusses how HPE is helping the private and public sector move forward in their digital transformation strategy.
20 CrowdStrike metric
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GOVTECH: AVAYA
customers to gain visibility into ‘dark data’
BMB streamlines its operations through cloud technology Ramesh Ramiah, Head of IT at Baklawa Made Better (BMB) reveals how the firm’s migration to cloud has helped improve business operations and its ROI.
AI leader
CNME spoke to Rawad Sarieddine, Senior Director at CrowdStrike, to find out how its new metric is empowering enterprises with an ability to detect real-time threats.
FOUNDER, CPI MEDIA GROUP Dominic De Sousa (1959-2015)
Jassim Haji, President of the Bahrain AI Society, explains how it aims to make Bahrain the region’s leading force in terms of AI development.
Published by
Publishing Director Natasha Pendleton natasha.pendleton@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9139
EDITORIAL Editor Mark Forker mark.forker@cpimediagroup.com +971 4440 9153
PRODUCTION AND DESIGN Senior Designer Analou Balbero analou.balbero@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5680
ADVERTISING Group Sales Director Kausar Syed kausar.syed@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9138
Deputy Editor Giorgia Guantario giorgia.guantario@cpimediagroup.com +971 4440 9146
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Online Editor Adelle Geronimo adelle.geronimo@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9135
Operations Manager Cherylann D’Abreo cherylann.dabreo@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9107
Senior Sales Manager Sabita Miranda sabita.miranda@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9128
Johnny Karam, Regional Vice President, Emerging Region at Veritas, examines the key issues facing many enterprises when it comes to data management.
34 Bahrain aiming to become
enabling enterprises to detect real-time threats
30 Veritas platform enabling
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Transforming society through technology
SALESFORCE
DIGITAL SERVICES Web Developer Jefferson de Joya Abbas Madh
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NEWS
DEWA AND HUAWEI COLLABORATE TO BOOST AI AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
(LtoR) Charles Yang, Huawei and Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, DEWA
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The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) and Huawei have held a strategic summit focused on increasing cooperation on investments and exchanging insights on best practices in innovation, disruptive technologies, smart grids, digital
transformation, automation, cloud platforms, and artificial intelligence (AI). The summit was attended by Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Managing Director and CEO of DEWA, and Charles Yang, President of the Middle East Region at Huawei Technologies.
The event witnessed the launch of a joint AI laboratory, through which DEWA and Huawei will develop and implement AI digital services for the Middle East. “This summit today with Huawei confirms our serious and ongoing work to speed up a new digital future for Dubai. This is done by making use of Huawei’s skills in major areas that support the Dubai 10x initiative,” said Al Tayer. The two sides also launched a training and development programme for DEWA staff in different areas of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and disruptive technologies. “Huawei is leading 5G, AI and cloud computing technologies, and we have the capability to help DEWA build an AI-based digital cloud platform,” said Yang.
SAMSUNG AND MICROSOFT ANNOUNCE COLLABORATION AGREEMENT
Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft
South Korean electronics conglomerate Samsung is partnering with US software behemoth Microsoft in a bid to take on Apple. The collaboration agreement was announced at the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 launch, with the two companies showcasing a selection of new applications and services that SEPTEMBER 2019
are specifically designed to bring Samsung hardware and Microsoft software closer than ever before. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said, “From calls and text messages to e-mails and photos, we’re making these everyday experiences great and the interactions between all the devices seamless. This is a new chapter of our long-term commitment to improve productivity and eliminate the gap between mobile devices and the PC.” ICT experts have claimed the agreement between Samsung and Apple is fundamentally designed to take on Apple’s existing stance on marrying software and hardware, which ultimately enables users to seamlessly sync files between
iOS devices and macOS laptops and computers due to their shared ecosystem. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella concluded by expressing his excitement at the new partnership, and believes that the companies shared ideals in terms of innovation and creativity will ultimately ensure the collaboration is a successful one. Nadella said, Samsung share a long history of innovation and collaboration, and today’s announcements mark the next stage in our partnership. Our ambition is to help people be more productive on any device, anywhere – and the combination of our intelligent experiences with Samsung’s powerful, new devices makes this a reality.” www.tahawultech.com
HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE (HPE) EXPANDS PARTNERSHIP WITH QUMULO TO THE MIDDLE EAST REGION HPE and Qumulo are strengthening their Partnership in the Middle East, allowing enterprise customers to purchase complete, validated HPE and Qumulo solutions directly from HPE and its resellers. This partnership is a result of rising interest from enterprises across a variety of industries from media and entertainment, life sciences, oil and gas, and others. Qumulo is the pioneer and leader in file storage for the modern era. The company gives data-intensive
Morad Qutqut, CTO, HPE Middle East
businesses the freedom to store, manage, and access petabytes of data at a global scale. Qumulo’s software is the same on-prem or in the cloud, making the transition for organizations seamless and easy, eliminating the need to reconfigure applications or retrain users “HPE resellers and distributors can directly configure and price Qumulo products through HPE tools, and they have access to many technical and marketing collaterals that can facilitate
VIRGIN HYPERLOOP ONE TO BUILD WORLD’S FIRST LONG-RANGE TEST TRACK IN SAUDI ARABIA
Virgin Hyperloop One has announced a development partnership with the Saudi Arabia’s Economic City Authority (ECA) to conduct a study to build the world’s longest test and certification hyperloop track, as well as a research and development center and hyperloop manufacturing facility www.tahawultech.com
north of Jeddah. The partnership was announced at Virgin Hyperloop One’s Los Angeles headquarters during a visit from a senior delegation of Saudia Arabia’s Economic City Authority, led by SecretaryGeneral Mohanud A. Helal. The study will focus on King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), located 100 kilometers north of the Red Sea port of Jeddah. The project, which would include a 35-kilometer test and certification track, will create opportunities for the development of specific hyperloop technologies
Kinda Baydoun, Channel and Alliances Manager, HPE Middle East
their engagement with customers”, says Kinda Baydoun, Channel and Alliances Manager, HPE Middle East. Morad Qutqut, CTO, HPE Middle East, added: “This partnership will complement HPE storage solutions to serve the data-driven enterprises, with this comprehensive solutions customers will be able to build intelligent platforms that will unlock the value of their data as a key piller for their digital transformation journey.”
and develop local expertise in Saudi Arabia which be commercialised and scaled. The study will also facilitate the development of localized hyperloop supply chains and the acceleration of innovation clusters across the Kingdom. “Our partnership with Virgin Hyperloop One is a matter of pride for us and all of Saudi Arabia,” said Secretary General Mohanud A. Helal. “As we continue to help deliver the strategic pillars of Vision 2030, technology transfer and high-tech job creation opportunities that this relationship will bring are fundamental to our progress as a nation and our efforts to create opportunities for our bright young people. Having hyperloop at King Abdullah Economic City is going to act as a catalyst for a Saudi Silicon Valley effect and galvanize our software development, high technology research, and manufacturing industries,” he added. SEPTEMBER 2019
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NEWS
RTA ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH CAREEM
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The Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has officially announced its latest partnership with the homegrown ride-hailing service firm Careem. Under the partnership, the two organisations will combine advanced technologies with RTA’s industry knowledge. The new company, Hala, is the
newest way to book a Dubai Taxi. Via the Careem app, it enables customers to ride at the touch of a button. PTA’s Bahrozyan has confirmed that the official launch of Hala reflects RTA’s commitment to the directions and aspirations of Dubai Government in the digital transformation of all
services, especially in the field of mobility in the Emirate of Dubai. Careem’s e-hailing system has been integrated with RTA’s taxi management systems. Drivers have been trained on receiving e-hailing requests from customers and new relevant concepts associated with this advanced service. Bassel Al Nahlaoui, managing director, Careem Gulf and Pakistan, said, “We are very excited to see Hala officially launch today. It is a milestone moment for the industry, with the public and private sectors coming together to bring ride hailing tech to everyday taxis. Residents and visitors of Dubai will now be able to find the closest Dubai Taxi to them on demand, see a fare estimate and time of arrival before booking their ride and connect their credit card for easy, hassle free payment via the Careem app. We look forward to seeing Hala becoming a much-loved addition to the app.”
FIRST-EVER EMIRATI ASTRONAUT TO GO INTO SPACE
The UAE is set to make history on 25th September, when the nation’s first-ever astronaut Hazza Al Mansoori takes off to space for his mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Al Mansoori will enter space onboard the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft SEPTEMBER 2019
from the Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on 25th September 17:56 (UAE time) as part of his eight-day space tour, according to a report by WAM. Following more than 1,400 hours of training and 90 courses within a year, Al Mansoori will carry out 16 scientific
experiments in cooperation with international space agencies, making the UAE the 19th country to get a foothold on the ISS and contribute to scientific research. In addition, the Emirati astronaut will be the first in history to conduct an introductory tour in Arabic at the ISS. Salem Al Marri, assistant director general, Science and Technology Sector and Head of UAE Astronaut Programme, told WAM that the mission to space aims to inspire the nation’s next generation. “The ultimate value of the mission is to contribute to the enrichment of scientific progress in the UAE and make further achievements in the space, science, and research industry, to serve the ambitious aspirations to be one of the leading countries in the space industry and its science and technology.” www.tahawultech.com
TOSHIBA ADDS 16TB CAPACITY TO N300 AND X300 SERIES Toshiba Gulf announced the addition of new 16TB helium-sealed models to both the N300 and X300 Series. The 16TB models offer 14% more capacity than 14TB models. The 16TB models also double the buffer size of the 14TB models, increasing from 256MB to 512MB. The 16TB N300 and X300 Series utilize a 9-disk helium-sealed design, delivering increased storage density with a lower hard drive operating power profile. Toshiba’s laser welding technology and case design keep the helium securely sealed inside an industry-standard 3.5-inch drive enclosure. “Toshiba’s 16TB N300 and X300 deliver new levels of storage capacity and density while offering improved power efficiency utilizing our advanced helium-sealed
design,” says Hirohisa Fujiki, Senior Manager of Storage Products Sales & Marketing Division at Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation. “The 16TB N300 and X300 show Toshiba’s commitment to advancing HDD design to meet the evolving storage needs for performance, gaming, and small office NAS applications. As file size continues to grow, the 16TB capacity will enable both gamers and NAS users to efficiently store and access large amounts of data.” The N300 Series is ideal for applications like home office and small business NAS and private cloud storage, with up to eight drive bays supported. Designed for 24/7 operation, the N300 Series has a
workload rating of up to 180TB/ year, 7200rpm performance and integrated sensors to compensate for rotational vibrations.
EVENT Emircom
EMIRCOM BRINGS INDUSTRY LEADERS TOGETHER FOR DISCUSSION ON CLOUD ORCHESTRATION 10
CNME ATTENDED EMIRCOM’S CLOUD ORCHESTRATION CONFERENCE, WHERE INDUSTRY EXPERTS DISCUSSED THE CURRENT OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES WITHIN THE COMPLEX CLOUD ECOSYSTEM.
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mircom, one of the leading ICT solution providers in the Middle East, attracted some of the industry’s keydecisionmakers and senior figures to its cloud orchestration conference which was held at the stunning Caesars Bluewaters Hotel on July 30th. Emircom, which recently announced that it has been honored with Titanium Partner status by Dell Technologies, used the forum as an opportunity to explore the current opportunities and challenges within the complex cloud ecosystem. The ICT leader in partnership with Dell EMC and VMware delivered a
SEPTEMBER 2019
forensic analysis on a diverse range of topics which included multi-cloud strategy, scale-out solutions for unstructured data, and the benefits of modernizing your data center. Those in attendance were presented with a series of fascinating and in-depth insights which highlighted how multi-cloud strategies perused by enterprises are empowering digital transformation and driving the adoption of infrastructure as a service. The experts at the event stressed that one of the most important things the industry needs to do is to shift its focus towards an elastic infrastructure which allows businesses to pool their
resources together and enhance the services they deliver. Some of these services include infrastructure as a service, platform as a service - which is more focused towards developers and developing applications - and finally software as a service, which is more focused around consumers. It was noted that there is a significant shift towards hybridcloud from within the industry as enterprises seek to develop their own self-service methods and increase their reliance on cloud services to improve the way they consume applications. It was also highlighted that there is a strong demand for managed www.tahawultech.com
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services and cloud co-location services as both governments organizations and financial institutions want to have a private cloud model but usually lack the inhouse expertise. The audience also discussed how customers have started to consume cloud services from different smaller providers, not relying solely on the traditional leaders such Amazon, Microsoft Azure, IBM or HP. Finally, recent findings unearthed by Gartner following a comprehensive report were also discussed. The dominance of mega-vendors in the public cloud services market is behind the main reason that enterprise www.tahawultech.com
buyers choose multiple cloud providers, says Michael Warrilow, VP Analyst, Gartner. “Most organizations adopt a multicloud strategy out of a desire to avoid vendor lock-in or to take advantage of best-of-breed solutions,” he says. “We expect that most large organizations will continue to willfully pursue this approach.” Gartner predicts that the 10 biggest public cloud providers will command, at a minimum, half of the total public cloud market until at least 2023. The report also seemed to suggest that it was impossible for an enterprise to maintain a consistent quality if it chose to use the services
of two or more cloud providers. Gartner’s report discovered that 80% of the customers they surveyed disclosed that they are speaking to two or more cloud providers. The consensus from the room was that it was indeed almost impossible to maintain consistency with two or more suppliers, and that it was imperative for IT decision makers to choose the right partners for cloud services, system integration and managed services. The conference was an all-round success for Emircom, its partners and its customers, and it solidified its standing as a key ICT solutions provider in the Middle East. SEPTEMBER 2019
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Thierry Nicault, Regional Vice President, EMEA at Salesforce
SEPTEMBER 2019
www.tahawultech.com
INTERVIEW Salesforce
SALESFORCE CONTINUES TO DEMOCRATISE TECHNOLOGY CNME EDITOR MARK FORKER SAT DOWN WITH THIERRY NICAULT, REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT, EMEA AT SALESFORCE TO FIND OUT HOW THE GLOBAL LEADER IN CRM IS IMPLEMENTING EMERGING AND DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES SUCH AS BLOCKCHAIN AND AI TO ITS EXISTING PLATFORMS.
We’re democratising technology for all companies, whether they’re small, medium or large.”
www.tahawultech.com
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AN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THE FIRST LOWCODE BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM FOR CRM THAT HAS BEEN INTRODUCED BY SALESFORCE? HOW WILL THIS BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY ENABLE YOUR CUSTOMERS TO INCREASE TRUST, TRANSPARENCY AND SPEED OF BUSINESS? Blockchain is a big buzzword, but behind the scene there is a technology. Salesforce is continuing to democratise technology by making this new announcement on blockchain. Blockchain based on Salesforce means that more people
will be able to consume blockchain applications, which brings distributed trust across a network of stakeholders that needs to have the same view of the same data. In addition to this, it brings traceability which can help with compliance in some industries. The problem in today’s digital world is not only the risk of stealing data, but in fact changing data. Blockchain can help enterprises cope with that challenge. At Salesforce we decided it was time to help companies gain faster access to that technology because it brings so much value for a variety of different stakeholders and industries. We’ve got a track record of SEPTEMBER 2019
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INTERVIEW Salesforce
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democratising technology, we did it first with the cloud. Cloud was accessible in the enterprise software for the first time with Salesforce. It’s in our DNA to take technologies that are complex and deliver them to enterprises in an affordable way. We’re democratising technology for all companies, whether they’re small, medium or large. We’re doing this now with blockchain and it’s a real gamechanger. In my opinion there are three different levels of interest in what we announced. There are people who have a real challenge in terms of compliance with different stakeholders, then there’s people who want to build blockchain applications and then finally there’s just people who want to consume it. We’ve announced this blockchain which is available for a limited design company who will build blockchain and the full product will be ready next year. It will help customers who just need to consume it. We’re now building the trust at the highest level that companies can rely on and recognize as a distributed model that can ensure trusted data. SALESFORCE HAS LED AND OVERSEEN A LOT OF INDUSTRY EVOLUTION, BUT HOW HAS THE COMPANY CHANGED FROM BEING RECOGNISED SOLELY AS A GLOBAL LEADER IN CRM, TO NOW BEING VIEWED AS A ONE-STOP SHOP FOR ALL? I think it’s a cocktail. The company has been the first to adopt the model of cloud, which brings not only flexibility for customers, but it also gives us the ability to move quicker than any other SEPTEMBER 2019
It’s in our DNA to take technologies that are complex and deliver them to enterprises in an affordable way.” traditional software vendor to build new stuff. AI implementation at the low-level layer of our platform is an example of that. It is not only AI for sales, or AI for call centres - it’s AI that is embedded natively in the platform, which ultimately means you can build your own application by leveraging AI in what you build and that simply wasn’t possible in the past. This is the technology. We have an owner, founder and manager of the company who are real visionaries in terms of their strategy, and they have a good feel for what the company should look like in ten years. They have a forward-looking type of mindset. However, in relation to our core company values we base our business on trust, innovation and customer success. We don’t forget about quality, because today when you ask any customer in B2B or B2C they’re not using only a product from you, they’re wanting two other things. The
first one is that you delight them in terms of customer experience. You know them, so this enables you to have smart and relevant interactions with them to facilitate their decisionmaking process to buy something new from you, but they want to make it with their values. Values are becoming more and more important for any customer. CAN YOU PROVIDE US WITH DETAILS OF SOME OF THE MOST INTERESTING INSIGHTS THAT EMERGED FROM SALESFORCE’S RECENT STATE OF THE CONNECTED CUSTOMER REPORT? I think there’s mainly three key points that emerged from the report. It’s clear that people won’t conduct business with you if they don’t trust you. Trust www.tahawultech.com
their business so we’re a customer success company. The simple fact that we upgrade our full platform three times a year only serves to reinforce our commitment to our customers, three times a year we bring hundreds of new features and innovations to the market. We’re changing the landscape in the enterprise space in terms of the way they consume software solutions, not only at the speed of which they can initially implement it, but at the speed of which they can keep updating on what we’re doing - and is one of the reasons why the organisation is orientated into customer success.
is the consequence of the two others. Firstly, being able to connect with you and interact with you in the way they want. So that basically means that any channel they prefer to use. The second one is linked to what we just said, people will consume more and more products from companies that are sharing the same values. In summary, the key themes are trust, values and omni-channel interactions. These principles are at the very top of the agenda for consumers in today’s digital world. They want you to know them so you’re able to inform them of what exactly is relevant to them, and they want to be able to trust you. Translating these principles into today’s digital world is very important, because today there is no boundaries www.tahawultech.com
between shop and digital. We need to make applications or a platform of interaction with customers that can be used in the mall as well as the website. People want omni-channel options and they want to trust you and share some of the values they have with you. IN YOUR EXPERT OPINION, WHAT ULTIMATELY DIFFERENTIATES SALESFORCE FROM ITS OTHER RIVALS? I think I would say what differentiates us from our rivals is our customer success. All the other values and criteria of the company are in a way bringing a piece of that. We used to use the term ‘customer orientated’ around 15 years ago, but now we’re helping customers improve
SALESFORCE HAS RECENTLY ANNOUNCED THE ACQUISITION OF DATA ANALYTICS FIRM TABLEAU FOR $15.3 BILLION. WHAT IMPACT DO YOU ENVISAGE THIS MEGADEAL WILL HAVE ON THE WAY SALESFORCE OPERATES? Editor’s Note: At the time of this interview, Thierry was unable to comment on this acquisition deal with Tableau as it was still undergoing regulatory approval. However, it has since been subsequently rubberstamped. Below is what Salesforce’s Chairman and Co-CEO, Marc Benioff had to say following the deals approval. “Tableau is an extraordinary company, with an amazing product and team and an incredibly passionate community. Together we can transform the way people understand not only their customers, but their whole world—delivering powerful AI-driven insights across all types of data and use cases for people of every skill level.” SEPTEMBER 2019
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INTERVIEW HPE
TRANSFORMING SOCIETY THROUGH TECHNOLOGY 16 Raif Abou Diab, Managing Director Gulf and Levant at HPE
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T’S BEEN ALMOST SIX MONTHS SINCE HPE SIGNED A STRATEGIC AGREEMENT WITH ABU DHABI DIGITAL AUTHORITY. (ADDA) CAN YOU PLEASE PROVIDE US WITH AN UPDATE ON HOW THIS COLLABORATION HAS SO FAR PROGRESSED – AND IS IT EMPOWERING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION FOR ADDA? Abu Dhabi Digital Authority (ADDA) has a clear vision to have an innovative and digital government, achieving happiness for society. It also has a rich mission to improve customer quality of life through offering integrated journeys across channels, developing digital and innovative solutions, securing the digital infrastructure, and fostering the use
SEPTEMBER 2019
RAIF ABOU DIAB, MANAGING DIRECTOR - GULF AND LEVANT AT HPE, DISCUSSES HOW HPE IS HELPING THE PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SECTOR MOVE FORWARD IN THEIR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION STRATEGY.
of emerging technologies. ADDA and HPE’s partnership is very strategic to accelerate the Abu Dhabi Government’s digital transformation efforts. ADDA’s and HPE’s teams are working extensively on multiple streams and have made significant progress in areas like digital transformation, data federation, artificial intelligence, innovation, infrastructure modernisation, disruptive technologies and Emiratisation HPE HAS RECENTLY ACQUIRED THE ASSETS OF FLOUNDERING STARTUP COMPANY MAPR. DO YOU THINK THIS ACQUISITION DEAL WILL SIGNIFICANTLY BOOST HPE’S BIG DATA CAPABILITIES? Absolutely. Data is the fuel of the future and by leveraging artificial
intelligence and analytics, vital insights can be unlocked from data leading to disruptive business transformations (e.g. more efficient operations, more productive factories, new revenue streams, accelerating new cures, new experiences, etc.). The world is replacing programming with training yet there is only a handful of data scientists. In a data driven world, we at HPE are looking to simplify and accelerate our customers’ journeys in adopting artificial intelligence and machine learning by offering a complete portfolio of products and services to drive artificial intelligence and analytics applications to help customers manage their data assets end to end from edge to cloud. MapR is a leading www.tahawultech.com
data platform that powers digital transformation and represents a great addition to our Intelligent Data Platform delivering the foundation for a nextgeneration edge-to-cloud AI/ML and analytics data pipeline. The acquisition of MapR assets and its combination with other HPE technologies will enable us to further empower data scientists, broaden the consumption of data, ensure a consistent approach to secure, govern, protect, and orchestrate data; and enrich our ecosystem through the addition of more data-centric ISVs. All contributing to accelerate our customers’ digital transformation journeys. IN MARCH, HPE ANNOUNCED THEY WOULD BE OPENING A NUMBER OF INNOVATION CENTRES GLOBALLY, WITH THE VERY FIRST ONE EXPECTED TO BE OPEN IN DUBAI NEXT MONTH. CAN YOU GIVE US WITH MORE DETAILS ON HPE’S INNOVATION CENTRE HERE IN THE UAE, AND WHAT IMPACT IT’S GOING TO HAVE ON THE REGION? The HPE Digital Life Garage in Dubai aims to transform how technology impacts society at large. It will support the UAE’s Smart Nation initiative, as well as its goals set out in the Vision 2021 and National Advanced Sciences Agenda 2031. HPE Digital Life Garage will be a business accelerator based on a co-innovation model – operated in collaboration with local market and global partners to create innovative technological concepts, develop them into an actionable Proof of Value and accelerate the idea-toproduction lifecycle. It will consist of three parts; the Lab where interactive workshops will take place between HPE, customers and partners to create innovative concepts and turn into preproduction demonstrations; the Venue where all innovations realised in the www.tahawultech.com
HPE Digital Life Garage in the UAE and across the world will be showcased to partners and customers; and the Digital Knowledge Center, where new competencies in technology, business and management will be discussed through a combination of seminars, workshops and on-the-job training with lab fellows and senior engineers from HPE and its partners. HPE Digital Life Garage will provide benefits to various UAE stakeholders. For the government, it will serve as a hotbed for scientific research and homegrown high-tech solutions that can result in ground-breaking technology innovations for citisens. For the local business ecosystem, HPE Digital Life Garage will help organisations benefit from solutions that will give them a competitive differentiation and a fast route to production. Finally, innovators from small startups to large scale corporations focused on creating new technologies and solutions will be able to get access to real data to achieve success and reward. The site has already started operating, with the first use cases engaging customers and partners. Formal opening of the facility is scheduled in spring 2020.
THIS PROJECT, AND THAT HPE HAS BEEN CHOSEN AS THE TECHNOLOGY PARTNER, DOES THIS SOLIDIFY YOUR STATUS AS ONE OF THE MOST TRUSTED AND RELIABLE PARTNERS IN IT? We are delighted to strengthen our partnership and collaboration with NASA to build a new custom-designed supercomputer for NASA’s Ames Research Center that will be used to support modeling and simulations of entry, descent, and landing (EDL) for the agency’s missions and Artemis program, a mission to land the next humans on the lunar South Pole region by 2024. As you may know, it was named “Aitken” after Robert Grant Aitken, an American astronomer specialising in binary star systems. This supercomputer will run thousands of complex simulations at 3.69 petaFLOPs to enable accurate and safe landings on the moon. This is not the only collaboration with NASA. As another example, a yearlong experiment was conducted in the past by HPE and NASA to run a high performance commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) computer system in space, which has never been done before. The goal of this supercomputer, called the Spaceborne Computer is to operate seamlessly in the harsh conditions of space for one year – roughly the amount of time it will take to travel to Mars. The computer was sent to the International Space Station (ISS) in August 2017 and has returned to Earth after 615 days.
We at HPE are looking to simplify and accelerate our customers’ journeys in adopting artificial intelligence and machine learning”
HPE HAS AGREED TO BUILD NASA A SUPERCOMPUTER IN AN EFFORT TO HELP IT LAND ASTRONAUTS ON THE LUNAR SOUTH POLE REGION BY 2024. WHEN YOU CONSIDER THE SCALE OF
SEPTEMBER 2019
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INTERVIEW SAS
“IT’S IN OUR DNA TO BE CLOSE TO OUR CUSTOMERS”: MARCEL YAMMINE, SAS CNME EDITOR MARK FORKER SPOKE TO MARCEL YAMMINE, GENERAL MANAGER FOR THE GULF & EMERGING MARKETS AT SAS. YAMMINE CHARTED HOW SAS’S LEGACY OF MANAGING DATA HAS ENHANCED ITS MARKET REPUTATION GLOBALLY IN TERMS OF ADDRESSING THE MAIN PAIN POINTS FOR ENTERPRISES SEEKING TO ACHIEVE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION.
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Marcel Yammine, General Manager for the Gulf & Emerging Markets at SAS
SEPTEMBER 2019
N APRIL, YOU HOSTED THE SAS ANALYTICS ROADSHOW IN ORDER TO HIGHLIGHT HOW THE APPLICATION OF ADVANCED AI IS HELPING TO TRANSFORM ORGANISATIONS ACROSS THE REGION. HOW MUCH OF A SUCCESS WAS THIS EVENT FOR SAS? The SAS Analytics roadshow that we hosted in April, is an annual event that we hold every year in Dubai. It’s a cross-industry event in which we invite our customers and the community that we engage with, including prospects from various industries to discuss the latest trends and challenges related to digital transformation and analytics, whether it’s from a business or technology perspective. At the roadshow, SAS presents how we can add value to these organisations across their various businesses and industries to ultimately help them achieve their organisational objectives. However, I must go on record to state that the SAS Analytics Roadshow in April, was one of the most successful events we’ve ever had. The level of www.tahawultech.com
participation was rich from a diversity perspective, and we attracted many leaders from the analytics field globally, and key figureheads that have been tasked with leading digital transformation projects with banks, commercial organisations and public sector entities. The overall feedback we received was very impressive and confirmed that SAS remains a very relevant player that is introducing cuttingedge technologies in this domain which is resulting in continuous engagement with major enterprises in the ICT sector.
Many of the leading government agencies in the UAE, who are spearheading a series of AI and digital transformation initiatives are engaged with us already.”
THE TOPIC OF AI IS A PREVALENT THEME AT MANY ICT EVENTS GLOBALLY. HOWEVER, IS PART OF YOUR ROLE AN EDUCATIONAL ONE IN ORDER TO HELP BUSINESSES UNDERSTAND THE VALUE OF AI? Obviously, this depends on the entities and people you’re dealing with. There are a series of organisations that are well-advanced when it comes to AI, whilst there are many others that are not. We don’t present ourselves as teachers to organisations. However, SAS has a long legacy when it comes to dealing with data and analysing data and bringing insight into the business environment out of the data available. On the other hand, when it comes to spreading the knowledge around AI and analytics, we do have some initiatives with higher education institutions. We engage with them in a bid to introduce SAS, analytics and AI as part of their curriculum. This helps to www.tahawultech.com
promote these technologies and trends with the next-generation, who in a few years’ time will join the workforce and become key contributors to many major industries and enterprises involved with these technologies.
CAN YOU EXPLAIN TO US HOW SAS IS HELPING ENTERPRISES AND GOVERNMENTS TO LEVERAGE NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN A BID TO OPTIMIZE THEIR BUSINESS OPERATIONS IN THIS DATA-DRIVEN DIGITAL ERA? As I mentioned before government ministries and entities are one of our strategic partnership areas, whether that’s in the UAE, or across the region. Many of the leading government agencies in the UAE, who are spearheading a series of AI and digital transformation initiatives are engaged with us already. One of them is Abu Dhabi Judicial Department (ADJD). We’re helping them to achieve their objectives when it comes to digital transformation. We’re enabling them to leverage AI in order for them to harness that data and extract the business sense and value from the data. This ultimately allows them to make data-driven decisions which significantly improves the visibility of the management and leadership of the overall operations. SAS ensures that AI and analytics are key enablers of specific initiatives that will help them become more scientific in terms of making decisions and applying data and science into their policy making.
THE BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY IS RANKED HIGH IN TERMS OF ANALYTICS MATURITY. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR THEM TO ESTABLISH ANALYTICS AS A KEY BUSINESS DISCIPLINE ACROSS ALL THEIR OPERATIONS? Banks and the banking sector in general are one of the most competitive industries. It is quite mature when it comes to leveraging data, automation and embracing AI and digital transformation. This is the nature of the industry, as not only is it competitive, but the demands of their customers are always evolving. There is a growing demand for banks to become more automated to better understand their customers’ needs, behavior, and trends in order to be a position to offer them the right offers at the right time. We’re engaged with multiple banks here in the UAE, and right across the Middle East. We’re working with banks on analytic initiatives from a business consulting perspective where we help them in their analytics lifecycle and maturity journey to ensure their embedding analytics and data into their decision-making in an efficient way. IN YOUR EXPERT OPINION, WHAT IS THAT DIFFERENTIATES SAS FROM ITS COMPETITORS? At the end of the day, there is multiple players’ in the market, but we do not claim to be the only vendor, although SAS is a global leader when it comes to analytics. We possess more than 30% of the global market share. However, what I think differentiates us from our rivals is our personal attention at the corporate and team level. It’s in our DNA to be close to our customers. We address their challenges and issues in a personalized and consultative manner and this is what ultimately separates us from the rest. SEPTEMBER 2019
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INTERVIEW CrowdStrike
CROWDSTRIKE METRIC ENABLING ENTERPRISES TO DETECT REALTIME THREATS
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CNME SPOKE TO RAWAD SARIEDDINE, SENIOR DIRECTOR AT CYBERSECURITY TECHNOLOGY COMPANY CROWDSTRIKE, TO FIND OUT HOW ITS NEW METRIC IS EMPOWERING ENTERPRISES WITH AN ABILITY TO DETECT REAL-TIME THREATS. Rawad Sarieddine, Senior Director at CrowdStrike
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ROWDSTRIKE HAS RECENTLY LAUNCHED A NEW REAL-TIME THREAT MONITORING METRIC CALLED CROWDSCORE. HOW WILL THIS NEW INDUSTRY INNOVATION EMPOWER CXO’S TO MAKE BETTER INFORMED DECISIONS IN RELATION TO SECURITY? CrowdScore is a simple metric that enables CxOs to instantly see the real-time threat level their organizations are facing, allowing
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them to quickly mobilize resources to respond. We all know that speed of detection, investigation and response are essential for effective security. CrowdStrike research on breakout time shows that security teams should strive to detect threats on average in 1 minute, understand them in 10 minutes and contain them in 60 minutes to be effective at stopping breaches. Traditionally, organizations have struggled to meet
these metrics due to lack of resources and prioritization of an ever-growing number of alerts. CrowdScore changes the game by solving both problems. So CxOs now can ensure that they are instantly made aware of incidents in their environment that demand activation of crisis management plans. It also empowers security operations teams to move away from tactical alert resolution to strategic incident management. www.tahawultech.com
IN THE PAST YEAR, CROWDSTRIKE FALCON HAS ENHANCED ITS PLATFORM, AND IN MARCH, LAUNCHED FALCON FOR MOBILE. CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THE FALCON FOR MOBILE? Falcon for Mobile is built on the award-winning CrowdStrike Falcon platform, allowing you to secure your mobile devices via a single solution that also protects workstations, servers, cloud workloads and containers. Mobile devices have completely changed the way employees work — providing instant access to business-critical applications anytime and anywhere. However, mobility is a challenge for security teams as they strive to secure the data stored or remotely accessed by enterprise mobile applications. At the same time, we know Mobile threats are real and relying on underlying mobile platform safeguards is not enough. Mobile device management (MDM) solutions have been available for years, but they don’t address core security concerns — that’s why a new perspective is necessary. CROWDSTRIKE WAS POSITIONED AS A LEADER IN THE GARTNER MAGIC QUADRANT FOR ENDPOINT PROTECTION PLATFORM. IN YOUR EXPERT, WHAT ULTIMATELY DIFFERENTIATES CROWDSTRIKE FROM ITS COMPETITORS? CrowdStrike is the pioneer of cloud-delivered endpoint protection. CrowdStrike Falcon has revolutionized endpoint security by being the first and only solution to unify next-generation antivirus, endpoint detection and response (EDR), and a 24/7 threat hunting service — all delivered via a single lightweight agent. www.tahawultech.com
Using its purpose-built cloud native architecture, CrowdStrike collects and analyses more than 30 billion endpoint events per day from millions of sensors deployed across 176 countries. The unique benefits of this unified and lightweight approach include immediate time-to-value, better performance, reduced cost and complexity, and better protection that goes beyond detecting malware to stop breaches before they occur. These capabilities are based on a unique combination of prevention
CrowdStrike delivers superior visibility as a result of its unique architecture.” technologies such as machine learning, Indicators of Attack (IOA), exploit blocking, unparalleled realtime visibility and 24×7 managed hunting to discover and track even the stealthiest attackers before they do damage. THE SOPHISTICATION OF CYBERATTACKS ARE INCREASING. HOWEVER, IS A LACK OF VISIBILITY THE BIGGEST BARRIER PREVENTING BUSINESSES FOR IMPLEMENTING A WATERTIGHT SECURITY STRUCTURE? Visibility is an essential element in next generation endpoint protection. While legacy endpoint security products were limited
to either blocking or allowing an activity, next generation endpoint protection products add the ability to record activity on the endpoint and store it in a database for future search and investigation. CrowdStrike delivers superior visibility as a result of its unique architecture. The Falcon sensor does more than just record and store events. It puts events in context and links related events together to paint an accurate picture of the state of the machine. Events recorded by the Falcon sensor are streamed to the cloud and stored in a graph database. This approach ensures that data is accessible even if some systems are offline at the time of the search. It also ensures reliability, speed, and scalability. This allows Falcon Endpoint Protection to provide deep visibility across your entire environment in five seconds or less. DO YOU THINK THE EMERGENCE OF DISRUPTIVE NEW TECHNOLOGIES SUCH AS AI AND PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS COULD BE THE SOLUTION TO SECURITY ISSUES FOR MAJOR ENTERPRISES ALL OVER THE WORLD? CrowdStrike uses the power of crowdsourced data to deliver cloud-scale artificial intelligence (AI) for real-time visibility across the enterprise, even at the firmware level and regardless of whether users are on or off the network. We are also proud of the unique “brains” behind the Falcon platform — the CrowdStrike Threat Graph® — a massive graph database that uses deep-link analytics to correlate over two trillion endpoint-related events per week, in real time, from across the globe to immediately empower and protect all customers. SEPTEMBER 2019
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Charbel Khneisser, Regional Presales Director, MENA at Riverbed
SEPTEMBER 2019
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INTERVIEW Riverbed
“DIGITAL NETWORKING IS THE FOUNDATION OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION”: RIVERBED CNME EDITOR MARK FORKER, SPOKE TO CHARBEL KHNEISSER, REGIONAL PRESALES DIRECTOR, MENA AT RIVERBED, TO FIND OUT MORE ON THE CONCEPT OF ‘DIGITAL NETWORKING’, THE COMPANY’S VISION FOR THE FUTURE AND HOW IT IS HELPING BUSINESSES ACHIEVE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION.
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IVERBED APPEARS TO HAVE PLACED AN INCREASING EMPHASIS AND FOCUS ON THE CONCEPT OF ‘DIGITAL NETWORKING’. CAN YOU OUTLINE TO US WHAT THIS VISION AND DIRECTION ENTAILS? Let me address this question by using an example. Today, if you’re an architect and somebody asks you to expand and add more stories to a two-story building, the first thing you must check is the foundation. Is the foundation strong enough to add more floors? In the early 1990’s, we started to see the rise of the internet and then we witnessed the evolution of cloud. This resulted in the increased adoption of SaaS-based applications and offerings. However, what we forgot during this whole cycle of evolution was the foundation of networks. At Riverbed, we fundamentally believe www.tahawultech.com
23 that digital networking will be the foundation of digital transformation. We were able to build applications, but while those applications had the chassis of a Ferrari, their engine was like that of a Fiat! The underlying message we’re trying to convey at Riverbed is the importance of a strong foundation. The first pillar of our foundation is building software-defined networks that can unify all decision-making to really route applications based on performance. The second pillar is to be able to accelerate the delivery of those applications by optimizing network performance. The third pillar is monitoring the overall performance of the network to be able to make better decisions based on the best policies to route applications to ensure that end-user experience is always maintained to the highest levels. RIVERBED CLAIMS ITS SAAS ACCELERATOR IS THE ONLY CLOUD-
BASED SAAS ACCELERATION SERVICE CAPABLE OF DELIVERING THE REQUIREMENTS NEEDED IN TODAY’S DYNAMIC WORKFORCE? WHAT ARE THE UNIQUE BENEFITS OF THIS PLATFORM? We believe that by the end of 2020, 80% of organisations will move to SaaSbased applications. This decision isn’t simply coming from IT, it’s coming from business, it’s coming from marketing and CFOs. The challenges that arises from this shift is around how we’re going to maintain good end-customer experience and productivity. Riverbed offers cloud-based SaaS performance acceleration that will help those organisations and key decisionmakers to maintain productivity, improve end-user experience, whilst at the same time reduce the time-to-market. This is becoming essential for decision-makers to achieve higher speed and higher access, but at the SEPTEMBER 2019
INTERVIEW Riverbed
same time, the objective of whole process from a business perspective is maintaining end-customer experience and increasing productivity. This is what we’re enabling enterprises to achieve with our cloud-based services and SaaS accelerator which has been shown to accelerate the performance of leading SaaS apps, such as O365, Salesforce, ServiceNow and Box, by up to 10 times. Given that many of these apps are essential to the daily functions of employees across organizations, it has the potential to dramatically enhance workforce productivity.
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CAN YOU PROVIDE US WITH MORE INFORMATION ON YOUR SD-WAN PORTFOLIO SPECIFICALLY, WHICH INCLUDES A NEW PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT WITH VERSA? There has been a lot of industry interest in this OEM agreement between Riverbed and Versa Networks. The recent partnership with Versa Networks enables Riverbed to deliver the most comprehensive SD-WAN portfolio to meet the needs of organisations of all sizes – from mid-market to the world’s largest enterprises. Along with its SD-WAN capabilities and concepts, Riverbed can really propel its digital networking capabilities which include industry-leading Network Performance Management solutions and application acceleration for new consumption models, including SaaS, Cloud and Mobile, to support its expanding customer base. RIVERBED IS A GLOBAL LEADER IN IT AND TECHNOLOGY SOFTWARE, BUT WHAT DO YOU THINK IT IS THAT ULTIMATELY DIFFERENTIATES YOU FROM YOUR MARKET RIVALS? The responsibilities of my job require me to meet a lot of CIOs on a weekly SEPTEMBER 2019
basis, and the recurring message they all convey back to me is, “How can we digitally transform our organization without it really impacting our business?” People resist change because by design it’s human nature. However, at the same time they recognize they need to embrace change, and they need a soft mechanism so that once the change is introduced it will be fruitful and not impactful. Riverbed enables decision-makers and C-level executives to drive that change and embark upon that digital transformation journey. We have the capability to provide enterprises with a diverse portfolio that gives them visibility and control. Today, enterprises can go and look for vendors that can offer them solutions that either fall under the category of visibility or control. However, none of them have the full integration of this birds-eye view that can really enable them to make decisions based on performance, whilst giving you the control on your platform that you need. In summary, what differentiates us is the fact we’re equipping our C-level teams and customers with better decision-making capabilities by giving them greater visibility on their data. This inevitably gives them control to take actionable insights based on that data.
EXPERIENCE WHAT ARE THE MAIN POINT POINTS THAT ENTERPRISES ARE ENCOUNTERING? Users are becoming more demanding, primarily because technology is embedded in every part of your daily life. It’s not just for work, we use it in our personal life from ordering groceries to taxis - so technology has penetrated every aspect of our lives. Today, people have access to cuttingedge technology from a personal perspective, and are enjoying enhanced experiences because they’re leveraging 4G, and in some cases 5G connectivity. This evolution in technology has inflated expectations, and people now expect the same user-experience at work - and this is a challenge. In addition to this, we all know that work processes are much more challenging because the tasks that you undertake are much more complex than simply placing a food order from your smartphone. The tasks at work require more analytics and processing power. I’d say some of the biggest challenges for enterprises is that balance of trying to manage those expectations, maintaining good enduser experiences, a proper delivery of applications, high-productivity and faster time-to-market. However, it’s important to note that security will always remain one of the main challenges in terms of securing access and protecting data integrity of all the information that is being hosted internally.
People resist change because by design it’s human nature.”
RIVERBED SOLVES PROBLEMS AND ADDRESSES ISSUES FOR ITS CLIENTS. HOWEVER, FROM YOUR
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Synergising the Mind & Technology Economy The biggest tech show in the Middle East, North Africa & South Asia
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Mohamed Al Qubaisi, Chief Technology Officer at Injazat Data Systems
Injazat has a number of different methodologies we use with our clients to help them create new lines of business. We focus on both optimising operations and ultimately help clients accelerate innovation.� SEPTEMBER 2019
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COVER FEATURE Injazat
“OUR VISION IS TO EMPOWER HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT”: INJAZAT CTO CNME EDITOR MARK FORKER SECURED AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH MOHAMED AL QUBAISI, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER AT INJAZAT DATA SYSTEMS IN A BID TO EXPLORE HOW THE GOVERNMENT-OWNED COMPANY IS PLAYING A KEY ROLE IN HELPING ENTERPRISES DEAL WITH THE CHALLENGES THEY ENCOUNTER WHEN EMBRACING NEW TECHNOLOGIES.
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AN YOU OUTLINE TO US HOW INJAZAT HELPS THEIR CUSTOMERS NAVIGATE THROUGH ALL THE DIGITAL DISRUPTION THEY FACE ON THEIR JOURNEY TOWARDS DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION? I believe Injazat is a crucial player in today’s market in terms of what we can deliver to our existing and future clients - in the sense that everything is converging into IT. IT is becoming a crucial element of any vertical in any business across multiple sectors, and www.tahawultech.com
we’re finding that many people are struggling to innovate and cause some form of disruption to their market. Injazat has a number of different methodologies we use with our clients to help them create new lines of business. We focus on both optimising operations and ultimately help clients accelerate innovation. We enable clients to achieve this by infusing our capabilities with an ecosystem that contains specific niche partners across industry verticals. We’re one of a very select number of companies that can say we can
deliver strategy through to execution. We’ve been very successful at launching Public Private Partnerships (PPP) opportunities. PPPs are a very important component of our business today and were we are already achieving our vision of empowering human achievement through both our PPPs, one in Healthcare and the other for an IOT based Fire and Safety initiative. The approach we’ve adopted in relation to PPPs is that we take the initiative, we invest, we build, operate and transfer. This is the win-win for both public and private sectors. SEPTEMBER 2019
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COVER FEATURE Injazat We want to be the ‘go to’ digital transformation partner, and we’ve got a proven methodology that works. We can accelerate innovation for our clients. Digital disruption means making an impact quickly, and we achieve that speed to market through our newly established agile practice and factory. Injazat has transformed drastically from where it used to be. We used to be a traditional managed services provider, but now we’re much more than this with the introduction of Digital Business Consultancy, Innovation Services and an appetite for more successes with Digital Ventures. We can provide an unrivalled end-to-end journey for our clients with our new cloud, emerging tech and cyber security services.
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THERE HAS BEEN A RELUCTANCE FROM SOME ENTERPRISES TO ADOPT NEW DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES. IS IT YOUR RESPONSIBILITY AS CTO OF INJAZAT TO HELP EDUCATE BUSINESSES ON THE BENEFITS OF EMBRACING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION? Absolutely. A large part of what we
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do at Injazat is educate ourselves. We educate our employees to understand what disruption means, what agile means and what business impact we can have with these new technological advancements. We help our clients see the art of the possible and discover the right digital business model that gets the most value for them. We engage with our clients, we talk strategy, we ideate and we reinvent. Our aspiration is develop a frictionless Digital Business. We work closely with SMEs in the Business as they have excellent analytical insights. There are a lot of data science opportunities that you can take from SMEs within an organisation and plug them into an analytical role. There are so many examples of how we can take existing talent and reposition them in terms of what value they can add. This is what happens every time a revolution comes. The first
Industrial Revolution meant that we needed to learn new skills and do new things, and the new world will be the exact same. AI will accelerate the advancement of all capabilities. People have expressed skepticism and fears over AI. The greatest value is freeing us up to do other things that we simply can’t imagine today. The idea is not to automate everything, the idea is to free people up and do much more than we could imagine. FROM YOUR EXPERIENCE, WHAT ARE THE MAIN PAIN POINTS FOR ORGANISATIONS SEEKING TO UNDERGO A FULL DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF THEIR EXISTING OPERATIONS? For us digital transformation really means creating new ways of working to deliver a much richer experience. We strongly believe in that. There are other elements of transformation that support that like digitalisation and automation, but we’re really focused on creating new business models, Tech platforms and enriching these with a strong partner ecosystem. That’s ultimately where we see the future.
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IT used to be a support function were the back office helped the business grow, but now IT has become the business. Our Digital Venture approach helps us focus on that and at the same time we have our existing core business to optimise operations and keep the lights on. We have the horizontal capabilities, but now we’re talking business, we’re talking healthcare, we’re talking smart cites. By combining all of this means there is going to be a lot of innovation happening. We’re interested in partnering with businesses that can have a high impact on value creation. We’re taking on more risk, but we’re having a greater impact. DO YOU THINK THE COMMERCIAL DEPLOYMENT OF 5G WILL HELP ACCELERATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES LIKE AI, BLOCKCHAIN AND BIG DATA? It is important for everybody to understand that 5G is not an upgrade from 4G. 5G is a leap, we’re talking about 140Gbps, with one millisecond of latency – that changes everything. That can enable you to do real-time surgery from the other side of the planet. The amount of data we can extract from IoT devices becomes immense, and we all know the better the data the better the analytics. The insights we’re going to get from 5G, we can’t even imagine yet. However, we do have use-cases and some scenarios that we’re working on today in terms of how we get ready for a smart connected world. When we talk about IoT and smart cities we have a fully-fledged team examining those use-cases, and they’re engaged with government entities in terms of testing to makes these use-cases a reality. www.tahawultech.com
CAN YOU GIVE US A LITTLE BIT OF INSIGHT INTO YOUR OWN JOURNEY WITH INJAZAT DATA SYSTEMS, AND OUTLINE TO US YOUR MAIN ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES AS THE CTO? Injazat has undergone a significant internal transformation and decided that in order to remain essential, they had to create more products and services. They needed to differentiate and establish new capabilities. They created a new function called CTO and that’s when I came onboard. We now have three major product lines which sit under me and they are products, innovation and solutions. This team is the horizontal team which looks at technology in-depth and is currently working with all kind of business units, whether its digital transformation, business development or sales. They meet with the client and they get those ideas out there, test them, show them and immediately create an applicable prototype that can be implemented. We have a lot of methodologies that can solve a lot of problems. Our overriding vision is to solve the problem. The capabilities and entire ecosystem we’re building here at Injazat is to address issues and solve large problems both locally and globally.
GITEX is the ICT industry’s flagship show. What can we expect to see from Injazat at this year’s event? At this year’s GITEX, we want to demonstrate our new capabilities, our new approach and our new methodologies. We’re going to have an area in which we can take people on a journey to explain to them what we’re capable of doing, and to run them through what we currently have. The methodology plus our capabilities is what we want people to understand so they can consume our services, or we can help them reinvent their business. What are your primary objectives and goals for the remainder of 2019, and looking ahead to 2020? Our aspirations are very high, we want to grow our geographical presence. We’re targeting new markets in the UAE and outside of the UAE. We want to plug-in as part of a global innovation ecosystem and we’re engaged with a very large number of partners to explore new opportunities and being part of that ecosystem allows us to gain access to the latest innovations in the world. We’re also placing a big emphasis on talent, training and scaling up the team. We’re witnessing a lot of demand, and we want to be able to help more and more clients so that’s why we’re growing our team.
For us digital transformation really means creating new ways of working to deliver a much richer experience. We strongly believe in that.”
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INTERVIEW Veritas
VERITAS PLATFORM ENABLING CUSTOMERS TO GAIN VISIBILITY INTO ‘DARK DATA’
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Johnny Karam, Regional Vice President, Emerging Region at Veritas
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HAT ARE THE MAJOR PAIN POINTS THAT YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE FACING IN TERMS OF MANAGING THEIR DATA EFFICIENTLY? One of the major challenges’ enterprises are dealing with now is data growth. Data is growing faster than was initially projected by us and our customers - and it doesn’t show any signs of abating. With the growth of that data comes the management SEPTEMBER 2019
CNME SPOKE TO JOHNNY KARAM, REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT, EMERGING REGION AT VERITAS, IN AN EFFORT TO EXAMINE AND EXPLORE THE KEY ISSUES FACING MANY ENTERPRISES ATTEMPTING TO GET THEIR HOUSE IN ORDER WHEN IT COMES TO DATA MANAGEMENT.
complexity, and the cost associated with it, so that’s the first problem. The second issue in relation to the growth of the data is that there is so much of it accumulating and just sitting there, that customers aren’t aware of or able to distinguish it. When you think about large enterprises, because they’ve been doing this for a long time, most of the time they end up with multiple platforms doing the same things, which only serves to add to the operational complexities. What
typically happens is you’ll have one group using the software to do the backup, and then other groups within the organisation using another backup, and then you end up with multiple backups. In addition to this, these large enterprises know they want to and need to move to the cloud, but they don’t know where to start. Which data, which application, how do we ensure we’re doing it properly? These are the delicate complexities facing many enterprises in today’s digital world. www.tahawultech.com
YOU’VE RECENTLY LAUNCHED VERITAS ENTERPRISE DATA SERVICES PLATFORM. WHAT ARE THE UNIQUE OFFERINGS THIS PLATFORM PROVIDES? Let’s first discuss the philosophy of this platform, what does it really do? We’ve got a vision in relation to how we want to help organisations address these challenges, such as data growth, regulatory processes and malicious attacks that are occurring with ransomware. We all know that the safeguarding and efficient management of data within an organisation is an absolute priority. The first thing we help customers do is gain visibility of their data, because you can’t manage what you don’t see. We’re able to give our customers end-to-end visibility of their data, regardless of where that data is located – it could be on their physical servers, or it could be sitting in their private or public cloud. Data can be stored in multiple places, but the key step for us is ensuring they have visibility. Once we achieve this visibility and classify the data, we begin to formulate what policies we need to establish and start building these policies with our customers. HOW WILL THIS NEW PLATFORM HELP ENTERPRISES ADDRESS THE ISSUES OF ‘DARK DATA’ THAT WAS RECENTLY OUTLINED BY VERITAS IN THEIR VALUE OF DATA STUDY? Through our insights and visibility, we can show customers how to declutter, manage and automate their data. We adopt this approach with all our customers, and they welcome it. By definition, ‘dark data’ www.tahawultech.com
is data that customers just don’t see, and in a lot of cases it’s data that they don’t need. As we already discussed, in addition to the complexity and cost of managing this data, you’ve now also got to consider regulators, who are coming down hard on companies that have data they shouldn’t have. If you look at the regulations, there is the EU’s GDPR which also has global implications, but even across our region Turkey and Africa have their own set of regulations in relation to data. Regulators are clamping down, because there has been a realisation that data is critical. If the regulator comes and asks you do something, it’s a manual job that will take a very long time, and even at that you’re not even sure if you’re being 100% compliant, and that’s another reason why the automated visibility we’re providing is becoming so critical and sought after. VERITAS SOFTWARE HAS BEEN A LEADER IN DATA MANAGEMENT GLOBALLY SINCE ITS INCEPTION IN 1983, WHAT DIFFERENTIATES VERITAS FROM ITS RIVALS? I think there are a couple of key factors that ultimately differentiate us from our rivals. The first thing is the philosophy of the company. Since the very beginning of Veritas, all technology and all software that has been developed by the company has been created to support whatever storage the customer has on whichever servers they host it on, because essentially it is our job to help our customers to be able to commoditize. Whereas, if you take our competitors, which of course do
We’re able to give our customers end-to-end visibility of their data, regardless of where that data is located.” 31 some of the things we do, they usually do it because they’ve got their own storage offering, or their own server, and they do it to upsell their servers and storage offerings. However, many customers don’t like being locked in to one vendor or offering, and if you look at the costs, the software bill is a fraction of the hardware bill. In our experience, the customer would rather go with Veritas, because they know that the software layer is being managed by Veritas, that they can have a hybrid storage from three vendors, and if there’s a new vendor that has cheaper storage then they can transition to it seamlessly, because it’s our responsibility to help them commoditize. This is something we’ve been doing since the beginning and is one of the reasons we’ve maintained our status and reputation as a market leader in this space. SEPTEMBER 2019
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BMB STREAMLINES ITS OPERATIONS THROUGH CLOUD TECHNOLOGY RAMESH RAMIAH, HEAD OF IT AT BAKLAWA MADE BETTER (BMB) REVEALS HOW THE FIRM’S MIGRATION TO CLOUD HAS HELPED IMPROVE BUSINESS OPERATIONS AND ITS ROI. THE EXECUTIVE STATED THAT CLOUD TECHNOLOGY HAS FUNDAMENTALLY RESHAPED THE CULTURE AND OVERALL BUSINESS MODEL OF THE COMPANY.
Ramesh Ramiah, Head of IT at Baklawa Made Better
SEPTEMBER 2019
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SPONSORED Baklawa Made Better
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Igrating to the cloud has become an essential roadmap for many companies in the region towards digital transformation. Based on an organisations operations and preferences, they may choose to have their entire IT infrastructure on Cloud or on-prem or enjoy the flexibility of a having both. Organisations choose the technology that adds value to their business functions – and cloud technology has profoundly impacted BMB’s people, organisation and operations. Previously optimising an onpremise only infrastructure, BMB has made a strategic decision of migrating its operations to the cloud. Using CloudHost’s technology CloudScales and AppLite, the stakeholders of the BMB has witnessed positive effects on cost and time in their operations. “When your business is evolving at a fast pace, your IT needs to maintain its pace as well. And when you are in an environment where you need to scale your resources every 3 to 4 months, cloud infrastructure is the best technology we have in our hands. By having our IT in a virtual environment, we can up-scale or down-scale on-demand while staying agile,” says Ramesh Ramiah, Head of IT, BMB. CloudScales, a technology developed by CloudHost, is designed to empower businesses to build their virtual data centre on the cloud within minutes. With scalability a big www.tahawultech.com
aspect of its digital transformation objectives, CloudScales addresses BMB’s need of the hour. “We are manufacturing a large number of products every day, and this number is growing day by day,” says Ramiah. “We’ve had an increase in demand for resources, it is not just about expanding our IT resources like computers, memory, servers, licenses and security. We are also required to have staff who can monitor and manage our current data volume and servers. We would be incurring huge costs and would require more time to scale if we were to have the infrastructure on-premise.” Ramiah highlights that this is why BMB values cloud technology and considers it the best solution for their business as it gives them the capability to be on time and cost-effective. “As a manufacturing company, our dependability on IT is too high which is why we decided to hire CloudHost Technology to manage our infrastructure. Their innovative technology and resources have helped us manage our data end-toend,” Ramiah explains. He adds, “Their solution AppLite has brought all our business applications and ERP solutions to our mobile phones, tablets and laptops. This has helped us with mobility and productivity and this is why we are more focused on doing our business instead of focusing on our infrastructure.”
As a manufacturing company, our dependability on IT is too high which is why we decided to hire CloudHost Technology to manage our infrastructure.” Following the implementation, Ramiah says that they are now able to focus more on planning and developing innovations, and are looking into automating a lot of their operational processes. “We now have peace of mind since moving to the cloud,” he says. CloudHost Technology, is a UAEbased Cloud Solutions provider and is quickly becoming a preferred Cloud Partner for many UAE based SMB’s and Enterprise customers. If your organisation is on its path towards digital transformation, explore and evaluate CloudHost’s solutions for real-time insights of your entire IT infrastructure on a single pane dashboard, scaling on the go, improving team collaborations, Data Security and Compliance. SEPTEMBER 2019
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INTERVIEW Bahrain AI Society
BAHRAIN AIMING TO BECOME AI LEADER BAHRAIN IS ASPIRING TO BECOME THE REGION’S LEADING FORCE IN TERMS OF AI DEVELOPMENT. CNME SPOKE TO DR. JASSIM HAJI, PRESIDENT OF THE BAHRAIN AI SOCIETY, TO FIND OUT HOW IT AIMS TO EXECUTE THAT AMBITIOUS OBJECTIVE.
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HE UAE LEADERSHIP HAS ADOPTED A VERY PROGRESSIVE APPROACH TOWARDS DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES LIKE AI. DO THE LEADERSHIP IN BAHRAIN SHARE THE SAME THOUGHTS ON AI, OR ARE THEY RELUCTANT TO MAKE SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENTS IN AI? His Highness Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, First Deputy President of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports is the first personality in the Middle East to have established a tournament for students about innovating in the field of Artificial Intelligence, under the slogan of #Let us innovate the future. Over the past three years his vision and support has encouraged hundreds of entrepreneurs and students to embark towards artificial intelligence innovations.
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Dr. Jassim Haji, President of the Bahrain AI Society
SEPTEMBER 2019
IN PREVIOUS INTERVIEWS, YOU’VE ARGUED THAT BAHRAIN CAN CAPITALISE ON THE LACK OF A DEDICATED AI AND RESEARCH CENTRE IN THE MIDDLE EAST, BY ESTABLISHING YOUR OWN FACILITY IN BAHRAIN. CAN YOU EXPLAIN TO US WHY YOU THINK BAHRAIN IS AN IDEAL LOCATION FOR THIS? The kingdom of Bahrain graduates www.tahawultech.com
hundreds of technology and computer science students every year with much world class ‘graduation projects’ which can be bases for mega projects in the region. These students are potential entrepreneurs and inventors of future Artificial Intelligence initiatives, not only for Bahrain but for the region. Therefore, it is imperative to establish Bahrain as a regional centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Development, and instead of multinational companies developing AI programs in South Asia, Latin America or Eastern Europe to export them to GCC, they would enhance such technologies in Bahrain with many benefits to GCC and the kingdom. The Innovation Centres for Artificial Intelligence should be a national initiative focused on joint technology development between academia, industry and government in the area of artificial intelligence. Bahrain has the talent, the world-class research and the longstanding tradition in AI education to be one of the world’s top ranked countries in terms of innovation power. AI R&D brings these positive forces together in a unique national initiative. BAHRAIN IS ATTEMPTING TO ESTABLISH ITSELF AS A LEADER IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AI TECHNOLOGY IN THE MIDDLE BY LAUNCHING THE COUNTRY’S FIRST AI ACADEMY. CAN YOU OUTLINE TO US WHAT THE AI ACADEMY OFFERS? The AI academy which is based in Bahrain Polytechnic University is one www.tahawultech.com
of the first academies established to train various students in courses related to AI and its branches such as Deep-learning, Robotic programming, Machine learning, NLP and plan to go into more detailed learning such as: Reactive Machines, Limited Memory, Theory of Mind and Self-aware. However, more institutes such as BIBF (Bahrain Institutes of Banking and Finance), which is starting certified AI course for private and public sectors plus more appetite from other four universities to develop centers for AI learning. MANY EXPERTS, INCLUDING YOURSELF, HAVE EXPRESSED CONCERNS OVER THE PROLIFERATION OF AI. HOWEVER, MANY COUNTERACT THIS POINT BY SAYING THAT AI TECHNOLOGY WILL CREATE MANY NEW JOBS IN THE PROCESS. WHAT IS YOUR OVERALL VIEW ON AI AND ITS FUTURE IMPACT ON SOCIETY? It is a fact that by end of next decade 40% of the current jobs will disappear and according to multiple sources 7080% of jobs at the time are unknown to us today. Therefore, it will be very difficult for anyone to speculate exactly how the jobs will shape at the time. However, looking at the past experiences such as drastic reduction of workforces in the industry due to automation, it will be difficult to not be concerned. Examples such as US Stock Exchange reducing 150,000 in a year as a result of machines learning and limited number of employees in
Over the past three years his vision and support has encouraged hundreds of entrepreneurs and students to embark towards artificial intelligence innovations.”
Instagram, WhatsApp and other companies taken over at a such high cost, it would be naïve not to start planning different specialities for future generations than the traditional accounting, medical and repetitive jobs which will up to certain extent diminish. WHAT ARE YOUR PRIMARY GOALS AND OBJECTIVES FOR THE AI SOCIETY IN BAHRAIN FOR THE REMAINDER OF 2019, AND LOOKING AHEAD TO 2020? We have conducted over 25 conferences and workshops in the area of Artificial Intelligence since the inspection of the society including 4th Government’s Excellence conference in AI under patronage of Minister of State Affairs. However, we are planning seminars and workshops every month until end of 2020 plus three or four major regional AI conferences. The first of which will be on 6th, November 2019 under the patronage of H.E. Ali Saleh AlSaleh, Chairman of AlShura Council. Many of the conferences are in affiliation with companies from U.A.E, Saudi and India, which displays Bahrain as a main player in the region for AI and attracts more technology investments in the Kingdom. The AI Society also partnered with five major universities in the kingdom of Bahrain to continue supporting computer science and technology graduates in the projects and provide all students with necessary guidelines. Furthermore, we will encourage women’s role in AI and provide researches to show-case how women will take more vital roles in the next few years with the aid of AI and working remotely in male dominated jobs. Finally, as AI Society is the first of its kind in the Middle East, we will pursue expanding it to AI Society GCC to include other GCC countries (Mainly KSA and UAE). SEPTEMBER 2019
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GovTech SEPTEMBER 2019 TAHAWULTECH.COM
AVAYA: رائدة:أفايا A LEADER في ابتكار IN IT تكنولوجيا INNOVATION المعلومات PUBLICATION LICENSED BY DUBAI PRODUCTION CITY, DCCA
GovTech Avaya
AVAYA’S PARTNERSHIP WITH GOOGLE IS TAKING THE COMPANY TO ANOTHER LEVEL
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IN THIS EDITION OF GOVTECH, CNME SECURED AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH AHMED HELMY, VICE PRESIDENT - CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, AVAYA, TO FIND OUT HOW THE TECHNOLOGY LEADER HAS SHIFTED ITS EMPHASIS AND FOCUS TOWARDS THE CLOUD – AND WHY THERE ARE STILL SOME ISSUES TO BE IRONED OUT BEFORE AI BECOMES MAINSTREAM.
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OU’VE REITERATED YOUR ASPIRATIONS TO ENHANCE BOTH YOUR AI AND CLOUD STRATEGY BY ENHANCING YOUR PARTNERSHIP WITH GOOGLE CLOUD? HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS COLLABORATION?
I think the partnership with Google was really driven by the need from Avaya to start the shift and refactoring of our technology into a more cloud-focused strategy. SEPTEMBER 2019
I think it’s fair to say we’ve been enterprise-focused for a long time, but over the last twelve months we’ve undergone a significant shift in terms of our overall direction. We’ve launched UCaaS in the United States and Germany, and we’re also going to bring these offerings to the market in India, Japan, Singapore and Australia. However, this wouldn’t be possible without a strategic cloud partner that provides you with the underlying technology that takes your software innovation to another level.
One of the key things we’ve discovered since working with Google is that, in the past, software and hardware innovation was quite generic. In today’s climate of new application software, we need more domain-focused hardware. When they released TPUs (Tensor Processing Unit) - all this hardware was built specifically for AI and Machine Learning, and this really allowed us to build a lot of the software innovation on top of the existing hardware. www.tahawultech.com
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Ahmed Helmy, VP and CTO at Avaya
AI IS A RECURRING AND PREVALENT THEME IN THE IT ECOSYSTEM. HOWEVER, IS IT ALL JUST NOISE AND HYPE, OR IS IT ALREADY ADDING VALUE FOR AVAYA AND ITS CUSTOMERS? I think most of the analysts have been providing guidelines on the trends of AI. They’ve highlighted how AI is going to transform manufacturing, healthcare and education. However, AI is not www.tahawultech.com
SEPTEMBER 2019
GovTech Avaya
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new; it is just that the evolution that has happened recently has made it much easier to adopt. I think a lot of enterprises have changed their mindset and culture, and they realise that AI is not just something that you buy and works from day one. It is something that requires robust training and management. It is a framework and it is an ecosystem of many things that need to come together to make AI successful. Avaya excels in the CX domain and our AI domain has multiple roles. It has conversational abilities, where you see its AI capabilities to tune into the call, listen to the agent and listen to the customer in a bid to try to extract useful data from the conversation. It has really helped us a lot with analytics - specifically predictive analytics. A large component of our CX business is about outbound and collection. We have a lot of the major global financial players as customers and we provide them with outbound capabilities. Collection is one of the critical services we provide to them, but in the past when you design a collection campaign you didn’t have the capability to make a prediction on how much you’re going to collect. However, now with predictive analytics, we can tell the customers before they even start the collection campaign what they’re
going to collect. It has enabled our customers to become more productive. It’s saving them time and resources - and these are the results that enterprises want to see.
MANY IN THE IT ECOSYSTEM ARE EXCITED ABOUT AI, BUT THERE IS STILL A LOT OF SKEPTICISM AROUND THE CAPABILITIES OF THE TECHNOLOGY. WHAT ARE THE MAIN CHALLENGES IN TERMS OF MAKING AI MAINSTREAM? There are multiple aspects that are really influencing and creating a lot of noise around AI. Some organisations are guilty of overselling the AI story and believe that it is going to fix everything for them and solve all their problems. They start an AI project, but very quickly become frustrated. They invest a lot of money into the project, but when they don’t get the results they expect, they simply stop. Organisations that adopt this type of approach can really create a lot of negativity around a transformative technology like AI. There is a lot of overpromising with AI, especially when it comes to who you buy your AI technology/strategy from. When you’re positioning AI to solve some key challenges, let’s just say in healthcare, you need to understand how the AI technology they’re selling you
Google are an incredible partner and have offered us phenomenal support.”
SEPTEMBER 2019
fits into your overall business, enterprise and technology. AI without the right workloads and data has no clear and real value. You have the fit the AI into the right ecosystem inside your organisation. Vendors have been guilty of overlooking the details. They’ve come with a good technology in AI, but they overlook everything else, and this approach is not going to deliver success. One of the biggest issues remains cost. It is still expensive, and once again it comes back to the hardware.
AVAYA IS A GLOBAL LEADER IN SCALABLE COMMUNICATIONS SOLUTIONS. IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT IS IT THAT ULTIMATELY DIFFERENTIATES YOU FROM YOUR MARKET RIVALS? There are a couple of differentiating factors that distinguish us from our rivals, but I’m going to start with our technology. Avaya has, for many years, been focused mainly on innovation. We own our own IP, we always innovate on our technology, we always listen to our customers, and we conduct a lot of R&D to try and understand how the market is moving forward and what our customer needs will be in the future. We’ve extended our portfolio and customers can clearly see there is enhancement and a clear roadmap and clarity. One thing we always try to do at Avaya is make things that work. We don’t take shortcuts and customers know from experience that Avaya places a high emphasis on integrity. When we propose a www.tahawultech.com
AI is not new, it is just that the evolution that has happened recently has made it much easier to adopt.�
technology, we propose a technology that works, has been tested, is proven and is scalable. They also see our migration to the cloud. We did not just say, okay we have to move to the public cloud now and push all our customers to the cloud by telling them to take it or leave like many others have done.
When you own the major domain in the market and you have so many large customers, you’ve got to be careful. Yes, you need to innovate, and go where the trends are, but you also need to listen to your customers and give them want they want, and this is what we do at Avaya.
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www.tahawultech.com
SEPTEMBER 2019
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أحمد حلمي ،مدير قسم هندسة الحلول المتطورة في أﭬايا
يوفر لك التكنولوجيا األساسية التي تنقل ابتكارات الربامج إىل مستوى آخر. أحد األشياء الرئيسية التي اكتشفناها منذ بدء العمل مع جوجل هو أن ابتكار الربمجيات واألجهزة يف املايض كان ً عاما إىل حد بعيد .يف مناخ اليوم من برامج التطبيقات الجديدة ،نحتاج إىل أجهزة ً تركيزا عىل املجال .عندما أصدروا أكرث - TPUs Tensor Processing Unitتم ً خصيصا للذكاء تصميم كل هذه األجهزة االصطناعي وتعلم اآللة ،وهذا سمح لنا ً حقا ببناء الكثري من ابتكارات الربامج عىل أساس األجهزة الحالية املتطور.
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SEPTEMBER 2019
جوف تك أﭬايا
شراكة "آفايا" مع "جوجل" تنقلهم إلى مستوى آخر تمكنت CNMEهذه الطبعة من ،GovTechمن الحصول عىل مقابلة حصرية مع " أحمد حلمي" مدير قسم هندسة الحلول املتطورة يف أﭬايا ،ملعرفة كيف قام زعيم التكنولوجيا بتوجيه أهتمامه نحو حوسبة السحاب ،وملاذا ال تزال هناك بعض املشكالت التي يتعني حلها من قبل انتشار استخدام الذكاء االصطناعي.
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لقد كشفت أكرث من مرة عن طموحاتك،والتي تهدف فيها إىل تعزيز كل من اسرتاتيجية الذكاء االصطناعى ٍ واسرتاتيجية حوسبة السحاب من خالل تعزيز شراكتك مع جوجل كالود ،ما مدى أهمية هذا التعاون؟ أعتقد أن الشراكة مع جوجل كان املحفز األسايس لها حاجتنا يف "آفايا يف البدء بالتحول وإعادة تشكيل التكنولوجيا الخاصة بنا إىل ً تركيزا عىل السحابة .وتعد اسرتاتيجية أكرث رائعا وقد قدمت لنا دعماً هائالً. ً ً شريكا جوجل ال نستهلك فقط أطر عمل الذكاء االصطناعي
SEPTEMBER 2019
الخاصة بهم ،بل نستخدم ً أيضا الحوسبة الخاصة بهم وقد ساعدونا ً حقا يف تحسني أدائنا ،وكيفية عرض منتجاتنا يف سوق التقنية العاملي. أعتقد أنه من املنصف أن نقول إننا كنا نركز عىل املؤسسة لفرتة طويلة ،ولكن عىل مدار اإلثني عشر شهرًا املاضية مررنا بتحول كبري من حيث االتجاه العام لدينا .لقد أطلقنا UCaaSيف الواليات املتحدة وأملانيا ،وسنحاول ً أيضا الوصول إىل األسواق يف الهند واليابان
وسنغافورة وأسرتاليا .ومع ذلك ،لن يكون هذا ً ممكنا دون وجود شريك سحابة اسرتاتيجي
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الذكاء االصطناعي ليس ً جديدا ،لكن التطور الذي حدث مؤخرا جعل تطبيقه أسهل بكثير ".
بعد اختبارها ،وإثبات قابليتها للتطوير .كما أنهم يرون أيضا هجرتنا إىل السحابة .لم نقول فقط يجب علينا االنتقال إىل السحابة العامة اآلن وإجبار جميع عمالئنا يف
االنتقال إىل السحابة عن طريق إخبارهم بالقبول بهذه التقنية أو املغادرة كما فعل الكثريون .عندما تمتلك املجال الرئييس يف السوق ولديك العديد من العمالء الكبار، يجب أن تكون حذراً .نعم ،تحتاج إىل االبتكار ،وتجربة جميع االتجاهات ،ولكن عليك ً أيضا االستماع إىل عمالئك وتأمني جميع متطلبات األعمال لديهم ،وهذا ما نفعله يف آفايا.
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SEPTEMBER 2019
جوف تك أﭬايا
الذكاء االصطناعى هو موضوع شائع يف عالم تكنولوجيا املعلومات ،فهل كل ذلك مجرد صيحة تقنية جديدة ،أم أنه يضيف بالفعل لرصيد آفايا وعمالئها؟ أعتقد أن معظم املحللني مثل "جارترن" يقدمون إرشادات حول اتجاهات الذكاء االصطناعي .لقد أبرزوا كيف سيقوم الذكاء االصطناعي بنقل الصناعة بأنواعها والرعاية الصحية والتعليم إىل مستوى آخر .ومع ً ذلك ،فإن الذكاء االصطناعي ليس جديدا، بل إن التطور الذي حدث مؤخرًا ّ سهل تبنيه. أعتقد أن الكثري من الشركات قد غريت طريقة إدارتها لألعمال بشكل عام ،وهي تدرك أن الذكاء االصطناعي ليس مجرد يشء تشرتيه وتعمل من اليوم األول .إنه أمر يتطلب تدريبًا وإدارة قويني .إنه إطار وهو خليط للعديد من األشياء التي يجب أن تتضافر إلنجاح الذكاء االصطناعي.
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تتفوق آفايا يف مجال ، CXوملجال الذكاء االصطناعي الخاص بنا أدوار متعددة .حيث أنه قادر عىل املحادثة ،حيث ترى إمكانيات الذكاء االصطناعي الخاصة به لضبط االتصال واالستماع إىل الوكيل واالستماع إىل العميل يف محاولة ملحاولة استخراج بيانات مفيدة من املحادثة. لقد ساعدنا الذكاء االصطناعي كثريًا يف التحليالت ،وال سيما التحليالت التنبؤية. حيث أن CXهو املسؤول عن األعمال الخارجية والتحصيل ،ملا لدينا من العبني ماليني عامليني رئيسيني نوفر لهم جميع الخدمات من هذا النوع .يعد "التحصيل" إحدى الخدمات الهامة التي نقدمها لهم ،ولكن يف املايض عندما صممت حملة "حصل" لم يكن لديك القدرة عىل التنبؤ باملقدار الذي ستجمعه. ومع ذلك ،اآلن من خالل التحليالت التنبؤية ،يمكننا إخبار العمالء قبل أن يبدأوا حملة التحصيل بما سيجمعونه .لقد مكن عمالئنا من أن يصبحوا أكرث إنتاجية،
SEPTEMBER 2019
ويوفر لهم الوقت واملوارد -وهذه هي النتائج التي ترغب الشركات يف رؤيتها. كثريون يف عالم تقنية املعلومات متحمسون للذكاء االصطناعي ،ولكن ال يزال هناك الكثري من الشكوك حول قدرات هذه التقنية .ما هي التحديات الرئييس التي تقف يف وجه انتشار الذكاء االصطناعي؟
هناك العديد من الجوانب التي تؤثر ً حقا وتحدث الكثري من اختالفات الرأي حول الذكاء االصطناعي .أول يشء هو الثقافة السائدة داخل املنظمات .بعض املنظمات مخطئ يف فهم الذكاء االصطناعي وتعتقد أنه سيكون الحل لجميع مشكالتها .إنهم يبدأون مشروع الذكاء االصطناعى، لكن سرعان ما يصابون باإلحباط .إنهم يستثمرون الكثري من املال يف املشروع ،لكن عندما ال يحصلون عىل النتائج ،يكون الحل بالنسب لهم هو أن يتوقفوا ببساطة.
لكن املنظمات التي تتبنى هذا النوع من النهج يمكن أن تخلق كثريًا من السلبية حول تقنية تحويلية مثل الذكاء االصطناعي. وعىل العكس من ذلك ،هناك ً أيضا الكثري من املبالغة يف الذكاء االصطناعي ،وخاصة عندما يتعلق األمر بمن يشرتي تكنولوجيا /
جوجل شريك ال يصدق وتقدم ً ً لنا دعما هائل ".
اسرتاتيجية الذكاء االصطناعي الخاصة بك. فعندما تقوم بتحديد املكان األنسب لعمل الذكاء االصطناعي لحل بعض التحديات الرئيسية ،دعنا نقول فقط يف مجال الرعاية الصحية ،عليك أن تفهم كيف تتناسب تكنولوجيا الذكاء االصطناعي التي يبيعونها لك مع عملك الكيل ،ومؤسستك ،واملستوى التقني املتوفر لديك. الذكاء االصطناعى بدون أعباء العمل الصحيحة والبيانات ليس لها قيمة واضحة وحقيقية .لديك تناسب الذكاء االصطناعي ضمن بيئة العمل الصحيحة داخل مؤسستك .لقد كان البائعون مذنبني يف تجاهل التفاصيل .لقد أتوا بتكنولوجيا جيدة يف الذكاء االصطناعى ،لكنهم يتجاهلون كل يشء آخر ،وهذا النهج لن يحقق النجاح. واحدة من أكرب القضايا ال تزال عالقة هي التكلفة .ال تزال باهظة الثمن ،وهنا نعود مر أخرى إىل نوعية األجهزة املستخدمة. أفايا هي شركة عاملية رائدة يف مجال حلول االتصاالت القابلة للتطوير .من وجه نظرك الخاصة ،ما الذي يميزك يف النهاية عن منافسيك يف السوق؟ هناك بعض العوامل املختلفة التي تميزنا عن منافسينا ،لكنني سأبدأ بالتقنية التي نقدمها .لطاملا ركزت أفايا عىل االبتكار .نحن ً دائما نملك عناوين IPالخاصة بنا ،فنحن ً دائما إىل عمالئنا، نبتكر يف تقنيتنا ،ونستمع ونجري الكثري من األبحاث والتطوير ملحاولة وفهم كيفية دفع السوق إىل األمام وما ستكون عليه احتياجات عمالئنا يف املستقبل. لقد وسعنا محفظتنا من الحلول ويمكن للعمالء أن يروا بوضوح التحسني يف خريطة الطريق لدينا .يشء واحد نحاول دائما القيام به يف أفايا هو جعل األشياء تعمل بشكل صحيح ومثمر .ال نعتمد االختصارات ونعرف العمالء ومن خالل التجربة أن أفايا تركز بشدة عىل النزاهة .عندما نقرتح تقنية ما، نكون حينها متأكدين من مدى فعالية هذه ً طبعا التقنية وما تستطيع أن تقدمه ،هذا
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PRODUCT LAUNCH Lenovo
LENOVO LAUNCH PRODUCT DESIGNED TO ACCELERATE ‘INTELLIGENT TRANSFORMATION’
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enovo, a technology leader in Intelligent Transformation, has introduced its Lenovo ThinkSystem SR635 and SR655 server platforms, two of the industry’s most powerful singlesocket servers to its existing product portfolio. As businesses are tasked with doing more with less, the new Lenovo solutions provide the performance of a dual-socket server at the cost of a single-socket. These new additions to Lenovo’s expansive server portfolio are powered by next-generation AMD EPYC™ 7002 Series processors and were designed specifically to handle customers’ evolving, data-intensive workloads such as video security, software-defined storage and network intelligence, as well as support for
SEPTEMBER 2019
virtualized and edge environments. The result is a solution that packs power along with efficiency for customers who place a premium on balancing throughput and security with easy scalability. “Lenovo’s endless pursuit of innovations to accelerate our customers’ intelligent transformation has been paramount in our rise to become one of the fastest growing data center OEMs in the world,” said Doug Fisher, Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Business Units, Lenovo Data Center Group. “Today Lenovo is expanding our AMD relationship with new, fully optimized solutions to help our joint customers address complex and data-intensive workloads, enabling them to do more with less while still providing uncompromised end-to-end security.”
Lenovo is expanding our AMD relationship with new, fully optimized solutions to help our joint customers address complex workloads.” The Lenovo ThinkSystem SR635 and SR655 provide more throughput, lower latency and higher core density, as well as the largest NVMe drive capacity of any single socket on the market. Beyond that, the new 2nd Gen AMD EPYC™ processorbased systems also provide a solid opportunity for the enablement of additional hyperconverged infrastructure solutions. This gives Lenovo the ability to offer customers vSAN and other certified nodes and future ThinkAgile software-defined appliances for simple deployment, management, and scalability. www.tahawultech.com
إطالق منتج جديد لينوفو
لينوفو تطلق منتج مصمم لتسريع "التحول الذكي"
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لينوفو ،الشركة الرائدة يف مجال التكنولوجيا يف التحول الذيك ،منصات خوادم Lenovo ThinkSystem SR635و ، SR655وهما من أقوى الخوادم أحادية املقبس يف هذه الصناعة ملحفظة منتجاتها الحالية.
قدمت
قدمت لينوفو ،الشركة الرائدة يف مجال التكنولوجيا يف التحول الذيك ،منصات خوادم Lenovo ThinkSystem SR635 و ، SR655وهما من أقوى الخوادم أحادية املقبس يف هذه الصناعة ملحفظة منتجاتها الحالية. نظرًا لتكليف الشركات بتقديم املزيد من االنتاج بأقل التكاليف ،توفر حلول لينوفو الجديدة أداء خادم مقبس مزدوج بتكلفة مأخذ توصيل واحد. يتم دعم هذه اإلضافات الجديدة إىل مجموعة خوادم لينوفو الواسعة من معالجات AMD EPYC ™ 7002 Series SEPTEMBER 2019
ً خصيصا من الجيل التايل ،وقد تم تصميمها للتعامل مع أعباء العمل املتطورة واملكثفة للبيانات مثل أمان الفيديو والتخزين املعرف بالربامج وذكاء الشبكة ،باإلضافة إىل دعم البيئات االفرتاضية. والنتيجة هي حل يضم الطاقة إىل جانب الكفاءة للعمالء الذين يسعون إىل موازنة اإلنتاجية واألمان مع سهولة التوسع. وقال دوغ فيشر ،الرئيس التنفيذي للعمليات ونائب الرئيس األول لوحدات األعمال يف لينوفو" :سعي لينوفو إىل االبتكارات التي ال نهاية لها من أجل تسريع التحول الذيك لعمالئنا كان السبب الرئييس يف تقدمنا ،لتصبح واحدة من أسرع الشركات املصنعة ملراكز البيانات نمواً يف العالم"" .تعمل لينوفو اليوم عىل توسيع عالقاتها مع AMDمن خالل حلول جديدة حسنة بالكامل ملساعدة عمالئنا املشرتكني ومُ ّ عىل معالجة أعباء العمل املعقدة واملكثفة للبيانات ،مما ّ يمكنهم من فعل املزيد بتكلفة
تعمل لينوفو على توسيع عالقاتنا مع AMDمع حلول جديدة ُ ّ ومحسنة بالكامل لمساعدة عمالئنا المشتركين على معالجة أعباء العمل المعقدة". أقل مع االستمرار يف توفري األمان الشامل دون أي تنازالت". يوفر كل من Lenovo ThinkSystem ً مزيدا من اإلنتاجية وكثافة SR635و SR655 أساسية أعىل ،وكذلك أكرب سعة ملحرك NVMeألي مقبس واحد يف السوق .عالوة عىل ذلك ،توفر األنظمة الجديدة القائمة عىل املعالج AMD EPYCالجديد فرصة قوية لتمكني حلول البنية التحتية اإلضافية شديدة التحمل. يمنح هذا لينوفو القدرة عىل تزويد العمالء بشبكات vSANوعقد أخرى معتمدة وأجهزة مستقبلية خاصة بربنامج ThinkAgileللنشر واإلدارة والقدرة عىل التوسع. www.tahawultech.com
Lori MacVittie, Principal Threat Evangelist, F5 Networks
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DNS IS KEY TO CONNECTED CUSTOMERS F5 NETWORKS’ PRINCIPAL THREAT EVANGELIST LORI MACVITTIE GIVES HER TAKE ON THE IMPORTANCE OF DNS.
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INSIGHT F5 Networks
D
NS (Domain Name System) remains one of the least appreciated application services in existence. Its role is so important, that its failure is considered catastrophic. If every DNS system stopped answering queries, it would bring the digital economy to its knees within minutes. Without the ability to translate domain names to IP addresses, apps would simply stop working. The system was designed, after all, because we simply can’t remember IP addresses as easily as we do “something” dot com. When we look at responses from the State of Application Services 2019, it is no surprise to find DNS threatening to enter the top five application services deployed today. When we narrow that view to telecommunications providers, we find a 10 point increase in deployment rates, rising from 68% of other industries to 79% of telecom providers. The prominent role of DNS in telecom is no surprise since many other industries - and most consumers - rely both directly and indirectly on service providers for their DNS services. DNS is provided to customers by their service providers. That includes both mobile and cable operators. It is those DNS services that make it possible for you to turn off the lights after you’ve left, or peek out the front door when someone approaches, or order up some dinner. Without DNS, the digital economy is dead www.tahawultech.com
in the water, unable to access the critical back-office apps that enable connected experiences - everywhere. DNS is also a critical component of application performance. Because 80-90% of applications today rely on third-party components or are comprised of APIs that require serverside processing, fast DNS resolution is vital to maintaining application performance. Every component that accesses a third-party resource requires a lookup, which means time on the wire and time to process. Slow responses can hinder performance and frustrate customers.
Slow responses can hinder performance and frustrate customers.” There is virtually no connected experience that is not impacted by the availability and speed of DNS. None. Not your toaster, not your navigation system, not your social media, and not your Netflix fix. That’s why it’s always disconcerting to find such a dearth of attention paid to DNS. That’s particularly true when you consider the importance of SaaS to business today. According
to the 2018 Global DNS Performance Benchmark Report, nearly half (44%) of the top 25 SaaS providers rely on a single DNS provider. That means both their primary and secondary nameservers are hosted and managed by the same provider. That could spell disaster, as it did in 2016 when Dyn DNS experienced a series of DDoS attacks against its infrastructure. The attack left a significant number of prominent sites and services suffering poor performance and outright outages. While DNS hijacking and cache poisoning are commonly mentioned as security risks, the reality is that the nature of DNS puts it at risk. It is - and must be - a publicly accessible service. It cannot be hidden behind access controls or other security services. That means DNS should garner a bit more attention from both infrastructure and security teams when considering how to defend the business from attack. Don’t forget about DNS. Make it a point to evaluate its security and architecture on an annual basis and take steps to protect it. That includes securing against the latest DDoS attacks and protecting DNS query responses from cachepoisoning redirects. Look into how to better distribute DNS responsibilities across more than one provider and consider the role global server load balancing plays in keeping your digital presence alive in the face of an attack. You can’t afford to ignore DNS if you want to succeed in the digital economy. SEPTEMBER 2019
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INSIGHT Secureworks
FIVE STEPS TO IMPROVE SECURITY POSTURE MAHMOUD MOUNIR, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, SECUREWORKS MEA, HIGHLIGHTS FIVE RECOMMENDATIONS THAT ORGANISATIONS SHOULD FOCUS ON TO IMPROVE THEIR SECURITY POSTURE. Mahmoud Mounir, Regional Director at Secureworks MEA
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yber criminals continue to leverage and coalesce around tactics that they know will work, because organisations still struggle to tackle the basics of cybersecurity, according to Secureworks’ 2019 Incident Response Insights Report. In this light, Mahmoud Mounir, Regional Director, Secureworks MEA, highlights five recommendations that organisations should focus on to improve their security posture. 1. CHOOSE A FRAMEWORK It is easy for organisations to examine incidents and their ensuing root cause analyses in isolation and develop point-in-time solutions to address the issues. But building a security program around an existing industry standard framework ensures that the organisation addresses many of the security gaps, and not just the systems that have already been compromised. While there are a number of frameworks to choose from, the practical and pragmatic CIS Controls framework includes straightforward guidance for defenders. 2. IMPLEMENT MULTIFACTOR AUTHENTICATION (MFA) The most common and effective
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recommendation Secureworks analysts provide is to implement MFA on all externally facing services. Every service available on the Internet, including cloud applications such as Office 365/Outlook, external VPNs, and SSO pages, should require users to provide a one-time password (OTP) in addition to their regular password. The OTP can be generated from a physical token or a software app. Though deprecated by some standards, an OTP via SMS message to the user’s phone is better than a single factor. This rule should apply to all users, especially senior managers and suppliers/ vendors that need access to the organisation’s systems.
essential for detecting suspicious activity in the environment after other controls have been evaded.
3. INCREASE VISIBILITY Incident response efforts are often hampered by a lack of visibility in the environment. This condition may be due to a lack of historical logs that allows network defenders to forensically piece together what happened, or it may be due to a lack of appropriate tools to monitor for ongoing threat actor activity. Organisations should check that log policies are configured to log useful data for an appropriate amount of time. Endpoint monitoring tools are
5. USING EXERCISES TO UNDERSTAND AND IMPROVE SECURITY POSTURE Table-top exercises can benefit organisations at different stages. In some cases, the scenarios and subsequent discussions can help participants understand their environment. Involving stakeholders from Legal, Public Relations, and other groups across the organisation provides insight about what data is and is not important and why.
4. CONDUCT PREPAREDNESS EXERCISES Cybersecurity technology solutions cannot address all cybersecurity risks. Business email fraud is a good example of how people and processes play a starring role in either increasing or reducing risk. Organisations should establish a process that involves multiple approvals for transactions, out-ofband confirmation of changes to bank account details, and no regular exceptions for “urgent” requests from senior management.
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