Computer News Middle East June 2017 by Computernews Middle East

ISSUE 305 | JUNE 2017 WWW.TAHAWULTECH.COM

DIFC Courts Averda Microsoft Build 2017 Robo-employees F5 Networks CEO

A new era National Bank of Kuwait’s Tariq Al-Usaimi on the hurdles of becoming one of the GCC’s first chief digital officers

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EDITORIAL Our events

Raising the bar Talk to us: E-mail: james.dartnell@ cpimediagroup.com

We’ve got a selection of fantastic stories for you this month, featuring a range of individuals and technologies that are pushing the boundaries in their respective fields. This month’s cover star is one of the Middle East’s first chief digital officers, National Bank of Kuwait’s Tariq Al-Usaimi. Tariq has a strong track record of delivering business-transforming technology projects, and is now thriving under the pressure and excitement of NBK’s new CDO role. Learn more about Tariq’s work on page 18. DIFC Courts, meanwhile, is setting the standard for the region’s legal industry. The GCC’s “first ever” virtual court has earned praise from governments around the world, and is a standout project for a vertical that still lives in the age of physical documents. More on page 22. On the vendor front, I attended Microsoft Build in Seattle, and was hugely impressed with the way the company is looking to infuse its technology with AI. Turn to page 10 for more on how it is pushing smart logic out to edge devices for real-time insights. I also had the pleasure of meeting new F5 Networks CEO François Locoh-Donou, a charming figure who shared his vision for how the firm can shift its focus to flexible software products. Read about François’ first days in the top job on page 38.

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Contents

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ISSUE 305 | JUNE 2017

NATIONAL BANK OF KUWAIT CDO TARIQ AL-USAIMI

CASE STUDY: DIFC COURTS

Microsoft Build 2017

Dell EMC World 2017

CASE STUDY: AVERDA

Adelle Geronimo reports from the second Dell EMC World outing in Las Vegas, where the firm laid out a roadmap for customers to get the most from their IT infrastructures and applications in a challenging future.

Microsoft’s director of Azure Compute, Corey Sanders, told CNME how the Redmond company is striving to make its cloud services more intelligent for users.

42 Whatever you want

A2Z Arabia’s co-founders Parvez Ahmed and Syed Sarfraz discuss why they believe their recently launched product is ready to challenge established incumbents within the saturated online regional listings market.

30 Manual versus machine

44 The e-tail era

34 Information education

48 The best is yet to come

INTERVIEW: F5 NETWORKS CEO FRANÇOIS LOCOH-DONOU

40 Sharper Edge

James Dartnell reports from Microsoft's annual developer conference in Seattle, where the firm launched a range of striking AI and edge computing technologies.

With Dubai's robocops becoming the world's first robot police officers, does this spell the dawn of a new era in terms of roboemployees - or even robobosses?

How should end users utilise data and analytics to inform strategic and operational decisions? How dataliterate are regional organisations?

CNME hosted a roundtable discussion on connected commerce to explore how retailers can ensure a seamless and secure shopping experience for customers.

Is the Internet of Things finally at a stage where it’s coming into the forefront of technology and consumer adoption? Published by

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THE HIDDEN COSTS OF

COLLABORATION

STOP, COLLABORATE AND LISTEN. ORGANISATIONS PLAN TO INVEST EVEN MORE IN THE COMING YEAR.

Have deployed/are considering deploying multiple solutions

Average number of providers IT pros are trying to manage

Say they’ll consider new tools this year

Average number of solutions IT pros are juggling

COLLABORATION SOLUTIONS HAVE CHANGED THE WAY WORKERS MEET AND THE WAY MEETINGS WORK.

1. MESSAGING

74%

2. WEB / SCREEN SHARE

72%

Not suprisingly, nearly 7 out of 10 IT professionals say collaboration is a high priority in their organisations. And people can’t get enough: 68 percent say even more attention to these solutions would be valuable. However, many organisations are in the dark as to what they’re spending on collaboration and conferencing tools.

3. VOICE / AUDIO

72%

4. VIDEO

70%

CHECK, PLEASE. There’s just one problem

56% OF IT PROS DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY’RE SPENDING ON SUBSCRIPTIONS/LICENCES FOR COLLABORATION SOLUTIONS. That’s a huge unknown - and it’s only one part of the total cost of owwnership.

TOO MANY TOOLS CAN CREATE A MESS FOR IT TRYING TO MANAGE MULTIPLE SOLUTIONS ACROSS DIFFERENT PROVIDERS ALSO CREATES CHALLENGES. END USER ADOPTION

SUPPORT CAN’T BE STANDARDISED

COST

(especially with shadow IT solutions)

TOP 5 FACTORS

CONTRIBUTING TO THE TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP

1 2

SUBSCRIPTION/LICENCE FEE

INFRASTRUCTURE

SECURITY

IT TROUBLESHOOTING

3 4

BANDWIDTH

LACK OF INTEGRATION ACROSS SOLUTIONS

USER EDUCATION

END USER TROUBLESHOOTING

5 Source: Lifesize

Adobe Photoshop 1.0

hotoshop has been an essential part of every graphic designer’s life for nearly three decades. Twenty-seven years since the software’s inception, aspects of the timeless design that Abode installed into version 1.0 still stand today - albeit with some drastic functional differences. The Knoll brothers - Photoshop’s creators - initially developed an application known as ‘Image-Pro’ in 1988. Within six months, the pair had sealed a partnership with Barneyscan, a scanner manufacturer, who purchased 200 copies of the programme to ship with their products. Before long, the Knoll brothers struck gold when they won over Adobe management with their programme, and formed a licensing partnership that would launch their software into the stratosphere. In February 1990, Adobe Photoshop 1.0 was released. The early build of Photoshop was a powerful and detailed editing utility when released back in 1990. Due to its monochromatic display, it could only operate in black and white, but this was soon altered in version 2.0 that was released in 1992. However, the first version featured a colour correction facility, allowing photography enthusiasts to adjust the balance, hue and saturation of their best shots, as well as curves, levels, and clone tools. Adobe Illustrator files could also be rasterised using the program. In order to utilise the software efficiently, users required certain compute power to meet the application’s demands. The programme was originally designed for the Mac operating system, and required a 68000 processor and a floppy disk drive. Photoshop has since been adapted to suit both Mac and Windows OS, and can now also be installed on iOS and Android devices. 8

JUNE 2017

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ANALYSIS

Microsoft Build 2017

Brains over brawn

now employs over 6,000 people. That organisation is currently prioritising text, speech and gesture recognition to reason with different datasets, and is on a mission to make its Azure cloud services smarter. One of Microsoft’s most eyecatching announcements was its Azure IoT Edge service, which runs Azure cloud functions on Internet of Things devices, by removing the cloud loop and pushing the logic out to devices.

James Dartnell reports from Microsoft Build 2017 at Seattle’s Washington State Convention Centre, where the firm launched a whole host of striking AI and edge computing technologies that CEO Satya Nadella hopes can inspire a safer, more ethical future.

t was certainly encouraging to see Satya Nadella display some restraint in his keynote at Microsoft’s annual developer conference. Frankly, most CEO’s in his position would not. Addressing a room of some of the world’s brightest IT minds, Nadella made it clear that prodigious technology must be coupled with prudence. “The opportunity for developers to have a broad, deep impact on society and the economy has never been greater,” he said. “With this enormous opportunity comes enormous responsibility. To me, the choices that we as developers make will have profound implications on society.” Offering a nod to the possibilities – good and bad – of what can be created with AI, Nadella acknowledged the need for ethical decisions in the use of sophisticated IT tools. “Build is about the massive shift that will play out,” he said. “There are unintended consequences of technology. We can’t just use more technology to solve problems, and technologists alone can’t solve them. But it is up to us to ensure dystopian scenarios don’t come true. 10

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“We need to build more trust in technology as the world becomes more technology-driven. That starts with us taking accountability for the algorithms and experiences that we create. Perhaps most importantly, it’s about celebrating what you can do with technology to have a broad impact.” While Microsoft still undoubtedly has work to do on its mission to enable a truly ‘mobile-first, cloud-first’ culture across the world, the firm is already looking to raise the stakes in the delivery of AI-enabled services and computing at the edge. Nadella announced that there are now 500 million Windows 10 devices, 100 million monthly active users for Office 365 and 140 million monthly Cortana users, and these numbers are clear evidence of the company’s enduring appeal. However, there’s an acknowledgement from within Redmond that in the near future, there won’t be space in the market for systems, apps and devices that are not “intelligent”. In September 2016, the firm established its AI and Research Group, the new organisation that is led by executive vice president Harry Shum, which

Nadella used the example of workplace safety to illustrate what could be achieved with a sharp blend of AI and edge computing. “If you think about the last 20 years, the biggest change we’ve seen is the ability to index and search all text that has ever been created through Web and search,” he said. “Just imagine if we could do that with any physical place, like a hospital, industrial setting or factory floor. We can create safety for humans, and policies for safe interactions. This can change lives. Pretty much all workplace accidents could be prevented if they could be detected beforehand.” Using a solution consisting of Azure IoT Edge, Azure Stack, Microsoft Cognitive Services and cameras, director of commercial communications Andrea Carl gave a demo which showed a workshop site on stage. The system was able to www.tahawultech.com

Harry Shum, EVP for Microsoft's AI & Research Group

becoming a reality, our vision for which is to amplify human ingenuity,” he said. “To have great AI, you need great data. The forces of big compute, powerful algorithms and massive data are combining to present a new era for AI. A key part of our innovation

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

visually recognise if a “jackhammer” was in an unsafe position within the workshop, or if an unauthorised employee was about to pick it up. This in turn triggered alerts to employees’ devices within the workspace. The solution makes more than 27 million recognitions per second. According to Microsoft, this technology can also be used to identify things such as spillages in the workplace, while policies can be created that grant access for which employee can use which tool. “The intelligent edge is the interface between a computer and the real world,” Nadella said. “We are reaching a point where we can’t rendezvous training in the cloud, we need it at the edge.” Embedding Azure with AI services is another of Microsoft’s key mandates. The firm announced new cognitive services and platform www.tahawultech.com

Conversational AI represents a move from a world where humans learn about computers, to one where computers understand humans.

innovations in the Microsoft Bot Framework, as well as advances in deep learning tools and insights offered through the Microsoft Graph. AI and research group chief Shum explained that information will be key to what can be achieved with artificial intelligence. “It’s amazing to see AI

has been building deep neural nets for object segmentation.” Shum continued by saying that new conversational elements within Microsoft’s AI offerings represented a hugely disruptive influence in technology. “Advancements in speech and language are enabling conversational AI – conversation as a platform – which is the next major user interface paradigm shift,” he said. “Conversational AI represents a move from a world where humans learn about computers, to where computers understand humans.” The company now provides 29 cognitive services for developers, with customisation options. These enable developers to infuse intelligence capabilities such as vision, speech, language, knowledge and search into their app and bot experiences. These include Custom Vision, Custom Decision and Video Indexer. The real-time PowerPoint add-in Presentation Translator – offered in Arabic – was also featured. JUNE 2017

ANALYSIS

Dell EMC World 2017

The best of both worlds

In its second annual Las Vegas ‘World’ outing since the completion of the record $67 billion merger, Dell EMC laid out a roadmap for customers to get the most from their IT infrastructures and applications in a challenging future. Adelle Geronimo reports from The Venetian hotel.

ell Technologies may well have hit the magic number in its mission for technology dominance. The firm claims that digital transformation is not akin to magic, but its septet of technology brands – Dell EMC chief among them – are sure to play a key role in IT infrastructures around the world in the coming years. Dell EMC World 2017 drew over 13,500 IT professionals, partners, and product experts to Las Vegas to get a hands-on feel of the company’s progress, upcoming technologies and a glimpse of the future for the firm. Founder and CEO Michael Dell kicked off the conference by laying out the company’s product portfolio and gave insights into how that it is positioned to help customers take huge strides in revolutionising their business models. “Making digital transformation happen is why we combined the expertise of Dell, Dell EMC, Pivotal, RSA, SecureWorks, Virtustream and VMware into one ‘family’ of strategically aligned businesses,” Dell said. “This unique structure allows us to innovate like a startup but with the scale of a global powerhouse.” 12

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Dell then highlighted that the combined strengths of these brands gives the company "a leading position" in PCs, servers, storage, next-generation networking, security and cloud technologies. “For our customers, that means having a technology partner that can be number one in everything, all in one place,” he said. “This phenomenal engine is fuelled by a $4.5 billion annual investment in R&D and innovation.” Dell went on to explore how the requisites of digital transformation have been widely accepted by global businesses, and that leading companies are now being forced to act upon that realisation. “The hunger for transformation is tremendous,” Dell said. “CEOs have already moved beyond being convinced about the importance of IT and digital transformation. Every company wants to be a technology company, and every business unit wants to be a platform. Technology is a key enabler for every growth strategy and every productivity initiative.” Dell handed over to Dell EMC president David Goulden, who took to the stage to reveal a threepronged strategy that the company

believes will help customers in their transformation journey. “The digital transformation mega trend will only intensify, reinforcing the need to start the IT transformation journey now,” he said. “A modern, automated, and transformational data centre infrastructure is the key to businesses moving forward. The creation of Dell EMC has accelerated our ability to develop and deliver technologies that will underpin the next wave of innovation and progress for our customers.” According to Goulden, transforming IT is all about applications, which are increasingly being run on cloud. “Of course, clouds run on IT infrastructures: services, storage, and networking,” he said. “The first priority is to develop the right cloud strategy to meet diverse application needs, including the needs of general purpose, new cloud-native, and mission-critical applications.” For general applications, Dell EMC provides its own hybrid cloud offering, Enterprise Hybrid Cloud, a platform based on VMware technology. For mission-critical applications, it offers Virtustream, which provides a public cloud www.tahawultech.com

Dell EMC president David Goulden

infrastructure specifically designed for applications that require reliability. Goulden went on to announce that later in the year, the company will introduce the Enterprise Hybrid Cloud for Virtustream. The firm also offers technology from Pivotal, which offers a base on which modern, cloud-native apps can be built. “Pivotal has partnerships with Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft Azure,” Goulden added. Dell EMC’s second strategy is providing data centre infrastructure, which Goulden said is the first step in getting ready for the cloud. He invited Intel’s EVP and general manager for its Data Centre group Diane Bryant on stage for one of the company’s biggest product announcements this year – the new 14G PowerEdge server line, which will be available in the coming months. “Dell EMC’s 14G servers are built on next-generation Xeon processing technology, which Intel plans to introduce this summer,” she said. VxRail 4.5 will also be based on 14G server technology. According to Bryant, the new PowerEdge 14G servers will be embedded in storage arrays, data protection tools, data centre and www.tahawultech.com

hyper-converged appliances and racks, and ready nodes among others. “Xeon, which will be integrated into the 14G PowerEdge servers, will be focused on meeting the performance, security, and efficiency needs of cloud computing, and in helping customers to develop data centre infrastructures with the flexibility of the largest webscale providers,” said Bryant. Goulden came back on stage to highlight the third part of Dell EMC’s strategy, which is focused on helping companies with their digital transformation through services and consumption. “Dell EMC provides services through 60,000 people and partners who can help customers regardless of whether the customer wants capital purchases, a subscription service, or a pay-for-use service,” he said. During the event, the company’s VP and general manager of IoT Andy Rhodes also revealed Dell EMC’s affiliation with EdgeX Foundry, which was recently launched by the Linux Foundation, and involves a community of more than 50 companies. EdgeX Foundry is an open-source software project whose goal is to drive interoperability between proprietary

value-added applications and existing connectivity standards. The conference also put the spotlight on IoT, with VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger introducing the new VMware Pulse IoT Centre, a secure IoT management solution that gives customers control over their connected things for simplified management. “The history of computing is changing and IoT will bring us to a more distributed computing world,” he said. “Over the past decade, cloud has decentralised computing and IoT will be the force that will take us back to the edge. Therefore, it is crucial that we learn how we can take control of our infrastructure and know how to operate in both public and private cloud environments.” Gelsinger further highlighted that VMware is positioning the Pulse IoT Centre as a simpler way for network administrators to track, visualise, monitor and secure hundreds of thousands of different types of edge systems and connected devices. When the Pulse IoT Centre is plugged into the new EdgeX Foundry, VMware will be able to offer system and device management for the EdgeX ecosystem. JUNE 2017

ANALYSIS

VeeamON 2017

Game on With the DR and backup firm setting itself a $1.5 billion revenue target by 2020, Janees Reghelini examines the opportunities and challenges that Veeam Software faces, reporting from its third annual edition of VeeamON in New Orleans.

“

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Veeam’s newly appointed co-CEO Peter McKay got the third edition of VeeamON underway by equating the current business environment to the famous opening line of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. “If we take advantage of the disruptive opportunities in front of us, it is certainly the best of times for agile companies,” he said. For firms who fail to adapt and consequently become irrelevant to 14

JUNE 2017

customers, meanwhile, it will be “the worst of times.” Veeam, too, has ambitious goals in the pipeline, yet it remains to be seen if it will be facing the “best of times” in the coming years. Established a decade ago, co-founders Ratmir Timashev and Andrei Baronov launched the company in Switzerland, with a monitoring tool for VMware as its first product. Veeam backup and replication was introduced soon after, which eventually led to the

release of its flagship offering, the Availability Suite. CEO McKay kicked off VeeamON by framing the need for robust IT systems before any ambitious projects can be attempted. “User confidence is only possible through business continuity and availability,” he said. “We are playing a part in enabling customers to not only survive, but also drive their digital transformation initiatives.” One of the big talking points of VeeamON was the firm’s www.tahawultech.com

Our priorities are to understand our customers’ business, transform how we transact and evolve ahead of the market. Peter McKay, co-CEO, Veeam Software

announcement to strive towards the $1.5 billion revenue mark by 2020. Having closed 2016 with revenues of $607 million, the company has established a target of $200 million growth each year to hit the $1 billion mark by 2018, and subsequently hit $1.5 billion over the next three years. McKay will take on this task with a four-pronged approach. Aside from listening to customers and attempting to gain a “thorough” understanding of their businesses and challenges, the company aims to build a “world-class www.tahawultech.com

team, expand into cloud and leverage the partner ecosystem.” “Our priorities are to understand our customers’ business, transform how we transact and evolve ahead of the market, ensure innovation in everything we do and elevate how and what we sell,” he said. “We are investing aggressively in the enterprise.” Veeam’s regional director for the Middle East, Africa and SAARC region, Gregg Petersen, believes the revenue target may not be too ambitious. “Veeam invests heavily in terms of the percentage it puts back into R&D,” he said. “Our driving factor is not the date of a release but the performance of the product. And we are known for this within our customer base.” The main challenge that the company will have to overcome in order to attain its objective will be capturing larger enterprise customer accounts, according to Forrester senior analyst Naveen Chhabra. He said, “Enterprise accounts will not only bring them one-time customers, but also recurring sales. Veeam has a strong, loyal customer base that pays and renews the supporting contracts, but volumes are not high. Veeam directly handles very few billion-dollar transactions. “This is where the company’s alliance partnerships with firms such as VMware, HP and Cisco, will play a key role.” Veeam unveiled several new products and shared updates on its current offerings at the event. However, according to Petersen, regional CIOs should be most excited about the cloud updates and the features in the new Availability Suite v10 such as

Continuous Data Protection and builtin management for Agent for Linux and Microsoft Windows. “CIOs are looking for solutions that help deliver their services seamlessly and progressively,” he said. “Another aspect that they are now demanding is solutions around risk mitigation.” Another takeaway from the event was that the firm’s leadership greatly believes in the need to keep evolving. McKay said, “We are choosing to adapt to the market evolution at a time when business is going great for us.” Organisations across the world are beginning to understand how critical it is to have their services and data available 24/7. Availability issues can leave permanent damage to a brand’s reputation and negatively impact more than just bottom line. A case in point is the massive systems’ outage British Airway recently experienced. Customers were stranded for days, with the airline’s operations grinding to a halt. How Veeam moves forward will make all the difference to whether it endures the best or worst of times. “I knew Veeam was going to be big but didn’t realise it was going to be this big,” co-founder Timashev said. “I am confident that our future is bright. We know where to take the company over the next five years.” Resurrection and transformation is a recurring theme in Dickens’ novel, and while the road to the $1 billion mark is bound to be one riddled with hurdles, it is safe to say that Timashev will be enjoying the “best of times” as long as the firm’s leadership doesn’t cease to evolve with market demands. JUNE 2017

ANALYSIS

Criteo: EMEA media meet

Clicks of the trade Criteo has set its sights on gaining a firm foothold in digital marketing and data analysis within the ever-expanding e-commerce space. The company recently called upon journalists from across the EMEA region to meet at its HQ in Paris to explore the power of data in the retail industry and the vital role of mobile in marketing. Glesni Holland reports.

eet Lou Werner. Fortyfive-year-old Lou has transformed her shop in Xiabao, China, into a real-time-responsive, data-enabled e-commerce hub. She recognised the need to adapt in 2013, after two of her competitors in the same village fell victim to the online and mobile shopping boom. Installing digital weighing scales and laser scanners connected to Internet-enabled touch points was not all – she also installed a 42-inch plasma screen to control her WeChat app. This allows her to have direct access to her customers at any time of day; she can post offers, source requirements and alert shoppers when certain items come into stock. The data that is collected via her customers’ buying habits is now available through online databases to markets across the globe, which were previously unable to access consumer behaviour trends from such a rural area. Lou reinvented her business model by buying into an omnichannel approach, one which digital marketing company, Criteo, is a major advocate of. Founded in 2005 by a small group of eager tech enthusiasts huddled in a Paris incubator, it’s fair to say that Criteo has come a long way since its inception. With a total revenue of $1.7 billion in 2016, it has quickly grown 16

JUNE 2017

its presence to having over 30 offices worldwide, and has expanded its employee base to 2,500. As the e-commerce landscape becomes increasingly prominent, Criteo has acknowledged the need to expand its operations to focus on user-centric marketing. Gregory Gazagne, executive vice president of the EMEA region, has been at the company for seven-and-a-half years. “When I started, real time bidding for advertising wasn’t our primary focus,” he said. “But very quickly, we saw the need to create a user bidding engine, and our R&D team were very keen for us to go mobile at that stage.” At the time, just 2 percent of e-commerce sales were being conducted over mobile. “Now, more

than 60 percent of our revenue is driven through mobile transactions,” Gazagne said. “What’s more, in Q4 of 2016, 50 percent of mobile transactions on our network were done through apps.” Recognising this surge in mobile transactions triggered the need to optimise the company’s approach. Criteo’s Ben Cooper, managing director of brand solutions for EMEA, quoted Frost & Sullivan and defined omnichannel as “seamless and effortless, high-quality customer experiences that occur within and between contact channels.” He used the example of Sir Pryce Pryce-Jones, a British entrepreneur that sold welsh flannels in the 19th century and had been conducting www.tahawultech.com

Gregory Gazagne, EVP, EMEA, Criteo

a multichannel business since 1861 by selling his products through both shops and catalogues. He went on to explain how retailers and brands are often organised around silos of channels, due to the skill sets that have evolved to address certain areas of business, which in turn have created challenges in unlocking the power of omnichannel. “Having access to this value is what gives markets the ability to be more efficient,” he said. He continued by aligning Werner’s story with the societal change that has been brought on by the influence of omnichannel, claiming that the shop has “basically become Walmart” to the 1,000-person village. “I would argue that at the centre of this story is the smartphone,” he added. “If the holy grail of marketing is to create a single customer view, then surely the focus of a strategy should be around the device that we constantly carry with us?” A 2016 report by Deloitte revealed that the average person looks at their smartphone 47 times per day, with the number rising to 82 for 18-24-year-olds. However, the need for a physical presence still very much stands in Cooper’s opinion. In 2016, 16.8 percent of all UK transactions – a market which has various www.tahawultech.com

commonalities with the UAE – were conducted in a digital format – 50 percent of these were through a mobile platform. Yet that still means that over 4/5 of retail still took place within a physical shop. “One of the biggest endorsements of shops still being very relevant is the fact that Amazon is opening one,” added Cooper. “They know that if they want to survive, they need to put themselves on the ground and in front of the customer.” While Amazon Go is currently only being explored in the US, Cooper is confident that we will soon see this develop across the EMEA region. In 2016, Criteo analysed sales transactions worth over $550 billion through its “transparent, cost-perclick model,” which enables the company to gather value from data based purely on post-click sales, to then relay this valuable information to customers. This involves collecting a huge amount of data, and hosting it in data centres across the globe. Criteo currently rents storage space in ten Equinix data centres worldwide, one of which is situated in Paris. When questioned why the company didn’t opt for a cloudhosting provider to reduce spending on hardware and enable a more scalable solution, Justin Coffey,

One of the biggest endorsements of shops still being very relevant is the fact that Amazon is opening one. Ben Cooper, MD of brand solutions, EMEA, Criteo senior staff development lead, Criteo, said, “Amazon solved this problem for many companies, but they didn’t solve it for us. Obviously one of our busiest periods is Black Friday, and when we first begun negotiations with Amazon, we naively thought that we could load our data onto their S3 solution, as it is relatively inexpensive. However, to do that we would have had to reserve our instances ahead of time, meaning we would have had to pay for the hardware anyway.” He added, “If you begin your operations in the cloud, then it is much easier. Re-instrumenting everything from an on-premise state makes the transition difficult for us.” JUNE 2017

FEATURE

Tariq Al-Usaimi, National Bank of Kuwait CDO

The D-level

As one of the first chief digital officers in the Middle East – and the first ever at National Bank of Kuwait – pressure and excitement enshroud Tariq AlUsaimi’s work. Al-Usaimi is rising to the challenge by applying his local knowledge in order to drive the customer’s user experience and NBK’s digital products, as well as the Bank's journey to becoming totally paperless.

ariq Al-Usaimi is an undoubted rarity in the Middle East. Now occupying one of the few chief digital officer posts in the region, he is determined to apply his extensive knowledge of Kuwaiti society and the banking industry at large to transform National Bank of Kuwait’s future. However, even he concedes that the exact definition of a ‘digital’ company is not always clear. “It’s a tricky question,” he says. “The optimum state for any company is to be completely paperless, and in a bank’s case, having no paper currency or paper documents whatsoever. Until then, I don’t think you can really claim to be completely digital. To an extent, being ‘digital’ it is a marketing slogan.” While going paperless may seem an achievable target for many startups, for most legacy firms – although huge progress may have been made in many areas – the transition could well take decades. Store rooms full of physical records are a fixture of most large companies across the world, and Al-Usaimi is aware that a shift in regulations, partnered with holistic 18

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digital approaches, are the only way to reverse that reality. “For any bank, it will take tens of years to go completely digital,” he says. “If a document legally has to be stored for anything up to 45 years, then paper and storage costs – including rent, staff and electricity – are huge. Eliminating that cost will be hugely worthwhile, but regulations first need to be changed to allow that to happen.” Joining NBK in January 2016, Al-Usaimi had previously worked as chief information officer for Kuwait Credit Bank (KCB). His work at KCB had centred around the Bank’s digital transformation, but he acknowledges that, in many respects, the move to NBK was a huge step up. “A lot of Kuwait Credit Bank’s work revolves around consumer banking, and providing loans,” he says. “National Bank of Kuwait undoubtedly operates on a larger scale, with much more work in corporate and enterprise banking, and across the whole banking spectrum.” He adds that his role is now much more of a gobetween for technology and the entire organisation. “My job is to plug the

gap between IT and business,” he says. “I am responsible for advisory services to the business in terms of going digital.” With so few organisations in the Middle East having appointed a CDO, the role’s demands are still maturing, with many technology professionals still unsure of where the function sits within an organisation. One of Al-Usaimi’s key duties is to act as the firm’s eyes and ears for new and innovative ways that NBK can use technology to benefit its customers. “A large part of my work revolves around scouring the market to find ways that we can strengthen NBK, and see where the financial industry is heading globally,” he says. However, one criterion takes precedence above all others. “The most important thing is to remain ahead of the curve. You have to work in parallel with market trends to ensure that you remain innovative, and can do things differently. Dollars and cents are not your target as a CDO. But neither is it a role driven by bits and bytes.” He also believes that the role is far removed from that of a CIO. “The www.tahawultech.com

Tariq Al-Usaimi, chief digital officer, National Bank of Kuwait

www.tahawultech.com

JUNE 2017

FEATURE

Tariq Al-Usaimi, National Bank of Kuwait CDO

CDO role is really defined by time to market, although having an IT background is advantageous in that respect,” he says. However, retaining a strong working relationship with the CIO is a necessity. “I have a very close relationship with NBK’s CIO,” Al-Usaimi says. “All the groundwork is done in line with him, and we will always be sitting on the same table.” Given the CDO role’s relatively recent addition to companies across the world, one could forgive Al-Usaimi for being overwhelmed by the uncertainty that inevitably surrounds the job. Does such a newly-defined role provide more freedom, or does Al-Usaimi find himself under increasing stress to deliver? “There’s definitely of lot of pressure in the job,” he says. “A CIO’s KPI’s are well defined, but there is no proven system in the market today that satisfies the success of a CDO.” However, although the role – in a sense – lacks clear parameters for success, he does believe that business and banking leaders at large have woken up to the importance of a digital approach. “Brick and mortar businesses have suffered in the last 23 years, and that isn’t lost on those at the top,” Al-Usaimi says. Any nerves aside, Al-Usaimi has been hard at work to make sure he puts the NBK CDO role firmly on the map. Revamping the user experience of the company’s mobile app has been a top priority, along with the digitalisation of debit and credit cards, through the introduction of NFC technologies. “Our app is the main point of contact from the client to us,” he says. “Our strategy revolves around putting an NBK branch in every customer’s hand, so they can do everything through their mobile device. That means that they should be able to open a current account, or 20

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Young people are less and less interested in face-to-face communication, and that should be a key driver for digitalisation.

apply for a loan or credit card through the app.” Meanwhile, NBK have also rolled out interactive teller machines since Al-Usaimi’s arrival, which he describes as a “very important” addition. “We’ve invested a lot in them,” he says. “It’s key that where you may not have the space to install a branch, you allow customers to interact with an account manager who can help them on the spot.” He has also made it a priority to tailor the services that NBK offers to ensure that the local market’s nuances are satisfied, and that customers do not merely receive blanket services that are par for the course in other countries. “One of the most important factors in driving successful digital transformation is understanding the local culture and needs of your particular market," he says. I don’t believe you can be successful if you fall short in this regard." Al-Usaimi has carried that philosophy into the products and strategies he is developing at NBK, and has identified the key areas that the Bank can provide the best possible services for its customers. “You have to look at the way Kuwaitis learn, as well as our demographics; 70 percent of our population is youth-based,” he says. “Young

people generally want access to services through their debit cards or smartphones, usually in prepaid packages. Young couples who are getting married have different priorities, and are more interested in post-paid packages and loyalty programmes, and initiatives that can support them in getting loans for buying a home or raising a family. It’s all a case of how you can offer these packages through digital initiatives.” The “youth-based” population of which Al-Usaimi speaks is also, in his opinion, a key reason why the Middle East is ripe for digital change. “The region’s population is growing, and is increasingly comprising young people,” he says. “They are less and less interested in face-to-face communication, and that should be a key driver for digitalisation.” By the same token, he unequivocally believes that a digital company must practice what it preaches, and have digital natives at its core. “It’s not just a case of hiring them, but also the way you treat them,” he says. “The most important thing for the young generation today is being valued. Programmes that show that they are valued are important. That’s really the only way we can build a digital future.” www.tahawultech.com

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CASE STUDY

JUNE 2017

DIFC Courts

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Virtual verdict

DIFC Courts has already drawn praise from the British, Qatari and Tanzanian governments for its work with technology. Committed to delivering the ‘GCC’s first’ digital and virtual court, senior IT manager Arul Jose Vigin deployed a unified communications solution that allows hearings to go ahead even if participants are scattered across the globe.

t’s no secret that the legal industry is slow to adopt technology. Leather-bound books, Georgian-style wigs and imposing courtrooms spring to mind when you think of some of the world’s most established justice systems. It seems ironic that an industry that depends so heavily on information and transparency is shrouded in mystery for many. When it comes to technology, DIFC Courts, however, is aiming to shake up the status quo.

We decided that instead of a court being a physical place, it could be a virtual network.

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Established in October 2007 by the chief justice of DIFC Courts, and from its inception, the Small Claims Tribunal (SCT) was had a mandate to be a paperless organisation that delivers digital end-to-end case management. The SCT deals with issues relating to employment and tenancy, while SMEs based outside of DIFC’s free zone jurisdiction can resolve disputes if both parties agree to settle a case under DIFC’s laws. Over 90 percent of cases in the Small Claims Tribunal are resolved in under four weeks, and DIFC Courts has made it a priority to ensure that those involved in cases have as stress-free an experience as possible. A similar percentage of cases are initially registered through DIFC Courts’ e-registry service. “DIFC Courts was the first court in the region to go paperless,” Arul Jose Vigin, senior IT manager, DIFC Courts, says. “Cases can be managed online, and technology covers the entirety of our operations. It’s important to be a customer-centric, innovative court, and part of that means being

connected, as technology and good customer service go hand-in-hand.” Being digitally enabled also allows DIFC Courts to increase its own legitimacy to the public. “Being able to digitally publish the progress of each case meant that DIFC Courts has increased transparency.” Joining DIFC Courts just over a year ago, Vigin was determined to transfer his previous technology experience across financial and government organisations into work that could further cement DIFC Courts and the Dispute Resolution Authority’s – the holding company for DIFC Courts – reputation as the GCC’s first digital court. Although DIFC Courts had progressed very well in terms of delivering online services, there was an acknowledgement that more could be done to reduce the need for parties to attend a physical court hearing. “It’s common for people who are involved in employment disputes to have left the UAE, and be unable to return,” Vigin says. “For DIFC Courts to be truly virtual, we needed a solution that would allow people who fit these JUNE 2017

CASE STUDY

DIFC Courts

circumstances to participate in a case from wherever they are.” DIFC Courts is governed by English common law, and its verdicts are enforced in jurisdictions including England, Wales, New York and Singapore. This global status provided further incentive for DIFC Courts to deliver a solution that facilitates discussions that could traverse physical borders. “The business language of the world is English,” Vigin says. “People want what they know works, and they get that with DIFC Courts.” In August 2016, Vigin began exploring ways that DIFC Courts could deliver a remote hearing experience, and analysed various technology options that could help to build a virtual courtroom. “Businesspeople and investors are always busy,” Vigin says. “They constantly move across the board, and aren’t always in the country to resolve issues when they are needed. We decided that instead of a court being a physical place, it could be a virtual network, as we want to be available for parties whenever and wherever they are.” Vigin decided that DIFC Courts needed a unified communications solution that could enable the seamless delivery of virtual court cases. Ensuring court confidentiality was an important priority when he began the hunt for new technologies, a solution needing to be secure and compliant with Dubai’s laws. Vigin was also adamant that the technology would have to be mobile-friendly, with users being able to comfortably move their experience across devices. After scouring the market for potential options, Vigin opted to deploy Polycom’s CX5500 unified conference station, its RealPresence Clariti software and Microsoft Skype for Business. The implementation was “smooth”, and took 45 days to 24

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This small claims system works more effectively and quickly than ours does back in the UK. Antoinette Sandbach, United Kingdom MP complete, with the newly-formed ‘Smart SCT’ up and running by October 2016, becoming the “GCC’s first virtual court”. The solution has been designed so that parties who are being hooked into virtual cases can do so without a need for any particular model of device. Court scheduling is set three days in advance of a hearing, and this allows Vigin to send a URL that allows any parties to participate in a virtual case at the click of a button. “The Smart STC provides highly convenient and less disruptive remote hearings,” Vigin says. “Scheduling parties’ time becomes easier, which results in faster settlements. We are now less dependent on physical facilities, and this is a huge step in enhancing the brand value of DIFC Courts, demonstrating our pursuit of innovation and excellence.” The whole experience delivered by the virtual courtroom also helps to put participants at ease, Vigin says. The psychological effect of a “friendlier” courtroom makes the experience less

intimidating for a party, as they can avoid a potentially stressful hearing in a physical courtroom. “You can participate in a court case in your living room or at your desk – you could even be wearing your pyjamas and slippers,” Vigin quips. The Smart SCT has already received international acclaim, and has been visited by Tanzanian and Qatari delegations, who are now keen to follow DIFC Courts’ example. What’s more, a group of eight members of parliament (MPs) from the United Kingdom visited DIFC Courts in April for a first-hand look at how the Smart SCT operates, and the role it plays in attracting businesses to the UAE. MP for Eddisbury, Antoinette Sandbach, lauded the project on her visit. “The Smart SCT is a very interesting development here, particularly because it works so quickly,” she said. “I think that has great advantages for commercial relationships, and it actually looks like this small claims system works more effectively and quickly than ours does back in the UK.” Vigin draws great pride from the praise that the project has garnered in its short tenure. “The prospect of solving disputes online has been discussed for some time around the world, but relatively little progress has actually been made,” he says. “The legal industry has not been revolutionised by technology in the same way that other industries have. Courts still have a need for physical documents. However, we are transforming our services for a modern court system.” Plans are in the pipeline to enhance the Courts’ reach, with Vigin hoping to expand the satellite environment to include several Dubai free zones, including Dubai Multi Commodities Centre. www.tahawultech.com

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CASE STUDY

Averda

Waste not, want not Averda specialises in providing sustainable waste solutions to over 9 million customers across 13 countries in the EMEA region. In order to utilise and manage the enormous influx of data that these operations produce, chief risk management officer Anthony Kurban opted for a streamlined hybrid cloud as a data hosting platform.

ith more than 35 years of experience in waste management across pedestrian, residential, commercial and industrial areas, Averda is one of the largest and most established environmental solution providers in the Middle East and Africa region. Its GCC headquarters based in Dubai, the company serves over 9 million people every day across 13 countries through its three lines of business; municipal waste projects, technical waste solutions and commercial collection services. Respecting the environment is of the utmost importance to Averda, and the company prides itself on integrating sustainable 26

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infrastructures that stand by this mantra. These include the development of solutions for water, wastewater and solid waste across public, residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. IT plays a crucial role in all of these services, says Anthony Kurban, Averda’s chief risk management officer. “In our municipal waste projects, we use IT to track our fleet of trucks, and this capability can also provide us with a ‘proof of delivery’ if there are any issues with the service,” he says. “With our technical waste solutions that we provide for clients, we can share our data with them as a form of corporate social responsibility, which allows us to engage with

them over how much waste they’ve saved, and how much they’ve recycled or diverted from landfill.” With all of this data circulating the company’s operations, Averda needed a secure hosting platform to store it on. “Previously, we managed our own IT and we handled our storage, servers and data centre,” Kurban says. “We were responsible for everything, but we took the decision in 2012 to say that we’re not an IT company, we’re a waste management company. That’s why we looked to outsource this service to a third party.” From 2012-2015, Averda outsourced their data to Rackspace, a UK-based hosting company. “We were assured that www.tahawultech.com

We decided in 2012 that we’re not an IT company, we’re a waste management company. That’s why we looked to outsource this service to a third party.

working with Rackspace would be a safe option, because the British Ministry of Defence used their services to host their servers, and I figured we didn’t have any data more sensitive than that the MoD had,” Kurban quips. Upon the contract renewal with Rackspace, Kurban scanned the market for competitive offers to rival his current solution. “By this time, we had a lot of our applications housed with the big IT players in the market; 90 percent of our ERP runs on Oracle, www.tahawultech.com

JUNE 2017

CASE STUDY

Averda

100 percent of our communications run on Microsoft Office 365 and 70 percent of our business intelligence runs on IBM,” he says. “We approached IBM to discuss their cloud offerings, and following the acquisition of SoftLayer Technologies in 2013, they offered us a competitive proposal.” Kurban also highlights the importance of Gartner’s ‘Magic Quadrant’ report in the selection process. “Instead of working with 10-12 vendors, we are now just working with 4-5 of the big players,” he says. The IBM solution, based on VMware with SoftLayer infrastructure, and utilising Aspera for file transfer, enabled a “seamless migration” of Averda’s data to IBM Cloud within 15 hours over one weekend, meaning the business experienced no downtime. Opting for IBM’s hybridcloud offering was “in line with the company’s IT strategy” after Averda switched the focus from managing data centres to concentrating on expanding its business. “We’re running a range of different projects in multiple countries – some of which have previously required us to have local servers in place for the clients,” he says. “However, you also need a virtual server in order to back this data up if you are to access it from outside of the country, which is why we opted for a hybrid model.” Kurban says that he had no concerns in entering a public cloud agreement with IBM. “Similarly, when we joined with Microsoft for our email communications, I was reassured because NASA also uses this platform,” he says. “Working with these key players that merit this 28

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level of trust and reputation gave me reassurance that our data is secure.” Since opting for the hybrid cloud model, Kurban has seen enhancements in data accessibility, security and service reliability. “It’s very rare that we canot access the data, and during these first few months since the migration, we have experienced no downtime,” he says. Another major benefit of this solution has been scalability. “We’re a growing company, and its simply not practical to have to build a new data centre when you need more space, or go to a third-party provider to host your servers,” he

can expand our hosting operations quickly and effortlessly.” Having access to data from a variety of countries anytime, anywhere, has been a huge benefit for Kurban’s team. In addition, he highlights the cost-efficiency of the service, claiming it to be cheaper than competing solutions in the market. He speaks highly of the company’s experience with IBM throughout the implementation. “They practice what they preach,” he says. “When we first met with them four years ago, we explained that we wanted this to be a partnership, not just a procurement

We’re a growing company, and it’s not practical to build a new data centre or go to a third-party provider to host our servers.

adds. “Now, within minutes, we can expand our hosting space and continue business as usual.” The company’s expansion process began in 2006, when it had a presence in just one country. Since then, it has grown its presence to 13 countries, with projects operating in over 30 cities across the EMEA region. “There are further plans to expand and implement projects in 50 cities across 5 continents within the next 7 years,” says Kurban. “That’s why it is essential that we

cycle year-on-year. They have constantly delivered on their promise, and are always eager to look at ways in which we can grow our portfolio together.” Looking ahead, Kurban and his team are hoping to enhance the company’s business intelligence tools, dashboards and analytics platforms with IBM through the provider’s cognitive solutions, in line with Averda’s vision to one day becoming a major global player in waste management solutions. www.tahawultech.com

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FEATURE

Robo-employees

Manual versus machine With Dubai’s robocops becoming the world’s first operational robot police officers, does this spell the dawn of a new era in terms of robo-employees – or even robo-bosses?

hen Dubai Police announced that ‘robocops’ would patrol the emirate’s streets by May, many could have been forgiven for thinking their launch date was ambitious at best. Doubters have been proven wrong. One of the world’s most up-and-coming cities now has its own IoTand AI-equipped machine mascot that can detect emotions, communicate in six languages and use facial recognition software to help police officers identify and catch offenders. Dubai Police isn’t stopping there. It has also pledged to have a smart police station – which won’t need human officers – by 2030. Invariably, government technology strategy in the UAE has a way of not only filtering down to

JUNE 2017

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Robots can use predictive systems and market data to forecast stock trends and manage finances, often much quicker than their human counterparts. Necip Ozyucel, cloud and enterprise business solutions lead, Microsoft Gulf

the private sector, but driving its change. This Robocop, meanwhile, will inspire envy across swathes of CEO’s and CIO’s in the UAE and the GCC. Whether more roboemployees’ introduction into the enterprise is realistic in the short-term, however, is a different matter. Gartner estimates that by 2025, onethird of jobs will be replaced by robots and smart machines, and that prediction will inspire both feelings of excitement and trepidation in different sectors of the working population. Whether or not one is able to have a dispassionate attitude towards the rise of robots in the workplace, their potential benefits to the enterprise are undeniable. Necip Ozyucel,

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Microsoft Gulf’s cloud and enterprise business solutions lead, believes that the decision to collaborate with robots has the potential to provide unprecedented levels of insight. “There is a great opportunity for humans to work with machines,” he says. “As machine co-workers grow increasingly competent, humanto-machine collaboration technologies will make organisations more intelligent and greatly improve overall human work performance to drive greater business value.” Autodesk thought leader and evangelist Dominic Thasarathar agrees that, in the short-term, a collaborative approach will increase safety, as well as elevating intelligence behind the scenes within an organisation. “What we’re starting to see now is two things,” he says. “The first is the notion of humans and robots working in collaboration and the great opportunity it has – which is to free people up from doing dangerous, risky activities. Secondly, we are starting to see robots being developed with artificial intelligence that enable them to add more valuable work – not just doing simple, repetitive tasks, but learning and adapting to environments.” Research from The University of Oxford and Citi revealed that a staggering portion of jobs are at risk of being automated – 47 percent of those in the US, 77 percent

JUNE 2017

FEATURE

Robo-employees

of those in China and 85 percent of those in Ethiopia. A glance at the disparities in these figures proves that only certain industries stand to be affected – at least for now. However, one thing is for certain: their introduction will cut across all levels of society. The oft-discussed ‘Industry 4.0’ trend may just be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to where robots will have an impact. Thasarathar believes that while robots may not necessarily muscle out traditional workers, there are certain industries which will be prime targets for disruption. “At present, we are starting to see humans and robots work in collaboration to take up tasks – whether that’s repetitive manufacturing tasks under the guidance of humans, or more dangerous tasks like the inspection of hazardous areas,” he says. Ozyucel believes that several industries are already beginning to feel the effects of automation and robotics. “The industries most impacted by artificial intelligence are healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, finance and customer services,” he says. “Major medical and pharmaceutical companies are already harnessing the power of artificial intelligence with great results. For example, numerous robots are in different stages of testing for diagnosing diseases, as in some cases these machines have a higher accuracy rate for diagnoses than human doctors. The manufacturing industry is one of the first industries to harness the power of AI by using robots. These robots have been used for assembling and packaging products, and in the future, this will be taken to another level, to 32

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assembling more complicated items such as electronics or cars. Even though many AI-driven production lines will still need human support and supervision, the future outlook points towards a largely robotic manufacturing industry.” It’s not just physical labourintensive jobs that will feel the effects of robotics. Jobs that involve large amounts of number-crunching and data analysis are likely to be disrupted by the introduction of efficient machines. “In the finance

population view the introduction of robots as a genuine threat, but Thasarathar believes that humans will inevitably adapt to their arrival. “It is not so much a case of employee replacement, but more about augmentation,” he says. “When you look back through history, when technology has disrupted the workforce, there has inevitably always been a greater demand for new types of skills on the back of that technology coming in. This is going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

It is not so much a case of employee replacement, but more about augmentation. Dominic Thasarathar, thought leader and evangelist, Autodesk

sector, increasing amounts of financial data has compelled many companies to seek the assistance of artificial intelligence to keep up with demand,” Ozyucel adds. “Robots can use predictive systems and market data to forecast stock trends and manage finances, often much quicker than their human counterparts.” However, while the introduction of robots into the enterprise may carry a degree of inevitability, whether or not that necessarily means humans will be doomed to unemployment is a different question. There’s no denying that large numbers of the world’s

Ozyucel offers a slightly harsher forecast, but believes that opportunities will undoubtedly arise when machines become more prevalent. “Automation, both in the form of mechanised robots, as well as artificially intelligent software programs, is predicted to get rid of a huge number of jobs over the next five years,” he says. “Intelligent robots are not predicted to handle specific human relation interaction, and will therefore become tools in serving and supporting humans in their tasks. Smart machines don’t necessarily equal ‘unemployment’ but rather posit that technology will simply create different kinds of work.” www.tahawultech.com

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FEATURE

Data literacy

Information education According to IBM, we now create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data per year, while it is widely accepted that 90 percent of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s data has been created in the last few years. How should end users utilise data and analytics to inform strategic and operational decisions? How data-literate are regional organisations?

JUNE 2017

www.tahawultech.com

he Middle East is being swamped with data. The increasing number of people, devices and businesses connecting to the Internet are resulting in huge – and exponentially growing – amounts of information being generated that is ultimately flooding enterprises. With major events such as Expo 2020 and the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar on the horizon, that flood is not showing any sign of dwindling soon. Mining this torrent of data was once pioneered by Internet giants such as Google and Amazon. However, this is now established as a core activity of businesses, and particularly governments in this region, who use Big Data to gain actionable intelligence on consumer behaviour, that in turn allows them to inform planning, improve their services and drive revenue growth. In order to maximise the potential a business can capture from data, it firstly needs to be collated from a variety of sources. This will vary from business to business, but could be from SaaS apps, product information from an on-premise database or demographic information from thirdparty data providers. Dan Sommer, senior director, Qlik, believes that the hybrid cloud will emerge as the primary model for collating data in the analytics process. While the data management layer offered by cloud providers can be useful, what businesses really need is the ability to see, manage and analyse data in all the places it lives; both on premise and in the cloud. “Because of where data is generated, and its ability to scale, we’re now seeing an accelerated move to cloud,” he says. “Hybrid will emerge as the dominant model, meaning workloads and publishing will happen across cloud and on-premise.” Despite the ability for companies to collate this vast amount of data, it is worth remembering that data alone does not necessarily equate to value. With increased fragmentation of data www.tahawultech.com

Just as reading and writing skills needed to move beyond scholars 100 years ago, data literacy will become one of the most important business skills for any member of staff. Dan Sommer, senior director, Qlik and most of it being created externally in the cloud, there will be a cost impact to companies hoarding data without a clear purpose. “That means we’ll move towards a model where businesses will have to quickly combine their Big Data with small data so they can gain insights and context to get value from it as quickly as possible,” adds Sommer. “Combining data will also shine a light on false information more easily, which can improve data accuracy.” Unfortunately, it seems there is still a lack of expertise within regional organisations to handle this ever-increasing, vast level of data and computing. “You would assume, with all the information currently being produced and held by businesses, that 2017 would see us in a new digital era of facts,” says Sommer. “But, without the right number of specialists to

consume and analyse it, there is a gap in resources. Data is, unfortunately, growing faster than our ability to make use of it.” This shortage of talent highlights the need to develop more chief digital officers and data scientists across the region, especially as they are seen to bridge the gap between IT and business leaders, who typically tend to lack the knowledge that allows them to captivate the business benefits behind data. “From my experience of working at a data-driven company, no matter what position it is that we’re hiring for, our candidates must have an above average understanding of analytics and numbers,” says Dirk Henke, managing director, emerging markets, Criteo. “It is extremely difficult for us to find enough of that knowledge here in the Middle East, which is why we’re in the habit of importing talent from Europe and other more developed regions.” However, this may not always be an option for many companies in the region. Instead, it may be a case of educating current staff members in enhancing their understanding of data literacy. “Just as reading and writing skills needed to move beyond scholars 100 years ago, data literacy will become one of the most important business skills for any member of staff,” says Sommer. The combination of collating the right talent with the right technology is one of the most vital factors in ensuring enterprises can maximise data potential. Yet for this to prevail, the mindset of business leaders must first change to ensure that investments are being made in the correct areas. Henke believes that “leading from the top” is the only way that businesses can enhance data literacy. “The chief digital officer has become such a critical position in the past two years, which became clear when major brands such as Emaar filled this role in November last year. However, the region is still quite late in beginning to appoint these JUNE 2017

FEATURE

Data literacy

positions,” he says. “But the problem comes when companies actually have the right people in operations, but it is just impossible to get internal approvals from above for these new, nontraditional ways of doing business.” The collect-process-action procedure concerning data not only has to demonstrate accuracy, but also speed. For a digital marketing company like Criteo that creates millions of online, customised advertisements a day based on the information they have gathered through various touchpoints, the speed in which they can crunch this data determines how quickly they can churn out a new advert to attract sales for their clients. “Data has to be collected and crunched around the clock if we are to produce current ads for our customers,” explains Henke. “We have also optimised our infrastructure so that we can identify our customers when they are operating on more than one device, meaning we can target our ads to ensure they stay

No matter what position we’re hiring for, our candidates must have an above average understanding of analytics and numbers. Dirk Henke, managing director, emerging markets, Criteo relevant to our customers’ behaviour.” The company’s latest research showed that 52 percent of all purchases online in the GCC (in the second half of 2016) across Criteo’s client base were cross-device – compared with 31 percent across their US client base. Investing in user-driven data discovery is gradually becoming a clear

factor in succeeding in business for enterprises here in the Middle East. While the region may have been slow in initially realising this, the slowly increasing number of CDO positions being filled is a reflection of the power of data’s value and how, when used properly, it can produce numerous benefits for a business.

INTERVIEW

François Locoh-Donou, CEO, F5 Networks

App and away Two months after joining the company as CEO, F5 Networks’ François Locoh-Donou tells CNME how he plans to change the firm’s direction and bring an increased focus on software to the table.

ased on what you’ve observed in your first two months in the job, what are you going to change? No one’s asked me that yet! I think what needs to change is our mindset around the way we look at ourselves, which is the same way that the rest of the world looks at us – as an application delivery controller (ADC) company. When you really look at F5 and what the core differentiation of the company is, it’s software, and TMOS (traffic management operating 38

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systems). If you ask most of our customers why they buy it from F5 and not from our competitors, it’s the flexibility it gives them and the ability to solve any problems. That technology has been consumed largely as a hardwarebased ADC in an on-premise data centre deployment model, and what needs to change is for us to think of ourselves more as an application services company, and delivering these services wherever and however our customers want

to consume them. That can be hardware in a data centre or software in a private cloud, or a model across multiple clouds. I think making sure that we have our priorities clear and then executing on them is really what we need to focus on. So is F5 moving from being a hardware-focused company to a software company? How will that pan out? First of all, I don’t think it’s a case of moving from hardware to software, www.tahawultech.com

because a lot of customers will continue to deploy hardware. Service providers, for example, are a fast-moving segment and love the software acceleration in our hardware. It’s a case of moving from hardwareonly to hardware and software in multiple consumption models. The roadmap for it doesn’t have a specific timeline. Our customers are evolving, and they want to consume the technology in a software form factor or in the cloud. We have to be wherever our customers want us to be. To a large extent, the timeframe will be driven by that. You’ve had a broad personal background prior to working in technology. I grew up in Togo in West Africa, and as a child, technology was a remote concept. By that, I mean ‘not invented here’. My friends and I had access to technology, but we associated its invention entirely with the U.S. and Europe, not Africa, and certainly not with each other. So, I can’t pinpoint the exact moment, but my fascination for how things work ultimately made me question this childhood assumption. After all, why couldn’t I invent? I left Togo at the age of 15 to study engineering in France, and I have been inspired by technology ever since. What nuances have you noticed in the Middle East market and how will you address them specifically? I’m currently in my seventh week as F5 CEO, and although I’ve been to the Middle East many times, I haven’t been there in my current capacity. The worldwide dynamic with service www.tahawultech.com

I think our mindset around the way we look at ourselves needs to change, which is the same way that the rest of the world looks at us – as an application delivery controller company.

providers very much exists in the Middle East. Mobile carriers that have launched 4G and unlimited data plans are experiencing a lot of consumption of data and video, and they have a significant need for our solutions. The other thing I’d say generally is that Middle East companies historically have a strong appetite for embracing best-in-class innovation. How can you cultivate a platform for the company’s growth? A critical factor for our success is a customer-centric culture. For tech companies, it’s my belief that the truth about your competitiveness lies in the hands of your customers. I recognise that cultivating this culture can be a challenge. As companies expand, and more employees are a step removed – or sometimes

further – from that direct contact with customers, the more likely you are to believe your own truth, instead of the market’s. But to me, a relentless focus on the customer is the greatest defence against the biggest egos presiding over the best ideas. How would you describe your leadership style? The leadership attributes I rate most highly are courage and generosity. I believe courage is essential, because without it you can’t have the honest and tough conversations that drive change. Generosity is just as necessary, because generous leaders invest their time liberally with people to listen, guide, inspire and motivate. I think you’ll find that what the smartest and most successful teams have in common is courage and generosity in equal measure. When you’re not working and travelling, what do you get up to? I always want to spend as much time as I can with my family. But I also love football – playing it, talking about it, watching it. I’m a big Arsenal fan. The rest of my waking hours are occupied by a social enterprise I remain involved in back in Togo, called Cajou Espoir. The company processes raw cashew nuts and exports cashew kernels in Africa, and to the U.S. and Europe. Because cashew processing is such a manual process, we are able to employ several hundred people, 80 percent of whom are women, in a rural area of Togo where few well-paid jobs are available. Agribusiness that can help drive meaningful and sustainable development in Africa has long been a passion of mine. JUNE 2017

INTERVIEW

Corey Sanders, director of compute, Microsoft Azure

Sharper Edge James Dartnell sat down with Microsoft’s director of Azure Compute, Corey Sanders, at the firm’s Build 2017 conference in Seattle, to hear how Microsoft is striving to make its cloud services more intelligent for users.

dge computing seems to be becoming a key focus of Microsoft’s. I think edge computing is going to be a huge proponent for a specific set of workloads. IoT is a really good example of that, where the amount of data that is being generated requires immediate reaction and ingestion. That’s where some of these edge capabilities can enable insights instantaneously. You can take advantage of the public cloud for longer term scenarios for machine learning-based solutions and data analytics, with edge offering a real-time response and the public cloud offering analytics. This can give enterprises of every shape and size the opportunity to do really innovative things. Why has Microsoft decided to prioritise IoT enhancements to Azure in the form of Azure IoT Edge? Had you received 40

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particular demand from the market that made you decide to home in on IoT? For quite some time with Azure, we’ve had a big focus on hybrid, and on enabling enterprises to run anywhere that they need to, whether in public Azure or their own on-premise environment. A lot of our Azure Stack strategy was built around that principle. What’s funny is that as the hybrid strategy crystallised with customers, it became clear that a priority for them was not necessarily replacing their entire environment onpremises – there are customers who want to do that – but for a lot of them it’s to run a sub-set of solutions, a lot of which are IoTfocused, or are data ingestion solutions or stream analytics. To enable that, I need your hybrid story, but focused on edgebased IoT solutions. We’ve taken a lot of customer feedback about hybrid strategy and converted it into

our new edge strategy. It starts with Azure Stack as being a cloud on the edge, and it’s exciting to see some of the capabilities around functions – small bits of code – that can be run in a hybrid edge environment which allows customers to take advantage of the cloud without having to run their entire own cloud. They can still get the benefits of the public cloud and all the aspects of scale and agility, while having the benefits of proximity that come with local edge computing. Manufacturing aside, in which industries do you see a strong case for using Azure IoT Edge? You can imagine retail using it to gain insight for the ways shoppers move around their stores and the ways they interact with products. You can easily imagine that being a very powerful scenario for IoT and edge-based computing, with each store having their own set of devices or their own Azure Stack www.tahawultech.com

running in them. To a certain extent, the scenario of edge and IoT-based solutions can apply to any scenario where humans are making decisions. The scenarios go on and on – you can also imagine cars being a very interesting scenario for opportunity, as well as disconnected ships and oil rigs. Can solutions like Azure IoT Edge level the playing the playing field in the future in traditional retail’s battle against e-commerce? I think the combination of physical retail coupled with cloud-based e-commerce offers a set of capabilities to give classic retailers the ability to respond. We’ve given one of our retail partners, ASOS, the ability to combine that e-commerce experience with a physical store experience, and layer this IoT-based edge opportunity on top, which really helps them to compete in a very aggressive and disruptive market. www.tahawultech.com

What are your thoughts on your new Azure Cosmos DB service? I’m super excited about it. I run the compute team but it’s my favourite Azure service. I think it will change the way developers write applications in a few ways. Firstly, I think the flexibility of its programming model makes it very attractive. You can effectively have your IT pros manage your environments all in the same way. Whether it’s backup, state replication or regional coverage, your developers can access different endpoints. The management stack is now consistent, so it should enable fast time to market for developers, so they can get an app up and running really quickly. On top of that, the global replication is really powerful, and is something that most developers have been searching for – the ability to have click-button global replication and consistency modelling, and now it’s possible.

Data can be easily replicated across the world. It will enable scenarios that were either impossible or very hard beforehand. Which aspects of AI will you be looking to enhance in Azure and in which areas have you seen the biggest progress so far? When I think about AI, it all comes back to being centred around the data that you have available, and how you can get insights from it. I think solutions like facial recognition and speech to text translation are taking advantage of a plethora of data and being able to draw conclusions from it. I think those are going to be the first wave of services that really pick up. As more enterprises understand the data that they’re sitting on and how to take advantage of it, we will see more and more exciting solutions come out of it. It really centres around what data you have and how you can drive outcomes from it. JUNE 2017

INTERVIEW

A2Z Arabia

Syed Sarfraz and Parvez Ahmed, co-founders, A2Z Arabia

Whatever you want Online listings newcomer A2Z Arabia aims to help customers find jobs, homes, cars and good times. The platform’s co-founder and chairman, Parvez Ahmed, and co-founder and CEO, Syed Sarfraz, told CNME why they believe they’re ready to challenge established incumbents within the saturated market.

ou’ve said that you manage to address a whole host of services in your platform, but how do you plan to compete with more established players like Dubizzle and Bayt.com? Parvez Ahmed: We understand that Dubizzle has been established in the market for almost 10 years. They’re an elephant in the room in the sense that they’ve been there and done that. But the fact is there are a few elements missing from their platform, particularly in terms of the customer journey. For example, when an expat first moves to the Middle East, first they look for a job, then a place to stay. Then they may look for a car, places to travel, and if in the case of a family, 42

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they may look for various deals like dine-in or staycation packages. Women are typically more keen on shopping – not that men aren’t – so online shopping is picking up. We have addressed all these elements including the events aspect. That doesn’t exist on Dubizzle, which is a pure classifieds site. We’ve created a combination of a classified and marketplace site. We’ve seen gradual growth in terms of our user base, with 4.5 million page views in the first three months. Do you think Dubizzle is failing to prioritise the customer journey? PA: I think that there is a missing link. For example, Dubizzle doesn’t show deals on their platform. The events

part of our platform is more detailed as well. Any event management company can submit an event on our site via a screening process. Syed Sarfraz: The differentiating factor is that we don’t have the seven verticals that we cover for the sake of it; we’re treating them each as their own business. We want to make each one look like a different entity with one login. With deals taking on such an importance in your platform, do you think that positions you as a hybrid of other existing platforms? PA: We’ve created an ecosystem that addresses the main needs of a user – a place to stay, food and www.tahawultech.com

transportation. We’re also connecting buyers and sellers, and have created a marketplace where we take payments on behalf of the merchants that partner with us. We have expansion plans for the GCC and North Africa. There’s quite a gap between when you bought the domain name for A2Z Arabia in 2011 and your November 2016 launch. SS: Me and Parvez are cousins and we grew up as neighbours, and we’ve always been discussing business ideas. In 2011, when we thought about doing something like this, we thought the name ‘A2Z Arabia’ was great, and could become a household name. All we could do then was register the name; we didn’t want to rush our product when it was not ready. Over the last five years, we’ve discussed what we need to do. We wanted the launch to be at the right time. We decided about a year ago that we had to press ahead with developing the website.

We decided to go with a clean slate and to develop what we want rather than just copy what others are doing.

PA: We wanted technology to mature in terms of mobile users. The UAE’s population has also grown in that time. The consumption of content is easier now than it was before because of apps and technology infrastructure. Was part of your strategy to wait and see where Dubizzle initially fell

short before you made your move into the market? PA: Exactly, it’s a learning curve. Customers who want to access Dubizzle from Saudi Arabia land on an OLX space, where the look and feel of the website is different. As a user, I think it’s disturbing, to be honest. SS: We wanted to study the market to see how it would react. We decided to go with a clean slate and develop what we want rather than just copy what others are doing. It wouldn’t make sense for us to completely see what others we doing. You don’t have a mobile app yet… SS: It’s under development. We wanted to launch the site first. The look and experience of the desktop site is just like an app. Isn’t an app expected from the getgo in the UAE? PA: It is, but we’re collecting feedback on what users are expecting.

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ROUNDTABLE

CNME & Equinix

The e-tail era

In partnership with Equinix, CNME hosted an in-depth roundtable discussion centred around the topic of connected commerce in the Middle East, and analysed how retailers can look to ensure that customers enjoy both a seamless and secure shopping experience.

he retail industry has witnessed some major changes in the Internet age. The days of products being viewed, chosen and purchased within brick-and-mortar establishments are being gradually overshadowed by the multichannel way of selling, which requires both a physical and an online presence. This is shown in the latest IDC findings which predict that by 2018, 30 percent of major retailers worldwide will adopt a commerce platform, and will allocate between 30 and 40 percent of the IT budget to investing in these platforms. What’s more, as the Internet of Things continues to penetrate our daily lives, and with Cisco predicting that there will be 50 billion connected devices by 2020, it is no wonder that the demands and expectations 44

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of consumers are increasingly becoming reliant on the device we hold so dear to us, particularly in the UAE: our smartphone. The recent launch of Samsung Pay in the MENA region demonstrates this recognition for retailers to equip themselves with modern payment gateways if they are to succeed in this multichannel era, said said Mohammed Gharaibeh, regional director, Information and Mobility Enterprise, Samsung Pay. “When we began planning the launch of Samsung Pay in this region, the management back in Korea said no, because MENA accounted for just 3 percent of our revenue,” he said. “However, the UAE holds the highest smartphone penetration in the world, at 85 percent – making it the ideal market.” www.tahawultech.com

In the MENA region, 75 percent of online shoppers drop out at the checkout. Kriti Makker, director, Performance Solutions MENA, Visa He added, “The vision of the leadership in this country is aiming to be cashless by 2020, so that is very encouraging for initiatives such as Samsung Pay.” With any novel payment gateway, there are always concerns around the security and protection of payment details. “Security is the main concern for us when thinking about adopting this sort of technology,” said Arun Chalam, CTO, Choithrams. “We are still seeing the majority of payments in our stores through cash and card. Mobile banking is typically a target, and consumers still consider this threat when they go to pay online.” But what protection is in place for those that do fall victim to hacks or personal data leaks after using these connected commerce payment methods? The region is playing catch-up in many areas, and regulation is no exception, according to Eamon Holley, legal director, DLA Piper. “When clients www.tahawultech.com

come to us and talk about what is happening in Europe in terms of data protection, and compare that with what is happening here – there is a major gap,” he said. “The Central Bank of the UAE has published a set of digital payments regulations, but the way in which they have gone about explaining how these will be implemented is not at all clear.” Nick Vora, SVP, enterprise security solutions and processing, MEA, MasterCard, agreed, and said he had even joked with his legal team when the new regulations were first released that law firms would be kept busy due to the amount of room for interpretation in the rules. “When you’re entering the digital commerce world, especially when you’re going pan-regional, or even global, the sheer variety of rule sets that you must look at and adhere to is very complex,” he said. “There is no one-size-fits-all.” This is something that merchants and payment service providers (PSPs) in the region must bear in mind as they extend their reach in connected commerce, believes Anil Nama, CIO at CtrlS Datacenters Ltd. “We know that a high proportion of transactions are happening cross-border, which means the people that are paying here are being regulated overseas,” he said. “If a PSP, or a bank wants to conform to all, it has to ensure complete compliance with all regulations.” Kriti Makker, director, Performance Solutions MENA, Visa, supported this view, citing data that showed almost 50 percent of e-commerce transactions across

the Visa network from the MENA region were cross-border. She went on to explain that while security - and subsequently, regulatory compliance - are crucial for PSPs, the customer experience throughout the shopping process must be completely seamless to ensure success at the checkout. “In the MENA region, 75 percent of online shoppers drop out at the checkout,” she said. “The majority do not proceed because of poor navigation during the payment experience, or inconvenience of the app.” 3D-secure methods of protection on online payments, such as Verified by Visa and SecureCode by MasterCard are increasingly being adopted as a simple, yet secure, way of completing e-commerce transactions. However, Janti Abdalla, general manager, STS PayOne, expressed that he had received mixed feedback from merchants using these methods. “A lot of merchants are getting rejections by adopting this precaution,” he said. “This could be because customers are forgetting their four-digit password, but merchants have found that it is easier for them to require the customer to fill in all of their details as a first-time customer and store them in the system, rather than hassling them with questions every time they come to check-out.” In a bid to revamp this process, Makker disclosed that Visa was looking into making this procedure more dynamic. “We’re investigating whether we can identify the customer through their location or device, and we’re also looking at the possibility of tokens – similar to those that Samsung Pay use,” she said. JUNE 2017

INSIGHT

Peter Krensky, senior research analyst, Gartner

Why neural networks will evolve data and analytics Deep learning and natural-language generation will become standards in analytics, says Gartner’s Peter Krensky.

achine conquered man when Google’s AlphaGO defeated the top professional Go player, but the evolution of deep learning didn’t end with the game. Baidu improved speech recognition from 89 percent to 99 percent and deep-learning jobs grew from practically zero in 2014 to around 41,000 jobs today. Deep learning is currently at the ‘peak of inflated expectations’ of the Gartner Hype Cycle, but its evolution from edge technology to a key component of analytics is one of five Gartner predictions for 2017. Despite seemingly endless promises in the world of data analytics, integrating data can be a challenge. Automated tools such as deep learning and natural-language generation work well with the correct data, but if the data is not so easy to integrate, it will require professional data integrators and scientists to effectively use these new tools. We will see a blend of professional data integrators and data scientists — who can use this technology to become more efficient — along with a small army of citizen data scientists 46

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and citizen data integrators who will be recruited to fill more formal or semiformal roles. Data and analytics leaders should commit to leveraging a cross-functional team and the use of sandboxes to help reduce the risk that less-skilled workers will get into trouble. By 2018, deep learning – deep neural networks – will be a standard component in 80 percent of data scientists’ tool boxes. Deep learning is becoming increasingly popular for both projects and hiring. Part of the rapid evolution is a result of big research labs such as Facebook and IBM investing in the research. In the business world, about 30 percent of data science platform vendors have the first version of deep learning in products. But deep learning is not a stand-alone technology. In fact, it’s part of a third wave of analytics heralded by machine learning, and companies should look to machine learning as a potential service offering. Potential applications include anomaly detection, speech control and queries, sentiment analysis and facial recognition. Data and analytics leaders should begin looking for potential

opportunities to incorporate deep learning in the organisation, specifically any critical business problems with significant ‘perceptual components’. Engage academics, research labs or consulting companies to learn more about deep learning. Consider potential startup acquisitions to acquire talent and technology. By 2019, natural-language generation will be a standard feature of 90 percent of modern BI and analytics platforms. Visualisation has been a major driver of modern business intelligence (BI), but data in this form can be difficult to fully interpret. Natural-language generation (NLG) is able to create a written or spoken content-based narrative of data findings alongside the visualisations to produce a full story about key action items. Currently, BI teams integrate stand-alone NLG engines, but as the technology evolves, that will change. NLG will enable nextgeneration BI and analytics platforms to automatically find, visualise and narrate important findings. The technology will expand analytics to a broad audience as well as reduce time and cost for regular batch reports. www.tahawultech.com

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INSIGHT

Morten Illum, VP, EMEA, Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

The best is yet to come The Internet of Things (IoT) is a term that’s been bandied about for a long time, and it seems that we’re now finally at a stage where it’s coming into the forefront of technology and consumer adoption.

oT is starting to make a difference to many areas of our everyday lives. Connected smart meters wirelessly track our domestic energy usage, while smart watches and smart cars are playing a small but influential role in the wider IoT movement. However, if we accept that IoT’s moment is indeed yet to come, then I’m glad to say we can put a date on it at last. In our new international study, ‘The Internet of Things, today and tomorrow’ we asked 3,100 executives from 20 countries about IoT. The research found a whole range of interesting ideas and attitudes, but it also told us that 2019 will be the breakthrough year when 85 percent of businesses plan to start using IoT technologies, so put a note in your diary. What else did the study find? Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly. IoT is over-delivering. Yes, you heard correctly - our survey discovered an ‘expectations dividend,’ demonstrating the real-world benefits gained from IoT are exceeding original expectations in all areas. In other words, believe the hype. ROI is looking good, meanwhile. Four-fifths 48

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of companies that use IoT technology report seeing an increase in business efficiency, while the average ROI from an IoT deployment is 34 percent. A lot of people claim to know what IoT means. But few really know. A massive 98 percent of those surveyed think they have the true definition, but there’s no consensus. Keep reading: we’ll come back to this in a moment. IoT has some hurdles to clear. IoT has proven its value, but barriers still exist. Cost of implementation, maintenance and integration of legacy technologies are the top three. But there is hope: technologies are already available that both cut infrastructure costs and smooth the integration process. IoT brings incredible opportunities, but also credible threats. Alarmingly, 84 percent of organisations that use IoT have experienced an IoT-related security breach. As IoT continues to grow, businesses need to take steps to protect their networks and devices. Without gaining visibility of IoT activities, organisations are leaving themselves open to attack. Things also vary across regions. Arguably, EMEA has a more conservative approach towards IoT,

Eighty-five percent of businesses plan to start using IoT technologies by 2019. showing a 50 percent adoption rate compared to 60 percent in APAC and 66 percent in the Americas. This could be from a lack of preparedness and a lack of willingness to explore IoT’s benefits: Currently, 17 percent of EMEA respondents claim their IT infrastructure isn’t ready to support IoT yet, but 82 percent plan to adopt IoT technologies by 2019. In short, IoT is now serious stuff. It’s revolutionising how businesses and public sector companies alike operate to make a real difference. www.tahawultech.com

INSIGHT

Pascal Giraud, senior director, IaaS Foundation and Cloud Platform, Oracle EMEA

The choice is yours The ultimate goal with IaaS is to help the businesses transform their technology infrastructure and save costs. How important is meeting the right provider if organisations are to leverage cloud at a greater scale and strengthen collaboration across the business?

e know that existing IT infrastructure and platforms can cause headaches, and for businesses inclined to move to as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) models, the research process to select a capable provider can be tricky. This is partly because different vendors offer a range of capabilities, but it is absolutely critical that no stone is left unturned. A recent study revealed various challenges organisations currently face in relation to cloud adoption. Fortyone percent of respondents admitted to struggling with mission-critical application security on the public cloud,

40 percent with managing security across different platforms, applications and solutions simultaneously, and 38 percent with the integration of legacy systems. While it might be tempting to try and just guess future business needs and find a provider that helps bridge the gap, the more effective approach is to focus on finding the most flexible, scalable and capable IaaS provider. This means that the solution should support the business regardless of its direction. With this in mind, the following checklist should help businesses ask the right questions when making the move to IaaS:

Can you ‘lift and shift’ workloads, databases and applications into the cloud without making any changes?

Are infrastructure capabilities up to date? Without support for the very latest features, an organisation will be hampered in its efforts to exploit IaaS to the full. What’s more, businesses not yet ready to move fully to the public cloud will need cloud capabilities to run inside the company firewall to avoid making choices that are not aligned with current business needs. It is also important that rather than re-engineering legacy applications, that an organisation seeks a provider

JUNE 2017

that can handle them efficiently, so that a phased approach can be taken to application development. Can you move workloads between on-premises and the cloud? This is vital if an organisation is to continue to use existing applications and keep its investment costs down. Can you ‘lift and shift’ workloads, databases and applications into the cloud without making any changes? This supports speed and efficiency and avoids unnecessary spending. Greater flexibility means better support of existing hybrid approaches which may have developed in a piecemeal way over time, and is crucial for any organisation wanting all the benefits of cloud right now. Is price and performance competitive? A well implemented IaaS gives an organisation faster workload handling for improved efficiency and competitive pricing structures. To ensure high-level performance, it is important to check guaranteed latency and the level of capacity operated by the providers’ network. Over-subscribed networks will be less efficient. www.tahawultech.com

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PRODUCTS

PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

Launches and releases

Brand: Essential Product: Essential Phone

Brand: HP Product: Elite X2 1012 G2 HP has launched its latest premium commercial x2 device – Elite x2 1012 G2. According to the company, the device features a “sleek 2-in-1 design” and contains features such as 7th generation Core-I processors and optional vPro. It supports up to 16 GB of RAM. The device features a 12.3inch display, which is made of bonded Corning Gorilla Glass 4. It has more than 10 hours of battery life, and a fast-charging capability that can charge the battery up to 50 percent in 30 minutes. Elite X2 is protected with security and malware protection, including biometric and facial authentication, along with HP Sure Start, BIOSphere, WorkWise, Poweron Authentication and Trusted Platform Module. WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: The first commercial detachable to be certified for Skype for Business, the Elite x2 includes HP Noise Cancellation and Audio Boost software for improved voice clarity. The device also has an improved inking experience so that the HP Active Pen feels like a real pen.

JUNE 2017

Andy Rubin, the creator of Android, has launched a smartphone under his new company Essential. The Essential Phone, according to the company’s website, is powered by a Qualcomm Inc. processor, 4GB of RAM, a 3040mAh battery and 128GB of internal storage. It has a 5.7-inch, edge-to-edge display that rises to the top of the phone. It is equipped with an 8 MP camera on the front and a 13 MP sensor on the rear. It lacks a headphone jack but comes with a USB-C adapter. The sides of the phone are made with titanium, which the company claims are impervious to scratches and dents. The device’s rear side is designed with ceramic and comes in black, grey, white, and a gold-

Brand: Bose Product: SoundLink Revolve

and Revolve+

Bose has launched its new Bluetooth speakers, the SoundLink Revolve and SoundLink Revolve+. With omni-directional performance, and a new acoustic design, the Revolve speakers spread sound in every direction from a “seamless” aluminium design.

like colour it calls “Ocean Depths”. WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: The device has a magnetic connector on the back to connect an additional 360-degree camera and a wireless charging hub. The Essential Phone runs a version of the Android operating system with a customised user interface. The handset is currently only available for pre-order in the US and is priced at $699. Essential hasn’t announced anything about the phone’s availability in other countries.

Both models feature an IPX4-rating to withstand spills, rain, and pool splashes. A quarter-twenty thread on the bottom of each makes for easy mounting on a tripod. Revolve is 6-inch high and 3 ¼-inch deep, weighs 1.5 pounds, and provides up to 12-hours of battery life. Revolve+ is slightly bigger for more performance, at 7 ¼-inch high x 4-inch deep, 2 pounds, and up to 16-hours of playtime. WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: Both devices can pair through NFC, feature plain-language voice prompts for “foolproof” set-up, and integrate microphones to use as a speakerphone, or with Siri and Google Assistant. The free Bose Connect app can sync two SoundLink devices at the same time, for any models starting with the SoundLink Color II. It also has a new Stereo Mode enables left-right pairing, and new Party Mode lets users play the same music on both simultaneously. www.tahawultech.com

Dubaiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s BIGGEST Events Are Now Accessible On Your Smart Phone Devices

Access to latest events

Search using the Browse chronologically key name, calendar or map

COLUMN

Glesni Holland, Deputy Editor, CNME

H S I T I R B F O ' T S E 'B O

ver 75,000 passengers were stranded in airports worldwide last month, after a major IT outage grounded British Airways flights and disabled the airlines’ systems across 170 airports in 70 countries. I was one of those caught up in the chaos when waiting for a flight from London Heathrow to Dubai. As I and thousands of others attempted to gain information as to what was going on, what struck me the most was the distinct lack of communication from BA themselves. When the BBC reported at approximately 1pm on the Saturday that all BA flights were cancelled from Gatwick and Heathrow airports until 6pm, no such message was relayed inside the airport. Instead, departure boards claimed that over 20 British Airways flights were delayed, and still due to depart within a one-hour period; the remainder of scheduled flights simply said ‘please wait'. 54

JUNE 2017

Later that same day, all remaining BA flights were cancelled from both London airports, and the disorder continued for the two days that followed. Our total reliance on technology has become such a given in our everyday lives that a failure on this scale has meant that questions are being asked as to why there was no backup plan in place. British Airways – a company of 40,000 employees, 275 aircraft and with 2016 revenues of $14.5 billion – had no answer to the outage. I recently visited Montenegro, and when flying back to the UK from Tivat, I was greeted at the security desk by a member of staff with a paper Excel sheet, containing all passengers’ names, passport numbers and allocated seat numbers. He checked my details against my boarding pass and passport, and simply ticked me off his list. While there are only four flights a day from Tivat, maybe the

‘world’s favourite airline’ could learn a thing or two about how to react when technology does fail them. That being said, the same could be said for almost all companies. BA now find themselves footing a large compensation bill to thousands of disgruntled customers, and, worse still, have suffered an even bigger blow to their reputation. While the reported reason for the failure remains as vague as a ‘power outage,’ failing to provide a detailed explanation for this chaos will not satisfy the customers that were affected. Whether the initial explanation – that BA’s data centre near Heathrow was struck by lightning – is even plausible, passengers will want answers. Only when the average person stops to consider the issue do they fully appreciate how IT – or a lack of it, in BA’s case – can bring operations to a grinding halt. www.tahawultech.com

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