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WWW.CNMEONLINE.COM ISSUE 245 |JUNE 2012

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EDITORIAL

Age of the data scientist Publisher Dominic De Sousa

Sathya Mithra Ashok Senior Editor Talk to us: E-mail: sathya@cpidubai.com

“Data  science  and  big  data  –  they  are  so  much  more  interesting  than  the  subject  of  storage.  You  have  to  be  honest  about  it,â€?  said  Josh  Klahr,  vice  president  of  products  at  Greenplum. ‡ ™‡”‡ •‹––‹Â?‰ ‘˜‡” …—’• ‘ˆ •–‡ƒÂ?‹Â?‰ Â…Â‘ÂˆÂˆÂ‡Â‡ÇĄ ”‹‰Š– ƒˆ–‡” Ď?‹Â?‹•Š‹Â?‰ ƒÂ? indepth  interview  on  big  data,  on  the  sidelines  of  EMC  World  2012.  The  –™‡Žˆ–Š ƒÂ?Â?—ƒŽ ‰Ž‘„ƒŽ …‘Â?ˆ‡”‡Â?…‡ Šƒ† ƒŽÂ?‘•– Ď?‹Â?‹•Š‡† ‹–• ™‡‡Â?njŽ‘Â?‰ •’‹Â? by  the  time  I  got  to  have  a  chat  with  Klahr.  It  was,  however,  the  day  of  the  •‡…‘Â?† ƒÂ?Â?—ƒŽ ƒ–ƒ …‹‡Â?…‡ —Â?Â?‹–Ǥ Š‡ —Â?Â?‹– „”‹Â?‰• –‘‰‡–Š‡” –Š‡ ‰‡‡Â?• ‘ˆ –Š‡ †ƒ–ƒ ™‘”Ž† Č‚ –Š‡ ‘Â?‡• –Šƒ– …ƒŽŽ• –Š‡ ˜‡”› Â?Â‡Â™ÇŚÂˆÂƒÂ?‰Ž‡† †ƒ–ƒ scientists  –  to  discuss  the  evolution  and  relevance  of  information,  as  well  as  the  ways  in  which  more  information  can  be  extracted  from  raw  data.

•ƒ– ‹Â? ‘Â? –Š‡ ƒ–ƒ …‹‡Â?…‡ —Â?Â?‹– ʹͲͳʹ ˆ‘” ƒ •Š‘”– ™Š‹Ž‡Ǥ Â?† Â?Â?‘™ what  Klahr  was  referring  to. Š‡”‡ ‹• •‘Â?‡–Š‹Â?‰ ˆƒ•…‹Â?ƒ–‹Â?‰ ƒ„‘—– –Š‡ Ď?‹‡Ž† ‘ˆ †ƒ–ƒ •…‹‡Â?…‡Ǥ ‘” ‘Â?‡ǥ ‹– †‹† Â?‘– ‡š‹•– ‹Â? ĥ •–”‘Â?‰ ƒ ˆ‘”Â? ‡˜‡Â? ƒ ›‡ƒ” „ƒ…Â?Ǥ Š‡ Ď?‹”•– –‹Â?‡ Š‡ƒ”† ‘ˆ a  data  scientist  was  at  last  year’s  EMC  World  2011. ‘” ƒÂ?‘–Š‡”ǥ †ƒ–ƒ •…‹‡Â?…‡ ‹• Â?‘– –Š‡ ’”ƒ…–‹…‡ ‘ˆ ƒ •‹Â?‰Ž‡ •Â?‹ŽŽǥ ‹– effectively  brings  together  multiple  disciplines  within  a  single  fold. Â

– †‡Ď?‹Â?‡• ƒ †‹•…‹’Ž‹Â?‡ –Šƒ– ƒ’’Ž‹‡• ˜ƒ”›‹Â?‰ †‡‰”‡‡• ‘ˆ Â•Â–ÂƒÂ–Â‹Â•Â–Â‹Â…Â•ÇĄ †ƒ–ƒ visualisations,  computer  programming,  data  mining,  machine  learning  and  database  engineering  to  solve  complex  data  problems.  That  is  according  –‘ ‹Â?‹’‡†‹ƒǤ Č‹ Š‹…Š ‹Â?…‹†‡Â?–ƒŽŽ› ƒŽ•‘ •–ƒ–‡• –Šƒ– –Š‡ –‡”Â? Šƒ• ‡š‹•–‡† ˆ‘” over  a  decade.  The  International  Council  for  Science:  Committee  on  Data  for  Science  and  Technology  has  been  publishing  the  CODATA  Data  Science  Journal  since  April  2002). Š‘—‰Š ›‡– ‹Â? ‹–• ‹Â?ˆƒÂ?…›ǥ –Š‡ ™‘”Ž† ‘ˆ †ƒ–ƒ •…‹‡Â?…‡ ‹• •‡– –‘ –ƒÂ?‡ —• „› global  storm  as  the  area  of  big  data  gains  traction  among  organisations.  ƒÂ?† ”‡‡Â?’Ž—Â? ƒ”‡ ™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ –‘ …”‡ƒ–‡ ǎƒÂ? ƒ”Â?› ‘ˆ ‰‡‡Â?•ǯ ‹Â? ‘”†‡” –‘ Ď?‹ŽŽ Â?‘”‡ ‘ˆ –Š‡ †ƒ–ƒ •…‹‡Â?–‹•– ”‘Ž‡•ǥ ĥ †‡Â?ƒÂ?† ‹Â? Â?ƒ”Â?‡–• Ž‹Â?‡ ‘”–Š America  start  to  increase. ”‡ƒ–‹Â?‰ †ƒ–ƒ •…‹‡Â?–‹•–• –Š‘—‰Š ‹• ‡ƒ•‹‡” •ƒ‹† –ŠƒÂ? †‘Â?‡Ǥ Š‡ Ď?‹”•– •–‡’ ‘ˆ –Š‡ ’”‘…‡•• ‹Â?˜‘Ž˜‡• Â˜Â‡Â”Â–Â‹Â…ÂƒÂŽÇŚÂ–Â”ÂƒÂ‹Â?‡† ƒ•’‹”ƒÂ?–•ǥ ™Š‘ Šƒ˜‡ ƒ „ƒ•‡Ž‹Â?‡ understanding  of  data  creation  and  have  an  interest  in  understanding  patterns.  Then,  the  trainee  also  needs  to  have  a  penchant  towards  statistics,  ƒÂ?† „‡ ƒ––—Â?‡† –‘ ’‹…Â?‹Â?‰ —’ ”‡’‡ƒ– ’ƒ––‡”Â?• ‹Â? ”ƒ™ †ƒ–ƒǤ ‘” ‡šƒÂ?’Ž‡ǥ ƒ „‹‘Â?‡†‹…ƒŽ •–—†‡Â?– ™Š‘ Šƒ• „‡‡Â? ™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ ‘Â? Â?‘†‡Ž•ǥ and  has  an  interest  in  understanding  more  of  the  data  layers,  is  a  prime  …ƒÂ?†‹†ƒ–‡ –‘ „‡…‘Â?‡ ƒ †ƒ–ƒ •…‹‡Â?–‹•–Ǥ ”‡‡Â?’Ž—Â? ‹• …—””‡Â?–Ž› –ƒÂ?‹Â?‰ ‹Â? •‘Â?‡ ‘ˆ –Š‡•‡ ˜‡”–‹…ƒŽ •’‡…‹ƒŽ‹•–• –‘ ‰”‘‘Â? –Š‡Â? ‹Â? –Š‡ ƒ”‡ƒ• –Š‡› Žƒ…Â? ‹Â? –‘ Â?ƒÂ?‡ them  proper  data  scientists.

On  the  day  of  the  Data  Science  Summit,  I  was  witness  to  a  heated  debate  ‘Â? ™Š‡–Š‡” –Š‡•‡ †ƒ–ƒ •…‹‡Â?–‹•–• •Š‘—Ž† Šƒ˜‡ ˜‡”–‹…ƒŽ Â?Â?‘™Ž‡†‰‡ ƒ– ƒŽŽ ‘” Â?‘–Ǥ ”‡’”‡•Â?–ƒ–‹˜‡ ˆ”‘Â? ƒ ‡”Â?ƒÂ? Â†ÂƒÂ–ÂƒÇŚÂ?‹Â?‹Â?‰ …‘Â?’ƒÂ?› ˆ‡Ž– •–”‘Â?‰Ž› –Šƒ– ƒÂ?› Â?‹Â?† ‘ˆ –”ƒ‹Â?‹Â?‰ ‹Â? ‘Â?‡ ’ƒ”–‹…—Žƒ” Ď?‹‡Ž†ǥ ™‘—Ž† ”‡•–”‹…– ’‡‘’Ž‡ ˆ”‘Â? ÇŽÂ?‹••‹Â?‰ –Š‡ ˆ‘”‡•– ˆ‘” –Š‡ –”‡‡•Ǥǯ Â‘Â™Â‡Â˜Â‡Â”ÇĄ ŽƒŠ” •–ƒ–‡• –Šƒ– ƒ ‰”‘—Â?†‹Â?‰ ‹Â? a  particular  stream  can  be  a  helpful  base  for  a  future  data  scientist,  as  long  as  the  said  person  is  adaptive  enough  to  learn  new  streams  and  integrate  ‡š‹•–‹Â?‰ Â?Â?‘™Ž‡†‰‡ •‡ƒÂ?Ž‡••Ž›Ǥ

Â? Â?ƒÂ?› Â™ÂƒÂ›Â•ÇĄ …‘Â?’ƒÂ?‹‡• Ž‹Â?‡ ƒÂ?† ”‡‡Â?’Ž—Â? ƒ”‡ Â?ƒÂ?‹Â?‰ –Š‡ ”‘—–‡ ĥ –Š‡› ™ƒŽÂ? –Š‡ ’ƒ–ŠǤ Â? ‘–Š‡” ™‘”†•ǥ –Š‡› ƒ”‡ ƒ …”‡ƒ–‹Â?‰ ƒ Â?ƒ”Â?‡– ˆ‘” †ƒ–ƒ •…‹‡Â?–‹•–•ǥ ‡˜‡Â? ĥ –Š‡› ™‘”Â? ‘—– –Š‡ ™ƒ›• ‹Â? ™Š‹…Š –‘ –”ƒ‹Â? ’‡”•‘Â?Â?‡Ž –‘ Ď?‹ŽŽ ™Šƒ– ™‹ŽŽ „‡ ƒ ”‹•‹Â?‰ Â?‡‡†Ǥ ”‘‰”ƒÂ?Â?‡• Ž‹Â?‡ –Š‡ ‘Â?‡ –Šƒ– ”‡‡Â?’Ž—Â? currently  operates  will  be  imitated  and  repeated  a  hundred  times  over  by  ’”‹˜ƒ–‡ Ď?‹”Â?• ƒÂ?† ˜‡Â?†‘”• ĥ –Š‡› –”› –‘ Ď?‹ŽŽ –Š‡ Â?‡‡†Ǥ Š‡ ‰‡ ‘ˆ –Š‡ ƒ–ƒ …‹‡Â?–‹•– ‹• Œ—•– „‡‰‹Â?Â?‹Â?‰ Č‚ ƒÂ?† ‹– ‹• Ž‹Â?‡Ž› –‘ ‰‡– …”‘™†‡† „› ƒ Ž‘– ‘ˆ DzÂ?‡ –‘‘•dz Č‚ Â?—…Š Ž‹Â?‡ –Š‡ ™‘”Ž† ‘ˆ …Ž‘—† …‘Â?’—–‹Â?‰ Ž‹Â?‡ Â?‘™Ǥ Šƒ– ‹• Ž‹Â?‡Ž› –‘ …‘Â?‡ ‘—– ‘ˆ ‹– –Š‘—‰Šǥ ‹• ƒ „”ƒ˜‡ Â?‡™ ™‘”Ž† ‘ˆ ‹Â?ˆ‘”Â?ƒ–‹‘Â? ƒÂ?† …‘Â?–‡š–ǥ ƒÂ?† –Šƒ– ‹• ™Šƒ– Â?ƒÂ?‡• †ƒ–ƒ •…‹‡Â?…‡ ™ƒ› Â?‘”‡ interesting  than  plain  old  storage.

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EDITORIAL

Walking a tightrope

Jeevan Thanpakkan Senior Editor Talk to us: E-mail: jeevan@cpidubai.com

Our events

Along  with  cloud  and  big  data,  BYOD  seems  to  have  found  a  place  in  the  pantheon  of  hottest  buzzwords  in  technology  today.  ”‹Â?‰nj›‘—”nj ‘™Â?ÇŚÂ†Â‡Â˜Â‹Â…Â‡ ‹• „‡‹Â?‰ Š‡”ƒŽ†‡† ĥ ƒ Â?‡™ ’ƒ”ƒ†‹‰Â? ‹Â? …‘Â?’—–‹Â?‰ǥ ™Š‹…Š „Ž—”• –Š‡ Ž‹Â?‡ „‡–™‡‡Â? ™‘”Â? ƒÂ?† ’‡”•‘Â?ƒŽ Ž‹ˆ‡Ǥ Š‡ ’Š‡Â?‘Â?‡Â?‘Â? ‹• ˆ‘”…‹Â?‰

• –‘ •—’’‘”– ’‡”•‘Â?ƒŽ ‰ƒ†‰‡–• ‡Â?’Ž‘›‡‡• „”‹Â?‰ –‘ ™‘”Â? ƒÂ?† †‡ƒŽ ™‹–Š the  tidal  wave  of  consumerisation  of  IT  that  shows  no  signs  of  ebbing  away.   ƒ•– Â?‘Â?–Šǥ –™‘ Â?ƒŒ‘” ˜‡Â?†‘”• ”‡Ž‡ƒ•‡† –Š‡‹” •–—†‹‡• ”‡Žƒ–‡† –‘ ™Š‹…Š Š‡Ž’ –‘ ‰‡– ƒ Ď?‹Â?‰‡” ‘Â? –Š‹• Â?‡™ –‡…ŠÂ?‘Ž‘‰› ’—Ž•‡Ǥ ‹”•– ™ƒ• ƒ ‹•…‘ study  that  found  out  a  vast  majority  of  organisations  in  the  US  are  adopting  •…Š‡Â?‡•ǥ ‡Â?–‹…‡† „› –Š‡ ’‘–‡Â?–‹ƒŽ –‘ ”‡ƒ’ •‹‰Â?‹Ď?‹…ƒÂ?– …‘•– ƒÂ?† ’”‘†—…–‹˜‹–› „‡Â?‡Ď?‹–• ˆ”‘Â? –Š‹• –”‡Â?†Ǥ Š‡ Â?ƒ‹Â? Â?‘–‹˜ƒ–‘” ˆ‘” ‹• ˆƒ‹”Ž› •‹Â?’Ž‡ –‘ —Â?†‡”•–ƒÂ?† Č‚ ™‘—Ž†Â?ǯ– ›‘— ”ƒ–Š‡” —•‡ ›‘—” ‹ Ġ ‘” ‹ Š‘Â?‡ǥ ™Š‹…Š is  easy  to  customise  with  productivity  tools  and  apps  than  a  clumsy  device  issued  by  the  IT  department?  Cisco  estimates  that  the  annual  company  cash  „‡Â?‡Ď?‹–• ˆ”‘Â? ”ƒÂ?‰‡ ˆ”‘Â? ̈́;ͲͲ –‘ ̈́ͳǥ;ͲͲ ’‡” ‡Â?’Ž‘›‡‡ǥ †‡’‡Â?†‹Â?‰ on  the  employee’s  job  role.   When  you  allow  your  employees  to  bring  their  own  personal  gadgets,  it  saves  you  the  trouble  of  investing  in  and  procuring  hardware,  which  explains  the  cost  savings.  ‹• Â?‘– ƒ ’Š‡Â?‘Â?‡Â?‘Â? ”‡•–”‹…–‡† ‘Â?Ž› –‘ –Š‡ †‡˜‡Ž‘’‡† Â?ƒ”Â?‡–•Ǥ A  survey  done  by  the  wireless  vendor  Aruba  in  EMEA  indicates  that  both  ’”‹˜ƒ–‡ ƒÂ?† ’—„Ž‹… ‘”‰ƒÂ?‹•ƒ–‹‘Â?• ƒ”‡ –ƒÂ?‹Â?‰ …‘Â?•‹†‡”ƒ„Ž‡ •–‡’• –‘™ƒ”†• ƒ†‘’–‹‘Â?ÇĄ –Š‘—‰Š Â?‡–™‘”Â? ƒÂ?† „ƒÂ?†™‹†–Š ‹••—‡• ƒ”‡ •–‹ŽŽ •‹‰Â?‹Ď?‹…ƒÂ?– „ƒ””‹‡”•Ǥ ‹• ƒ †‘—„Ž‡nj‡†‰‡† •™‘”† ƒÂ?† ‹• ”‹††Ž‡† ™‹–Š Â’Â‹Â–ÂˆÂƒÂŽÂŽÂ•ÇĄ •‡…—”‹–› „‡‹Â?‰ –Š‡ Â?—Â?„‡” ‘Â?‡ …‘Â?…‡”Â?Ǥ Šƒ– †‘‡• ‹• –‘ ’—– –Š‡ —•‡”• ‹Â? control  who  may  not  be  concerned  about  security  policies  or  the  sensitive  data  they  carry  in  their  devices.  Though  vendors  have  jumped  into  the  fray  ™‹–Š •‡…—”‹–› •‘Ž—–‹‘Â?•ǥ ‹– ‹• ƒŽ™ƒ›• ƒ ‰‘‘† ‹†‡ƒ ˆ‘” ‘”‰ƒÂ?‹•ƒ–‹‘Â?• –‘ ’—– ‹Â? ’Žƒ…‡ ’ŽƒÂ?• –‘ ’”‘–‡…– ƒ‰ƒ‹Â?•– …‡”–ƒ‹Â? ”‹•Â?• ƒÂ?† †‡Ď?‹Â?‡ ™Šƒ– ƒ’’Ž‹…ƒ–‹‘Â?• …ƒÂ? ƒÂ?† …ƒÂ?ǯ– „‡ —•‡† ™Š‹Ž‡ ‘Â? …‘”’‘”ƒ–‡ Â?‡–™‘”Â?•Ǥ ‹• an  unstoppable  trend  that  enterprises  in  the  Middle  East  will  have  to  deal  ™‹–ŠǤ —–ǥ ”—•Š‹Â?‰ Š‡ƒ†Ž‘Â?‰ ‹Â?–‘ ™‹–Š‘—– •–”‹Â?‰‡Â?– •‡…—”‹–› ’‘Ž‹…‹‡• ˆ‘” ƒŽŽ †‡˜‹…‡• ƒÂ?† †ƒ–ƒ ‹• ƒ •—”‡Ď?‹”‡ ”‡…‹’‡ ˆ‘” †‹•ƒ•–‡”Ǥ

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Contents ISSUE 245 | JUNE 2012

ANALYSIS 8

Growth on the cards

the Middle East as a major area of growth. COO Randy Crenshaw was Ǥ ǯ Ǥ

10

HP bets on SDN

ϐ space, Interop Las Vegas 2012 was the stage it chose to declare it is ǡ ǡ Ǯ ǯ ϐ ȋ ȌǤ

14

A story of transformation

32

At EMC World 2012, the company focused its energies on highlighting

as to capitalise on a new age of growth.

18

The end of email

ϐ asserts its messaging and collaboration solutions exemplify the future Ǥ ǡ at IBM Software Group, explains why the company believes traditional email will soon be a thing of the past.

20

22

A natural move

42

Saudi Arabia Airlines discusses the mammoth IT project that enabled a business transition.

High grades

resources for both students and teachers.

ϐ Ǥ ǡ ǡ

Ǥ

SOLUTIONS WORLD

Roadmap to the cloud

48

A tough job

Ǥ ǡ ϐ

Ǥ Ǧ ϐ ǡ ϐ

sweeping the Middle East and how much CIOs are happy to leave it all Ǧ Ǥ

ǡ ǡ

Ǧ Ǥ

24

Taking off

Round-up Ǧ Ǥ

NETWORK WORLD

CASE STUDY 38

56

Evaluating infrastructure

ϐ ǯ

infrastructure a few months ago. But the hiring of a new CIO and an Ǧ Ǥ Ǥ

6

Computer News Middle East

JUNE 2012

Gigabit wireless steams ahead ͺͲʹǤͳͳ ±Ǥ ϐ ͺͲʹǤͳͳ ϐ ǯ ϐ ʹͲͳ͵ǡ shelves sporting the faster wireless protocol.

www.cnmeonline.com

Strategic ICT Partner

Strategic IT Transformation and Big Data Partner

Strategic IT Networking Partner

Strategic IT Storage Partner

Our Strategic Partners

58 Â Â Â

Securing wireless networks When  it  comes  to  ensuring  24/7  security  and  compliance  monitoring  ‘ˆ …‘”’‘”ƒ–‡ ‹nj ‹ Â?‡–™‘”Â?•ǥ •–”ƒ‹‰Š–ˆ‘”™ƒ”† „—•‹Â?॥ ‡…‘Â?‘Â?‹…• demands  the  need  for  cost  optimisation.  And  yet,  guaranteeing  the  „‹‰‰‡•– „ƒÂ?‰ ˆ‘” ›‘—” „—…Â? ‹• ‡ƒ•‹‡” •ƒ‹† –ŠƒÂ? †‘Â?‡Ǥ Ž—Â?‡ ‡–™‘”Â?• reveals  how  to  maximise  ROI  without  compromising  corporate  data.

STORAGE ADVISOR 64 Â Â Â

Big data in the cloud There’s  a  wealth  of  data  that  companies  can  use  to  better  understand  customers  and  identify  emerging  business  opportunities  and  threats.  —– Š‘™ –‘ ƒ……‡•• ƒÂ?† ™‘”Â? ™‹–Š ƒŽŽ –Š‡ Â†ÂƒÂ–ÂƒÇŤ Â? ‡Â?‡”‰‹Â?‰ –›’‡ ‘ˆ service  called  data  as  a  service,  or  DaaS,  promises  to  help. Â

CAREERS ADVISOR SECURITY ADVISOR 70 Â Â Â

88 Â Â Â

Achieving maturity

†‡Ž˜‡• ‹Â?–‘ –Š‡ ’‡”…‡‹˜‡† –”‡Â?† –Šƒ– –Š‡”‡ ‹• ƒ Žƒ…Â? ‘ˆ …‹–‹œ‡Â?• ™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ ˆ‘” ’”‹˜ƒ–‡ •‡…–‘” ‘”‰ƒÂ?‹•ƒ–‹‘Â?• ‹Â? –Š‡ Ǥ Š”‘—‰Š –Š‡ ‹Â?•’‡…–‹‘Â? ‘ˆ Â?‡› Â”Â‡Â•Â‡ÂƒÂ”Â…ÂŠÇĄ ĥ ™‡ŽŽ ĥ ˆ‡‡†„ƒ…Â? ˆ”‘Â? ‡Â?†nj—•‡”•ǥ ‡Â?

Rossi  examines  the  subject  of  Emiratisation  in  IT.

• –Š‡ ‰‘˜‡”Â?ƒÂ?…‡ǥ ”‹•Â? ƒÂ?† …‘Â?’Ž‹ƒÂ?…‡ Č‹ ČŒ Â?ƒ”Â?‡– Â?ÂƒÂ–Â—Â”Â‡Â•ÇĄ —•‡”• ƒ”‡ •–”—‰‰Ž‹Â?‰ –‘ Â?ƒÂ?‡ –Š‡ …ƒ•‡ ˆ‘” ‹Â?’Ž‡Â?‡Â?–ƒ–‹‘Â?•Ǥ What  is  the  business  case  for  GRC  in  a  modern  organisation,  ƒÂ?† †‘‡• ‹– ”‡ƒŽŽ› ’ƒ› Â‘ÂˆÂˆÇŤ ‡Â? ‘••‹ •’‡ƒÂ?• –‘ ‹Â?†—•–”› experts  to  answer  these  burning  questions. Â

INTERVIEW 94 Â Â All systems go

TELECOMS WORLD 78 Â Â Â

Â

Cloud,  virtualisation  and  mobility  are  driving  the  Žƒ–‡•– „‘‘Â? ‹Â? –Š‡ •›•–‡Â?• ‹Â?–‡‰”ƒ–‹‘Â? Â?ƒ”Â?‡– ƒÂ?† –Š‡ ÇŚÂ„ÂƒÂ•Â‡Â† Â?–‡”–‡… ›•–‡Â?• ‹• ƒŽŽ •‡– –‘ ”‹†‡ the  crest  of  this  new  wave.  The  company’s  ǥ ƒ”‡•Š ‘–Šƒ”‹ •’‘Â?‡ –‘ —• ƒ„‘—– –Š‡ blueprint  for  growth.

The rise of the machines ƒ…Š‹Â?‡ –‘ Â?ƒ…Š‹Â?‡ Č‹ Í´ ČŒ communications  may  have  had  a  subdued  year  during  2011,  but  industry  experts  expect  it  to  emerge  as  one  of  the  underlying  technologies  of  smart  ‰”‹†•ǥ •Â?ƒ”– Š‘Â?‡• ƒÂ?† Â‡ÇŚÂŠÂ‡ÂƒÂŽÂ–ÂŠ ‹Â?

2012. Â

96   Sharing lessons Sanjay  Mirchandani,  CIO  and  COO,  Global  Centers  of  š…‡ŽŽ‡Â?…‡ ƒ– †‹•…—••‡• ™‹–Š –Š‡ …‘Â?’ƒÂ?›ǯ• adoption  of  cloud  and  big  data,  and  the  challenges  they  faced  along  the  way,  on  the  sidelines  of  EMC  World  2012. Â

INTEGRATION ADVISOR 84 Â Â Â

Emiratisation in IT

Post a merger ‡”ˆ‘”�‹�‰ •›•–‡�• ‹�–‡‰”ƒ–‹‘� ‹� –Š‡ •…‡�ƒ”‹‘ ‘ˆ ƒ �‡”‰‡” and  acquisition  is  very  different  from  conducting  the  same  ˆ‘” ‹�–‡”�ƒŽ •›•–‡�•Ǥ ‡”‡ ƒ”‡ •‘�‡ –‹’• ‘� Š‘™ –‘ ‰‘ ƒ„‘—– reaching  success.

LAST WORD 98 Ž‘‘Â? ƒ– ™Šƒ– Â?ƒŒ‘” ‡˜‡Â?–• ƒ™ƒ‹– ›‘—ǥ ™Šƒ– ™‡ǯ”‡ ”‡ƒ†‹Â?‰ǥ ƒÂ?† ƒ

www.cnmeonline.com

•�‡ƒ� ’‡‡� ƒ– –Š‡ …‘�–‡�–• ‘ˆ –Š‡ �‡š– ‹••—‡ ‘ˆ Ǥ

JUNE 2012

Computer  News  Middle  East

7

ANALYSIS CommScope

Growth on the cards Network infrastructure provider CommScope is setting its sights on the Middle East as a major area of growth. COO Richard Crenshaw was in Saudi Arabia and the UAE last month to facilitate discussions. He speaks to CNME about CommScope’s plans for the region and the major trends in the networking space.

T

he Middle East is seen as a promising emerging region for many global companies going forward. Richard Crenshaw, COO at CommScope, says that gaining double-­‐ digit growth is a minimum forecast for the networking company’s own investments in the region.

“This is just due to the vibrancy of the economy. Certainly the petrochemical base in the region doesn’t hurt and being a central

8

Computer News Middle East

JUNE 2012

ϐ it very critical. ” he says.

“Also there’s just this demand there for wireless as people go straight to a wireless infrastructure and don’t even bother with Ǥ These are all growth areas,” he adds.

Crenshaw was in Saudi Arabia and

ǡ particularly the KSA.

www.cnmeonline.com

“We’re increasing investment and

with our new joint venture over there, which is dedicated more towards the enterprise space. We also have a distribution centre in Dubai and are upping the investment there in support of a lot of initiatives going on in both the wired and wireless space,” Crenshaw says.

Crenshaw believes the region is once again showing positive signs of growth

following the economic bust it suffered and

of that.

“Obviously there’s been a large boom ǡ are seeing evidence of an improvement, particularly around infrastructure and Ǥ so much the commercial side yet – there’s still lots of overbuild and empty space – but

starting to spend, with airport construction,

starting to move,” he says. ϐ CommScope’s Middle East business to be ϐ ʹͲͳʹ compared to the last quarter of 2011 as a

the region.

“We’ve been in the Middle East for a long time. We’ve been through the ups and downs.

We see the area as a very critical hub for us, not only serving the Middle East but Africa and parts of Europe as well. It’s a very good logistical location. We have a lot of support ǡ ͵Ͳ in the region, and we’re constantly adding support personnel there,” Crenshaw says.

“We’ve recently consolidated all of our enterprise businesses and our wireless businesses in one new location. They have ϐ centre, so we’re aggregating it as a regional technical hub for the company. My travels allow me to assess what the conditions are,” he adds.

Trends ǡ Crenshaw believes a major trend affecting Ǥ “As consumers want more features Ȃ ǯ ʹ ǡ ͵ Ͷ ǡ LTE – they are increasingly having capacity issues in high urban areas where people ǡ Android devices. These tend to consume a lot of bandwidth and therefore require better management and infrastructure,” he says.

“We’re just seeing extreme capacity

Ǥ

Richard Crenshaw, COO at CommScope

the issue of who pays for increasing capacity out there. Dz ǯ

ǡ up with the demands that the devices are placing on them,” he says.

“So how do they adequately manager ǯ Ǧ parties involved? They can’t continue to give ϐ Ǥ ϐ ǯ tailored to the application?” he adds.

Ǥ Dz ǯ the operators are going to say they can’t

We’re increasing investment and doubling the size of our business in Saudi with our new joint venture over there, which is dedicated more towards the enterprise space. We also have a distribution centre in Dubai and are upping the investment there in support of a lot of initiatives going on in both the wired and wireless space.”

capacity, the ability to steer the signal so we can utilise information and to get more sophisticated systems,” he adds. ǡ ϐ ϐ Ǥ as a “turning point.”

“The expectation that people want to have the same performance when they’re moving as they have when sat at a connected Ǥ ǯ today but, particularly with younger users Ǧ ǡ ǯ Ǥ

to support all those devices,” he says.

Whilst those are the trends affecting the

year, Crenshaw believes moving forward

www.cnmeonline.com

Ǥ So I anticipate them to start building more ϐ ǡ Ǧ that can handle the capacity based on where Ǥ ǯ ǡdz Ǥ ǡ

Ǥ “There is a lot of discussion around Ǥ

consumers – both commercial and personal Ȃ ǯ ǡ Ǥ ϐ media is going to ultimately win out. There is a shift towards pushing out a lot of the ϐ ǡ Ǧ basis,” he concludes.

JUNE 2012

Computer News Middle East

9

ANALYSIS Interop

HP bets on SDN In a week where HP made several significant plays in the networking space, Interop Las Vegas 2012 was the stage it chose to declare it is not only pioneering, but also ready to lead, the ‘mega shift’ towards software defined networking (SDN).

H

P  began  the  Interop  conference  by  making  several  key  announcements  regarding  its  networking  portfolio,  and  positioned  itself  as  a  main  talking  point  for  the  remainder  of  the  week.  Š‡ Â?‘•– •‹‰Â?‹Ď?‹…ƒÂ?– ‘ˆ ǯ• ’Žƒ›• ™‡”‡ the  announcement  of  its  partnership  with  ƒ’’Ž‹…ƒ–‹‘Â? †‡Ž‹˜‡”› Â?‡–™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ …‘Â?’ƒÂ?› ͡ ƒÂ?† ‹–• —•‡ ‘ˆ ͡ǯ• –‡…ŠÂ?‘Ž‘‰› –‘ Žƒ—Â?…Š ‹–• ‹”–—ƒŽ ’’Ž‹…ƒ–‹‘Â? ‡–™‘”Â?• •‘Ž—–‹‘Â?Ǥ The  solutions  are  based  on  the  ‹Â?–‡‰”ƒ–‹‘Â? ‘ˆ ‹”–—ƒŽ ’’Ž‹…ƒ–‹‘Â? ‡–™‘”Â?• –‡…ŠÂ?‘Ž‘‰›ǥ ™Š‹…Š ˜‹”–—ƒŽ‹•‡• Â?‡–™‘”Â?• ƒÂ?† ƒ—–‘Â?ƒ–‡• …‘Â?Ď?‹‰—”ƒ–‹‘Â?ÇĄ ƒÂ?† ͡ –‡…ŠÂ?‘Ž‘‰›ǥ ™Š‹…Š †‘‡• –Š‡ •ƒÂ?‡ ˆ‘” ƒ’’Ž‹…ƒ–‹‘Â? …‘Â?Ď?‹‰—”ƒ–‹‘Â?Ǥ The  new  technology  will  offer  what  …ƒŽŽ• Dz‹Â?Â†Â—Â•Â–Â”Â›ÇŚÂˆÂ‹Â”Â•Â– •‘Ž—–‹‘Â?•dz –Šƒ– …‘Â?˜‡”‰‡ ƒ’’Ž‹…ƒ–‹‘Â? ƒÂ?† Â?‡–™‘”Â?

Mike Banic, VP of marketing at HP Networking

10

Computer  News  Middle  East

JUNE 2012

orchestration,  eliminating  manual  configuration  and  enabling  application  deployment  in  minutes. ‹”–—ƒŽ ’’Ž‹…ƒ–‹‘Â? ‡–™‘”Â?• ’”‘˜‹†‡• •‹Â?Â‰ÂŽÂ‡ÇŚÂ’ÂƒÂ?Â‡ÇŚÂ‘ÂˆÇŚÂ‰ÂŽÂƒÂ•Â• Â?ƒÂ?ƒ‰‡Â?‡Â?– ƒÂ?† Ž‡˜‡”ƒ‰‡• •‘ˆ–™ƒ”‡ †‡Ď?‹Â?‡† Â?‡–™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ –‡…ŠÂ?‘Ž‘‰› •—…Š ĥ ’‡Â? Ž‘™ –‘ …Šƒ”ƒ…–‡”‹•‡ ƒ’’Ž‹…ƒ–‹‘Â?ÇŚÂ†Â‡ÂŽÂ‹Â˜Â‡Â”Â› ”‡“—‹”‡Â?‡Â?–• ƒÂ?† †‡Ž‹˜‡” ƒÂ? ƒ—–‘Â?ÂƒÂ–Â‡Â†ÇĄ Â’Â‘ÂŽÂ‹Â…Â›ÇŚÂ†Â”Â‹Â˜Â‡Â? ƒ’’”‘ƒ…Š –‘ Â?‡–™‘”Â? …‘Â?Ď?‹‰—”ƒ–‹‘Â?Ǥ Â?† ‹– ™ƒ• –Š‡ –‡”Â? ǎ•‘ˆ–™ƒ”‡ †‡Ď?‹Â?‡† Â?‡–™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ǯ –Šƒ– „‡…ƒÂ?‡ ƒ „—œœ ’Š”ƒ•‡ throughout  the  remainder  of  the  conference.  ‡–ŠƒÂ?› ÂƒÂ›Â‡Â”ÇĄ ƒ– ‡–™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ǥ •ƒ‹† ‹• ƒ Â?ƒŒ‘” †‹•”—’–‹˜‡ –Šƒ– ‹• Â?‘™ ˜‡”› ‹Â?’‘”–ƒÂ?– –‘ ǯ• •–”ƒ–‡‰›Ǥ “Our  aim  is  to  deliver  technologies  that  are  innovative  and  in  some  way  disruptive.  We  have  a  very  good  advantage  ™‹–Š –Š‡ …‘Â?„‹Â?ƒ–‹‘Â? ‘ˆ ™‘”Â? Â™Â‡ÇŻÂ˜Â‡ †‘Â?‡ ‹Â? ’‡Â? Ž‘™ǥ ĥ ™‡ŽŽ ĥ ‘—” ™‘”Â? ™‹–Š –Š‡ ‹”–—ƒŽ ’’Ž‹…ƒ–‹‘Â? ‡–™‘”Â?• •‘Ž—–‹‘Â?ÇĄ ™Š‹…Š provides  customers  with  virtualisation  and  helps  them  simplify  the  management  of  their  Â?‡–™‘”Â?ÇĄÇł ƒ›‡” •ƒ‹†Ǥ Š‡ ƒ††‡† –Šƒ– •Š‡ „‡Ž‹‡˜‡• ǯ• Â?‘˜‡ ™‹ŽŽ •‹‰Â?ƒŽ ƒ Â?ƒ”Â?‡– •Š‹ˆ– –‘™ƒ”†• because  it  is  something  customers  want.  “It’s  the  way  to  go  because  it’s  a  means  –‘ ƒÂ? ‡Â?†ǥ ™Š‹…Š ‹• •‹Â?’Ž‹Ď?‹…ƒ–‹‘Â? ‘ˆ –Š‡ ™‘”Â? ƒ …‘Â?’ƒÂ?› Šƒ• –‘ †‘ ‹Â? Â?ƒ‹Â?–ƒ‹Â?‹Â?‰ –Š‡ Â?‡–™‘”Â?Ǥ Ž–‹Â?ƒ–‡Ž› ™Š› ™‡ǯ”‡ †‘‹Â?‰ –Š‹• ‹• –‘ ƒŽŽ‘™ –Š‡Â? –‘ Â?ƒÂ?ƒ‰‡ –Š‡ Â?‡–™‘”Â? from  a  single  point  of  control  vs.  having  to  run  around  managing  each  of  the  boxes  separately,â€?  she  said.  Dz Š‡ „‡Â?‡Ď?‹– ‹•Â?ǯ– –Šƒ– ‹–ǯ• ƒ •‘ˆ–™ƒ”‡ †‡Ď?‹Â?‡† Â?‡–™‘”Â?ÇĄ –Š‡ „‡Â?‡Ď?‹– ‹• –Šƒ– ‹–ǯ• ‡ƒ•‹‡” –‘ Â?ƒÂ?ƒ‰‡Ǥ – –ƒÂ?‡• ˆ‡™‡” ”‡•‘—”…‡•

www.cnmeonline.com

Bethany Mayer, GM at HP Networking

and  time  to  manage  and  then  they  don’t  have  to  spend  as  much  time  on  maintaining  –Š‡ Â?‡–™‘”Â?Ǥ Š‡› …ƒÂ? •’‡Â?† Â?‘”‡ –‹Â?‡ ‘Â? other  innovations  and  they  can  also  be  able  –‘ ƒ†ƒ’– –Š‡ Â?‡–™‘”Â? –‘ …ŠƒÂ?‰‡ ƒÂ?† †‡’Ž‘› ƒ’’Ž‹…ƒ–‹‘Â?• Â?—…Š “—‹…Â?‡”ǥdz •Š‡ ƒ††‡†Ǥ ‹Â?‡ ƒÂ?‹…ǥ ‘ˆ Â?ƒ”Â?‡–‹Â?‰ ƒ– ‡–™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ǥ •ƒ‹† Š‡ „‡Ž‹‡˜‡• •‘ˆ–™ƒ”‡ †‡Ď?‹Â?‡† Â?‡–™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ ™‹ŽŽ „‡…‘Â?‡ ƒ DzÂ?‡‰ƒ –”‡Â?†Ǥdz Dz –Š‹Â?Â? ™Š‡Â? –Š‡ –‡š–„‘‘Â?• ƒ”‡ ™”‹––‡Â? on  this  10  years  from  now,  they’ll  write  that  ’‹‘Â?‡‡”‡† –Š‹• Â?‡‰ƒ •Š‹ˆ– –‘ •‘ˆ–™ƒ”‡ †‡Ď?‹Â?‡† Â?‡–™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ǥdz Š‡ •ƒ‹†Ǥ ‡ ”‡ˆ‡””‡† –‘ ”‡’‘”–• ˆ”‘Â? ÇĄ ƒ”–Â?‡” ƒÂ?† ‘””‡•–‡” ™Š‹…Š Šƒ˜‡ ˆ‘—Â?† –Šƒ– ͚ͲΨ ‘ˆ –Š‡ ˆ‘” Â?‡–™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ ‹• Â?ƒ†‡ —’ ‘ˆ operational  costs  from  man  power.  Dz Š‡Â? ›‘— –Š‹Â?Â? ƒ„‘—– Š‘™ –Š‹Â?‰• have  been  run,  everything’s  been  managed Â Â†Â‡Â˜Â‹Â…Â‡ÇŚÂ„Â›ÇŚÂ†Â‡Â˜Â‹Â…Â‡ ™‹–Š ƒ Ǥ Š‡Â? ’‡‘’Ž‡ ƒ”‡

doing  this  rudimentary  programming,  the  ™Š‘Ž‡ ’”‘Â?‹•‡ ‘ˆ •‘ˆ–™ƒ”‡ †‡Ď?‹Â?‡† Â?‡–™‘”Â?• ‹• ƒ Â?‡ƒÂ?• –‘ •‹Â?’Ž‹Ď?‹…ƒ–‹‘Â?Ǥ ‘— Šƒ˜‡ –Š‹• ˜‡”› Š‹‰Š …‘•– ƒÂ?† –ƒŽ‡Â?–‡† ™‘”Â? ˆ‘”…‡ ƒÂ?† you’re  busying  their  time  by  doing  mundane  programming,â€?  Banic  said. Dz ˆ ›‘— …ƒÂ? –ƒÂ?‡ ƒŽŽ –Šƒ– ƒ™ƒ› ˆ”‘Â? –Š‡Â? and  give  them  some  very  simple  policy  driven  tools  to  automate  all  that  and  hide  that  complexity,  you  free  them  up  to  deliver  ƒ Ž‘– ‘ˆ „—•‹Â?॥ ˜ƒŽ—‡Ǥ ‘—ǯ”‡ •Š‹ˆ–‹Â?‰ –Šƒ– …‘•– ‘ˆ ‘’‡”ƒ–‹Â?‰ –Š‡ Â?‡–™‘”Â? ˆ”‘Â? ͚ͲΨ •‹‰Â?‹Ď?‹…ƒÂ?–Ž› Ž‘™‡” ƒÂ?† ›‘—ǯ”‡ …”‡ƒ–‹Â?‰ ˆ‘—Â?† money  to  go  and  execute  on  products  that  will  help  you  win  the  game  and  possibly  change  the  rules,â€?  he  added.  It  was  clear  for  all  to  see  at  Interop  that ʪĥ –ƒÂ?‹Â?‰ Â?‡–™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ ˜‡”› •‡”‹‘—•Ž› to  the  point  where  it  has  become  a  leading  division  within  the  organisation.  ƒ›‡” …‘Â?Ď?‹”Â?‡† –Šƒ– –Š‡ •—’’‘”– ‘ˆ ‡‰ Š‹–Â?ƒÂ? Šƒ• ƒŽŽ‘™‡† ‡–™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ –‘ ‹Â?˜‡•– ‹Â? „‡‹Â?‰ ƒ Ž‡ƒ†‡”Ǥ Dz ‡–™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ ‹• ƒ Š‹‰Š ’”‹‘”‹–› ˆ‘” Ǥ – ‹• ˜‹‡™‡† ˜‡”› •–”ƒ–‡‰‹…ƒŽŽ› ™‹–Š‹Â? ƒŽŽ –Š‡ way  up  to  Meg  Whitman,  who  is  probably  one  ‘ˆ –Š‡ „‡•– •ƒŽ‡• ’‡‘’Ž‡ ˆ‘” Â?‡–™‘”Â?‹Â?‰Ǥ Š‡ǯ• very  passionate  about  our  success  and  she  •’‡Â?†• ƒ Ž‘– ‘ˆ –‹Â?‡ ™‹–Š …—•–‘Â?‡”• –ƒŽÂ?‹Â?‰ ƒ„‘—– –Š‡ ’”‘†—…–• ™‡ ‘ˆˆ‡” ‹Â? Â?‡–™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ǥdz Mayer  said.  Dz ‘ ‡–™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ ‹• ˜‡”› •–”ƒ–‡‰‹… –‘ ƒÂ?† –Š‡ ‡Â?–‡”’”‹•‡ „—•‹Â?॥ ‘˜‡”ƒŽŽ Šƒ• „‡‡Â? ˜‡”› ‹Â?’‘”–ƒÂ?– –‘ ƒÂ?† …‘Â?–‹Â?—‡• –‘ „‡ •‘Ǥ – Â?ƒÂ?‡• —’ ƒ Š—‰‡ …Š—Â?Â? ‘ˆ –Š‡ ”‡˜‡Â?—‡ ‘ˆ ƒÂ?† Šƒ• „‡‡Â? ƒ •–”‘Â?‰ ’”‘Ď?‹–ƒ„‹Ž‹–› ‡Â?‰‹Â?‡ ˆ‘” ÇĄÇł •Š‡ ƒ††‡†Ǥ ™ƒ› ˆ”‘Â? ƒÂ?† •‘ˆ–™ƒ”‡ †‡Ď?‹Â?‡† Â?‡–™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ǥ ‹– ™ƒ• –‘ Â?‘ •—”’”‹•‡ –Šƒ– –Š‡ ‘–Š‡” „—œœ ™‘”† ‘ˆ –Š‡ Â?–‡”‘’ …‘Â?ˆ‡”‡Â?…‡ was  cloud.  Allan  Leinwand,  CTO  of  infrastructure  at  Zynga,  shared  the  story  of  how  the  social  gaming  giant  was  saved  by  the  public  cloud,  „‡ˆ‘”‡ †‹–…Š‹Â?‰ ‹– ˆ‘” ‹–• ‘™Â? Â?‘”‡ ’”‘Ď?‹–ƒ„Ž‡ private  cloud.

When  Zynga  started  out  in  2007  with  –Š‡ Žƒ—Â?…Š ‘ˆ ›Â?‰ƒ ‘Â?‡”ǥ ‹Â?ˆ”ƒ•–”—…–—”‡ was  simple  to  manage  and  subsequent  game  launches  followed  a  similar  process. Â

Allan Leinwand, CTO of infrastructure at Zynga

Dz —„Ž‹… …Ž‘—† „‡…ƒÂ?‡ ƒ …”‹–‹…ƒŽ component  of  our  infrastructure.  It  allowed  us  to  scale,  and  we  then  launched  a  number  of  games  on  the  public  cloud.  We  launched  CityVille  on  the  public  cloud,  which  at  the  time  was  the  fastest  growing  game  on  ƒ…‡„‘‘Â?ÇĄÇł ‡‹Â?™ƒÂ?† •ƒ‹†Ǥ Â‘Â™Â‡Â˜Â‡Â”ÇĄ ƒ– –Š‡ ‡Â?† ‘ˆ ʹͲͳͲ ›Â?‰ƒ „‡‰ƒÂ? to  realise  its  strong  dependency  on  the  public  …Ž‘—† ™ƒ• •–ƒÂ?†‹Â?‰ ‹Â? –Š‡ ™ƒ› ‘ˆ ƒ •‹‰Â?‹Ď?‹…ƒÂ?– opportunity. “We  realised  that  we  were  renting  what  we  could  own.  We  wanted  to  own  the  base  of  our  infrastructure.  That  base  of  our  infrastructure  would  be  the  hidden  gem  and  core  component  of  our  infrastructure  plans.  Infrastructure  would  be  there  to  drive  our  business,â€?  Leinwand  said.

Our aim is to deliver technologies that are innovative and in some way disruptive. We have a very good advantage with the combination of work we’ve done in OpenFlow, as well as our work with the Virtual Application Networks solution, which provides customers with virtualisation and helps them simplify the management of their network.â€? Â‘Â™Â‡Â˜Â‡Â”ÇĄ ™Š‡Â? ƒ”Â? ‹ŽŽ‡ Žƒ—Â?…Š‡† in  2009,  its  large  popularity  led  to  serious  issues  for  Zynga. Dz ƒ”Â? ‹ŽŽ‡ ‰”‡™ ˆ”‘Â? œ‡”‘ –‘ ͳͲ Â?‹ŽŽ‹‘Â? †ƒ› ƒ…–‹˜‡ ’Žƒ›‡”• ‹Â? •‹š ™‡‡Â?•Ǥ – ™‡Â?– –‘ ʹ͡ Â?‹ŽŽ‹‘Â? †ƒ› ƒ…–‹˜‡ ’Žƒ›‡”• ‹Â? Ď?‹˜‡ Â?‘Â?–Š•Ǥ – was  explosive  growth,â€?  Leinwand  said. “We  couldn’t  get  power  fast  enough.  We  couldn’t  get  servers  fast  enough.  We  couldn’t  get  cooling  or  our  internet  service  providers  to  give  us  bandwidth  fast  enough.  We  just  couldn’t  scale  our  infrastructure  to  match  the  needs  of  ƒ”Â? ‹ŽŽ‡ ƒÂ?† ™Šƒ– ‹– ™ƒ• †‡Â?ƒÂ?†‹Â?‰ǥdz  he  added. ‘”–—Â?ÂƒÂ–Â‡ÂŽÂ›ÇĄ –Š‡”‡ ™ƒ• ’—„Ž‹… …Ž‘—† for  the  company  to  leverage  and  save  the  business  from  collapsing  from  the  overwhelming  demand.

www.cnmeonline.com

Subsequently,  Zynga  began  to  explore  the  idea  of  building  its  own  private  cloud. Dz ‡ Â?ƒÂ?‡† ‹– –Š‡ Âœ Ž‘—† ƒÂ?† •–ƒ”–‡† out  small.  We  went  from  building  a  proof  of  concept  to  a  new  data  centre,  new  servers,  ƒ Â?‡™ Â?‡–™‘”Â? ƒÂ?† ƒ Â?‡™ ‘”…Š‡•–”ƒ–‹‘Â? layer  –  everything  from  scratch.  We  did  this  ‹Â? ƒ Ž‹––Ž‡ —Â?†‡” •‹š Â?‘Â?–Š•Ǥ Š‡ Ď?‹”•– ‰ƒÂ?‡ ™‡ Žƒ—Â?…Š‡† ‘Â? Âœ Ž‘—† ’”‘‘ˆ ‘ˆ …‘Â?…‡’– ™ƒ• …ƒŽŽ‡† ‹–› ‹ŽŽ‡ ‘Â?‡–‘™Â?ÇĄÇł ‡‹Â?™ƒÂ?† •ƒ‹†Ǥ Â?…‡ ›Â?‰ƒ •ƒ™ –Šƒ– –Š‡ Âœ Ž‘—† …‘—Ž† •…ƒŽ‡ and  operate  the  same  as  the  public  cloud,  it  decided  to  get  it  ready  for  full  production. Dz ‡ „—‹Ž– Âœ Ž‘—† ‹Â? Â?—Ž–‹’Ž‡ †ƒ–ƒ centres.  We  built  it  in  multiple  geographies,  interconnected  it  with  fibre,  and  connected  ‹– —’ –‘ ‘—” •‘…‹ƒŽ Â?‡–™‘”Â? ’ƒ”–Â?‡”• and  public  cloud  partners.  Once  we  had  that  done  we  began  the  integration  of Â

JUNE 2012

Computer  News  Middle  East

11

ANALYSIS Interop

™‘”Â?Ž‘ƒ†• ˆ”‘Â? –Š‡ ’—„Ž‹… –‘ –Š‡ Â’Â”Â‹Â˜ÂƒÂ–Â‡ÇĄÇł Leinwand  said.

The  culmination  of  this  preparation  was  ‹Â? ‘˜‡Â?„‡” ʹͲͳͳ ™Š‡Â? ›Â?‰ƒ Žƒ—Â?…Š‡† ƒ•–Ž‡ ‹ŽŽ‡ ˆ—ŽŽ› ‘Â? Âœ Ž‘—†Ǥ “CastleVille’s  growth  eclipsed  the  growth  ™‡ǯ† •‡‡Â? ‘Â? ‹–› ‹ŽŽ‡Ǥ – ‰”‡™ –‘ Ď?‹˜‡ Â?‹ŽŽ‹‘Â? day  active  players  in  six  days,  compared  to  CityVille’s  three  million  in  the  same  time.  It  was  the  fastest  growing  game  in  Zynga’s  history  and  it  was  launched  and  scaled  on  œ Ž‘—†ǥdz ‡‹Â?™ƒÂ?† •ƒ‹†Ǥ The  result  was  a  massive  decline  in  data  ™‘”Â?Ž‘ƒ† …‘•–• ˆ”‘Â? –Š‡ ”‡†—…–‹‘Â? ‘ˆ •‡”˜‡”• ”‡“—‹”‡† ‘Â? –Š‡ Âœ Ž‘—† …‘Â?’ƒ”‡† –‘ –Š‡ public  cloud. Dz – –Š‡ „‡‰‹Â?Â?‹Â?‰ ‘ˆ ʹͲͳͳǥ ʹͲΨ ‘ˆ ‘—” ’Žƒ›‡”• ™‡”‡ ’Žƒ›‹Â?‰ ‘Â? Âœ Ž‘—†ǥ ™‹–Š ͺͲΨ playing  up  in  the  public  cloud.  But  once  we  realised  we  could  build  a  private  cloud  that  could  match  the  needs  of  our  players,  we  doubled  down  and  started  to  move  ™‘”Â?Ž‘ƒ†• ‘Â? –Š‡ Âœ Ž‘—†ǥdz ‡‹Â?™ƒÂ?† •ƒ‹†Ǥ “At  the  end  of  2011  that  number  had  Ď?Ž‹’’‡†ǥ ™‹–Š ͺͲΨ ‘ˆ ‘—” ’Žƒ›‡”• ‘Â? Âœ Ž‘—†Ǥ ‘” ‡˜‡”› –Š”‡‡ •‡”˜‡”• ™‡ Šƒ† ‘Â? –Š‡ ’—„Ž‹… …Ž‘—†ǥ ˆ‘” –Š‡ •ƒÂ?‡ ‡šƒ…– ™‘”Â? Ž‘ƒ† ‘—” ’Žƒ›‡”• ™‡ Â?‡‡†‡† ‘Â?‡ •‡”˜‡” ‹Â? Âœ Ž‘—† Č‚ ƒ ͸͸Ψ ”‡†—…–‹‘Â?ÇĄÇł Š‡ ƒ††‡†Ǥ While  Zynga’s  cloud  story  impressed  the  exhibitors  and  delegates  at  Interop  with  its  successful  deployment  of  existing  cloud  models,  another  company  was  setting  out  to  …ŠƒÂ?‰‡ –Š‡ …Ž‘—† Â?ƒ”Â?‡– ƒŽ–‘‰‡–Š‡”Ǥ ”›ƒÂ?ƒ –‘—–• ‹–•‡Žˆ ĥ –Š‡ ™‘”Ž†ǯ• Ď?‹”•– Â…ÂŽÂ‘Â—Â†ÇŚÂ„ÂƒÂ•Â‡Â† ‘’–‹Â?‹•ƒ–‹‘Â? •‘Ž—–‹‘Â? ƒÂ?† revealed  at  Interop  it  will  bring  its  “game  changingâ€?  service  to  the  Middle  East  in  the  third  quarter  of  2012.

The  company  aims  to  give  companies  access  to  the  global  cloud  in  an  affordable,  ‡ˆĎ?‹…‹‡Â?– ƒÂ?† •‡…—”‡ ™ƒ› –Š”‘—‰Š ‹–• Â?—Ž–‹’Ž‡ ’‘‹Â?–• ‘ˆ ’”‡•‡Â?…‡ Č‹ Â•ČŒ ƒ”‘—Â?† –Š‡ ™‘”Ž†Ǥ Its  stated  intent  to  expand  to  the  region  came  after  it  announced  on  day  two  of  the  …‘Â?ˆ‡”‡Â?…‡ ƒ ’ƒ”–Â?‡”•Š‹’ ™‹–Š Â?ƒœ‘Â? ‡„ ‡”˜‹…‡• Č‹ ČŒ –‘ „”‹Â?‰ –Š‡ ‘’’‘”–—Â?‹–› ‘ˆ cloud  to  regions  where  AWS  does  not  have  a  presence. ‘Â?ƒŽ —”‹ǥ ‘ˆ Â?ƒ”Â?‡–‹Â?‰ ƒÂ?† •ƒŽ‡• ƒ– ”›ƒÂ?ÂƒÇĄ •ƒ‹† –Š‡ …‘Â?’ƒÂ?› ™‹ŽŽ „‡ ‘ˆˆ‡”‹Â?‰ –Š‡

12

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Sonal Puri, VP of marketing and sales at Aryaka

security  limiting  their  experiences  to  private  and  hybrid  models. “Most  enterprises,  as  much  as  they  want  to  be  on  the  public  cloud,  they  want  their  experience  to  be  private.  They  want  it  to  „‡ •‡…—”‡ ‡Â?†nj–‘nj‡Â?†Ǥ Š‡› †‘Â?ǯ– Ž‹Â?‡ –Š‡ internet  and  they  don’t  trust  it  –  especially  in  ”‡‰‹‘Â?• Ž‹Â?‡ –Š‡ ‹††Ž‡ ƒ•–Ǥ Š‹• ƒŽŽ‘™• ›‘— –‘ Šƒ˜‡ ƒÂ? ˆ”‘Â? –Š‡ ‹††Ž‡ ƒ•– ‹Â?–‘ –Š‡ Â?ƒœ‘Â? …Ž‘—†ǥdz —”‹ •ƒ‹†Ǥ Dz ‘„‘†› ‡Ž•‡ ‹Â? –Š‡ ™‘”Ž† ‹• †‘‹Â?‰ ™Šƒ– ™‡ †‘Ǥ Š‡”‡ ƒ”‡ Â?‡–™‘”Â?• –Šƒ– ™‹ŽŽ ‰‹˜‡ ›‘— –Š‡ …‘Â?Â?‡…–‹˜‹–› Č‚ ‹ˆ ›‘— †‘ ÇĄ –Šƒ– ™‹ŽŽ ‰‹˜‡ ›‘— •‡…—”‡ …‘Â?Â?‡…–‹˜‹–› Č‚ „—– ’—ŽŽ‹Â?‰ Ď?‹„”‡ ‹Â?–‘ ƒŽŽ ‘ˆ –Š‡•‡ ‘ˆĎ?‹…‡• ™‹ŽŽ –ƒÂ?‡ ƒÂ? ‡Â?–‡”’”‹•‡ ‹Â? –Š‡ ‹††Ž‡ ƒ•– ƒ„‘—– –™‘ ›‡ƒ”• –‘ ‰‡– –Š‡ Â?‡–™‘”Â? —’ ƒÂ?† ”—Â?Â?‹Â?‰Ǥ

Networking is a high priority for HP. It is viewed very strategically within HP all the way up to Meg Whitman, who is probably one of the best sales people for networking. She’s very passionate about our success and she spends a lot of time with customers talking about the products we offer in networking.â€? service  through  partnership  with  a  regional  service  provider. Dz ‡ ƒ”‡ –ƒŽÂ?‹Â?‰ –‘ ƒ …‘—’Ž‡ ‹Â? –Š‡ ”‹‰Š– Â?‘™ ƒÂ?† ™‡ǯ”‡ ‰‘‹Â?‰ –‘ ™‘”Â? ™‹–Š ‘Â?‡ of  them.  They  will  give  us  the  infrastructure  Ȃ –Š‡ ”ƒ…Â? •’ƒ…‡ ƒÂ?† –Š‡ „ƒÂ?†™‹†–ŠǤ ‡ ™‹ŽŽ put  our  technology  there  and  then  they  will  sell  the  technology  to  their  global  customers  ‹Â? ƒ ”‡˜‡Â?Â—Â‡ÇŚÂ•ÂŠÂƒÂ”Â‡ Â?‘†‡Ž ™‹–Š —•ǥdz —”‹ •ƒ‹†Ǥ “This  is  going  to  give  companies  in  the  Middle  East  region  a  global  access.  Most  cloud  instances  are  hosted  in  the  U.S.,  Â?•–‡”†ƒÂ?ÇĄ ”ƒÂ?Â?ÂˆÂ—Â”Â–ÇĄ ‘Â?†‘Â?ÇĄ ”‡ŽƒÂ?† ƒÂ?† Singapore.  We  are  in  all  of  those  places  so  we’ve  built  that  full  mesh  already  across  –Š‘•‡ Ž‘…ƒ–‹‘Â?• ‘Â? ‘—” Â?‡–™‘”Â?Ǥ Š‡ Â?‘Â?‡Â?– we  add  Dubai  to  that  mesh,  we  bring  companies  in  that  region  closer  to  all  cloud  services  around  the  world,â€?  she  added. Š‡ …‘Â?…‡’– ƒÂ?† —’–ƒÂ?‡ ‘ˆ ’—„Ž‹… …Ž‘—† Šƒ• „‡‡Â? Â?‡ƒ” Â?‘Â?nj‡š‹•–‡Â?– ‹Â? –Š‡ ‹††Ž‡ East  region,  with  companies’  concerns  over Â

www.cnmeonline.com

With  us  they  can  get  up  and  running  in  two  days,�  she  added.

Suri  said  she  believes  this  new  way  of  accessing  the  cloud  will  change  the  Â?‡–™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ Â?ƒ”Â?‡– ‹Â? –Š‡ •ƒÂ?‡ ™ƒ› ‘’–‹Â?‹•ƒ–‹‘Â? †‹† ’”‡˜‹‘—•Ž› „ƒ…Â? ‹Â? ʹͲͲʹǤ “This  gives  Middle  East  companies  a  Š—‰‡ ‘’’‘”–—Â?‹–› –‘ –ƒÂ?‡ ƒ†˜ƒÂ?–ƒ‰‡ ‘ˆ ƒ •‡”˜‹…‡ ’”‘˜‹†‡” –Šƒ– ‹• Ď?‹Â?ƒŽŽ› ‘’‡Â?‹Â?‰ —’ –Š‡ world  for  enterprises  and  you  don’t  have  to  „‡ ƒ ‘”–—Â?‡ ͡ͲͲ …‘Â?’ƒÂ?› –‘ †‘ –Š‹•Ǥ ‘— …ƒÂ? „‡ ƒÂ?› Â?‹†njÂ?ƒ”Â?‡– …‘Â?’ƒÂ?›ǥdz •Š‡ •ƒ‹†Ǥ Š‡ ƒ††‡† –Šƒ– •Š‡ „‡Ž‹‡˜‡• Â?‹†njÂ?ƒ”Â?‡–• ™‹ŽŽ •–ƒ”– –ƒÂ?‹Â?‰ ƒ†˜ƒÂ?–ƒ‰‡ ‘ˆ –Š‡ •‘Ž—–‹‘Â? before  large  corporations  follow  suit. Dz • –Š‡ Â?‹†njÂ?ƒ”Â?‡– ‡Â?–‡”’”‹•‡ •–ƒ”–• pulling  into  this  direction  and  start  leveraging  global  resources,  then  the  big  guys  will  start  realising  they  are  losing  out  because  these  little  guys  are  doing  this. Â ÂŠÂƒÂ–ÇŻÂ• Š‘™ Â?‡™ Â?ƒ”Â?‡–• ƒ”‡ …”‡ƒ–‡† ƒÂ?† trends  are  made,â€?  she  said. Â

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ANALYSIS EMC

A story of transformation At EMC World 2012, the company focused its energies on highlighting the need for organisations to change their thinking and functioning so as to capitalise on a new age of growth.

E

MC World 2012 was all about the message of transformation. At its twelfth global annual conference, which brought together more than 13,000 customers and partners, the company focused on launching a set of products that were meant to take forward the message of transforming technology and business.

“We are calling this Megalaunch 2.

Megalaunch 1 was last year. We are launching around 42 products this time over. These ǯ ϐ Ǧ capabilities for customers and partners,”

ǡ EMC’s information infrastructure products Ǥ

at the conference focused around the transformative power of cloud computing Ǥ ϐ ǡ to the advantages of the hybrid cloud and true data analysis.

“Throughout the evolution of IT, the data itself has remained the ultimate source of Ǥ Ǯ ǡǯ or server centres; but rigid technology constraints effectively forced data to a lower priority. The onset of virtualisation, cloud computing and big data analytics, however, have restored data to its rightful place as the centre of IT gravity. The shift is swift and irreversible, from dedicated infrastructure ϐ ϐ ǡ Ǧ approach to computing. Today’s EMC announcements address this fundamental shift head on and deliver to customers

14

Computer News Middle East

JUNE 2012

www.cnmeonline.com

the  next  wave  of  technology  required  as  they  transform  their  IT,  their  business  and  themselves,�  said  Gelsinger.

Keeping  in  tune  with  the  overall  theme,  there  were  multiple  announcements  made  ƒ”‘—Â?† –Š‡ ÇĄ ƒÂ?† ˆƒÂ?‹Ž‹‡•ǥ ƒ’ƒ”– ˆ”‘Â? •–ƒ–‡Â?‡Â?–• ƒ”‘—Â?† „ƒ…Â?—’ ƒÂ?† recovery  and  Isilon.  Around  the  areas  of  big  data,  the  Â?‡› ƒÂ?Â?‘—Â?…‡Â?‡Â?–• ™‘—Ž† ‹Â?…Ž—†‡ –Š‡ enhancements  made  to  the  Atmos  cloud  platform  that  is  meant  to  transform  the  way  service  providers  and  enterprises  manage  „‹‰ †ƒ–ƒ ‹Â? ÂŽÂƒÂ”Â‰Â‡ÇĄ Â‰ÂŽÂ‘Â„ÂƒÂŽÂŽÂ›ÇŚÂ†Â‹Â•Â–Â”Â‹Â„Â—Â–Â‡Â† …Ž‘—† storage  environments.   EMC  also  announced  Â?‡™ –Â?‘• Ž‘—† ……‡Ž‡”ƒ–‘”• –Šƒ– Â?ƒÂ?‡ ‹– even  easier  and  faster  to  move  data  in  and  ‘—– ‘ˆ –Â?‘•nj’‘™‡”‡† …Ž‘—†•Ǥ According  to  EMC,  a  new  Atmos  Event  Manager  improves  system  visibility  by  ;š ƒÂ?† ’”‘˜‹†‡• ‡Â?ŠƒÂ?…‡† ƒŽ‡”–‹Â?‰ ƒÂ?† aggregated  logging  at  the  system,  data  centre  ƒÂ?† Â?‘†‡ Ž‡˜‡Ž ™Š‹Ž‡ ’”‘˜‹†‹Â?‰ Â?‡ƒ” Â”Â‡ÂƒÂŽÇŚ time  visibility  into  overall  system  activity  and  performance.  The  new  technology  also  speeds  node  upgrades  in  globally  distributed  ‡Â?˜‹”‘Â?Â?‡Â?–• „› ͝ͲΨ ƒÂ?† ‡Â?ƒ„Ž‡• „—•‹Â?‡••‡• –‘ ”‡Â?ƒ‹Â? ͳͲͲΨ ƒ……‡••‹„Ž‡ ™‹–Š greatly  reduced  maintenance  windows. ‹–Š –Š‡ Ž‘—† Â…Â…Â‡ÂŽÂ‡Â”ÂƒÂ–Â‘Â”Â•ÇĄ ‡Â?†nj—•‡”• have  new  options  to  access  an  Atmos  cloud  from  their  native  environment.  The  suite  of  web  access  tools  is  expanded  to  include Â

‘‘‰Ž‡ Š”‘Â?‡ ƒÂ?† ͡ ƒÂ?† …‘Â?’Ž‡Â?‡Â?– –Š‡ ‡š‹•–‹Â?‰ ‹”‡ˆ‘š „”‘™•‡” –‘‘ŽǤ ‡˜‡Ž‘’‡”• have  a  new  set  of  capabilities  in  the  Atmos Â

–‘ ”ƒ’‹†Ž› †‡Ž‹˜‡” Â?‡™ ˆ—Â?…–‹‘Â?ƒŽ‹–› ‹Â? their  applications  and  traditional  apps  have  new  tools  and  capabilities  to  move  their  content  into  a  cloud  environment. “Rapid  cloud  adoption  and  Big  Data  are  driving  exponentially  greater  consumption  of  cloud  storage.   As  service  providers  and  enterprises  scale  their  infrastructures  to  Â?‡‡’ Â’ÂƒÂ…Â‡ÇĄ –Š‡› ˆƒ…‡ Â?—Â?‡”‘—• …ŠƒŽŽ‡Â?‰‡• in  managing  ever  larger,  globally  distributed  cloud  environments.  With  these  announcements,  EMC  demonstrates  –Šƒ– –Š‡ –Â?‘• Ž‘—† Žƒ–ˆ‘”Â? …ƒÂ? •…ƒŽ‡

Pat Gelsinger, the president and COO of EMC

be  to  act  as  an  environment  for  running  •…ƒŽ‡ ˜ƒŽ‹†ƒ–‹‘� ‘ˆ –Š‡ ’ƒ…Š‡ ƒ†‘‘’ …‘†‡ „ƒ•‡Ǥ ”‡‡�’Ž—� ‹• ƒ…–‹˜‡Ž› ™‘”�‹�‰ ™‹–Š –Š‡ ’ƒ…Š‡ ‘ˆ–™ƒ”‡ ‘—�†ƒ–‹‘� –‘ ‡�•—”‡ –Šƒ– ”‡•—Ž–• ˆ”‘� –Š‡ �ƒŽ›–‹…• ‘”�„‡�…Š are  available  to  the  open  source  community  in  an  effort  to  leverage  the  resources  of  –Š‡ ‘”�„‡�…Š –‘ ˆ—”–Š‡” ƒ……‡Ž‡”ƒ–‡ –Š‡ †‡˜‡Ž‘’�‡�– ‘ˆ ƒ†‘‘’ ƒ• ƒ ”‡˜‘Ž—–‹‘�ƒ”› technology  for  big  data.

Greenplum  will  use  the  Analytics  ‘”Â?„‡Â?…Š –‘ –‡•– –Š‡ Ž‹Â?‹–• ‘ˆ Â•Â…ÂƒÂŽÂ‡ÇŚÂ‘Â—Â– infrastructure  technology  and  also  to  explore  the  models  for  applying  big  data  analytics.  Š‡–Š‡” –Šƒ– ‹Â?˜‘Ž˜‡• ™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ ™‹–Š ˜‹•‹‘Â?ƒ”› ƒ…ƒ†‡Â?‹… ‹Â?•–‹–—–‹‘Â?• ‘Â? Â†ÂƒÂ–ÂƒÇŚ intensive  research  studies,  or  collaborating  with  big  data  application  developers,  Greenplum  has  plans  to  provide  the  most  ‹Â?Â?‘˜ƒ–‹˜‡ –Š‹Â?Â?‡”• ‹Â? –Š‡ †ƒ–ƒ •’ƒ…‡ ™‹–Š ƒ……‡•• –‘ –Š‡ Â?ƒŽ›–‹…• ‘”Â?„‡Â?…ŠǤ “We’re  thrilled  to  announce  that  the Â

”‡‡Â?’Ž—Â? Â?ƒŽ›–‹…• ‘”Â?„‡Â?…Š ‹• Â?‘™ Ž‹˜‡Ǥ With  more  companies  implementing  big  data Â

With the Cloud Accelerators, end-users have new options to access an Atmos cloud from their native environment. The suite of web access tools is expanded to include Google Chrome and HTML5 and complement the existing Firefox browser tool. Â?ÂƒÂ•Â•Â‹Â˜Â‡ÂŽÂ›ÇĄ ™Š‹Ž‡ Â?ƒÂ?‹Â?‰ ‹– •‹Â?’Ž‡ ˆ‘” our  service  provider  and  enterprise  customers  to  manage  their  expanding  cloud  ‡Â?˜‹”‘Â?Â?‡Â?–•ǥdz •ƒ‹† ‹Â?‡ ‡‹Â?„‡”‰ǥ ƒÂ?† •‡Â?‹‘” ˆ‘” –Š‡ Ž‘—† Â?ˆ”ƒ•–”—…–—”‡ Group.

EMC  also  announced  that  the  Greenplum  Â?ƒŽ›–‹…• ‘”Â?„‡Â?…Š Č‚ ƒ ͳǥͲͲͲnjÂ?‘†‡ …Ž—•–‡” that  will  act  as  a  lab  environment  for  accelerating  the  pace  of  big  data  innovation  –  is  now  live.  One  of  the  primary  uses  of  –Š‡ ”‡‡Â?’Ž—Â? Â?ƒŽ›–‹…• ‘”Â?„‡Â?…Š ™‹ŽŽ

www.cnmeonline.com

ƒÂ?ƒŽ›–‹…• –ŠƒÂ? ‡˜‡” Â„Â‡ÂˆÂ‘Â”Â‡ÇĄ ÂƒÂ†Â‘Â‘Â’ÇŚÂ„ÂƒÂ•Â‡Â† batch  processing  of  data  at  massive  scale,  ™‹–Š …‘Â?–‹Â?—‘—• –‡•–‹Â?‰ǥ ‹• ƒ Â?‡› …‘Â?’‘Â?‡Â?– to  driving  even  better,  faster  data  analytics,â€?  •ƒ‹† …‘–– ÂƒÂ”ÂƒÇĄ •‡Â?‹‘” ‘ˆ ’”‘†—…–• ƒ– Greenplum. Š‡ ͳǥͲͲͲnjÂ?‘†‡ …Ž—•–‡” ™‹ŽŽ ƒŽ•‘ „‡ made  available  to  members  of  Greenplum’s  –”ƒ‹Â?‹Â?‰ ƒÂ?† …‡”–‹Ď?‹…ƒ–‹‘Â? …Žƒ••‡• ˆ‘” ƒ†‘‘’Ǥ ‹–Š –Š‡ Ď?‹”•– ’—„Ž‹…Ž› ƒ˜ƒ‹Žƒ„Ž‡ …‘—”•‡• launching  this  summer,  Greenplum  will  offer  ƒ •‡– ‘ˆ …‘Â?’”‡Š‡Â?•‹˜‡ ƒ†‘‘’ –”ƒ‹Â?‹Â?‰

JUNE 2012

Computer  News  Middle  East

15

ANALYSIS EMC

programs designed to provide participants

Ǥ

ǯ is that any individual who successfully completes the course will be granted access ͳǡͲͲͲǦ environment.

the result of several hardware and software companies coming together to collectively facilitate the development of Apache

analytics. This includes EMC, Intel, Mellanox Technologies, Micron, Seagate, SuperMicro, Switch and VMware.

Apart from these product announcements, EMC used the same time ϐ conference, along with the second Data Science Summit, where it brought together aspiring data scientists to discuss the various ϐ ϐ and the challenges involved in analysing and mining data for information.

Computer News Middle East

Global IT giant EMC, along with MDS Systems Integration, brought together more than 70 endusers at an exclusive event to discuss virtualisation and IT strategies in Dubai last month.

“The event brought together end-users from across the UAE to discuss the benefits of virtualisation, and the relevance of big data to growing organisations. There were also various conversations on the set of EMC solutions and their aptness for organisations in the country,” said Hadi Nader, GM of storage solutions at MDS Systems Integration.

MDS is one of the biggest, most established systems integration firms in the UAE. Having had experience in working with end-users and solutions for decades now, MDS conducts similar events in order to educate the market on the latest in storage and data management solutions.

“We have been around for a long time. We are constantly working to meet the customer’s expectations and this has ensured that we enjoy consistent year-on-year growth – anywhere from 16% to 25%. We have been working with EMC for a long time, and have consistently won awards from them for being the best and most reliable partner,” adds Nader.

MDS is focused on providing consultancy, designing and delivering solutions and equipment, along with implementing them and providing aftersales support to the EMC-portfolio in relation to its storage and data management solutions.

“The UAE market is well developed in terms of the overall awareness on storage and data management technology. MDS is playing a big role in complementing this awareness, and helping reach the vision of organisations across various verticals – from telc to banking, from government to the military, to all kinds of private

Overall, the message was loud and clear.

As Joe Tucci, chairman and CEO of EMC put it, “Transformation – across infrastructure and technology, and across the business with big data, along with the

Joe Tucci, chairman and CEO of EMC

16

EMC HOSTS END-USER EVENT WITH MDS SYSTEMS INTEGRATION

JUNE 2012

www.cnmeonline.com

firms. We are formalising their vision with the help of EMC solutions, and by ensuring that they are implemented in the right way,” says Nader.

According to Nader, the market needs for storage and data management in the UAE alone would average around $300 million, and is set to increase as more organisations get interested in the area of big data.

“EMC’s portfolio is very comprehensive and diversified. And our main aim is to address the necessity of mid-size as well as enterprise organisations to fulfil their needs related to data and to ensure business continuity. MDS has a defined and clear strategy to continue investing in resources because they are the main asset for the company and provides the base for further growth.

We are investing yearly on resources across both our Dubai and Abu Dhabi offices. We have a very stable plan in place in order to achieve the demand in the market and to support our growing end-user base,” concludes Nader.

mindsets of IT personnel themselves – is essential to capitalise on the new dynamics ϐ Ǥ global organisation start the journey now, and EMC is here to help.”

Give your IT the leading edge with Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers

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The edge for all your business needs The PowerEdge range has a server to suit your specific business needs, from tower servers, ideal if you’re just starting to build your network to a rack server infrastructure that consolidates your hardware in one enclosure.

Do more with less Ŕ Tower servers For businesses looking to start and expand their server network, including connectivity and providing the ability to grow Ŕ Rack servers Ideal for customers with multiple servers or with limited storage space Ŕ Blade servers For customers seeking highestdensity form factors for their server environment Ŕ Rack Infrastructure Holds a wide range of IT equipment

Windows® 7 Professional and the Windows Server® 2008 family All PowerEdge servers run Windows Server to deliver rich, powerful features that help you complete

mind knowing that the data on your personal computers, network, and servers is highly protected. Together, a great way to get more out of your existing IT investments and deliver better service to your customers.

Contact your nearest Dell Authorized Distributors for further details: UAE: Aptec - Manojpk@aptecme.com, +9714 3697111, Mindware - Dell_sales@mindware.ae, +9714 4500600, Unatrac -Shamdy@mantracegypt.com, +97155 7204338 KSA: Aptec - Dell.sales@aptecsa.com, Riyadh (966 1) 4601950 Ext 1404, 06, 07, Jeddah (966 2) 2832365, Mindware - Dell_sales@mindware.ae, (966 1) 215 3126, Unatrac - AShabaan@mantracegypt.com, (966 5) 614 98556 Egypt: Aptec - Dell@aptec.com.eg, (202) 2648 1179, Mantrac - Ashabaan@mantrac.com.eg, (202) 3300 4178, Raya - Hesham_hassan@rayacorp.com, (202) 382 76000

Copyright © 2011 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Dell Corporation Limited, Reg. No. 02081369, Dell House, The Boulevard, Cain Road, Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 1LF.

ANALYSIS IBM

The end of email IBM is a firm believer in the future of the enterprise being social and asserts its messaging and collaboration solutions exemplify the future of business communications.

Jack Welch, director of global messaging at IBM Software Group, explains why the company believes traditional email will soon be a thing of the past.

E

mail  has  become  an  integral  aspect  of  communication  both  internal  and  external  of  a  business.  However,  IBM  believe  the  social  revolution  is  about  to  change  that.  Organisations  want  a  very  fast  and  collaborative  environment  when  it  comes  to  communicating  with  colleagues,  partners  and  …—•–‘Â?‡”•ǥ ƒ……‘”†‹Â?‰ –‘ ƒ…Â? ‡Ž…Šǥ †‹”‡…–‘” ‘ˆ WW  messaging  at  IBM  Software  Group.  “They  don’t  want  to  sit  and  process  emails  all  day.  They  want  to  bring  social  software  in  to  their  existing  environments  ƒÂ?† –Š‡› ™ƒÂ?– –‘ „‡ ƒ„Ž‡ –‘ —•‡ ‹– –‘ ™‘”Â? ÂˆÂƒÂ•Â–Â‡Â”ÇĄ •Â?ƒ”–‡” ƒÂ?† –‘ –ƒÂ?‡ ƒ†˜ƒÂ?–ƒ‰‡ ‘ˆ young  talent  that  are  used  to  these  mobile  and  social  tools,â€?  Welch  says. Dz –Š‹Â?Â? –Šƒ– –”‡Â?† ‹• ‰‘‹Â?‰ –‘ …‘Â?–‹Â?—‡Ǥ

ƒŽ•‘ –Š‹Â?Â? Ž‘…ƒ–‹‘Â?ÇŚÂ„ÂƒÂ•Â‡Â† ƒ’’Ž‹…ƒ–‹‘Â?• ƒ”‡ going  to  be  brought  into  the  enterprise  more  and  more,â€?  he  adds.  ‡ †‘‡•Â?ǯ– ƒÂ?–‹…‹’ƒ–‡ ƒ …‘Â?’Ž‡–‡ •Š‹ˆ– –‘ social,  but  rather  a  combination  of  that  with  classic  messaging. Dz –Š‹Â?Â? ™‡ ƒ”‡ Š‡ƒ†‹Â?‰ ‹Â? ƒ †‹”‡…–‹‘Â? ”‹‰Š– Â?‘™ ™Š‡”‡ Â?ƒÂ?› ˆ‘ŽÂ?• ™ƒÂ?– –‘ ™‘”Â? in  a  social  environment  but  they  still  want  to  bring  some  of  that  classic  messaging  in,â€?  Welch  says. “There’s  classic  messaging  where  some  ˆ‘ŽÂ?• ƒ†† Â•Â‘Â…Â‹ÂƒÂŽÇĄ „—– ‹ˆ ›‘— Ď?Ž‹’ ‹– ƒ”‘—Â?†

–Š‡”‡ ƒ”‡ ˆ‘Ž�• –Šƒ– ™ƒ�– –‘ •–ƒ› ‹�•‹†‡ –Š‡ social  environment  and  then  pull  in  some  of  that  messaging  countering  and  invite  communications  into  that,�  he  adds.

In  January  IBM  announced  its  intent  to  enable  messaging  inside  the  context  of  the  social  user  experience. “Some  users  may  stay  in  the  classic  form  nj –Š‡› Â?ƒ› ™ƒÂ?– –‘ •–ƒ› ™‹–Š ƒÂ? ‡Â?ƒ‹Ž …Ž‹‡Â?– –Š‡ ™ƒ› –Šƒ– –Š‡› Šƒ˜‡ ‹– …‘Â?Ď?‹‰—”‡† ™‹–Š Â?ƒÂ?› ƒ’’Ž‹…ƒ–‹‘Â?• ÇŚ ƒÂ?† –Š‡› Â?ƒ› Œ—•– ™ƒÂ?– –‘ ƒ†† •‘…‹ƒŽǤ —– –Š‡”‡ ƒ”‡ •‘Â?‡ ‘–Š‡” ˆ‘ŽÂ?• –Šƒ– ƒ”‡ Â?ƒÂ?‹Â?‰ Â?‘”‡ ‘ˆ ƒ †”ƒÂ?ƒ–‹… •Š‹ˆ– ƒÂ?† ™ƒÂ?– –‘ ™‘”Â? …‘Â?’Ž‡–‡Ž› ™‹–Š •‘…‹ƒŽ ƒÂ?† Œ—•– add  a  bit  of  messaging,â€?  Welch  says.  Although  IBM  admits  its  messaging  and  collaboration  business  did  go  through  a  degree  of  uncertainty,  it  has  now  experienced  several  quarters  of  positive  growth.  “One  of  the  reasons  for  that  growth  ‹• –Š‡ Ž‹Â?Â?ƒ‰‡ „‡–™‡‡Â? •‘…‹ƒŽ •‘ˆ–™ƒ”‡ with  our  connections  platform.  Another  is  applying  or  entitling  companies  to  use  some  ‘ˆ –Š‘•‡ •‡”˜‹…‡• ™‹–Š‹Â? –Š‡‹” ‘–—• ‘–‡• environment,â€?  Welch  says. “That  has  not  only  triggered  loyal  customers  to  renew  subscription,  but  some  customers  to  say  they’re  adding  new  users  because  of  the  social  capabilities  included  ‹Â? –Š‡ ‘–‡• …Ž‹‡Â?–Ǥ Š‹Â?‰ Ž‹Â?‡ •Šƒ”‹Â?‰ Ď?‹Ž‡•ǥ ’”‘Ď?‹Ž‡• ƒÂ?† Â?‹…”‘nj„Ž‘‰‰‹Â?‰ Šƒ˜‡ „‡‡Â?

They don’t want to sit and process emails all day.

They want to bring social software in to their existing environments and they want to be able to use it to work faster, smarter and to take advantage of young talent that are used to these mobile and social tools.�

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Computer  News  Middle  East

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Jack Welch, director of WW messaging at IBM Software Group

particularly  of  interest  to  many  customers,â€?  he  adds. Â?‡ †”ƒ™„ƒ…Â? ‘ˆ •—…Š •‘Ž—–‹‘Â?•ǥ •‘Â?‡ ™‘—Ž† •—‰‰‡•–ǥ ‹• –Š‡ ƒ’’ƒ”‡Â?– †‹ˆĎ?‹…—Ž–› –‘ ’”‘˜‡ ‹– ’”‘˜‹†‡• †‹”‡…– Ǥ Â‘Â™Â‡Â˜Â‡Â”ÇĄ ‡Ž…Š •ƒ›• ‹– ’”‘˜‹†‡• Â?‘”‡ –ŠƒÂ? ‡Â?‘—‰Š „‡Â?‡Ď?‹–• –‘ warrant  investment. “I  would  simply  say  it’s  going  to  give  you  speed.  That’s  one  of  the  most  noticeable  attributes.  Once  the  social  transformation  does  begin,  there  are  savings,â€?  he  says. “We  have  a  discipline  and  engagement  that  will  tease  out  those  savings  and  show  ™Š‡”‡ –Š‡ ˜ƒŽ—‡ ‹•ǥ „—– ™Š‡Â? ›‘— Ž‘‘Â? ƒ– organisations  that  have  transformed  with  our  social  software,  speed  is  one  thing  that  continuously  surfaces  as  a  clear  advantage  over  competitors,â€?  he  adds.

Welch  believes  the  Middle  East  is  quite  ƒ‰‰”‡••‹˜‡ ™Š‡Â? ‹– …‘Â?‡• –‘ –Š‡ —’–ƒÂ?‡ ‘ˆ social,  but  more  so  on  a  consumer  level.  “Where  I  see  similarities  in  this  region  to  other  regions  is  the  way  the  people  uses  •‘…‹ƒŽ –‘ ˆƒ…‹Ž‹–ƒ–‡ –Š‡‹” Â†ÂƒÂ›ÇŚÂ–Â‘ÇŚÂ†ÂƒÂ› ƒ…–‹˜‹–‹‡•Ǥ

–Š‹Â?Â? …‘Â?•—Â?‡”nj™‹•‡ –Š‡ ‹††Ž‡ ƒ•– —•‡• that  very  creatively  and  aggressively,  but  I  –Š‹Â?Â? ‘–Š‡” ”‡‰‹‘Â?• —•‡ ‹– ˆ‘” …‘Â?Â?‡”…‡ Â?‘”‡ aggressively,â€?  he  says.

Asides  from  social,  however,  he  ultimately  sees  2012  as  the  year  of  mobile.  Dz –Š‹Â?Â? –ƒ„Ž‡–• Šƒ˜‡ Œ—•– …‘Â?‡ —’ •‘ •–”‘Â?‰Ǥ ƒÂ?› ‘ˆ ‘—” Žƒ”‰‡•– …—•–‘Â?‡”• ƒ”‡ Ž‘‘Â?‹Â?‰ ƒ– tablets  and  many  of  the  product  teams  that  we  ™‘”Â? ™‹–Š Č‚ „‘–Š ‹Â?•‹†‡ ‘ˆ ƒÂ?† ‘—” „—•‹Â?॥ partners  –  are  optimising  their  user  experience  for  tablets,â€?  he  concludes.  Â

*T&C apply

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For info: 800 5800 I etisalat.ae/iphone TM and Š 2012 Apple Inc. All rights reserved.

ANALYSIS Fujitsu

A natural move Fujitsu brought its IT Future World Tour to the UAE for the first time last month. Satoru Hayashi, executive vice chairman of the board for Fujitsu Technology Solutions, spoke to Ben Rossi about how the IT giant perceives the Middle East market.

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hen  Fujitsu  staged  its  IT  Future  Roadshow  at  Atlantis  hotel  in  Dubai  on  May  21  it  sent  out  a  clear  message  that  the  Middle  East  is  a  region  it  is  betting  on  going  forward. ƒ–‘”— ÂƒÂ›ÂƒÂ•ÂŠÂ‹ÇĄ ‡š‡…—–‹˜‡ ˜‹…‡ …Šƒ‹”Â?ƒÂ? ‘ˆ –Š‡ „‘ƒ”† ˆ‘” —Œ‹–•— ‡…ŠÂ?‘Ž‘‰› Solutions,  says  the  region  is  becoming  of  high  ‹Â?’‘”–ƒÂ?– ˆ‘” Â—ÂŒÂ‹Â–Â•Â—ÇŻÂ• „—•‹Â?॥ ƒÂ?† ‰”‘™–ŠǤ Dz Š‡ —–—”‡ ‘ƒ†•Š‘™ Šƒ• „‡‡Â? ƒŽŽ over  the  world,  so  holding  it  in  the  Middle Â ÂƒÂ•Â–ÇĄ •’‡…‹Ď?‹…ƒŽŽ› ‹Â? Â—Â„ÂƒÂ‹ÇĄ ™ƒ• ƒ Â?ƒ–—”ƒŽ Â?‘˜‡ ˆ‘” —•Ǥ ‘Ž†‹Â?‰ –Š‡ ‡˜‡Â?– Š‡”‡ Â?‘™ brings  us  much  closer  to  our  customers  and  partners  in  the  region.  It  is  a  very  good  forum  for  our  global  business  executives  to  exchange  ideas  and  best  practices  with  their  regional  counterparts,â€?  he  says. Š‡ ‹††Ž‡ ƒ•– Šƒ• •‹‰Â?‹Ď?‹…ƒÂ?– ’‘–‡Â?–‹ƒŽ and  is  where  substantial  economic  growth  ‹• ‘……—””‹Â?‰ǥ ™Š‹…Š —Œ‹–•— Šƒ• ’”‘˜‡† –Š”‘—‰Š ‹–• ‘™Â? ”‡˜‡Â?—‡ Ď?‹‰—”‡•ǥ ƒ……‘”†‹Â?‰ –‘ ƒ›ƒ•Š‹Ǥ Dz ‡‘’Ž‡ ‹Â? –Š‹• ”‡‰‹‘Â? ƒ”‡ “—‹–‡ ‡ƒ‰‡” –‘ –ƒÂ?‡ ‘Â? –Š‡ Â?‡™ –”‡Â?†• ‹Â? –Š‡ –‡…ŠÂ?‘Ž‘‰› industry.  We  have  been  engaging  in  discussions  with  several  customers  and  we  feel  strongly  about  them  and  the  future  for  –Š‡ Â?ƒ”Â?‡– Š‡”‡ǥdz Š‡ •ƒ›•Ǥ Dz —Œ‹–•— Šƒ• „‡‡Â? †”‹˜‹Â?‰ ‹Â?Â?‘˜ƒ–‹‘Â? ˆ‘” –Š‡ Žƒ•– ͚͡ ›‡ƒ”• ƒÂ?† ™ƒÂ?–• –‘ †”‹˜‡ ‹Â?Â?‘˜ƒ–‹‘Â? ‹Â? –Š‹• ”‡‰‹‘Â?Ǥ ƒ•– ›‡ƒ” —Œ‹–•— ”‡˜‡Â?—‡ –‘–ƒŽŽ‡† —’ –‘ ͜ʹ „‹ŽŽ‹‘Â? ‡—”‘•Ǥ ʹͲΨ

Satoru Hayashi, executive vice chairman of the board for Fujitsu Technology Solutions

‘ˆ –Šƒ– ™ƒ• ˆ”‘Â? –Š‡ Â?ƒ”Â?‡–ǥ ™Š‹…Š Â?ƒ†‡ Íş „‹ŽŽ‹‘Â? ‡—”‘•ǥdz Š‡ ƒ††•Ǥ —Œ‹–•— ‹• ƒŽ•‘ ƒ––”ƒ…–‡† –‘ –Š‡ ‹††Ž‡ ƒ•– „‡…ƒ—•‡ ‘ˆ ‹–• “—‹…Â? ƒ†ƒ’–‹‘Â? –‘ trends  and  integration  of  new  technologies,  ƒ›ƒ•Š‹ •ƒ›•Ǥ “Whenever  I  come  here  I  always  see  new  buildings,  monorails  and  infrastructure.  It  is  a  cosmopolitan  life  here  and  companies  Š‡”‡ ƒ”‡ ˜‡”› Â?‡‡Â? –‘ –ƒÂ?‡ ‘Â? Â?‡™ …ŠƒŽŽ‡Â?‰‡•Ǥ There  is  big  hope  for  this  region,â€?  he  adds. Â—ÂŒÂ‹Â–Â•Â—ÇŻÂ• Žƒ–‡•– ’”‘†—…–ǥ ”‹Â?‡ —‡•–ǥ ™ƒ• launched  in  the  Middle  East  ahead  of  any  other  region.

Whenever I come here I always see new buildings, monorails and infrastructure. It is a cosmopolitan life here and companies here are very keen to take on new challenges. There is big hope for this region.�

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Computer  News  Middle  East

JUNE 2012

www.cnmeonline.com

Dz Š‡ Š‹‰Šnj‡Â?† „—•‹Â?॥ •‡”˜‡” †‡Ž‹˜‡”• Â?ƒ‹Â?ˆ”ƒÂ?‡njŽ‹Â?‡ ‡Â?–‡”’”‹•‡ ’Žƒ–ˆ‘”Â? Â”Â‡ÂŽÂ‹ÂƒÂ„Â‹ÂŽÂ‹Â–Â›ÇĄ ‡””‘” ’”‡˜‡Â?–‹‘Â? ƒÂ?† Â•Â‡ÂŽÂˆÇŚÂŠÂ‡ÂƒÂŽÂ‹Â?‰ capabilities  that  can  automatically  resume  operations  in  less  than  eight  minutes.  By  launching  the  product  here,  it  shows  great  ’‘–‡Â?–‹ƒŽ ˆ‘” –Š‡ ”‡‰‹‘Â?Ǥ Š‹• ‹• –Š‡ Ď?‹”•– cluster  region  to  have  extensive  presentation  ‘Â? –‡…ŠÂ?‘Ž‘‰› ’”‘†—…–•ǥdz ƒ›ƒ•Š‹ •ƒ›•Ǥ ‡ ƒŽ•‘ ’‘‹Â?–• –‘ ƒÂ? ‡Â?˜‹”‘Â?Â?‡Â?–ƒŽ ƒ••‡••Â?‡Â?– ’”‘Œ‡…– —Œ‹–•— ‹• …—””‡Â?–Ž› ™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ ‘Â? ™‹–Š –Š‡ ƒ—†‹ ”ƒ„‹ƒÂ? government. “Right  now  industries  in  Saudi  Arabia  are  facing  a  large  pollution  problem.  As  a  result  we  are  using  sensors  to  help  us  capture  air,  water  and  soil  data.  These  sensors  which  store  information  will  be  able  to  give  the  Saudi  government  more  insight  into  what  is  being  emitted  into  the  atmosphere,  how  much  is  being  emitted  and  will  be  able  to  give  a  prediction  of  how  the  problem  might Â Â‡Â•Â…ÂƒÂŽÂƒÂ–Â‡ÇĄÇł ƒ›ƒ•Š‹ •ƒ›•Ǥ “It  will  help  the  Saudi  government  to  understand  what  they  are  dealing  with  and  this  data  could  aid  in  forming  a  solution.  IT  can  shape  business  and  government  ƒÂ?† Â?ƒÂ?‡ ‹– ’‘••‹„Ž‡ –‘ •‘Ž˜‡ Š—Â?ƒÂ? •‘…‹ƒŽ ’”‘„Ž‡Â?• Ž‹Â?‡ ’‘ŽŽ—–‹‘Â?ÇĄÇł Š‡ ƒ††•Ǥ The  Japanese  government  plans  to  provide  an  Intelligent  Transport  System  to  ’”‡˜‡Â?– –”ƒˆĎ?‹… ƒ……‹†‡Â?–• ƒÂ?† …‘Â?‰‡•–‹‘Â?ÇĄ ƒÂ?† reduce  CO2  emissions.  “By  placing  sensors  on  taxis  we  can  aid  in  gathering  information  by  measuring  speed,  distance  and  time.  This  is  something  that  we  could  also  roll  out  as  a  pilot  phase  here  in  the  ǥdz ƒ›ƒ•Š‹ •ƒ›•Ǥ

– ƒ’’‡ƒ”• –Šƒ– ‡Â?‡”‰› ‹• Š‹‰Š ‘Â? Â—ÂŒÂ‹Â–Â•Â—ÇŻÂ• Ž‹•– ‘ˆ ’”‹‘”‹–‹‡•ǥ ƒÂ?† ƒ›ƒ•Š‹ …‘Â?Ď?‹”Â?• –Š‹• to  the  extent  that  the  company  sees  energy  ‡ˆĎ?‹…‹‡Â?…› ĥ –Š‡ „‹‰‰‡•– ‹Â?Ď?Ž—‡Â?…‡ ‘Â? ‹Â? –Š‡ Â?‡š– ͳͺ Â?‘Â?–Š•Ǥ Dz ‡ Šƒ˜‡ •–ƒ”–‡† ƒ Â?ƒ”– ‡–™‘”Â? Â?‡› which  collects  data  from  nuclear  plants.  Through  monitoring  this  and  analysing  the  information  we  receive  we  can  come  up  with  a  solution  to  reduce  the  reliance  on  power  plants.  At  the  moment  there  is  effective  collection  and  utilisation  of  this  sensor  data  ‹Â? ƒ’ƒÂ?Ǥ Š‡”‡ ‹• ƒ –‘–ƒŽ ‘ˆ ͚͡ Â?‹ŽŽ‹‘Â? ‡Ž‡…–”‹… meters  operated  by  10  regional  utilities  in  ƒ’ƒÂ?ÇĄÇł ƒ›ƒ•Š‹ •ƒ›•Ǥ

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ANALYSIS ICT Roadmap

Roadmap to the cloud The ICT Roadmap event, organised by CNME in Riyadh last month, discussed some of the key strategies and technologies for building nextgen data centres to start the cloud journey.

I

n  an  era  where  no  business  can  afford  system  downtime,  building  a  next-­â€? gen,  high  performance  data  centre  is  a  delicate,  ongoing  balancing  act.  Today’s  data  centres  pack  more  processing  power  than  ever  before;  consolidation  has  decreased  the  physical  footprint  but  has  created  new  power  and  cooling  challenges.  This  has  been  further  exacerbated  with  the  advent  of  cloud  and  virtualisation.  The  ICT  Roadmap  event  in  Riyadh  focused  on  some  of  the  burning  issues  ƒ”‘—Â?† Â–Â‘Â†ÂƒÂ›ÇŻÂ• †ƒ–ƒ …‡Â?–”‡ ƒÂ?† ™ƒ• Â?‹…Â?‡† ‘ˆˆ „› ƒ ’”‡•‡Â?–ƒ–‹‘Â? ˆ”‘Â? ŠÂ?Ġ ÂŽÂ•ÂŠÂƒÂœÂŽÂ›ÇĄ ‡…ŠÂ?‘Ž‘‰› ‘Â?•—Ž–ƒÂ?– ƒ– ÇĄ ™Š‘ •’‘Â?‡ about  the  need  for  IT  transformation.  “Besides  security,  a  major  challenge  facing  enterprises  is  the  exponential  growth  in  data,  which  is  going  be  44  times  of  what  we  have  today  by  the  end  of  this  decade.  On  the  other  hand,  data  centre  complexity  is  growing  and  the  massive  data  growth  is  caused  by  what  ™‡ …ƒŽŽ „‹‰ †ƒ–ƒǤ Â?ƒŒ‘” …Š—Â?Â? ‘ˆ „—†‰‡– ‹• •’‡Â?– ‘Â? Œ—•– Â?‡‡’‹Â?‰ –Š‡ Ž‹‰Š–• ‘Â? ƒÂ?† most  organisations  are  struggling  to  deal  with  the  growth  in  data.  The  answer  to  this  predicament  is  cloud,â€?  he  said.  ‡ ƒ††‡† –Šƒ– ‡Â?–‡”’”‹•‡ Šƒ• Â?ƒÂ?› great  things  about  it  –  its  controlled  by  IT,  so Â

22

Computer  News  Middle  East

JUNE 2012

‹–ǯ• Â”Â‡ÂŽÂ‹ÂƒÂ„ÂŽÂ‡ÇĄ •‡…—”‡ ƒÂ?† ›‘— ƒ”‡ …‘Â?Ď?‹†‡Â?– –Šƒ– ›‘— …ƒÂ? †‡Ž‹˜‡” •Ǥ —„Ž‹… …Ž‘—† ‘ˆˆ‡”‹Â?‰• came  along  and  delivered  simplicity,  Ď?Ž‡š‹„‹Ž‹–› ƒÂ?† ƒ‰‹Ž‹–› –Šƒ– Šƒ† „‡‡Â? Â?‹••‹Â?‰ ˆ”‘Â? ‡Â?–‡”’”‹•‡ Ǥ Dz ‡ –Š‹Â?Â? ƒ ’”‹˜ƒ–‡ …Ž‘—† is  the  best  of  both  worlds  –  the  security  and  reliability  of  enterprise  IT  with  the  simplicity  and  agility  of  cloud.â€?

Ahmed  Aamer,  Group  Applications  ƒÂ?ÂƒÂ‰Â‡Â”ÇĄ ÂŽ ƒ‹•ƒŽ‹ƒŠ ”‘—’ǥ ’”‘˜‹†‡† ƒ user’s  perspective,  who  said  cloud  is  still  in  its  infancy  and  one  of  the  biggest  impediments  is  connectivity.  “We  need  to  see  how  we  can  shift  from  a  data  centric  model  to  a  cloud  centric  one,  and  carefully  evaluate  the  business  processes.  Cloud  is  not  about  technology,  it  is  all  about  business  ƒ‰‹Ž‹–›Ǥ ‡Â?†‘”• Šƒ˜‡ ˜ƒ”‹‘—• †‡Ď?‹Â?‹–‹‘Â?• ƒÂ?† you  have  to  see  what  your  priorities  before  moving  to  cloud.â€? ‘ŠƒÂ?Â?‡† ‹Â?‹ǥ —•‹Â?॥ ‡˜‡Ž‘’Â?‡Â?– ƒÂ?ÂƒÂ‰Â‡Â”ÇĄ ‡ŽŽ ÇĄ •ƒ‹† –Š‡”‡ ƒ”‡ ‘Â?Ž› ʹ͡ percent  organisations  which  are  adopting  cloud  and  there  are  many  obstacles  such  as  regulations,  infrastructure  and  bandwidth.  “We  need  to  focus  on  the  challenges  within  the  data  centre  that  prevents  us  from  moving  to  cloud.  One  main  concern  is  that  expectations  ƒ”‡ ”‹•‹Â?‰ ™Š‹Ž‡ ”‡•‘—”…‡• ƒ”‡ •Š”‹Â?Â?‹Â?‰Ǥ Dz

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‡ ƒ††‡† –Šƒ– †ƒ–ƒ ‰”‘™–Š ‹• –Š‡ Â?—Â?„‡” one  data  centre  challenge  and  today’s  storage  ‹Â?ˆ”ƒ•–”—…–—”‡ ‹Â? ‹Â?‡ˆĎ?‹…‹‡Â?–ǥ ‹Â?Ď?Ž‡š‹„Ž‡ ƒÂ?† …‘Â?’Ž‡šǤ Dz ‘— Â?‡‡† –‘ ƒ††”‡•• –Š‡•‡ ”‡ƒŽ challenges  before  moving  into  the  cloud  era  ƒÂ?† Ž‘–• ‘ˆ ƒ’’Ž‹…ƒ–‹‘Â?• –‘†ƒ› ™‹ŽŽ Â?‘– ™‘”Â? in  cloud.â€? Š‹Ž‡ Â?‘•– ’‡‘’Ž‡ –‡Â?† –‘ –ƒŽÂ? about  applications  in  the  context  of  …Ž‘—†ǥ ‘ŠƒÂ?Â?‡† Ž–‡”Â?ƒ™‹ ˆ”‘Â? ˜ƒ›ƒ Data  Solutions,  said  infrastructure  is  most  important  element  for  cloud  and  ˜‹”–—ƒŽ‹•ƒ–‹‘Â?Ǥ ‹• ’”‡•‡Â?–ƒ–‹‘Â? …‡Â?–”‡† ƒ”‘—Â?† –Š‡ Â?‡‡† ˆ‘” ƒ Â…ÂŽÂ‘Â—Â†ÇŚÂ‰Â”ÂƒÂ†Â‡ Â?‡–™‘”Â? architecture,  which  discussed  some  of  the  data  centre  issues  today  related  to  consolidation,  bandwidth,  etc.  Dz Šƒ– ™‡ ”‡“—‹”‡ ‹• Â?‡–™‘”Â? ˜‹”–—ƒŽ‹•ƒ–‹‘Â? ‡Â?ƒ„Ž‡† ˜‹ƒ Š‘”– ƒ–Š Bridging,  that  will  allow  to  decouple  the  physical  infrastructure  from  the  connectivity  •‡”˜‹…‡• Â?ƒÂ?‹Â?‰ –Š‡ Â?‡–™‘”Â? ƒ†ƒ’–‹˜‡ ƒÂ?† †›Â?ƒÂ?‹… ™‹–Š •‹Â?’Ž‡ ‘Â?‡nj–‘—…Š provisioning,â€?  he  said.  The next leg of ICT Roadmap will take place in Doha on 18th of June, at the Sharq Village. Visit www. ictroadmap.com for more details.

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it maximises energy to increase performance. The world-class facility offers Business Continuity solutions for all key Disaster Recovery requirements criteria through service delivery and IT experts.

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MEEZA’s Data centres.

sustainable and environmentally friendly design.

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ROUND-UP Month in view

Schneider Electric implements intelligent transportation system in KSA

Schneider Electric announced that recent acquisition Telvent has completed ϐ transportation system, SmartMobility Road Suite, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

reduction in both the number of accidents and travel time within city limits, as well as a drop in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, the company said.

Urban populations are set to double by ʹͲͷͲ ͹Ͳ ǯ

population. To meet the challenges this will create, Schneider Electric said its Smart Mobility solutions for integrated city management

ϐ Ǥ ϐ to be implemented in Saudi Arabia – on King Abdullah Road – Schneider Electrics SmartMobility manages interurban expressway ϐ Ǥ The system controls and manages the ϐ

devices in place along the expressway’s ǡ user safety and security and improving infrastructure maintenance. Ǧ information on traffic conditions, which

and efficiently to any incidents that may occur on the expressway, in accordance with action plans that are predetermined by the application. ǡ ǡ this information in real time, gaining the capability to select the route that best suits their interests at any time. Dz ϐ system on King Abdullah Road, the company ϐ ǡ ǡdz said Christophe Campagne, Schneider Electric country president for Saudi Arabia.

“The cities will experience reduced ϐ ǡ use and lower emissions by providing residents with easier travel across modes of transport,” he added.

SmartMobility is part of the smart cities solutions provided by Schneider Electric, which also include smart grid, smart buildings, smart water and smart public services.

HP to trim 27,000 employees Hewlett-­‐Packard will trim 27,000 employees as part of its long-­‐term restructuring plan, the company said ϐ results. ͺ

combination of layoffs and retirement Ǥ ͵ͳ ʹͲͳͶ ϐ ǡ Ǥ vary by country.

24

Computer News Middle East

JUNE 2012

The restructuring program is expected ̈́͵ ̈́͵Ǥͷ ϐ ʹͲͳͶǡ savings will be reinvested in the company,

Dz ϐ dz also are “necessary to improve execution Ǧ dz ǡ Meg Whitman said in a statement.

ǡ ͵Ͳǡ ̈́ͳǤ͸ ǡ ͵ͳ

www.cnmeonline.com

same quarter a year ago. It reported revenue ̈́͵ͲǤ͹ ǡ ͵ Ǥ Ǧ ǡ ǯ ̈́ͲǤͻͺǡ ̈́ͲǤͻͳ from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

The company also forecast third ̈́ͲǤͻͶ ̈́ͲǤͻ͹ǡ ̈́ͳǤͲʹ ǡ Ǧ ̈́ͶǤͲͷ ̈́ͶǤͳͲǡ ̈́ͶǤͲ͵ analysts had forecast.

ROUND-UP Month in view

Saudi Telecom selects Huawei for metro WDM networks Huawei  has  been  selected  by  Saudi  Telecom  Company  (STC)  to  supply  new  solutions  to  the  company’s  next-­�generation  metro  WDM  networks  in  Saudi  Arabia.

As  the  biggest  operator  in  the  Middle Â ÂƒÂ•Â–ÇĄ Šƒ• †‡˜‡Ž‘’‡† ƒÂ?† Â?‘„‹Ž‡ broadband  services  in  recent  years,  rapidly  ‡š’ƒÂ?†‹Â?‰ –Š‡ ‰”‘™–Š ‘ˆ ‹–• Â?‡–”‘ Â?‡–™‘”Â? services  in  Saudi  Arabia. ‰ƒ‹Â?•– –Š‹• „ƒ…Â?†”‘’ǥ ‹• Â?‘™ ˆƒ…‹Â?‰ ƒÂ? —”‰‡Â?– †‡Â?ƒÂ?† –‘ …‘Â?•–”—…– Ç˛Â—ÂŽÂ–Â”ÂƒÇŚÂ„ÂƒÂ?†™‹†–Šdz Â?‡–”‘ Â?‡–™‘”Â?•ǥ –Š‡ …‘Â?’ƒÂ?› •ƒ‹†Ǥ –‹Ž‹•‹Â?‰ Â—ÂƒÂ™Â‡Â‹ÇŻÂ• Â?‡–”‘ ’”‘†—…–•ǥ ™‹ŽŽ „‡ –Š‡ Ď?‹”•– ‘’‡”ƒ–‘” ‹Â? –Š‡ ‹††Ž‡ ƒ•– –‘ Ž‡˜‡”ƒ‰‡ Č‹ Š‘–‘Â?‹… Â?–‡‰”ƒ–‡† Device)  technology  to  save  on  both  space  and  ’‘™‡” —•ƒ‰‡ ‘ˆ ‹–• Â?‡–™‘”Â? ‘’‡”ƒ–‹‘Â?•Ǥ Dz Š‡ –‡…ŠÂ?‘Ž‘‰› Š‡Ž’• —• …‘Â?•–”—…– ƒ†˜ƒÂ?…‡† Â?‡–”‘ Â?‡–™‘”Â?•ǥ ’”‘˜‹†‡ Â?Â—ÂŽÂ–Â‹ÇŚÂ‰Â”ÂƒÂ?—Žƒ”‹–› •‡”˜‹…‡• “—‹…Â?Ž› ƒÂ?† Â‡ÂƒÂ•Â‹ÂŽÂ›ÇĄ and  serve  our  customers  more  agilely,â€?  said  Â?‰Ǥ ŠƒŽ‡† Ǥ ÂŽÇŚ ÂŠÂƒÂ”Â”ÂƒÂ„ÇĄ –”ƒÂ?•’‘”– Â?‡–™‘”Â? director  at  STC. Due  to  its  simple  design  and  structure, Â

–‡…ŠÂ?‘Ž‘‰› Â?ƒÂ?‡• ‹– ‡ƒ•‹‡” –‘ †‡’Ž‘› ƒÂ?† Â?ƒ‹Â?–ƒ‹Â? Â?‡š–nj‰‡Â?‡”ƒ–‹‘Â? Â?‡–”‘ Â?‡–™‘”Â?•Ǥ Š‡ –‡…ŠÂ?‘Ž‘‰› •‹Â?’Ž‹Ď?‹‡• –Š‡

WDM  architecture  by  integrating  Â?—Ž–‹’Ž‡ Â?‡› photonic  components  of  the  WDM  system  –  such  as  lasers,  modulators,  detectors,  multiplexers  and  demultiplexers  –  ‹Â?–‘ ƒ ͡…Â? …Š‹’Ǥ Compared  to  a  traditional  Â?‡–™‘”Â?ÇĄ ƒ nj‡Â?ƒ„Ž‡† Â?‡–™‘”Â? …ƒÂ? •ƒ˜‡ —’ –‘ ͡ͲΨ ‘ˆ space  and  power  ƒÂ?† ͝ͲΨ ‘ˆ –Š‡ Ď?‹„‡” …‘Â?Â?‡…–‹‘Â?ÇĄ according  to  —ƒ™‡‹Ǥ “Bringing  new  –‡…ŠÂ?‘Ž‘‰‹‡• –‘ Â?ƒ”Â?‡– ™‹–Š‹Â? –Š‡ ‹Â?‰†‘Â?ÇĄ ™‡ Ž‘‘Â? ˆ‘”™ƒ”† –‘ ™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ ™‹–Š ‘Â? this  endeavor  as  a  means  for  developing Â

Â?‘”‡ ‡ˆĎ?‹…‹‡Â?–ǥ ‡Â?˜‹”‘Â?Â?‡Â?Â–ÂƒÂŽÂŽÂ›ÇŚÂˆÂ”Â‹Â‡Â?†Ž›

•›•–‡Â?•ǥdz •ƒ‹† ”Ǥ — Â‡Â‹Â–ÂƒÂ‘ÇĄ ‘ˆ —ƒ™‡‹ in  KSA. Â

EMEA firms spend a third of IT budget on the cloud European  enterprises  plan  to  spend  almost  one-­�third  of  their  annual  IT  budget  on  cloud  computing  over  the  next  18  months,  according  to  research  commissioned  by  virtualisation  software  firm  VMware.

The  study,  which  explored  the  views  of  IT  leaders  involved  in  the  purchase  process  for  cloud  computing  systems  across  seven  EMEA  countries,  including  –Š‡ ÇĄ ˆ‘—Â?† –Šƒ– ;ͳ ’‡”…‡Â?– ‘ˆ

budgets  are  allocated  to  cloud  computing,  which  is  up  from  the  26  percent  in  a  •‹Â?‹Žƒ” •–—†› –ƒÂ?‡Â? ‹Â? ʹͲͳͲǤ VMware  said  the  increase  in  cloud  spending  was  a  result  of  organisations  wanting  a  more  agile,  productive  and Â

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connected  enterprise.  The  vast  majority  ȋͺ͜ ’‡”…‡Â?Â–ČŒ ‘ˆ ‡Â?–‡”’”‹•‡• ƒ…”‘•• EMEA  consider  cloud  computing  to  be  ƒ Dz’”‹‘”‹–›dzǥ ƒÂ?† Â?‘”‡ –ŠƒÂ? ŠƒŽˆ ȋ͡͸ percent)  consider  it  a  “critical/high  ’”‹‘”‹–›dz ‘˜‡” –Š‡ Â?‡š– ͳͺ Â?‘Â?–Š•Ǥ ˆ –Š‡ ™‘”Â? –ƒÂ?‹Â?‰ ’Žƒ…‡ ‹Â? –Š‡ …Ž‘—†ǥ Â?‘•– ‹• ‹Â? ’”‹˜ƒ–‡ …Ž‘—†• ȋ͜͡ ’‡”…‡Â?Â–ČŒÇĄ followed  by  24  percent  in  public  and  22  percent  in  public/private  hybrid  clouds. ‡•’‹–‡ –Š‡ –ƒÂ?‡ —’ ‘ˆ …Ž‘—† technology  the  control  of  data  and  security  are  still  a  major  concern,  with  ͡ʹ ’‡”…‡Â?– ‘ˆ ‘”‰ƒÂ?‹•ƒ–‹‘Â?• •ƒ›‹Â?‰ security  is  their  number  one  barrier  to  cloud  adoption.

Joe  Baguley,  chief  cloud  technologist Â

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at  VMware  EMEA,  said:  “Cloud  is  no  longer  just  about  cost  cutting  and  peripheral  applications.  We’re  seeing  a  significant  shift  in  the  way  enterprises  –Š‹Â?Â? ƒ„‘—– –Š‡‹” ‹Â?ÂˆÂ”ÂƒÂ•Â–Â”Â—Â…Â–Â—Â”Â‡Â•ÇĄ ƒÂ?† cloud  is  at  the  absolute  heart  of  that.â€?

The  VMware  survey  was  conducted  „›

‡•‡ƒ”…Š ‡”˜‹…‡• ƒÂ?‘Â?‰ ͜͡͡ firms  in  the  EMEA  region  that  employed  ‘˜‡” ʹ͡Ͳ •–ƒˆˆǤ In  other  cloud  deployment  news  ǯ• ’”‡•‹†‡Â?– ‘ˆ ƒ–‹Â? Â?Â‡Â”Â‹Â…ÂƒÇĄ Rodolpho  Cardenuto,  said  that  Latin  Â?‡”‹…ƒÂ? Â?ƒ”Â?‡–• ™‡”‡ Â?‘– ƒ†‘’–‹Â?‰ –Š‡ …Ž‘—† Ž‹Â?‡ –Š‡ ƒÂ?† –Š‡ ÇĄ „—– ™‡”‡ ‹Â?•–‡ƒ† Ž‘‘Â?‹Â?‰ –‘ †‡’Ž‘› ‘Â?nj’”‡Â?‹•‡ application. Â

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ROUND-UP Month in view

SAP is buying Ariba for $4.3 billion

SAP is buying cloud-­‐based e-­‐commerce vendor Ariba for US$4.3 billion, the companies announced. ǯ Ǧ Ǧ Ǥ

ϐ ǯ Dz ǡdz said in a statement.

The deal has been unanimously approved

by Ariba’s board and is expected to close in the third calendar quarter of this year, subject Ǥ When complete, the Ariba transaction ǯ cloud software, which got a previous boost ̈́͵ǤͶ ǡ human resources applications. ǡ out further details of its overall cloud

computing strategy, with which it hopes to shoulder aside rivals such as Oracle as well

Ǥ ̈́ͶͶͶ during 2011 and has 2,600 employees. Its

̈́͵ͳͻ Dz ǡ collaborations, and intelligence among ͹͵ͲǡͲͲͲ ǡdz to a statement. ǡ Dz Ǧ assets” under the auspices of Ariba, which will operate as an independent subsidiary.

Its CEO, Bob Calderoni, will be nominated to ǯ Ǥ

ǯ ǡ which has other options for B2B commerce platforms, feel secure in their investments. ǯ ͳ ǡ Ǧ McDermott said during a conference call with media and analysts. “The growth opportunity in this arena is huge,” he said. ǯ to other platforms, allowing customers to tap it from “any source system,” according to

McDermott. “All those companies that are not ǡdz Ǥ ǯ ǯ Ǧ ȋ planning) suite Business ByDesign, as well as the Business One application for smaller companies, McDermott said. ǯ Dz ϐ dz ϐ ǡ Ǧ Ǥ In one respect, the deal is surprising, ǯ ǡ company with some capabilities that overlap ǯ Ǥ ϐ ʹ Ǧ Ǥ ǯ ͷͲͲǡ according to Calderoni.

and Ariba technology platforms, Snabe ǡ ǯ ϐ Ǥ

Ǧ ǯ ǡ well as analytics, which will help customers better understand their spending and supplier relations.

Tech managers not doing a good job developing talent: survey Tech managers need to do a better job developing talent, with too much judgment and not enough instruction, according to new poll data from Dice.com.

relationship between managers and their ǡ ǡ Ǧ ȋͷͻΨȌ ȋʹ͵ΨȌ ϐ Ǥ ͸Ψ Ǧ relationship isn’t an important factor in the decision to stay at a job, and another ͸Ψ ǯ Ǥ ȋ ͸Ψ

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Computer News Middle East

JUNE 2012

respondents are either between jobs or are the boss.)

In a ddition to i nfluencing a n employee’s j ob s earch d ecisions, a n IT b oss h as t he p ower to i nfluence a company’s reputation a nd i ts a bility to recruit tech t alent, s aid Tom S ilver, ǡ ǡ Ǥ Dz ǡ ǡ grade,” S ilver n oted i n a report released this m onth.

A majority of IT professionals judge their current managers as graders ȋ͸ͳΨȌ ȋʹ͸ΨȌǡ ǯ more important to create a nurturing

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Ȁ ǡ Silver said.

“There will always be a need for some grading, but the emphasis should be on teaching. Tech professionals do their best ǯ new solutions, explore alternatives and fail,” Silver said.

If tech employees don’t feel valued, they’re going to jump ship. Turnover has fallen below average for 41 months in a row, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, but tech managers can’t count on a struggling economy and tight job Ǥ

ϐ ǡ Ǥ

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Analysis:

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Photo Gallery:

Blogs: Winning in Vegas with cloud Ben Rossi. Sub Editor, CNME

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The future of security Jeevan Thanpakkan, Senior Editor, CNME

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Desktop-asa-Service Read more online

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CASE STUDY Saudi Arabian Airlines

Taking off After state-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines was approved by the Saudi cabinet in 2007 to convert its strategic units into companies following the launch of a long-awaited privatisation, a mammoth IT project was on hand to enable the transition. Ben Rossi reports.

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T

he  IT  department  at  Saudi  Airlines,  led  by  CIO  Muhammad  Ali  M.  Albakri,  were  tasked  with  setting  up  the  application  systems  and  core  business  processes  of  13  companies,  as  well  as  a  holding  company,  on  the  SAP  platform.  Dz ‹”•– –Š‹Â?‰ ™‡ Šƒ† –‘ †‘ ™ƒ• •‡’ƒ”ƒ–‡ –Š‡ Â?‘Â?nj…‘”‡ ’”‘…‡••‡• ˆ”‘Â? –Š‡ …‘”‡ ƒ‹”Ž‹Â?‡ business.  So  catering,  ground  services,  –Š‡ Ď?Ž›‹Â?‰ ƒ…ƒ†‡Â?›ǥ –Š‡ Â?ƒ‹Â?–‡Â?ƒÂ?…‡ Č‚ ƒŽŽ those  units  have  been  separated  from  the  main  airlines  and  they  all  now  have  their  ‘™Â? ‹†‡Â?–‹–› ĥ Ž‡‰ƒŽŽ› ƒÂ?† Ď?‹Â?ƒÂ?…‹ƒŽŽ› ‹Â?†‡’‡Â?†‡Â?– …‘Â?’ƒÂ?‹‡•ǥdz Ž„ƒÂ?”‹ •ƒ›•Ǥ “Some  of  them  we  have  sold  part  of,  •—…Š ĥ …ƒ–‡”‹Â?‰ Č‚ ™‡ •‘Ž† ͜͝Ψ ‘ˆ –Šƒ– –‘ ’”‹˜ƒ–‡ ‹Â?˜‡•–‘”• Č‚ ƒÂ?† Ď?Ž›‹Â?‰ ‰”‘—Â?† services,  which  we  forged  a  joint  venture  on  and  now  it  handles  all  the  airlines  that  Ď?Ž› ‹Â?–‘ –Š‡ ‹Â?‰†‘Â?Ǥ ‡ Šƒ† –‘ ”‡ƒŽŽ› ensure  that  those  companies  are  set  up  and  –Š‡‹” Ď?‹Â?ƒÂ?…‹ƒŽ ”‡…‘”†•ǥ ƒ••‡–• ƒÂ?† ƒ”‡ separated,â€?  he  adds.  The  implementation  of  the  entire  suite  of  •‘Ž—–‹‘Â?• „‡‰ƒÂ? ™‹–Š –Š‡ •‡––‹Â?‰ —’ ƒÂ?† separation  of  the  companies.  Dz ÂŽÂŽ –Š‡ „ƒ…Â? ‘ˆĎ?‹…‡• ™‡”‡ ‹Â?’Ž‡Â?‡Â?–‡† ™‹–Š ÇŚ ÇĄ Ď?‹Â?ƒÂ?…‡ǥ ’”‘…—”‡Â?‡Â?–ǥ maintenance,  fuel  management,  logistics,  vendor  management,  CRM  –  you  name  ‹–ǥ –Š‡ ‡Â?–‹”‡ •—‹–‡ ‘ˆ ‹• ”—Â?Â?‹Â?‰ ƒŽŽ ‘ˆ –Š‡•‡ …‘Â?’ƒÂ?‹‡• ‹Â? –Š‡ „ƒ…Â?‰”‘—Â?† ™‹–Š the  concept  of  consolidating  to  the  holding,â€?  Ž„ƒÂ?”‹ •ƒ›•Ǥ Despite  the  separation  of  the  companies,  the  airlines  made  the  decision  for  each  of  them  to  share  the  same  set  of  processes.  “We  made  a  strategic  decision  not  to  have  a  different  implementation  for  each  —Â?‹–Ǥ Â?‡ ‘ˆ –Š‡ ”‡ƒ•‘Â?• ™‡ „”‘—‰Š– ‹Â? is  we  wanted  to  bring  in  uniformity  between  these  units  and  standardise  the  processes  because  if  you  allow  each  company  to  have  their  own  processes,  standards,  procedures  ƒÂ?† •›•–‡Â?•ǥ ‹Â?–‡”…‘Â?Â?‡…–‹Â?‰ ƒÂ?† ™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ together  would  become  a  nightmare,â€?  Ž„ƒÂ?”‹ •ƒ›•Ǥ

Muhammad Ali M. Albakri, CIO at Saudi Arabian Airlines

Knowledge  transfer ‘” –Š‡ ‹Â?’Ž‡Â?‡Â?–ƒ–‹‘Â? –‘ „‡ ƒ •—……‡••ǥ ƒ ™‡ŽŽ –Š‘—‰Š– ‘—– •–”ƒ–‡‰› ‘ˆ Â?Â?‘™Ž‡†‰‡ transfer  was  imperative  for  Saudi  Airlines.  Dz ˆ ›‘— ”‡ƒŽŽ› ™ƒÂ?– –‘ •—……‡‡† ‹Â? ƒÂ? journey  you  have  to  see  it  as  a  long  term  strategy.  If  a  company  isn’t  willing  to  commit  –‘ ƒ Ž‘– ‘ˆ Ž‘Â?‰ –‡”Â? Â•Â–Â”ÂƒÂ–Â‡Â‰Â›ÇĄ †‘Â?ǯ– –Š‹Â?Â? –Š‡› •Š‘—Ž† ‰‘ †‘™Â? –Š‡ ”‘—–‡ „‡…ƒ—•‡ it  needs  patience,  it  needs  determination  and  ‹– Â?‡‡†• •‡–• ‘ˆ •–”ƒ–‡‰‹‡• –‘ –ƒÂ?‡ ›‘— ˆ‘”™ƒ”† ‹Â? ƒ ’”‘‰”‡••‹˜‡ ˆƒ•Š‹‘Â?ÇĄÇł Ž„ƒÂ?”‹ •ƒ›•Ǥ “We  decided  to  build  an  internal  centre  of  excellence  to  support  these  units.  We  hired  a  hundred  fresh  college  graduates.  We’re  very  proud  of  that  and  now  we’re  hiring  20  Â?‘”‡ …‘ŽŽ‡‰‡ ‰”ƒ†—ƒ–‡• ‹Â? –Š‡ ȋ„—•‹Â?॥ intelligence)  portal  arena.  We  also  localised  the  training  so  they  get  the  necessary  –”ƒ‹Â?‹Â?‰ ƒÂ?† …‡”–‹Ď?‹…ƒ–‹‘Â?ÇĄÇł Š‡ ƒ††•Ǥ • ™‡ŽŽ ĥ ‹Â?˜‡•–‹Â?‰ •‹‰Â?‹Ď?‹…ƒÂ?–Ž› ‹Â? training  its  own  employees,  the  airlines  also  commits  to  training  its  users.  Dz ‡ „”‹Â?‰ –Š‡ Â?ƒ–‡”‹ƒŽ ƒÂ?† Â?Â?‘™Ž‡†‰‡ ‹Â?njŠ‘—•‡ ƒÂ?† ™‡ —•‡ …‘”’‘”ƒ–‡ –”ƒ‹Â?‹Â?‰ –‘

It’s not just the fact that we did this for Saudi Airlines but I think it has changed a lot of the perceptions about what you can do with technology in the region. All the large and mega consulting firms in the world came to Jeddah and said this plan will never work. They said it’s too much to do at the same time.

Now they’re all coming back and wanting to know how we did it.â€? “We  would  never  be  able  to  consolidate  ƒ Ď?‹Â?ƒÂ?…‹ƒŽ •–ƒ–‡Â?‡Â?–Ǥ ”‡ƒŽŽ› Š‡Ž’‡† —• to  maintain  that  aspect  of  uniformity  and  standardisation  between  these  various  ’ƒ”–Â?‡”•Ǥ ‡• –Š‡› Šƒ˜‡ –Š‡‹” ‘™Â? Ž‹Â?‡ ‘ˆ „—•‹Â?‡••‡•ǥ „—– ™Š‡Â? ‹– …‘Â?‡• –‘ ÇĄ Ď?‹Â?ƒÂ?…‡ǥ procurement,  vendor  management  and  Ž‘‰‹•–‹…•ǥ –Š‡›ǯ”‡ ƒŽŽ ™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ ‘Â? –Š‡ •ƒÂ?‡ processes,â€?  he  adds.

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…‘Â?–‹Â?—‘—•Ž› ‡†—…ƒ–‡ ‘—” —•‡”• ‹Â? Ǥ ˜‡”› time  we  introduce  a  new  feature  or  function  –Š‡ …‘”’‘”ƒ–‡ –”ƒ‹Â?‹Â?‰ ™‹ŽŽ –ƒÂ?‡ ‘˜‡” ƒÂ?† ™‹ŽŽ ’—•Š –Š‡ Â?Â?‘™Ž‡†‰‡ ‘—–ǥdz Ž„ƒÂ?”‹ •ƒ›•Ǥ With  the  implementation  being  such  a  big  project,  it  was  inevitable  the  IT  team  ‡š’‡”‹‡Â?…‡† …ŠƒŽŽ‡Â?‰‡•Ǥ Ž„ƒÂ?”‹ •ƒ›• –Š‡ entire  implementation  was  “one  massive  challenge.â€?

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CASE STUDY Saudi Arabian Airlines

“I  got  most  of  my  grey  hair  from  it  „‡…ƒ—•‡ ™ƒ• ‘”‹‰‹‘Â?ƒŽŽ› –Š‡ †‹”‡…–‘” ƒÂ?† ”‡•’‘Â?•‹„Ž‡ ˆ‘” ‹Â?’Ž‡Â?‡Â?–‹Â?‰ –Š‡ before  becoming  the  CIO.  So  it  was  my  baby  from  the  start  and  something  I  will  always  be  proud  of.  Really  the  business  change  was  the  biggest  challenge.  Maintaining  a  continuous  ’”‡•‡Â?…‡ ‘ˆ •Â?‹ŽŽ‡† ’‡‘’Ž‡ ‹Â? –Š‡ ‹Â?‰†‘Â? ™ƒ• ƒÂ?‘–Š‡” „‹‰ …ŠƒŽŽ‡Â?‰‡ „‡…ƒ—•‡ ‹– –‘‘Â? —• ƒ„‘—– ˆ‘—” ›‡ƒ”• ÇŚ ƒ ˜‡”› ‡š–‡Â?†‡† ’‡”‹‘† ‘ˆ –‹Â?‡ǥdz Ž„ƒÂ?”‹ •ƒ›•Ǥ Dz – ™ƒ• ˜‡”› Šƒ”† –‘ Â?‡‡’ –Š‡ •ƒÂ?‡ …‘Â?•—Ž–ƒÂ?–• ™‘”Â?‹Â?‰ ˆ‘” –Šƒ– ƒÂ?‘—Â?– ‘ˆ –‹Â?‡ on  a  single  project.  The  data  migration  was  ƒŽ•‘ ƒ Š—‰‡ —Â?†‡”–ƒÂ?‹Â?‰ „‡…ƒ—•‡ ™‡ Šƒ† ƒ„‘—– ͳͺͲ Ž‡‰ƒ…› •›•–‡Â?• ƒÂ?† Â?ƒ‹Â?ˆ”ƒÂ?‡ technology  that  we  had  to  pull  information  ƒÂ?† †ƒ–ƒ ‘—– Â‘ÂˆÇĄ ‡š–”ƒ…– ‹–ǥ …Ž‡ƒÂ?•‡ ‹–ǥ Â?ƒÂ?‡ •‡Â?•‡ ‘—– ‘ˆ ‹– ƒÂ?† –Š‡Â? Ž‘ƒ† ‹– ‹Â?–‘ Ǥ Â?‡‡†• …Ž‡ƒÂ? †ƒ–ƒ –‘ ™‘”Â? •‘ –Šƒ– ™ƒ• ƒ „‹‰ challenge,â€?  he  adds.

Integral  to  the  handling  of  these  challenges  was  the  integrator  of  the  implementation.  Ž„ƒÂ?”‹ •ƒ›• –Š‹• ‹Â? ‹–•‡Žˆ –—”Â?‡† ‹Â?–‘ ƒ challenge  after  they  changed  integrator.  Dz ‡ ‹Â?‹–‹ƒŽŽ› •–ƒ”–‡† ™‹–Š Ǥ Š‡› †‹† Šƒ˜‡ ƒ„‘—– ͜ͲΨ ‘ˆ –Š‡ Œ‘„ „—– –Š‡Â? –Š‡› left  and  IBM  came  in,  so  we  had  a  change  of  integrator  about  midway,  which  was  another  challenge.  When  they  left  we  hired  all  their  consultants  to  ensure  continuity.  We  also  hired  those  100  people  early  on  ‹Â? –Š‡ ’”‘…‡•• ƒÂ?† ’—•Š‡† –Š‡Â? “—‹…Â?Ž› through  the  training  and  involved  them  in  the  implementation  itself.  That  provided  us  with  ƒ Ž‘– ‘ˆ Š‡Ž’ǥdz Ž„ƒÂ?”‹ •ƒ›•Ǥ Dz —” ’ƒ”–Â?‡”•Š‹’ ™‹–Š ƒŽ•‘ Š‡Ž’‡† ƒ lot.  Whenever  we  needed  expertise  in  niche  areas  we  had  contracts  and  agreements  with  –‘ ’”‘˜‹†‡ —• ™‹–Š ™Šƒ–‡˜‡” Â?Â?‘™Ž‡†‰‡ we  needed.  With  data  migration,  we  set  ‹– —’ ĥ ƒ •‡’ƒ”ƒ–‡ ’”‘Œ‡…– —Â?†‡” –Š‡ implementation,  which  helped  with  that.  On  top  of  this,  the  project  team  with  ƒŽŽ –Š‡ •—„ –‡ƒÂ?•ǥ –Š‡ ƒÂ?† Š‹• ÇŚÂŽÂ‡Â˜Â‡ÂŽ Â?ƒÂ?ƒ‰‡Â?‡Â?– Â?‡– ‘Â?…‡ ƒ ™‡‡Â? ™Š‡”‡ Ž„ƒÂ?”‹ǯ• –‡ƒÂ? ™‘—Ž† ‰‹˜‡ ƒ •–ƒ–—• —’†ƒ–‡ and  any  issues  would  be  discussed. Â

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We made a strategic decision not to have a different implementation for each unit. One of the reasons we brought in SAP is we wanted to bring in uniformity between these units and standardise the processes because if you allow each company to have their own processes, standards, procedures and systems, interconnecting and working together would become a nightmare.â€? “We  also  briefed  our  steering  board  for  ‡ƒ…Š …‘”‡ ’”‘…‡•• ‘Â?…‡ ‡˜‡”› –™‘ ™‡‡Â?• ƒÂ?† we  briefed  the  IT  steering  committee  once  a  Â?‘Â?–Šǥdz Ž„ƒÂ?”‹ ƒ††•Ǥ ‡Â?‡Ď?‹–• ‡•’‹–‡ –Š‡ ‰”‡› Šƒ‹”• ƒÂ?† •–—Â?„Ž‹Â?‰ „Ž‘…Â?•ǥ Ž„ƒÂ?”‹ ”‡…Â?‘Â?• –Š‡ •‹‰Â?‹Ď?‹…ƒÂ?– „‡Â?‡Ď?‹–• ƒ—†‹ ‹”Ž‹Â?‡• Šƒ• •‡‡Â? Â?ƒÂ?‡• ƒŽŽ –Š‡ ™‘”Â? worthwhile.  Dz Š‡ ‹Â?’Ž‡Â?‡Â?–ƒ–‹‘Â? Šƒ• ‹Â?’”‘˜‡† ‡ˆĎ?‹…‹‡Â?…‹‡•ǥ ‡ˆˆ‡…–‹˜‡Â?॥ ƒÂ?† –Š‡ •’‡‡† ‘ˆ operations.  Standardising  the  process  and  Â?ƒÂ?‹Â?‰ •—”‡ –Šƒ– –Š‡ •ƒÂ?‡ †ƒ–ƒ Ď?Ž‘™• ˆ”‘Â? one  system  to  another  has  really  increased  the  accuracy  and  reduced  the  confusion  „‡–™‡‡Â? ˜ƒ”‹‘—• „—•‹Â?॥ ’ƒ”–Â?‡”•ǥdz Ž„ƒÂ?”‹ says.

Most  of  all,  he  adds,  the  implementation  has  meant  that  IT  now  really  enables  the  airlines  to  pursue  business  programmes  and  strategies.  Dz Â? –Š‡ ’ƒ•– ‹– ™ƒ• ˜‡”› †‹ˆĎ?‹…—Ž– –‘ †‘ •‘ because  of  the  nature  of  the  legacy  system.  It  was  very  hard  to  change  and  maintain,  and  there  was  not  a  lot  of  integration  between  the  systems  where  you  had  to  build  interfaces  „‡–™‡‡Â? –Š‡Â?Ǥ › –Š‡ –‹Â?‡ Ď?‹Â?‹•Š‡† –Š‡ ™‘”Â? –Š‡ „—•‹Â?॥ •–”ƒ–‡‰› ™ƒ• Â?‘ Ž‘Â?‰‡” Â˜ÂƒÂŽÂ‹Â†ÇĄÇł Ž„ƒÂ?”‹ •ƒ›•Ǥ “In  the  competitive  world  of  airlines  you  have  to  move  fast.  We  sometimes  change  our  ‹Â?–‡”Â?‡– „‘‘Â?‹Â?‰ ƒ‰‡Â?–• ‘Â? ƒ ™‡‡Â?Ž› „ƒ•‹• –‘ meet  the  demand  of  the  clients  and  support Â

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the  business  strategies  so  they  can  generate  more  revenue.  That’s  the  whole  game  –  IT  Šƒ• –‘ „‡ ÂƒÂ†ÂƒÂ’Â–Â‹Â˜Â‡ÇĄ ˜‡”› “—‹…Â?ÇĄ ƒÂ?† ˜‡”› ”‡•’‘Â?•‹˜‡ ÇŚ ™‡ •–ƒ”–‡† –‘ •‡‡ –Šƒ– …ŠƒÂ?‰‡ǥdz he  adds. Ž„ƒÂ?”‹ ”‡˜‡ƒŽ‡† –Šƒ– –Š‡ ‹Â?’Ž‡Â?‡Â?–ƒ–‹‘Â? has  led  to  higher  revenue  generation  and  reduced  costs,  and  that  more  importantly  it  has  swayed  the  public  opinion  of  Saudi  Airlines  and  its  services.  Dz †‘Â?ǯ– –Š‹Â?Â? –Š‡”‡ ‹• ƒÂ?‘–Š‡” ƒ‹”Ž‹Â?‡ that  even  attempted  to  do  this.  We  had  to  do  it  because  20  years  ago  Saudi  Airlines  was  Â?—Â?„‡” ͳ; ™‘”Ž†™‹†‡Ǥ ‡ Ž‘•– –Šƒ– Â?ƒ”Â?‡–Ǣ ‘—” Ď?Ž‡‡– Šƒ† ‰‘––‡Â? ‘Ž†ǥ ‘—” ’”‘…‡••‡• and  products  were  not  being  renewed  and  we  continued  to  be  a  government  run  organisation.  So  something  had  to  be  done  ƒÂ?† ’”‹˜ƒ–‹•ƒ–‹‘Â? ™ƒ• ƒ Â?‡› Â•Â–Â”ÂƒÂ–Â‡Â‰Â›ÇĄÇł Š‡ •ƒ›•Ǥ “The  restructure  of  the  airline  from  the  top  to  the  bottom  was  another  one,  and  heavy  investment  in  information  and  telecommunication  technology  was  seen  as  the  vehicle  to  facilitate  and  enable  these  massive  changes  over  a  very  short  period  of  time.  Between  2007  and  2011  we  spent  ʹǤ͡ „‹ŽŽ‹‘Â? ƒ—†‹ ”‹›ƒŽ• ƒÂ?† –Š‡ Â•Â‘ÇŚÂ…ÂƒÂŽÂŽÂ‡Â† IT  master  plan  has  really  allowed  us  to  better  serve  the  airlines  and  all  the  sister  companies,  and  try  to  regain  the  success  Saudi  Airlines  had  enjoyed  for  decades  before  that,â€?  he  adds.

Last  year,  Saudi  Airlines  won  the  award  for  having  the  best  website  in  the Â

CASE STUDY Saudi Arabian Airlines

‹Â?‰†‘Â?Ǥ ‡…‡Â?– Ď?‹‰—”‡• •Š‘™ –Šƒ– ʹͳΨ ‘ˆ ƒŽŽ ‹–• „‘‘Â?‹Â?‰• ™‘”Ž†™‹†‡ Šƒ˜‡ „‡‡Â? ‘Â? –Š‡ internet.  The  airlines  also  introduced  a  unique  payment  service  that  allows  customers  to  pay  through  an  ATM  machine  or  through  ’Š‘Â?‡ „ƒÂ?Â?‹Â?‰ ‘” –Š‡ ‹Â?–‡”Â?‡–Ǥ ‘™ ͝ͲΨ ‘ˆ its  domestic  sales  are  processed  through  this  form  of  payment  and  it  has  also  improved  the  ƒ‹”Ž‹Â?‡• …ƒ•Š Ď?Ž‘™Ǥ “Before,  people  would  go  through  travel  agents  and  other  forms  of  payment  and  it  –ƒÂ?‡• ͜Ͳ –‘ ͜͡ †ƒ›• –‘ …‘ŽŽ‡…– ‘—” Â?‘Â?‡›Ǥ ‘™ –Š‡ Â?‹Â?—–‡ –Š‡› Â?ƒÂ?‡ –Š‡ ’ƒ›Â?‡Â?–• that  is  an  immediate  cash  transfer  to  our  ƒ……‘—Â?– •‘ ˆ”‘Â? ƒ Ď?‹Â?ƒÂ?…‹ƒŽ ƒ•’‡…– ‹– Š‡Ž’• ƒ Ž‘–ǥdz Ž„ƒÂ?”‹ •ƒ›•Ǥ Power  of  IT As  well  as  contributing  to  its  own  …‘Â?–”‹„—–‹‘Â?•ǥ Ž„ƒÂ?”‹ „‡Ž‹‡˜‡• –Š‡ implementation  has  had  the  wider  effect  of  showing  other  companies  the  power  of  IT. “It’s  not  just  the  fact  that  we  did  this  for  ƒ—†‹ ‹”Ž‹Â?‡• „—– –Š‹Â?Â? ‹– Šƒ• …ŠƒÂ?‰‡† ƒ lot  of  the  perceptions  about  what  you  can  do  with  technology  in  the  region.  All  the  Žƒ”‰‡ ƒÂ?† Â?‡‰ƒ …‘Â?•—Ž–‹Â?‰ Ď?‹”Â?• ‹Â? –Š‡ ™‘”Ž† came  to  Jeddah  and  said  this  plan  will  never  ™‘”Â?Ǥ Š‡› •ƒ‹† ‹–ǯ• –‘‘ Â?—…Š –‘ †‘ ƒ– –Š‡ •ƒÂ?‡ –‹Â?‡Ǥ ‘™ –Š‡›ǯ”‡ ƒŽŽ …‘Â?‹Â?‰ „ƒ…Â? ƒÂ?† ™ƒÂ?–‹Â?‰ –‘ Â?Â?‘™ Š‘™ ™‡ †‹† ‹–ǥdz Š‡ •ƒ›•Ǥ Dz ‡ –Š‹Â?Â? –Š‡”‡ ‹• ƒ Ž‘– –‘ „‡ Ž‡ƒ”Â?‡† and  gained  from  this  experience  for  others  to  see  how  you  can  go  ahead  and  do  this  and  ƒ…–—ƒŽŽ› „‡Â?‡Ď?‹– –Š‡ „—•‹Â?॥ ”ƒ–Š‡” –ŠƒÂ? Œ—•– –‡…ŠÂ?‘Ž‘‰› ˆ‘” –‡…ŠÂ?‘Ž‘‰› •ƒÂ?‡Ǥ Â?Â?‘™ ƒ Ž‘– of  people  spend  a  lot  of  money  on  upgrading Â

infrastructure  but  do  they  really  impact  the  business  and  clients  and  do  they  really  change  the  way  you  do  business?  We’ve  …ŠƒÂ?‰‡† –Š‡ ™ƒ› ™‡ †‘ „—•‹Â?॥ ͳͺͲ †‡‰”‡‡• by  using  these  implementations,â€?  he  adds.

It  is  for  these  reasons  that  Saudi  Airlines  …‘Â?Â?‹–• ƒ •‹‰Â?‹Ď?‹…ƒÂ?– ƒÂ?‘—Â?– ‘ˆ ‡Â?’Ž‘›‡‡• to  its  IT  division.  We  have  about  600  employees  under  payroll.  Then  when  you  count  our  partners,  because  we  outsource  certain  processes  in  the  EMEA,  and  the  outsourced  processes,  the  total  ™‘—Ž† …‘Â?‡ –‘ ƒ„‘—– ͳʹͲͲǥdz Ž„ƒÂ?”‹ •ƒ›•Ǥ IT  at  Saudi  Airlines  acts  as  an  independent  department  where  everything Â

ÇŚÂ”Â‡ÂŽÂƒÂ–Â‡Â† –Šƒ– ƒ ’ƒ”–‹…—Žƒ” †‹˜‹•‹‘Â? ™ƒÂ?–• ‹• approved  by  a  board  before  an  SLA  is  signed  between  them. Â

I got most of my grey hair from it because I was origionally the ERP director and responsible for implementing the ERP before becoming the CIO. So it was my baby from the start and something I will always be proud of.�

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Dz Š‡ Šƒ• –‘ ƒŽ•‘ ™‘”Â? ™‹–Š —• –‘ Â?ƒÂ?‡ •—”‡ ‘—” ’”‹…‡• ƒ”‡ …‘Â?’‡–‹–‹˜‡ ƒÂ?† our  services  more  valuable  to  the  business  because  they  do  have  the  right  to  go  and  •‡‡Â? –Š‡ •‡”˜‹…‡ ˆ”‘Â? ‡Ž•‡™Š‡”‡Ǥ Š‹• ‹• why  we  continue  to  review  our  processes  –‘ Â?ƒÂ?‡ •—”‡ ™‡ ƒ”‡ ‡ˆĎ?‹…‹‡Â?– ‡Â?‘—‰Š and  we  review  our  contracts  with  our  –‡…ŠÂ?‘Ž‘‰› ’ƒ”–Â?‡”• –‘ Â?ƒÂ?‡ •—”‡ ™‡ ‰‡– the  best  deals  so  we  can  carry  it  over  to  our  clients,â€?  he  says.

It  is  clear  through  these  investments  that  the  management  of  Saudi  Airlines  is  not  only  support  of  IT,  but  considers  it  integral  to  its  success.  “Our  biggest  support  comes  from  our  CEO.  When  he  came  to  Saudi  Airlines  in  2006  Š‡ Â?Â?‡™ –Šƒ– Š‡ Šƒ† –‘ Â?ƒÂ?‡ ƒ Ž‘– ‘ˆ …ŠƒÂ?‰‡• but  he  started  with  IT  because  he  realised  –Šƒ– Šƒ† –‘ …ŠƒÂ?‰‡ Ď?‹”•– „‡ˆ‘”‡ ™‡ —•‡† ‹– ĥ ƒ ˜‡Š‹…Ž‡ –‘ ‡Â?ˆ‘”…‡ …ŠƒÂ?‰‡ǥdz Ž„ƒÂ?”‹ •ƒ›•Ǥ “One  of  the  important  things  that  happened  in  the  transformation  of  our  IT  is  –Šƒ– ‹– Šƒ• Â?‘™ Ž‡ˆ– –Š‡ •‡…‘Â?† ”‘™ ƒÂ?† –ƒÂ?‡Â? ƒ ’Žƒ…‡ ‹Â? –Š‡ Ď?‹”•– ”‘™Ǥ ‘ ”‡ƒŽŽ› ™‡ •‹– ‘Â? all  the  business  boards,  all  the  committees  and  we  participate  in  the  actual  business  †‡…‹•‹‘Â? Â?ƒÂ?‹Â?‰ǥdz Š‡ ƒ††•Ǥ

Intertec earns privilege as ATP – Cisco TelePresence Partner

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CASE STUDY IAL Logistics

Evaluating infrastructure Shipping firm IAL Logistics didn’t have much with regards to an IT infrastructure a few months ago. But the hiring of a new CIO and an open-ended budget meant it was time to change. Ben Rossi writes.

I

AL  Logistics  has  been  operating  in  the  region  for  a  long  time  –  19  years  to  be  exact.  With  its  headquarters  in  Dubai,  it  also  has  around  20  other  branches  across  the  Middle  East  and  in  India.  ‹Â?‡ Â?ƒÂ?› …‘Â?’ƒÂ?‹‡• ‘ˆ ‹–• •‹œ‡ ‹Â? –Š‡ Middle  East,  its  IT  infrastructure  was  not  quite  up  to  scratch. Â Â‘Â™Â‡Â˜Â‡Â”ÇĄ ™‹–Š Â?ƒÂ?ƒ‰‡Â?‡Â?– –Šƒ– believe  IT  is  “very  strategic  and  extremely  importantâ€?  to  the  company’s  success,  it  has  set  out  2012  as  the  year  to  upgrade  its  infrastructure.

Core  to  this  plan  is  the  hiring  of  a  new  CIO,  Ian  Sparrow.  Upon  arriving  at  IAL,  one  ‘ˆ –Š‡ Ď?‹”•– –Š‹Â?‰• ’ƒ””‘™ ”‡ƒŽ‹•‡† ™ƒ• –Š‡ ƒ•’‡”•Â?› ƒÂ?–‹˜‹”—• •‘ˆ–™ƒ”‡ ‹– ™ƒ• —•‹Â?‰ ™ƒ• –‘‘ Š‡ƒ˜› ‘Â? ‹–• •Ǥ Dz ‡ —•‡† –‘ Šƒ˜‡ ƒ•’‡”•Â?› ˆ‘” ‘—” antivirus  software,  but  we  found  that  it  was  ‹Â?Š‹„‹–‹Â?‰ ‘—” —•‡ ‹Â? –Šƒ– –Š‡ • ™‡”‡ becoming  slow.  The  client  software  was  becoming  heavy,â€?  Sparrow   says.

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“I’ve been in other organisations with other products and have experienced similar

ǯ is utilised by the antivirus software, which has an adverse affect,” he adds.

IAL went through a process of researching and testing other antivirus brands and, after a brief trial with eScan, decided to opt for ESET ͵ʹ Ǥ “Our main reason to opt for different ϐ lightweight product and after testing other ͵ʹǡ came out on top in the end,” Sparrow says.

“When you compare antivirus software I ǯ Ȃ ǡ Symantec or whoever else. I’m sure

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they’re all going to do what they say they’re going to do. But our main reasoning is the ǡdz Ǥ Implementation IAL’s three month implementation of EDET ͵ʹ ǡ shared his case study in May the product had been rolled out to about a third of its user base.

“So far we are happy with it. The

months in total because we’re not in a ϐ ʹͲ ϐ Ǥ ǯ uninstall, so we physically have to connect ǯ new software from a central site,” he says. Dz ͵ʹ upgrades are automatic. But unfortunately you can only allot so much time each day to do that. That’s why I’m planning a three month roll out,” he adds. ǡ Sparrow says there is still an element of that going on and training into how to get the most out of the product.

“We’re still learning the niceties of the Ǥ ǯ ϐ ͵ͷͲ up to date information from that one central site, so we’re learning what other features and functions we can get out of the product,” he adds.

With the solution living up to IAL’s ǡ ǯ

system that IAL uses.

JUNE 2012

Computer News Middle East

39

CASE STUDY IAL Logistics

“We  use  Lotus  Domino  as  our  mail  system  and  ESET  did  not  include  mail  antivirus  software.  It  wasn’t  a  requirement  Ȃ Â–ÂŠÂ‡Â›ÇŻÂ˜Â‡ ‰‘– ‹– ˆ‘” –Š‡ •–ƒÂ?†ƒ”† —–Ž‘‘Â?ÇĄ Exchange  etcetera  –  but  we’ve  already  got  a  different  solution  on  our  Lotus  environment  anyway,â€?  Sparrow  says. Â‘Â™Â‡Â˜Â‡Â”ÇĄ ‘Â?‡ –Š‹Â?‰ ‹– †‘‡• Šƒ˜‡ ™Š‹…Š ’ƒ””‘™ •ƒ›• †‹†Â?ǯ– Šƒ˜‡ ™‹–Š ƒ•’‡”•Â?›ǥ is  a  centralised  monitoring  system. “So  once  the  user  are  on,  we  can  then  get  up  to  date  information  on  what’s  happening.  All  the  other  antiviruses  have  got  them  as  well,  but  it’s  a  nice  feature  that  we  didn’t  have  before,â€?  he  says.

Revaluation ;ʹ ‹• –Š‡ …‘Â?’ƒÂ?›ǯ• ‘Â?Ž› Â?ƒŒ‘”

‹Â?‹–‹ƒ–‹˜‡ ‹Â? –Š‡ Žƒ•– ͳͺ Â?‘Â?–Š•Ǥ Š‹Ž•– –Š‡ ‘”‰ƒÂ?‹•ƒ–‹‘Â? ‡Â?’Ž‘›• ;͡Ͳ •–ƒˆˆ ƒ…”‘•• ‹–• ‘ˆĎ?‹…‡•ǥ ‘Â?Ž› –Š”‡‡ ˆ‘”Â? –Š‡ –‡ƒÂ?Ǥ

“We  have  a  central  site  hosted  in  Etisalat,  where  all  our  servers  are.  All  of  our  ‘ˆĎ?‹…‡• ƒ”‡ …‘Â?Â?‡…–‡† ˜‹ƒ –‘ –Š‡ …‡Â?–”ƒŽ •‹‰Š–Ǥ ‘Â?‡ ‘ˆĎ?‹…‡• Â?ƒ› Šƒ˜‡ Œ—•– –™‘ –‘ Ď?‹˜‡ —•‡”• ‹Â?ÇĄ ™Š‹Ž•– •‘Â?‡ Â?ƒ› Šƒ˜‡ ͡Ͳ –‘ ͸Ͳ —•‡”• ‹Â?ÇĄ •‘ ‹– †‡’‡Â?†• ‘Â? –Š‡ •‹œ‡ ‘ˆ –Š‡ operations,â€?  Sparrow  says. ‡ ƒ††• –Šƒ– –Š‡› ‰‡– „› ™‹–Š •—…Š ƒ •Â?ƒŽŽ team  because  of  the  products  they  use. Dz ‡ —•‡ ‘–—• ‘–‡• ƒÂ?† ‘Â?‹Â?‘ ĥ our  business  application  and  because  we’ve  ‰‘– ƒ …‡Â?–”ƒŽ‹•‡† Â•Â‡Â”Â˜Â‡Â”ÇŚÂ„ÂƒÂ•Â‡ ‹–ǯ• ”‡ƒŽŽ› Œ—•– ”‡Â?‘–‡ •—’’‘”– –Šƒ– ™‡ Â?‡‡† –‘ †‘Ǥ ƒ˜‹Â?‰ •ƒ‹† Â–ÂŠÂƒÂ–ÇĄ ™‡ †‘ Šƒ˜‡ ‘Â?‡ ’‡”•‘Â? ‹Â? –Š‡ Â•Â‡Â”Â˜Â‡Â”ÇŚÂ„ÂƒÂ•Â‡ –Šƒ– Ž‘‘Â?• ƒˆ–‡” –Š‡ „‹‰‰‡” ‘ˆĎ?‹…‡•ǥdz Š‡ •ƒ›•Ǥ

Ian Sparrow, CIO at IAL Logistics

The implementation will take about three months in total because we’re not in a centralised office so with 20 plus remote offices it will take time.

First we’ve got to uninstall, so we physically have to connect to each PC because we can’t just throw out new software from a central site.�

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The  recent  arrival  of  Sparrow  led  to  a  revaluation  on  the  technology  side  of  IAL.  “I’m  basically  transforming  the  whole  IT  ‹Â?ˆ”ƒ•–”—…–—”‡Ǥ › ‡Â?‰ƒ‰‹Â?‰ •‘Â?‡‘Â?‡ Ž‹Â?‡ Â?‡ ™Š‘ ‹• ‰‘‹Â?‰ –‘ Šƒ˜‡ ƒ †‹ˆˆ‡”‡Â?– Ž‘‘Â? ƒ– ™Šƒ– the  current  infrastructure  is,  it’s  just  the  start  of  what  is  being  planned.â€?  Sparrow  says. Â?…‡ –Š‡ —’‰”ƒ†‡ ‘ˆ –Š‡ • ‹• complete,  the  two  projects  that  Sparrow  says  will  lead  the  agenda  in  this  transformation  are  virtualisation  and  †‡•Â?–‘’ ˜‹†‡‘ …‘Â?ˆ‡”‡Â?…‹Â?‰Ǥ “Our  main  priority  is  to  change  our  physical  servers  into  a  virtualisation  environment.  We  have  got  a  few  servers  in  the  branches  at  the  moment,  so  we’ve  got  to  centralise  them  as  well,â€?  he  says. Dz Š‡Â? †‡•Â?–‘’ ˜‹†‡‘ …‘Â?ˆ‡”‡Â?…‹Â?‰ will  really  help  the  communication  aspect  because  we  do  have  a  lot  of  disparate  ‘ˆĎ?‹…‡• ƒÂ?† –Š‡”‡ˆ‘”‡ …‘Â?Â?—Â?‹…ƒ–‹‘Â? ‹• ƒ Â?‡› ˆƒ…–‘”Ǥ ‡ –”ƒ˜‡Ž ƒ Ž‘– –‘ –Š‡•‡ ‘ˆĎ?‹…‡• ƒÂ?† ƒŽ•‘ ”‡Ž› ‘Â? Šƒ˜‹Â?‰ –‘ …‘Â?Â?—Â?‹…ƒ–‡ ‘˜‡” –Š‡ ’Š‘Â?‡Ǥ ‡•Â?–‘’ video  conferencing  should  minimise  the  cost  and  travel  factor  of  communications,â€?  he  adds.  Â

M ID D LE Â E AS T

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CASE STUDY Indian High School

High grades The Indian High School in Dubai taps into technology to provide better resources for both students and teachers.

A

s competition between educational institutions heats up, schools are increasingly investing in new technology as a way to differentiate their instructional offerings and drive ϐ Ǥ being spent in the classroom and in ϐ Ǥ a global, technology-­‐driven economy, a growing number of classrooms are beginning to incorporate technology ϐ ǡ

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JUNE 2012

collaborative, interactive and mobile learning experience.

ȋ Ȍǡ ͳͻ͸ͳ Ǧ ͳʹǤ

͵ͶͲ classrooms in one single premise. The school functions in three campuses with close to ʹͲǡͲͲͲ ͺͲͲ teachers in addition to 200 plus support staff.

www.cnmeonline.com

and computer labs and even boasts of its own radio broadcasting station.

IT is not always a priority for school but

ǡ a pervasive role in augmenting the teaching process. The school has been one of the early adopters of the smartboard technology and its IT department has developed a ȋ ǯ Ȍ evaluation of students on all grounds. What is probably unique is that the school’s IT

department  comprises  mostly  of  teachers  ƒÂ?† ‡šnj•–—†‡Â?–•Ǥ

Šƒ• ƒ …‘Â?’Ž‡š Â?‡–™‘”Â?ÇĄ ™Š‹…Š •—’’‘”–• Â‡ÇŚÂŽÂ‡ÂƒÂ”Â?‹Â?‰ ’Žƒ–ˆ‘”Â?•ǥ ƒÂ?† ‘–Š‡” applications  such  as  database,  and  runs  on  a  …ƒÂ?’—•nj™‹†‡ Ď?‹„”‡ „ƒ…Â?„‘Â?‡Ǥ Š‡ ™‹”‡Ž‡•• coverage  is  ubiquitous  and  students  are  encouraged  to  bring  their  own  devices  to  access  the  learning  resources. Dz ‹• ”—Â? ‘Â? ƒ Â?Â‘Â–ÇŚÂˆÂ‘Â”ÇŚÂ’Â”Â‘Ď?‹– Â?‘†‡Ž •‘ ˆ—Â?†‹Â?‰ ƒÂ?† Š‹”‹Â?‰ ƒÂ?† Â?‡‡’‹Â?‰ ‰‘‘† ’‡‘’Ž‡ are  major  challenges.  But  we  have  been  able  to  develop  most  of  our  applications  ‹Â?njŠ‘—•‡ǥ ™Š‹…Š Š‡Ž’• —• –‘ Â?‡‡’ –Š‡ …‘•–• down.  Of  course,  there  are  areas  where  we  …ƒÂ?ǯ– †‘ ‡˜‡”›–Š‹Â?‰ ‹Â?njŠ‘—•‡ ƒÂ?† ™‡ Šƒ˜‡ alliances  with  vendors  such  as  Microsoft,  which  provides  us  technologies  at  hugely  †‹•…‘—Â?–‡† Â”ÂƒÂ–Â‡Â•ÇĄÇł •ƒ›• ÂŠÂƒÂ–Â—Â”Â˜Â‡Â†Â‹ÇĄ

Advisor  to  the  school.

ICT  has  been  embedded  in  the  curriculum  at  all  levels  and  is  an  integral  ’ƒ”– ‘ˆ –Š‡ Ž‡ƒ”Â?‹Â?‰ ’”‘…‡•• ƒ– Ǥ —– –Š‡ Œ‘—”Â?‡› Šƒ•Â?ǯ– „‡‡Â? ˜‡”› •Â?‘‘–ŠǤ ‘” teachers,  technology  is  a  mixed  blessing.  It  threatens  them,  and  excites  them.  It  is  a  great  educational  tool  but  there  is  a  new  set  of Â

•Â?‹ŽŽ• –Šƒ– Â?‡‡† –‘ „‡ Ž‡ƒ”Â?Â‡Â†ÇĽÂƒÂ?† ˆ‘” Â?ƒÂ?› teachers  it  is  just  too  strange  and  new  to  integrate  into  old  teaching  habits.  “We  had  to  go  a  very  lengthy  change  management  process  with  the  teachers  with  the  introduction  of  technology  into  …Žƒ••”‘‘Â?•Ǥ ‡ƒ…Š‡”• –‘‘Â? –‹Â?‡ –‘ ƒ†ƒ’– ƒÂ?† ™‡ –‘‘Â? –Š‡Â? –Š”‘—‰Š ‡š–‡Â?•‹˜‡ –”ƒ‹Â?‹Â?‰Ǥ ‘™ –Š‡› •‡‡ –‡…ŠÂ?‘Ž‘‰› ĥ ƒÂ? ‡ˆĎ?‹…‹‡Â?– –‘‘Ž –‘ ƒ—‰Â?‡Â?– –Š‡ –‡ƒ…Š‹Â?‰ ’”‘…‡••ǥdz •ƒ›• •Š‘Â? —Â?ÂƒÂ”ÇĄ ‹ˆ Ǥ Through  the  training  programme  that  lasted  three  years,  educators  were  shown  techniques  that  allow  them  to  be  „‡––‡” –‡ƒ…Š‡”• ƒÂ?† –ƒÂ?‡ „ƒ…Â? –Š‡ ‹Â?‹–‹ƒ–‹˜‡ in  the  classroom  with  a  better  set  of  tools.  “Technology  provides  new  ways  of  communication  information,  as  well  helping  teachers  in  grading  and  managing  their  classes  –  and  gives  them  access  to  huge  resource  of  content.  We  are  now  in  the  process  of  starting  podcasts  for  revision  chapters,â€?  says  Kumar.

Chaturvedi  says  the  school’s  IT  infrastructure  is  very  robust  and  scalable  to  meet  the  future  growth  needs.   “We  upgrade  our  infrastructure  to  match  increases  in  the Â

From left to right: Gerald Johnson, IT administrator of IHS with MN Chaturvedi, IT Advisor

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Ashok Kumar, CEO, IHS

volume  of  content  and  number  of  users.   We  go  through  software  upgrades  every  three  ›‡ƒ”• ƒÂ?† Šƒ”†™ƒ”‡ ‹• ”‡ˆ”‡•Š‡† ‡˜‡”› Ď?‹˜‡ years.  We  do  provide  advanced  IT  support Â Â•Â‡Â”Â˜Â‹Â…Â‡Â•ÇĄ ƒÂ?† „ƒ…Â? ‘ˆĎ?‹…‡ ƒ’’Ž‹…ƒ–‹‘Â?• ƒÂ?† storage  to  support  student  data  and  online  •—’’‘”–•Ǥ ƒŽ•‘ Šƒ˜‡ ƒ ‰”‡‡Â? ƒ‰‡Â?†ƒ ĥ ‡Â?‡”‰› ‡ˆĎ?‹…‹‡Â?…› ‹• ƒ –‘’ ’”‹‘”‹–›Ǥdz It  is  mandatory  for  schools  these  days  –‘ ’”‘˜‹†‡ •‡…—”‡ Â?‡–™‘”Â?• ˆ‘” Ž‡ƒ”Â?‡”•ǥ •–ƒˆˆ ƒÂ?† ’ƒ”‡Â?–•Ǥ –ƒÂ?‡• •‡…—”‹–› seriously  and  have  put  in  place  multiple  layers  of  defense  mechanisms  to  prevent  data  breaches. Â

ÇĄ ™Š‹…Š Šƒ• „‡‡Â? ”ƒ–‡† ‹Â? –Š‡ outstanding  category,  has  recently  opened  a  new  campus  in  Dubai  Silicon  Oasis,  which  is  a  perfect  showcase  of  the  positive  impacts  of  exploiting  technology  in  education.   The  new  •…Š‘‘Ž „‘ƒ•–• ‘ˆ ƒ …‘Â?˜‡”‰‡† Â?‡–™‘”Â? ™‹–Š ƒ Â•Â–ÂƒÂ–Â‡ÇŚÂ‘ÂˆÇŚÂ–ÂŠÂ‡ÇŚÂƒÂ”Â– †ƒ–ƒ …‡Â?–”‡ǥ ™Š‹…Š ‹• ˆ—ŽŽ› virtualised  and  terabytes  of  storage.  Dz – ‹• •–‹ŽŽ ‹Â? ƒ ™‘”Â? ‹Â? ’”‘‰”‡••Ǥ ‡ ƒ”‡ in  the  process  of  adding  video  streaming  ƒÂ?† •—”˜‡‹ŽŽƒÂ?…‡Ǥ ŠƒÂ?Â?• –‘ ˜‹”–—ƒŽ‹•ƒ–‹‘Â?ÇĄ we  will  also  be  able  to  build  a  private  cloud  –Šƒ– ™‹ŽŽ –ƒÂ?‡ …ƒ”‡ ‘ˆ ‘—” ˆ—–—”‡ …‘Â?’—–‹Â?‰ Â?‡‡†•ǥdz •ƒ›• Šƒ–—”˜‡†‹Ǥ ‹• ƒ –”ƒ‹Ž„Žƒœ‡” ‹Â? many  ways  and  there  are  many  schools  in  the  region  that  have  emulated  the  school’s  model  and  its  approach  to  harnessing  technology  to  provide  better  education. Â

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Computer  News  Middle  East

43

KEY

The unique IP addresses across the top 10 countries represent nearly 67% of the global figure.

: Number of unique IPv4 addresses

: Year-over-year change (%)

INTERNET PENETRATION

Russia 20% 13,889,458

Brazil 27% 17,116,579

China 26% 84,405,405

Italy 23% 15,093,132

France 7.3% 24,797,259

South Korea -14% 18,948,552

USA 5.7% 145,069,663

Germany 5.2% 35,608,453

UK 14% 25,383,604

Globally, nearly 200 countries and regions saw year-overyear growth in the number of unique IP addresses.

Japan 1.8% 40,254,398

INTERNET

THE STATE OF THE AKAMAI SHOWS WHERE THE INTERNET WAS AT IN THE FOURTH QUARTER OF 2011.

7

At a city level, South Korea and Japan hold many of the top spots.

69

Belgium Romania

USA

Research by: Akamai | Source of infographic: OnlineUniversities.com

6.4 Mbps -8.5%

Czech Republic

Switzerland

6.7 Mbps 18%

6.1 Mbps 10%

7.3 Mbps 29%

Ireland

5.8 Mbps 14%

Netherlands

6.8 Mbps 39%

8.2 Mbps 18%

Latvia

9.1 Mbps -2.6%

7.8 Mbps 39%

Hong Kong

(Average measured Mbps and year-over-year change (%), 2011 Q4)

Japan

AVERAGE MEASURED CONNETION SPEED

The global average connection speed was 2.3 Mbps, the global average peak connection speed was 11.7 Mbps.

No U.S. cities placed in the top 50; Boston ranked 51st.

24

The global average connection speed saw an unusual, and fairly significant decline in 2011 Q4; however, for the year, the global average connection speed was up 19%.

GLOBAL AVERAGE CONNETION SPEEDS

9.1 Mbps 10%

17.5 Mbps 28%

7 24 69

INFOGRAPHICS | JUNE 2012

Number of cities from the Asia Pacific region on the top 100 list.

Number of cities from North America on the top 100 list.

Number of cities from Europe on the top 100 list.

Most were in South Korea and Japan

Akamai came up with a list of the top 100 cities with the highest average connection speeds. Of those cities:

South Korea

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DISCOVER?

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With QlikView, businesses can take insight to the edges of their organization, enabling every business user to do their jobs smarter and faster than ever.

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SolutionsWorld

SOLUTIONS WORLD Training and certifications

J

A tough job Hiring new staff for an IT team can be a tricky task for CIOs. With technical skills being of such imperative value, certifications are important things CIOs have to look for.

CNME explores what those all-important certifications are, how they are influenced by IT trends sweeping the Middle East and how much CIOs are happy to leave it all to in-house training.

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udging a person’s IT ability by the limited information a resume Ǥ ϐ can help CIOs make the decision on who is the best candidate for the job.

However, views on their reliability as a key indicator of ability are mixed.

Ananthakrishnan Tharakes, technical and training manager and head of Autodesk Education at Omnix ME, says new staff

ϐ very important at Omnix.

One key reason for this is its specialisation in building information modelling (BIM), which is a specialised concept used in architectural, structural and civil design.

“We have seen that many of the country’s ϐ

in their early adoption stages, which means that much is to be learned. We have seen the strong potential of BIM across key segments like construction, architecture, engineering, interior design, planning, facilities management and maintenance. Therefore, industry professionals are calling for more trainings, workshops and skills development for this innovative new design solution,” Tharakes says.

“The instructors that we have at our AATCs ϐ solutions. This is because we offer programs where our students can learn from highly ϐ are up-­‐to-­‐date on Autodesk’s latest technology.

The instructors we have are design software ϐ ǡ Ǥ ϐ ϐ and more than 10,000 hours of teaching experience,” he adds.

Nicolai Solling, director of technology services at helpAG Middle East, disagrees on ϐ Ǥ they are often an unreliable indicator of an applicant’s credentials, but his opinion ϐ Ǥ Dz ϐ ϐ with. As a security focused system integrator and consultancy business we have a steep requirement from many of our suppliers ϐ in order to meet the requirements of their partnership programs. However, being in the industry for a very long time I am also ϐ

Ananthakrishnan Tharakes, technical and training manager and head of Autodesk Education at Omnix ME

very little about the individual’s capabilities, ϐ hold too much power when an individual is being evaluated,” he says.

“Hypothetically speaking everybody sees themselves as an IT expert, but one needs to distinguish between theoretical knowledge and practical experience. Many organisations in the Middle East would like ϐ them instead of educating, training and knowledge that can be utilised in different job functions required on the market. We have often seen people claiming to be Cisco

ȋ ϐ tracks available on the market) but in reality the practical knowledge does not exist to even handle simple basic tasks. This applies across all segments within the IT industry,” he adds.

Training Solling also reckons enterprise organisations, government entities and system integrators in the region do not allocate enough budget to training their employees.

“We do see cases where customers have implemented the most expensive oversized technologies but they are hardly able to operate, administrate and maintain them.

This is not always a mistake of the end customer, it is also very much driven by the vendors who, instead of doing the proper sizing, tend to oversell the product part.

As part of our helpAG policy, all projects need to have a proper implementation documentation, knowledge transfer and handover of the solution plus trainings as part of the project,” he says.

Jose George, manager of business and escalation, enterprise infrastructure at Emitac, ϐ which experience can be built on. Dz ϐ relevant experience is a key consideration Ǥ ϐ are recognition by many product vendors for gaining specialised product knowledge and marketability. As system integrator, we have to keep the level of expertise for the products and services we offer, wherein ϐ experience is considered a weighing factor,” George says.

He adds that Emitac will generally recruit consultants and engineers who are ready for production.

“However, we prioritise their skills to match with industry requirements. I don’t see anyone struggling because of lack

Source: San Hill Group, (ISC)2, 2012

BY THE NUMBERS

80,000 11 cloud computing companies added 80,000 jobs in 2010

5X

The employment rate at these organisations was five times that of the high-tech sector overall

96%

amount of information security professionals currently employed

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7%

amount of information security professionals that had been unemployed at any point during 2011

JUNE 2012

Computer News Middle East

49

SOLUTIONS WORLD Training and certifications

of information or training. An individual who is a quick learner will have all the ϐ ǡdz he says.

Tharakes went into more detail of why Omnix deems it important to employ IT team ϐ Autodesk programs. Dz ϐ the candidate’s completion of training but also show how knowledgeable and ϐ matter. We strongly recommend the ϐ ȋ Ȍ ϐ ȋ Ȍ ϐ Ǥ ϐ ǡ ϐ ǡ civil, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, manufacturing, structural, multimedia and visualisation,” he says.

He does add, however, that asides from

ϐ ǡ

Jose George, manager of business and escalation, enterprise infrastructure at Emitac

ǡ ϐ to immediately address any issues and challenges brought to them by the client.

Evolution of IT George says the evolution of IT and trends ϐ created a demand for staff who understand its potential in the modern world.

“We are seeing the computing power reach the palmtops and mobiles in a rapid way, which is changing the outlook of the young graduates. I have come from an era when object-­‐oriented programming was a way of life,” George says. Dz ϐ ǡ Ǥ Information explosions are the avalanche that never stops. Also the struggles, priorities and timelines take a different leap.

Key focus here is the management of these demands and how to evaluate the priorities.

So the task force should be capable of a leading role in complex deliverables to clients,” he adds.

Nitin Anand, director at Skyline University College, points to social media as a factor of a candidate’s potential employment that is potentially more important than ϐ Ǥ “A key trend affecting talent management and that requires immediate attention is the impact of social media on various aspects of business. Social media is a major trend this year affecting development and recruitment criteria.

It is not an unknown fact that social media is considered as a referral during the pre recruitment process not only for background checks but also analyse the network of a candidate to enhance the visibility of organisation,” Anand says.

Being in the industry for a very long time I am extremely aware that certifications only say very little about the individual’s capabilities, which is why you cannot let certifications hold too much power when an individual is being evaluated.”

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www.cnmeonline.com

Nicolai Solling, director of technology services at helpAG Middle East

He adds that the mobile trend is another element organisations are looking at when hiring for the IT team.

“This technology is not limited to communication these days. Early adoption of this platform is considered as best practice for any organisation. It has become mandatory for the business managers to make sure their staff are well versed with such technology, and if not, given appropriate training for same,” he says.

Andrew Hurt, general manager at Xerox Emirates, believes that graduates are generally not well trained in key industry trends. He says that because they come from an academic environment they are book smart but have no proper industry experience. Dz ϐ apply themselves and their competencies to a given situation and also how they can develop these further in theory and in practice,” he says.

Graduates Solling says helpAG has gotten by this by recently opening an internship program for graduates.

“We were a bit reluctant in this in the past because we were not ready with the correct support in our organisation. However ϐ with a permanent position for the engineer

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SOLUTIONS WORLD Training and certifications

and we were very happy with the potential of this individual,” he says.

He adds that training is an “absolute must” at helpAG. “Training can be two fold based on ϐ ǡ also about giving the engineers the ability and capabilities to study new solutions and applications of existing solution. In order to do this you need to allow time and provide the correct technical environment, which is why helpAG have a very high budget every year for demo devices and technical training,” he says.

“Every engineer in helpAG will have a training and development plan created together with their manager, which allows ϐ development path documented,” he adds.

George describes the employment process for the IT team as a “two way process.”

“We have to keep up with stringent requirement of our solution vendors and on the other side, we have to show our value add to our customers. Hence the ϐ aligned with the market requirements, while keeping the partner levels optimal for it,” he says.

“Currently we have a large partner ecosystem, starting with infrastructure vendors to cloud providers. Quite a bit of them are dynamic in their evaluation process. Consulting level expertise skills with the market leaders are often considered,” he adds.

Hurt says that Xerox often favours hiring young people who it can shape and train into where they need to be. Dz ϐ ϐ ϐ ǡ ϐ on students that we can train and develop accordingly. We then boot camp them to the required level through various development methods like on the job experience, coaching and project work,” he says.

Anand agrees that training is paramount and points to the things that Skyline trains existing staff on.

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Andrew Hurt, general manager at Xerox Emirates

comfortable working environment – both at the personal and professional level.

Keeping in tune is very important, but in a technical environment like helpAG we do have a very technical approach and within the team there is a lot of knowledge sharing,” he adds.

Despite the importance of training and ϐ ǡ aptitude to learn quickly is just as important when hiring new member of staff.

“We believe that there has to be a balance in our approach in terms of these factors. One does not necessarily triumph over the other because at the end of the day

I think the significant trends we see today are the need for the software to be made customisable because most of the trends we see are towards mobility and social networking. There seems to be an increased need for things like sales force automation and customer service automation.”

“We train existing staff on search engine optimisation (SEO), social media optimisation (SMO), social media marketing (SMM) and Google Adwords. We also train our faculty and staff on plagiarism and advanced Excel operations. The need for data recording, managing and generating reports is essential in educational institutions to respond promptly to student queries. Training on these areas is provided at regular intervals,” he says.

Personal Solling adds that identifying the correct individuals to hire is key to the success of helpAG. “I am happy that we are able to grow our organisation with a very controlled way with very high retention. In order to maintain this ϐ personal as well as technical capabilities,” Solling says.

“We all spend a lot of hours at work, so it is important that we provide a

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it boils down to how and to what extent an individual will apply their unique skill sets to any given position,” Hurt says.

Tharakes says Omnix seeks individuals who are enthusiastic and demonstrate the ability to learn more.

“Omnix invests heavily in its team in terms of training and getting certified across newer programs that come along.

This move assures us that our IT Team is ready to deal with any challenges presented to them,” he adds.

Nitin concludes that candidates with aptitude to learn will prevail over more experience applicants.

“It is an inevitable fact that the only thing permanent is change. If a candidate has an aptitude to learn new industry trends quickly then they are preferred because they will be moving in conjunction with the future changes. However, a combination of experience with enthusiasm and an aptitude to learn is the best choice,” he says.

Click. Click.

Let the video collaboration begin.

Connecting your business with video comes easy with Avaya.

With Avaya, your next video call is always just a click, swipe or touch away. And unlike other vendors, we connect to your existing infrastructure to create a video system that’s simpler and more affordable. To learn more about video and support services where everything just clicks, visit avaya.com/click.

Š 2012 Avaya Inc. All rights reserved.

NetworkWorld

STRATEGIC IT NETWORKING PARTNER

NETWORK WORLD Wireless

Gigabit wireless steams ahead Your 802.11n wireless network and devices are about to become passé. Although the official 802.11ac specification won’t be finalised until sometime in 2013, wireless equipment will soon appear on store shelves sporting the faster wireless protocol.

I

ǯ ϐ 802.11n wireless routers and devices became available-­‐-­‐also well ahead of ϐ ϐ Ǥ ǡ ϐ ͺͲʹǤͳͳ standard. 802.11ac is also referred to as “gigabit Wi-­‐Fi” and will be capable of ϐ than the current 802.11n.

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802.11n works in both 5GHz and 2.4GHz frequency ranges. 802.11ac will be purely 5GHz. The higher frequency has less range when dealing with walls and other obstacles, but there is also far less interference in the 5GHz range.

“As with all innovations, 802.11ac aims to deliver a faster, more reliable Ǥ ǡ ϐ

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for enterprises is that 802.11ac is 5Ghz only.

As the technology is adopted, more devices will support 5Ghz, and this is capacity-­‐rich band. This gives more capacity options in congested places like a conference centre for example,” says Nader Baghdadi, Middle East Regional Sales Director of Ruckus Wireless.

Chris Kozup, Senior Marketing Director of Aruba Networks, says the main driving

force behind 802.11ac is the need for increased capacity in access layer networking Ǧ ϐ Ǥ DzͺͲʹǤͳͳ Ǥ ͺͲʹǤͳͳ which provided up to 11 mbps data rates per radio in the 2.4 GHz spectrum. The next evolution was 802.11a which provided up to 54 mbps data rates per radio in the 5 GHz spectrum. 802.11g came out shortly after enabling 54 mbps per radio in the 2.4 GHz Ǥ ͺͲʹǤͳͳ ϐ ʹͲͲͻǤ 802.11n spec allows for data rates up to 600 mbps per radio and the current generation of 802.11n allows for up to 450 mbps per radio.

802.11ac builds on 11n and enables wireless speeds of over a gigabit per second.”

802.11ac uses wider channels to move more data. 802.11n relies on 40MHz channels. 802.11ac doubles that to 80MHz by default, with an option to use 160MHz channels. Coupled with QAM encoding that’s ϐ ͺͲʹǤͳͳ ǡ Ǧ transferring data at 433Mbps.

Also, there are twice as many spatial streams available in 802.11ac as there are in 802.11n. With eight spatial streams-­‐-­‐each capable of a theoretical 433Mbps-­‐-­‐802.11ac devices that use eight antennas can reach speeds up to nearly 7Gbps.

Beamforming is another unique feature ͺͲʹǤͳͳ Ǥ ϐ angles and surfaces arrive at the device out of phase from each other and cancel each

Severine Real, Senior Principal Research Analyst, Gartner

other out. Beamforming resolves the phase ϐ stable throughput. 802.11n is capable of beamforming, but the technique is rarely used. Beamforming is still optional in 802.11ac, but will likely be used much more commonly in 802.11ac devices.

Products based on 802.11ac are expected to begin appearing late this year, delivering improved coverage and theoretical speeds up to twice those offered by the fastest 802.11n gear. “The 802.11ac project was approved in September 2008 and Draft 1.3 is currently available. The internal working group’s November 2011 ballot did not pass. It required 75% approval and it failed with 74% approval. Efforts are underway to address the ʹǤͲ Ǥ ϐ ʹͲͳ͵Ǥ 802.11ac access points are expected to hit the market sometime in 2013. Consumer devices Ǥ ϐ ͳͳ products will likely be based on a draft of the spec similar to 802.11n,” says Kozup.

Although 802.11n has been around for years, there are still many routers and wireless devices in use that rely on the older 802.11b and 802.11g protocols. As we transition to 802.11ac, there will still be 802.11b-­‐g devices, and it will take years for 802.11n to be replaced Ǧ Ǥ 802.11ac will support fallback to older Wi-­‐ Ǥ Some devices may only be capable of 5GHz, which means they’d only be able to revert to 802.11n. However, many devices will most likely still be dual-­‐band, and be capable of switching to 2.4GHz and connecting with 802.11b or 802.11g if necessary.

Will enterprises need to upgrade switches, controllers and cabling to migrate to 802.11ac? “This will depend on the maturity level of the customer’s existing infrastructure. 802.11ac APs will perform very well when plugged into gigabit ports that support POE+ (802.11at). While the standard supports data rates up to almost 7 gigabits per second (gbps), those rates will not be supported in early products. Early 802.11ac APs are likely to only support up to 3 streams and 80 MHz channels,” says Kozup.

www.cnmeonline.com

Nader Baghdadi, Middle East Regional Sales Director of Ruckus Wireless

That puts theoretical radio throughput around 1.3 gbps. Actually throughput will be lower and adequately served by a gigabit port. 802.11ac APs are likely to require POE+ (802.3at) power due to increased power draws of the faster CPUs and radios. Additionally, even if the AP infrastructure is upgraded, it will take time for the client population to migrate to ͺͲʹǤͳͳ ϐ Ǥ While the APs have to be upgraded to support ϐ ͳͳ ǡ switch upgrades can coincide with the rate at which 802.11ac clients connect to the network, he adds.

According to research company In-­‐Stat, the emerging 802.11ac standard will be quickly adopted over the next four years but will still be dwarfed by the current 802.11n technology. In-­‐Stat estimates that nearly 350 million routers, client devices and attached modems with 11ac will ship annually by 2015, following a sharp curve up from about 1 million units in 2012, probably the ϐ ͳͳ Ǥ But even in 2015, shipments of 11n will outnumber sales of the new technology.

In-­‐Stat also says because of cost and the fact that it will drive more speed than a phone would typically need, 11ac is not likely to be built into many handsets. As a result, most carriers probably won’t deploy it as ϐ Ǥ

JUNE 2012

Computer News Middle East

57

NETWORK WORLD WLAN

Securing wireless networks When it comes to ensuring 24/7 security and compliance monitoring of corporate Wi-Fi networks, straightforward business economics demands the need for cost optimisation.

And yet, guaranteeing the biggest bang for your buck is easier said than done. Fluke Networks reveals how to maximise ROI without compromising corporate data.

P

rotecting WLAN from those bent on corporate espionage is not easy. Hacking is on the rise for many reasons: a tough trading economy; frequent job changes; and pure and simply it provides a quick and easy way of lowering the knowledge barriers that prevent market entry. A motivated hacker knows that most security programs focus on regulatory compliance. He or she also knows that IT departments have limited budgets, which often become diluted when attempting to defend against an almost continuous stream of attack vectors. The ϐ Ǥ

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Wi-­‐Fi all around Ǧ continues unabated. As a technology it has become ubiquitous and the workplace is no Ȃ Ǧ Ǥ ǡ with tightening requirements for adherence to compliance standards such as PCI, there is an increasing need for full time compliance monitoring solutions in retail, banking and ϐ ǡ associated costs that implies. ǡ Ǧ ǡ it saves costs, and so more and more applications are moving towards wireless.

However, with rising numbers of devices

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increasing WLAN stress. Large, complex corporate systems are pushed hard beyond ϐ ǡ congestion and gaps in both performance and security. Ultimately there are often too many wireless variables, which along with increasingly complex application infrastructure, often mean intermittent ϐ Ǥ With budgets stretched everywhere, IT operations are frequently not optimised to address such issues effectively. User reports are often too general and too late.

Tech support is over-­‐burdened, and because

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Self-contained InRow™ cooling units, high-density NetShelter™ enclosures, and the APC rack air containment system combine to create a proper IT ecosystem in almost any surrounding. Rack-level monitoring sensors, intelligent controls built into the cooling unit, and integrated management software provide complete remote control and unprecedented visibility into the entire system. Simply add power protection (like undisputed best-in-class Smart-UPS™ or Symmetra™ units) and you have a total solution for today, tomorrow, and beyond.

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NETWORK WORLD WLAN

many users will only try tech support once or twice if they do not get a quick resolution, and then not report issues again – immediate detection of performance gaps with detailed root cause is critical. Adding to the problems, the correlation of data from disparate tools is ϐ Ǥ In poor health

Ǧ Ǥ ϐ with multiple reports of trouble connecting at different sites. The problem was the partial outage of electronic health record (EHR) wireless carts, but various investigations over seven days proved inconclusive. It was only discovered later that the RADIUS networking protocol showed failed authentication attempts of six times the normal rate during the problem period, by which time problems had begun to stack up: there were extensive patient care delays, staff were frustrated and carts were out of position.

Many in the past who have thrown money at problems such as these, have often been left frustrated and out-­‐of-­‐ pocket, particularly given the cost of high end enterprise wireless solutions and their vendor-­‐locked management systems.

However, like it or not, there are gaps in the offerings of many wireless management platforms, and the door is open for a solution that can pick up the slack.

Vendor independent Increasingly, a dedicated third-­‐party system for WLAN full time compliance monitoring and security is the preferred choice for enterprises serious about protecting their wireless networks. The proven and reliable troubleshooting capability of such systems means fewer false alarms, greater problem diagnosis and solution, and ultimately, more time for managers to spend on core business activities.

One such vendor-­‐independent solution is ǡ which in its latest version 10 seeks to make Ǧ Ǧϐ ǡ the WLAN gets ever more complex. So how is

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this achieved? Well, there’s more than a new trick or two on offer, arguably chief among ϐ (SSA) for WLAN security and performance monitoring, which takes the functionality of a hardware-­‐based sensor and makes it ȋϐ Ȍ Ǧ client PC. The concept means that the SSA can be added to existing laptops or even desktop PCs deployed around the enterprise (just add a USB wireless adapter), and a battery of performance tests can be scheduled to run periodically, along with continuous detection for rogue access points. A low cost solution, the SSA essentially acts as a force multiplier for WLAN support and basic WIPS needs.

cost effective means of proactively monitoring WLAN health from the end user to the cloud, AHC provides detailed measurement and trending reports. This functionality is able to instantly pinpoint network service or application outages, wireless authentication failures and download speed degradation before users are affected. The upshot is increased WLAN quality and availability while minimising help desk and IT resources.

Vital signs improving Returning to the example of the health care company, AHC resolved the issue of verifying wireless EHRs. With the automated AHC test ϐ Ǯ ǯ ϐ ǡ

Increasingly, a dedicated third-party system for WLAN full time compliance monitoring and security is the preferred choice for enterprises serious about protecting their wireless networks. The proven and reliable troubleshooting capability of such systems means fewer false alarms, greater problem diagnosis and solution, and ultimately, more time for managers to spend on core business activities.

Economic viability In comparison with, say, two hardware sensors, cabling and ceiling installation, 4 x SSA with WLAN adaptors and PC install presents a far more cost effective solution for stretched IT budgets. There is also the option to mix SSA and hardware sensors to optimise cost, deployment plans and security monitoring needs. Ultimately, it allows ϐ solution from standard hardware sensors, which are the core technology for monitoring WLANs, and a cost effective software alternative for multi-­‐site health care, retail and concession operations needing basic PCI or HIPAA compliance monitoring.

Additionally in version 10, the market’s ϐ ȋ Ȍ exercises the likes of authentication servers, DNS and throughput SLAs automatically from a number of locations on the network. Again, a

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to time-­‐out at RADIUS authentication. Here, Ǯ unreachable’, notifying users and activating back-­‐up procedures. The alarm then triggered Ǯ ǯ ϐ Ǥ This not only minimised the impact on users, it provided immediate information on the situation with the time to resolve reduced Ǥ ǡ

ϐ ǡ able to focus on exact root causes only, eliminating unstructured analysis. Ǯ ϐ ǯ ǡ ϐ what occurs in the air is mandatory, despite the complexities. Simply generating a list of rogues and neighbouring noise sources is ϐ Ǣ experience automatically for signs of network service trouble is nothing short of essential.

Maximise the benefits of virtualisation with Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers and Dell EqualLogic™ storage

Not all virtualisation deployments are the same You can deploy virtualisation on any server, but that doesn’t mean all servers are equal. Dell’s PowerEdge servers provide the best-performance virtualisation possible. They’re optimised for virtualisation across the entire portfolio — not just on blades — to meet your density, flexibility and performance needs, without locking you in to proprietary infrastructures.

Designed for performanceintensive applications Dell makes it easy to find the perfect tower, rack or blade servers – PowerEdge increased memory capacity and I/O rates for intense applications in demanding environments.

Manageable, scalable and flexible Choose from a range of options with easy configuration, powerful open-standards systems management, scalable storage and flexible services.

Windows Server® All PowerEdge servers run Windows Server to deliver rich, powerful features that help you complete your work also gain peace of mind knowing that the data on your personal computers, network and servers are highly protected. Together, PowerEdge and to get more out of your existing IT investments and deliver better service to your customers.

Contact your nearest Dell Authorized Distributors for further details: UAE: Aptec - Manojpk@aptecme.com, +9714 3697111, Mindware - Dell_sales@mindware.ae, +9714 4500600, Unatrac -Shamdy@mantracegypt.com, +97155 7204338 KSA: Aptec - Dell.sales@aptecsa.com, Riyadh (966 1) 4601950 Ext 1404, 06, 07, Jeddah (966 2) 2832365, Mindware - Dell_sales@mindware.ae, (966 1) 215 3126, Unatrac - AShabaan@mantracegypt.com, (966 5) 614 98556 Egypt: Aptec - Dell@aptec.com.eg, (202) 2648 1179, Mantrac - Ashabaan@mantrac.com.eg, (202) 3300 4178, Raya - Hesham_hassan@rayacorp.com, (202) 382 76000

Copyright © 2011 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Dell Corporation Limited, Reg. No. 02081369, Dell House, The Boulevard, Cain Road, Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 1LF.

StorageAdvisor

STRATEGIC IT STORAGE PARTNER

STORAGE ADVISOR Data for the business

to  capitalise  on  information  they  donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  own  Č&#x201A; Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2018;Â&#x201D; Â&#x2021;Â&#x161;Â&#x192;Â?Â&#x2019;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2021;ÇĄ Â&#x192; Ď?Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x192;Â?Â&#x2026;Â&#x2039;Â&#x192;Â&#x17D; Â&#x2022;Â&#x2021;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2DC;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2022; Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x201D;Â? Â&#x2030;Â&#x2018;Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2030; beyond  its  transactional  data  to  analyse  social  data  to  better  understand  what  customers  like  and  donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  like  â&#x20AC;&#x201C;  DaaS  is  likely  to  thrive.

How  should  IT  and  business  users  prepare  for  DaaS?  Here  are  some  recommendations  from  consultants  and  other  experts.

Create  a  â&#x20AC;&#x153;data  mind-­â&#x20AC;?setâ&#x20AC;?

To  get  the  most  out  of  a  DaaS  deployment,  IT  management  and  staff  need  to  think  more  in  terms  of  data  rather  than  hardware,  software  applications,  networking,  and  other  IT  components,  says  Paul  Gustafson,  Â&#x2020;Â&#x2039;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2013;Â&#x2018;Â&#x201D; Â&#x2018;Â&#x2C6; Â&#x2013;Â&#x160;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2021;Â&#x192;Â&#x2020;Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2030; Â&#x2020;Â&#x2030;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2018;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2014;Â? Â&#x192;Â&#x2013; ÇĄ Â&#x192; Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x201D;Â? Â&#x2013;Â&#x160;Â&#x192;Â&#x2013; Â&#x2019;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2018;Â&#x2DC;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2020;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2022; Â&#x2018;Â&#x2014;Â&#x2013;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2018;Â&#x2014;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2030; Â&#x192;Â?Â&#x2020; consulting  services. â&#x20AC;&#x153;To  move  to  DaaS  means  that  data  â&#x20AC;&#x201C;  not  Â&#x192;Â&#x2019;Â&#x2019;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026;Â&#x192;Â&#x2013;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2018;Â?Â&#x2022; Č&#x201A; Â&#x17D;Â&#x2021;Â&#x192;Â&#x2020;Â&#x2022;Ǥ Â&#x160;Â&#x192;Â&#x2013;ÇŻÂ&#x2022; Â&#x192; Â&#x2022;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2030;Â?Â&#x2039;Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026;Â&#x192;Â?Â&#x2013; Â&#x2022;Â&#x160;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2013;Çł in  thinking,  Gustafson  says.  IT  departments  need  to  adjust  their  focus  from  managing  computing  infrastructure  to  making  sure  the  organisation  leverages  data  in  the  best  ways  possible  to  foster  innovation,  he  says.

That  includes  making  data  available  to  users  and  business  partners  whenever  appropriate,  providing  scalable  architectures,  adopting  cloud  storage,  and  presenting  case  studies  of  data-­â&#x20AC;?driven  business  success  stories  to  business  and  IT  staff.

1

Big data in the cloud Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a wealth of data that companies can use to better understand customers and identify emerging business opportunities and threats. But how to access and work with all the data? An emerging type of service called data as a service, or DaaS, promises to help.

W

ith  DaaS,  organisations  can  gain  access  to  information  they  need  on  an  on-­â&#x20AC;?demand  basis,  much  like  they  acquire  applications  via  software  as  a  service  (SaaS)  and  storage,  servers,  and  networking  components  through  infrastructure  as  a  service  (IaaS).  Data  is  stored  by  the  service  provider  and  accessible  to  users  from  the  Internet.

Experts  say  that  although  DaaS  is  still  an  emerging  concept,  itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  becoming  more  relevant  as  organisations  leverage  big  data  â&#x20AC;&#x201C;  gathering  and  analysing  massive  amounts  of  information  to  help  run  the  business,  provide  services  to  customers,  identify  trends,  and  open  up  new  market  opportunities. Â&#x2022; Â&#x201E;Â&#x2014;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2021;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2022; Â&#x192;Â?Â&#x2020; Â&#x2021;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2018;Â?Â&#x2018;Â?Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2022; Â&#x201D;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2021;Â&#x192;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2026;Â&#x160; Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x201D;Â?

McKinsey  Global  Institute  pointed  out  in  a  May  2011  report,  the  amount  of  data  in  the Â

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world  is  exploding,  and  analysing  large  data  sets  â&#x20AC;&#x153;will  become  a  key  basis  of  competition,  underpinning  new  waves  of  productivity  growth,  innovation,  and  consumer  surplus.â&#x20AC;?  The  growing  volume  and  detail  of  information  captured  by  organisations,  the  rise  of  multimedia,  social  media,  and  the  â&#x20AC;&#x153;Internet  of  thingsâ&#x20AC;?  will  fuel  exponential  growth  in  data  for  Â&#x2013;Â&#x160;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2018;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2021;Â&#x192;Â&#x201E;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2014;Â&#x2013;Â&#x2014;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2021;ÇĄ Â&#x2013;Â&#x160;Â&#x2021; Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x201D;Â? Â&#x2022;Â&#x192;Â&#x203A;Â&#x2022;Ǥ â&#x20AC;&#x153;With  the  growth  of  size,  speed,  and  spread  of  the  big  data  sets  and  the  never-­â&#x20AC;?ending  quest  for  a  competitive  advantage,  organisations  are  turning  to  large  repositories  of  corporate  and  external  data  to  uncover  trends,  statistics,  and  other  actionable  information  to  help  decide  on  their  next  move,â&#x20AC;?  says  Srini  Prabhala,  head  of  the  Â&#x2013;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2026;Â&#x160;Â?Â&#x2018;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2018;Â&#x2030;Â&#x203A; Â&#x2019;Â&#x201D;Â&#x192;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2013;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2039;Â? Â&#x2013;Â&#x160;Â&#x2021; Ď?Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x192;Â?Â&#x2026;Â&#x2039;Â&#x192;Â&#x17D; Â&#x2022;Â&#x2021;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2DC;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2022; Â&#x192;Â?Â&#x2020; Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2022;Â&#x2014;Â&#x201D;Â&#x192;Â?Â&#x2026;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2030;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2018;Â&#x2014;Â&#x2019; Â&#x192;Â&#x2013; Â&#x2013;Â&#x160;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2026;Â&#x2018;Â?Â&#x2022;Â&#x2014;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2013;Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2030; Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x201D;Â? Â?Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2018;Â&#x2022;Â&#x203A;Â&#x2022;Ǥ Because  businesses  increasingly  want Â

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But  donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  neglect  infrastructure Even  with  data  taking  centre  stage  over  infrastructure  issues  and  companies  accessing  much  of  this  data  via  the  cloud,  many  organisations  still  need  to  deploy  greater  internal  storage  capacity  and  bandwidth  to  leverage  massive  volumes  of  data  if  the  information  is  available  for  download  from  the  service  provider.

The  Virginia  Bioinformatics  Institute  conducts  a  lot  of  genome  analysis  and  DNA  sequencing  using  some  100TB  of  data  gathered  each  week  from  all  over  the  world.  To  manage  that  volume,  it  is  looking  into  using  DaaS  to  help  with  its  data  collecting  and  analysis,  says  Harold  Garner,  the  instituteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  executive  director.

Having  adequate  storage  and  processors  with  lots  of  memory  will  be  an  issue  as  the Â

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volume of data continues to grow with DaaS, Garner says. “You’ve got to have lots of local storage because you need to move stuff [to local storage] anyway,” he says. “You always have to take this data and combine it with other data.”

Try before you buy, check 3 references, and insist on SLAs Be prepared to do your research. “Ask for sample data or even access to the data service from each provider to see how it will work for your application and developers,” advises Chris Corriveau, chief technology ϐ ǡ online community of stock market traders and investors and uses DaaS via cloud provider Xignite.

“Not all services are the same, and data format and access will really vary,” Corriveau says. “Shop around. As data becomes a commodity in some industries, you can strike ϐ ϐ your budget and data quality.”

DaaS vendors should offer some kind of prepurchase trial, Infosys’s Prabhala says.

“Because the data is already available on the cloud, there should be no issues with giving prospective customers a test run,” he says. “Any vendor that avoids doing so either has to offer a very good explanation or has something to hide.”

Because DaaS is a relatively new service, be sure to check out references of other paying customers. “It’s still an emerging model with few established best practices, so ϐ right pricing model and proposition to start getting market traction,” Prabhala says. “If it has referenceable customers on its books, that’s a good sign that it’s found its feet.”

Once you select a data provider, always insist on a service-­‐level agreement (SLA).

The cost of monitoring and administering an SLA might increase the overall cost of the service, Prabhala says, but if an outage occurs companies will have benchmarks to tell how hard the provider is trying to restore service.

A big concern with DaaS has been performance, says Noel Yuhanna, a principal Ǥ

services add another layer that can slow down response time to service requests, enterprises should enable distributed data caching with data services to improve performance and scale, he says.

Build a strong governance mechanism With DaaS, extremely large amounts of data come in to organisations from a variety of sources and with varying degrees of criticality and requirements for privacy and security.

Organisations need to have strong governance around standards, guidelines, and policies related to DaaS. “Data governance plays a critical role in data services, ensuring that applications, users, and processes get the right data which they have access to and [that] the data is trusted,” Yuhanna says.

Security of the DaaS offerings is contingent on how data access controls are implemented, Prabhala says, and security of accessing the data service itself needs to be

3

“The characteristics of [this] deployment model differ widely from those of traditional architectures,” he says.

Emphasise data quality Data quality should be part of the DaaS governance effort, but it deserves separate mention. If quality is not a high priority, DaaS might end up being a waste of time and money.

“Businesses should understand the quality mechanisms that a data provider has in place,” Corriveau says. “Poor quality leads to poor [results] and/or poor user experience.” ϐ ǡ service provider is cleaning its data so that customers don’t have to spend resources ϐ ǡ tools, or managing issues related to poor data quality. “Businesses should demand quality data and ask a provider about how they maintain data quality,” StockTwits’ Corriveau says.

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With the growth of size, speed, and spread of the big data sets and the never-ending quest for a competitive advantage, organisations are turning to large repositories of corporate and external data to uncover trends, statistics, and other actionable information to help decide on their next move.” standardised. Concerns over the security of ϐ Ǣ as well.

“The drawbacks of data as a service are generally similar to those associated with any type of cloud computing, such as the reliance of the customer on the service provider’s ability to avoid server downtime,” Prabhala says. So governance related to terms of ensuring scalability and availability of the data sources applies to DaaS as it does to PaaS, SaaS, and IaaS. But DaaS brings its own special governance concerns that require companies to reconsider the effectiveness of traditional data protection mechanisms, Prabhala says.

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Ramp up your analytics skills Much of the data that organisations acquire will need to be analysed in some way and put into context to create more value for the business. Although some vendors provide analytics-­‐as-­‐a-­‐service offerings and your company might already have data analytics capabilities, you’ll need to build up internal analytics resources and skills like never before.

A growing number of organisations are leveraging the R programming language and software environment for analytics and statistical modeling, CSC’s Gustafson says. He expects this to accelerate as DaaS services gain momentum.

Some companies might opt to create

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STORAGE ADVISOR Data for the business

entirely new entities to handle the data Ǥ ǡ Gustafson says, consumer goods company Procter & Gamble, a big user of DaaS, has established a text analytics group to deal with the new realm of data gathered from outside the company. Much of the data the group analyses comes from resources such as social media.

Know when to use DaaS and how to measure results IT needs to work with its internal business partners to identify business need for DaaS. “A solid understanding of business data and the use and value of business data to various roles and stakeholders is critical in determining opportunities to leverage DaaS for the business,” says Mike Sabin, senior

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vice president of global sales and marketing at Dun & Bradstreet, a provider of commercial information on businesses.

D&B, as both a user and provider of DaaS, deploys data services to deliver information on demand via the cloud to users through its Web services. ǯ ϐ where DaaS can provide critical business value – for example, helping internal research, human resources recruiting, supply chain management, sales prospecting, and marketing Ȃ ǯ ϐ measure the expected return on investment.

“Like any IT project, there should be stated goals and outcomes to measure criteria for success or failure of the program,” Sabin says.

DaaS use is on the rise to gain competitive advantage.

Contact us: +973-­‐17-­‐58 2811 | MENA@soŌwareag.com |

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Clearly, the use of DaaS is on the rise in a range of industries as organisations look for ways to gain a competitive advantage Ǥ estimates that more than 1,500 enterprises worldwide are using such data services to support requirements for agile business intelligence, enterprise search, high-­‐ performance applications, real-­‐time reporting, and dashboards.

“Business users should use data services to support all their enterprise data needs, because it offers consistent real-­‐time data to support various queries and reports,” Yuhanna says.

Through the right preparation and ongoing maintenance on the part of IT and the business lines, organisations can take advantage of DaaS to turn big data into a big advantage.

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SecurityAdvisor

SECURITY ADVISOR GRC

Achieving maturity As the governance, risk and compliance (GRC) market matures, users are struggling to make the case for GRC implementations. What is the business case for GRC in a modern organisation, and does it really pay off? Ben Rossi speaks to industry experts to answer these burning questions.

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I

n recent years, the role of GRC as a business framework has evolved.

What previously heavily revolved around compliance has now become something more.

GRC is now often spoken in more of a general sense when referring to the internal processes of a business and initiatives to create a more effective workplace.

Alaa Abdulnabi, regional pre-­‐sales manager at RSA Turkey, Emerging Africa and Middle East, says the rise of GRC programs origionally came about to help companies in their attempts to comply with increasingly demanding regulatory requirements.

“GRC was vital and important to ease off the pain of compliance efforts and to bridge the gap with business. Interest in GRC was sparked by the need for design and implementation of suitable governance controls for regulatory compliance, but the focus of GRC has since shifted towards adding business value through improving operational decision making and strategic planning. It therefore has relevance beyond the compliance world,” Abdulnabi says.

The start of operational risk management can be traced back to the time when banks were rushing to comply with strict rules and regulations, according to Klaus Kristensen, head of risk practice at SAS Institute EMEA. “It was during this period that banks realised that they did not have an integrated

Alaa Abdulnabi, regional pre-sales manager at RSA Turkey, Emerging Africa and Middle East

view of their respective risk exposure.

Because of this, banks had demonstrated a new found awareness on compliance risk, which along with internal policy compliance, also included statutory aspects and regulatory compliance,” he says.

“Banks were also faced with non-­‐ ϐ Ǥ With this in mind, not only did the concept of risk management come about but also the concept of properly handling governance and compliance, which in turn gave banks a total view of the management of all risks,” he adds.

Change Abdulnabi lays out how RSA believes GRC has changed beyond the role of compliance as the main driver of such initiatives.

“In 2010 we saw a shift from compliance to risk evaluation and visibility as a major driver. Not to say that compliance is still not an issue and a catalyst for projects, but risk ϐ Ǥ then see some very mature GRC programs now just to further leverage the valuable information being maintained in GRC platforms,” he says.

“This is driving companies to utilise GRC for measuring business performance in relation to their strategic objectives. This maturity cycle will bring with it some very critical expectations of a company’s GRC platform. We question an organisation’s ability to have a successful mature GRC platform without some fundamental critical capabilities,” he adds.

The economic downturn had a ϐ

implementations, according to Nima Saraf, team leader technical, advanced networking Ǥ “In recent years, especially during the economic downturn, many organisations shifted from a basic interest in GRC as a means to meet compliance regulations to a position that leverages GRC solutions to improve overall internal processes, build more productive workplaces, and enhance business value,” he says.

“GRC used to be maintained as separate disciplines for each of its components. As market needs have changed, GRC in today’s

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Klaus Kristensen, head of risk practice at SAS Institute EMEA

enterprises has been converged to reduce overlapping job requirements, save money ǡ ϐ Ǥ

designed and implemented to make business run smoother and become more cost effective,” he adds.

Dr Angelika Plate, director of strategic services at help AG Middle East, believes that, whilst compliance is an important part of GRC, the over-­‐emphasis on it misses the important element of governance.

“Governance, if implemented correctly, ensures that top management directions and decisions are integrated into the organisation, and that top management ϐ informed decision making,” she says.

Making a case ǡ ϐ evolution of GRC involves, it remains that many users have recently struggled to make a case for its implementations.

A major reason for this falls down to the challenge of demonstrating return on investment.

This is due to the lack of certain parameters ϐ ǡ ϐ ǡ ϐ ǡ Hadi Jaafaraw, sales director at I(TS)2.

“The cost of GRC implementation can ϐ ϐ ϐ Ǥ ϐ ϐ ǡ ϐ

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SECURITY ADVISOR GRC

ϐ like better strategic decisions using risk information and compliance,” Jaafaraw says. ϐ a case for GRC because of its tendency to be a heavy project to oversee.

“There is a large amount of corporate information, data, regulations, policies, controls and groups involved across an enterprise. Both vendors and IT managers

ϐ or build a business case to justify the expense of a software and hardware platform. This is certainly not due to a lack of value, but rather a lack of parameters to work with when ϐ ǡ ϐ ǡ ϐ ǡdz Ǥ However, Ollie Hart, head of public sector at Sophos, believes it is the users with an Dz Ǯ ǯ attitude” that struggle to make the case for GRC implementations.

“The best GRC implementation is one where employees are all aware and the

Dr Angelika Plate, director of strategic services at help AG Middle East

behaviour required to meet the policy becomes natural, so that people say a policy and framework is not required. Across security, the role of a SIRO/CISO has evolved so that much of the GRC falls within this ϐ his roles and responsibilities lie with other people,” Hart says.

Return on investment Abdulnabi is adamant that there is a ϐ

programs and tools.

He refers to recent research published by

Nima Saraf, team leader technical, advanced networking and information security at FVC MEA

With the increased demand on virtualisation towards cloud-based computing, and attempts by end users to reduce their environmental footprint and CAPEX, the uptake of IPS and probably other security services have been affected by a lower adoption of virtualised ecosystems by some vendors.” enterprise customers from different verticals who implemented and deployed GRC programs. Dz ϐ

from GRC and concluded a 572% ROI within a three year period. The ROI varies from one environment to the other, and depends on what the GRC program is automating, enhancing or maybe replacing. In all cases, the return on investment from GRC is tangible and of a ϐ ǡdz Ǥ Whilst acknowledging that GRC implementation costs can be high, Saraf

ϐ Ǥ

“There is one more important factor that needs to be considered when building a case for GRC implementation and that is it ϐ to opportunities and threats. A well-­‐thought out GRC program supports business growth and agility, and is an important consideration when calculating ROI,” she says.

With the maturation and adaption of GRC’s role in the enterprise, ultimately the business case has changed with it.

“Originally, the business case for a GRC solution was simple, comply at any cost or

Source: Ponemon Institute, 2011

BY THE NUMBERS

44%

Amount of organisations that state their GRC activities are primarily contained within the IT function.

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52%

Amount of organisations that state lack of cooperation as the biggest barrier in achieving GRC-related goals.

JUNE 2012

44%

Amount of organisations that state lack of collaboration as the biggest barrier in achieving GRC-related goals.

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20%

Amount of organisations that say they have a clearly defined GRC strategy that pertains to the entire enterprise.

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SECURITY ADVISOR GRC

ϐ ǡ Ǥ implementation of GRC solutions was suffering ϐ ǡ disparate technologies and a lack of connection to business strategy,” says Jaafaraw.

“Nowadays, GRC professionals’ focus is more concentrated on educating the board of directors, developing and communicating basic business values and committing to deliver higher level value over time. That includes reduced business risks, provides greater control and improves oversight and a holistic view of business objectives,” he adds.

Dr. Plate says there is a growing awareness of different disciplines that help organisations to operate in a more controlled and effective way – and GRC is one of them.

“With the growing understanding of these concepts, organisations start to realise ϐ bring. It is nevertheless still a journey that only just begun, and more understanding of these concepts and how to apply them in an organisation is necessary to make this a successful business case,” she says.

Jaafaraw gives his view on the role and importance of GRC if implemented successfully in a modern organisation.

“It would lead to a strong connection between governance, risk and compliance functions themselves and their interaction with their relevant organisational silos. It would

Ollie Hart, head of public sector at Sophos

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ϐ ϐ the same or similar risks and controls, and consistency within the governance, risk and Ǥ can achieve transparency in approach across the frameworks and organisation, and reduce ϐ and controls,” he says.

Management Proper management of a GRC framework will identify strategies to address the business and security challenges an organisation faces, according to Dr. Plate.

Hadi Jaafaraw, sales director at I(TS)2

In the next year the relevance and important which still be very high. BYOD increases the number of threats, which increases the need for more threat management and IPS in the infrastructure over time. So there will be more demand for IPS driven by BYOD.” “By strengthening the governance processes and risk culture, organisations can gain more control over their situation.

Another positive aspect of this business intelligence is a better forecast of new risks and the appropriate reaction to them, as well ϐ ǡdz she says.

The future of GRC implementations does look strong, according to the industry experts quizzed.

Jaafaraw believes in the coming years more and more integration of internal GRC functions are going to work together more effectively.

“GRC implementations will not be viewed as a technology alone, but as one important piece of the organisation’s strategy, processes, technology and people that will enable organisations to effectively ϐ Ǥ The integration of GRC functions across different departments will allow executives, managers and supervisors to have a more holistic view about the critical functions of the organisation and reduce risks to meet the

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company’s business goals and objectives,” he says.

Kristensen refers to the present high demand for the integration of more data sources, along with the ability to automate the GRC management process, as a positive indicator of the future of GRC. “This would also include the ability to automate the measurement of KRI through rules engines, which utilises business data while rules are run in batch and issues are created in an automated way combined with the ability to manage the implementation of action plans to rectify or implement controls,” he says. Dz ǡ with more extensive case management systems allows for the extensive investigation of incidents or control failures. This can be provided as part of the SAS capability as well as the integration of fraud events or as part of the risk management capability, thereby allowing for the control of the process to rectify broken controls and allow for the measurement of fraudulent activity in the risk management process,” he adds.

TelecomsWorld

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

TELECOMS WORLD M2M Communications

The rise of machines Machine to machine (M2M) communications may have had a subdued year during 2011, but industry experts expect it to emerge as one of the underlying technologies of smart grids, smart homes and e-health in 2012.

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M

ajor upgrades to networks across the Middle East last year laid a foundation of faster and more reliable connectivity with lower latencies. Wireless networks in particular were also sporting increased bandwidth and early stage deployments of next generation 4G/LTE networks, and ever faster smartphone devices were all suggestive of foundations enabling greater communication between devices. Ǧ ϐ of IP addresses by the increasing use of IPv6 also meant that every device -­‐-­‐ from fridges, to smart meters, to pacemakers to cars -­‐-­‐ could all be wirelessly connected to one another.

M2M technology is poised to come back with a vengeance in 2012 with many factors working in its favour. For the uninitiated, M2M describes networked sensors, devices, and applications that can be used to monitor physical assets -­‐-­‐ such as humidity levels in a manufacturing facility, or the location of all of the vehicles in a delivery company’s ϐ Ǥ ʹ resources that can “provide information on the life of products, assets, or even people.” The idea of people being part of an M2M network may seem far-­‐fetched, until you consider that millions carry health monitoring devices with them, and tens of millions of people carry smartphones, which, if equipped with the right technology and applications, can serve as remote sensors or part of an information-­‐aware grid.

“M2M systems within the Middle East represent a major step towards the future and will facilitate a host of new services within areas such as e-­‐healthcare, smart cities, intelligent transportation, and other advanced logistics systems. In many countries in the Middle East there are far more devices than people, so we are talking about an enormous market in which numerous opportunities are opening up for vendors, solution providers, systems integrators and MNOs. If we are to exploit this potential, the region’s network ϐ transport of a huge number of connections

with varying requirements on bandwidth and quality of service,” says Ihab Ghattas, Assistant President of Middle East, Huawei Attila Kesimgil, Customer Principle & Driver of M2M Business, Region Middle East, Ericsson, likens M2M industry to the early days of the PC industry in 1980s. “In order for the PC market in those days to take off, one needed the operating system and the PC application software. The PC ϐ Ǥ similar situation for M2M. In order to reach critical mass for M2M, one requires services and applications. In order to attract application service providers, however, one requires connectivity platforms and APIs to build applications. The players who will create an ecosystem for MNO’s, application

Ihab Ghattas, Assistant President of Middle East, Huawei

M2M systems within the Middle East represent a major step towards the future and will facilitate a host of new services within areas such as e-healthcare, smart cities, intelligent transportation, and other advanced logistics systems. In many countries in the Middle East there are far more devices than people, so we are talking about an enormous market in which numerous opportunities are opening up for vendors, solution providers, systems integrators and MNOs. service providers will drive the M2M takeoff in the region.”

Mohammed Anis Chemli, Global Account Manager, Telecom Business Unit from

ʹͲͳʹ ϐ be the year of M2M and points out the technology is there, which creates new sources of revenues for mobile operators ϐ businesses using the technology and allowing them to offer better services to their customers while reducing risk management and operational costs.

“However, security is also paramount to drive adoption. In some critical installations – like water processing plants, medical devices, alarm systems and factories – security and protection from hacking, data

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loss and downtime are all crucial. The fundamental ingredients enabling M2M to realise its potential are also reliability and ϐ ǡdz Ǥ According to Frost & Sullivan, 2012 is likely to witness massive adoption of M2M globally, however it may not be very impressive due to certain restraints. “Firstly, majority of the industrial applications such as smart metering and remote monitoring require a huge amount of customisation and M2M has not been seen as a scalable opportunity yet. Secondly, cost is seen as one of the major impediments to the adoption of M2M as the end users must be able and willing to pay for this value addition,” says Jonas Zelba, Research Analyst, Information and Communication

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TELECOMS WORLD M2M Communications

Technologies Practice,Middle East and North Africa, Frost & Sullivan.

Frost & Sullivan expects M2M adoption to be driven by MNOs. Zelba says M2M provides new revenue opportunities for operators in the saturated mobile markets.

While information technology and network capabilities enable M2M deployments, the applications will come from the industry verticals. Furthermore, as technology becomes more compact, lower priced, Ǧ ϐ ǡ modules and devices may decrease, driving the number of innovative applications.

Industry experts say legislation on a global scale will further drive the adoption of M2M, such as the use of M2M in automotive emergency calls with eCall and ERA-­‐GLONASS (aimed at saving lives and increasing road safety); CO2 reduction through smart metering and grid control, stolen vehicle recovery for insurances and ϐ Ǥ An array of apps One vertical where M2M is poised to take off is the health industry as a multitude of devices are implemented to constantly collect health data from patient and consolidate it back into cloud solutions.

By way of example, machine to machine to person (M2M2P) technology could be used in an e-­‐health context to wirelessly connect patients’ pacemakers or blood pressure monitoring devices to a consolidation point which then feeds data into health software through which doctors could observe the patient’s health remotely and over time.

While M2M’s diversity of applications ǡ ϐ

poses a challenge in the creation and ϐ mechanisms—particularly over different types of wireless networks such as UMTS, WiMAX and LTE,” says Ghattas.

Furthermore, the industry chain can be complex and needs a powerful integrator.

If you’re looking at a public transportation network, for instance, it may impact areas beyond transportation including environmental protection, public security, insurance, vehicle maintenance, and so on.

To manage these systems and make M2M ϐ involved, the industry chain will need stronger integration solutions.

“Right now M2M solutions are generally running on proprietary platforms but we predict a shift from vertically integrated and closed solutions to a layered, open approach.

While M2M communications are already being utilised in certain regional markets and

Attila Kesimgil, Customer Principle & Driver of M2M Business, Region Middle East, Ericsson

Right now M2M solutions are generally running on proprietary platforms but we predict a shift from vertically integrated and closed solutions to a layered, open approach. While M2M communications are already being utilised in certain regional markets and verticals, there is definitely room to grow as more widespread applications are deployed in 2012.”

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ǡ ϐ more widespread applications are deployed in 2012,” Ghattas adds.

Some of the verticals that are expected to represent greatest business opportunities globally are healthcare, transportation and logistics, government (smartcities / connected cities), utilities (across value chain of oil and gas to consumption of electricity and gas at premise by end consumers) and telecoms, according to Frost & Sullivan.

According to the latest analyst reports there are approximately 5.3 million known wireless connected devices in the Middle East and it is expected to grow exponantially to reach to the levels of hundreds of millions. “We see that applications like ϐ Ȁ ϐ services industry are widely adopted accross the region today. However, there will be differences from country to country depending on their unique requirements.

For example, in Turkey, where the cost of energy is high and there is high dependency on energy imports, adoption of smart meters in utilities as well as building energy management solutions present a good number of opportunities,” says Kemisgil.

Whereas in GCC countries, we see increasing demand for solutions addressing the oil and gas industry, as well as mHealth solutions due to the increased spending on healthcare as a result of increased wealth as well as transition from government funded healthcare to private healthcare.

Furthermore, in countries like Sudan and Egypt solutions addressing agriculture industry from livestock management applications to sensors on crops and greenhouses, present growth opportunities.

Finally security and surveillance solutions are in demand due to growing security concerns accross the region, he adds.

The emergence of 4G/LTE is expected to accelerate M2M adoption. 4G/LTE will certainly help in accelerating M2M adoption as LTE network is becoming a prerequisite for M2M adoption. When mobile operators upgrade their old infrastructure to 4G/LTE,

Mohammed Anis Chemli, (MPCBM "DDPVOU .BOBHFS 5FMFDPN #VTJOFTT 6OJU GSPN (FNBMUP

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The  main  challenge  telecom  service  Â&#x2019;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2018;Â&#x2DC;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2020;Â&#x2021;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2022; Â?Â&#x192;Â&#x203A; Â&#x2C6;Â&#x192;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2020;Â&#x2014;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2013;Â&#x2018; Í´ Â&#x2013;Â&#x201D;Â&#x192;Â&#x2C6;Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026; Â&#x2039;Â&#x2022; understanding  capability  of  treating  data  Â&#x2013;Â&#x201D;Â&#x192;Â&#x2C6;Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026;Ǥ Â&#x160;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2022; Â&#x201D;Â&#x2021;Â&#x17D;Â&#x192;Â&#x2013;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2022; Â&#x2013;Â&#x2018; Â&#x2013;Â&#x160;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2019;Â&#x2018;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2039;Â&#x201E;Â&#x2039;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2013;Â&#x203A; Â&#x2018;Â&#x2C6; Â?Â&#x2018;Â?Â&#x2021;Â&#x2013;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2030; Â&#x2013;Â&#x201D;Â&#x192;Â&#x2C6;Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026; Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2018;Â&#x201D; Â&#x2013;Â&#x160;Â&#x2039;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2020; Â&#x2019;Â&#x192;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2013;Â&#x203A; Â&#x201D;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2DC;Â&#x2021;Â?Â&#x2014;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2022; or  ensuring  the  security  of  data  and  data  storage  or  shaping  for  different  data  transmission  tiers,â&#x20AC;?  says  Zelba.

M2M  data  can  be  communicated  over  any  regular  medium  although  it  is  going  to  generate  a  tremendous  amount  of  data  Â&#x2013;Â&#x201D;Â&#x192;Â&#x2C6;Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026;Ǥ Â&#x160;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2022; Â&#x2039;Â&#x2022; Â&#x2122;Â&#x160;Â&#x203A; Â&#x2022; Â&#x2039;Â? Â&#x2019;Â&#x192;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2013;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2014;Â&#x17D;Â&#x192;Â&#x201D; Â&#x192;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2021; getting  serious  about  this  space. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In  most  applications  there  will  be  short  bursts  of  data  at  regular,  short  intervals.  Therefore  when  millions  of  devices  are  going  on  an  off-­â&#x20AC;?line  to  carry  short  bursts  of  data,  it  becomes  impractical  to  allocate Â

The main challenge telecom service providers may face due to M2M traffic is understanding capability of treating data traffic. This relates to the possibility of monetising traffic for third party revenues or ensuring the security of data and data storage or shaping for different data transmission tiers.â&#x20AC;?

IN PURSUIT OF M2M CRAZE t

t

t

5IF QPUFOUJBM TJ[F PG UIF DFMMVMBS M2M market is enormous, providing PQFSBUPST XJUI B TJ[BCMF MPOH UFSN HSPXUI PQQPSUVOJUZ 8F GPSFDBTU UIBU UIF WPMVNF PG DFMMVMBS . . TVCTDSJQUJPOT XJMM JODSFBTF BMNPTU GPVSGPME CFUXFFO BOE GSPN N UP N 5IFSF BSF TJHOJmDBOU EJĘšFSFODFT JO BEPQUJPO SFHJPOBMMZ XJUI NBUVSF EFWFMPQFE NBSLFUT MFBEJOH UIF XBZ BOE NBOZ FNFSHJOH NBSLFUT TUJMM BU B WFSZ OBTDFOU TUBHF "O JNQPSUBOU GBDUPS IFSF JT TJNQMZ UIF MFWFM PG JODPNF XIJDI JO UVSO EJDUBUFT UIF BEPQUJPO PG NBDIJOFT JO HFOFSBM TVDI BT WFIJDMFT DPOTVNFS FMFDUSPOJDT BOE VUJMJUZ NFUFST (PWFSONFOU SFHVMBUJPOT BOE UBSHFUT BSF LFZ NBSLFU ESJWFST BDSPTT EJĘšFSFOU SFHJPOT BOE BQQMJDBUJPOT 4NBSU NFUFSJOH is an important element of environmental QPMJDJFT UP SFEVDF UIF DPOTVNQUJPO PG VUJMJUZ TFSWJDFT BOE QFBL EFNBOE SBUFT JO NBOZ QBSUT PG UIF XPSME

4PVSDF 1ZSBNJE 3FTFBSDI

they  will  have  the  opportunity  to  implement  technology  that  enables  new  levels  of  Â&#x2022;Â&#x2021;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2DC;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2021;ÇĄ Â&#x2021;Â&#x2C6;Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2021;Â?Â&#x2026;Â&#x203A;ÇĄ Â&#x192;Â?Â&#x2020; Â&#x2021;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2018;Â?Â&#x2018;Â?Â&#x203A;Ǥ Â&#x201D;Â&#x2018;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2013; ĆŹ Sullivan  expects  a  dramatic  growth  in  M2M  applications  enabled  by  LTE,â&#x20AC;?  says  Zeba.

Kesimgil  from  Ericsson  agrees:  â&#x20AC;&#x153;4G/ LTE  will  open  up  new  opportunities  for  M2M  applications,  which  otherwise  would  not  be  feasible.  However,  the  majority  of  the  M2M  connectivity  is  still  based  on  2.5G  (and  some  3G),  since  there  are  a  lot  of  applications  with  little  bandwidth  and  latency  requirements.â&#x20AC;?

Data  bursts The  greater  adoption  of  M2M  may  have  a  Â&#x2022;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2030;Â?Â&#x2039;Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026;Â&#x192;Â?Â&#x2013; Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2019;Â&#x192;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2013; Â&#x2018;Â? Â&#x2013;Â&#x160;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2022;Â&#x2021;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2DC;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2019;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2018;Â&#x2DC;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2020;Â&#x2021;Â&#x201D; Â?Â&#x2021;Â&#x2013;Â&#x2122;Â&#x2018;Â&#x201D;Â?Â&#x2022;Ǥ Â&#x160;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2014;Â?Â&#x2026;Â&#x2021;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2013;Â&#x192;Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2013;Â&#x203A; Â&#x2018;Â&#x2C6; Í´ Â&#x2013;Â&#x201D;Â&#x192;Â&#x2C6;Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026; coupled  with  the  impact  on  already  growing  bandwidth  demand  from  the  service  providers  requires  service  providers  to  have  a  bandwidth  strategy  for  M2M.

IP  address  in  the  regular  dynamic  way.  The  overhead  is  far  too  high.  Therefore  the  devices  are  given  a  static  address,  with  data  often  being  transported  over  a  secure  VPN,â&#x20AC;?  says  Ghattas.

MNOs  are  just  one  playerâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;albeit  an  important  oneâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;in  the  value  chain.  As  indicated  earlier,  most  MNOs  have  played  an  indirect  role  in  the  development  of  M2M  applications;  their  role  has  been  that  of  a  bit  pipe.  The  key  link  in  the  value  chain  is  the  middleware  platform  and  the  companies  who  have  created  a  platform  in  order  to  provide  a  managed,  secure,  wireless  data  service,  he  adds.

Despite  a  slow  start,  advances  in  M2M  technology  have  occurred  internationally  during  the  past  year.  In  April  last  year  Ericsson  signed  an  agreement  to  acquire  Telenor  Connexionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  machine-­â&#x20AC;?to-­â&#x20AC;?machine  (M2M)  platform,  in  an  effort  to  get  more  technology  and  know-­â&#x20AC;?how  in  the  growing  sector. Â

www.cnmeonline.com

This  year,  Qualcomm  has  released  a  low-­â&#x20AC;?power  802.11n  radio  chip  designed  for  embedded  machine-­â&#x20AC;?to-­â&#x20AC;?machine  wireless  communications  for  smart  building  and  smart  appliance  applications.

The  new  chip,  from  Qualcommâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  Atheros  division,  is  aimed  at  a  burgeoning  market  for  wireless  machine-­â&#x20AC;?to-­â&#x20AC;?machine  (or  M2M)  communications,  to  network  a  wide  array  of  battery-­â&#x20AC;?operated  sensors,  consumer  electronics,  meters,  medical  monitoring  gear  and  other  devices.  Applications  include  smart  energy,  the  â&#x20AC;&#x153;intelligent  home,â&#x20AC;?  security  and  surveillance,  building  automation,  and  remote  health  monitoring.

M2M  represents  both  a  new  set  of  uses  for  mobile  technology  and  a  new  source  of  revenue  for  mobile  operators,  and  the  Middle  East  telecom  service  providers  need  to  aggressively  invest  in  this  area. Â

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Computer  News  Middle  East

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IntegrationAdvisor

INTEGRATION ADVISOR Working in an M&A

POST A MERGER Performing systems integration in the scenario of a merger and acquisition is very different from conducting the same for internal systems. Here are some tips on how to go about reaching success.

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I

ntegration during a merger and acquisition (M&A) is a different beast from your typical internal system integration effort. The CIOs who have survived an M&A talk about it with the same heart-­‐quickening cadence an adrenaline junkie uses to describe an extreme sport. If an integration project of the sort discussed in the rest of the CIO-­‐100 issue is the IT equivalent of surfing andrequiring a CIO to stay on top of the project’s breaking waves?then integration during an M&A is like sky surfing: It’s riskier and you’re traveling much faster.

Integration during an M&A is not a simple IT project but part of a bigger business goal. Too often, companies engaging in mergers or acquisitions ignore the IT scalability of their new business partner or their own systems. It’s not that companies should make or break business decisions based on the IT architecture of the company they plan to join or take over, but it is important to have up-­‐ front knowledge of how the IT merger is likely to go. A slow or poorly handled IT integration between merging companies can jeopardise the business goals. So once an M&A is set in motion, the CIO’s role is to make sure that the IT integration happens fast and smoothly.

All successful M&As therefore come down to one thing: planning. Because of the emphasis on speed, most of the work during an M&A is done before the hands-­‐on integration work begins. Stephen N. David, CIO and B2B officer of Cincinnati-­‐based Procter & Gamble, a CIO-­‐100 honoree, says that 75 percent of an integration effort during a merger or acquisition

is determining which systems to keep, what data is important and how much integration is actually needed before the companies are technically joined. Once that kind of planning is complete, the actual hands-­‐on work should be just like any other IT project, only a little more exciting.

Know thyself Once your company has decided that it plans to grow via mergers or acquisitions, the first step for the CIO is to come up with a detailed map of the company’s IT infrastructure and communicate to the other executives the company’s readiness to do an M&A. Even before a merger or acquisition candidate is chosen, the CIO needs to have explicit knowledge of his own architecture and what the most important systems are.

Good, scalable architecture makes integrating two companies possible. Make sure that the base technology that you have in place is the technology you want to grow the company with.

If your company does not have a scalable architecture in place, you need to make it known to the business executives before your company starts down the M&A path. Otherwise the consequences are deadly. It is vital that all the executives understand the impact the IT architecture will have on the M&A. And it’s up to the CIO to ensure that information is part of the business discussions and planning up front.

Do diligence Once an M&A is proposed, there are two separate yet equally important steps to go through: diligence and planning. The diligence phase is realistically the last

All successful M&As therefore come down to one thing: planning. Because of the emphasis on speed, most of the work during an M&A is done before the handson integration work begins.

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chance to call off the M&A before both sides commit, and as such, a CIO should be looking for red and yellow flags that suggest the integration will be harder than expected (and budgeted for). Conversely, the CIO of the acquiring company can also be looking for positive reinforcement: systems or processes from the other company that remind everyone why the merger or acquisition seemed like a good idea in the first place.

An examination of the cultural differences between the two companies planning to blend must be part of the diligence phase. CIOs warn that when it comes to systems integration, cultural differences can be a ticking bomb.

The classic absorption model in which one company’s systems are devoured by the other is a way around this type of problem, but there are dangers to that approach as well. Part of what you are buying is the intellectual assets, and presumably you are buying them because you like what the company has done.

Once the diligence phase is complete and the two sides agree to go ahead with the merger, the planning begins. The goal of the planning phase is to break the seemingly daunting task of integrating two companies into a series of smaller IT projects. It is crucial that one of the two partners emerge as the driving force behind the integration.

Once the plan is complete, the integration work can begin in earnest. Just as there needs to be a dominant side in the planning phase, the integration work itself has to have a single person who is ultimately accountable.

To successfully integrate two companies, a CIO needs to be aggressive and understand that he is working toward a business goal. But you also have to get creative, Darukhanavala says. “You go through, and you throw so much out, only keeping what you have to,” he says.

“Actually it’s a lot like cleaning out the garage.”

JUNE 2012

Computer News Middle East

85

CareersAdvisor

CAREER ADVISOR Emiratisation in IT

Emiratisation in IT CNME delves into the perceived trend that there is a lack of citizens working for private sector organisations in the UAE. Through the inspection of key research, as well as feedback from end-users, Ben Rossi examines the subject of Emiratisation in IT. 88

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W

ith such a heavy expat community, the UAE is an interesting country when it comes to employment quotas.

Most countries around the world have no problems when it comes to organisations hiring nationals. Indeed, many countries even encourage quotas of non-­‐national hires in private sector companies.

However, it remains that expats overwhelm Emiratis when it comes to the private sector workforce in the UAE. Dz ϐ to a lack of bench strength in terms of UAE nationals, who want to work in the private sector. However, we are always looking to hire high caliber UAE nationals and welcome applications,” says Andrew Hurt, general manager at Xerox Emirates.

Most importantly we have a graduate development programme called Masar, and an agreement with the Higher College of Technology to address their students’ English competency,” Obaid says.

He adds that with Masar, graduates go through an 18 month development programme where du addresses different aspects of their careers.

“We have a different talent programme they can also do, so it’s basically about developing UAE nationals to work for us.

Especially for graduates, we look at their English, their competency, and other things like team work, how able they are to meet the work environment, their education, personality and attitude. There is also the factor of how well they can work with multinational colleagues,” Obaid says.

I think it’s very important. We work within a community and this community dictates for us to be responsible for the citizens of this community.

It’s a part of our goal to ensure that citizens in the community we work in get the opportunity not only for a job but also for the development and training we provide.”

He adds Xerox does not designate much focus to having the exact skills and ϐ Ǥ “We feel that anyone who possesses the ability to learn quickly, to have a transferable skill set and aptitudes, and who is proactive and takes initiative, will be an asset to our organisation,” Hurt says. ϐ ǡ organisations in the UAE commit to Emiratisation initiatives to maintain a quote of citizens in their workforce.

Yaser Obaid, senior VP of HR at du, says du has a complete programme of Emiratisation employment.

“We are at the stage of having a 29% Emirati employment rate, whilst 55% of the collective management are UAE nationals.

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Poll In September 2011 job search website Bayt.com published results of a poll it had conducted into the hiring of locals in the Middle East.

Whilst the study, titled ‘Localisation Hiring Policies in the GCC’, looked at the entire GCC region – rather than just the Ȃ ϐ ǡ still provides insightful information on the Ǥ ǡ ϐ particularly on Emiratis.

“We have over 63,000 Emirati job seekers on Bayt.com, which is a large number when measured against the population ratio of employment-­‐age professionals looking for jobs,” says Suhail Masri, VP of sales at Bayt.com.

JUNE 2012

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CAREERS ADVISOR Emiratisation in IT

Dz Â&#x160;Â&#x2021; Ď?Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2020;Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2030;Â&#x2022; Â&#x2039;Â? Â&#x2018;Â&#x2014;Â&#x201D; ÇŽ Â&#x2018;Â&#x2026;Â&#x192;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2022;Â&#x192;Â&#x2013;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2018;Â? Â&#x2039;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2030; Policies  in  the  GCCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;  poll  show  that  33%  of  respondents  reported  having  senior  level  Emirati  citizens  working  in  their  companies,â&#x20AC;?  he  adds.

Stephan  Berner,  MD  at  helpAG  Middle  Â&#x192;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2013;ÇĄ Â&#x2022;Â&#x192;Â&#x203A;Â&#x2022; Â&#x2013;Â&#x160;Â&#x2021; Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2013; Â?Â&#x2039;Â&#x201D;Â&#x192;Â&#x2013;Â&#x2039; Â&#x152;Â&#x2018;Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2021;Â&#x2020; Â&#x160;Â&#x2021;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2019; Â&#x2039;Â?

August  2011.

corporate  citizenâ&#x20AC;?  â&#x20AC;&#x201C;  to  support  and  drive  UAE-­â&#x20AC;?national  employment  quotas,  realistically  it  is  not  sustainable  in  practice. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Xerox  Emirates  functions  in  an  industry  Â&#x2122;Â&#x160;Â&#x2021;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2013;Â&#x160;Â&#x2021; Â&#x201C;Â&#x2014;Â&#x192;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2039;Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026;Â&#x192;Â&#x2013;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2018;Â?Â&#x2022; Â&#x2122;Â&#x2021; Â&#x201D;Â&#x2021;Â&#x201C;Â&#x2014;Â&#x2039;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2021; Â&#x192;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2DC;Â&#x2021;Â&#x201D;Â&#x203A; Â&#x2022;Â&#x2019;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2039;Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026; Â&#x2020;Â&#x2014;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2013;Â&#x2018; Â&#x2013;Â&#x160;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2022;Â&#x2019;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2039;Â&#x192;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2020; Â?Â&#x192;Â&#x201D;Â?Â&#x2021;Â&#x2013;Â&#x2022; Â&#x2039;Â? Â&#x2122;Â&#x160;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026;Â&#x160; Â&#x2122;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2018;Â&#x2019;Â&#x2021;Â&#x201D;Â&#x192;Â&#x2013;Â&#x2021;ÇĄ Â&#x2022;Â&#x2018; Ď?Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2020;Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2030; Â&#x2013;Â&#x160;Â&#x2021; Â&#x201D;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2030;Â&#x160;Â&#x2013; Â&#x2026;Â&#x192;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2039;Â&#x201E;Â&#x2021;Â&#x201D; of  staff  is  always  a  challenge,â&#x20AC;?  he  says.

Essentially we believe in hiring the best fit candidate for the position. That is the priority in order for us to reach our organisational goals which ensure the longevity of the organisation. The candidate has to have positive attributes which, with support and development, could be an asset to the organisation.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;At  helpAG  we  truly  believe  in  the  right  balance  of  workforce,  which  should  include  locals  as  well.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  took  us  a  while  to  identify  the  right  calibre  of  person  but  we  did  it.  Uniquely  enough,  we  have  a  total  of  35  people  of  20  nationalities,â&#x20AC;?  Berner  says. Dz Â? Â&#x192; Â&#x2019;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2014;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2039;Â&#x192;Â&#x201D; Â&#x2019;Â&#x17D;Â&#x192;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2021; Â&#x17D;Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2021; Â&#x2014;Â&#x201E;Â&#x192;Â&#x2039;ÇĄ Ď?Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2020;Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2030; the  right  approach  to  the  customer  and  their  company  culture  -­â&#x20AC;?  apart  from  the  obvious  technical  skills  -­â&#x20AC;?  can  prove  to  be  key.  We  reap  Â&#x201E;Â&#x2021;Â?Â&#x2021;Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x2013;Â&#x2022; Â&#x2020;Â&#x192;Â&#x2039;Â&#x17D;Â&#x203A; Â&#x2C6;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2018;Â? Â&#x160;Â&#x192;Â&#x2DC;Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2030; Â&#x192;Â?Â&#x2020; Â&#x201E;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2030; Â&#x192;Â&#x201E;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2013;Â&#x2018; maintain  such  a  culturally  diverse  balance  of  highly  skilled  people.  It  isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  easy  though,â&#x20AC;?  he  adds.

Hurt  believes  that,  whilst  it  is  very  important  for  Xerox  â&#x20AC;&#x201C;  as  a  â&#x20AC;&#x153;responsible Â

Â&#x2021;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2013; Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x2013; He  adds  that  Xerox  essentially  believes  in  Â&#x160;Â&#x2039;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2030; Â&#x2013;Â&#x160;Â&#x2021; Â&#x201E;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2013; Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x2013; Â&#x2026;Â&#x192;Â?Â&#x2020;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2020;Â&#x192;Â&#x2013;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2018;Â&#x201D; Â&#x2013;Â&#x160;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2019;Â&#x2018;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2013;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2018;Â?ÇĄ regardless  of  their  nationality. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Essentially  we  believe  in  hiring  the  Â&#x201E;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2013; Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x2013; Â&#x2026;Â&#x192;Â?Â&#x2020;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2020;Â&#x192;Â&#x2013;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2018;Â&#x201D; Â&#x2013;Â&#x160;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2019;Â&#x2018;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2013;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2018;Â?Ǥ Â&#x160;Â&#x192;Â&#x2013; Â&#x2039;Â&#x2022; the  priority  in  order  for  us  to  reach  our  organisational  goals  which  ensure  the  longevity  of  the  organisation.  The  candidate  has  to  have  positive  attributes  which,  with  support  and  development,  could  be  an  asset  to  the  organisation,â&#x20AC;?  Hurt  says.

Indeed,  43.6%  of  the  respondents  in  Bayt.comâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  2011  poll  said  that  between  0-­â&#x20AC;?5%  of  locals  work  for  their  company.  â&#x20AC;&#x153;Around  13.3%  said  between  5-­â&#x20AC;?15%,  8.6%  between  16-­â&#x20AC;?25%,  12%  between  26-­â&#x20AC;?

Yaser Obaid, senior VP of HR at du

50%,  9.7%  between  51-­â&#x20AC;?75%  and  12.8%  between  76-­â&#x20AC;?100%,â&#x20AC;?  Masri  says.  The  problem  lies  in  the  salary  expectations,  according  to  Berner.  He  says  young  locals  need  to  re-­â&#x20AC;?evaluate.  â&#x20AC;&#x153;To  grow  and  to  be  successful  and  competitive  globally  â&#x20AC;&#x201C;  not  just  locally  -­â&#x20AC;?  you  should  always  get  paid  what  you  deserve  and  you  should  be  evaluated  based  on  the  outcome  of  your  actions  and  what  they  brought  to  the  company  you  work  for,â&#x20AC;?  Berner  says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Today,  in  too  many  cases,  the  gap  is  still  too  big.  Gulf  countries  have  developed  a  great  deal  in  the  last  10  years,  but  to  make  sure  success  continues  local  population  needs  to  become  a  bit  more  proactive  and  take  more  responsibility,â&#x20AC;?  he  adds.

Source: #BZU DPN

BY THE NUMBERS

63,000 Emirati job seekers on Bayt.com.

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43.6%

GCC organisations with between 0-5% of locals working for their company.

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47.5%

MENA organisations that says the search for local talent is difficult.

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31%

UAE organisations that plan on hiring more Emiratis in the coming year.

CAREERS ADVISOR Emiratisation in IT

However,  Obaid  disagrees  and  believes  duâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  demonstrated  record  of  employing  Emiratis  is  evidence  that  it  is  a  reasonably  realistic  aim.   â&#x20AC;&#x153;I  think  itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  very  important.  We  work  within  a  community  and  this  community  dictates  for  us  to  be  responsible  for  the  citizens  of  this  community.  Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  a  part  of  our  goal  to  ensure  that  citizens  in  the  community  we  work  in  get  the  opportunity  not  only  for  a  job  but  also  for  the  development  and  training  we  provide,â&#x20AC;?  he  says.  â&#x20AC;&#x153;There  are  issues  like  if  the  UAE  nationals  donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t  have  the  proper  skills  for  the  job,  but  Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m  sure  now  with  the  large  number  of  graduates  from  UAE  universities  we  can  get  the  right  people  in.  We  also  have  key  positions  that  require  UAE  nationals  and Â

Suhail Masri, 71 PG TBMFT BU #BZU DPN

Â&#x2122;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2122;Â&#x2039;Â&#x17D;Â&#x17D; Â&#x160;Â&#x192;Â&#x2DC;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2022;Â&#x2019;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2039;Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026; Â&#x2022;Â&#x2019;Â&#x2018;Â?Â&#x2022;Â&#x2018;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2022;Â&#x160;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2019; Â&#x2013;Â&#x2018; Â&#x160;Â&#x2021;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2019; citizens  get  these  roles,â&#x20AC;?  he  adds.  Bayt.comâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  poll  revealed  that  47.5%  of  respondents  across  the  MENA  region  state  that  the  search  for  local  talent  is  proving  to  Â&#x201E;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2020;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2C6;Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2014;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2013;Ǥ â&#x20AC;&#x153;However,  48.5%  said  the  company  they  work  for  adheres  to  a  localisation  hiring  policy  and  49.2%  stated  their  company  plan  to  hire  more  local  talent.  31%  of  respondents  said  that  their  companies  plan  on  hiring  more  Emiratis  in  the  coming  year,â&#x20AC;?  Masri  says.  Quotas Hurt  says  for  the  quotas  of  UAE  nationals  working  in  the  private  sector  to  go  up,  there  needs  to  be  continued  government  initiatives  to  encourage  Emiratis  to  be  open  to  working  in  private  organisations  as  much  as  in  the  public  sector.  â&#x20AC;&#x153;Additionally,  up  skilling  citizens  in  Â&#x2022;Â&#x2019;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2039;Â&#x192;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2020; Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x2021;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2020;Â&#x2022; Â&#x2018;Â&#x201D; Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2020;Â&#x2014;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2013;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2022; Â&#x2122;Â&#x2018;Â&#x2014;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2020; Â&#x192;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2018; provide  them  with  the  necessary  skills  in  Â&#x2018;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2020;Â&#x2021;Â&#x201D; Â&#x2013;Â&#x2018; Â&#x201E;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2022;Â&#x2014;Â&#x2039;Â&#x2013;Â&#x192;Â&#x201E;Â&#x17D;Â&#x203A; Â&#x201C;Â&#x2014;Â&#x192;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2039;Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2020; Â&#x192;Â?Â&#x2020; Â&#x2013;Â&#x160;Â&#x2014;Â&#x2022; Â&#x192;Â&#x201E;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2013;Â&#x2018; compete  for  jobs  in  these  areas.   We  are  also  working  on  a  Performance  Academy,  which  would  be  an  excellent  way  for  a  citizen  to  grow  and  develop  within  our  organisation,â&#x20AC;?  he  adds.

Obaid  believes  the  key  lies  in  offering  an  attractive  package  that  will  attract  UAE-­â&#x20AC;? nationals  to  the  prospect  of  working  for  a  private  company.  â&#x20AC;&#x153;I  would  recommend  providing  different  aspects  to  attract  UAE-­â&#x20AC;?nationals,  like  a  competitive  package,  on-­â&#x20AC;?the-­â&#x20AC;?job  training  and  â&#x20AC;&#x201C;  the  most  important  thing  â&#x20AC;&#x201C;  a  good  pension.  Also,  if  private  sector  companies  work  with Â

As long as the young Emiratis do not step into enterprise business they cannot really compete on the market and as long as they cannot compete they will not learn how to succeed or fail. Company or personal growth can only happen by making mistakes and I think that the current employment system is based on making no mistakes at all.â&#x20AC;?

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Stephan Berner, .% BU IFMQ "( .JEEMF &BTU

colleges,  university  and  the  government,  they  will  be  able  to  attract  a  good  number  of  UAE  nationals,â&#x20AC;?  he  says.  Another  interesting  aspect  of  the  regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s  employment  rates  is  career  trajectory,  as  discovered  by  the  Bayt.com  poll. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A  good  43%  of  the  poll  takers  claimed  locals  get  promoted  a  lot  faster  than  others,  while  21%  believed  that  to  be  untrue  and  stated  both  locals  and  non-­â&#x20AC;?locals  had  the  same  career  trajectory.  However,  36%  said  locals  got  promoted  a  lot  slower  as  compared  to  others  in  their  company,â&#x20AC;?  Masri  says.

Berner  says  companies  are  afraid  to  hire  locals  as  the  criteria  and  employment  laws  are  not  the  same  for  everybody  and  differ  for  ex-­â&#x20AC;?pats  and  locals.

He  believes  it  is  important  to  the  development  of  the  UAE  to  integrate  Emiratis  within  all  work  functions  of  the  enterprise,  not  only  government  functions. â&#x20AC;&#x153;As  long  as  the  young  Emiratis  do  not  step  into  enterprise  business  they  cannot  really  compete  on  the  market  and  as  long  as  they  cannot  compete  they  will  not  learn  how  to  succeed  or  fail.  Company  or  personal  growth  can  only  happen  by  making  mistakes  and  I  think  that  the  current  employment  system  is  based  on  making  no  mistakes  at  all,  therefore  people  are  afraid  of  the  consequences,â&#x20AC;?  he  concludes. Â

INTERVIEW Naresh Kothari

ALL SYSTEMS GO Cloud, virtualisation and mobility are driving the latest boom in the systems integration market and the UAE-based Intertec Systems is all set to ride the crest of this new wave. The company’s MD, Naresh Kothari spoke to us about the blueprint for growth.

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T

he challenging economic climate has had an adverse on the SI market.

How have you fared?

We have grown from 100 to 300 people within a span of four years. The business had been tight from 2008 to 2010, and it was veering towards negative growth, but last year we achieved a 30 percent growth and this year looks promising as well. There are ups and downs because of the choppy market situation, but players who are focused on customers will have an opportunity to grow. The new trend that we have seen, at least in Dubai, is that ϐ come up and we are seeing lot of investments being ploughed into the market here, and the UAE contributes 90 percent of our business.

the internal delivery capabilities because the major focus is repeat sales, as sustainance is the best way.

Second thing is, particularly in matured markets like the UAE and Bahrain, customers are looking at service level agreements. As a company we have set ourselves 90 percent KPI and today we do around 93 percent on that. When you achieve that sort of level, you get your customer attention. Though there are issues of prices, and shrinking margins, it’s up to us how you can manage those margins.

Which are the major vendors you work with?

We work wit hHP and Cisco on the infrastructure side, where the focus is mostly on security, systems and storage. On the

This year, we are going to increase our focus on two areas – virtualisation and mobility. Today, ever customer is looking at mobile and applications have to be compatible. We will also focus on VDI, which has been gaining lot of traction in the region. The technology has come a long way, it is more mature now and the costs are down. ϐ ǡ ǡ ϐ Ǥ

is a very different market where the style of doing business is unique. The major bulk of our business in the kingdom will be done through our channel partners and our object is to provide the local support.

What is your focus as a SI? Are there any particular technologies that you focus on?

Our focus is on system integration, which means quite a few things. There are people who call themselves SIs but in reality they only supply products. We don’t do that and our focus is delivering full steam projects. Our focus is on the customer, his business and the solution that is suited for his business.

If you are a SI, focusing on one particular technology doesn’t really work. We are partnering with 21 different vendors and when you are dealing with 21 different technologies you have to have skill sets internally to deliver the support, implementation, development, etc.

Anything we want to sell, we want to develop

applications side, we work with Oracle and Microsoft. The future for SIs is managed services and that is where we are moving to this year. We already have a managed services model wherein we have our engineers based on customer premises and a helpdesk based in ϐ ǡ set up a network operations centre.

If you are not into managed services, you are not going to be in business for long, especially with the advent of cloud. Every large vendor today has a cloud offering and what is going to be big is the private cloud. The infrastructure for cloud is already available and issue has been with applications, which have started coming in from last year. We will be focusing on building private clouds for the enterprises.

This year, we are going to increase our focus on two areas – virtualisation and mobility.

Today, ever customer is looking at mobile and applications have to be compatible. We will also focus on VDI, which has been gaining lot of traction in the region. The technology has come

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a long way, it is more mature now and the costs are down. Another trend that we see coming is the BYOD phenomenon, which may sometime in the region. However, you need to create an infrastructure that can support all these emerging technologies.

One of the earliest adopters of VDI has been the education sectors. Which other sectors are you targeting for this?

Pretty much every vertical. VDI hasn’t been really successful because of the ROI issues. But ϐ ǡ can achieve 20-­‐25 percent savings. We have realised that selling VDI as it is doesn’t really work; you have to build that as part of the infrastructure, which is cost effective.

You mentioned about skill sets before. Do ϐ ǫ Yes we invest a lot in training and our average yearly budget is $100000 on training people.

This is not just product training, as we also spend on skill sets training. Then comes the ϐ can meet service delivery commitments.

How big is your focus on services? What are the verticals you focus on?

As an SI, our focus is three areas – infrastructure, applications and services.

Today, 60 percent of our business comes from the infrastructure with the rest coming from software and services. In terms of verticals, 40 percent of our revenues come from corporate sector, 40 percent from government and the ϐ Ǥ Do you follow industry best practices when it comes to project management?

ϐ ǡ and we follow industry best practices and frameworks. Our success rate on project delivery is 90 percent.

What is your roadmap for this year?

It is of course on new channels and areas of business. We are looking to improve our banking portfolio as well. Banks haven’t been spending on the levels they should be, especially on the risk side of the business and we expect that to happen this year.

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INTERVIEW Sanjay Mirchandani

T

he focus of EMC World 2012 is on transformation. Give us an idea of EMC’s own transformation story.

A: ϐ ǡ about the IT side of things. IT transformation is the process around which you absorb any new technology, like big data, making you leaner, more agile and driving value. The business gets value from what you do with that. So big data is a great user case, data science is a great user case, where building on a cloud infrastructure you can then add things like big data and other things on top of it. There has never been a better time to be in IT, the business appetite to absorb technology is perfectly aligned. The stars are aligned – it is upto IT to really adapt and deliver that value in a way that is truly agile.

SHARING LESSONS Sanjay Mirchandani, CIO and COO, Global Centers of Excellence at EMC discusses with CNME the company’s adoption of cloud and big data, and the challenges they faced along the way, on the sidelines of EMC World 2012.

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Q: How do you see transformation in the people who are driving IT? How will this be adopted across geographies and verticals around the globe?

A: IT and business transformation is like building a state of the art factory. What you produce in this factory is what this phase of transformation for IT is all about – so ϐ ǡ architecture, big data and bringing all those moving parts together.

We have produced it, we have made a Ǧ ϐ Ǥ wants to consume, and IT has to change the way it delivers stuff. It is not about us anymore, it is about the business. What does that mean? The transformation means that we need deeper skills in some areas, technical skills for example. When I provision storage today I am no longer provisioning it ͳ͸ͺ ϐ ago, I am provisioning it for the enterprise.

So I have got to go deeper with my technical skills. If I am building a highly virtulalised data centre I need architects that I have never had before – cloud architects. So when you start thinking about the transformation on the technology side, you need skills that go deeper.

How does the business want to consume IT? The business wants to consume IT the way you and I interact with the iTunes store.

You like an app, you download it, you pay for it, you may like it, you may want to change it for something else – you want choices to make decisions whenever you want to do it.

The business does not want me to build infra and spend capital on something that might have a peak load in Christmas of 2014. They want just in time IT, they want services that they can move up or down. If that is how they want to buy it, that is how I have got to produce and sell it.

Said differently I am moving from a cost basis to a pricing basis. IT doesn’t think like that; IT thinks like a monopoly mostly. But businesses now have a choice, if they don’t like us, and what we do, they are going to go to the public cloud and buy it with a credit card. I can’t stop them. So the currency of IT, the way we deliver, the way it is consumed, the way business is thinking about it – these are all human elements – the technology is there, are we ready to deliver it the way the business wants it and the pace at which business wants it? That is the transformation on people and that’s what we are going through.

Q: EMC started this cloud journey much earlier than most others. What were the major challenges you faced and how were they overcome?

A: We as an organisation were subject to certain early versions of technology. We didn’t have a broad ecosytstem when we started in 2004, 2005. Our own skills were developing. We probably learnt lessons tougher than we needed to, these days those Ǥ ϐ of our journey took us four years. If you were to embark on that journey today you would probably do it better than we did it; I hope so. That is because things have moved forward now. There is an ecosystem, there are better skill sets, more experiences, you can mitigate risk, the technologies are far ahead. Some of the other things we learned are independent of technology.

One, you absolutely need to have deep conviction to the journey. Thirty percent is not victory. You have to drive to 100%. You ϐ metric that makes sense to your business,

either earnings per share or cost of IT per Ȃ ϐ can track. So you can get a baseline. Do some good baselining before you start the journey, ϐ ǡ towards it. Don’t stop till you get the goal.

Another thing is no u-­‐turns. Once you make the decision, you are going virtual and going into the cloud, so don’t entertain a physical, non-­‐virtualised app. No matter how ǡ ϐ your decided cloud platform, your virtualised platform, don’t take it. Why? Because you are taking a retro step, taking a step backwards, you are going to have new tool sets, new middleware, new ways to manage it, new hardware, you have just introduced a whole set of expense, complications, points of failure that you are trying to get away from .

happened to get involved with companies like Greenplum and Isilon, and that accelerated. So we basically did some upfront work on making sure that our data elements were well thought through, there was some hygiene and discipline in our data.

We looked at the security and access models around that information. Then we started putting the tools into place. So we started moving things into Greenplum just to see what it looked like, then Chorus came along we hired a few data scientists as we were looking ata data collaboration. We ϐ see, to get our hands dirty with it -­‐ one in the area of security, one in quality, one in data centre management – so we picked a few areas that we wanted to get learning with, and we are learning in the process on how to

There has never been a better time to be in IT, because technology, the business appetite to absorb technology is perfectly aligned. The stars are aligned – it is upto IT to really adapt and deliver that value in a way that is truly agile.

Q: What is your transformation story in terms of big data and predictive analysis?

A: The chief architect came to me a couple of years ago and told me that we need to start looking at our data management capabilities, because what is going to be ubiquitous ϐ Ǥ We started looking at key data items. We put in data governance, data cleansing, data management capabilities -­‐ we started putting them into place.

Today when we look back, am so glad we did, because that gave us control of the structured information that we were putting in. That was the lifeblood of our organisation.

As that was happening, unstructured data came into play, we started seeing our internal corporate. We have an internal social media site that is extremely vibrant – EMCOne. It is a vibrant, active website; globally used. Lot of unstructured, object-­‐based data, being generated – stored, used, looked at. We started seeing a pattern there, and then we

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deal with unstructured data. We created BI as a service, so we started taking this data, collect across the company and present it as an asset to internal users, to then extract and use in different ways as a service so they weren’t creating data models of their own, but rather using one version of the truth that we were presenting up to them. All of this has happened in the last 18 to 24 months.

Q: What is the next big thing after cloud and big data?

A: Cloud and big data are big, they are disruptive. I think consumerisation, the end device, the topmost layer – that is going to be huge. The fact that you and I want to consume information on any device, anytime anywhere is going to be critical. It is going to be pivotal, and how successful things are within the enterprise. Right now I think the user experience is something we don’t spend enough time talking about, but I think it is going to be huge.

JUNE 2012

Computer News Middle East

97

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Enterprise  architecture  (EA)  is  the  process  of  translating  business  vision  and  strategy  into  effective  enterprise  change.  CNME  examines  whether  organisations  in  the  Middle  East  are  taking  it  seriously  enough  to  implement  it.

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protection  that  can  protect  their  key  information  assets.  We  look  at  the  technology  choices  available  in  the  market.

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Delivering  high  quality  cellular  service  inside  Â&#x2018;Â&#x2C6;Ď?Â&#x2039;Â&#x2026;Â&#x2021; Â&#x201E;Â&#x2014;Â&#x2039;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2020;Â&#x2039;Â?Â&#x2030; Â&#x2039;Â&#x2022; Â&#x192; Â&#x2026;Â&#x160;Â&#x192;Â&#x17D;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2021;Â?Â&#x2030;Â&#x2021; Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2018;Â&#x201D; Â&#x2122;Â&#x2039;Â&#x201D;Â&#x2021;Â&#x17D;Â&#x2021;Â&#x2022;Â&#x2022; carriers,  especially  for  high-­â&#x20AC;?speed  data  which  requires  strong  signals.  Traditional  in-­â&#x20AC;?building  solutions  are  expensive  and  take  a  long  time  to  implement,  but  a  new  generation  of  femtocells  offer  s  quicker  and  cheaper  answer.  We  demystify  the  technology.

Global sourcing in the partnership strategy

Careers

With  the  advent  of  virtualisation,  cloud  and  BYOD  phenomenon,  enterprises  face  the  challenge  of  choosing  the  right  endpoint Â

As  a  growing  enterprise,  reaching  into  markets  beyond  the  region,  one  has  to  examine  the  value  that  global  partners  can  bring  to  the  business.  We  look  at  how  organisations  can  choose  global  partners,  and  what  they  need  to  keep  in  mind  to  get  the  best  out  of  the  relationship.

Armed  with  a  university  degree  one  might  be,  but  third-­â&#x20AC;?party  trainers  and  one-­â&#x20AC;?off  courses  can  still  add  a  lot  of  value  to  every  IT  aspirant,  regardless  of  rank.  CNME  looks  at  these  third-­â&#x20AC;?party  trainers  and  how  they  can  contribute  to  the  development  of  both  internal  IT  staff,  and  university  students.

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Managing the Risk of Fraud and Misconduct: .FFUJOH UIF $IBMMFOHFT PG B (MPCBM 3FHVMBUFE BOE %JHJUBM &OWJSPONFOU .D(SBX )JMM 1SPGFTTJPOBM

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Software Congress 2012

Book *U JT FWFSZPOF T SFTQPOTJCJMJUZ UP SFQPSU GSBVE BOE PUIFS JMMFHBM BDUJWJUJFT CVU JU JT EJTQSPQPSUJPOBUFMZ *5 T SFTQPOTJCJMJUZ UP QSFWFOU UIFN *5 SVOT UIF TZTUFNT UIBU USBDL SFHVMBUPSZ compliance and flag unusual transactions UIBU DPVME CF B TJHO PG UIFGU BOE JT JO DIBSHF PG NBLJOH TVSF JOGPSNBUJPO JT BWBJMBCMF POMZ UP UIPTF XIP OFFE UIFN 5IJT CPPL HFUT JOUP UIF OJUUZ HSJUUZ PG TFWFSBM UZQFT PG GSBVE BOE NJTDPOEVDU MBZT PVU XIP TIPVME CF SFTQPOTJCMF GPS XIBU JU T OPU BMXBZT *5 BOE QSFTFOUT B model for preventing, detecting and responding UP GSBVE

Computer  News  Middle  East

Events 12th  June  2012  http://www.resellerme.com/ awards-­â&#x20AC;?2012-­â&#x20AC;?draft/conference.php

Risk of fraud and misconduct Richard H Girgenti and Timothy P Hedley

98

Third-party trainers

JUNE 2012

25th  June  2012  The  Address  Hotel,  Dubai  Marina http://www. softwarecongressme.com/2012/

Life as a healthcare CIO Dr John D Halamka Blog )BMBNLB $*0 PG #FUI *TSBFM %FBDPOFTT .FEJDBM $FOUFS BOE )BSWBSE .FEJDBM 4DIPPM QPTUT BMNPTU EBJMZ PO UPQJDT TVDI BT OFX IFBMUIDBSF SFHVMBUJPOT UIF SFDFOU 34" TFDVSJUZ CSFBDI UIF DPTU PG TUPSBHF TPMVUJPOT PWFS UJNF BOE IJT QJDLT GPS DPPM UFDIOPMPHZ PG UIF XFFL )JT CMPH NBZ IBWF GBMMFO PĘš ZPVS SBEBS TJODF XF MBTU DPWFSFE JU CVU XJUI IVOESFET PG OFX QPTUT TJODF UIFO JU T XPSUI BOPUIFS MPPL Geekdoctor.blogspot.com

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