Network World Middle East | Issue 157

ISSUE 157 / OCTOBER 2018

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THE SELF-DRIVING NETWORK Aruba’s vision for network intelligence

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EDITORIAL

Perfect 10

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

James Dartnell Editor

Welcome back to another issue of Network World.

Last month, I had the pleasure of meeting A10 Networks founder and CEO Lee Chen, who told me how the anti-DDoS specialist is preparing to ramp up its efforts in the Middle East, and why 5G could pose significant challenges for networks and security. Find out more on page 6.

Our cover star for this month’s issue is Aruba’s UAE country manager Gamal Emara, who discusses how security and intelligence are the biggest issues CIOs must overcome in their networks. He believes Aruba has the answer - with solutions that cater to a new, more distributed enterprise. More on page 18.

On page 12 we find out how DIFC Courts has made it its mission to be one of the world’s most innovative legal entities, all through the use of the right technologies and innovative approaches.

On page 26, Nexans regional director Tarek Helmy gives his take on how organisations can ensure their networking investments go the distance.

On page 32, Cisco Middle East and Africa’s Ali Amer, discusses why although 5G will bring the promise of new revenue opportunities for service providers, new infrastructure and use cases will open up new risks.

“Anti-DDoS specialist A10 is preparing to ramp up its efforts in the Middle East.”

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CONTENTS

ISSUE 157 October 2018

24

The “self-driving” network

26

Aruba’s UAE country manager Gamal Emara believes the firm has the answer to distributed networks

18 6

The perfect 10

A10 Networks CEO Lee Chen explains why the firm is prioritising the Middle East.

10

Network of the future R&M partners with Etisalat to expand its FTTH network.

12

16

Court of the future CEO Amna Sultan Al Owais wants to drive innovation at DIFC Courts through a smart network.

Blockchain reality check

Huawei @ GITEX 2018 Huawei’s VP of Middle East enterprise Alaa Elshimy on what to expect from the firm at this year’s GITEX.

How to future-proof your network Nexans regional director Tarek Helmy gives his take on how to ensure network investments go the distance.

32

38

The 5G problem Cisco’s Ali Amer discusses why 5G will open doors, but increase risk in turn.

Tristar’s Adam Lalani believes overexcitement risks hampering Blockchain’s uptake.

Out of sight, out of mind Help AG CTO Nicolai Solling discusses why complacency around cloud needs to be addressed.

FOUNDER, CPI MEDIA GROUP Dominic De Sousa (1959-2015) Publishing Director Natasha Pendleton natasha.pendleton@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9139 ADVERTISING Group Sales Director Kausar Syed kausar.syed@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9138 Business Development Manager Youssef Hariz youssef.hariz@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9111

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FEATURE • A10 NETWORKS

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A10 CEO: IT SECURITY LIKE HEALTH INSURANCE A10 Networks CEO Lee Chen recently visited the Middle East to gain a better understanding of local customer needs, and told CNME why regional investment will be a major priority going forward.

L

ee Chen has been on a global tour that has taken in South East Asia, the Middle East and Europe, and is keen to ensure he can understand the nuances of each market that A10 services across the world. “My visit to the Middle East is largely to help to introduce A10, and so that we can have face-to-face meetings that help us to listen to

customers in order to get a better understanding of them,” he says.

A10, the application delivery controller and DDoS prevention specialist, has seen increased demand for its services following a number of high-profile global cyber-attacks, and Chen says the firm is bidding to understand local customers’ concerns. “The key objective is to listen to customers

“This region is moving to the next phase of digitalisation, and critical infrastructure is key in that shift.” www.tahawultech.com

who entrust us with protecting their business. We want to invest more in this region as a result of what we’ve learned on this visit. We’re looking to build strong a foundation here. We’ve seen a lot of growth over the last two years, so we plan to prioritise what customers want. To be successful, you need to treat your customers as key partners in order to create a winwin situation.”

It’s clear from the way Chen speaks of the Middle East that he has been charmed by its huge level of ambition. He says that one of the key takeaways from his visit has been understanding the influence of the GCC’s governments in setting the

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FEATURE • A10 NETWORKS

agenda for technological change.

“I’ve learned a lot about the region’s expectations,” he says. “It’s important that we have a local voice to provide the right types of professional services. In the US, the enterprise private sector tends to drive innovation, whereas in the Middle East it’s the opposite - governments are dominant pushing change.

This region is moving to the next phase of digitalisation, and critical infrastructure is playing a key role in that shift.”

Chen is clearly mindful that A10 deploys the necessary skills and resources in the region to ensure that the firm can do justice to a market that shows increasing promise.

“We want to build a local voice and foundation,” he says. “Although the Middle East region may be lacking in terms of having the right skills, it’s very ambitious. It’s crucial that we build a strong technical support centre for quicker response times.

Chen is keen to emulate A10’s technical support centre in California, which has set the tone for the way it helps to ensure customer satisfaction.

“We don’t necessarily want to duplicate what we’ve got in California, but having something similar in the Middle East would be good.”

The next big trend in IT security, according to Chen, will be the global roll out of commercial 5G networks. He believes the ensuing complexity and breadth of services that will be launched as a result will inevitably create opportunities for cybercrime. “Tomorrow is about 5G,” he says. “The world is moving to it.

It opens up windows for a lot more for attacks. Protecting 5G networks effectively will be a major concern.

Right now, everything is fine and dandy, but there will be a lot of issues going forward. With 5G, there will be more types of applications,

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and with everything moving to the cloud and the proliferation of IoT and bigger bandwidth, attacks will be taking place on a wider scale.”

While damaging, large-scale cyberattacks on critical infrastructure have increasingly begun to crop up in recent years, Chen believes no measures go far enough to ensure levels of defence are adequate enough to combat malicious actors intent on taking down necessary public services. “You can never say that you’ve invested

“In the US, the private sector tends to drive innovation, whereas in the Middle East it’s the opposite.” sufficiently in cybersecurity,” he said. “I don’t believe the problem is a lack of awareness, but about how you effectively protect critical infrastructure assets with the right type of protection.”

Chen believes that security vendors have a crucial role to play as partners to enterprises and governments, providing necessary skills that are in short supply inhouse. “Security isn’t about finding a cure-all solution, but employing a trusted partner that means you aren’t settling for less,” he says. “We see security like health insurance - you need to put an appropriate budget into security. When customers pick a vendor, they have to look at ease of use and the ability to

automate. We’re convinced that more than 95% of customers don’t have the expertise to handle all sorts of technical issues. They need behavioural analysis. They need a platform and vendor they can grow with. Almost all of our customers select A10 with the intention of only using one solution, and they end up expanding into multiple solutions. We offer a platform that’s scalable, highperforming, and is all API-driven.

Our solutions easily hook into third parties. We’re the only DDoS vendor powering the Microsoft Cloud.”

Chen adds that “serverless security and analytics” will be some of A10’s biggest initiatives going forward. “It’s about understanding that if you have no visibility over your network, you have no control,” he says. “Customers need to leverage their data effectively. You need to have policies in places to protect applications, and a multi-layer approach to protect your network. There’s no one solution for all, and someone could breach you at any level.” He adds that he believes the firm has taken a different approach to its competitors. “I look at F5, and we’re moving more to security, 5G and analytics. Our solutions are more multi-cloud, and our platform is very open.”

Cryptocurrency “has its mystiques” according to Chen, and are a trend that could be exploited by cybercriminals, he says. “They tend to be less transparent, and they don’t share information,” he says.

“The way they operate could create significant issues. Crypto exchanges are an easy target for DDoS attacks, and if you bring down an exchange that can have far-reaching consequences. North Korea’s attack on a South Korean exchange earlier this year cost almost $16 million, and that shows how easily damage can be inflicted.”

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FEATURE • SPONSORED BY R&M

NETWORK OF THE E FUTURE The UAE has the highest Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) penetration globally, with a coverage of 94.3%. A significant amount of this coverage is provided by Etisalat and as part of its commitment the service provider is continuously enhancing this network connectivity.

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tisalat is currently working closely with R&M to upgrade and extend its FTTH network with the firm’s innovative SYNO dome closure solution. This undertaking enables Etisalat to have one of the first ‘patch-free’ connectivity solutions in the region, which translates to a resilient, tamper-proof network that increases the reliability and uptime of crucial connectivity services for both home and business users.

Esmaeel Alhammadi, senior vice president, network development, Etisalat said, “With Etisalat’s corporate strategy focused on ‘driving the digital future to empower societies’ the network forms a

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“We are proud to be a part of the FTTH projects that are shaping the future of the Middle East.”

NABIL KHALIL, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, R&M MIDDLE EAST, TURKEY & AFRICA.

significant component of this digital transformation journey. Etisalat has continuously focused on investing in innovation and on next generation technologies and services to expand and enhance the network.

“This achievement signifies that we have maintained consistent leadership globally in FTTH penetration setting a benchmark in the global telecom industry. This achievement was only possible due to the continuous support and vision of the leadership of the UAE in the development and modernisation of the infrastructure. Etisalat aims to further increase the quality of our FTTH network focusing on reliability, scalability and flexibility.”

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Increased resilience Prior to the upgrade, Etisalat utilised above-ground fibre cabinets, which required maintenance on a fortnightly basis. Not only was this cumbersome, but it also added the risk of disruption of services due to unintentional disconnection of fibre cables.

Conditions in the Middle East also meant that contamination and corrosion were both common challenges the service provider faced. With such an extensive network, maintenance of the network was proving to be extremely challenging and a drain on its resources.

The telco now employs a ‘set and forget’ approach as the SYNO Dome’s gel cold seals conform to IP68, the industry’s highest ingress protection ratings, and require no maintenance. At the same time, the modular nature of the cabinet allows technicians to make modifications to the connections very easily, and with minimal risk to services of other customers.

By leveraging the SYNO Dome closure, Etisalat has now moved the critical fibre distribution hub units underground, which is not only more aesthetically pleasing, but has also greatly reduced the cost of civil contracting. The patch-free nature of the new systems eliminates the possibility of tampering or unintentional disconnection of cables.

A network for the future Etisalat’s new FTTH infrastructure is designed to support upcoming technologies and is highly adaptable.

For example, currently industry standard duct cables are being used, but as future systems such as micro cables and micro ducts become mainstream, they will be supported within the existing network and incorporated in future developments.

Etisalat received round-theclock support and extended comprehensive trainings to not just their staff, but partners and technology providers as well. This means that everyone involved in the deployment and maintenance of its FTTH network has the skills required to ensure it is truly world-class. It is with the support of technology partners such as R&M that the UAE is capable of leading the world with innovative future-ready projects.

“We are proud to be a part of the FTTH projects that are shaping the future of the Middle East. Our commitment to service providers such as Etisalat is that we will continue to introduce world-class solutions and industry best practices to support their ambitions,” said Nabil Khalil, executive vice president, R&M Middle East, Turkey & Africa.

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FEATURE • DIFC COURTS

AMNA SULTAN AL OWAIS, DIFC COURTS’ CHIEF EXECUTIVE AND REGISTRAR

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Network World Middle East

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COURT OF THE FUTURE Amna Sultan Al Owais, DIFC Courts’ chief executive and registrar, knows that legal systems have to change. The organisation is already aiming to be a pioneer in its Blockchain use and is committed to remaining ahead of the curve by embracing new technology and innovative approaches to dispute resolution.

“

Why should courts be different from any other business around the world? People want choice and service.

Choice creates competitiveness and cost-efficiency.” Amna Sultan Owais knows that the legal industry has been resting on its laurels for too long.

The DIFC Courts chief executive and registrar is committed to continuing the legacy of an institution that has already achieved global acclaim for its attitude to change. Al Owais has been in the role for a little more than nine months and is hoping to emulate the groundwork laid by her predecessors and colleagues. “Working with the likes of [former chief justice] Sir Anthony Evans, [current chief justice] Michael Hwang and [former CEO] Mark Beer has been an amazing opportunity,” she says. “They gave me a path to be myself and allowed me to contribute as a female Emirati.”

Having been a part of the rise of DIFC Courts since groundwork for its launch began in 2006, Al Owais draws immense pride from being able to shape the organisation’s future.

“I’ve grown with DIFC Courts,” she says. “I’ve built my experience and passion around what court systems should look like, and I’m determined to make sure we set the benchmark for how courts operate in the future.”

Governed by English common law, verdicts at DIFC Courts are enforced in jurisdictions including England, New York and Singapore.

Its Smart Small Claims Tribunal – a video-driven digital court that can be accessed by case participants from around the globe – has already received international acclaim, while DIFC Courts has recently advised the Astana International Financial Centre on building a court system for English and common law in Kazakhstan. British member of

“Issuing judgments alone isn’t a resolution. What’s more important is maintaining and saving relationships of business communities.” www.tahawultech.com

parliament Antoinette Sandbach has previously lauded the system for being quicker than courts in the UK. “It’s amazing to help other court systems and nations,” Al Owais says.

While DIFC Courts has already received widespread recognition for its innovative approaches to changing legal systems, the best is yet to come. “We’re halfway through our five-year strategy,” Al Owais says. “We want to deliver service and innovation excellence as well as connectivity. We depend on technology to enable us to achieve those objectives. Unless we use technology, we won’t be able to build a court of the future. It smooths and streamlines procedures and allows us to handle cases more efficiently.”

Although Al Owais believes that DIFC Courts has already made its mark as an innovative technology end user, she is cognizant of the next steps it must take to remain ahead of the curve in the legal industry. “To an extent, I think we’re already there in terms of being technologically enabled, but now we have to think about how we can change mindsets in the legal industry,” she says.

“One of the main advantages we have is that we’re a relatively small organisation, so we can move fast.

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FEATURE • DIFC COURTS

We’ve got that flexibility to introduce change.” Al Owais knows that she must set the pace and tone for this transformation. “Leaders need to manage change and perception,” she says. “That allows others to be ambassadors for change. It’s all a question of mindset, how governments and judiciaries embrace technology, and whether they see it as a tool, instead of a threat.”

At the core of DIFC Courts’ technology strategy is the commitment to promoting settlements among parties. “Our guiding principle is delivering a court as a service,” Al Owais says. DIFC Courts currently boasts an impressive record of resolved cases that testifies to this pledge – 80% of Small Claims Tribunal cases are resolved in less than four weeks, with AED 2.1 billion ($1.1 billion) of claims filed between January to June of this year. “We don’t believe that issuing judgments alone is a resolution,” Al Owais says.

“What’s more important is maintaining and saving relationships of business communities. Having technology as an enabler and tool to succeed in our operations is really important, because it helps us to achieve that ultimate, overarching goal.”

A crucial part of making courts accessible is ensuring that the services at DIFC Courts are available to case participants around the globe. With the UAE sitting at the intersection of Europe, Africa and Asia, participants expect a first-class court experience without having to leave their home country. “Dubai is a centre for international trade and finance, and it needs technology to be as accessible as possible,” Al Owais says. “Systems need to be accessed from anywhere. Unless we make technology a key tool for us to look at future cases and initiatives, we will not be able to lead the way in how we maintain standards of service.”

In July, DIFC Courts partnered with

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Smart Dubai to create the “world’s first” court of the Blockchain, an alliance that will explore how to aid the verification of court judgments for cross-border enforcement. The organisation’s joint research will combine expertise to investigate handling disputes arising out of private and public Blockchains, with regulation and contractual terms encoded within smart contracts.

Currently, Blockchain-based smart contract transactions are irrevocable, and there is no technical means to unwind a transaction. The joint taskforce will model smart contracts across Blockchains that allow for various exceptions and conditions for more efficient dispute resolution.

“Why should courts be different from any other business around the world?

People want choice and service.”

“We will use this platform to make our vision of using Blockchain a reality,” Al Owais says. “When we talk about Blockchain-powered courts, one key thing is the enforcement mechanism – working with partners around the world to make sure judgments are authentic.

Transparency in the legal industry is so important. Within Blockchain, there’s no mechanism for security if things go bad. We’re looking at how we can go through the next phase and become the courts of choice for resolving smart contractrelated disputes.”

A similar partnership was agreed with the Dubai Future Foundation in 2017 to launch the Courts of the Future Forum, which aims to build

a hub for best practices among worldwide courts and techpreneurs.

“These kinds of alliances allow us to be at the forefront of technology,” she says.

Another low-key example of how the court’s thirst for technology is its innovative use of AV systems within the court rooms themselves. Motion sensor cameras and voice-sensitive microphones are at play, amplifying speakers’ voices when needed. “Our court is wired with technology,” Al Owais says. “It’s important to use disruptive technology without disrupting the court itself.”

Ever mindful of the future, Al Owais is already beginning to eye ways that DIFC Courts can prepare for an age in which staff will have to work alongside IT systems and machines. “If we think about technological change in a positive way, human intervention will always be needed in the legal profession,” she says. “Artificial intelligence will undoubtedly make things more efficient and will serve as another tool to make the judicial system more enabled and ready for future challenges.”

Al Owais believes Alibaba cofounder Jack Ma hit the nail on the head at this year’s World Economic Forum, when he laid out his vision for how humans will work with machines in future. “He said that we can’t teach children to compete with machines, and that teachers should focus on softer skills,” Al Owais says. “The future is coming, and we need to be equipped to handle a wave of new systems. There might be certain roles that diminish in influence, but other new ones will be created. I don’t see technology as a threat; we should embrace the fact that new things are coming our way. Instead of worrying about the rise of certain technologies and doing nothing about it, it’s important to be at the forefront of using new technologies.”

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FEATURE • TRISTAR

“WORLD NEEDS BLOCKCHAIN REALITY CHECK” Tristar’s group head of IT Adam Lalani believes that the collapse in cryptocurrency prices has been a goodhygiene exercise for Blockchain, and that realism must trump hype around the technology.

A

key figure behind one of the Middle East’s shining Blockchain success stories has said that feverish excitement around the technology has the potential to do its prospects more harm than good.

Tristar’s group head of IT Adam Lalani, has already successfully implemented a Blockchain-based system that tracks the logistics company’s shipments across the region.

However, Lalani believes that too many business owners and technology end users are being swept up in the hype of the distributed ledger technology, and that its risks are being largely ignored.

“I do get sick of the excessive hype around Blockchain, because I personally don’t like it when people wax lyrical about something they have no idea about,” he says. “I may think a certain technological, scientific or engineering concept is a great idea, but I won’t go around saying it’s the next big thing if I actually have no

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idea about it, mainly because I don’t want to come across as clueless.”

December 2017 saw the price of Bitcoin soar to almost $20,000, but it had plummeted to below $6,000 by June. This initial rise played a key role in the growing excitement around Blockchain, and Lalani believes that these price movements have served as a “reality check” for the technology.

“I think the cryptocurrency collapse was actually a good thing in many respects,” he says. “There was so much hype around get-rich quick schemes, with people believing the $1,000 of Bitcoins they’d bought would become $100,000. Eight or nine months ago, people were buzzing over the price of Ripple and Ethereum, but now nobody talks about them. People are now focused on the technology behind them.”

Lalani also believes that while the benefits of Blockchain will be significant in the long run, discussions around its risks and current failings

are few and far between. “No one hardly ever talks about the deficiencies of Blockchain,” he says. “Your Blockchain might store data, but you still need traditional databases for fast access to it.

Without these databases, it’s like having to fast forward and rewind a cassette. If you have traditional databases reading off of the Blockchain, you can do fast searching, which allows for easier analysis.”

These databases, according to Lalani, are Blockchain’s greatest weakness. “People need to understand that while you can’t tamper with the data on the Blockchain, data coming into a database can be manipulated.

That is the major current flaw with Blockchain.”

With Tristar having already proven itself to be a standout example of Blockchain use in the Middle East, the firm has naturally attracted intrigue around the relatively light work it made of the innovative changes. This success, however, has

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“People are now focused on the technology behind cryptocurrencies.” also attracted observers with more sinister interests.

“I’ve met and worked with some accomplished Blockchain developers who are absolutely competent in what they do, but organisations need to be careful who they work with,” he says. “Unfortunately, a lot of people profess to be Blockchain developers.

They claim they can help you with Blockchain projects, but that is often absolutely not the case. Some people try to get information out of you by asking for about the user interface and dashboards that you’ve built to extract information. Some people know we’ve been successful with Blockchain, but now they want to

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steal our ideas. Great exposure is one thing, but you need to be careful how that manifests itself.”

As well as unscrupulous would-be plagiarists, Lalani also warns against have-a-go Blockchain experts who are not up to the job. “These days, everyone who does any kind of software development thinks they can do Blockchain,” he says. “In a lot of cases that just waters down the quality of the output. Some companies haven’t got a clue. They offer you products and services, then once they’ve sold them to you only then do they try and figure out how to actually deliver them. Until there are developers with 3-5 years of experience, I don’t think we’ll really see Blockchain fully come to fruition, in spite of what anyone says.”

Lalani also believes the hype machine is just as powerful about another hot tech topic of the age – artificial intelligence. Again, Lalani warns against industry pretenders who claim to have all the answers.

“There are so many companies who come in and say they’ve got a great AI product, and most of the time it’s absolute nonsense,” he says. “We have vendors who pitch us AI services or chatbots, but these platforms need to be fed with information. Like any other application, they need to be given a set of conditions for them to run.

“For the likes of AI and Blockchain, realism is often not there because the path hasn’t been trodden. The media is definitely guilty of hyping certain technologies. It’s great to talk about what the future holds, but we need to be realistic about the present.”

That realism, Lalani says, must be encouraged by the Middle East’s chief information officers and expert technology end users.

“There needs to be a voice of sanity sometimes,” he says. “It’s great to have ideas and believe that things are possible, but it’s important to be realistic. You can only make something with the cards you are dealt.”

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FEATURE • ARUBA

GAMAL EMARA, UAE COUNTRY MANAGER FOR ARUBA, A HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE COMPANY

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THE SELF-DRIVING NETWORK Gamal Emara, UAE country manager for Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, believes insight and performance are the biggest issues CIOs face around networks. He says that Aruba has the answer - through open, integrated networking solutions that befit the distributed enterprise of the future.

T

he workplace of the future will be a far cry from what most of us are used to.

More collaborative and flexible, the demand for IoT services, cloud, and smart building systems will only increase, and transform the enterprise in the process. Aruba research predicts that 11.2 billion IoT devices will be in smart buildings by 2021, and 34% of them will be installed in commercial general office spaces. “We need to help enterprises to deliver a similar user experience everywhere,” Gamal Emara, UAE country manager for Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, says. “Workers need the freedom to work from anywhere.

We believe that by 2020, the smart digital workplace will be the de facto approach to building management, safety, security, and end-user technology.”

Aruba has been present in the

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Middle East for over 10 years, and the firm’s approach to the market remains enterprise-centric, working across a range of industries including education, healthcare, hospitality and government. The SMB segment is also a high priority for the firm, and it “consistently” onboards new customers every quarter from this segment.

Aruba has made local investment a top priority to help ensure it can adapt to the huge demands that

“How can we can create a network that is self-healing, selfdriving and selfsecuring?”

enterprises and consumers now place on technology. “We’re all part of GenMobile,” Emara says. “It’s nothing to do with age. People now carry three or four devices that download the same content, and they require the same experience across all devices. We’re driven to invest in local engineering and presales resources, as well as educating users, and are are driving courses around our technology that deliver certifications. In order to expand our footprint, investing in Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates is a big priority for us.”

Emara believes that demands now placed on regional organisations is forcing them to rethink their approach to networks, the rise in cloud and edge devices throwing a spanner in the works for the enterprise. “Our strategy for cloud is about distribution,” he says. “The edge is distributed because it’s

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FEATURE • ARUBA

where your customers, employees and IoT devices are. Meanwhile, the data centre, which used to be this single, monolithic thing, is getting distributed into virtual private cloud infrastructures inside AWS, Azure or Google Cloud, and into SaaS solutions. Applications and data are getting hyper-distributed on the data centre side. The trick is how you bring these two together to enable that digital transformation to happen, and happen really fast.”

Aruba, Emara believes, has an answer to this challenge. “We want to have the enterprise customer, along with the cloud solution, in one single edge-to-core, core-to-cloud architecture, tied together for our customers,” he says.

Emara believes Aruba is now extremely well positioned to help the Middle East’s technology end users to overcome the most significant hurdles around delivering a smooth, uninterrupted user experience. “The major challenges faced by CIOs from a network and security perspective centre on the ability to draw insights about

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“Users are no longer sitting in one place, and are constantly on the move.” the network and its health and to maintain continuous uptime, as well as gaining insights on user behaviour,” he says.

While applications have historically run in data centres and were connected over private networks to branch offices, over time there has been a gradual shift to cloud service models. This shift in network traffic sits at the core of Aruba’s approach to SD-WAN and the cloud, which is based on distributed networks. A lot of Aruba’s customers work in branch office environments, and operate facilities such as retail stores and hotels. “Users are no longer sitting in one place, and are constantly

on the move,” Emara says. “The network that connects them is also getting more hybrid. How do you create a secure connectivity fabric that brings all of this together in a simple manner? That is the promise of SD-WAN.” The key to the optimum SDWAN solution, according to Emara, is ensuring it unifies varying components of the network. “Our SD-WAN solution will be integrated with the infrastructure,” he says.

“The LAN, Wi-Fi, WAN and security all come together. You have the ability to get connected and make it secure, but the uniqueness will be the data we are able to generate from the connected infrastructure, giving customers unique insights.”

It is these insights, resulting from data, that build the foundation of “intelligent” networks, according to Emara. “It’s not only about using the data for insights for our customers, but turning it around to improve the network and the infrastructure on a self-driving basis,” Emara says. “Google, Amazon and others are developing

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consumer technologies that are learning and self-driving. How can we bring a similar idea to networks, where you can create a network that is self-healing, self-driving and self-securing? The data layer that we’re building is going to serve that ability to create a more self-healing, intelligent network as well.”

At the core of Aruba’s approach is a philosophy driven by openness, which Emara believes is being driven by user behaviour within the enterprise.“We see enterprises opening up,” he says. “This is happening because of mobility, cloud and IoT. The challenge is how you provide enterprise customers control and visibility into what is actually happening and how they manage the enterprise in the distributed world.”

This attitude is also pervasive in Aruba’s attitude towards preventing vendor lock-in, which Emara believes is an outdated and unnecessary concept. “Customers hate it,” he says. “It used to be used as an excuse to say that a vendor could deliver a solution that works end to end. The reality is you don’t need to be locked in to have an assured solution. You can still integrate with APIs and have something great.

We’re going to take an API-first approach. Every product category that we participate in needs to be best-of-breed, stand on its own two legs and give customers the opportunity to integrate with whatever else they might have.”

Aruba recently introduced NetInsight, its AI-based analytics and assurance solution for optimising network performance.

NetInsight uses machine learning to continuously monitor networks, delivering insights in the event of anomalies, and then recommends

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“When you strip out all the hardware and products, it’s contextual intelligence that delivers value.” how best to optimise the network for today’s mobile-first employees and workplace-critical IoT devices.

From a security point of view, meanwhile, Aruba’s IntroSpect User and Entity Behaviour Analytics uses AI-based machine learning to spot changes in user behaviour that often indicate inside attacks that have evaded perimeter defenses, allowing for better hygiene of the network, and early detection of potential attacks.

“Network insights optimise the network environment for a better user experience,” Emara says. “They can be around business or security, which gives you a better sense for optimising operations. That saves money and makes your business more intelligent. We’re better at doing that with our software-defined architecture than anybody else in the market. When you strip out all the hardware and product names, it’s contextual intelligence that delivers business value.”

Retail is one such example where Emara believes this kind of insight could be invaluable. He envisages network intelligence adding immense value through gaining an improved understanding of customers. “As a shopper walks

around walk, there’s a lot of data that a store owner can gain from that,” he says. “What route do they take? Which aisles do they frequent, what produce or cereal do they pick up? There’s a lot of contextual data there that is currently thrown away.

We provide the ability to collect that data intelligently so we know a lot of information about the stores, the devices around the store, the paths people take and the applications being used inside the store. We collect this data in a privacy-friendly, anonymised fashion and are able to generate insights.”

The ability to deliver this insight is central to Aruba’s philosophy, and is where Emara believes the firm truly sets itself apart. “We offer wired and wireless infrastructures to our customers and security software that goes on top of it,” he says. “The difference is in the intelligence layer. We all sell software. It’s about the intelligence we give our customers. At the heart of our architecture is a contextual intelligence that we can create around real-time situations that are happening inside the enterprise.”

Emara is hugely optimistic for GITEX Technology Week 2018, where Aruba is set to announce a partnership with a major Middle East service provider that is going to market with a cloud solution from the firm. “We’re very committed to GITEX as ever,” he says. “It’s a great opportunity to meet existing customers, prospects and channel partners. This year, we’ll be offering a digital transformation tour on our stand, and well as showcasing our infrastructure, software and security solutions, as well as how we can work with our ecosystem partners, to give them a hands-on experience of how we add value.”

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INSIGHT • HUBNETIX

AHEAD OF THE CURVE Shabab Kasim, Hubnetix’s regional business manager for the Middle East, Africa and Asia, explains why the firm is committed to meeting customers’ cabling needs.

SHABAB KASIM, HUBNETIX’S REGIONAL BUSINESS MANAGER FOR THE MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA AND ASIA

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ive us some background on Hubnetix.

Hubnetix caters to the complete ICT, ELV and security infrastructure requirements of customers across the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.

In the Middle East, Hubnetix has its MEA sales office and central logistics hub in DWC Dubai. We have our sales, technical and support team across the GCC to cater to our customer’s needs. Our key concept is to offer the most innovative endto-end ICT infrastructure solutions to customers. This is the most fascinating advantage for customers about Hubnetix; we are a single solution provider with innovative

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products to address their most critical business challenges within their data centre, enterprise, network, security and industrial environments.

Hubnetix products are tested and certified, compliance with ANSI, TIA/ EIA and ISO accredited in order to guarantee international standards.

What kinds of products/services do you offer?

Hubnetix is a UK-based global manufacturer with a diverse product portfolio of high-end structured cabling systems, network racks and cabinets, UPS systems, active network devices, raised access floor system and security surveillance products.

We have built our portfolio of high-quality, reliable and cost efficient end-to-end infrastructure, networking and security solutions with exceptional performance to meet the demanding requirements of a wider set of customers and partners across EMEA. We work with key industrial sectors – ICT, system integrators, and contractors.

Hubnetix’s comprehensive infrastructure solutions are used across various verticals such as IT, government, telecommunications, healthcare, education, commercial enterprises and residential buildings.

We have completed a decent number of projects successfully across GCC and many are ongoing and many

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more yet to come. I can confidently say that we are growing faster in the Middle East than we expected.

How has the demand for advanced cabling solutions changed in the Middle East in recent years?

In this ever-demanding world, the need for advanced technologies and faster communications has increased the demand of structured cabling systems. Additionally, the presence of a high connectivity network and rise in demand for data centres has substantially increased the demand of infrastructure and network solutions. We are seeing an increase in the necessities of infrastructure solutions which are creating strong conditions for growing business, and addressing the need for more flexible, secure solutions in every core sector of the Middle East market.

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“We consistently aim to meet and exceed customer expectations.”

Give examples of how your work has benefited regional customers.

We focus on different verticals, but our main focus is to closely work with our partners and find opportunities that the market has to offer. We provide them with more value-added services in terms of pricing, various marketing and training activities to help them to focus on the core aspects of business which will allow them to achieve operational and financial benefits that brings value to your business.

What are your most important strategies?

Our main aim is to have a solid presence for Hubnetix in the MEA region. We develop more strategic partnerships with major companies in the Middle East which will also prove essential to our growth in the region and beyond.

Our key strategy is to add new innovative products to our portfolio, and understanding ICT & ELV demands in order to stay competitive. We consistently aim to meet and exceed expectation in terms of driving their business outcomes, interests and expectations by providing them complete solutions with excellence, integrity, innovation and dedication.

Network World Middle East

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INSIGHT • HUAWEI

‘INNOVATE FOR A DIGITAL MIDDLE EAST’ Alaa ElShimy, vice president and managing director of Huawei Enterprise Middle East, gives a preview of what GITEX Technology Week 2018 visitors can expect from the tech giant’s presence.

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s ICT technologies develop rapidly and become integrated into more and more verticals, the digital economy is becoming the fastest-growing, most innovative, and widest-reaching economy.

It is an important driver of global economic growth and recovery, playing a vital role in unleashing the potential of economic development, driving the transformation of

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traditional industries, fueling sustainable economic development, improving social management and services, and fostering innovation.

New technologies like 5G, artificial intelligence, and smart cities are revolutionising how governments, businesses, and consumers interact with the world around them.

Huawei is committed to helping our partners in the Middle East navigate the changing times. In the spirit

of openness and sharing wisdom, we are hosting our third annual Innovation Day on the sidelines of GITEX Technology Week 2018.

Held under the theme, ‘Innovate for a digital Middle East’ the one-day event is a platform for luminaries and industry experts to gather and discuss how all can work together to embrace digital transformation and forge ahead on the road to an intelligent world.

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With the aim of promoting a 5G ecosystem in the Middle East region, we will start the day with a 5G Ecosystem Conference held under the theme ‘5G is Now, from eMBB to Digital Society.’ The second part of the event will focus on AI and smart cities, under the theme ‘Embrace digital transformation, the road to intelligent world’, where discussions, opinions, and sharing experiences will take place on how AI and smart cities are transforming and reshaping the world we live in.

As the Middle East undergoes rapid digital transformation, the leadership is putting in place strategies to accommodate their digital agendas in their national visions. As a leading global provider of information and communications technology infrastructure and smart devices, Huawei views the Middle East as a significant market where the company can contribute to the development of the ICT industry, bringing digital to every person, home and organisation for a fully connected, intelligent world.

Huawei’s end-to-end portfolio of products, solutions and services are both competitive and secure.

Through open collaboration with ecosystem partners, we create lasting value for our customers, working to empower people, enrich home life, and inspire innovation in organisations of all shapes and sizes in the Middle East region.

Driven by customer-centric innovation and open partnerships, Huawei has established an endto-end ICT solutions portfolio that gives customers competitive advantages. Huawei is committed to bringing its global expertise and latest innovations to the

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“Huawei is committed to bringing its global expertise and latest innovations to the Middle East region.”

Middle East region and creating maximum value for governments, telecom operators, enterprises and consumers.

We are rapidly progressing on the digital agenda and entering the all-intelligent world. Our long-term enterprise strategy in the region is to build a digital ecosystem through which Huawei can help our Middle East channel partners meet their customers’ needs by bringing in the most cutting-edge artificial intelligence products and solutions, enhancing connectivity and improving user experience across different domains. Through joint innovation with our customers, partners, and peers, we hope to achieve growth across all industries, creating a robust winwin ecosystem for organisations throughout the region.

As one of the largest ICT expos in the world and a gathering place for the Middle East’s government and industry leaders, GITEX is an ideal opportunity for Huawei to showcase our innovative products and solutions which are being deployed across multiple vertical sectors.

This year, our presence at GITEX will be building on the importance of AI as one of the future’s leading technologies. Our participating in GITEX is designed to help all businesses and organisations step over the threshold and stake their claim in the intelligent world. We will use GITEX as a platform to launch and showcase a range of exciting

new products, with a particular focus on AI. These will include: • Huawei’s full-stack, all-scenario AI solutions • The FusionCloud 6.5, a nextgeneration enterprise-class full-stack intelligent private cloud solution • The FusionAtlas intelligent computing solutions: an AI enablement platform based on ‘One Cloud, One Lake and One Platform’ architecture to help enterprises accelerate cloud migration and achieve digital transformation • For unified cloud communication, we will showcase EC3000, the latest integrated platform to facilitate enterprise video conference and cloud communication • In the field of wireless technology, we will showcase the latest eLTEDSA solutions, which overcomes the challenge of insufficient continuous dedicated spectrum resources around the world by using 4.5G technology to aggregate traditional VHF/UHF narrowband discrete spectrum into broadband spectrum resources To make the most of opportunities in this new world, all organisations need to embrace and activate intelligence through digital platforms that are open, agile and equipped with state-of-the-art AI capabilities. We look forward to seeing you there!

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OPINION • NEXANS

HOW TO FUTUREPROOF YOUR NETWORKING INVESTMENT Fibre to the office remains one of the most effective approaches to manage state-of-theart technology, cost and scalability requirements, explains Tarek Helmy, Nexans Cabling Solutions’ regional director for the Gulf, Middle East and South and East Africa.

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oday’s digital consumers are rapidly adopting public cloud services, social media and real-time video, increasing workloads across all types of networks. With the advent of Internet of Things, the number of applications running on networks will only increase.

A network that is scalable and can continuously sustain high network performance to meet increasing needs is the basis for a futureproofed solution. It is for this reason that fibre optic is a good medium for structured network cabling. Fibre optic components offer scalable, flexible and sustainable benefits; they have a return on investment protection and life cycle, they require low maintenance and demand simple administration and consume 70% less energy compared to a traditional LAN architecture.

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While using fibre optic, the methodology of using fibre to the office (FTTO) is a good approach to manage the growing requirements of today’s urban building sprawl.

What makes FTTO so effective?

Essentially, it is the approach of laying fibre optic structured cabling as close to end points as economically viable – using FTTO topology together with active switches to provide standard ethernet services to devices via standard copper based RJ45 technology. By terminating the fibre inside the building and much closer to the end points, FTTO helps eliminate the communication room traditionally present on each building floor, as well as bringing a host of other advantages.

Networks built using fibre optics and FTTO switches, intrinsically offer advantages of redundancy.

This vastly increases network uptime and elevates the level of business continuity and reduces risks of failure.

With its inherent advantages of reducing capital and operational costs, reduced power consumption, faster implementation and scale-out times, better uptime and business continuity, FTTO is best suited for large scale implementations and roll outs. Some of the sectors where it works well and gives impressive return on investments include public administration, education, airports, healthcare, security services, defense, and protected buildings.

List of benefits Fibre optic cabling is not affected by electromagnetic interference and has no length restrictions for practical usage.

A traditional LAN structured cabling installation uses central building distributor and floor level distributors,

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OPINION • NEXANS

“Overall, there is an average saving of 30% in capex for FTTO over traditional networks.”

before connecting into end user ports. With FTTO topology, floor level distributors are no longer necessary.

By eliminating the need for the floor level distributors, FTTO structured cabling enables much faster roll out times, thereby reducing the cost of network cabling installation.

FTTO structured cabling uses future-proof fibre optic, ensuring a long lifetime. It also supports the European Union’s 2020 sustainability targets.

In comparison to the floor level distribution rooms, the power consumption by FTTO switches connected to the central building distributor is also much less.

FTTO topology allows for energyefficient transmission of Power Over the Ethernet. This is because of the short distance between the RJ45 port on the switch and the end-user device.

FTTO structured cabling networks are especially effective in generating

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redundant network topologies.

Redundant network topologies offer higher network uptime, with less business interruption, and therefore better corporate profitability.

Savings metrics Various studies have shown there is a saving in capex of 29% in favor of FTTO over traditional networks for a project involving 3,600 ports. As the demand on the network increases to 10,000 ports, including in-built redundancy within the network, the capex savings in favour of FTTO increases to 37% over traditional networks. Overall, it can be shown there is an average saving of 30% in capex for FTTO over traditional networks.

In the case of time required for project installation, configuration and setup, there is a saving of 54% in favor of FTTO over traditional networks for a project involving

3,600 ports. As the demand on the network increases to 10,000 ports with inbuilt redundancy within the network, the saving in installation time in favor of FTTO increases to 56% over traditional networks.

Overall, there is an average saving of 40% in installation time for FTTO over traditional networks.

In the case of the cost of power consumption of an installation, the comparison of savings between FTTO over traditional networks are even more significant and dramatic.

There is a saving in energy costs of 70% in favor of FTTO over traditional networks for a project involving 3,600 ports. As the demand on the network increases to 10,000 ports with in-built redundancy within the network, the saving in energy costs in favor of FTTO is 69% over traditional networks.

Overall, it can be shown there is an average saving from 30% up to 70% in power consumption costs for FTTO over traditional networks.

FTTO offers huge cost benefits emanating from savings from multiple factors over traditional networks. It is particularly well suited for large, complex, scalable networks, that need rapid updates, that are highly cost sensitive, and require higher levels of inbuilt redundancy.

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INSIGHT • ERICSSON

NETWORK INTELLIGENCE: THE KEY TO EFFICIENCY AND AUTOMATION Indranil Das, Ericsson’s head of digital services for the Middle East and Africa region, believes that the key to enabling the promise of 5G and IoT is ‘machine intelligence’.

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ext generation technologies are upon us, and as networks evolve to accommodate for them, network intelligence will become a necessity.

In the midst of a global digital transformation, widespread integration of technologies like 5G and IoT is just over the horizon. As these technologies become more prevalent, demands of the networks

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supporting them will grow and evolve in the same stride, necessitating an increase in network complexity and capacity to boot. In order to capitalise on these trends and the new revenue streams they present, and to handle the complexity of diversification at the same time, networks must become scalable, intelligent, and automated.

Network intelligence and automation are crucial to the

evolution of 5G, IoT, and industrial digitalisation on every front. As 5G-enabled technologies develop, operators will need to increase their network capacity – but with additional capacity also comes additional complexity. To meet these new challenges, operators must introduce engineered solutions that combine machine learning and human intelligence to enable networks to self-learn, self-optimise,

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INSIGHT • ERICSSON

and deliver an optimal user experience.

The complex reality of today’s telecommunications systems will only accelerate further with the introduction of next generation technologies. Machine intelligence, using machine learning and other AI technologies, is vital to handling this complexity with more efficiency.

As such, engineered network intelligence gives operators the ability to scale-up and automate operations in parallel with the growth of their network, resulting in significant performance and efficiency advantages.

In achieving network intelligence, machine intelligence must first be implemented from multiple angles.

Machine intelligence, which combines the strengths of machine learning and artificial intelligence, offers a means of reinventing network operations and redefining the operator product portfolio to create new business opportunities in 5G and IoT. It will enable algorithms to predict traffic patterns and dynamically put cells into dormant mode without impacting the user experience. It will help prevent future malfunctions by providing actionable recommendations and reducing dispatches of service technicians.

It will enable detection and optimisation in analytics, drastically reducing customer service calls and much more.

Not only does machine intelligence improve network performance, but it also substantially increases efficiency across the board.

With automation and domain specific AI, the intelligence built into the network platform provides superior performance while optimising the use

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“Network intelligence and automation are crucial to the evolution of 5G, IoT, and industrial digitalisation on every front.” of scarce radio network resources.

As such, machine intelligence solutions can help operators provide the highest performance and the most seamless and intuitive network operations for customers.

Ericsson recognises that the time to implement a smart approach to 5G-enabled technologies has arrived; and the operator has been working to engineer network intelligence that provides new levels of efficiency and performance. Through network intelligence, network services will

be twice as easy to deploy, field dispatches will be reduced by up to 30 percent, and required field instructions will be accessible in under one second. Furthermore, inter-frequency handover of network products will happen twice as fast, OPEX for future RAN transport will be cut in half, and energy consumption on the node level will be reduced by 10 percent.

Operators need engineered intelligence to handle the coming paradigm shift. As businesses continue to adopt next generation technologies, the demands placed on networks will rise, creating an opportunity for the operators that can most as fast as their fastest customers. If they can switch to a continuous improvement process in an increasingly complex world, they will stand to win entire industries.

At present, this journey has just begun – but it accelerates with every passing day, requiring operators to disrupt the status quo by providing leaps in efficiency, speed, and customer experience.

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INSIGHT • BASK IYER

WHY ALL COMPANIES ARE TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES Bask Iyer, CIO of Dell Technologies and VMware, gives his take on chief information officers must take bold decisions in order to succeed in the era of mobile, cloud, IoT and AI.

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www.tahawultech.com

E

very company – from healthcare to retail – is now a technology company. Big data and analytics drive business outcomes, which catapult IT right to the front and centre of the conversation. IT is now not only responsible for keeping the trains running but for integrating new technologies such as analytics into every part of the business.

Digital transformation is changing every aspect of the enterprise, but it didn’t used to be this way. It’s interesting to look back at what technology looked like in 1998, when VMware was founded. Apple was hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, pinning all of its hopes for a turnaround on the all-in-one iMac. Amazon announced that it would expand beyond books, having IPO’d at $18 per share the year before. The first Google Doodle appeared on their website, Windows 98 was launched, and Bill Gates infamously got hit in the face with a cream pie on his way to a meeting with EU officials.

In 1998, IT consisted mostly of back-office automation such as ERP systems, supply chain automation and upgrading to Windows 95.

Companies were spending an estimated $300 billion to make computers and applications Y2Kcompliant, trying to avoid what many feared would be widespread chaos with banks, government and utilities.

IT-enabled collaboration with the outside world was nonexistent; email was largely internal. Everything was being outsourced.

Not only did we survive Y2K, but the last two decades have seen unprecedented technology innovation, owing largely to distributed networking, better compute power and advances in IT infrastructures. The IT department itself, though, hasn’t been all that disruptive.

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Don’t get me wrong. IT has had to shoulder most of the work required to handle the rapid assimilation of this technology within the enterprise, while balancing risk, training, change management and investment. However, with innovations in artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT and blockchain only widening the gap, we’re playing catch-up. IoT used to be the big shiny object; now it’s AI. In a few months, machine learning will replace AI. While the technology is advancing at exponential rates, the creativity and intrapreneurship required to identify solutions using the technology is not keeping pace.

In other words, it’s a solution looking for a problem.

“Technology is coming at us faster than our ability to harness it.”

Now, the four superpowers of mobile, cloud, IoT and AI have transformed every company into a technology company.

Companies’ annual reports read like an annual IT report. A large manufacturing facility’s AC system is now a sensor-driven building management system. Everything in finance has changed because of technology. The traditional retail model has been turned on its head, and we’ll only see more changes as augmented reality, NFC and Bitcoin reshape shopping behaviour.

Technology is coming at us faster than our ability to harness it. On the consumer side, mobile, IoT, home digital assistants and the ability to turn a house into a

smart home for less than $1,000 has raised the stakes for IT. While it’s sobering that enterprise IT has lagged behind consumer tech, huge opportunities exist for those who have a desire and passion for taking risks and pushing the edge of innovation with their teams.

A recent McKinsey & Company report on IT’s future value proposition says that, “IT is poised to play a new, more strategic role in companies, one that moves beyond support to creative business value through technology-based business innovation and digital initiatives.” Right now, the CIO is in the best position to take the reins as a transformational leader, because entire company cultures will need to adapt to being digitalfirst. In the new world, it’s not just IT that needs to be agile, but HR, marketing and customer experience as well. As people and processes evolve, many will need the softer skills of collaboration with all parts of the business, taking the time to understand the customer and becoming change agents.

This is all a tall task. If you’re the type of person who likes checking off your to-do list, you’re already two years behind, because the todo list will never get done. But if you like making bold strides even in the face of uncertainty, you’re in the right place, as the technology ‘generational gap’ no longer exists.

What used to take years for a technology to take hold now takes a few months.

We will need to take risks, move forward without knowing the complete picture and be collaborative in everything we do, especially with the executive team to advance innovation. CIOs and their teams will need to take the lead and drive this change.

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INSIGHT • CISCO

HOW TO BUILD AND SECURE THE 5G NETWORKS OF TOMORROW Cisco Middle East and Africa’s managing director of global service provider sales, Ali Amer, believes that while 5G will bring the promise of new revenue opportunities for service providers, new infrastructure and use cases will open up new risks.

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very new generation of carrier technologies has brought forward new business and consumer use cases. The release of 3G rolled in wireless mobile data communication, while the release of 4G brought in IP wireless data communication.

Both combined have made e-commerce, video, gaming and social media par for the course on smartphones and mobile phones.

3G and 4G networks enabled mobile broadband for business and consumers.

As part of this growth, the world is now mobile. There is huge growth in network access, digitisation has become a reality leading to emergence of Internet of Things and cloud is now mainstream.

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www.tahawultech.com

5G is an enabler for a new set of possibilities and capabilities. The growing 5G momentum promises new revenue opportunities for service providers. To pursue these new untapped opportunities, they will need to ramp up their network capabilities to support future 5G services.

As we move closer towards mainstream 5G adoption, mobile networks are increasingly expected to handle more data-intensive applications and deliver low-latency connectivity to more devices. The roll out of 5G networks provides an opportunity for service providers to gain benefits from next generation cycles in the data centre, networks and mobility, in a multivendor environment. Significant changes such as personalised networks are now possible through slicing and other granular functions.

Simultaneously, 5G is about service providers being able to exploit new enterprise use cases and new revenue streams. In parallel, new transient network surfaces raise additional challenges of security and country regulations.

Some of the new use cases that 5G will cater to include autonomous transport, augmented and virtual reality, smart city traffic management and machine-to-machine communications.

Other use case categories include: 5G enhanced mobile broadband offers high speed and dense broadband connectivity to users. With performance of gigabit speeds, 5G is an alternative to fixed line connectivity services. To support enhanced mobile broadband use cases, the mobile core must support high density performance, scalability and security.

Ultra-reliable low latency communications focuses on mission critical services such as virtual reality, tele-surgery, healthcare, intelligent transportation, industry automation,

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“To pursue untapped opportunities, service providers need to ramp up their network capabilities to support 5G services.� manufacturing robotics, and factory automation. Previously delivered through a wired connection, 5G is now an alternative for these use cases.

For millions of sensors and thousands of cars, all on the edge of the network, massive IoT can support the number of scalable connections required. Service providers can use network slicing technology to deliver networks-as-a-service for businesses.

5G will bridge wireless and wireline networks, forcing a major network architectural change from radio access to core. This requires a transition to cloudnative applications, monitoring and managing an end-to-end network, including radio access networks and packet core. It also combines and leverages the capability of a variable bandwidth network with mixed and flexible access. On the flip side, this enhanced flexibility increases the surface vulnerable to threats.

Securing 5G networks requires complete visibility of the stack, managing a use case and controls to take remedial action. Contrary to traditional carrier networks, 5G networks require visibility from the edge to the cloud platform to the application, across the extended network, to the end point.

Securing the 5G network then requires comparison to the normal baseline behaviour and alerts for any deviation. Continuous aggregation of near real-time network data allows analyses of the workflow through a security controller. Based on predefined security policies, remedial action and controls can be triggered.

Another way of securing 5G networks is the advanced usage of encryption. Half of all Internet traffic today is encrypted and this is expected to increase. Machine learning can be used to build analytics from encrypted Internet traffic, increasing the visibility of threats as close to the threat as possible. This reduces the possibility of collateral damage inside the 5G network.

New tools for increasing visibility inside 5G networks include application level probes and path computation elements. An application probe is an automated cell that travels across the network and benchmarks the application performance at various network points. A path computation element feeds network characteristics at every point of the network into a near real-time database to simulate functioning of a network. As an example, remedial responses to a DDos attack are first simulated using the near real-time network database to assess the impact before initiation.

The nature of the 5G network creates a widely distributed data centre and an expanded attack surface. Such a topology is susceptible to lateral attacks and threats. This can be countered by segmenting the network - right from the edge, across gateways, applications, wireless and wireline networks, backhaul networks and so on.

By investing time and money in securing their 5G networks, service providers can be better assured of a predictable return on investment.

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INSIGHT • RUCKUS NETWORKS

HOW UNSECURED WI-FI CAN LEAK DATA Muetassem Raslan, regional sales director for Ruckus Networks in the Middle East and Africa, highlights the various ways that unsecured network access is a major security flaw.

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ecently, the UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) warned the population against the use of public Wi-Fi especially for official, work-related or sensitive data. It is obvious that there is a direct connection between unsecured network access and the increased risk for data compromise. We’re talking specifically about BYOD and guest devices, and failure to properly secure the way in which they connect to the network. When people discuss BYOD security, often they focus only on encryption for wireless data over the air. That’s an important element, but it’s not the whole story.

Leaving the door open for data breaches Secure network access means access on a need-to-know basis.

Not every breach is the stuff of

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hoody-wearing cybercriminals hiding in the shadows. Many data breaches come from unintended disclosure. Wellmeaning stakeholders sometimes make mistakes and disclose data improperly. The more people that have access to a given set of data, the more likely someone will make that kind of mistake. As much as we don’t like to think about it, stakeholders can also disclose sensitive data intentionally.

A sound data governance strategy requires that users should be able to access only those network resources appropriate to their role in the organisation.

Policy-based controls are a cornerstone of such a strategy, and if you don’t enable these controls, it leaves the door open to data compromise. If you don’t have the means to define and manage policies to restrict access, the chance of a breach is greater.

Even within the organisation, when someone not authorised to view certain data does so, that’s a breach. To pick a very specific example, call centre employees should not have access to the server containing an Excel file with employee payroll data. Rolebased policy capability for network access is essential, and a lack of differentiated network access risks data compromise.

Guest users can lead to trouble, too Most of us would agree that BYOD programmes increase employee productivity. Meanwhile, visitors to most environments expect easy connectivity for their devices, just as employees do - whether the location is an office, public venue, school, college or most anywhere.

That’s a lot of unmanaged devices accessing the network - either over wireless or via a wired connection.

www.tahawultech.com

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IT teams don’t control those devices the way they can for ITowned devices, and if not managed properly this can also leave the door open to a data breach.

Failure to perform an up-front security posture check before BYOD and guest devices connect is a risk area as well. Malware is one of the leading causes of data breaches - for example, keyloggers that capture every character typed into the keyboard of an infected device. You don’t want malware like that spreading into your environment. If you let an employee connect their BYOD laptop without checking that anti-malware has been installed, that’s a security hole that needs to be plugged. More than that, the malware signatures for that software need to be up to date.

A security posture check during network onboarding can make sure that BYOD and guest devices employ basic security measures.

Most tech-savvy users of mobile devices have a PIN enabled in their phone or tablet. But imagine what would happen if an employee connects their BYOD phone to the network, which thereby gains access to network resources housing confidential data. Suppose it’s a new phone and they don’t have a PIN enabled yet. Then someone steals the phone.

The network does not know the thief isn’t the employee, and the device can still access those same network resources. This is where the lack of a security posture check leaves the door open to data compromise. A proper security posture check would have included remediation for that device - it just

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“A lack of differentiated network access risks data compromise.” requires that employees have a PIN enabled before they can connect.

Unencrypted wireless data traffic: another security hole This section discusses a security hole that applies only to wireless access. Unless you encrypt data traffic in transit between wireless access points and devices, prying eyes can view it using commercially available network analysis tools.

(The same way anyone can spy on what you do over an open public Wi-Fi connection at the local coffee shop).

Of course, many websites are themselves encrypted these days. But often, not all page components are encrypted, and users have no way of knowing which components those are.

Mobile applications may or may not encrypt their data traffic. App developers have an incentive not to encrypt data traffic, because encryption imposes overheads on the back-end systems that support their apps.

In an enterprise environment, you might think anyone would be crazy not to encrypt wireless traffic over the air. But message authentication code (MAC), one of the default methods for connecting devices - does not encrypt wireless data traffic. It’s also not unheard of for IT to provide one or more open SSIDs in some environment - if only for guest users - especially when the organisation lacks a system for secure network onboarding. Whatever the circumstances, unencrypted data traffic is a risk area.

www.tahawultech.com

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INSIGHT • HELP AG

OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND Nicolai Solling, Help AG’s chief technology officer, gives his take on why excitement around cloud has caused many organisations to be complacent and hands-off in how they manage their data.

H

as a move to cloud finally become a realistic prospect for the Middle East, and what implications does that have on security?

Just 12 months ago, it wasn’t being considered in certain sectors, but we’ve now seen a big shift around cloud perception. This creates a number of security issues that need to be addressed.

We’ve looked long and hard at our own portfolio to figure out how to secure cloud. We also started migrating to cloud services ourselves, which is a good way to figure out what works and what doesn’t. We’ve learned that cloud is not necessarily secure.

Why is identity and access management so important to cloud security?

Inside an office, you can clearly inspect and authorise users. With cloud, it’s different because you’re connecting over the internet. Identity has to be addressed, and you need to create high levels of authentication.

With infrastructure-as-a-service in particular you need to ensure you dictate who has admin controls, because that can be disastrous if you get it wrong.

When moving to cloud, you need to make sure the data is still yours.

Encryption helps in that sense.

You need to instil your own data governance and encrypt data when

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it’s not in use for SaaS and IaaS environments. Not all cloud services are built the same way, and it’s critical to ensure that a cloud service is ethical around data.

Is it fair to say that cloud is in some ways more secure than on-premise environments?

I have full trust that any of the major cloud providers’ $1 billion or so annual spend on security is put to good use, but you could argue that because it’s a larger attack surface, you could also be part of a bigger target. Our risk assessment shows attacks are very different. Attackers won’t try to penetrate applications anymore, and you can’t just apply your own security of applications. Attackers are intelligent, and will change the way they attack. We’ve seen over the last couple of years that attacks will focus around users with social engineering.

We need to prepare for a new threat

What’s struck me is how clients do not understand that they have to secure cloud services themselves.

scenario, and deal with new threats that come our way.

Do customers make incorrect assumptions about cloud that risk compromising their security?

When I’ve spoken to clients, what struck me was how they did not understand that they have to secure the cloud service themselves. It’s clear that cloud service providers take care of security, but what you put in the cloud is up to you. In the process of moving data to the cloud, a lot of organisations forget that this is all important. You need to think about when you put data into a cloud service, even if you want to move away from it, vendors may delete your data.

What are Help AG’s main principles to cloud security?

We offer managed security services, where we analyse events in customer environments. You need to take events generated by cloud and turn that into event data. It’s also important to deal with controls and ensure you have confidence that the right user identity is connecting to a service. Identity is the forefront of cybersecurity today. It’s also about endpoint controls, avoiding malware and malicious software, and tricking users into doing something. Many of the technologies that organisations currently use aren’t right for cloud.

www.tahawultech.com

Make the Connection:

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