60mins Day 2 - 6 PM (2013)

Strategic ICT Partner

Technology Partners

60 Mins Show dates: 20-24 October 2013, Dubai World Trade Centre

Sourcefire uses GITEX to build regional profile

Sourcefire has used this year’s GITEX to raise the profile of the company and to demonstrate its commitment to the Middle East, the company’s EMEA Channel Director said Monday.

Anthony Perridge told 60 Minutes that, for Sourcefire, GITEX was less about chasing leads and finding customers, and more about building a profile among the regional technology community.

“It’s a lot about branding, and keeping in the forefront of people’s minds. If you’re not present, then people quickly forget the brand name 4 CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

|

AT GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK

|

FOLLOW US

@computernewsme

Exhibition hours: 11am -6pm

Arbor expands from service-provider bracket Arbor Networks has set out at GITEX Technology Week 2013 to translate the message that is has expanded from its dominant position in the service-provider market.

The network security company holds around 60 percent market share in the area of DDoS (distributed denial of service) detection and mitigate solutions for service providers.

“Historically, we were strongest in the service-provider market, providing them with network traffic monitoring, reporting, threat detection, and mitigation solutions,” said Darren Anstee, Solutions Architect, EMEA, Arbor Networks. “We’ve been doing that for the last 13 years.”

Whilst DDoS attacks were previously a major concern for service providers, they have now evolved and become a problem for a broader range of organisations.

With most companies now reliant on the Internet to sell its products, or simply just to access cloud-based data or applications, every organisation is now vulnerable to attack.

If there is any interruption to the availability of an organisation’s Internet connectivity, the impact can hurt its

WHAT’S INSIDE

revenue, reputation, or ability to carry out day-to-day operational tasks.

“We’re really trying to educate the market about where DDoS is going and how it’s evolved over the past few years,” Anstee said.

“Whilst we are historically in the service-provider space, we’ve expanded from that over the last couple of years into the enterprise and data-centre space as well.”

This expansion can be attributed to the nature of DDoS attacks themselves, which has changed over that time.

When talking about DDoS attacks, 4 CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

Symantec showcases security technology amid increased threats

GITEX bolsters Juniper Network’s positive outlook GITEX preview: Sharp Middle East

4 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

4 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Sourcefire... and who you are,” he said.

Of course, Sourcefire is also taking the opportunity that GITEX provides to reach out to potential customers and partners. The vendor focuses on network visibility and security, and wants to educate regional IT pros that there are plenty of reasons to get serious about security.

“Certainly it seems to be in a recession, the threat goes up, I guess maybe because more people are turning to crime. In our space, it’s not just regular kids who are hacking – it’s actually organised crime and what we talk about is the industrialization of hacking,” Perridge explained.

To combat this, organisations need to achieve what Perridge called “information superiority” – whereby the organisation has more information about its own network than the attacker possibly could.

“That’s difficult, because if you’re

Arbor...

a bank, your primary focus is being a bank and serving your customers.

Whereas the hacker is anonymous, has unlimited resources, has unlimited amounts of time and is well-organised.

Therefore, potentially, they have the information superiority,” he said.

“We give people visibility of their networks. If they have that information then they’re in a better position to defend themselves. Key to our technology is passive awareness – the ability to tell people what’s happening on their network – from the very core of the network to the endpoint.”

Meanwhile, the company is in the midst of a transition phase – the company was acquired by Cisco earlier this year, and the deal was finalised two weeks ago. While this certainly means there’s much change coming Sourcefire’s way, Perridge explained that it was an exciting time for Sourcefire and its customers.

many organisations think of big bursts of packets that cause network congestion, which are known as volumetric DDoS attacks.

These have been around for a long time, are the most common kinds of DDoS attacks, and are still very effective because they’ve grown at a faster rate than enterprise Internet connectivity.

“If you look at the average size of a volumetric DDoS attack so far this year, globally it’s about 2.6 gigabits per second,” Anstee said. “Most organisations don’t have that much Internet connectivity.

“That means that an average-sized volumetric DDoS attack can in fact saturate that Internet connectivity. At that point, there’s not much they can do.”

Subsequently, organisations like this need services from the service providers and cloud-based operators that can help protect them from DDoS attacks.

Indeed, Arbor has a strong

background in providing service providers with the solutions they use to implement those services.

“Over the past couple of year, we’ve also seen that things like applicationlayered DDoS attacks have become much more common, and they’re much stealthier and more sophisticated,” Anstee said. “They can be effective at very low traffic rates, and very quickly.”

These kinds of attacks are much more difficult for service providers to detect proactively because they get lost in the mix.

To combat this, Arbor has moved into the enterprise and data-centre space for DDoS protection to provide organisations with layered DDoS protection.

“They need a cloud-based service to deal with the volumetric attacks,” Anstee said, “but they also need a defensive component network perimeter to deal proactively with anything that might target them.”

Symantec showcases security technology amid increased threats During Gitex, Symantec is showcasing a simulated Security Operation Center to demonstrate its managed security services that monitor cyber threats worldwide based on its Global Intelligence Network. The move to exhibit this technology, which is a Gitex first, follows a 42% spike in targeted attacks worldwide over the past year, according to the company.

A significant portion of this increase in attacks can be attributed to the Middle East, says Fady Iskander, Channel and Commercial Regional Manager for MENA at Symantec, a security specialist. The region is witnessing and increasing volume of attacks, he says.

“The Middle East is waking up to the ‘threat landscape’; people are now more aware that the threat is real. We’re seeing many attacks targeted at the Middle East and there are several reasons for this. One is that the data being stored presently is very valuable. Another is that cyber criminals follow the money trail and the Middle East has a considerable amount of wealth. Another reason still is that the region is politically sensitive and there are certain activist groups that are politically motivated,” explains Iskander.

These attacks can affect everyone, adds Mark Nutt, Vice-President – EMEA Partner Management.

“The amount of threats, including cyber attacks, which is something hugely topical at the moment, are everywhere and this involves threats to companies and employees, governments and consumers and even citizens.

“As an organisation, we’re very well positioned and have a wealth of experience in terms of addressing these kinds of threats. We have more than 175 million consumers using our protection,” says Nutt, adding that while the greatest awareness within the Middle East is seen in the government, banking and telecommunications sectors, there is still growth across the board.

Etisalat and NBAD to enable mobile transactions Etisalat, the leading telecom company in the Middle East and Africa, and the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) are coming together to offer mobile point of sale (mPoS) solutions to merchants in the UAE enabling quick and efficient process of card payments for all existing and new customers.

This pioneering collaboration between the two organizations makes their vision of placing the technology

that makes mobile card payment based ecommerce a reality into the hands of merchants across the UAE. Khalifa Al Shamsi, Chief Digital Services officer, Etisalat said: “Etisalat’s partnership with NBAD is significant as it provides mobile merchants and service providers an added value to offer customers flexibility in making payments from different business locations.

This gives retailers a competitive

advantage and ultimate convenience to their large customer base.”

The solution allows merchants to use smartphones with a free downloadable application from Etisalat. This, along with the mPoS reader, which plugs into the smartphone’s headphone jack is a simple plug and play setup. Once linked up to NBAD’s merchant account, vendors will be able to accept payments within minutes.

However, awareness is still something that needs to be nurtured and encouraged, explains Iskander.

“This is why Gitex is an ideal opportunity. The more aware people are, the safer they will be. You can’t just think about implementing security after an attack has happened – what needs to take place is people taking action beforehand. And Gitex can be a great platform to get people to become pro-active.”

Symantec is also demonstrating its offerings for information management, following the surge seen in demand for Symantec appliances, particularly in the airline, finance and energy sector.

Additionally, Symantec will demonstrate its Storage Foundation Solutions, which reportedly enable customers to achieve their businesses continuity and disaster recovery objectives in a cost-effective and efficient manner.

Abdulla Al Otaiba, Senior General Manager, Retail and Commercial-Gulf at NBAD, said,: “Today, customers demand the convenience of being able to make card payments for all their goods and services. Businesses will soon be able to address this demand through the mPoS solution we have developed with Etisalat. ” The mPoS solution is particularly well suited to small and medium businesses that were previously unable to deploy the infrastructure to process card payment payments and any businesses operating outside of traditional retail environments, such as fast food and other kinds of delivery service.

GITEX bolsters Juniper Network’s positive outlook Juniper Networks, a specialist in network and security innovation, has chosen to focus on its differentiated security agenda for Gitex, the Middle East’s annual premier technology trade show and conference. The network equipment manufacturer’s security agenda encompasses everything from devices to the data centre, delivering next-generation security solutions designed to comprehensively protect business environments. During the show, the company is also focusing on its network innovation that improves data centre agility, economics and security.

“The value proposition that we bring to the table is delivering strong solutions for

our customers to build more agile networks that can be fast and secure but adaptable to our customers’ current needs and changing requirements,” says Henrik Davidsson, Director of Security and Sales of Advanced Technologies for EMEA at Juniper Networks.

According to the company, enterprises across the Middle East are increasingly dependent on mobile and fixed networks to improve productivity and customer satisfaction, while the public sector is noticeably focused on security.

“The drive for online services and data from governments, healthcare providers, transportation authorities and education to create a more

connected, empowered way of life for citizens is further promoting the importance of fast, reliable and secure high-performance networking. And, of course, companies here are concerned with securing their assets.

“One of our strengths is combining security and networking because everything traverses on the network. So by embedding security into the network fabric, it becomes much easier to control from end to end.”

REAL-TIME VIDEO COLLABORATION FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Move to the Avaya Video Collaboration Solution Video built-in On the go, with Avaya Flare® Experience Best-in-class Video Collaboration

Visit Us Now

Zabeel Hall(Z-M10)

Learn More : www.prologixme.com Reach Us : avaya@prologixme.com Call Us : 00971 4 3626218 Office# 1602, Y Cluster, Swiss Tower, Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT) Dubai, UAE prologixdistribution

prologixuae

@computernewsme

P5

GITEX preview: Sharp Middle East

Ravinder Kumar, General Manager – Business Solutions Division What is the main theme of your presence at GITEX this year?

Sharp’s theme at this year’s GITEX will be ‘Bigger Impact, Sharper Impression.’ We firmly believe that our professional display products should be easy to use, multifunctional and fully integrated.

In this year’s case this means showcasing solutions that drive multi-platform integration and a set of products that drive sharper efficiency across different industry verticals, providing clients and potential clients a bigger impact on the selection of our various digital signage capabilities.”

Are you releasing/launching anything new at GITEX 2013? If so, what? How is your company presenting itself at GITEX this year to differentiate it from competitors?

P6

@computernewsme

For over a century, Sharp has been working tirelessly to pioneer technological innovations that set a benchmark in the marketplace for others to follow. At this year’s GITEX this will manifest itself with Sharp showcasing a selection of new-age digital signage technologies that relate to retail, education, office and broadcast studio sectors. We would be also be displaying the very new ‘Slim Bezel Signage Monitors’ that are available from the 42” – 55”, range of interactive displays and the 4K2K IGZO technology display panels.

What are the key trends influencing your approach to GITEX 2013 and the offerings you are pushing?

We’ve seen strong growth in our corporate and education business pillars, with elevated demand for our Interactive LED Displays, which

are perfect for both boardroom and classroom settings. The Interactive LED Displays offer touch screen computing that helps to create, share and interact with digital content. Our latest products in this range will be on display at InfoComm 2013.

At GITEX 2013, we will be showcasing Sharp BSD’s capabilities in designing tailor-made software solutions. Sharp operates a R&D facility in Bangalore, India, dedicated to developing customized integrated software solutions to MEA clients.

Specifically we will be able to take visitors through our software for digital signage How have you seen the Middle East respond to those trends in question, and how did you think that will change over the next year?

With an increased government focus on education, particular within the UAE, and especially on innovation and technology, we see the continued growth of interactive LED Displays and class-room technology over the next year. Furthermore, with the explosion in digital content and online usage, the Interactive LED Displays enable students and teachers to create, share and interact with this new-age of digital content.

The same can be said for the expected growth in demand our display signage monitors and interactive solutions from retail outlets, financial services, hospitality and medical services across the region.

How do you think GITEX 2013 will be different to previous editions?

GITEX aims to provide an opportunity for everybody who is interested in technology to interact with one another and this year’s event is no different. Following our successful participation at the 2012 edition, Sharp is returning to the Middle East’s flagship ICT event on a bigger scale with more exciting products and solutions being presented over the period of five days.

What are the key offerings you will be presenting at GITEX – sum up their key and unique features.

Other than the latest technologies being showcased at this year’s GITEX, a strong focus of our offerings will be on our software solutions; highlighting Sharp’s capability in developing customized software that can manage interactive i-signage content across any vertical.

Sharp will also showcase finer Detail with IGZO – PNK321. The new 32” 4K2K LCD Monitor (PN-K321) with IGZO technology brings finer details through extraordinarily high resolution and energy efficiency. Users can now view the content of four full HD screens on a single, seamless display.

This super-high resolution makes the monitor ideally suited to a wide range of professional applications in settings where detailed information needs to be displayed with tremendous precision.

In addition, we will also be showcasing our range of Digital Signage monitors – sizes from 42” – 55” and the latest 90” display panel.

GITEX highlights

Publisher Dominic De Sousa, COO Nadeem Hood, Commercial Director Rajashree R Kumar, Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan Editors Ben Rossi, Tom Paye, Janees Reghelini, James Dartnell Circulation Manager Rajeesh M, Production Manager James Tharian, Senior Designers Analou Balbero, Glenn Roxas, Digital Services Manager Tristan Troy Magma Web Coordinator Jarris Pedroso Photographers Jay Colina, Abdul Kader

@computernewsme

P7