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60 Mins Show dates: 14-18 October 2012, Dubai World Trade Centre
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| AT GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK | Exhibition hours: 11am -7pm
Cashing in on affordable tablet PCs
Indrajit Sabharwal, MD, Simmtronics Walking into the Simmtronics stand at GITEX Technology Week 2012 one sees the words ‘World’s most affordable tablet’. According to Indrajit Sabharwal, MD, Simmtronics, the company prides itself on the fact that it manufactures the tablets and all the components that make the tablet are from its own manufacturing facility in India. “We started business 22 years ago, beginning as a distributor of memory products and then moving into the manufacturing business. Today we have five manufacturing facilities across the globe and manufacture
our own components and tablets. We are a true tablet manufacturer with a production capacity of 300,000 to 400,000 tablets a month and extensive range of 14 tablet models varying on the needs of the various consumers,” Sabharwal said. “We have also introduced the first dual core tablet and are already working on a quad core model. Our core strength lies in the fact that we can create customised tablet model as per customer requirements something no other manufacturer can do. In addition, we offer a whole range of
tablet accessories to support our tablets and manage operations across 14 countries,” he added. According to Sabharwal, Simmtronics invests heavily in research and development to identify the top trends in the tablet market. “We have realised that consumers want a good product from a manufacturer who understands the balance between architecture, specifications and performance,” he stated. Sabharwal concludes that the company defines itself on quality and not price believing price wars to bring about an abrupt end to many a manufacturer’s operations. He states that participation at GITEX has made the Simmtronics team a lot more confident of their brand and product identity seeing the response from both customers and partners. He added that the company sold more than 40,000 units of its latest tablet models at the recently concluded GITEX Shopper in collaboration with retail partner Sharaf DG and is looking forward to further growth across the region. Simmtronics is located in hall no. 8 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.
14 -16 MAY 2013, QATAR
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Etisalat launches managed Web security services
Abdulla Hashim, Senior Vice President, ICT at Etisalat Etisalat has strengthened its position as the leading managed security services provider in the region with today’s commercial launch of a new Managed Web Security Service. The Managed Web Security Service, the flagship of Etisalat’s extensive managed security services portfolio, allows businesses to safeguard their organizational
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web infrastructure and resources from malicious web traffic, viruses, spywares and other damaging data capture. Etisalat’s Managed Web Security Service utilizes Cloud-based Security-as-a Service to deliver a high performance multi-tenant, fully logged service which helps organizations to secure web traffic from any location in the world including Internet gateways, branch offices, data centres, home workers and mobile road warriors. Abdulla Hashim, Senior Vice President, ICT at Etisalat said the new Managed Web Security Service would result in true business continuity and the avoidance of compromising situations for organizations. “Leveraging the paradigm shift in the ICT environment, Etisalat continues to lead from the front and further broaden its market space and footprint into the
managed security domain. By keeping abreast of market trends, Etisalat has developed a cutting-edge service that strategically minimizes associated revenue risks and allows businesses to prioritize web traffic based on organizational and bandwidth requirement,” said Hashim. Powered by ZServices (Zscaler, Middle East Cloud), Etisalat’s Managed Web Security Service delivers businesses with tools to control web security, including URL filtering, advanced threat protection, inline anti-virus and anti-spyware, Web 2.0 control, bandwidth management, web access control and data loss prevention. Etisalat is offering very competitive rates for the Managed Web Security Service, with several value-centric packages available, ranging from the Basic Suite to the Premium Suite, depending on the level of security required.
“It is a systematic approach to managing an organization’s web security needs. By choosing Etisalat as their preferred Managed Web Security Services provider, customers can be confident of implementing a managed web security service that will not only extend their safe reach but also enable them to take advantage of cost savings on their capital value,” said Hashim. The launch of the Managed Web Security Service adds to Etisalat’s significant investment in developing flexible and secure services, including the Managed Unified Threat Management and Managed SSL-VPN, and comprehensive support for Etisalat customers including a state-of-the-art customer network operations centre (CNOC), a collaborative IT infrastructure and superior knowledge capital manned by certified IT professionals.
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GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK 2012 HIGHLIGHTS
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Etisalat inks pact with HAAD for DR
Etisalat and Health Authority Abu Dhabi (HAAD) have used 2012 GITEX Technology Week to sign an agreement that will see Etisalat host HAAD’s critical disaster recovery infrastructure. As part of the ICT solution for
HAAD, Etisalat will provide servers, storage, backup, virtualization and replication services within its hightech Al Ain data centre. Abdulla Ebrahim Al Ahmed, Senior Vice President, Business Solutions at Etisalat said today’s signing of the
agreement with HAAD demonstrated the trusted capabilities of Etisalat’s ICT solutions for government departments in Abu Dhabi. “Etisalat is a leader in developing turnkey end-to-end solutions, and our data centre hosting service is attracting more and more government departments to house their sensitive information. Our technical and intellectual knowledge of government requirements gives us a significant advantage in this market sector.” “In addition to hosting HAAD’s disaster recovery infrastructure, Etisalat will also deploy a managed WAN solution to connect the disaster recovery to HAAD’s managed IPVPN cloud,” said Al Ahmed. Zaid Al Siksek, Chief Executive Officer at HAAD, said this agreement
will safeguard the critical healthcare services offered by HAAD. “HAAD has taken proactive steps to ensure continued business services and operations to all healthcare industries and citizens within the Emirate of Abu Dhabi during any kind of catastrophic events or disasters. HAAD aims to provide continuously available services to ensure high levels of customer satisfaction by meeting the current expectations of businesses and stakeholders, and supports scalability and future capacity requirements of these businesses.” “In this context HAAD has established a partnership with Etisalat to have a disaster recovery site in Al Ain along with full managed services and maintenance,” said Siksek.
BYOD security on agenda for HID Secure identity solutions company, HID, is presenting lines of innovative security solutions which cater to the BYOD trend during its first ever GITEX. HID specialises in card access products which provide security layers for businesses and believes that BYOD is a security nightmare which requires ever-more sophisticated answers. “Companies were happy with secure, full bodied security packages. Then, people started saying ‘I want to bring my own tablet
into work, I want to bring my own phone into work’, and suddenly IT managers are being faced with a host of brand new concerns,” said Alan Davis, Global VP, HID. HID is displaying a new government solution for securing sensitive data on iPhones and iPads this week. The solution includes two sleeves which fit the devices, produced by Precise Biometrics and the recently announced ActivClient Mobile Software Development Kit which enables companies to use their personal identification cards
and access cards to secure sensitive information by encrypting it through standard Public Key Infrastructure encryption methods. “We enable these devices to be used with existing identification credentials by putting a sleeve around the device which enables you to push a smartcard into the back that then has strong authentication security on it, much like your laptop would.” “BYOD is a massive thing now, in the Middle East alone, between 60 to 80% of companies have BYOD strategies and the market here has
in excess of 100% mobile device penetration. When people are taking these devices home and letting their kids play with them and then taking them to work and using it for business, it makes the divide very weak. Therefore, the security of the device is very vulnerable.” Davis believes that companies are struggling to keep up with the trend of BYOD because of the vast range of devices available on the market. Having access security, as well as control over the stored data is very difficult, he said.
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Consumerisation of IT is great for us: Targus
Riyaz Abdulla, Regional Sales Director, ME and East Africa, Targus The consumerisation of IT may be a headache for CIOs, but it’s great for Targus as it attempts to increase its B2B market share in the Middle East. The company, which is a leading provider of bags, cases and accessories for laptops and tablets, sees much of its business in the region coming from the consumer market, but it is increasingly setting its sights on the enterprise. “In an ideal Targus world out market reach would split 50/50 – 50% B2B and 50% B2C. However, in the Middle East the majority of our business has been in the B2C market. This it has been a big focus for us this year and going forward to increase our B2B market share. A main focus for us is resellers and the channel Printed with GIT cartridges
market and we have just hired someone to specifically build up the B2B and channel business,” said Riyaz Abdulla, Regional Sales Director, ME and East Africa, Targus. As more organisations in the region both turn to tablets as a new method of personal computing or allow staff to bring in their own tablets to work on, Targus sees much opportunity in the business space. “The market has been growing for us. One of the biggest successes for us has been the tablet category. The category itself is a big growth market so giving that fact our good quality and high end products increase the value of the product they are accessorising, that’s giving a
tremendous boost in terms of growth for us,” Abdulla said. “With the consumerisation of IT we see more organisations turn to our tablet accessories as the Middle East continues to respond very well to that trend. We’ve seen some of the biggest universities in the region implementing iPad as one of their key tools, so I think the wave is come. In Europe we are actively involved in a lot of B2B organisations to promote the whole iPad and accessories that go along with that, so we expect that to happen here also. We expect the trend to continue,” he added. To suit this trend, most of Targus’ carry cases now come with an additional slot for a tablet. “We’re no longer making our bags just to fill a laptop, but both a laptop and a tablet. That comes from many studies showing that many people are carrying both nowadays. We spend a lot of time and effort in doing segmentation studies and developing our products based on the results,” Abdulla said. Targus has been operating in the region for almost 10 years. At this year’s GITEX it is exhibiting with various partners, including Redington and Despec. “We are trying to spread our base and support our partners. We want to let the customer know that Targus is well represented in the Middle East, as is its distribution network, and we are catering to all the consumer needs – be it B2B or B2C – in all categories of laptop production and accessories, security and tablet accessories. Our presence at GITEX is to reassure the channel and the market that we are present here and reemphasise that presence in the region,” Abdulla said.
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“GITEX is the biggest IT event in the region. We have gained significant mileage for our business in the region through our presence in the event. It has provided us the platform for meeting all of our existing partners and vendors. The event attracts a lot of potential customers. We have made breakthroughs and translated into business opportunities with new and existing customers, vendors and resellers. Moreover I believe it is an ideal time and place to introduce ICT technology, product or services to the market in the region.” Mohammad Mobasseri, Sr Vice President, Comguard
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