60 Mins - Day 4 - 6PM

Strategic ICT Partner

Technology Partners

Powe rin g I T a h e a d

60 Mins Show dates: 14-18 October 2012, Dubai World Trade Centre

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| AT GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK | Exhibition hours: 11am -7pm

Eye on the game Imation is working towards helping people and organisations Store, Protect and Connect their digital world.

“We are an innovative company that infuses creativity in our products, brands, technologies and work processes. We take our consumer oriented products through our own brands Imation, TDK Life on record and Xtrememac in this part of the world,” said Prasad Ramachandran, Regional Manager, MEEA, Imation The global scalable storage and data security company’s portfolio includes tiered storage and security offerings for business and products designed to manage audio and video information in the home.

At GITEX Technology Week this year, Imation is highlighting two of its key product lines - TDK Life on Record and XtremeMac. “TDK Life on Record, is a prominent global brand with rich audio legacy dedicated to personalising and enhancing audiophiles’ ever-evolving digital music lifestyles. TDK Life on Record audio products marry a clean, striking design with the

Prasad Ramachandran, Regional Manager, MEEA, Imation

precision and flexibility of modern technology, and are carefully crafted to focus on performance.

XtremeMac on the other hand, manufactures case, charger and audio solutions for Apple devices that protect, power and play. Each product compliments an Apple device with clean design, leading features and intuitive functionality and is developed for Apple enthusiasts by Apple enthusiasts,” said Ramachandran.

Having shifted its focus to

cater to the region’s growing consumer and SMB space with its latest range of products and solutions the company is now actively investing in expanding its partner base in the region. It is careful to tie up with partners who possess a regional reach to ensure they are able to tap into regions surrounding the Middle East and that is precisely why the company believes in the benefits of participating at GITEX Technology Week.

According to Ramachandran, while the business continues to grow it is realistic and careful about its partnerships and takes on only those partners who come with a significant level of reliability, it does this through a careful pre selection process and reference checks to arrive at a final decision. “GITEX is the platform that introduces us to many potential partners, the work starts after that for we then have to screen and study each one of these prospects to ensure we choose the ones with the right capabilities and solutions expertise,” he said.

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Emerson exhibits with Mindware Emerson Network Power and regional distributor Mindware have been exhibiting together at GITEX this week following the partnership they recently signed.

Through the agreement, Mindware will deliver Emerson Network Power’s single-phase uninterruptible power systems (UPS), power distribution units (PDU), racks and accessories, coupled with an unprecedented level of specialist consultancy and aftersales support across the region.

“We had been looking for a brand to partnership with for a long time.

For us it was about completing our portfolio in the networking space because we didn’t have any VPS products. It’s an opportunity to integrate with vendors we already have in our portfolio like Dell because Emerson has an excellent relationship with Dell,” said Mario Gay, General Manager, Mindware.

This alliance also adds another leading technology supplier to Mindware’s portfolio of solutions.

Our tools are just like having an extra technician by your side

Mario Gay, General Manager, Mindware Emerson Network Power and Mindware will deliver world-class UPS and PDU technology, racks and accessories to Mindware’s 2,500-strong regional reseller network and team of certified consultants.

Training and support will be a vital component of the partnership, so that resellers are equipped to

ensure SMBs benefit from the technology and meet their evolving infrastructure needs, sources said.

Rather than targeting a specific vertical market segment, Mindware will deliver products and solutions

by Emerson Network Power that address the entire ICT critical infrastructure space, recognising that no matter what sector the enduser is in, the need to reliably and efficiently store servers or provide secure power is the same, the company said.

“Emerson is not just growing on an organic basis but also on an acquisition basis – it’s hungry for acquisitions. We started looking at the market and integrating all of our products into one market unit.

We identified huge opportunity in the IT channel market and started discussions about six months ago with Mindware. It has an excellent network of more than 2,500 resellers and it’s an excellent footprint for us to add onto our

“Emerson Network Power and Mindware will deliver world-class UPS and PDU technology, racks and accessories to Mindware’s 2,500-strong regional reseller network and team of certified consultants.”

business,” said Pierre Havenga, Managing Director, Emerson Network Power, MENA. “The major message we want to bring out into the industry this week is firstly the partnership. Secondly is that Emerson is not just focusing on the largest enterprise market, but we also opportunity in the SMB market. That’s an area that we haven’t actively targeted in the past and given this excellent relationship now, we foresee fast growth in the region,” he added.

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GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK 2012 HIGHLIGHTS

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Citrix pledges to bridge gap between provider and end-user for mobility

Noman Abdul Qadir, Regional Manager, MENA, Citrix Citrix Systems has said it is dedicated to bridging the gap between providers and end-users when it comes to mobile strategies and BYOD, according to Noman

Abdul Qadir, Regional Manager, MENA, Citrix.

Qadir believes that IT departments are hesitant to provide their staff with devices and mobile strategies due to fears of security and lack of understanding when it comes to cloud and virtualisation.

“In a survey, we recently found that 70% of employees liked the flexibility of mobility, using their own devices and being able to access their data and work wherever they like. However, many of them are saying that their companies aren’t providing this service, causing a huge gap between provider and end-user, we’re here to bridge that gap,” he said.

Qadir says that Citrix is now not

only supplying companies with the knowledge and understanding of cloud services and how it ties in with mobile strategies, but also an entire virtual desktop offering. With Citrix managed services, employees can access, not only their applications and data, but also their entire desktop, regardless to what server it’s running on.

However, with the opportunity to take your complete desktop, virtually, to any part of the world, companies recognise that the security risks increase and that they have far less control over their data and applications.

“We’re enabling mobile services and simplifying cloud and virtualisation

so that enterprises can confidently deploy them. There is a lack of understanding but it’s decreasing in the region,” said Qadir.

“GITEX is important for us in this area because it gives us air cover, we can reach people who wouldn’t be easy to reach otherwise. Also, it gives us a chance to work closely with our alliance partners. We work closely with Microsoft, HP, Cisco, IBM, etc, and they’re located here. It’s a onestop-shop.”

Citrix is exhibiting directly at GITEX for only the second year and already has plans of expansion at the event.

“We didn’t have enough time to bring in all of our partners this year for GITEX, however, we have huge plans to expand here next year. We’re experiencing huge growth in the market and we are investing because we recognise the opportunity,” he concluded.

Intigral signs pact with MBC Intigral, a digital media solutions provider in the Middle East and a subsidiary of STC Group, announced a new quality addition to the interactive television service “Invision” video content, with the provision of 7 MBC HD channels in an interactive environment that employs HD technology, through an agreement that the company signed with MBC Group.

Commenting on the agreement, STC’s Vice President for Home Services Eng. Mazyad Al Harbi said: “Having the strongest telecommunication infrastructure in the Kingdom, coupled with our

adoption of the latest technologies as the 4G mobile networks; all are factors that contribute to bolstering the amount of content services that STC provides through handsets and other platforms. Clearly we are living in a sector that is growing in its digital capabilities. Therefore, we are pleased to sign this special agreement, through which we will continue to provide an exceptional customer experience in digital viewing for our Invision customers.”

Al Harbi added: “Our longterm agreement with MBC Group corresponds to our vision and strategy

to be the forerunners in providing digital media services, exclusively through Invision, to our customers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is also a great leap of progress on the road to transformation towards HD transmission systems in the Middle East region.”

“The signing of this landmark MBC HD agreement further strengthens our strategic partnership with MBC as part of our commitment to enrich our customers viewing experience” commented Dr. Ismaeel Makdisi, Intigral’s Acting CEO. “Our long

Eng. Mazyad Al Harbi, VP for Home services at STC, demonstrates MBC HD channels after signing the agreement term agreement with MBC and other international broadcasters and content providers is aligned with our vision and strategy in remaining the Kingdoms’ best source for highquality IPTV services,” he added.

Publisher Dominic De Sousa, COO Nadeem Hood, Managing Director Richard Judd, Commercial Director Rajashree R Kumar, Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan Editors Pallavi Sharma, Ben Rossi Sub-editor Joe Lipscombe Circulation Manager Rajeesh M, Production Manager James Tharian, Design Director Ruth Sheehy, Senior Designers Analou Balbero, Froilan Cosgafa IV, Glenn Roxas, Digital Services Manager Tristan Troy Magma Web Developers Erik Briones, Jefferson De Joya Photographer and Social Media Co-ordinator Jay Colina

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Cloud development will decelerate: Ericsson With many vendors at GITEX telling everyone that walks past their stand that cloud is only going to accelerate moving forward, Ericsson has gone against the grain by declaring quite the opposite.

Jeremy Foster, Head of Marketing and Government / Industry Relations, Ericsson MEA, said this deceleration will come from the challenges of transferring data across borders.

“We all recognise the benefits that can be drawn from cloud computing, but the problem is that if I put my server in my back garden and you live in a different country to me, then who’s jurisdiction should govern the data that is being processed on that server. So I would say we are in the early days when it comes to cloud,” Foster said.

“I’d even go as far as saying that we’re going to see a deceleration of development of cloud whilst regulators and jurisdictions sought themselves out around how to bring it to market in a way that you can wrap policies around. That’s not just in the Middle East, but globally. It’s a problem everywhere.”

Jeremy Foster, Head of Marketing and Government/Industry Relations, Ericsson MEA The world is at very early days in having a legislative and regulative system to help manage the data in a way that ensures local laws are followed, according to Foster.

“If you think about a country, you might have one or two cloud providers in that country, but even those cloud providers that have

physical infrastructure will probably ‘cloud burst’ – which is when you seize other infrastructure an make it part of your infrastructure – and as soon as that goes over a border we come across a challenge. So yes we’ll have private clouds, but in terms of the ecosystem, I think we’re at such an early stage with

cloud that we’re just trying to tease out the detail,” he said.

Whilst Foster may be pessimistic about the development of cloud, he remains very positive on broadband in the MEA region.

“We’re in common agreement that broadband is really a good thing. It’s a catalyst for business growth and we’ve seen a number of studies by different players, including by Ericsson, showing how doubling the speed of broadband having a 0.3% on GDP growth which equates to billions of dollars, even in a market like the UAE,” he said.

“With this concept of leaping technologies, it shows that there are benefits to being second.

The good thing is you don’t have infrastructure that you have to manage or make use of because it’s sitting there anyway, so emerging markets are very important for us. It’s interesting because I think we will actually starting learning from the emerging markets because they are not encumbered by consumption of previous technologies.”

STC announces collaboration with SPA Adjacent to GITEX, STC concluded a strategic cooperation agreement with Saudia Private Aviation (SPA), the business aviation unit of Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia).

Modern telecommunications services and solutions will be provided to passengers aboard SPA aircrafts, as well as STC’s establishment of a Business sector service centre, as part of the comprehensive ground Printed with GIT cartridges

services for private aviations in Jeddah.

The agreement was signed by Eng. Mohammed Nasser Al Jasser, STC’s Vice President for Enterprise Services, and Faisal Al Sadeeq, Commercial Affairs Manager of SPA. The STC’s enterprise sector entered as a main partner with public and private sector departments, organisations and companies to implement technological infrastructure

projects aiming at upgrading performance, boosting productivity and enhancing competitive capabilities for various institutions locally and regionally. Through signing agreements with departments such as Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Labour, STC managed to establish the actual transformation stage that enables the public sector to adopt

a modern concept in implementing administrative operations.

STC is into its 32nd year at GITEX, through the STC pavilion, where the company provides the most recent IT services and solutions of business sector in KSA. The event presents great networking opportunities and a forum for discussion and exchange of ideas and experiences in all aspects of the industry.

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