60 Mins - Day 5 - 12PM

Strategic ICT Partner

Technology Partners

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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

Moving up the value chain The leading distributor Computerlinks is devising a strategy that may just reshape the dynamics of the Middle East channel market.

“In the Middle East in particular, Computerlinks is working towards bringing in smaller product lines that offer more value to our partners rather than bringing in larger vendors, with huge product lines and smaller margins. The reason we do this is simple because we want to give the smaller but more focused partners an opportunity to make more margins, cater to more customers and ultimately be more profitable,” said Lee Reynolds, MD at Computerlinks, MEA and APAC. “In the region, there is a large gap between the big and massive partners and smaller to medium sized partners. Often times, it is the smaller partners who really do a great job servicing our customers but are rarely given a chance to succeed because they are overshadowed by the larger players in the market. So we’re trying to change this scenario and it’s really going to be our goal over the next few quarters.

Lee Reynolds, MD at Computerlinks, MEA and APAC We’re going to bring on partners like Exinda who have really been dormant for the last two and a half years but have now brought on new management and a new structure as well as some great technologies. By doing this we want to help those small to medium sized resellers get some market share off the bigger players,” added Reynolds.

“I think the whole structure at Computerlinks in the Middle East is one that focuses on bringing the smaller partners into that arena of servicing the higher customers.

I really enjoy that, it makes me happy to do that,” he said.

Reynolds believes that the whole strategy of shifting focus away from the bigger players will benefit the entire channel community. “If market concentration continues and only the big guys continue to dictate margins, we will all be out of job in the next five years. The balance has to be maintained. If we continue on this path where the same partners do the same business with the same vendors offering the same level of service, we’ll soon see no value in the value chain, there will be no value added distributors or resellers unless we begin to put some of the good technology with good margins into the channel,” he explained.

The company is now marketing campaigns to promote this strategy by introducing some technologies that are new and some that have been existing but have changed to offer better value to customers. “We are trying to go back to market with some of products simply because they have been addressing the wrong markets and the wrong customers.

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du plans to ramp up managed Moving up the service offerings 4 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

value chain

So we’re mapping out the right partners, revising our following quarters marketing spend and shelling out strategies for our product managers,” he said.

“We are also launching new channel programmes in addition to giving smaller customers an opportunity to be at larger events and introducing them to bigger customer only if they come into a SLA that we are in control of,” he said.

Computerlinks has just moved into a new office in Dubai that now houses two new training rooms in addition to hiring a professional services champion. The company is now all set to target the small to medium sized businesses in the region to help them develop themselves and their business to take them back into the market to be more profitable.

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du is looking to increase its presence in the enterprise market by rolling out a series of managed service offerings, says Farid Faraidooni, Chief Commercial Officer, du.

The operator currently offers a few managed services in the enterprise space, but Faraidooni said it is investing to become a big player in the space.

“This is a lot of opportunity for us in the business market. We are focusing on introducing many managed services that go beyond the simple telecommunications offerings that we are associated with. We started this last year.

We’re investing in the capabilities to provide managed services. Today we provide a few of these services and we continue to develop others,” Faraidooni said. du currently provides global connectivity managed services where it works with large

enterprises and multinationals with operations in the UAE and connect them globally.

“We don’t just provide the connectivity but we manage it for them working with global partners and assure that they have a highly reliable network that will ensure a 24/7 operations. This is one thing we have been focusing on and something we are gaining a lot of market share in,” he said. du has also introduced its first set of managed security services.

At GITEX it has been showcasing a product that it sells off the shelf to combat DDoS attacks.

“It’s completely managed by us. Enterprise customers can just buy this service from us and we completely secure their network from any DDoS attacks. So their infrastructure is completely monitored by us 24/7 and we protect them from any external attacks,” Faraidooni said.

“We have also launched a managed video conferencing service where we manage your conferencing set-up in your offices in and out of the UAE. We connect them all on one network and manage it for the company,” he added.

However, du plans to expand its score in the enterprise further by allowing customers to outsource all non-core services to it.

“We’re talking software-as-aservice, infrastructure-as-a-service, security-as-a-service, CRM solutions and office connectivity solutions. We are also going into vertical-specific managed services for hospitality, health, banking and transportation organisations.

This is something we are currently developing and you will see more of these services launched in a phased approach during 2013. Some of them are developed completely by us and some with partners,” Faraidooni concluded.

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GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK 2012 HIGHLIGHTS

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Digital Forensic Investigations of Any Kind Incident Response & Remediation Training and Services Geoff Brooks Regional Sales Manager - Middle East, India & Africa PO BOX 211364, Dubai UAE Mobile No : +971 506 527659 gbrooks@accessdata.com www.accessdata.com

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Clear and present danger customized attacks, which is by far the hottest topic in the region these days.

Noman Abdul Qadir, Regional Manager, MENA, Citrix Peter G. George, President and CEO at Fidelis Security What is the main theme of Fidelis presence at GITEX this year?

Today’s information technology landscape is a battlefield, and companies have been drafted into an epic good vs. evil struggle. So, this year Fidelis ‘main focus at GITEX will be to show companies how to defend themselves against APTs (advanced persistent threats) and targeted

How are you presenting your company at GITEX this year to differentiate it from the technology crowd?

At GITEX, Fidelis is represented in our distributor’s booth, Spectrami. We are showcasing how our product, Fidelis XPS, has a unique approach to Advanced Threat Defense to give organisations a powerful tool to deal with targeted, customized attacks /“advanced persistent threats” (APTs).

What are the key trends influencing your approach to GITEX 2012 and the offerings you are pushing?

The ongoing battle to protect an organization’s protected and sensitive information requires sustained vigilance, as threat actors are determinedly focused on the theft, or exfiltration, of protected information, continually evolving their attack methods to bypass organizations’ security

countermeasures. Fidelis XPS provides organizations with the network visibility, analysis, and control necessary to manage advanced threats, analyze forensics data more intelligently, and prevent data breaches.

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

Fidelis recently became part of General Dynamics and will now offer an even more robust, comprehensive portfolio of cybersecurity solutions to help organizations combat the most advanced cyber threats.

Fidelis XPS defense-in-depth solution, mitigates and prevents the risks of today’s advanced and persistent threats, with real-time session-level visibility, analysis, and control for bi-directional communications. By examining all network traffic--at protocol, application, user and content levels—either independently or together for context, Fidelis XPS’ robust controls enhance the network security architecture,

45% of UAE don’t use credit cards online Payment gateways in the UAE are the safest option for consumers in order to avert fraud. This was the message from payment gateway cashU, a leading secure online payment solution, at the Gitex DIC panel discussion on ‘Payment Gateway Technology Challenges’ yesterday.

“Cards are being compromised.

The majority of cards which are

compromised are done offline. This occurs at places like restaurants. Card details are copied and details stolen.

This is why payment gateways mitigates the risk of phishing and card cloning,” said Martin Waldenstrom, CEO, cashU. A recent study revealed that 45% of credit card holders in the UAE prefer not to use their credit cards online fearing details would be stolen.

However cashU provides merchants with a unique payment solution which reaches millions of potential online buyers in the MENA region.

Waldenstrom said using credit cards online was far safer than using it anywhere else.

Currently the UAE contributes to 15% of the total number of cashU users.

allowing for: a higher probability of detecting advanced threats with multidimensional visibility over the entire life cycle of the threat; faster and more efficient incident response with tightly integrated discovery, investigation, and remediation capabilities; and is scalable up to tens of Gbps, multiple files per second.

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?

We have seen very positive response to our Advanced Threat Defense approach in the Middle East. The number of Fidelis XPS solution evaluations in the Middle East region has dramatically increased in just the last few months with customers endorsing the value we bring to the market and we are confident we’ve got the best security solution proposition for them.

Anything you’d like to add?

We are confident the Fidelis momentum in the Middle East region is going to continue and that GITEX visitors will find the solution they are looking for in our booth.

Waldenstrom said in the next few years there would be new apps and technology that would take online safety to the next level and reassure consumers. “Near-Field Communication (NFC) is the next step in online safety. This would be completely easy for consumers to simply wave their mobiles over a laptop and make a payment. In the next few years there will be a huge shift towards this,” he added.

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Aramco attack has been great for security demand: Proofpoint The malware attacks on Saudi Aramco may have been devastating for them, but it has led to a healthy increase in demand for new security technologies, according to Spencer Berry, Director NEMEA, Proofpoint.

The ‘Shamoon’ malware attacks that destroyed 30,000 Aramco endpoints provided a wake-up call to Middle East organisations that were not protecting their networks sufficiently, Berry said.

“We’ve definitely seen an increase in demand for security solutions since the Saudi Aramco attack became public.

We’re getting a lot more enquiries coming to us now as opposed to us going to them and talking about it. People are actually coming to us asking how our solutions work and how they can deploy them. It’s picked up very quickly for us,” he said.

This year’s GITEX has shown a clear increase in awareness of security concerns, according to Berry.

“This year at GITEX we’ve observed an increased eagerness to talk about

security. It does seem to be at the top of CIOs’ minds right now, especially with the high profile attacks we’ve seen in the region this year. People want to know how they can improve their security. There seems to be buzz around security and that’s great for us,” he said.

“It’s been a very good week for us. We’ve seen a lot more activity.

There seems to be a lot of questions and queries around the technologies we deal with like advanced

Companies are fed up with ineffective security: Verdasys There has been a fundamental shift in the IT security market as companies become fed up with investing significantly in ineffective technologies, according to Graham Howton, Channel Manager, EMEA, Verdasys.

Howton referred to the high profile breaches that have dominated worldwide headlines in the last year as evidence that organisations are “losing the battle.”

“If a company has critical intellectual property to lose, chances are they have already lost it and don’t know. Hence, if you look after the data and apply the right policies to a risk-based approach then you are covered. Security should be about protecting the data rather than Printed with GIT cartridges

shoring up firewalls and restricting access,” he said.

To highlight this, the main theme of Verdasys’ presence at GITEX this week is to show the comprehensive nature of a “data-centric” security strategy.

“The data has to be considered the crown jewels of whatever business we happen to be in, and if we look after that then most of the security technologies we have in place already becomes irrelevant,” Howton.

He alluded to enterprise information protection as a holistic solution that is much more than just data loss prevention (DLP).

“With incredibly accurate data classification, automated controls, and extremely competent forensics, we are

persistent threats (APTs) and spear phishing. A lot of people are coming and asking questions about our specific module on those threats, how they can use that and whether they can use it on top of things they’ve already got,” he added.

Berry also admitted that hackers remain a step ahead vendors in the security battle.

“At the moment I would say generally the hackers are ahead of the vendors, which is why you’ve got to

at the leading edge of this technology where no one else can follow.

Verdasys Digital Guardian is a proven technology platform for protecting IP and regulated data from compromise by privileged insiders, strategic partners and targeted cyber attacks,” Howton said.

“Digital Guardian enables secure data sharing across physical and virtual environments, including virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions on desktops, laptops, servers, and mobile devices,” he added.

Howton also spoke of the important of GITEX to Verdasys, which is counting on the Middle East as a key region for growth.

“The Middle East represents an amazing opportunity to us because the market is very receptive to leading edge technologies and they are willing to deploy innovative and new ideas.

bring these new types of technology in. But I imagine over the next six to eight months the vendors will get their noses in front again.”

Despite this, Berry said he believed Proofpoint differentiate itself in the security market through its emphasis on ‘anomalytics’.

“Having worked for Cisco and Symantec I have a feel for how other vendors approach security.

The technology we use implements big data ‘anomalytics’. We look for anomalies in the mail pattern. All of the vendors are pretty good these days at stopping bad mail, but what we’re doing is looking at what good mail flow looks like and for each customer we can start to build up a map and flow of what normal good mail looks like,” he said.

“Therefore, if we’ve stopped the bad and know what’s good, we’re left with a very small amount of suspicious mail. It’s that suspicious mail that our targeted attack security module then filters off,” he added.

Graham Howton, Channel Manager, EMEA at Verdasys Inc The cyber threat is very real and the entire region is increasingly aware and willing to do something about it. The idea of actually protecting the data instead of the network or the devices is quite compelling, and makes absolute common sense,” he said.

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