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Show dates: 12-16 October 2014, Dubai World Trade Centre
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AT GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK
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Exhibition hours: 10am -6pm
Gartner on the consumerisation of retail
Miriam Burt, Research Vice President, Gartner is interested in the way we shop. As an expert in
retail trends, Burt has her eye on what is happening in the world of consumers. “The umbrella trend under which all other trends fall is consumerisation of retail,” says Burt. “By that we mean that there is a shift in the way consumers are powered by technology. They are making retailers realise that they need to deliver a great customer experience.” Essentially, technology is putting the power in to the hands of the consumer. Consumers, she says, have all the same technologies and capabilities as retailers. They can do research and comparison shop as well as
inform themselves about a product without ever leaving their homes. This is true worldwide as well as the Middle East. “As far as consumers are concerned, our research shows that consumers in the Middle East are no different from consumers worldwide,” says Burt. Though retailers in the Middle East have traditionally lagged behind in consumer technology, a leap forward is eminent. “Middle East retailers are in a position where they have the resources to leapfrog some of the lessons that the rest of the world had to learn the 4 CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 hard way,”
Keeping an eye on networks with RSA
Gitex plays a critical role in RSA’s business growth strategy in the region as the show provides an ideal
platform the company to meet its customers and partners from across the region, according to Ahmed Abdella, Regional Director – Turkey, Emerging Africa and Middle East, RSA. “Last year, we had around 80 percent of growth in the region. First half of 2014 has already marked 42% growth across the region. Within Gulf alone, we have doubled our business within the first half,” he adds. RSA is launching an Advanced Security Operations Centre (ASOC) at Gitex this year, which is a combination of technology and services that gives security
operations teams complete visibility to identify and investigate attacks. In the past, security solution providers were focused on perimeter security which included firewall, antivirus, IPS and IDS. With the onset of cloud data, mobile hardware, and big data, network perimeters have blurred and the traditional approach to security is no longer valid, says Abdella. He adds SIEM as a technology can no longer keep pace with the evolving threat landscape. “It creates logs of the activities taking place within the network 4 CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
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