NEWS

GARTNER: THREE AREAS DRIVING THE TOP TRENDS IN DATA AND ANALYTICS

Data & analytics (D&A) leaders should embrace three imperatives when leveraging the top D&A trends for 2022 in their enterprise, according to Gartner. The three key areas are: Activate

Dynamism and Diversity, Augment People and

Decisions, and Institutionalise Trust.

“This year’s top D&A trends represent business, market and technology dynamics that will help organisations anticipate change and transform uncertainty into opportunity, both of which have come under the purview of the D&A leader,” said Rita Sallam, Research

Vice President at Gartner.

Activate Diversity and Dynamism

The rise of adaptive artificial intelligence (AI) systems, such as AI engineering, drives growth and innovation while coping with fluctuations in global markets. Innovations in data management for AI, automated, active metadata-driven approaches and data-sharing competencies, all founded on data fabrics, unleash the full value of data and analytics.

As one example, the trend “always share data” reinforces data sharing as a businessfacing key performance indicator that an organisation is achieving effective stakeholder engagement and increasing access to the right data to generate public value.

The 2022 trends in this category include: adaptive AI systems, data-centric AI, metadata driven data fabric, and always share data.

Augment People and Decisions

To make insights relevant to decision makers, D&A leaders must deliver enriched, contextdriven analytics created from modular components by the business. This includes prioritising data literacy and putting in place strategies to address the scarcity of data and analytics talent.

Through 2025, the majority of CDOs will have failed to foster the necessary data literacy within the workforce to achieve their stated strategic data-driven business goals. Gartner research shows that organisations that deal with the human elements of D&A are more successful than organisations that only consider technology. A human focus fosters broader digital learning, rather than simply delivering core platforms, datasets and tools.

The 2022 trends in this category include: context-enriched analysis, business-composed D&A, decision-centric D&A, and skills and literacy shortfall.

Institutionalise Trust

Achieving value from D&A at scale is only possible by managing AI risks and enacting connected governance across distributed systems, edge environments and emerging ecosystems.

As AI regulations proliferate globally, they are mandating certain auditable practices that ensure trust, transparency and consumer protection. By 2026, Gartner anticipates organisations that develop trustworthy purpose-driven AI will see over 75% of AI innovations succeed, compared to 40% among those that don’t.

COMMSCOPE ANNOUNCES HIGH-SPEED FIBRE PLATFORM PROPEL

CommScope has introduced Propel, a high-speed fibre platform designed to help data centre managers respond to the exponential increase in demand they are experiencing for computing power. This new technology facilitates the migration to Terabit speeds, by providing reliable connectivity and a robust network infrastructure that aligns with rapidly emerging data centre applications, enabling faster, more efficient access to data.

Data centre demands have soared as workers, students, nurses, businesses, local communities and government agencies have moved to cloud computing, streaming services and AI applications. The industry continues to respond to an increase in economic life online by building new data centers and investing in ways to dramatically increase data center capacity.

“Over the past few years, we have witnessed extraordinary technical advances and a rise in computing devices that connect to the real world. Data centres are key assets in the data-driven economy and it’s critical that the industry pay attention to energy usage and space requirements as we move toward terabit speeds,” said John Schmidt, Senior Vice President, CommScope’s building and data center business. “CommScope’s Propel solution was engineered to ensure data center operators can maximise existing infrastructure investments while preparing for future applications in a smarter and more efficient manner.”

Propel facilitates the modernisation of the network. Propel introduces 16-fiber cabling to support the fast growing 400 Gbps and 800 Gbps speeds, as well as emerging 1.6 Tbps speeds. This enables leading edge network architectures to deliver greater capacity to end devices with increased efficiency, saving time and energy while also greatly reducing the cost per gigabit.

Propel modules are available in four different interchangeable sizes with matching cable constructions to easily scale applications with system architectures. All components are ultralow loss for optimal performance and have a specific QR code for performance tracking and online instructions.

AVAYA AND ALCATEL-LUCENT ENTERPRISE PARTNER TO DRIVE CLOUD TRANSFORMATION

Avaya and Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise have announced a strategic partnership that extends the availability of Avaya’s OneCloud CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) composable solutions to ALE’s global base of customers while also making ALE’s digital networking solutions available on a global basis to Avaya customers.

Through this partnership, ALE will offer Avaya OneCloud CCaaS, which provides advanced AI, Identity and Security, Workforce Engagement Management (WEM) and customer service capabilities to ALE customers. Avaya will offer ALE Digital Age Networking solutions to its customers, covering the full spectrum of enterprise wired and wireless connectivity technologies with advanced cloud platform services, leveraging the latest in IoT analytics, digital workflow, secure mobility, AI for network automation.

“We are extremely pleased to partner with Avaya to deliver market-leading CCaaS capabilities to our customers and expand the market reach of our Digital Age Networking solutions,” said Jack Chen, CEO, ALE. “The extensibility and composability of the Avaya OneCloud CCaaS platform allows us to work with an ecosystem of industryleading partners to build with Avaya deeper and more engaging experiences our customers need.”

“We are very excited to partner with ALE to offer our OneCloud CCaaS to their global base of nearly one million customers and nearly 3,000 partners, while bolstering our portfolio with the addition of ALE networking technologies,” said Jim Chirico, President and CEO, Avaya. “The partnership we have announced is highly complementary and we believe it represents a significant opportunity for Avaya and ALE customers alike to accelerate their move to the cloud by deploying world-class cloud technologies from two global communications leaders.”

Business customers across the globe will be able to achieve their digital transformation and move to the cloud delivering differentiated customer experiences for their end customers and better work experiences for their employees.

HELP AG, WATERFALL SECURITY SOLUTIONS TO BOLSTER INDUSTRIAL CYBERSECURITY

Help AG, the cybersecurity arm of e& enterprise (formerly known as Etisalat Digital), has partnered with Waterfall Security Solutions, the global industrial cybersecurity player. With this partnership, Help AG will assist industrial clients in the UAE to securely connect their IT and OT environments for safe and optimal performance.

Many industrial organisations – such as those in the manufacturing, utilities, facilities, and rail industries – today are looking to integrate IT into their production facilities for smarter operations. This brings the importance of industrial cybersecurity to the forefront, as a successful attack on an OT system can have catastrophic consequences that range from halting operations to endangering physical safety.

Help AG’s industrial clients will benefit from Waterfall’s Unidirectional Security Gateways and related products to tackle the security challenges involved in IT-OT convergence, as well as Waterfall’s long experience in helping organisations to integrate IT and OT environments safely and securely. Additionally, the company’s suite of unidirectional offerings facilitates integrations with other technologies and services offered by Help AG partners, enabling the delivery of true end-to-end solutions rather than point products.

Stephan Berner, Chief Executive Officer at Help AG, said, “One of our key focus areas is helping our clients in the industrial sector to safely integrate their IT and OT systems. For this reason, we are very pleased to partner with Waterfall Security Solutions, a leader in the field of ICS/SCADA cybersecurity. Waterfall’s Unidirectional Gateway technology meets the security needs of

Stephan Berner, Help AG

modern industrial organisations, and our UAE clients now have full access to their patented solutions.”

Lior Frenkel, CEO and Co-Founder at Waterfall Security Solutions, said, “Our partnership with Help AG is driven by a shared commitment to secure vital industrial networks in the UAE. Help AG’s deep technical expertise, as well as strong relationships with critical infrastructure utilities, industrial enterprises and other technology providers, will enable Waterfall to contribute more effectively to integrated and comprehensive industrial security programmes.”

ALEC UNVEILS NEW SUBSIDIARY TO TRANSFORM DATA CENTRE CONSTRUCTION

Building on its strengths in construction, MEP, logistics, fit-out, and technology integration, and looking to cater to growing demand for regional data centres, ALEC has announced the establishment of its newest subsidiary,

ALEC Data Centre Solutions.

In addition to designing, implementing, and commissioning turn-key data centres that conform to the highest international standards, the company will offer clients prefabricated data centres for quick deployments within the region. It is also set to be the first in the region to specialise in liquid immersion solutions that will result in more sustainable, customisable, and cost-effective data centres. In the coming weeks, ALEC Data Centre Solutions will also inaugurate its flagship experience centre where clients and prospects will have the opportunity to see the company’s solutions first-hand and engage with experts about their specific requirements.

“Until now, cost, expertise, logistics, customisability, and scalability have all presented formidable challenges to regional organisations looking to establish their own data centres, hampering their ability to innovate at pace and scale,” said Kez Taylor, CEO at ALEC. “With our entry into the rapidly advancing data centre space, ALEC is set to fill the void for a single, large-scale specialist organisation that can offer the entire gamut of data centre development services.”

ALEC Data Centre Solutions will focus across three primary lines of business — traditional data centre construction solutions, prefabricated solutions, and modernisation & retrofit solutions. Furthermore, the company will have the ability to offer Liquid immersion solutions within all these sectors.

With a strong focus on world-class build quality, the company will utilise the Group’s in-house civil, MEP and technology expertise to become the preferred contractor to support enterprises and hyperscalers in the successful delivery of large-scale, customised data centres for cloud service delivery, mission-critical workloads, and disaster recovery purposes.

With its prefabricated data centre line, manufactured at its dedicated facility in Dubai, the company will be able to offer rapid, scalable, edge-type deployments across multiple or remote sites in the region. This line of business will provide future-proof, end-to-end solution for businesses looking to steadily grow their data centre footprints as their computing needs evolve. The wider ALEC Group’s established expertise in logistic, shipping, manufacturing, and on-site installation translate to a unique advantage for ALEC Data Centre Solutions in the prefabricated data centre domain which is set to redefine the market in years to come.

Furthermore, through its partnership with Submer, a leading innovator in advanced immersion cooling solutions for Cloud and Edge computing, ALEC Data Centre Solutions is primed to set new benchmarks in data centre energy efficiency with solutions that help save 50% on CAPEX building costs, up to 95% on cooling expenses, and more than 90% water usage for cooling purposes.

UNIPHORE BUYS COLABO TO OFFER KNOWLEDGE AI AND AUTOMATION

Conversational Automation company Uniphore has announced that it has acquired Colabo, an AI-powered knowledge automation solution that specialises in extracting and utilising information from structured and unstructured documents in real time.

Today, Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVAs) and human agents have access to legacy knowledge management systems not connected to enterprise applications, thus frequently losing value over time from data complexity and quality. With Colabo’s solution integrated into Uniphore’s conversational automation platform, enterprises will be able to leverage AI to extract knowledge entities and graphs from structured and unstructured data. This ultimately helps ensure the most relevant content and next-best action are delivered to IVAs and live agents, for significantly better customer interactions, said the firm.

“Simply put, consumers today expect access to up-to-date information to solve their problems and contact centers can provide better experiences with the latest technologies that do exactly that,” said Umesh Sachdev, Co-Founder and CEO of Uniphore. “This acquisition brings together unique capabilities to arm enterprises with new tools that provide a quick resolution to consumer queries and empower agents with real-time, actionable information.”

“From the start, we built Colabo with a vision to help personalise customers’ experiences from when they contact a business to when their issue is resolved,”

Umesh Sachdev, Uniphore

said Yoav Dembak, Co-Founder & CEO, Colabo. “I am now proud to say we have achieved that and will be taking our vision even further by integrating into Uniphore’s conversational AI and automation platform, bringing rigor and best-of-breed agility and accuracy to every contact center inquiry.”

METAVERSE LEADER BEDU LAUNCHES OPERATIONS IN DUBAI

BEDU, Dubai’s Web3 technologies and solutions provider, has announced its UAE launch along with a pledge to empower businesses, governments, and individuals with the tools and knowledge they need to

‘build the next digital frontier’.

BEDU was formed to bring expertise and investment from around the world to the

UAE to accelerate the realisation of the vision for Web3, blockchain, NFT (nonfungible tokens) and the Metaverse.

Web3 is the third stage of the web evolution that uses the power of Artificial intelligence (AI), Machine learning and blockchain to make the internet smarter providing greater utilisation for users. And

NFTs are digital properties in the form of art or media purchased using Blockchain technology. This evolution of the internet is expected to provide users with access to virtual and augment reality experiences in the real digital world, more commonly known as the Metaverse.

“BEDU is committed to creating worldleading blockchain, Web3, and Metaverse solutions within the UAE and then expanding that progress throughout the MENA region and beyond, because we see the country as a potential Silicon Valley for NFTs and blockchain,” said Khaled Al Huraimel, CoFounder and Chairman of BEDU. “We are born out of the UAE, but global in our vision for the next iteration of humanity’s shared digital world. We are the leader in the blockchain space – a gateway to the Metaverse for the UAE and the region. Together with our clients, we shall build a new virtual economy and the next digital frontier.”

BEDU’s leadership and technical teams collectively aggregate decades of international experience working with governments, brands, and businesses.

The company operates under two business verticals: BEDU Labs and BEDU World. BEDU Labs is an ‘NFT factory’ that provides turnkey solutions for clients interested in pursuing the potential of the Web3 arena. Services include planning, creation, deployment, and promotion of Web3 and NFT projects, as well as coaching for digital creators on how to safeguard their intellectual property.

BEDU World is the company’s vision to the creation of a future interconnected ecosystem – the Metaverse. Bedu World is to be announced soon and is designed with a unique futuristic approach, and will be an extremely sophisticated and advanced approach, based on a unique blockchain implementation that BEDU has developed. This proprietary Metaverse, will be a breakthrough in its visual and technological implementation and will provide the ability to capitalise on the realm’s limitless potential as it gives rise to a new digital economy characterised by tokenomics and blockchain.

BEDU has embarked on a range of innovative projects that will span 2022 and beyond. This includes UAE NFT, an Emirates-based NFT collection that is investing in the advancement of the digital space, the metaverse, and Web3, with a vision to progressively build a community within the industry.

The first project from BEDU as part of the UAENFT collection is the ‘From Desert to Mars’ that showcases works created by seven of the most creative and influential international NFT artists.

NUTANIX EMPOWERS UMNIAH TO LAUNCH VIRTUAL COMPUTER FOR FIRMS IN JORDAN

Nutanix has announced that Umniah Jordan, one of the region’s fastest-growing and most reliable telecommunications providers, has implemented Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform combined with Citrix Virtual Desktops to offer a fully supported Virtual Desktop Infrastructure to businesses in Jordan.

Speaking about the new solution, Ziad Shatara, CEO of Umniah said, “We are constantly looking to pioneer innovative digital solutions and we see our role as an important catalyst in the digital transformation of business in Jordan and the Kingdom as a whole. We launched Virtual Computers to our customers due to its many benefits including user mobility, ease of access, flexibility and greater security. This service is now even more attractive to businesses looking to enable and empower a remote workforce.”

Umniah, in cooperation with ProTech, Cloud Champion partner of Nutanix in Jordan, delivered a turnkey solution comprising of Citrix Virtual Desktop software running on top of Nutanix Enterprise Cloud hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) platform.

Khaled Al Rashdan, CEO and Founder of ProTech explained, “Having reached the highest level of cloud partnership with Nutanix, we have a high degree of technical proficiency and expertise in the vendor’s infrastructure. The Nutanix and Citrix combined solution that we proposed is the most powerful one available in the market today, which is being utilised by organisations across the globe and now with Umniah.”

“With the underlying Nutanix infrastructure, we are confident of a reliable, secure and flexible solution that is highly scalable to accommodate the growing Virtual Computer demands of our customers. We offer our customers a very high SLA for availability,” added Shatara.

INDUSTRY LEADERS INTRODUCE OPERATIONAL TECHNOLOGY CYBERSECURITY COALITION

Adiverse group of cybersecurity leaders have come together to launch the Operational Technology Cybersecurity Coalition (OT Cyber Coalition). Founding members include Claroty, Forescout, Honeywell, Nozomi Networks, and Tenable, each with decades of experience in building, protecting, and defending our nation’s industrial control systems and critical infrastructure assets.

The OT Cyber Coalition advocates for vendor-neutral, interoperable, and standards-based cybersecurity solutions and works collaboratively with industry and government stakeholders on how to best deploy data-sharing solutions that enhance our country’s collective

Marty Edwards, Tenable

defence. Its efforts support the notion that competitive solutions promote innovation and strengthen our national security.

The OT Cyber Coalition represents a broad spectrum of people, processes, and technology, and offers a unique and crucial perspective on the best practices applicable across the entire OT lifecycle.

Through its direct engagements with the US Government, the OT Cyber Coalition will encourage the adoption of interoperability and vendor-neutral cybersecurity characteristics, provide industry expertise, share feedback on public policy proposals, and advocate for increased funding for federal OT cybersecurity.

Grant Geyer, Chief Product Officer & CISO, Claroty, said, “No one entity or provider has a monopoly on protecting critical infrastructure, and a vendorneutral and open standards approach can ensure that we’re all working in concert to keep the country safe.”

“Our combined customer base represents the largest and most impactful organisations in critical infrastructure,” said Shawn Taylor, VP of Threat Defense, Forescout. “We have the potential to collect asset information, vulnerability data, threats and security incidents, and risk status to provide real time insight and data to help support the US government, asset owners and operators as part of our collective defence mission.”

“Although we may be a group of competitive OT cybersecurity companies, we also are extremely passionate about working collaboratively to improve the cybersecurity of these sometimes fragile OT environments,” said Jeff Zindel, Vice President and General Manager of OT Cyber Security for Honeywell Connected Enterprise. “This work is essential to protect our country’s critical infrastructure.”

UAE IOT ACADEMY BY SOFTWARE AG BEGINS INAUGURAL BATCH OF IOT ASPIRANTS

Software AG welcomed a full house of UAE IoT Academy’s inaugural batch at an in-person session held in Dubai last month. The first session was organised with the aim to impart a perspective of what the students should expect from the specialised programme on IoT that spans 15 weeks of intense learning delivered by the region’s first IoT Academy. The learners will gain the needed knowledge and skills to build and lead IoT-based transformations and benefit from industry information and insights which will further stimulate and enrich students.

The programme comprises of four modules that will focus on market,

Rami Kichli, Software AG

technical, project and practical (use case creation), equally divided during the programme period that will impart IoT fundamentals by gaining an understanding of IoT strategies and exclusive insights and practical aspects into managing ideation to adoption through realworld corporate business cases. The classes will be held twice a week for three hours each in a virtual set up. The programme will also cover two tracks in IoT – business and technical with certifications offered in both. Depending on the function and interest area of the participants, one or both can be chosen. Certifications will be awarded to participants based on attendance, assignments and final projects. Software AG will provide the participants with the requisite devices, technology and architecture to facilitate this programme.

Rami Kichli, Senior Vice President, Middle East and Turkey, Software AG, said, “This marks a milestone for Software AG in the region. Our presence in the region has moved beyond business and we have integrated ourselves with the local community with this educational initiative. With a top-down philosophy of always contributing to the communities we operate in at Software AG, we consider it as our responsibility to partake in the visions of regional leaders and this is our humble way of giving back to the society.