NEWS

THREATQUOTIENT TO HIGHLIGHT THREATQ SOLUTION AT GITEX 2021

ThreatQuotient will be showcasing ThreatQ, their Threat Intelligence Platform (TIP), at GITEX 2021 to be held from October 17-21. With ThreatQ, ThreatQuotient will be demonstrating a range of solutions that support datadriven approaches such as Extended Detected and Response (XDR) and Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) platforms.

ThreatQ is an open and extensible tool that empowers organisations to automate the intelligence lifecycle, quickly understand threats, make informed decisions, and accelerate detection and response. It supports both standard and custom integrations, with feeds and security systems. ThreatQ also enables data-driven Extended Detection & Response (XDR). Its adaptive data engine imports and aggregates external and internal data, curates and analyses it for decision making and action, and exports a prioritized data flow across the infrastructure. Moreover, ThreatQ’s SOAR harmonises disparate systems to orchestrate and automate response.

“At GITEX 2021, we plan to increase the visibility of our ThreatQ platform,” said Firas Ghanem, Regional Director, Middle East & Pakistan at ThreatQuotient.

“We hope to engage with CISOs and CTI heads from across the region, as well as international visitors, to explain how ThreatQuotient can assist them in enhancing their security operations and CTI practice. GITEX is an important platform for ThreatQuotient; as the Middle East’s largest, most anticipated, and influential exhibitions, there is an excellent opportunity to connect with industry professionals, be it with our partners, existing or potential customers, or individual experts.”

Firas Ghanem, Regional Director, Middle East & Pakistan at ThreatQuotient

DWTC REVAMPS NETWORK CAPABILITIES WITH EXTREME NETWORKS

Extreme Networks has successfully completed a large-scale network overhaul for the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) increasing the network capacity of the venue tenfold.

As a result of deploying Extreme solutions, such as Extreme Fabric Connect and ExtremeAnalytics, DWTC can offer a variety of next-generation digital applications, including media displays and contactless engagement technologies, more robust security and improved health and safety measures.

Maan Al-Shakarchi, Regional Director META, Extreme Networks, said, “The Dubai World Trade Centre is demonstrating how the events industry can emerge stronger and more resilient following the pandemic by leveraging technology to help them broaden their

Maan Al-Shakarchi, Regional Director META, Extreme Networks

reach and innovative services. While many have waited on the sidelines, DWTC has made confident investments to futureproof and advance its IT infrastructure. The solutions we’ve provided have not only built a solid foundation for DWTC to continue to innovate, but to achieve the infinitely distributed connectivity required to stay at the centre of the region’s events calendar.”

To make Dubai the world’s leading destination for major exhibitions, conferences and events, including GITEX GLOBAL 2021, and in anticipation of a 50% year-on-year increase in network traffic, DWTC turned to Extreme. Together, they have designed a converged IP network infrastructure powered by industryleading solutions, such as Extreme Fabric Connect and ExtremeAnalytics. By leveraging ExtremeAnalytics, the team at DWTC will gain greater visibility into foot traffic patterns, congregation areas, concessions traffic and overall app usage throughout its events. These insights will allow them to optimise venue operations and provide more personalised experiences for all attendees.

RUBRIK ANNOUNCES RANSOMWARE RECOVERY WARRANTY

Rubrik has announced a Ransomware Recovery Warranty to further assure customers that their data will be available to keep their business running. Rubrik allows companies to recover their data from cyber attacks and operational failures, and this first-ofits-kind ransomware recovery warranty underscores Rubrik’s deep commitment to data security for its customers. The

Rubrik Zero Trust Data Security platform is designed to protect business data against surging ransomware attacks, enabling IT teams to rapidly recover their applications and resume normal business operations.

“With this new Ransomware Recovery

Warranty, our customers have our commitment that we care as deeply about protecting their data as they do,” said Bipul Sinha, CEO and Co-Founder of Rubrik. “With ransomware attacks increasing more than any time in history, having a recoverable copy of your data has become a top agenda item for CIOs and CISOs, and we understand how important data security is to ensuring the security of a business.”

This offer will be available for Rubrik customers running Rubrik Enterprise Edition and working with a Rubrik Customer Experience Manager (CEM) to ensure industry data security best practices are in place. This strategic collaboration and offering will enable the highest standards of data security excellence.

“With this bold move, Rubrik’s Ransomware Recovery Warranty proves they’re putting their money where their mouth is. This warranty underscores Rubrik’s confidence in their data security products and in their ability to recover their customer’s data after a cyberattack. This sets the standard for what it means to be a strategic data security partner and shows Rubrik fully supports customers.” — Matthew Day, CIO of Langs Building Supplies

Bipul Sinha, CEO and Co-Founder of Rubrik

NUTANIX AND CITRIX COLLABORATE TO DRIVE FUTURE OF WORK

Nutanix and Citrix Systems are announcing a strategic partnership through which they will provide secure, on-demand, and elastic access to apps, desktops, and data from any device, in any location, at any scale through Nutanix hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) and hybrid multicloud deployments of Citrix

DaaS and Virtual Apps and Desktops services.

“Organisations continue to look for

IT solutions to support the agility, flexibility and reliability required for a hybrid workforce,” said Tarkan Maner,

Chief Commercial Officer at Nutanix.

“Together, Nutanix and Citrix can deliver remote work solutions which can be deployed across private and public clouds, combining the simplicity of the Nutanix Cloud Platform, powered by the industry-leading HCI software, with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops services, to empower workers, wherever they happen to be.”

The partners have a successful track record of doing so, jointly powering remote work environments for thousands of customers, including large enterprises such as Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation, large public institutions such as Arizona State University, and across vertical industries including healthcare, financial services and more.

Under the planned partnership: • Nutanix will become a Citrix preferred choice for HCI hybrid and multicloud deployments. The

Nutanix Cloud Platform delivers an ideal IT environment to support

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops services in a hybrid multicloud environment. Customers will be able to take advantage of Nutanix industry leading HCI – whether on-premises or in the public cloud – delivering simplicity, cost advantages, and a unified management plane enabling

Tarkan Maner, Chief Commercial Officer at Nutanix

workload portability across clouds. • Citrix will become the preferred enterprise end user computing solution on the Nutanix Cloud

Platform. Delivered as part of Citrix

Workspace, Citrix Virtual Apps and

Desktops enables organizations to serve up personalized access to the systems, information and tools their employees need in one, unified experience and dynamically apply security policies based on a user’s behaviour and environment so they can work when, where and how they want with the confidence that their applications, information and devices are safe.

VMWARE UNVEILS EDGE PRODUCT PORTFOLIO

At VMworld 2021, VMware outlined how it is helping customers make sense of a more complex, multi-cloud environment and unveiled its vision for how it will help customers navigate the shift to the edge. It also introduced VMware Edge, a product portfolio that will enable organisations to run, manage, and better secure edge-native apps across multiple clouds, anywhere.

“A new type of workload is emerging – edge-native apps – that must run at the edge to perform as intended. AR/ VR, connected vehicles, and immersive gaming are becoming mainstream. 5G has made the use of collaborative robots, drone fleets and digital twins a reality,” said Sanjay Uppal, Senior Vice President and General manager, Service Provider and Edge, VMware. “VMware delivers a trusted foundation – a multi-cloud edge – to help organisations move forward in the new edge reality.”

VMware Edge brings together products from across VMware that will enable organisations to run, manage and better secure edge-native apps across multiple clouds at both near edge and far edge locations. VMware Edge solutions are purposefully designed for edge-native apps and their unique performance and latency requirements.

VMware Edge solutions include:

• VMware Edge Compute Stack,

unveiled today at VMworld 2021, is a purpose-built, integrated VM and container-based stack that will enable organizations to modernize and secure edge-native apps at the far edge.

VMware Edge Compute Stack will be available in Standard, Advanced, and

Enterprise editions. VMware also has plans to develop a lightweight version of VMware Edge Compute Stack to provide an extremely thin edge for lightweight apps. • VMware SASE combines SD-WAN capabilities with cloud-delivered security functions, including cloud web security, zero trust network access, and firewalling. These capabilities are delivered as-a-service across both the near and far edge locations from a global network of points of presence (PoPs). • VMware Telco Cloud Platform has been delivering near edge solutions to the largest communication service providers in the world from their

Sanjay Uppal, Senior Vice President and General manager, Service Provider and Edge, VMware

4G/5G core all the way to the radio access network (RAN). By helping service providers modernize their network underlay, VMware enables them to deliver overlay edge services to their consumer and enterprise customers.

VMware has key partnerships across the broad edge ecosystem to deliver seamlessly integrated solutions to customers. Its broad partner ecosystem spans public cloud providers, service providers, edge-native app developers, network services providers, system integrators, network equipment providers, near-edge hardware manufacturers, and far edge hardware manufacturers.

SAFE SECURITY TO UNVEIL MARKET PLANS AT GITEX 2021

Building on the momentum of its recent entry and investments in the Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) market, Safe Security, a Cybersecurity & Digital Business Risk Quantification company, has announced its presence at GITEX Technology Week 2021. The company will use the event as a platform to showcase its brand and enter into high level discussions with the regional channel community and potential customers around its vision, strategy and roadmap.

Dr. Cherif Sleiman, Chief Revenue Officer, EMEA at Safe Security said, “As organisations across the globe are becoming increasingly impacted and crippled by cyberattacks, our mission is to make the world a safer place. Traditional cybersecurity tools besides being costly, complex and resource-heavy, give a sense of security but lack visibility of enterprisewide and real-time cyber risk posture. Our ‘SAFE’ platform is a game changer, bringing a shift from detecting to predicting cyber breaches. It offers a unique way to manage, measure and mitigate cyber risks proactively and enable Security and Risk management leaders to not only make cybersecurity an informed business decision, but also helps them communicate more effectively with all stakeholders.”

“GITEX presents us with a great opportunity to evangelize C-level management that bear the onus of risk within a company and expound the importance of a change in mindset from reactive to proactive and predictive cybersecurity strategies, policies and

Dr. Cherif Sleiman, Chief Revenue Officer, EMEA at Safe Security

procedures. Channel partners will be key to our success in this endeavour. As such, we will be announcing several exciting initiatives and partnerships, which we believe will help us develop a robust channel ecosystem that will act as an extended arm of our company,” Dr. Sleiman continues.

MIRAL ROLLS OUT ANALYTICS POWERED DIGITAL STRATEGY

Abu-Dhabi based Miral has announced the launch of its Decision Analytics strategy; the Noor Initiative. The all-new and bold strategy is in line with Miral’s digital transformation strategy for Yas Island, and part of its ambition to become the region’s most dynamic and influential leisure and entertainment developer by 2025.

With the rollout of the new strategy, Miral will enhance its current investment in big data and predictive data analytics to build a digital foundation and integrate innovation across both internal business streams and external, customer facing projects. The Noor Initiative will strengthen business efficiency and productivity, whilst delivering better personalised experiences for local and international visitors to Yas Island’s award-winning attractions and experiences.

Mohamed Abdalla Al Zaabi, CEO of Miral, said, “Today, businesses need to invest in innovative digital tools to equip and empower its people, decision making and performance. Evolving into a data-driven organisation is an ambitious and bold strategy, launched within a defining year for Miral as we mark our 10-year anniversary. Big data and predictive analytics solutions are already central to Miral’s strategy for Yas Island, in use every day by visitors to our award-winning attractions to enrich their experiences and reinforce the island’s position as a leading global entertainment, leisure and business destination.”

The Noor Initiative builds on successful digital projects and customer-facing tools already implemented by Miral for guests to use on Yas Island. Harnessing big data analytics has led to the deeper customisation of products and services accessed by visitors, driving a strategic customer-centric and integrated approach to offer personalised experiences.

The initiative also supports Abu Dhabi’s economic vision to become a centre of innovation, whilst advancing its position as a prime location for international investment and partnerships. The leisure, entertainment and tourism sectors are key pillars to this vision, with Miral enabling growth amongst these strategic priority areas and further contributing to Abu Dhabi becoming a truly data-driven destination.

SOFTWARE AG TO DEMO CONNECTED ENTERPRISE AND SMART CITY SOLUTIONS

Software AG has announced its continued patronage and participation for a sixth consecutive GITEX. Under the theme ‘Empowering the Truly Connected Enterprise’, the tech provider will showcase its latest technologies and bring to life connected enterprises, breakthrough silos and accelerate innovation within organisations. The interconnectedness will transpire through its suite of solutions that include Integration & API management, IoT & Analytics, and Business Transformation in addition to AI models for enterprise level businesses.

The highlight showcase is a ‘360-degree Immersive Video Experience’ – a visual

Rami Kichli, Vice President, Gulf and Levant, Software AG

and sensory experience depicting how people & technology can be connected for a smarter tomorrow. It highlights how every ’thing’ can be connected, both cloud and on-premise with the ability to master and convert data into business value. The stand also boasts a gamified Smart Bike showcase built with Cumulocity IoT and Edge AI capabilities combined. The fully connected Smart Bike will convert data into value by analyzing the rider’s information such as posture impact on cycling speed, and other KPIs such as average speed, power and total distance. This reiterates how IoT and AI can also help in sporting/ fitness endeavors and transform overall quality of life through usable data on hand. The combined showcase advocates Dubai’s competitiveness in innovation, services, technology and the connected ecosystem as a foundation that has fueled a futuristic, robust and secure ‘Smart City’.

“Software AG at GITEX is a winning combination, year on year”, said Rami Kichli, Vice President, Gulf and Levant, Software AG. “We are back, once more reiterating that data will be everywhere and in any ‘thing’. The amount of data generated is expected to grow constantly and rapidly leading to continuous decoupling between physical assets and data, which will power all types of devices. AI and analytics will dominate the life one leads in the future and will accelerate digital transformation and seamless interconnectedness spurring smarter economies. The future is clear: break down silos and get connected.”

CISCO UNVEILS VISION FOR DIGITAL AND SUSTAINABLE FUTURE AT EXPO 2020

Cisco, the Official Digital Network Partner of Expo 2020 Dubai has unveiled The Cisco Grove – an immersive environment designed to demonstrate how intelligent networks can enable new possibilities for a sustainable, inclusive future.

Located at Expo 2020 Dubai’s Partner Hub, Cisco’s digitally powered environment takes inspiration from natural groves and their intelligent underground systems. Aligned with Expo 2020’s theme of ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’, The Cisco Grove illustrates how smart, intuitive networks can create greater connectivity, forge opportunity and power an inclusive future for all.

Cisco shares the vision of Expo 2020 Dubai to deliver the most digitally connected and immersive event in World Expo history. Cisco technologies and innovations help power digital experiences throughout the Expo site. Various Cisco teams have spent already more than 2.5 million hours supporting technology rollout at the Expo 2020 Dubai site across 30 technology areas.

“Working in close collaboration with Cisco since 2018, we have witnessed the transformative nature of digital technologies firsthand. We are proud of the experiences on offer at Expo 2020 Dubai today and believe that visitors to The Cisco Grove will also share in our enthusiasm for building a future which is both green and digital,” said Mohammad Alhashmi, Chief Technology Officer at Expo 2020 Dubai.

At The Cisco Grove, invited guests can explore the ‘Universe of Data’ – a state-of-the-art projection and hologram-based experience. They can select one of three interactive experiences and engage with the network to learn more about: • The City of Tomorrow – A look at how smart cities can deploy digital technologies to connect, protect and enhance the lives of citizens. Use cases on show include solutions for government, transport and logistics,

and smart buildings.

• Artificial Intelligence and Machine

Learning – The experience showcases how Cisco applies AI and

ML to solve real world problems, such as identifying and defending against cyberthreats, building autonomous networks that heal themselves and developing smart collaboration solutions for the future of hybrid work.

• The Multicloud Universe –

Symbolizing the wealth of connected data moving through space, where the right cloud strategy can connect any device to any application and any cloud, securely.

“Our digital future requires the use of intelligent networks which constantly learn, adapt and protect. This is exactly why Cisco’s technology was selected as the foundation for secure connectivity at Expo 2020 Dubai. We look forward to welcoming our partners and customers to Expo and to The Cisco Grove, demonstrating how our network can bring human and digital connections to life,” said Shukri Eid, Managing Director, Cisco Gulf Region.

THE NEED FOR SPEED

THE UAE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND PREVENTION TRANSFORMS THE PATIENT EXPERIENCE WITH DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES.

The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) is responsible for the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) healthcare policy and implementation. Since its inception in 1970, MOHAP has strived to enhance the health of its citizens by providing comprehensive, innovative healthcare services at a world class standard. It also acts as a regulator and supervisor of the wider healthcare sector through the UAE’s integrated health legislative system.

Driven by the UAE’s wider mission to turn government entities into digital service providers, MOHAP continued to develop effective health information systems and apply global standards in the management of health facilities and infrastructure. IT operations is a key success factor in this mission and they have continued to improve their systems to be always ready and in line with the wider mission of the organisation.

“We wanted to keep up with the government’s plans to go fully digital and exceed customer expectations. As always, we put our patients first and focus on satisfying their needs. So, we decided to invest in a new technology foundation to ensure the continuous patient satisfaction,” says Mubaraka Ibrahim, IT Director at MOHAP.

NOTICEABLE IMPROVEMENTS HAVE ALREADY BEEN EXPERIENCED AND REPORTED, AND MOHAP IS STILL SEEING THE BENEFITS OF ITS NEW SD-WAN SOLUTION. FOR EXAMPLE, CUSTOMERS HAD LONG BEEN REQUESTING WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY INSIDE THE HOSPITALS SO THEY COULD STAY IN CONTACT WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD AND KEEP THEMSELVES ENTERTAINED WHILE THEY WAIT FOR THEIR APPOINTMENTS. THIS IS NOW POSSIBLE, THANKS TO THE SUITE OF NEW FORTINET PRODUCTS DEPLOYED.

MOHAP’s Internet and MPLS network was always heavily used by all medical staff from within the organisation and patients from outside the organisation. This very high demand necessitates the need for more speed in a new more agile way.

Thus, MOHAP was looking for a new technology that provides a reliable, fast, and highly available connectivity, with adequate security and strong coverage across all sites. An overhaul was necessary, but the solution they chose would have to meet a strict set of criteria.

In addition to the solution required, it was essential that its new IT partner offered enterprise-level support and had experience dealing with sites of a similar size and sector.

The offering needed to be easy to manage and maintain across a wide area network (WAN), with high security standards to protect its growing realms of sensitive customer data. It needed to be able to identify and close gaps in the system, be thoroughly tested to avoid any problems and, of course, it needed to be highly rated and trusted by the industry.

After finding out about Fortinet through third-party consultants and squaring it up against other network and security solution vendors, Fortinet passed MOHAP’s proof of concept testing. Fortinet proved that they were able to provide the standard of support MOHAP would require –and in some areas, even exceed expectations.

“The level of service Fortinet provided has been excellent. We’re delighted to continue to work with them on modernising and expanding our IT services,” says Sameer Khoory, IT Advisor at MOHAP

Fortinet Professional Services provided the overall architecture and solution design and deployed the solution in MOHAP’s data centre and 16 major sites and hospitals. MOHAP is still in the process of rolling out these changes to all 160 locations, but has already begun to reap the rewards of this digital transformation.

With the introduction of Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN, MOHAP has been able to ensure a high performance MPLS. The IT team has more visibility over the network and can manage issues more effectively, all with the built-in security of FortiGate next-generation firewall. Secure SD-WAN also enabled MOHAP to load balance the MPLS and avoid overloading its corporate network.

The network itself is faster and more resilient. Thanks to the clear visibility provided by FortiAnalyzer, managing the network and deploying changes has become second nature. The automatically-generated reports have helped with this too, making it simple to track bug fixes and reduce errors from occurring. The reduced manual troubleshooting process, and increased automation, have resulted in a quicker time to resolving errors.

MOHAP prides itself on providing excellent customer satisfaction, and this area has increased exponentially since the new system was deployed, allowing more customers to receive the service they need, exactly when they need it. MOHAP expects this will be reflected in its annual customer satisfaction survey.

Noticeable improvements have already been experienced and reported, and MOHAP is still seeing the benefits of its new SD-WAN solution. For example, customers had long been requesting wireless connectivity inside the hospitals so they could stay in contact with the outside world and keep themselves entertained while they wait for their appointments. This is now possible, thanks to the suite of new Fortinet products deployed. MOHAP was also able to add more than 20 new locations to its system within a week to help cope with COVID-19 – something that wouldn’t have been possible had it maintained its legacy connectivity.

“Fortinet’s solutions have allowed us to be able to put our patients first as always and focus on satisfying their needs,” says Mubaraka.

MOHAP looks forward to deploying its new system changes across all corners of the organisation. The organisation is well on its way to offering fully digital, cutting edge services that are accessible to all, not just those fortunate enough to live near a location with connectivity. Easier to reach, easier to use, reliable 24/7: MOHAP’s mission statement has been realised with help from Fortinet’s solutions and the guidance of Fortinet Professional Services.

Business Impact

• Ensured customer satisfaction and reduced number of complaints • Improved network connectivity and speed for a better guest wireless experience • Aligned organisation’s standards and progress with government’s vision