A safe bet

ISSUE 12 \ SEPTEMBER 2019

A SAFE BET HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR MANAGED SECURITY SERVICES PROVIDER

CONTENTS

44 PRODUCTS

A SAFE BET IS MANAGED SECURITY SERVICES RIGHT FOR YOU?

10 10 TO A CONNECTED WORLD 18 ROADMAP ENTERING A ERA 20 NEW WHY YOU NEED AUTOMATION FOR 24

MODERN SECURITY

DATA-CENTRIC APPROACH TO DIGITAL BANKING

THE WAY WE INVEST 26 CHANGING GET READY FOR 28 THE FUTURE

PUBLISHED BY INSIGHT MEDIA & PUBLISHING LLC

18 34 LEVERAGING ERP TO OVERCOME 4IR 36 CHALLENGES

A PERFECT FIT FOR THE DIGITAL AGE

6 NEWS REGION’S FIRST ROBOTIC FULFILLMENT CENTRE OPENS IN DUBAI

THE DIGITAL WORKSPACE 38 TRANSFORMING

AVEVA, WORLEY TO DELIVER CLOUD-BASED ERM SOLUTION FOR EPC MARKET

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EQUINIX, VMWARE PARTNER TO ACCELERATE HYBRID CLOUD TRANSFORMATION

HP NEVERSTOP LASER LENOVO THINKSMART HUB 500 AXIS PTZ NETWORK CAMERA

DEWA, HUAWEI TO LAUNCH AI LABORATORY

PRODUCTS

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EDITORIAL

CHANGING THE GAME

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his month’s cover story is about managed security services, which is finding favour among enterprises of all sizes in the region. Until recently, outsourcing security to a third-party provider was unthinkable for many of these organisations. But, with the daily barrage of attacks and lack of expertise in-house to tackle these threats, the pendulum is slowly swinging towards MSSPs. For SMEs in particular, managed security makes more sense because they can outsource all basic security functions and don’t have to invest in security staff. As for large enterprises, the value proposition of an MSSP model is that they can spend more time on serious stuff such as threat hunting and vulnerability management instead of being bogged down by day-to-day security operations. So, why isn’t everyone ceding their security control to thirdparty providers? The fact of the matter is CISOs are still struggling to sell the managed services story to their boards because there are no clear metrics to gauge RoI. To address this, MSSPs in the region will have to do a better job of packaging their offerings with a compelling business case, and not just harp on the cost factor.

Published by

Publication licensed by Sharjah Media City @Copyright 2019 Insight Media and Publishing

Managing Editor Jeevan Thankappan jeevant@insightmediame.com +97156 - 4156425

We also have a feature story in this edition about how manufacturing is going digital. This industry has traditionally been a laggard when it comes to tech adoption. But that is changing quickly now.

Technologies such as IoT, AI, machine learning, and augmented reality are being deployed not just on factory floors but back end systems as well to revolutionise the whole production process.

Some of the forward-thinking manufacturers are leveraging big data and analytics for predictive maintenance, which analyses historical data of machines and spot defects, to drastically reduce annual maintenance costs. Without a doubt, the future of manufacturing is digital.

In other news, the regional biggest tech show is around the corner, and we have featured what some of the leading vendors are going to exhibit.

This year, Gitex is all set to live up to its promise of making Dubai the tech capital of the world for five days.

I hope to see you there.

Sales Director Merle Carrasco merlec@insightmediame.com +97155 - 1181730

Production Head James Tharian jamest@insightmediame.com +97156 - 4945966

Operations Director Rajeesh Nair rajeeshm@insightmediame.com +97155 - 9383094

Administration Manager Fahida Afaf Bangod fahidaa@insightmediame.com +97156 - 5741456

While the publisher has made all efforts to ensure the accuracy of information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors

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NEWS

REGION’S FIRST ROBOTIC FULFILLMENT CENTRE OPENS IN DUBAI

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Q Fulfillment, the Middle East and North Africa region’s first robotic fulfillment centre, has opened in Dubai. Launched by IQ Holding, the centre provides full back-end solutions using the latest in robotics, AI and software platforms to support the supply chain and logistics industry. IQ Fulfillment supports the needs of small and medium enterprises, incubators, accelerators, and e-commerce players, enabling them to accelerate their business growth. Using the latest in technology and robotics to integrate seamlessly with clients’ online platforms, IQ Fulfillment delivers fulfillment, storage, package protection, and other services.

Fadi Amoudi, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of IQ Fulfillment, said, “IQ Fulfillment fills a distinctive niche in the region, especially with the focus of the MENA region to build its e-commerce ecosystem. Today, the UAE is at the forefront of driving digital technologies and in supporting SMEs to achieve transformational growth. This presents

Fadi Amoudi, IQ Fulfillment a strong growth environment for innovative tech-companies such as ours.

Ensuring end-to-end services, IQ Fulfillment will help address logistical challenges experienced by SMEs such as large number of orders during seasonal

AVEVA, WORLEY TO DELIVER CLOUD-BASED ERM SOLUTION FOR EPC MARKET AVEVA has announced that Worley has selected AVEVA’s Enterprise Resource Management solution as its preferred materials management platform.

The partnership combines Worley’s Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) knowledge with AVEVA’s industrial software expertise to deliver the first cloud-based Enterprise Resource Management solution optimised for the EPC market.

Worley sought to help its customers find a way to streamline their materials management to deliver on these challenges while also creating process improvements, increased efficiency, ease-of-use and the ability to deliver inhouse training.

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(L-R) Andrew Wood, Worley and Craig Hayman, AVEVA

peaks, which can lead to bottlenecks during that period. IQ Fulfillment helps address these gaps through their unique service.

Utilising robotics and AI solutions, IQ Fulfillment assures many features to boost efficiency and productivity.

With a proof of concept (POC) warehouse spanning an area of 45,000 square feet, IQ Fulfillment deploys cutting edge technology from its global partners and is led by a team of expert and multicultural professionals. Among the key features of IQ Fulfillment are robotic picking, seamless integration, end to end track & trace, full live visibility, intelligence storage, package protection, cross-docking, quality control measures, return management and several customised value-added services such as kitting and bundling, gift wrapping, seasonal packing. In short, everything an enterprise needs to build a thriving e-commerce enterprise.

Essentially, SMEs only need to build an app or website based on their business model, and IQ Fulfillment, will support them with warehousing, order processing and delivery by taking all logistical aspects to the highest levels of efficiency.

After reviewing AVEVA’s Enterprise Resource Management solution, which had historically been used in marine settings, Worley and AVEVA, committed to developing the AVEVA solution to become the industry’s first cloud-based enterprise resource management platform purpose-built for EPCs. Andrew Wood, CEO, Worley, said, “We needed to deliver an efficient, cloud-based solution customised for the nuances of our market. With AVEVA, we saw a commitment to developing this solution together to create something best-in-class for engineering. We believe the AVEVA Enterprise Resource Management solution marks a step forward for productivity, efficiency and effectiveness that will drive the EPC industry forward.”

DEWA, HUAWEI TO LAUNCH AI LABORATORY

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has recently hosted an AI and digital transformation-focused summit with ICT firm Huawei.

The event served as a platform for both organisations to exchange best global solutions, experiences, and practices in innovation, disruptive technologies, smart grids, digital transformation, automation, cloud platforms, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Both parties also delved into increasing their cooperation on investments in advancing AI and digital transformation.

The summit was attended by Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Managing Director and CEO of DEWA, and Charles Yang, President of the Middle East Region at Huawei Technologies.

The cloud-enabled solution from AVEVA and Worley is the first of its kind and will be fully optimised for the EPC market.

In April 2019, Worley and AVEVA kicked off the final stage of a fourphase programme to develop the AVEVA Enterprise Resource Management solution for EPCs. Phase one included design, while phase two incorporated the solution build, moving onto phase three integrations and catalog readiness, and now into phase four—project golive and decommissioning of Worley’s legacy solution.

“The construct of the comanaged project team exceeded all expectations. We set up stringent delivery benchmarks and executed the project in phases to ensure alignment between the teams

“This summit with Huawei confirms our serious and ongoing work to speed up a new digital future for Dubai. This is done by making use of Huawei’s skills in major areas that support the Dubai 10x initiative,” said Al Tayer.

The summit witnessed the launch of a joint AI laboratory, through which DEWA and Huawei will develop and implement AI digital services for the Middle East.

The two sides also launched a training and development programme for DEWA staff in different areas of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and disruptive technologies.

“Huawei is leading 5G, AI and cloud computing technologies, and we have the capability to help DEWA build an AIbased digital cloud platform,” said Yang.

“DEWA seeks to invest in and apply AI techniques and tools, and spares no efforts to strengthen mutual cooperation and concerted efforts in knowledge transfer, education and training to make Dubai a city of the future,” said Marwan Bin Haidar, Executive Vice President of Innovation and the Future at DEWA.

remained in place. A transparent and open working relationship with a keen focus on the success of the initiative played a crucial role in adjusting to all project challenges, and this solution is something we are proud to have delivered together,” said Craig Hayman, CEO, AVEVA. The first official project rollout for Worley on the AVEVA Enterprise Resource Management solution for EPCs will begin this month. Worley will use AVEVA Enterprise Resource Management and AVEVA Everything3D innovative plant project execution software in tandem, and the two companies have agreed to work to continually mature enterprise resource management for the EPC market.

PALO ALTO NETWORKS TO ACQUIRE IOT SECURITY FIRM ZINGBOX Global cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Zingbox, an IoT security company, for a total purchase price of $75 million, subject to adjustment, to be paid in cash. The proposed acquisition is expected to close during Palo Alto Networks fiscal first quarter of 2020, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Zingbox’s cloud-based service and advanced AI and machine learning technology for device and threat identification capabilities will accelerate Palo Alto Networks delivery of IoT security through its Next-Generation Firewall and Cortex platforms. Organisations will gain the ability to quickly improve the visibility and security of their IoT landscape. Once combined, Palo Alto Networks will offer IoT security with best-in-class visibility and automated in-line prevention, all integrated with the Next-Generation Firewall and Cortex platforms.

Accoridng to Nikesh Arora, Chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks the proliferation of IoT devices in enterprises has left customers facing an enormous gap in protection against cybersecurity attacks.

“With the proposed acquisition of Zingbox, we will provide a first-of-its-kind subscription for our Next-Generation Firewall and Cortex platforms that gives customers the ability to gain control, visibility, and security of their connected devices at scale,” he added.

Nikesh Arora CEO Palo Alto Networks

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NEWS

EQUINIX, VMWARE PARTNER TO ACCELERATE HYBRID CLOUD TRANSFORMATION

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quinix has announced an expanded partnership with VMware to support VMware Cloud on Dell EMC on Platform Equinix.

The digital transformation landscape has never been more complex.

Enterprises must focus on ensuring the availability, performance, security and reliability of a massive set of applications while operating in a cost-effective and scalable manner. To meet these evolving needs, Equinix and VMware are teaming together to develop solutions to help enterprises accelerate hybrid cloud transformations based on VMware Cloud on Dell EMC within Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX) data centres.

As a fully managed cloud service, VMware Cloud on Dell EMC combines public cloud simplicity, agility and economics with the security, control and performance of on-premises infrastructure. With the Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric (ECX Fabric) interconnection service on Platform Equinix, enterprises can now take advantage of private and secure

multicloud connectivity, and quickly deploy hybrid cloud infrastructures. By also tapping into the power of rich digital ecosystems located at Equinix, enterprises can further unlock value as they gain access to potentially thousands of new global partners they can interconnect with via ECX Fabric.

Pat Gelsinger, CEO, VMware, said, “Equinix and VMware have been partners for several years, serving a majority of

Global 2000 joint customers. Our newly expanded partnership will enable our mutual customers to gain the benefit of the Equinix enterprise capabilities and the world-class VMware Cloud on Dell EMC solution. We are thrilled to be working with Equinix to offer hybrid cloud solutions that accelerate our customers’ digital transformation.”

Charles Meyers, CEO, Equinix, said, “By working together to offer hybrid cloud services, Equinix and VMware look forward to delivering the digital foundation for enterprise transformations in a cloud-first world. Together with VMware, we are reinventing hybrid cloud infrastructures based on the breakthrough VMware Cloud on Dell EMC service to deliver against today’s security, performance and availability requirements. Customers will soon be able to combine VMware’s world-class compute, storage and networking technology with the strength of our global interconnection platform – making hybrid multicloud a reality for digital businesses.”

HELP AG ADVANCES AI-POWERED CYBERSECURITY WITH EXABEAM Further augmenting its capabilities in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for cybersecurity, Help AG has announced a new partnership with Exabeam, the Smarter SIEM company.

Under the partnership, Help AG will bring to market Exabeam’s security information and event management (SIEM) and user and entity behaviour analytics (UEBA) solutions.

Stephan Berner, CEO, Help AG, said, “Through the application of AI to critical labour-intensive tasks, Exabeam expertly enables cybersecurity teams to refocus their efforts on risk rather than events. This is especially beneficial in the region, as these solutions can alleviate the workload on understaffed IT teams, while delivering an elevated ability to detect and mitigate 8

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the impact of complex cyberattacks.”

Exabeam is a recognised leader in the SIEM and UEBA marketplace. It offers the comprehensive Exabeam Security Management Platform (SMP) that enables organisations to take advantage of big data, advanced analytics, and automation capabilities to reduce time to investigate and contain threats by 51 percent.

Stephan Berner, Help AG

Exabeam’s solutions integrate seamlessly with key technologies in Help AG’s portfolio – such as security solutions from Splunk and Vectra – as well as with cloud environments such as Microsoft Office 365, AWS, Google, and Salesforce.

These integrations allow Help AG to unlock the full potential of our customers’ existing cybersecurity investments.

“Exabeam’s solutions perfectly complement the security technologies that form the core of Help AG’s product portfolio, thereby enabling us to create highly effective turn-key solutions for our customers. Furthermore, we have deployed these solutions within our own Cybersecurity Operations Centre (CSOC), thereby enhancing our 24×7 Managed Security Services (MSS) offering,” Berner said.

SAUDI PORT TAPS NUTANIX TO FUTURE-PROOF OPERATIONS Nutanix has announced that the Gulf Stevedoring Contracting Company (GSCCO), a port operator in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is leveraging Nutanix software to increase IT capacity to support growing operations across Saudi port facilities while also reducing IT management overhead.

This includes successfully accommodating a 50 percent spike in container volumes with no impact on operational efficiency.

As the organisation responsible for the management of three major port container and bulk terminals in Saudi Arabia, GSCCO is fully committed to supporting the government’s Saudi Vision 2030 agenda for economic diversification. Scalable, reliable and easy to manage IT systems are recognised as key to delivering this agenda. This has

Saudi port taps nutanix to futureproof operations meant the company both virtualising existing workloads and replacing its endof-life physical infrastructure with a more flexible and scalable hyperconverged software solution to cope with predicted increases in customer demand.

“We wanted a solution that would deliver linear scalability to handle rapid growth in container traffic,” said Hossam El-Masry, Information Technology

Manager at GSCCO. “We were also looking for greater resiliency and the ability to upgrade and manage the infrastructure without any downtime or impact in any way on the level of service provided to staff and customers at the ports we manage.”

Following a comprehensive evaluation of hyperconverged solutions from a number of vendors, the team at GSCCO decided on Nutanix, whose solution enables the company to reach a milestone of 50 percent growth in container traffic well ahead of schedule while significantly lowering operational overhead.

“The Nutanix software delivered fully on its promise of cloud-like scalability, enabling us to add additional nodes in hours rather than days or even weeks with the old hardware and software, and with no downtime,” said El-Masry.

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VIEWPOINT

DATA-CENTRIC APPROACH TO DIGITAL BANKING TAPPING INTO NEW TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS REQUIRES HIGHLY SCALABLE, HIGH-VELOCITY ACCESS TO VAST AMOUNTS OF CUSTOMER AND BUSINESS DATA, WRITES JAMES PETTER, VP INTERNATIONAL, PURE STORAGE.

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he days of “business as usual” are over for Middle East financial institutions.

Retail banks, insurers, investment firms, and wealth management companies alike are all under pressure to deploy new “anytime-anywhere” digital services.

Not surprisingly, according to Ovum’s recent ICT Enterprise Insights, the banking sector recorded high digitisation maturity-progression of 42 percent, second only to the telecoms sector at 43.9 percent.

The most evolved regional enterprises know the potential of their data as a competitive lever and for insights into their customers. They also know that not all data is created equal. To build the most modern IT environments

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and derive the maximum value, there must be an acknowledgment that data types have different needs for access, storage, and management. This is where there is some catching up to do in the finance sector. To survive and thrive in today’s era, financial organizations must become data-centric for managing all key tasks, from customer-facing services to internal back office operations.

By adopting a data-centric approach, using application performance transformation, and by consolidating critical data from multiple source— including IoT devices―Middle East financial services firms can now accelerate processing, adopt automation, deliver personalized experiences, and slash costs. Much of this will be achieved through artificial

intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), robotic process automation (RPA), and advanced analytics.

Tapping into these innovations, however, requires highly scalable, high-velocity access to vast amounts of customer and business data. This all begins with employing modern data strategies in four critical areas.

Boost Performance To accelerate their digital transformation journeys, financial enterprises require a data platform that can consolidate, connect, and accelerate data from both historic and current data sources. The platform must have the capacity to accommodate streaming data from IoT devices and telemetry. It must also deliver analytics and AI/ML applications on-demand.

Financial services firms are now deploying data hub platforms to accelerate data in a way that improves both performance and profitability. It has enabled some, in fact, to reduce database job latency to below 1ms.

Improve Intelligence Every type of investor faces constant pressure to improve performance and top-line revenues. To address this pressure and keep pace with ever changing markets, more firms are deploying models powered by analytics that produce AI and ML driven insights. In fact, according to a report from Accenture, AI will contribute US$1.2 trillion to the financial sector by 2035.

As examples, quantitative analysts are sifting through big data, using AI and ML to create more immediate investment strategies that identify profitable opportunities and balance risks. AI, ML and predictive analytics also add new capabilities to improve forecasting and optimize trading decisions. But none of this can be done without fast processing of large volumes of data from multiple sources.

Firms need scalable storage for constantly growing data volumes.

They also require high-performance

processing to optimize machine analysis and get human beings the answers they need.

Reinvent the customer experience Online and mobile banking customers demand convenient services, whenever and wherever they want them. For financial institutions to stay competitive, delivering such experiences is now strategically critical and customer loyalty depends on it. The opportunity now exists to reimagine the entire customer experience, from core banking to mobile to call centre. With analytics-driven ML, organizations can transform their retail applications, including conversational commerce, voice interfaces, and virtual assistants.

Financial firms can now obtain more value from the data they store and protect. They are now embracing AI, ML, and predictive analytics platforms to leverage their vast data sources, add new value, and deliver experiences that help them attract and keep customers. To cite an example, 78 percent of Swedbank’s contact center interactions are resolved on first-contact by AI. Data storage must be able to keep up with these new capabilities by offering fast access to all data resources with scalable processing power.

Transform Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) Regulatory compliance is now a huge expense for financial institutions.

Analysts estimate it costs the banking industry US$270 billion annually.

In addition, according to a recent Thomson Reuters report, compliance and risk practitioners expect that price to climb. Stopping fraud and criminal activity remains a top, yet expensive, priority. As does risk management.

Both require more immediate access to data and intelligence. Consequently, many firms are accelerating the identification and reporting of liquidity, counterparty, market, and credit exposures.

The ultimate challenge, however, is to make all data immediately available to

all applications in a cost-effective way.

Financial firms can’t afford to devote more people to these problems. Instead, many are turning to new regulatory technology powered by AI and ML to automate some of the processes and complement existing systems.

In fact, 45 percent of respondents to the same Thomson Reuters study expect to invest in automated GRC solutions by 2021. These solutions enable a comprehensive governance, risk, and compliance automation strategy that operates across all functional silos and delivers round-the-clock compliance monitoring, scalable capabilities, and lower costs.

If Middle East financial services firms are to differentiate themselves in the competitive marketplace, innovation is now more crucial than ever. Digital transformation and capitalizing on data provide a vital opportunity for organizations to focus on emerging customer needs, uncover deeper insights, and mitigate risks when launching new services. This, however, will require the use of data enrichment with “alternative data” from geolocation, demographics, medical records, retail foot traffic, and other specialized external sources. It also requires a financial institutions’ data platform to collect, aggregate, and process data in any format.

The starting point for all this is a highperformance, highly agile data storage platform. Modern IT environments should consist of data strategies based on flexible consumption models across on-premises, hosted, and public cloud—aligning application workloads with the most effective infrastructure.

Importantly, modern IT environments should work harmoniously with a common management interface, 100 percent non-disruptive architecture and proactive/predictive support services.

This kind of infrastructure will be able to share data from a multitude sources and facilitate the creation of data pipes for AI workloads.

It’s time to put your organization’s data to work.

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COVER STORY

A SAFE BET IS MANAGED SECURITY SERVICES RIGHT FOR YOU?

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ith increased protection against an ever-changing threat landscape becoming a must-have, many enterprises in the Middle East are turning to managed security services for help. For CISOs who are struggling with a bewildering array of in-house point security solutions and skills shortage, managed security service providers (MSSP) offer a compelling value proposition.

According to IDC, global spending on managed security services is expected to reach $21 billion this year, as more

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and more organisations turn to MSSPs for security capabilities and consulting services.

“Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) are becoming increasingly popular with each passing day. Organisations of varying sizes are relying on MSSPs to prevent potentially devastating cyber-attacks. Furthermore, leaning on the digital security professionals for assistance reduces the workload burden on in-house IT personnel and help with cyber-security challenges,” Yasser Zeineldin, CEO of eHosting DataFort.

Yasser Zeineldin

Simon Willgoss He says organisations opt to work with MSSPs for several reasons. Some are concerned that their in-house tech team resources are insufficient. Others lack the relevant expertise provided by the security professionals at MSSPs. In some instances, companies hire MSSPs to perform comprehensive security audits or respond to particularly challenging incidents.

In agreement, Simon Willgoss, Head of MSS, Help AG, says the two main factors driving managed security services adoption are access to expertise and cost-efficiency. Managed Security Services help move IT budgets from intimidating CapEx to more manageable OpEx while at the same time transferring specialised security activities to a team of qualified security experts. This is especially helpful in the Middle East, wherein the lack of skilled cybersecurity professional is a pressing concern.

“The pay-as-you-go model lends itself to both upward or even downward scalability. Finally, availability is also a factor as with an MSSP; the customers get 24x7 support with assured 99%+ availability which ensures that business is always on,” he says.

In mature markets, for small and medium-sized enterprises that can’t afford a full-time CISO, some of the MSSPs have also started offering CISO-as-a-service as a cost-effective alternative. This trend is slowing catching up in the Middle East as well.

Harish Chib “We see the role of a virtual CISO to be played by MSSP. Clients are entrusting the security of their greatest assets—their data—to the MSSP. A successful MSSP will be able to provide both the high-level and user-level guidance the client needs, acting as a resource for the answers, software, hardware, and more and act as a virtual CISO for organizations,” says Harish Chib, VP-Middle East & Africa, Sophos.

“FINDING AN EXPERIENCED CISO THAT UNDERSTANDS THE ENVIRONMENT AND HAS THE ABILITY TO GET CHANGE IMPLEMENTED ACROSS AN ORGANISATION IS EXTREMELY HARD. A CISO (AS-A-SERVICE), CAN WORK WITH A CIO TO ENSURE THEY HAVE AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE THREATS THAT ARE FACING THE ORGANISATION AND HOW TO PROTECT AGAINST THEM. THE CIO WOULD HAVE TO FULLY SUPPORT THIS MODEL, AS THEIR BUY-IN IS ESSENTIAL FOR SUCCESS.”

Matt McCormick, SVP Business and Corporate Development, ThreatQuotient, echoes a similar opinion: “Finding an experienced CISO that understands the environment and has the ability to get change implemented across an organization is extremely hard. A CISO (as-a-service), can work with a CIO to ensure they have an understanding of the threats that are facing the organisation and how to protect against them. The CIO would have to fully support this model, as their buy-in is essential for success.”

The increased demand for managed security services has resulted in many VARs and SIs adding security as a service to their portfolio. With many choices available before them, there are some key criteria for users while evaluating an MSSP. “Technological advancements, in terms of hardware, software, and user needs, have altered the workflow and landscape for MSSPs. Security has become all the more complex, and customers should look for MSSPs with huge security knowledge-base.

The knowledge-base MSSPs must have at their disposal has become accordingly more complicated, as businesses turn to the Cloud and web-based resources to manage their products. Clients are no longer tied to one machine, one server, one location, and the corresponding IT security needs of those clients have increased accordingly,” says Chib from Sophos.

Willgoss from Help AG adds the unfortunate reality of cybersecurity today is that no system can be 100% secure and security breaches are inevitable. Hence , Incident Response with a mix of onsite (“boots on the ground”) and offsite experts is a must.

“CISOs must consider the MSSP’s incident response SLAs to understand how soon (hours/days) they can assign resources and ensure availability of experts.

“To successfully deliver security services, MSSPs will also almost definitely need to login to the client’s environment remotely. CISOs must, therefore, consider what kind of

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COVER STORY

visibility and access they can expect their MSSP to require and whether they can provide records of their access.

Also, CISOs must have a clear picture of what their MSSPs’ resources are doing and when,” he adds.

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According to Zeineldin from eHDF, to ensure that there is a clear demarcation of expectations and deliverables, companies must look for well-rounded service-level-agreements which highlights the services and implementations. It will also need to include the processes and systems that will be put into place for daily work requirements. Given budgets allocations, organisations must be able to understand the flexibility provided by the MSSPs depending on usage patterns as well as the provision of 24x7 security monitoring and management.

Ronen Shpirer, Senior Solution Marketing Manager, EMEA at Fortinet, says it is also important for MSSPs to examine the enterprise technology stack – both on prem and cloud – of customers to identify vulnerabilities.

“Providing silo solutions, or security services based on silo solutions (as is still done today for some MSSPs), s very complex and costly to deploy and

manage. It introduces possible security gaps and limits the ability of automation and agility. MSSPs should evolve their service delivery infrastructure so that security visibility and services are delivered end-to-end with a maximum of integration, automation, and openness via open APIs. “ With managed security services gaining steam in the Middle East, an important question for everyone in the industry is whether your MSSP is liable for damage if an incident occurs.

In developed markets, the liability of exposure can run into multi-million dollars. However, it remains a grey area in the region.

“The liability of an MSSP is always capped, as, unfortunately, there is no way to 100% protect customers from cyberattacks. Many times, customers further protect themselves by having Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) with their service providers to ensure proper response times, etc.,” says McCormick from ThreatQuotient.

VIEWPOINT

KEEPING PACE WITH AUTOMATION LUCKY LA RICCIA, HEAD OF DIGITAL SERVICES AT ERICSSON MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA, TALKS ABOUT THE FIVE TOPS REASONS WHY REGIONAL TELECOM SERVICE PROVIDERS SHOULD WALK THE AUTOMATION TALK.

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igitalisation is shaking up a variety of industries.

Mobile operators face the challenge of digitalising themselves - so that they in turn can accelerate the digital transformation of their business customers. If operators do not transform, they will miss out on the opportunities offered by 5G and IoT. The MEA region’s telecom market has seen a strong uptake of LTE and there is a high smartphone penetration. Increased smartphone usage - together with a large increase in the number of IoT devices using LTE – will lead to significant data consumption growth. As MENA service providers prepare to switch on 5G, they need to increase investment to improve coverage, reliability, and speed to ensure customer experiences do no suffer.

In my conversations with some of the leading mobile operators across the region, it is clear for them that automating network management and operations are crucial steps in their modernization

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strategy. They also get that network automation is fundamental to manage 5G/IoT complexity and efficiently deliver 5G services to customers.

As MENA operators continue to move network functionality from proprietary hardware over to software, here are some of the key questions I am often asked: How can I use automation to gain cost efficiencies? What’s the best way to reduce customer service time? How can data analytics help me gain insights to offer services that my customers desire in a 5G/IoT world?

To present a reliable solution to these questions, Ericsson commissioned MIT Technology Review Insights to interview experts within global telecom operators – resulting in a report titled “Network automation: Efficiency, resilience, and the pathway to 5G”. The article outlines the value of automating network operations and where some of the leaders in the field have started.

From the insights of senior technology executives at network operators globally, the report offers the following conclusions:

1. Face up to disruption: Chief Technology Officers may deem it risky to purposely disrupt their networks, but some “structural change is necessary to gain the benefits of automation”. Changes will be needed to integrate staff with IT backgrounds and programming skills, essential for operating the network.

2. Make a clearer link to the 5G and IoT future: With so much riding on 5G and IoT, making the link more explicit to

CEOs and CFOs can only strengthen the automation business case. With traffic levels boosting, the need for more investment becomes inevitable.

3. Keep the faith with open standards: The MENA region’s service providers and their ability to capitalize on the opportunities arising from new technologies require a significant reduction in complexity within the fragmented operations support area.

Beyond making fuller commitments of their own to one or another opensource platform, “operators should keep up the pressure on their vendors to do the same”. Open Network Automation Platforms can generate even greater value when leveraged to create new services that support new business models across different verticals that will emerge from the introduction of 5G.

4. Embrace DevOps: DevOps is a key enabler of successful software-driven teams and businesses. Arming network staff with new skills may not be enough to help them thrive in fast-paced cloud environments. Whether or not new structures are created, “learning DevOps ways of working across teams can cement the gains achieved from network automation—and much more”.

5. Don’t be afraid to let go: Automating means trusting software to do the jobs that manual management and configuration—and the proprietary tools developed to guide them—performed. “A leap of faith is required to ‘flip the switch’ over to the automation tool. Delaying this or maintaining legacy tools for redundancy purposes are likely to negate at least some of the gains of automation.”

With greater adoption of automation, I am confident service providers in the Middle East and Africa can slash operations costs and introduce services more quickly, become fully prepared to manage complexity and exceed customer expectations in the era of Digital Transformation – likely through services that we have yet to invent!

FEATURE

ROADMAP TO A CONNECTED WORLD THE INTERNET OF THINGS IS BRINGING TRANSFORMATIVE INNOVATIONS TO RESHAPE THE WAY WE WORK AND LIVE.

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ith tech heavyweights such as Google, Microsoft, and IBM throwing their weight behind the Internet of Things, the market for IoT is all set to explode. According to the latest forecast from IDC, global spending on IoT is expected to reach $745 billion this year and will surpass the $1 trillion mark in 2022.

The industries that are forecast to invest the most in IoT solutions manufacturing, transportation, and utilities. IDC says IoT spending among manufacturers will be primarily focused on solutions that support manufacturing operations and production asset management, and in transportation, 18

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more than half of spending will go toward freight monitoring and fleet management.

While there are many predictions about the dizzying number of IoT devices that will be connected to networks over the next couple of years, the technology already has many interesting use cases today. “A good example of IoT today is edge computing where any smart device is an endpoint that creates some sort of digital data at the network edge, such as video, sensor readings, and so on.

The other more popular use cases today can be seen in the automotive sector with connected cars, in the healthcare sector with AI being an enabler for better diagnosis and patient therapies,

Anthony Sayers

and of course smart homes and smart cities where IoT is being used for smart parking, street lighting, and for building better energy management systems,” says Walid Issa, senior manager systems engineering, NetApp. Anthony Sayers, Internet of Things and Analytics Evangelist at Software AG, says the impact and use of IOT today as we connect more and more devices such as sensors has become too numerous to narrow down to a few meaningful use cases. “With the noticeable impact of global warming, pressure on supplies of natural resources, growth of populations to the migration of people to cities, the private sector and government sector are now realizing the positive impact the internet of things can have on delivering greater efficiencies. The meaningful use cases range from smart city projects, transport, industry, natural resources, infrastructure, healthcare, agriculture, and energy.

Prem Rodrigues, director of sales and marketing for Middle East, India and SAARC at Siemon, gives us the example of the working environment. Through the integration of various building management systems via a unified IP based infrastructure it is possible to adjust the office space to the needs of the workers, which leads to improved employee well-being, satisfaction and enhanced productivity.

“The technology behind these intelligent workplaces is IoT software applications and systems that work with sensor technology. Sensors collect information on environmental parameters such as room temperature, occupancy, air quality, lighting conditions etc. Through integration and information sharing with other systems in the building such as HVAC, the workspace adapts to the user’s needs, creating a much more comfortable environment for people to work in,” he adds.

With the proliferations of IoT devices, sensors and systems, it is very important for businesses to understand how the technology will reshape the way we work and how to get the most value out of it.

“Certainly, the most value can be gained through data analytics and data-driven decision making. Using IoT

Prem Rodrigues

THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND THESE INTELLIGENT WORKPLACES IS IOT SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS AND SYSTEMS THAT WORK WITH SENSOR TECHNOLOGY. SENSORS COLLECT INFORMATION ON ENVIRONMENTAL PARAMETERS SUCH AS ROOM TEMPERATURE, OCCUPANCY, AIR QUALITY, LIGHTING CONDITIONS ETC. THROUGH INTEGRATION AND INFORMATION SHARING WITH OTHER SYSTEMS IN THE BUILDING SUCH AS HVAC, THE WORKSPACE ADAPTS TO THE USER’S NEEDS, CREATING A MUCH MORE COMFORTABLE ENVIRONMENT FOR PEOPLE TO WORK IN.

across their environment to optimize operations and build new solutions. AI is playing a key role in IoT, by making sense of data to help businesses optimize their operations efficiency and develop new products.

“It is giving businesses a smarter, more granular approach to the data pipeline edge-core-cloud, enables better use of resources, and the possibility to leverage compute everywhere as well as to adapt it to data location and flow. In addition, it enables new, IoT-native business models and processes,” he says.

The exponential and unchecked growth of the Internet of things also brings in its wake a myriad of security challenges, making it absolutely critical for enterprises to build security systems to protect the IoT infrastructure and the data it generates.

“With the massive scope and breadth of IoT infrastructures, security has become a priority for organizations.

To ensure strong security for IoT, organisations need to implement best practices and secure devices as a first step to make them tamper-proof and ensure endpoint hardening to block potential intruders from accessing data. Deploying network security and implementing strong user authentication and access control mechanisms can ensure that only authorised users gain access to the networks and data,” says Issa from NetApp.

technology that gathers, stores and analyses data from the vast number of connected devices and using the results in a strategic manner will improve an organisations’ operational efficiency which leads to better performance, satisfied customers and employees,” says Rodrigues from Siemon.

Issa from NetApp says like the cloud, IoT has steadily ramped up and is set to transform our industry and how we think about and use data. Businesses are just now learning how they can use data from

Walid Issa

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FEATURE

ENTERING A NEW ERA THE PROMISES AND CHALLENGES RELATED TO DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN MANUFACTURING

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he fourth industrial revolution is changing the face of manufacturing as we know it today. Manufacturers around the world are embracing digital technologies to optimize the production process and deliver new services.

Digital technologies such as cloud, IoT, and augmented reality are core to the digital transformation in manufacturing, helping businesses to change the way operate not just factory floors, but the whole supply chain as well.

According to Forrester research, in volatile market conditions, conservative industrial giants must move faster to survive. And this digital transformation of traditional manufacturing firms cannot be 20

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simply about making existing industrial processes more efficiently. The research firm says manufacturing companies must recognize the opportunity to use digital as a way to create more sustainable and profitable customer relationships, continuously aligning products value to changing customer requirements.

Why do manufacturing businesses need to invest in DX? “Manufacturers today are facing escalating challenges, from global competition to customer demand for highly personalized products. On top of that, margins are paper-thin, cost of resources fluctuate, and the fast pace of change can be dizzying. Innovation in product design, as well as operational

machinery, is transforming industries, changing the way we work and live.

Manufacturers must keep pace to remain relevant. Modernizing shop floor operations is a critical part of remaining competitive. Manufacturers need advanced tools to help them take advantage of new technologies like the Internet of Things, augmented analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Remaining stuck in oldschool thinking is highly risky,” says Jonathan Wood, GM, Middle East & Africa, Infor Terri Hiskey, Vice President of Product Marketing for Manufacturing at Epicor Software, says the number one issue on everyone’s mind in manufacturing is the workforce turnover and the

Jonathan Wood

Terri Hiskey

Ali Hyder

workforce gap. “So, while companies want greater visibility across their shop floors and manufacturing facilities and better productivity, the top areas that companies are looking to adopt technologies for is to fill the labor gap by being able to automate processes and do more with less. There is a pressure now with more people leaving manufacturing jobs than there are to fill them and companies are faced with labor shortages and they are turning to technology to fill that gap.”

Ali Hyder, Group CEO, Focus Softnet, says digital transformation in manufacturing industry would increase output, ensure optimum stock levels for uninterrupted production and reduced costs due to lesser wastage and better quality. It would also ensure proper planning for faster and in-time output.

THE INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT) TECHNOLOGY IS GAME-CHANGING FOR MANUFACTURING. BUILT-IN SENSORS CAN MONITOR A WIDE RANGE OF PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES, FROM WEIGHT AND TEMPERATURE TO VIBRATION AND DENSITY. THIS DATA IS THEN SENT TO THE CLOUD WHERE IT IS SORTED, LOOKING FOR ANOMALIES WHICH REQUIRE FURTHER ATTENTION. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND MACHINE LEARNING HELP TO IDENTIFY THE DATA POINTS WHICH ARE EARLY INDICATORS WHICH CAN POINT TO POTENTIAL EQUIPMENT FAILURE, LOW INVENTORY, SHIFTS IN CUSTOMER DEMAND, OR SUPPLY CHAIN DELAYS. BY IDENTIFYING TRIGGER POINTS EARLY, PRE-EMPTIVE ACTION CAN BE TAKEN.

Hiskey adds there are a couple of answers to this question. “The easiest way that we are seeing people start to use DX is just simply around automating simple processes - using workflows for approval routing rather than paper moving from person to person for example.

“Our recommended first step is that you should understand what your business processes are. A lot of companies are so entrenched and done the same thing for so many years, they couldn’t even tell you what they are. So it’s really important to understand what the processes are and understand where you can gain efficiencies. That way, when you start to invest in technology, you can quantify what the ROI is.”

However, according to Hiskey, it also comes with a caveat: “This is where we have seen companies stumble, where they might make a big investment in DX, but they haven’t done the upfront work in understanding what is it they want to transform. You need to know that upfront before you run out and make a big investment and think that just because you’ve invested in technology, it will change your business. You have to know how to apply that technology to your business to understand the kind of return you will get from that.”

Hyder from Focus Softnet adds that while the latest technologies including IoT and AI are worth investing to get real benefits of digitisation, first thing first is an integrated system which ensures that procurement-to-delivery is all seamlessly

The first step towards DX Forrester adds that to survive, manufacturing firms must become as proficient in the digital world as in the physical one. They must move faster, deliver new value to new stakeholders, and respond to the shifting expectations of both their customers and their customer’s demands.

Wood says an advanced ERP solution with built-in analytics and deployed in the cloud is the first step toward a digital evolution. Analytics powered by Artificial Intelligence provide insights for improving the customer experience, understanding market trends, and speeding decision-

making. Manufacturers must also control waste, manage costs, and streamline operations, saving time, boosting productivity, and increasing efficiency.

Modern ERP solutions make that possible.

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FEATURE

and tightly integrated without leaving gaps. Any broken links in the integration may derail the whole process. Once that is taken care, then automation of input process, monitoring and controlling the production through integrated IoT devices would ensure uninterrupted production flow.

What you can do with IoT Among the new crop of technologies, IoT promises to revolutionise the manufacturing sector with its ability to automate, monitor and control production processes, and deep visibility into supply chains.

“The Internet of Things (IoT) technology is game-changing for manufacturing. Built-in sensors can monitor a wide range of physical attributes, from weight and temperature to vibration and density. This data is then sent to the cloud where it is sorted, looking for anomalies which require

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further attention. Artificial Intelligence and machine learning help to identify the data points which are early indicators which can point to potential equipment failure, low inventory, shifts in customer demand, or supply chain delays. By identifying trigger points early, preemptive action can be taken,” says Wood from Infor.

The advent of IoT in manufacturing has also led to the creation of a concept called digital twins, which Gartner defines as “a software design pattern that represents a physical object with the objective of understanding the asset’s state, responding to changes, improving business operations and adding value.”

Hiskey from Epicor says the best use case for leveraging digital twins is if you have very very complex manufacturing products - something that has thousands of moving parts. If you want to switch from one supplier to another because of prices, instead of risking the whole

production line and finding out later on that there was some issue with that part, as it interacts with all of the thousands of other parts, you can now simulate that through a digital twin and it really brings efficiencies to the manufacturing process with very complex manufacturing.

“For more simple manufacturing, like electronics or where the product is smaller, that technology is maybe more than what you need but again, all of this technology is starting to be become more accessible and more affordable for manufacturers. So, I would expect that in a few years, you will be able to scale down that digital twin technology so even simpler manufacturers will be able to take advantage of it. From what I understand, digital twins can help decrease quality mistakes, it can help make the product development cycle more efficient because you will be able to model using a digital twin rather than taking something all the way to prototype and then having to send it back in case there is an issue,” she adds.

For manufacturing companies, the path fo digital transformation is not without its share of pitfalls. According to Wood from Infor, it is easy to become overwhelmed with data. Once some IoT projects are put in place, the amount of data generated quickly grows. “Unless such initiatives are well thought-out in the beginning design phases, managers can easily be buried in mounds of data—with no clear applications. Instead, it is important to know how, where, and when the data will be aggregated and analysed and the goal.

Advanced BI tools are a necessity for leveraging the vast amounts of data.

“Another challenge manufacturers face is the escalating expectations of customers. Even in business-to-business (B2B) environments, customers expect a buying experience that is highly attuned to their need. This often includes personalized, Make-to-Order products, portals for access to realtime information, after-market service, and fast delivery. A concerted effort – and modern software solutions – are important for keeping customers satisfied and loyal, “ he sums up.

VIEWPOINT

AUTOMATION FOR MODERN SECURITY GARTNER ANALYSTS SAY SECURITY AND RISK LEADERS MUST EXPLORE AUTOMATION TO PROVIDE INCREASED BUSINESS VALUE AND MAINTAIN SECURITY STANDARDS.

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hen Amy, the CISO of a healthcare provider, looked at cloud security across the enterprise, she realized the default access control models were creating a variety of access issues. BeWell’s infrastructure as a service (IaaS) providers defaulted to a secure state, allowing only the owner access.

On the flip side, software as a service (SaaS) providers defaulted to totally

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open access. With multiple clouds in use, it would be impossible for Amy to manually relax permissions for IaaS and ensure adequate controls for SaaS. The solution? Automation.

“No long are we asked a singluar question, ‘how are you providing security and managing risk?” says Katell Thielemann, VP Analyst. “We are now asked a more complex question, ‘how are you helping the enterprise realize more value while assessing and managing risk, security and even safety?’ The best way

to bring value to your organization today is to leverage automation.”

The impact of automation Automation is already impacting the world in two ways, first, as an enabler to the security and risk function and second, as new security frontiers that need to be acknowledged and understood.

As pieces of the business begin to adopt emerging technologies ranging from the cloud to blockchain to digital twins and immersive technologies, CISOs like Amy will find themselves overwhelmed with priorities.

“Other business units are likely building solutions without consulting those of us in security. This means they are making technology-related choices every day, often without realising the risk implications of what they are doing,” says Beth Schumaecker, Director, Advisory, Gartner. “The consequences of these business choices —choices over which we have no control and do not always see — can be huge, especially as the potential for digital business continues to grow.”

As digital transformation alters security needs and necessary skill sets and competencies, it creates new talent gaps that are difficult (if not impossible) to fill.

Automation in the business Many automation tools are ad hoc; others formally automate key parts of a process. Some tools use one technique, while other types of automation utilize a handful of techniques. For example, robotic process automation is best suited to task-centric environments and predictive analysis that uses predictive modeling, regression analysis, forecasting and pattern matching to answer the “what is likely to occur” question.

Some companies will use automation to reduce costs, standardize or increase productivity. Others will use it to improve the quality and consistency of risk controls, while reducing error caused by humans. Organisations will also use automation to increase speed or agility.

CARTA is a key enabler Regardless of how automation is being used, security and risk leaders can no longer depend on traditional security approaches. Continuous adaptive risk and trust assessment (CARTA) is a strategic approach to security that acknowledges there is no perfect protection, and security needs to be adaptive, everywhere, all the time.

“We need to consciously take an adaptive approach to automation that minimizes the risks to our organisation while helping it reap the rewards,” says David Mahdi, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner. “We must balance risk and trust adaptively to navigate our place on the automation continuum in order to deliver value.”

Automation does add risk. For example, algorithms can include implicit and explicit bias by a creator, or algorithms on untrusted operating systems could be unknowingly controlled by outside parties.

“Any automation choice must be conscious and adapted to the current situation, as well as adaptable to the future,” said Katell.

But, if done correctly, automation can also be hugely beneficial to the security team and business.

Deliver value with automation Security and risk professionals must deliver value using automation in three areas: Identity, data, and new product or service development.

Identity is the foundation for all other security controls: Decisions regarding identity should always remain within the control of security and risk teams.

This becomes even more important as businesses increasingly move to cloud environments. As systems and companies become more complex, relying solely on multiple passwords for identity confirmation becomes difficult and risky.

Consider using an intelligent risk engine to automate certain parts of the process. A CARTA approach to identity will be key to ensuring that the risk engine isn’t too relaxed or restrictive, but also works for the user.

Data is where much of enterprise value resides: Businesses are data generation powerhouses. Failing to protect and watch data can be costly — and can, in fact, harm an organization’s value.

Review the access control models for any infrastructure as a service and SaaS applications and consider using a cloud access security broker (CASB) to identify and classify data and files. Use a CASB in combination with enterprise digital rights management to extend controls over the entire enterprise, regardless of where the data lives.

New products or services development is a focus for companies: Companies are developing new products and services to gain competitive edge and are leveraging emerging technologies, which are highlighting new business opportunities. With an increasing need to go to market faster, DevOps processes can run afoul of security protocols. Automation can help achieve the ultimate goal of DevSecOps, where security is built into the beginning of the process with no negative impacts.

Consider automation options such as interactive application security testing, a machine-based solution that enables you to observe the behavior of an application from the inside. Your team can then piggyback security testing onto the quality assurance testing, and avoid using a single security test case.

Within these mission-critical priorities, security and risk management leaders must prioritise what they want to handle, what other teams can reasonably do, and what doesn’t warrant time or attention. Security teams must also consider how automation can be integrated into systems and how it can reasonably be used within a CARTA approach to security.

“To orchestrate and champion value protection and empower value creation, our job is to recognise and manage the tension, and find our place on the automation continuum,” says Mahdi.

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INTERVIEW

CHANGING THE WAY WE INVEST

RASHED AL MUHTADI, HEAD OF UAE AT THE ONLINE HALAL INVESTMENT PLATFOARM WAHED INVEST, TALKS ABOUT SHARIAH-COMPLIANT FINANCIAL PRODUCTS.

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hat is halal investing and how are you leveling the investing playing field?

Halal investing is spending in companies that are in line with Shariah/Islamic principles. For example, conventional bonds are prohibited since profits are derived from interest. Instead it is replaced with Sukuks, Islamic bonds.

Halal investing also prohibits investing in enterprises that earn profit from certain business activities including alcohol, tobacco, gambling, pork, weapons, and adult entertainment.

Wahed Invest revolutionized the industry with the first-ever halal digital investment advisor, allowing savers from all income brackets to invest in a globally diversified portfolio of ethically responsible stocks, Sukuk and gold with as little as $100.

The Shariah investment opportunities are out there, and it is Wahed’s duty to identify them and provide a diverse range of such opportunities to our clients. After our traction in the US and UK, we are actively looking to expand internationally to offer our product to the world.

Wahed aspires to lead innovation in the growing Islamic Finance sector and provide a non-lending based savings solution to the 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide.

Can you tell us about the portfolio of services?

Our client’s portfolio is made up of various asset classes including Global 26

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and Emerging Market Equities, Sukuks, and Gold. The portfolio is predominantly passive and offers the client daily liquidity.

The Sharia’h Compliant Roboadvisory, which is already available in the USA and the UK, allows users to open an account in minutes with a minimum investment of $100. For the first time, mainstream investors can gain access to products not traditionally available to retail investors, such as Sukuk. With no lock-in period, users also have the flexibility to place deposit or withdrawal requests at any time.

Wahed Invest platform charges a single annual fee, inclusive of all management fees, custodian fees, and transaction fees, and there are no hidden or rebalancing fees. Users are able to monitor performance daily through the digital platform.

How can investors determine if equities are Shariah compliant?

Wahed Invest follows AAOIFI standards and we are official voting members.

In order to ensure all products are Halal and in accordance with Islamic principles, Wahed has a full-time Ethical Review Board. All securities undergo a rigorous screening process in which Wahed’s investment management partners and ethical scholars work together to tailor portfolios to provide attractive investment returns.

We follow a two-step stock screening process: Investments are screened for the presence Wahed, as a company, also ensures that all contracts, processes, and decisions are taken in compliance with Islamic Ethics.

This means the following are curtained: excess debt, tobacco, alcohol, firearms, gambling, adult entertainment, impure foodstock and usurious institutions.

Is there an overlap between shariahcompliant investing and ethical investing?

Yes, there is an overlap as by definition they both tend to serve the same purpose. However, Shariah or Halal investing has a religious underpinning and encompasses Shariah principles.

The Islamic economy presents tremendous opportunity in terms of Sharia-compliant finance and it is only going to get bigger. The appetite for ethical investing is on the rise globally; and the GCC offers strong prospects in targeting Muslim investors from all over the world.

Barriers to ethical investing such as availability, transparency and advice today no longer exist, primarily due to innovative digital investing platforms such as Wahed.

Existing Islamic banks offer investment product focused on HNWI and institutional clients, largely ignoring retail and less affluent clients. Wahed Invest fills this void by bringing about financial inclusion for Islamic products and services to the community at large.

VIEWPOINT

MAKING YOUR DATA IS READY FOR AI

ENSURING INTEGRITY OF DATA IS KEY TO A SECURE AI-DRIVEN ENTERPRISE, WRITES RAJESH GANESAN, VP, MANAGEENGINE.

Stamping out human bias It’s reasonable to assume that the predictions and responses generated by an AI-powered system would be unbiased.

However, that’s not always the case.

Human bias can be engineered into AI systems if skewed or non-inclusive data is fed into the business applications upon which AI models are based. Once this has been accomplished, attackers may be able to control the functioning of the business application to generate nonobjective outcomes in their own favour.

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f Artificial Intelligence (AI) hasn’t formed part of the conversation in your enterprise yet, then you’re behind the eight ball. Other organisations in the Middle East region have their cheque books open.

According to IDC, Artificial Intelligence (AI) spending in the Middle East and Africa is expected to reach $530 million in 2022.

Although the AI revolution is underway, UAE ranked top in the Middle East region in terms of its readiness to navigate AI according to the Government Artificial Intelligence Readiness Index. AI will provide abundant opportunities that will transform organisations across the Middle East and Africa. Some sectors will see wholesale business model transformation while others will find localised opportunities to deploy machine learning.

While AI technology is transforming business and industry at a rapid clip, organisations looking to leverage it must ensure the integrity of the data that powers their systems by addressing three key issues.

Safe collection and storage of data Data and data analytics are at the heart of many AI projects, and the integrity and security of the customer and company information used to inform AI systems is critical to their effectiveness.

Successful use of AI’s enormous potential requires systems that can collect and store significant volumes of data safely. However, business data and AI models often contain sensitive information, including personal data

applications. AI systems cannot yet determine whether the data they’re fueled by is right or wrong. Feeding an AI solution erroneous information over an extended period of time can result in it “learning” the wrong methods, models, and rules.

belonging to customers and employees, which makes them a hot target for cybercriminals.

Implementing multiple layers of security like encryption, particularly while data is in use within AI models, may be necessary to ensure data isn›t stolen or compromised.

Preventing concept drift AI models are only as good as the data that powers them. If operational data changes significantly, the models that rely on it can be rendered essentially irrelevant. Predictions or actions based on these models may result in security issues, such as data theft, exposure, or deletion.

Concept drift can represent a form of antagonistic action if it’s engineered by an individual or organisation that deliberately feeds inaccurate or misleading data to business

Why explainable AI is a powerful protection measure Implementing AI-driven systems is fast becoming a requirement for businesses in the Middle East that are trying to keep up in today’s competitive market. Experts warn that those who don’t do so will find themselves struggling to compete.

Investing in “explainable AI” is one way organisations can protect their systems from the perils of infiltration, exploitation, and the introduction of erroneous information. Explainable AI gives individuals the opportunity to counter factors such as introduced bias before the enterprise is damaged or harmed as a result by enabling AI systems to explain the rationale for their predictions and actions before they’re put into play.

Organisations that invest in this capability may be better placed to enjoy the significant benefits AI-driven systems can deliver. And making security integral to AI initiatives means companies can enjoy the advantages without opening their systems and operations up to additional risk in the process.

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GITEX PREVIEW

GET READY FOR THE

FUTURE

THE REGION’S BIGGEST TECH SHOW IS ALL SET TO RETURN IN OCTOBER, SHOWCASING WHAT IS NEXT IN TECH. HERE IS A SHORT PREVIEW OF WHAT TO EXPECT FROM SOME OF THE KEY TECHNOLOGY VENDORS EXHIBITING AT THE EVENT.

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AVAYA

vaya will return to the 39th GITEX Technology Week with a line-up of game-changing solutions that encapsulate ‘The Art of Experience‘ which explains the way in which its technologies are conceived and delivered. The company will present several industry-first features that are now available as part of its open and converged UC and CC platforms; proven communications and collaboration use-cases developed in conjunction with 28

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customers and partners from across the globe; and innovative technology showcases that will provide a glimpse into the future of employee and customer experiences.

“Successfully delivering incredible customer experiences, requires a discipline, openness and sense of collaboration usually reserved for the highest forms of art,” said Nidal AbouLtaif, President, Avaya international. “The creation of art requires nurturing a basic concept into a fully formed masterpiece, through the integration and interplay of multiple elements.”

The firm will demonstrate the latest AI-powered applications that augment workflows in both a self-service and contact centre environment. These AI elements continue to become more powerful due to Avaya’s commitment to the API economy, which embraces an open standards-based approach and has helped enable the company to rapidly deploy these AI-powered capabilities to its market-leading platforms. A new platform being released at GITEX, helps sets a new standard for the industry as it finally delivers on the promise of UC by bringing together all the applications, channels of communication and tools that the modern employee needs.

By embedding AI, automation and analytics into a truly unified digital communications and collaboration workplace, the solution will help enable employees to focus on what’s most important, thereby elevating their experiences, increasing their efficiency and resulting in a more productive workforce, said the company.

At this year’s GITEX, the company will also demonstrate a solution that helps streamline communications, fosters awareness and support, provides easy access to information and enhances safety for people of determination.

Avaya is participating at GITEX Technology Week 2019 with sponsors Verint Systems Inc., Nectar Services and Koopid.

Demonstrations from Avaya and these companies can be found at stand C-10 in Za’abeel Hall.

THREATQUOTIENT Security operations platform innovator ThreatQuotient has announced that it will be making its first appearance at GITEX Technology Week this year. The company believes that threat intelligence is the glue that binds together disparate systems and teams, and that a threatcentric security operations platform is foundational to overall security posture.

In line with this, ThreatQuotient will use the GITEX platform to promote the

ThreatQ platform, to customers and partners.

“With threat intelligence as an organisation’s foundational element, ThreatQ makes security operations more efficient and effective. Every company has its own unique environments and faces different threats, which is why ThreatQ empowers organisations to set their own specific controls for prioritising the threat intelligence that is most relevant to them,” said Anthony Perridge, VP of International at ThreatQuotient.

“ThreatQ acts as the heart of an organisation’s defence system, able to integrate with all security tools that need to work in unison – such as orchestration tools, SIEMs, network security, endpoint

leveraging an integrated self-tuning Threat Library, Adaptive Workbench and Open Exchange, ThreatQ has become the foundation of security operations and threat management systems for organisations across the globe.

ThreatQ enables teams to make a significant leap forward in their current capabilities to manage intelligence by automating several historically manual, time-consuming and repeatable tasks, saving customers a significant amount of time and further augmenting their ROI. ThreatQuotient will be exhibiting alongside its regional distributor StarLink on Stand SR-J1 in Sheikh Rashid Hall.

ARUBA

software, multiple intel feeds and other processes and we are excited to have a platform like GITEX to showcase our product and solutions to our regional customers and partners.”

At GITEX, ThreatQuotient will educate customers and partners on why large and small threat intelligence teams would benefit by using ThreatQ to apply customer-defined scoring of intelligence, quickly deploy threat data to existing sensor grids, and cornerstone workflows to focus on time to detect (TTD) and time to respond (TTR). Through their participation, the security firm also hopes to showcase how it enables a shared understanding across teams and tools within an organisation’s defense infrastructure and how by

In its 10th appearance at GITEX, the company will be demonstrating its Aruba Experience Edge Platform – that intuitively assimilates existing cloud, mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) data into a simple, single system to transform customer experiences at the Edge.

Jacob Chacko, Regional Business Head, Middle East and Saudi at Aruba said, “Aruba’s Edge platform is designed to provide simple, secure and smart networking, to support integrated experiences without compromising simplicity for end users. Smart workplaces, schools, stores, hotels, hospitals, and factories can all deliver

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amazing experiences through this platform. GITEX, with its position as the Middle East’s largest tech exhibition and networking platform, is the perfect venue for us to showcase our technology innovations and drive key discussions with customers and partners.”

At GITEX, Aruba will showcase its latest technologies addressing the needs of the digital era including Wi-Fi 6 & Switching, Cloud-Based Networking and Aruba AI-based Analytics.

Trade visitors to the Aruba stand at GITEX can also take advantage of Aruba’s Networking Product Wizard which provides an optimised network design in under two minutes. With a few clicks, it will recommend the right switches, access points and network management solution, right-sized for a particular business, based on number of users, location, network use and performance needs.

Aruba will be exhibiting at stand number H7-A1 in Hall 7 alongside Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

NOZOMI NETWORKS Nozomi Networks will showcase its realtime industrial control system (ICS) and Operational Technology (OT) network visibility products and demonstrate how they can be integrated into existing

platforms, such as Fortinet’s Network Access Control (FortiNAC) at the region’s biggest ICT exhibition.

“As IT and operational networks become more interconnected across the UAE and elsewhere, the attack surface for cyber threats has also expanded. Nozomi Networks arms enterprises with proactive tools, delivering OT visibility, threat detection and insight within a single solution to hundreds of thousands of critical infrastructure, energy, manufacturing, mining, transportation and other industrial devices worldwide. GITEX Technology Week 2019 offers the perfect platform to showcase these tools to an audience of targeted customers and partners from across the region visiting the exhibition to scout for the latest technologies,” says Marcus Josefsson, Nozomi Networks Director – Middle East, Africa & Russia.

Nozomi Networks will use its participation at GITEX Technology Week to educate customers on the shifting threat landscape as organisations embrace the benefits of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). “Cyber security challenges are expanding as ICS boundaries become broader, interwoven and interdependent, exchanging information with myriad other systems and processes. Challenges in this area include mobile and wireless devices, as mobile applications replace engineering workstation applications, and wireless communication is more widely used to transfer data from sensor networks,” Josefsson concludes.

Nozomi will be participating with Fortinet on their Stand SR-C10 in Sheikh Rashid Hall at GITEX Technology Week 2019. Visitors will be able to see firsthand demonstrations of the company’s ICS security solutions and meet with cyber security experts at the stand with a view to understanding how emerging threats could compromise local business in the Middle East.

VEEAM At Gitex, executives from Veeam will share its vision for Cloud Data Management, delivering live demonstrations of Veeam Availability Platform.

Talking about the company’s participation at GITEX, Claude Schuck, regional manager, Middle East at Veeam said: “As the importance of data has grown to drive every aspect of the digital business, so has the need for solutions that ensure information is available at any time, no matter where it resides. There is a new expectation for data in today’s enterprise:Data must move to a higher state of intelligence and be able to anticipate need and meet demand. Data must also move securely across multicloud infrastructures andmeet the expectations of the mobile, always-on world.”

“Given our leadership position and market leading technologies, GITEX is an opportunity to turn the spotlight on the criticality of Cloud Data Management,” continued Schuck. “CIOs and IT managers need to understand that ensuring instant and reliable data availability requires an evolution in how it is managed from policy-driven to behavior-driven, leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to

enable data to back up autonomously, migrate to the right location based on the business need and to secure itself during anomalous activity.”

Veeam will have its own dedicated stand #C20 in Hall 7 at DWTC.

BITDEFENDER Bitdefender plans to use the MENA region’s premier technology tradeshow as a platform to discuss the most critical threats associated with IoT and demonstrate to customers and partners unique solutions to protect IoT infrastructures that are increasingly more exposed to cyberthreats.

Speaking about the importance of deploying robust cybersecurity solutions that specifically address IoT security, Tarek Kuzbari, regional director, Middle East, at Bitdefender said, “Given the region’s appetite for technology and innovation, governments and enterprises across the Middle East are increasingly turning to cloud environments and IoT applications to transform their operations and achieve growth. But at the same time, it is imperative that these same organisations also realize the security implications associated with these initiatives. The consequences of an IoT attack can range from downtime and loss of revenue and reputation, to in the case of an attack on medical devices in the healthcare sector—even loss of life.”

“Traditional security solutions fall short in these scenarios as most IoT applications cannot be secured via an anti-malware solution. The best IoT security strategy is to focus on network threat detection, as the network is the common ground for all IoT devices,” continued Tarek.

At GITEX 2019, Bitdefender can be found in Sheikh Rashid Hall, Stand SR-E2.

At GITEX, SAP customer experience demos will include enhanced customer experiences across the digital supply chain, the intelligent coffee experience, and other immersive innovations.

Supporting elevated customer experiences in the Middle East and North Africa, SAP will showcase the latest innovations from solutions that embrace AI and machine learning, blockchain, cloud, and the Internet of Things. Middle East and North Africa organizations can also leverage the SAP solutions running on its UAE data center to run in realtime and ultimately optimize customer experiences.

During GITEX, visit the SAP stand at the Dubai World Trade Centre – Hall 6, Stand B1 from 6-10 October 2019. The SAP Customer Experience Live event will also be held on Sunday, 6 October at The Ritz-Carlton DIFC.

TREND MICRO SAP In line with the GITEX theme of “Synergizing the Mind and Technology Economy,” SAP will exhibit under the future of digital employee and customer experiences, with the theme of “The Future of Business Has Feelings – Change a Feeling, Change a Business.” ’The Middle East and North Africa’s record-high customer experience market underlines how the region’s industry verticals are leveraging digital transformation to make their customers happy,” said Gergi Abboud, Senior Vice President and General Manager, SAP Middle East South. “As UAE Vision 2021 drives investment in ports and malls, GITEX is an ideal platform for SAP to showcase how combining customer data with operational data can optimise costs, employee and customer experiences, and scale up.”

Trend Micro Incorporated it will showcase “The Art of Cybersecurity” at GITEX Technology Week 2019, including how 400 million pieces of global security data can enable enterprise protection on the cloud.

Cybersecurity will be a major topic of discussion at GITEX, the leading technology event in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia, especially as cyber-attacks caused $12.5 billion in

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losses from 2016 to 2018. In 2018, Trend Micro blocked 48 billion threats and discovered 200 new ransomware families.

To bring these cyber-threats to life, Trend Micro has commissioned six artists to process and interpret cybersecurity data. Rather than at a standalone stand, Trend Micro will showcase these artistic interpretations specialised pods at six different partners’ stands, as well as on screens between demos.

“As the cybersecurity landscape becomes more complex, cyber-threats can be abstract to understand and ugly to confront when they strike,” said Dr. Moataz Bin Ali, Vice President, Trend Micro, Middle East and North Africa.

“However, with our GITEX theme of ‘The Art of Cybersecurity,’ we aim to show how cybersecurity can be beautiful when organizations literally see how siloed threats can be put together to show a big picture, helping organisations stay one step ahead of cyber-threats.”

Supporting cybersecurity, Trend Micro will highlight its Deep Security solution for cloud and data security with AWS, Microsoft, and VMware, along with its new XDR detection and response

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solution for email, endpoint, server, and network with its channel partners Redington and StarLink. Trend Micro will also highlight security innovations across DevOps, collaboration, and cloud apps.

SOFTWARE AG Software AG is exhibiting at the 39th GITEX Technology Week under the theme “Experience Your Smart Connected World.” The spotlight at the pavilion is an

immersive working LEGO model of “The Future Smart City”, powered by IoT and AI. The model illustrates the enormous potential of digital transformation in the coming decade.

Rami Kichli, Vice-President, Gulf and Levant at Software AG, said: “Dubai has positioned itself to be a frontrunner as the smartest city in the world. Supporting this mission, businesses across the emirate is quick to embrace disruption through constant innovation to suit customer needs. As a software solutions provider, it is our responsibility to measure and assess the digital readiness and identify business objectives to drive effective transformations.”

Software AG will host its regional partners at its pavilion, each showcasing its technologies and solution offerings.

Tahaluf is the Platinum sponsor and co-host of Software AG booth. Technology Strategies Middle East (TSME), Emircom and Palmira are Diamond sponsors while HERE Technologies is the Gold Sponsor.

Software AG’s stand will once again feature prominently at GITEX Technology Week for the third time in a row, at the central concourse (Hall 7 C30 stand).

INTERVIEW

A PERFECT FIT FOR THE DIGITAL AGE IBM HAS RECENTLY LAUNCHED THE Z15, THE LATEST IN ITS MAINFRAME LINEUP. THE IBM Z15 SYSTEM CULMINATES FOUR YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT WITH OVER 3,000 IBM Z PATENTS ISSUED OR IN PROCESS AND REPRESENTS A COLLABORATION WITH INPUT FROM OVER 100 COMPANIES. IT CAN PROCESS UP TO 1 TRILLION WEB TRANSACTIONS A DAY, SUPPORT MASSIVE DATABASES, AND SCALE-OUT TO 2.4 MILLION LINUX CONTAINERS IN A SINGLE Z15 SYSTEM. IT ALSO ADDRESSES MISSION-CRITICAL LATENCY CHALLENGES BY DELIVERING UP TO 30X LOWER LATENCY AND UP TO 28 TIMES LESS CPU UTILISATION BY COMPRESSING SECURING WEB TRANSACTION DATA BEFORE ENCRYPTION. MIGUEL VEGA, VICE PRESIDENT, IBM SYSTEMS, MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA, TELLS US WHY THE Z15 IS UNIQUELY POSITIONED IN A MULTI-CLOUD WORLD.

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hat is new in the z15 system?

We are very excited about the announcement of the z15, which is a continuation of the innovation we started many years ago.

More than just a product, it is about how our systems fit into our overall strategy as a company, and we have said we are going to do three things very well. First is multi-cloud and we have been saying that is what differentiates us from other cloud players. We truly believe that there will not be only one cloud, and one size 34

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cloud doesn’t fit all. What we need to be good at is to be able to manage all these heterogeneous environments and not to lock in customer into a single cloud.

We need to co-exist with competitors in the market. They exist, and they have solutions, and we need to bring all these together. The second strategy is around securing this heterogeneous, hybrid world. And the third thing that we are extremely good at is our ability to manage massive amounts of data, both structured and unstructured.

These are the things we are bringing to table with the z15.

From a security perspective, the z14 had pervasive encryption. We offered encryption inside the box, which allowed clients to tackle security threats from an internal point of view. We are taking it to the next level. The Z platform is a fantastic infrastructure for hybrid cloud environments, but we have been asking the question of how can we make sure that there are no security breaches when you connect to other clouds out there? As we all know, the cost of a breach is much higher in our region compared to the global average.

What is new in the z15 is one thing that does all these, which we call data privacy passports. It is a set of master keys and policies that our customers can work around with. It secures your connection to the external world because that’s where 60 percent of breaches originate from. It allows you to monitor who is accessing the data, when they are accessing it, and where the data is being stored. This is the cornerstone of the z15, without which you can’t move to a hybrid multicloud environment.

For banking, retail and many government entities, it is extremely critical to have the ability to connect their core systems and data repositories to the outside world. So, it is very important for us to have this ability to provide not just encryption inside the box but policies and

functionalities to connect to the rest of the eco-system as well.

A second important part of the announcement is that the z15 will be able to work with RedHat’s OpenShift, which is our Kubernetes-based container platform. This is a statement of direction about our strategy to put OpenShift on all key IBM platforms.

With this, we are going to bring new functionalities into the platform to manage the middleware and achieve two goals: development of new applications and modernisation of applications.

THE Z PLATFORM IS A FANTASTIC INFRASTRUCTURE FOR HYBRID CLOUD ENVIRONMENTS, BUT WE HAVE BEEN ASKING THE QUESTION OF HOW CAN WE MAKE SURE THAT THERE ARE NO SECURITY BREACHES WHEN YOU CONNECT TO OTHER CLOUDS OUT THERE? AS WE ALL KNOW, THE COST OF A BREACH IS MUCH HIGHER IN OUR REGION COMPARED TO THE GLOBAL AVERAGE.

Mainframes have been around for more than five decades. Do you think they will be relevant in the cloudfirst world?

We think it would continue to be relevant based on our openness.

We recognise the eco-system, other cloud providers and applications running on their platforms, and most importantly, we are banking on two main characteristics of our platform– security and availability.

Are you primarily targeting users that are looking to reduce data centre footprint and reduce energy consumption?

One of the things that has changed in z mainframe lineup is the form factor – it is now standardised to 19 inch, making it skinny enough to fit into cloud data centres, which are all about standardisation and efficiencies. The z15 leverages 12 percent more cores than x14, 25 percent more memory and 40 percent less power compared to x86-based servers.

Tell us more about your Tailored Fit Pricing model.

Our consumption and pricings models have evolved. We have announced Tailored Fit Pricing, which is a flexible software pricing model that dramatically simplifies the existing pricing landscape through deployment options tailored to your IBM Z environment. With this announcement, we are offering up to three times more usage capacity to developers so that can they continue on the path of modernisation of applications and digital everything.

Earlier, the zOS capacity consumption was measured by MSUs, and with Tailored Fit Pricing the way we calculate usage has changed. Our standard mainframe licensing model was based on ‘rolling four-hour average (R4HA), which calculates costs based on peak usage during the month. With this alternative now, customers don’t have to cap usage to keep costs down, and they can configure systems to support optimal response time and SLAs.

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LEVERAGING ERP TO OVERCOME 4IR CHALLENGES TIPS FROM ANDY COUSSINS, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND HEAD OF SALES, INTERNATIONAL, EPICOR SOFTWARE FOR REGIONAL MANUFACTURING BUSINESSES TO ACHIEVE A HIGHER LEVEL OF AUTOMATION AND DIGITALISATION

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ot long ago, Industry 4.0 and digital transformation were the domain of first movers only. Today they are high on the agenda for every regional manufacturing business. In fact, 62 percent of Middle East respondents to a PwC survey on Industry 4.0 were expecting to be at a high level of digitization and integration in 2020, compared with only 41 percent reporting such a high level in 2015. This investment is driven by the expectation of results. At the top end, around a third of respondents expected Industry 4.0 implementations to result in both cost savings and revenue gains of more than 36

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20 percent within five years.

As organizations in the Middle East start executing their Industry 4.0 agendas, a major focus will typically be on applications that use artificial intelligence (AI), big data, cloud, and the Internet of Things (IoT). While the advantages are well-documented, they do come with technology challenges of their own, specifically around the continuous need for vertical and horizontal integration, effective management, and use of all the data generated, as well as the need for more complex risk management.

Many regional manufacturers are addressing these challenges by

investing in key supporting business technology—specifically, the right kind of ERP software—as one of the first steps on their transformation journey.

Integration While the right industry-specific ERP solution will fast-track your implementation, right out of the box, it will still need to be integrated with other systems—such as your IoT implementations—to achieve the depth and breadth of integration and automation called for by Industry 4.0. To simplify this integration—both internally and with suppliers, partners, or customers, the architecture and

interfaces of your chosen ERP solution must to be streamlined, flexible, and based on standard open protocols. It also helps if the solution is designed specifically to take advantage of cloud computing frameworks, because a cloud-based platform can be ideal for integrating different business entities and locations, and in extending integration to suppliers and customers.

But don’t forget the human element― as much as integration in Industry 4.0 is driven by automation, it isn’t always about robotics, IoT, or AI. For the foreseeable future, most of the functions you’ll be integrating will still rely on human interactions. It’s therefore important to think about how easily your ERP solution supports the human side of integration. Good mobile and social capabilities in an ERP solution will help your people integrate more effectively into your factory of the future. They’ll be able to work smarter and more productively, making your business more efficient and responsive as a result.

Actionable insights For the small-to-midsize manufacturer, analytics can be one of the biggest stumbling blocks, as it takes specialised skills to turn data into insight that you can act on. Ideally your ERP system won’t ask you to do all the hard work to pull actionable insights from data.

Look for easy-to-use, pre-built, analytic functionality that is already mapped to your most likely common needs, such as materials handling, financials, sales, or production. This is particularly important when it comes to analytics that help you answer those all-important ‘why’ questions. If the ERP solution is designed specifically for manufacturing and this extends to its embedded analytics, you’ll be able to get going quickly with analytics that deliver real insight. Make sure you have the flexibility to customize and build your own views, queries, reports, and dashboards, as you gain confidence and discover new needs.

MANY SMALL-TO-MIDSIZE MANUFACTURERS CHOOSE SOFTWARE-AS-A-SERVICE (SAAS) ERP BECAUSE THEY CAN’T DEVOTE NEARLY AS MANY RESOURCES TO INFRASTRUCTURE, APPLICATION, AND DATA SECURITY—OR TO IT MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT—AS A SPECIALISED IT SERVICE PROVIDER CAN. AS WELL AS OFFERING A MORE RELIABLE AND SECURE SERVICE, A SAAS ERP SOLUTION CAN GIVE YOU AUTOMATIC ACCESS TO UPDATES AND UPGRADES THAT KEEP YOU COMPLIANT WITH REGULATORY CHANGES. THIS MEANS YOU CAN STAY ON TOP OF NEW FINANCIAL CONTROLS, TAX LAWS, REPORTING REQUIREMENTS, AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE REQUIREMENTS.

Risk management No ERP system is going to eliminate all potential risks, but it helps if your chosen ERP solution—the backbone of your business—is itself secure, reliable, and scalable. It should also give you the visibility to simplify governance and compliance.

Many small-to-midsize manufacturers choose software-as-a-service (SaaS) ERP because they can’t devote nearly as many resources to infrastructure, application, and data security—or to IT maintenance and support—as a specialised IT service provider can. As well as offering a more reliable and secure service, a SaaS ERP solution can give you automatic access to updates and upgrades that keep you compliant with regulatory changes.

This means you can stay on top of new financial controls, tax laws, reporting requirements, and international trade requirements. Businesses often point to SaaS models as a way of keeping pace with technology-driven change to remain competitive with the best, forgetting that there are significant risk management advantages too. If you choose the SaaS model for greater business assurance, make sure the provider offers you a satisfactory level of control over how and when updates and upgrades happen.

At the same time, even if you don’t want to take advantage of ERP delivered through a SaaS model, look for a solution that offers a flexible cloud-based architecture in an onsite hosted option.

That way you get most of the benefits of a cloud model—but in your preferred hosting environment. Ideally, you also want the flexibility to move to a SaaS version in the future that will be better for your business.

Irrespective of whether you call it Industry 4.0 or digital transformation, it doesn’t change the fundamental nature and scale of the revolution taking place, nor the challenges facing regional manufacturers as they try to identify and take the right steps to survive. But by investing in the right ERP platform, manufacturers can face these challenges head on and not just survive, but go on to thrive, and grow.

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VIEWPOINT

TRANSFORMING THE DIGITAL WORKSPACE PAULO PEREIRA, DIRECTOR, SYSTEMS ENGINEERING - EMERGING MARKETS AND EASTERN EUROPE AT NUTANIX, SAYS DESKTOP AS A SERVICE IS READY FOR BUSINESS.

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ompanies of all sizes are turning to desktop as a service (DaaS) solutions to satisfy their digital workspace needs.

Traditional desktops and laptops are costly and difficult to manage, and they pose significant security challenges.

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) replaces traditional systems with virtual ones powered from your datacenter.

Many enterprises have successful VDI deployments, but are looking for options

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that extend their organization into cloud and reduce management overhead.

DaaS overcomes the challenges of traditional desktop and laptop systems and can serve as a platform to deliver VDI from clouds.

For companies undergoing digital transformation, DaaS is a great way to empower both your end users and your IT teams. End users benefit because they have greater flexibility to work from anywhere, on any device, and collaborate more easily with co-workers, partners,

and suppliers. IT teams benefit because DaaS can simplify VDI integration and delivery while making it easy to add new services to an Enterprise’s digital workspace whenever and wherever you need them at the speed of the business.

Top ten reasons to choose DaaS: 1. Eliminate Desktop and Laptop Challenges: Managing and supporting a large number of desktop and laptop workstations with locally installed software is a challenge for companies of all sizes. Employees come and go regularly, and appropriate devices have to be supplied and retrieved. Keeping close tabs on desktops and laptops, often across numerous physical locations, is difficult, time consuming, and expensive.

An even bigger concern for most companies is security risks created by physical computing devices with data stored locally. DaaS addresses these challenges by moving all the heavy lifting into an enterprise or cloud data centre: • User applications no longer need to be installed or run locally on each device.

• Company data remains in your datacenter or the cloud where it is more secure.

• If a physical device fails, the user can simply switch to a different device and pick up where they left off.

2. Remove the Expertise Barrier: For many companies, running VDI in-house is subject to operational, performance, and scaling constraints due to a lack of expertise and experience. Smart companies increasingly view DaaS as an elastic complement to existing VDI deployments or an opportunity for continued growth in VDI in hybrid cloud. DaaS reduces or eliminates VDI management challenges, enabling IT teams to focus on delivering services to businesses and end-users — and satisfying digital transformation goals.

3. Focus on Strategy Not Tactics: DaaS is an important part of your digital transformation strategy, significantly reducing the IT effort

required to support end users and freeing your team to focus on business outcomes rather than IT outcomes.

DaaS makes it possible to continuously integrate and continuously deliver emerging technologies. DaaS also allows you to quickly support projects that require a fast ramp up, without exposing your company’s network and intellectual property. In many industries, mergers and acquisitions are a fact of life. DaaS can help you accelerate onboarding of new employees during acquisitions and grant them immediate access to company applications, data, and services.

4. Overcome Geographic Limitations: DaaS offers a great solution to address digital workspace needs across disparate geographies. With the right DaaS solution, employees can work from almost anywhere that has an internet connection and receive good performance. If users in different locations need to collaborate electronically, DaaS solutions can facilitate collaboration.

5. Enable Bring-Your-Own-Device: Adopting a BYOD policy, as many companies are doing, makes device management even more intractable.

With DaaS, your company’s important applications run in your provider’s infrastructure services, safely isolated from other activity on user devices.

Users gain access to applications and data only after proper authentication.

And because no data is stored locally on the device, there’s no risk of compromise if the device is lost.

6. Soar into the Cloud: DaaS provides an platform for Enterprises to understand and consume cloud services without having to learn new technology terminologies. DaaS also accelerates the cloud learning maturity in an organization because they can focus on application service integration and delivery without worrying about tech debt and tech inertia.

7. Pay Only What You Use: The ability to pay as you go—and pay only for what you use—is a hallmark of IT success in the digital age. DaaS simplifies your operations, reduces your per user costs, and makes perfect sense for organizations in the midst of digital transformation. DaaS reinforces a subscription-based consumption model that meters on actual usage.

8. Simplify Scaling: The worst thing that can happen to new employees is to have them sit idle waiting for the computing resources they need to do their jobs. But planning for resource needs and scaling infrastructure— whether physical systems or VDI—to keep up with the needs of a dynamic enterprise is hard. DaaS provides immediate scalability to simplify the planning process and address unforeseen needs. You can provision new desktops as needed and release them just as quickly.

9. Maintain Full Control:A common concern that many enterprises have when it comes to DaaS is loss of control, but DaaS and BYOD don’t necessarily mean that you lose control over your environment. In fact, you may even increase control. DaaS gives you both greater visibility and increased cost control. Depending on your DaaS provider, you can quickly and easily grant (or remove) access to applications and data at a granular level. You can control access to data and prevent employees from making local data copies or writing data to insecure devices. Employees can also access specialized resources like GPUs on an as-needed basis.

10. Step Up Security: DaaS eliminates the risks that result from sensitive data stored on user devices. Data remains secure in a datacenter, subject to your full control and established governance. DaaS providers take security seriously and offer a variety of advanced authentication and other security capabilities.

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VIEWPOINT

CREATING A WINNING SECURITY STRATEGY MAHER JADALLAH, REGIONAL DIRECTOR - MIDDLE EAST AT TENABLE, ON HOW TO ADDRESS CYBER THREAT TO OPERATIONAL TECHNOLOGY IN OIL AND GAS

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s a sector of critical importance, disabling energy-sector assets has a severe effect on a nation’s economy, denying access to basic services and impacting GDP. Governments around the world caution that the threat to infrastructure will worsen rather than lessen.

These attacks come to the fore as digital transformation programmes are rolled out across the region with the introduction of new technological tools to benefit the bottom line through enhanced efficiency and output. This has led to the convergence of both the data side of the business, traditionally the realm of IT, and the operational technology (OT) side, used to manage industrial control systems (ICS). As previously siloed systems are being meshed together, organisations are being exposed to new threats.

Ringfencing operational technology Caught in the middle are the IT and security professionals tasked with securing these new intertwined systems in the face of compelling business arguments. However, they must remediate security threats against the impact on the organisation. These include: • OT environments are often structured around legacy technologies. Designed for process functionality and safety, OT was often secured via isolating initiatives, such as air gapping. As modern plants increasingly connect machines, devices, sensors, thermostats and so on to the internet, this is no longer feasible.

• Most organisations that rely on OT have a zero-tolerance policy to downtime given the business criticality of the systems. For example, an energy provider may operate 15 or 20 different sites. It’s not a simple, or even quick, process to shut down a treatment system to fix a vulnerability in a programmable logic controller (PLC), even if we were to ignore the impact it would have further in the process. That said,

could the business afford to risk a threat actor exploiting a vulnerability that could damage the plant or even threaten life?

• IT network solutions don’t always transfer to OT environments.

A poorly timed security scan that probably wouldn’t even be noticed in an IT network could have a profound impact on sensitive OT environments.

For example, potentially knocking out the gauge on a pipeline, causing a drill to malfunction or even taking the whole plant offline. Passive monitoring can help organisations solve this issue, allowing them to safely profile the network and devices connected to it.

In this way, they can understand how assets are unprotected, and recognise and fix vulnerabilities without impacting system functionality.

• While vulnerabilities are discovered in OT technology, there have been occasions where a patch to fix the flaw is not forthcoming. If you cannot patch, then what else can you do to secure your environment?

Staff responsible for OT security cannot afford to be blinkered and focused only on OT vulnerabilities.

The convergence of IT and OT means both ICS and IT vulnerabilities can be exploited to attack critical infrastructure. Therefore, viewing both systems together through a single pane of glass is the only way to view risks holistically.

Action points for security teams Finding a solution to any problem begins with acceptance. It is essential that IT and OT professionals understand the increased attack surface if their organisation is to moderate their business risk. Although embracing solutions remains a challenge, organisations can take several steps.

First and foremost, they must understand the whole picture. Clear and complete visibility of the attack surface allows organisations to identify, address and mitigate cyber risk. This includes both IT and OT systems.

With a clear outlook of the threats, the next step is determining what is important to the organisation’s ability to function – and whether it is vulnerable to attack. Vital assets across the board must be identified and the steps to secure them enumerated.

None of this can happen without integrating IT and OT security efforts.

The reality is that organisations with siloed OT security programs whose arsenal of tools, KPIs and policies differ from that of their IT security programs will not survive in today’s threat landscape. Traditional ways of tracking systems and vulnerabilities with excel spreadsheets are insufficient when it comes to addressing the threat landscape.

Security professionals are not the only ones who must be aware of the risks facing OT environments. Given the potential impact of any damage, executive leaders and company boards also need to understand the cyber threats their organisation faces.

Effectively securing connected OT and IT environments is a work in progress, with progress being the operative word – and not something that will be fixed overnight. As digital transformation continues to result in the convergence of OT/IT environments, industries that rely on OT are acknowledging the challenges and working towards solving the cybersecurity issues the industry is facing.

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VIEWPOINT

DOES TRUE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE EXIST? JAKE MOORE, CYBER SECURITY SPECIALIST AT ESET, EXAMINES THE HYPE AROUND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND WONDERS IF THE TECHNOLOGY WILL END THE WORLD BEFORE WE REACH ITS COMPLETE POTENTIAL.

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he hype around Artificial Intelligence (AI) is currently a media frenzy and if we aren’t careful, we will ruin the name before it has had a chance to really prove itself due to a lack of knowledge around it. AI is a beautiful concept of futuristic computing that the tech industry and academic research is leading in a way that may one day see dramatically enormous changes to the way we live our lives and pivot the human race into a new digital era.

But for now, AI is simply misunderstood. Computers are not yet thinking for themselves, nor are they able to live on their own and no, the Terminator is not hiding around the corner looking for John Connor… yet.

You’d be forgiven for thinking AI currently exists for the amount of media attention it attracts. People desperately want to believe in AI and hope that the next generation of software uses it to its full advantage. It has ubiquitous influence, however, and as sad as it may be to admit, I think we are still a few generations off it becoming mainstream.

Take truly autonomous cars for the masses, for example, which is a wondrous concept but for now this is just awesome science fiction. This doesn’t mean it won’t ever happen, it just means we are still way off from it ever taking off. To be able to produce a completely autonomous car sounds impressive but with the technological advancements required, the essential and seemingly infinite amount 42

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AI IS A BEAUTIFUL CONCEPT OF FUTURISTIC COMPUTING THAT THE TECH INDUSTRY AND ACADEMIC RESEARCH IS LEADING IN A WAY THAT MAY ONE DAY SEE DRAMATICALLY ENORMOUS CHANGES TO THE WAY WE LIVE OUR LIVES AND PIVOT THE HUMAN RACE INTO A NEW DIGITAL ERA. of calculations at incredible speeds, and not to mention a horrendously dangerous transition phase whilst autonomous cars mix with standard cars, it remains a distant dream for now.

Some seriously difficult mathematical problems that are hard to crack via computing alone, such as image recognition, end up developing an aura of magic around them. We currently tend to imagine that only AI could hold such an ability. Yet once we go and solve such a vast problem churning through even more data accurately finding the answer we

actually find that it’s just good computer engineering and not very ‘artificial’ or even that ‘intelligent’ – it’s just simple consistent advancements.

So, what really is AI? Well, true AI is typically known for being able to teach itself things such as games or even learn to anticipate moves of opponents within games. Better still, to quote Wikipedia, true AI is a “hypothetical machine that exhibits behaviour at least as skillful and flexible as humans do”.

I am just not convinced that we are ready to call our computer power AI yet, however impressively powerful it is.

Machine learning (ML), however, is making headway in one of the most exciting technological developments in history and should not be confused with artificial intelligence thinking for itself. Humongous amounts of data churning through the processing wheels of machines is creating wonderfully accurate predictions and able to solve incredibly complex algorithms faster than ever before. But it is yet to do this for itself or mimic the brain of a human.

Machine learning is unequivocally constrained by man-made rules and these rules have even been known to contain a disappointing reflection of human biases such as racial, sexual and gender bias, making it fail before it has begun. Sadly, most of what we come to know and believe can be based on personal biases in our brains. True AI, however, is limitless and has the possibility of doing anything and, if taught correctly, will be fair and without prejudice.

ML is, without a doubt, changing our lives and making our lives more streamlined. From image recognition to prediction of crime, even to medical diagnosis, the increased computer power is phenomenally and rapidly increasing our accuracy in multiple industries. Google, IBM and a handful of start-ups are all racing to create the next generation of supercomputers. If quantum computers ever take off, they could potentially help us solve extremely complex processes which our current computers can’t even begin to solve in less than a millennium.

If anything, AI remains a few decades away and we should avoid using the futuristic term for now or we will simply be doing all the current great technological feats provided by machine learning a disservice by making claims that are presently false. Let’s not forget how far we have come into this current digital age and enjoy the journey into the next-gen digital era, however artificial it is.

AI IS TYPICALLY KNOWN FOR BEING ABLE TO TEACH ITSELF THINGS SUCH AS GAMES OR EVEN LEARN TO ANTICIPATE MOVES OF OPPONENTS WITHIN GAMES. BETTER STILL, TO QUOTE WIKIPEDIA, TRUE AI IS A “HYPOTHETICAL MACHINE THAT EXHIBITS BEHAVIOUR AT LEAST AS SKILLFUL AND FLEXIBLE AS HUMANS DO”.

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PRODUCTS HP Neverstop Laser Targeted SMBs, HP Neverstop Laser is a rapid reload laser printer that enables efficiencies for entrepreneurs who don’t want to waste time on interruptions. With a first of its kind toner supply system that allows users to replace the toner in seconds, HP Neverstop Laser ensures

small business owners can stay in their business flow while getting the most value from their printer.

The HP Neverstop Laser printer is powered with several features. Users can print up to 10 times more pages with up to 5,000 pages right out of the box with virtually no interruptions-perfect for high-volume printing. A revolutionary supply system allows users quickly and easily reload toner levels in 15-seconds without making a mess and is hassle free with the HP Reload kit – allowing entrepreneurs to get back to their businesses quickly. Customers can get original HP quality printing for a cost per page competitive with imitation cartridges, with up to 80 percent cost savings on HP original toner Additionally, users can easily scan and print through the firm’s mobile print app, HP Smart App.

Axis PTZ network camera AXIS P5655-E PTZ Network Camera, a cost-effective, high-performance PTZ camera for versatile surveillance applications. It comes with the new generation chip offering improved imaging, enhanced security features, extended capabilities for analytics and radically more efficient video compression.

AXIS P5655-E features a light-sensitive sensor and Forensic WDR for clarity even when there are both dark and light areas in the scene. Additionally, thanks to Axis Lightfinder 2.0 technology it captures low-light images with more saturated colours and sharper images of moving objects. And, electronic image stabilization minimizes the effects of vibration and shaking. Including extended processing power for advanced analytics, it also offers a choice of four scene profiles (indoor, outdoor, forensic and traffic). For each profile, the camera automatically optimizes exposure time, white balance, aperture, sharpness, contrast, and noise to suit specific scene requirements. Signed firmware and secure boot guarantees that the firmware hasn’t been altered and ensures only authorized firmware is installed. And if needed, secure boot guarantees that the camera is completely free of malware after a factory default.

HP Omen X 2S OMEN X 2S Laptop is the world’s first dual-screen gaming laptop. The OMEN X 2S offers gamers a real-time screen mirroring option that can cut and magnify parts of the main screen – including copying the map portion of a racing game – to the second screen.

The dimensions and composition of this powerhouse are equally impressive with a thickness of 20 mm and a full metal chassis that makes it the first 15-inch diagonal gaming laptop in the world to come with an applied liquid metal compound to the thermal system by way of Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut. The result is heat dissipation at 10 times the thermal conductivity of silicon thermal grease, up to a 28 per cent frames-per-second (FPS) performance boost over traditional grease when testing in Apex Legends, and an 8.5 per cent faster lead time in a Blender Benchmark test.1 The laptop features OMEN Tempest, an overhauled advanced thermal solution powered by a 12V fan, which utilizes three-sided venting to enable five-way airflow to keep things ultra-cool. Realistic visuals are delivered by support for up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 and features Max-Q6 design. It features latest 9th Gen Intel Core i9 high performance mobile processor, powered by up to 5.0 GHz Turbo8, eight cores and 16 threads, and up to 32 GB of RAM. 44

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PRODUCTS

BELKIN BOOST CHARGE POWER BANK 2K Designed exclusively for Apple Watch owners in the Middle East in need of a rapid charge solution, or for an alternative charging source on the go, Belkin’s Boost↑Charge Power Bank 2K is the ideal choice for users of Apple’s smartwatch device. Featuring a compact and lightweight design that fits easily into a pocket or go-bag, the portable power bank’s 2200 mAh battery extends the use time of an Apple Watch by a whopping 63 extra hours.

The MFi-certified power bank is suited for recharging the Apple Watch multiple times every day, and supports Nightstand Mode, which enables the watch’s alarm features while charging.

The Boost↑Charge Power Bank 2K leverages the same patented technology behind the Belkin Boost↑Charge family of power products. For example, the

device comes equipped with smart circuitry that detects the connected Apple Watch and delivers optimal charging.

Additional features include LED indicators that help the user monitor battery life, along with smart sensors that can initiate a shutdown when irregularities with the unit are detected.

In the event of damages sustained during regular charging, Belkin’s Connected Equipment Warranty will cover the repair or replacement of the unit up to a value of USD 2,500.

LENOVO THINKSMART HUB 500 ThinkSmart Hub 500 is an all-in-one collaboration platform that can be used for maximum efficiency, comfort and reliability.

The ThinkSmart Hub 500 can eliminate time lost due to technical issues during meetings and provide

a desirable working environment for a conference call or meeting. Preconfigured for Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business or Zoom Rooms, it facilitates all communication software.

Moreover, its movable touchscreen display helps attendees around the table

to record their inputs and structure plans in real-time.

Its 360° microphone array and Dolby Audio premium sound keep the conversation clear, while an innovative cable management system helps eliminate cable clutter to provide a seamless user experience.

Additionally, the cable management door locks, securing physical ports and preventing cables from being accidentally disconnected. With audio and video capabilities, users can simply press a button to initiate their meeting with ease.

As a total business solution, the ThinkSmart Hub 500 can easily be placed in an office of any size, providing everyone with a consistent, seamless experience, whether they’re calling from a room across the street or across the globe.

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BLOG

CELEBRATING 39 YEARS OF TECH INNOVATION SUNIL PAUL, COO AND CO-FOUNDER OF FINESSE, REFLECTS ON THE EVOLUTION OF GITEX OVER THE YEARS

G

ITEX (Gulf Information Technology Exhibition) has been the centre point of technology development for the MENA and South Asia region for close to four decades now.

Launched in 1981, the event has grown exponentially over the years from hosting just 46 exhibitors and around 3,000 participants in its first edition to 4,800 exhibitors and 100,000 visitors from 140 countries in 2018.

GITEX Technology Week, which will celebrate its 39th edition this year, is the show’s business-to-business component while GITEX Shopper, now in its 29th year, is its consumer component.

GITEX’s evolution over the years from being just an exhibition to a global platform for displaying new tech, solution or innovation has been pretty much in sync with Dubai’s digital transformation story.

A fundamental factor of GITEX’s growth story has been role of Dubai government as a market maker. GITEX often served as a launch pad for the emirate’s bold technology-led initiatives ranging from ICT strategy in 1999 to Dubai e-government and Dubai Smart Government in 2013 and more recently, the Smart Dubai 2021 initiative, all aimed at elevating the city into the smartest city in the world. In fact, Dubai is now regarded as one of the world’s leading adopters of technology to enhance happiness of citizens, residents and visitors.

Breakthrough technology concepts over the years from Unified Communications, 3G, Cloud Computing to Virtual Reality, Big Data, and Internet of Things (IOT) to Artificial Intelligence, 46

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Block Chain and Smart Manufacturing all made their big bang Middle East debut at GITEX, serving to solidify Dubai’s reputation for being at the cutting edge of ICT in the Middle East.

The best minds from the region’s technology community have been descending in Dubai during GITEX to share and learn from each other, tap into the knowledge streams of tech visionaries and pioneers, and use the insights gained to foster innovation at their workplaces and industries.

It is one of the few global tech events where IT geeks rub shoulders with futurists, where business captains share the dais with serial entrepreneurs and government leaders; where start-ups get to break bread with the tech-giants.

These initiatives have not only attracted global tech majors like Microsoft, IBM, Facebook, Google, Amazon and Alibaba to base their regional operations in Dubai but have also put the city on the global map as the main technology and innovation hub between Europe and Asia.

So, be it Microsoft’s Windows 7 debut in 2009 or the world’s first innovative fire-fighting drone, or the first autonomous electric truck, global tech companies and innovators looking to enter the MENA market have chosen GITEX as the launch platform.

Last year $179 million worth of business was transacted at GITEX, making a great business case for the event in these tough times. And GITEX Shopper, which has grown into the region’s biggest consumer electronics show, has always been the place big technology consumer brands showcased their best offerings.

Dubai’s leading regional role in innovation, smart applications, and technology know-how, in no small measure due to GITEX, has also transformed the emirate into a prominent hub for start-up companies, giving rise to GITEX Future Stars, a special discussion platform for startups.

In fact, 93 percent of start-ups in the UAE are headquartered in Dubai, according to a study by AIM Startup, an initiative of UAE Ministry of Economy’s National Programme for Small and Medium Enterprises and Projects.

Dubai has achieved tremendous economic growth over the years to become a regional business hub. The emirate’s technological journey has progressed rapidly in the last two decades and now it’s on a course to make the second leap. Dubai looks to uplift its digital transformation to the next level as it not only wants to sustain its global competitiveness but also takes a lead.

And, GITEX is ready to play a part in this!