Enterprise Channels MEA

M E RG E R OF TH E TITANS /06

PA G E S 5 2 VOLUME O3 | ISSUE 04 NOVEMMBER 2015 WWW.ENTERPRISECHANNELSMEA.COM

MO DUALEH, SALES - MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA, PURE STORAGE

THE DAWN OF THE FUTURE

CHRISTIAN PUTZ, SALES DIRECTOR, EMEA AND EMERGING, PURE STORAGE

INDIAECM112015

When storage rides a Ferrari, the possibilities of any business are catapulted instantly and before we have even realized, the future of technology, the future of storage has dawned over us. /30

HASSAN HAMADANI, SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER - EMEA EMERGING, PURE STORAGE

FOR M OR E DETAI LS TU R N TO PAG E 11

Agile solutions for fast-moving manufacturers

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See the new world of ERP on IBM® Power Systems Infor® and IBM expand the world of possibilities for ERP software, offering deep industry functionality and innovative new capabilities in social business, mobility, analytics, integration, and system resilience. No matter where your company is headed in the future, Infor’s and IBM’s highly flexible solutions will take you there.

infor.com/manufacturing @informfg

Copyright 2015 © Infor. www.infor.com. All rights reserved.

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EDITORIAL

A good show to remember

S A N J AY M O H A PAT R A S A N J AY @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M

The content of Gitex-2015 was one of the best so far because the exhibitors who were present in the show had tried to showcase technology and solutions which were actually relevant to the changing needs of organizations and individuals. The technologies for example, robotics, 3D printing, artificial intelligence, cognitive technology, IoT, Big Data and analytics, security, etc. were showcased in huge numbers along with their applications, which was really great.

The IOT command centre, connected houses, connected cities, connected health care, etc. were spectacles to watch out for. Looking at the displays of the applications around drones and automated vehicles, one could well imagine where the industry is heading to.

So from the technology perspective, though there is no dearth of appropriate technologies, it is time to see how initiatives like smart government, smart cities, mCommerce, digitization, eLearning, automation, etc. are utilizing these technologies. Because it is one thing to implement technology, and it’s another thing altogether to run the applications with global practices.

Whenever we speak about any technology, we always take the example of Dubai which is the perfect manifestation of technology implementation and practices. And we always take Dubai government as the example not the private sectors and even BFSI. So there is a gap between the government strategy and the strategy of other verticals and there is a lot to do in other sectors in Dubai.

Another perspective is that within the UAE, there are other cities who need to catch up and also the rest of GCC, Gulf countries and African countries, which also need to go faster although the business dynamics and geo political situation are different in different countries. But the impact of Dubai will certainly be there on rest of the cities in the region.

However one thing is for sure that any development going to happen in the region is not possible without the sustained investment from global investors and they would like to see the technology compliances of the countries in place.

Secondly, with oil prices not showing signs of improvement, it is always advisable that enterprises and PSUs should also look at hosted or cloud model seriously in order to provide the clients best of the services without compromising on the quality. This investment in technology should not been seen with question mark as it would yield tangible results in the due course of time.

So what I am hinting at is the fact that Gitex 2015 was a perfect platform to analyse your requirements and plan your investments. ë

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2015 CONTENTS

VOLUME 03 ISSUE 04 NOVEMBER 2015 W W W. E N T E R P R I S E C H A N N E L S M E A . C O M

COVER STORY

BINDING WORKPLACE IN A COMMUNICATIVE HARMONY

Growing demand among enterprises for competitive edge and effective data collection has set the stage for Enterprise communications to take over a major chunk of the pie now. /24

COVER FEATURE /30

THE DAWN OF THE FUTURE CHRISTIAN PUTZ, SALES DIRECTOR, EMEA AND EMERGING, PURE STORAGE MY VIEWS /34

SEEING THE INVISIBLE TO ATTAIN THE IMPOSSIBLE NICOLAI SOLLING, DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY SERVICES AT HELP AG GUEST TALK /48

NURTURING IT TALENT POOLS MEERA KAUL, CEO – OPTIMUS

INNOVATIONS /49

SQOOPE BY TALARIAX

FEATURE Comfort checks-in as Anxiety checks-out /36

Sqoope developed

by TalariaX is an enterprise class mobile messaging platform designed to cater to the requirements of Enterprises

EDITORIAL::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 04 CHANNEL STREET:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 06 MY VIEWS: SIMARKS ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 22 CIO STORY ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 42 NIIT ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 43 SUCCESS STORY: POLYCOM::::::::::::::::::: 44 INNOVATIONS : ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 49

ADVERTISER INDEX: HELPAG 02, INFOR 03, SOPHOS 07, DELLL 09, GENOME (MHI GLOBAL) 11, COMGUARD 13, AOC 15, GEC OPEN 17, FINESSE19, STARLINK 21, BULWARK 23, VCE 41, GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION 45, PURE STORAGE 51, UNIFY 52

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CHANNEL

STREET GOOD IS ALL BLACKBERRY NOW

BlackBerry has completed the acquisition of Good Technology. BlackBerry will integrate Good’s software solutions and services with its own software suites to offer the industry’s most complete end-to-end solution that secures the entire mobile enterprise, across all platforms and applications while protecting personal privacy. “The Good and BlackBerry solutions are very complementary. Combined, BlackBerry solves one of the biggest challenges for CIOs – to securely manage all types of deployment models for any device operating system platform, whether on-premise or in the cloud,” said John Chen, BlackBerry Executive Chairman and CEO. “BlackBerry’s completion of the Good acquisition brings two leading companies in the mobile security space together to offer a secure cross-platform EMM solution,” said Stacy Crook, Research Director, Enterprise Mobility at IDC.

JOE TUCCI, CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF EMC. AND MICHAEL S. DELL, FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF DELL

COMGUARD AND ARCON JOIN HANDS

Merger of the Titans

Privilege Access Management (PAM) is a domain addressing growing concerns about securing access to the privileged accounts within IT infrastructure of organizations.

ARCON has signed up COMGUARD to distribute their niche solutions in the Middle East & North Africa Region.

ARCOS, an offering in Privilege Access Management (PAM) segment is a comprehensive platform addressing security and compliance requirements of the organizations. With a significant base across industry segments, ARCOS is a major player in PAM segment.

Mr. Ajay Singh Chauhan, CEO (ComGuard) says, “This is a technology domain with a high growth potential within the region and we are truly excited about this affiliation. ComGuard being a leading player in the Security Distribution arena, what better than partnering with a growing trendsetter?

The stage is set for the world to witness the merger of two mammoths as Dell will acquire EMC Corporation, while maintaining VMware as a publicly-traded company. This definitive agreement would see the coming together of the industry titans in in digital transformation, software-defined data center, hybrid cloud, converged infrastructure, mobile and security.

“Our new company will be exceptionally wellpositioned for growth in the most strategic areas of next generation IT including digital transformation, software-defined data center, converged infrastructure, hybrid cloud, mobile and security,” said Michael S. Dell, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Dell “Our investments in R&D and innovation along with our privately-controlled structure will give us unmatched scale, strength and flexibility, deepening our relationships with customers of all sizes. I am incredibly excited to partner with the EMC, VMware, Pivotal, VCE, RSA and Virtustream teams and am personally committed to the success of our new company, our customers

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and partners.”

The envious pair of Dell and EMC will create the world’s largest privately controlled IT company. The transaction will also unite Dell’s strength with small business and mid-market customers with EMC’s strength with large enterprises to fuel profitable growth and generate significant cash flows.

“I’m tremendously proud of everything we’ve built at EMC – from humble beginnings as a Boston-based startup to a global, world-class technology company with an unyielding dedication to our customers,” said Joe Tucci, chairman and chief executive officer of EMC. “But the waves of change we now see in our industry are unprecedented and, to navigate this change, we must create a new company for a new era. I truly believe that the combination of EMC and Dell will prove to be a winning combination for our customers, employees, partners and shareholders.”

VMware will remain a publicly-traded company and continue to provide customers value through leading SDDC technology.

INTRODUCING

SECURITY HEARTBEAT™

Sophos Security Heartbeat Share intelligence in real time between your endpoints and firewall.

Advanced attacks are more coordinated than ever before. Now, your defenses are too.

Sophos is revolutionizing security by synchronizing next-generation network and nextgeneration endpoint security, giving you unparalleled protection: • System-level intelligence • Faster decision-making • Automated Incident response

• Automated correlation • Accelerated threat discovery • Simple unified management

www.sophos.com

Network Protection

Enduser Protection

Server Protection

Sophos Cloud

GEC AWARDS GLOBAL ENTERPRISE CONNECT

2015

Security made simple.

CHANNEL STREET

Better Protection, Faster Detection, Streamlined Correction

SIMPLICITY EVERYWHERE IN WORLD’S TALLEST TOWER

connected architecture across Intel Security unveiled its Intel and third-party products. new corporate strategy HamedDiab, Regional Direcaimed at enabling businesses tor at Intel Security, MENA around the globe to more said, “With a rapidly expanding aggressively and effectively attack surface, and a shortage defend against data breaches of relevant talent and expertise, and targeted attacks. defenders need to win on Through a more integrated visibility into events, simplified and more open security management, and capabilities system that unifies the key that empower teams to close the phases of the threat defense HAMEDDIAB, REGIONAL DIRECTOR AT loop on attacks in progress – lifecycle, the new strategy INTEL SECURITY, MENA faster, more effectively, and with focuses on the endpoint and fewer resources.”In support of the new strategy, the cloud as the most effective areas for advanced Intel Security is also announcing new solutions visibility and practical operational control. The that will each serve as a foundation for future strategy also emphasizes a simplified user experitechnologies and products ence powered by centralized management and a

Avaya has implemented Avaya’s SDN Fx technology within BurjKhalifa, the world’s tallest building. This nextgeneration technology infrastructure will enable guests, tenants, and IT teams to enjoy the best network quality experience, with no downtime.

A mixed-use tower, BurjKhalifa has residences, offices, common areas, leisure attractions, and much more. To meet tenants and visitors service-level expectations, it requires a networking platform that is secure, flexible, scalable and robust. This is now enabled with SDN Fx, Avaya’s fabric-based, software-defined network architecture for ‘Simplicity Everywhere’.

With Avaya’s SDN Fx networking technology, BurjKhalifa will also benefit from effortless and efficient network roll-out, while ensuring reliability in service delivery and network access.

From Wi-Fi accessibility to allowing access to personal devices, Avaya’s SDN Fx allows these to be managed and provisioned quickly, leading to happier tenants and visitors, and more efficient network management. Avaya’s SDN Fx, announced globally in February 2015, is making strong inroads into iconic global projects and structures.

The implementation of SDN Fx at Burj Khalifa represents a significant opportunity for Avaya to align itself with innovative global icons in the UAE and the region, the company said.

BULWARKS PARTNERS WITH VARONIS TO SECURE THE UNSTRUCTURED Bulwark has teamed up with Varonis Systems to distribute the company’s software offerings across the region.Currently powering six distinct Varonis products, the Varonis Metadata Framework intelligently and non-intrusively collects and analyzes metadata from customers’ vast, distributed unstructured data stores and enables a variety of use cases, including data governance, data security, archiving, and search.

Mr. Jose Thomas, Managing Director, Bulwark said, “At Bulwark, we cater to our customers’ needs and introduce not just products but solutions that make the users’ life easier, efficient, and more secure. Varonis solutions complement our existing wide array of product and solutions portfolio very well. Dietrich Benjes, Varonis VP for the UK, Ireland & Middle East, added, “Unstructured data is one of the fastest-growing, relevant, and valuable data sets and thus subject to intense security and compliance requirements. We’re pleased to partner with Bulwark to offer our solutions to organizations of all sizes – from enterprise to SMB – in the Middle East region in order to help them get control of data quickly, which in turn will reduce risk, increase productivity, and lower costs.”

FAST LANE IS UNIFY’S FIRST AUTHORIZED TRAINING CENTER FOR ME Fast Lane Computer Consultancy has joined forces with Unify as its first Authorized Training Center for Middle East.“Fast Lane’s success thus far is due to the solid strategic alliances we have built with our bespoke vendors.” said Josef Miskulnig, Founder & CEO of Fast Lane. Fast Lane is excited to partner with Unify. We are committed to deliver exceptional service and value to our

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BASHAR BASHAIREH, VP FOR MIDDLE EAST, UNIFY

customers by employing and dedicating the best technical team in the industry. Our designation as a Unify Authorized Training Center only strengthens our portfolio and highlights our unique skill set.”Bashar Bashaireh, VP for Middle East, Unify said, “This strategic partnership is in line with Unify’s global push for our channel growth and enablement.” he continued. “This will help broaden the community of Unify certified users”

One company. One source. One focus.

With customer satisfaction and your profitability on the line, choosing a stable technology partner is a critical business decision. While other technology providers in the industry are splitting apart, Dell is committed to remaining a true source of end-to-end solutions. Certainty in an uncertain world — now that’s a choice you can make with confidence.

Sell with confidence. Sell with Dell.

To learn more, visit Dell.com/partner/yoursuccess

Š 2015 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Dell Emerging Markets (EMEA) Limited is registered in England and Wales. Company Registration No: 3266654. Registered address: Dell House, The Boulevard, Cain Road, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 1LF. Company details for other Dell UK entities can be found at www.dell.co.uk

CHANNEL STREET

6

IN PUBLIC

“GCC banks that have agile IT can be among the world’s most digitally competitive” JONATHAN CHARLEY, HEAD OF FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY VALUE ENGINEERING TEAM – EMEA, SAP

SECONDS

GULF AIR AND AHLIA UNIVERSITY

StarLink to Speed Delivery of Ixia’s Solutions across META StarLink has begun stocking Ixia’s security and network visibility solutions to speed delivery to enterprise customers and VARs across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa regions. “Ixia offers an extensive array of solutions to validate, secure and optimize networks and applications.

Through deep insight and actionable intelligence against

MAHMOUD NIMER, GENERAL MANAGER, STARLINK

the ever-evolving world of IT security threats, Ixia makes global networks reliable, fast and secure. StarLink is honored to further its existing relationship with Ixia by becoming Ixia’s regional stock depot for security and network visibility solutions”, said Mahmoud Nimer, General Manager at StarLink.

SIGN MOU Speaking at the signing ceremony Mrs. Sohair Faisal Khalfan, Gulf Air Senior Manager People Development, said: “Gulf Air has trained Bahraini graduates in the past, and continues to do so, providing them with critical work experience in their fields, that has helped them secure employment opportunities and advancement early on in their careers. This MOU cements our drive to promote and develop Bahrain’s human resources while paving the way for greater opportunities for our Kingdom’s workforce.

GARTNER CROWNS PANDUIT AS DCIM VISIONARY “Many customers experience challenges maximizing the use of their physical infrastructure resources. This leads to inefficient data center operations which may lead to premature capital expenditures in new data center build

How Modern is Your Printing Infrastructure?

BMC and Qualys have unveiled their first solution to tie vulnerability information to automated remediation actions.The joint solution, Intelligent Compliance, addresses the gap through a combination of security and compliance audit data from Qualys Vulnerability Management (VM) with the associated action from BMC BladeLogic Server Automation to remediate the vulnerability.

Specifically, it helps: “Securing sensitive data is a mission critical initiative for all our customers in the MiddleEast who are looking for proactive strategies to

decrease the risk of exposure to vulnerabilities and cyber-attacks,” said NordineAamchoune, Area Director, Middle East & Africa, BMC Software.

“Reducing the window of exposure to vulnerabilities on critical systems is a fundamental proactive measure to deflect cyber-attacks,” said HadiJaafarawi, Managing Director, Middle East, Qualys. “Together with BMC, we can offer the ability to not only identify threats in real time, but to significantly accelerate remediation while greatly reducing the time and cost required”

out. Capacity management is a key component in Panduit’s SmartZone Solution that optimizes power, space, cooling and connectivity to extend the life of the data center,” stated Marc Naese, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Panduit’s Data Center business unit.

A ‘TAKELEAP’ IN REAL ESTATE Middle East based creative technology agency TAKELEAP developed their most recent technological advance in real estate sales giving an immersive experience in the UAE. Building upon their previous models, “My Virtual Home” and “Zayed Communities”, launched in 2014 for Sheikh Zayed Housing project, a digital application was developed. Thus, allowing users to take visual tours of potential properties with a multilingual and interactive interface.

VISA BRINGS TOKEN SECURITY TO ECOMMERCE

SECURIFI JOINS HANDS WITH LOGICOM

The Visa Token Service is a new security

As part of the agreement, Logicom will promote and distribute Securifi’s innovative Almond Wireless Router series through their strong channel partner network in the UAE, Gulf, Levant, Turkey, Pakistan, Iraq, Cyprus, Greece, Malta and Italy.“Securifi is ahead of the curve with the confluence of technology in our product range and Logicom came across as the perfect partner to bring this advancement to the region,” said Mohammad MerajHoda, President, World Wide Sales & Development, Securifi.

Commenting on the partnership, Michael Papaeracleous, Executive Director of Distribution, Logicom added, “Logicom’s partnership with Securifi, and the addition of their innovative Almond Wireless Router series to our portfolio, allows us to broaden our engagement with Smart, Connected Home technologies and thus enhance our product offering.”

account information found on payment cards,

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technology that replaces sensitive payment such as the 16-digit account number, expiration date and security code, with a unique digital identifier that can be used to process payments without exposing actual card account details.

Visa is also ensuring these account numbers, known as “cards-on-file”, can’t be used for any payment transactions other than those for which they were intended.

CHANNEL STREET

Canon Middle East Partners with Cerebra Canon Middle East has partnered with Cerebra Middle East as a forerunner to predicted growth in the UAE’s security and surveillance market, as the country gears itself up for the Expo 2020 in Dubai.

Anurag Agrawal, Managing Director, Canon Middle East said: “Canon Middle East is looking to establish itself in the country’s security market and make strong headway in the IP camera industry, much ahead of EXPO 2020 in Dubai.”

As part of the new partnership, Cerebra Middle East will be an authorised partner for the sale of Canon’s comprehensive range of Network Visual Solutions which comprise of network

cameras and network solutions in the UAE. The alliance will enhance Canon Middle East’s IP Security Camera business, especially in the government, industrial and retail sectors, where the company is exploring business opportunies.

Saurabh Arora, Vice President – Sales and Support, Cerebra Middle East said, “Cerebra Middle East has partnered with Canon to provide powerful solutions that can work in most any conditions and provide high-quality soltuions.

We are targeting system integrators, solution providers and corporate resellers for the imaging solutions leader in the UAE.”

EQUNIX - HEADING THE GLOBAL INTERCONNECTION TREND Equinix unveiled the findings of its Enterprise of the Future survey that revealed UAE is one of the world’s leading countries in terms of pursuing interconnection, with 86% of UAE businesses intending to be interconnected by 2017, putting the UAE ahead of countries such as Netherlands and Switzerland.

By 2017, 86 percent of IT leaders surveyed will deploy IT infrastructure where interconnection – defined as direct, secure physical or virtual connections between a company and its partners, customers and employees – is at the core, compared to only 38 percent today. The survey also indicates that interconnection can create millions of dollars in value. Multi-cloud interconnectivity is a prominent worldwide business strategy. Security topped the list of enterprise IT concerns.

INFOFORT BOOSTS GROWTH WITH KODALALARIS InfoFort KSA has upgraded its high volume production scanners with Kodak Alaris and deployed 25 new machines – a mix of Kodak i4250 Scanners and i5600 Scanners for its Saudi Arabia Operation . This will support InfoFort’s rapid business growth in the region and ensure service availability for customers demanding tight SLA. WissamAchmar, InfoFort’s general manager for Saudi Arabia and the Upper Gulf, says, “We started the upgrade process in Q4 2014 and ever since have been rolling out Kodak Alaris machines as new projects are won given the quality, reliability, and features of the equipment and availability of local service and support. Our investment so far exceeds $500,000.”

GO SMART WITH ‘DUBAI NOW ’

His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, launched Dubai Now: the first of its kind unified hub for smart government services on the first day of Gitex Technology Week 2015. Dubai Now enables customers to access multiple government services and conduct all transactions, through their smartphones.

Dubai Now was designed with active customer engagement at DSG’s Customer Experience (CX) Lab. It is a very comprehensive hub for the public to communicate and interact with Dubai government entities, considering that it combines 22 government entity services under one app.

All customers who have existing accounts with mPay app or MyID will be able to use their login to access Dubai Now easily and take maximum advantage of an array of the service packages that have been created. These service packages are classified under 11 categories: payments and bills; housing and public transport; security and justice; health; driving; visas; educational services; Islamic services; business; and public services.

MINDWARE SIGNS UP AS THE NEW VAD FOR UNIFY As Bashar Bashaireh, VP Middle East of Unify puts it across, “You need 2 key things to empower your channel- One is ease of doing business and the other is reliable technology”.This is indeed happening as two leading veterans, Mindware and Unify, have signed a partnership deal under which Mindware would be the value added distributor for Unify’s cutting edge

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unified communication solutions.

Unify has chosen Mindware after a careful market analyses and based on a perfect portfolio compatibility.

“Our global strategy is to provide cutting edge and competitive unified communication solutions to the enterprises and the SMBs and Mindware’s unique capabilities and reputable market presence would help us in reaching far and untapped

markets as well”. said Bashar Bashaireh, VP Middle East of Unify .

Mario Gay, GM of Mindware said,” Our vision has always been to Simplify the IT and make the life of end users easy. With Unify on board we are very ambitiously adding UC solutions to our portfolio. We would be undertaking various partner programs, presales, training etc. for the enterprises and the end users”.

CHANNEL STREET

Research Finds Unnecessary Growth in Useless Data in EMEA The report introduces a new Veritas Technologies reveals phenomenon called the Databerg, that companies in the UAE represented by three major types have one of the highest rates of data stored by organizations of Redundant, Obsolete today. The survey identified three and Trivial data (ROT) major causes for Databerg growth. stored in their corporate These relate to how data volumes networks. “Data should disproportionately affect IT stratdeliver on its promise and egy, how vendor hype is driving the work for the organization, widespread adoption of currently but it’s apparent that in the AMER CHEBARO, REGIONAL ‘free’ storage and how employees UAE it is the other way DIRECTOR, GULF & KSA AT VERITAS are endangering corporate data round. The key findings of through their own actions and the Databerg Report 2015 becoming data hoarders. reflect that companies invest a significant amount In order for organizations to gain valuable of resources to maintain data that is totally irrelinsights into their information and in-turn evant for their businesses”, said AmerChebaro, reduce the associated risks, they need to identify Regional Director, Gulf & KSA at Veritas. “The Dark Data, expose risk and recognize valuable study revealed that the majority of companies information; eliminate ROT promptly to reduce (69%) in the UAE, one of the highest rates in wasted costs, define a workable information EMEA, have not yet implemented a strategy governance strategy for unstructured data with to understand their Dark Data or to evaluate C-level endorsement to encourage compliant their business value. This has an impact on data user behavior and increase business agility by quality as UAE companies have the lowest rate of utilizing cloud storage environments. business relevant data stored in their Databerg in the EMEA region”.

WEB CLIPS A SPECIALIST KNOWLEDGE PORTAL FOR LAN CABLING INDUSTRY R&M has launched its new specialist portal on Local Area Networks (LANs) www.lan. rdm.com. The site provides information regarding the areas and application for local data networks and compiles large quantities of specialist data for network planners and installers.Through the portal R&M’s industry experts suggest solutions to common challenges faced by installers and provide tips.

PAYMENT MADE MORE SECURE Gemalto has launched the Dynamic Code Verification, a comprehensive payment security solution that protects against Card-Not-Present (CNP) fraud on-line and ensures an easy user-experience cardholders have come to expect. This complete dynamic CVV/CVC solution includes an EMV payment display card that secures traditional in-store and eCommerce payments, ATM withdrawals, a mobile version, a validation server and associated services.

GHANGORCLOUD EXPANDS INTERNATIONAL FOOTPRINT GhangorCloud launched the roadmap for its International expansion, at Cybersecurity Expo, in London, with the opening of their International offices, in Hertfordshire, near London. The company also announced the

MOVEMENTS RICARDO MORENO has joined Infoblox as Vice President of worldwide channels.

NIIT Technologies has appointed PANKAJ MALIK as the head of its Middle East operations.

Sophos has appointed HARISH CHIB as Vice President for its Middle East & Africa (MEA) region.

Eaton has appointed KARIM REFAS as Head of Channels, Middle East, Electrical Sector.

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NUMBER GAME

86 percent

of UAE businesses intend to be interconnected by 2017

appointment of partners in the Netherlands and in South Africa with many more in the process of being signed-up. “We have seen tremendous interest and demand for our products from the APAC, and EMEA regions”, said GhangorCloud CEO, Tarique Mustafa.

“And we are putting the infrastructure in place, to support this growth”.

NEW OFFICE, NEW POSSIBILITIES Lexmark has inaugurated the Lexmark Saudi Arabia in Riyadh, further expanding its presence in this key region to support demand in the Middle East. The Riyadh office will focus providing Lexmark’s world class customer service to existing customers, while concurrently reaching out to new companies and organizations to help them better manage their unstructured information challenges with Lexmark’s award winning managed print services (MPS) offerings and unique software solutions.

U3277PqU

UltraWide viewing, enhanced productivity The AOC U3277PQU helps you stretch your productivity to the limits. 4K Ultra HD resolution reveals the finest details on a large 32-inch 16:9 screen that is ideal for multitasking. Featuring advanced IPS panel technology, you’ll enjoy accurate color reproduction (100% sRGB, 1 billion colours), wide viewing angles and quick refresh rates, no matter what you’re doing. A range of connectors like HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort and DVI-D makes it easy to hook up your PC, laptop and other devices, plus built-in speakers deliver clear sound for music or video. Whether you’re editing photography, working with CAD/CAM, or designing a new website, the height-adjustable ergonomic stand tilts, swivels and pivots for hours of comfortable viewing.

www.aoc-europe.com One World Computer Networks Algeria - Tunisia +971 42868330 khalid@oneworld.ae

Online Distribution Pakistan +971 50 389 6542 farhan.naqvi@odl.com.pk

Trigon LLC UAE, Yemen, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain +971 4 342 6060 kamran@trigon-gulf.ae

Redington Gulf Saudi Arabia +966 1 4625323 Bilal.ahmed@redingtongulf.com

CHANNEL STREET

InfoComm MEA to Boost ME Audiovisual Market

Demonstrating the strong growth in the Middle East’s audiovisual technology market, InfoComm MEA’s organizers are all set to become a stand-alone show in 2016.The Middle East’s

audiovisual market is set to reach USD 2.76 billion by 2016, up 76 percent from 2012, driven

by GCC megaprojects and increasing demand for screens, audio, lighting, and control systems in Smart Cities, hospitality, retail, transportation, and entertainment sectors. InfoComm MEA 2016 will continue to be jointly organized by InfoCommAsia and the Dubai World Trade Centre, and promoted with the deep involvement and support from the GITEX Technology Week marketing team.

For the first time, the Digital Signage Summit will be co-located at InfoComm MEA, bringing a stronger focus on digital signage’s uses.

EES PARTNERS WITH AVEPOINT, SIMARKS AND ARCHIVE360 EES will leverage Simarks technology to identify and resolve problems often before they impact the delivery of services and ensure customers’ IT systems are secure, reliable and available, around the clock always. AvePoint’s rich experience in enterprise collaboration coupled with Emitac’s service excellence enhances quality and assures delivery of a range of SharePoint and compliance solutions to organizations. Designed, developed and supported by industry experts with decades of experience in enterprise archiving, and with hundreds of enterprise global customers, Archive360’s solutions are proven to protect the integrity of customers’ records while delivering the fastest archive migrations to the cloud, as well as to any new on-premise environments.

ESET LAUNCHES MSP PROGRAM ESET has launched its new Managed Service Program (MSP) in the Middle East at GITEX 2015. This program intends to equip ESET MSP partners with the tools they need for simpler licensing and management and reward them for their growth by decreasing licensing costs as their volume of business increases.Commenting on the need for managed services in the region, PavolBalaj, EMEA Business Development Lead at ESET, said, “This is an attractive security alternative for all verticals, starting with finance, healthcare, government and manufacturing, and now growing rapidly also in retail, utilities, media and entertainment.”

INCREASED MOBILITY, INCREASED THREAT

ANDREW LINTELL, DIRECTOR OF SALES, IDENTITY ASSURANCE, EMEA , HID GLOBAL.

HID Global has revealed that security and compliance are a major concern for CIOs and IT departments across the Middle East, as a result of the increased usage of mobile devices. A survey conducted by HID Global across the Middle East region found that 97 percent of the respondents said that the widespread use of mobile devices by employees, has significantly increased their organizations risk profile “The findings indicate that CIOs and IT departments are clearly concerned about the risks and challenges associated with increased use of mobile devices by employees,” said Andrew Lintell, Director of Sales, Identity Assurance, EMEA with HID Global.

“However, it is encouraging to see that security and compliance is high on the agenda for organisations,” While organizations acknowledge that cloud-based storage services are widely used among employees, 34 percent said that they strongly discouraged or prohibited users from using these services to access company data or services.

DIVERSIFYING PORTFOLIO StorIT Distribution, in partnership with HASZone (USA), has launched Enterprise-class Managed Services in another trail blazing initiative for its Reseller Channel Network in the Middle East at GITEX Technology Week 2015. With this offering, StorIT will now be able to offer customers a

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highly resilient and secure IT Infrastructure, increased service levels and the best costs.

Speaking on the launch, Suren Vedantham, Managing Director, StorIT Distribution said, “StorIT, as an Enterprise Technology Solutions Distributor, has been a pioneer in introducing most diversi-

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fied portfolio of services that enhances the technical prowess of its reseller partners and boosts their brand equity. By bringing world class Managed Services offering to its resellers, StorIT continues to redefine IT Distribution as never before.”

SUREN VEDANTHAM , MD - STORIT AND HEMESH DOGIPARTHI, DIRECTOR - HASZONE

GEC OPEN GLOBAL ENTERPRISE CONNECT

BAHRAIN | UAE | INDIA | SAUDI ARABIA OMAN | TURKEY | QATAR I N A S S O C I AT I O N W I T H

BROUGHT BY

ORGANISED BY

GLOBAL ENTERPRISE CONNECT

WWW.GECOPEN.COM

CHANNEL STREET

Progressive Thinking with ThinkProgress.com Lenovo has launched the UAE version of Think-Progress.com. The platform was initially launched in the UK to provide consumers and businesses with information on Mobility, Performance and Productivity, Workplace Efficiency, Datacentres, and more.

The UAE version of ThinkProgress.com provides businesses as well as customers with actionable ideas and inspiring insights to help them make sense of the rapidly changing IT landscape, succeed in their career, and take advantage of the digital future of business.

Mohammed Hilili, General Manager Lenovo Gulf, said: “SME’s represent almost 95% of companies in Dubai and many of these organisations do not fully understand the benefits the right IT set-up can have on their bottom line.

ThinkProgress.com is a platform designed to do exactly that – help the local business community understand the benefits of technology. Through the website, consumers can explore the latest technology trends from the UAE and hear from regional industry leaders on topics that matter to them.

FUJITSU PERFECTS SDS FOR ENTERPRISE NEEDS Fujitsu has unveiled the second-generation FUJITSU Storage ETERNUS CD10000, its hyperscale software-defined storage system. Already the world’s most scalable and capable storage system, the ETERNUS CD10000 S2 now provides even more powerful tools to meet the data handling challenges of the petabyte age. Based on the open source unified, distributed storage system Ceph, Fujitsu’s ETERNUS CD10000 provides unlimited and cost-efficient modular scalability for both storage capacity and performance, at zero downtime. It is delivered with end-to-end system management for soft- and hardware and includes maintenance and quality assurance for the whole system .

“GLOBAL” SIGNED AS AUTHORIZED CATHEXIS DISTRIBUTOR Global Distribution is the new distributor of CATHEXIS. “Our software offers a sophisticated surveillance environment for security, and also provides specialized features, video analytics and integration with 3rd party systems that go “beyond security”, says Gus Brecher, Marketing/Sales & Business Development Director - CATHEXIS Technologies.

“That’s another step in our efforts to ensure our Partner Community is able to embrace Solutions Selling and targeting specific verticals and technologies.,” added Mario M. Veljovic, VP Solutions MEA at Global Distribution FZE – Global Solutions Network.

MARIO M. VELJOVIC, VP SOLUTIONS MEA , GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION FZE

FLYDUBAI TO FLY HIGH WITH NIIT TECHNOLOGIES NIIT Technologies has entered a long-term strategic agreement with Dubai-based airline flydubai.The agreement will enable flydubai to build airline-specific IT systems catering to all facets of its business. This will support flydubai’sprogramme to deliver an enhanced passenger satisfaction.

NIIT Technologies plans to deliver these services through its state-ofthe-art Global Delivery Center at its campus in Greater Noida. This will include a dedicated ‘Testing Center of Excellence’ for flydubai. In addition, NIIT Technologies will provide support on software development projects with data center services through its Infrastructure Management Services.

Commenting on the announcement, Ramesh Venkat, Chief Information Officer of flydubai said: “We remain committed to providing a great travel experience for all our passengers through advancements in technology and improvement in our operational efficiency. This appointment will not only help us to prepare for our next phase of growth but will enable us to remain flexible and adapt to changes in travel patterns in the market.”

Deepak Khosla, President, APAC/ ANZ, NIIT Technologies stated that, “Through this association we look forward to delivering exceptional experience for the flydubai passengers.

Given our proven expertise in travel and transportation domain and managing large scale projects, we are confident that our services will support flydubai in its growth.”

COMMVAULT –REDEFINING THE DATA PROTECTION MARKET Commvault has launched the next generation of its market leading solutions portfolio, delivering a broad spectrum of innovation designed to help customers address the increasing challenges of managing data and information in highly disrupted, fast-paced global business environments.

Commvault’s powerful combina-

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tion provides enterprises with unprecedented levels of openness, offering customers flexibility of choice in infrastructure, platform, compute and storage providers.

Customers now have the ability to open up new opportunities to reduce legacy spend, be released from vendor lock-in, find pathways to more modern environments, and

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drive new efficiencies and speed in IT operations. These opportunities will enable the strategic deployment of resources for innovation, creativity and to increase business value.

“Commvault’s next generation software and platform are uniquely designed to help customers activate their data to unlock critical business insight and drive new value from

their technology investments,” said N. Robert Hammer, Chairman, President and CEO of Commvault.

“The new Commvault release both leapfrogs point solution vendors in capabilities and functionality while also showcasing the performance, security, compliance, and economic benefits of a holistic data management strategy

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Veeam Accelerates Cloud and Customer Opportunities

RTA TRANSFORMS WITH VCE CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE

SAID AKAR, REGIONAL DIRECTOR FOR TURKEY, EASTERN EUROPE, AFRICA, AND MIDDLE EAST , VCE

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has selected a VCE Vblock System for its Automated Collection System (ACS), a contactless smart card scheme for customers using public transport facilities. The cards function as an electronic wallet and customers using public transport services including taxis and parking facilities can pay for their services through a preloaded card.

The VCE Vblock System will form the foundation of RTA’s IT Infrastructure supporting ACS. It will provide a wide range of IT applications including web application, databases and test and development workloads for RTA’s five business segments. Struggling with an IT system that is over 9 nine years old, RTA needs a highly available infrastructure for mission critical applications, an IT environment that enables mixed workloads, and most importantly integrates compute, storage and network technologies. Another key requirement is a futureproof solution that enables RTA to retain and maximize its investments, and increase user productivity, scalability and availability while reducing operational complexities and costs.

To enable partners to maximize this opportunity, deliver trusted availability solutions via the cloud and carve out new - or expanded - routes to market, Veeam Software has unveiled its Veeam Managed Backup Portal for Service Providers.

Veeam Managed Backup Portal available through the RATMIRTIMASHEV, CEO AT VEEAM Microsoft Azure Marketplace, streamlines the delivery of Veeam-powered backup services (including

BaaS) for service providers, including resellers interested in launching a service provider business. It provides a “business-in-a-box” by including remote monitoring and management of customer backups via a service provider portal for administrative and billing purposes, and a customer portal for basic self-service monitoring and configuration

SECURING DYNAMIC BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS Paladion participated in this year’s Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit as the Platinum sponsor at which it presented its next generation security model, CyberActive SOC.As a speaker at the summit, Mr. KaustubhMedhe, Associate Vice President for Managed Security Services at Paladion, made a presentation on Paladion’sCyberActive SOC model “Keeping pace with the advancement in cyber-attacks and security breaches requires waging a war on multiple fronts. Traditional models of implementing a SIEM solution, staffing the SOC with an 8-member team are proving incapable of detecting and preventing a targeted cyber-attack. To respond to this, we have developed a next generation security model, CyberActive SOC that will enable enterprises in the region to overcome such limitations and secure their dynamic business environments,” stated Medhe.

ADFCA CONSOLIDATES PARTNERSHIP WITH FUJITSU The Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority (ADFCA) has appointed Fujitsu to implement Oracle Siebel CRM to help manage its customer-facing operations when inspecting the standards of food safety in the manufacturing and distribution of food in Abu Dhabi emirate.Fujitsu will be implementing the Siebel CRM with ADFCA’s AIRS project. Following the implementation, the ADFCA’s current technology footprint will migrate into a seamless and unified operational system. Farid Al-Sabbagh, MD and VP of Fujitsu Middle East said in his address; “ADFCA are certainly ahead of the curve and are subsequently able to ensure the safe delivery of food to the public of Abu Dhabi as a result. A true example of human centricity in ICT.”

SAUDI XEROX GIVES BACK TO COMMUNITY Saudi Xerox, a joint venture between Olayan and Xerox Corp recently implemented a community and sustainability program that took part in three different regions of Saudi Arabia, in an effort to give back to the local public. The three initiatives were selected from a large list of

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suggestions put together by the Saudi Xerox team.

“Saudi Xerox prides itself on placing a high value of importance on its responsibility towards society by actively promoting environment sustainability and giving back to the community. It is this sense of responsibility that

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has encouraged the Saudi Xerox to run a series of initiatives in collaboration with KSA based NGOs”, Reem Al Bakry, Deputy General Manager, Marketing, Saudi Xerox, says.

In Riyadh, the Saudi Xerox team partnered with a local orphanage and organized a fun

filled day for the children. Saudi Xerox also teamed up with a charitable body Irteqa Charity Committee that donates used computers to those less fortunate.

The Saudi Xerox team celebrated Saudi National Day for children with special needs.

USA | UAE | KSA | KUWAIT | QATAR | BAHRAIN | OMAN | EGYPT | TURKEY | SOUTH AFRICA

MY VIEWS

out of such an attack and this happens mostly when we give elevated privileges on end-user machines. But what happens is usually the viruses/malware take advantage of the privileged permissions and start hitting the machines. In case of the solution that comes from Simarks, we don’t need to elevate the permission as a result we stop the unrestricted attack of the Trojan or the virus. Most of the present day hacks and breaches have occurred due to these elevated permissions. And this is where, Simarks comes into the picture.

RAJNISH SHARMA,

CLOUD PRACTICE MANAGER, EMITAC ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS AND

JORGE SÁNCHEZ,

CEO OF SIMARKS

New Age Technology for The New Age Threats EMITAC ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS ENTERED A NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH SIMARKS TO PROVIDE THREAT PROTECTION TO ENTERPRISES AGAINST THE NEXT GENERATION OF CYBER-ATTACKS. EC MEA HAD A CONVERSATION WITH JORGE SÁNCHEZ, CEO OF SIMARKS AND RAJNISH SHARMA, CLOUD PRACTICE MANAGER, EMITAC ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS

What prompted Simarks to go for a partnership with Emitac?

Simarks : We are a cyber-security company with new disruptive technology in the market. Our headquarters is in Spain and we are planning to expand across Middle East, Europe and by next year, US as well. In UAE, Emitac wanted to expand its security portfolio. Our portfolio fit perfectly with Emitac’s plans.

What kind of security solutions is Simarks bringing to the table?

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Simarks : We are bringing a new approach to security. The problem with traditional security like anti-viruses, firewalls etc. is they are unable to handle new malware and threats. We are here with a new technology to counter these new kinds of threats.

What was Emitac’s reason to select Simarks as their security partner?

EES : When we have a zero-day attack, we don’t have an answer to it. It takes some time to come

Wasn’t it risky for a leading company like EES to partner with a relatively new company?

EES : The cyber-attacks happening nowadays are pretty new themselves. So, we absolutely don’t mind looking at Simarks and focusing technically at the way they work. Moreover, EES is known for its daring personality of venturing into newer things which nobody in the market has done.

Our legacy has several evidences for the same; for example, back when Etisalat was first instituted, EES was the first to do the infrastructure for them. We were the first guys to bring in HP to the region. The same goes for Blackberry. We were the first guys to bring these into the market and now we are bringing Simarks to the market. What we actually do is not see how big the portfolio is; rather we see what the demand is and where we have the loophole that we need to fit in. That’s exactly what integration should be- to try and fill in the gap with the latest technology- not defined by what everybody is already doing.

What’s the unique advantage from Simarks?

Simarks : Simarks helps the organization to control, mitigate and reduce its Privileged Access Points across the organization, hot spots that advanced threats, zero-day, persistent threats make use to spread the malware into the business.

Simarks brings a new approach to the Software Distribution dilemma, complexity, operational inefficiency and lack of advanced security.

Simarks removes all complexity, increases IT operational efficiency and makes application deployment at the whole organization level an incredibly easy, secured and very efficient task led by users. Thanks to our revolutionary approach using our privileges management patented technology combined with our Software Distribution, we bring a new horizon, Software Distribution brings IT consumerization and Advanced Security. In our case, technology takes the decision, not the user. ë

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COVER STORY

ENTERPRISE COMMUNICATION

Binding

Workplace in a Communicative Harmony

The figures are just leaping and the market is nowhere near to the ‘POSSIBLE’ extent— something which comes across very clearly when we read that the global unified communication market size is expected to reach USD 75.81 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 16.3% from 2014 to 2020. Growing demand among enterprises for competitive edge and effective data collection has set the stage for Enterprise communications to take over a major chunk of the pie now. n B Y: A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M > n P H O T O : S H U T T E R S T O C K

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COVER STORY

THE NEW WORLD OF CONNECTIVITY

E

nterprises in present have realized that the future definitely would not shoulder the legacy of network and architecture legacies. Ever since the concept of WAN as a Service has been gaining prominence, enterprise connectivity is seeing and touching new horizons in mobilizing the workforce. The evolution of connectivity

has had many aspects to it.

“In fast growing markets like the Middle East, the need for centralizing and secure control access has become the key and adoption of new technologies by Enterprise business gives these enterprises the ability to gain a competitive advantage and grow” says Sanjay Ahuja, VP of Sales – Middle East & Africa at AGC Networks.

“Software defined networking (SDN) is growing in popularity as businesses recognise the value

of simplifying and streamlining their network” says Maan Al-Shakarchi, Sales Director, Avaya Networking Solutions - Global Growth Markets.

Enterprise connectivity has been the key reason for companies increasingly investing in unified communications. “The pervasive nature of UC technologies has driven its expansion into all vertical industries.” Says Ahmed Sousa, Regional Manager, Solution Architects, MEA & Turkey at Polycom

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COVER STORY

THE SUPER (HYPER) CONNECTED ENTERPRISE As the critical infrastructure of an organization becomes increasingly connected, the risk of cyber security is at large. One of the key features of a hyper connected situation is that, everything and anything we touch, say and do generates huge volumes of unstructured data, thronging it on the networks as well as the applications.

As an ‘insidebigdata.com’ report says, “Decision makers will be able to access and analyze information they need faster than ever before to drive desired business outcomes- including reducing operational risk, achieving nimble supply chains and delivering unsurpassed customer experience. Enterprises and vendors should be prepared to capitalize on the connected enterprise, alike. The hyper-connected enterprise uses next-generation communications to accelerate decisions, boost productivity and respond faster to customers. It allows for seamless interaction and engagement with companies across a range of touch-points, from face-to-face to online to mobile to video.

“The Avaya SDN Fx architecture is the first to deliver “connect anything, anywhere” simplicity, shaving weeks in provisioning time by allowing devices and users at the network edge to be added easily to the network.” says Maan. “The key elements we see consist of the applications, such as Ethernet connectivity, WiFi, LED lighting, in-building wireless, audio visual, sensors, and the physical layer infrastructure that supports it.” says David Tanis, Strategic Marketing Director, CommScope.

“Polycom is committed to helping organisations realize hyper-connectivity by delivering the workplace of the future through solutions that defy distance, eliminate barriers and create collaborative experiences for employees” says Ahmed.

THE ‘EYES’ AND ‘MOUTH’ OF ENTERPRISES Growing at double the global rate, the Middle East’s physical security market – which was valued at US$3 billion in 2014 – is estimated to grow 25 per cent annually over the next six years to reach US$11 billion in 2020, according to analysts Frost & Sullivan “Enterprise landscape revolves around integration over Microsoft Lync, Avaya Aura and Cisco CUCM. As we see the future is all about Hyper-Converged network and growth will take place through solutions which can adopt multivendor interoperability, adopt open

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architecture and comply to cloud services.”

Says Sanjay.

Cloud based storage and video analytic have been integrating new technologies and redefining video solutions.

“By combining Internet of Things systems with smart network connectivity and real-time communication services (e.g., mobile phone, VoIP, location intelligence based WiFi, elastic bandwidth and Smart Power based Ethernet, audio and video conferencing, user location and identification features) and non-real-time services (e.g., voicemail, SMS), Avaya solutions

enable organizations in different verticals to take a step towards more effective and integrated communication with customers with a complete omni-channel experience that harnesses online, mobile and analytics solutions” says Maan.

As a recent report asserts, Scalability and affordability have extended video conferencing way beyond the boardroom to address the demands of today’s growing mobile workforce.

Cloud-based video conferencing has made it even easier for companies to leverage the benefits of video conferencing. “The convergence of

COVER STORY

SANJAY AHUJA VP OF SALES – MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA AT AGC NETWORKS

“The terms Gen “Y” is all about the latest development in technology and being a solution integrator company, we understand the need to keep pace with the changing technology landscape and generation expectations!”

voice, video, and data communications around a shared IP-based infrastructure - allowing users to easily make a call, send a message, or join an audio or video conference - is bringing benefits to businesses of every size, industry, and geography. In the government sector, Smart Cities rising across the GCC will have video at their core, with sensors integrated in every object connected to citywide Wi-Fi networks. We’ll see this being used in situations such as emergency response management, with hazard reports being sent or police calling up CCTV footage of suspects..” Says Wael Abdulal, Senior Manager, Collaboration, Cisco UAE Ahmed says “While audio and video are both important in communications, it is video that will be making the largest leap due to users demanding the ability to meet face to face through any device. This is especially true of the new generation of ‘digital natives’, who have high expectations of enterprise technology.”

MAAN AL-SHAKARCHI SALES DIRECTOR, AVAYA NETWORKING SOLUTIONS - GLOBAL GROWTH MARKETS

AHMED SOUSA REGIONAL MANAGER, SOLUTION ARCHITECTS, MEA & TURKEY AT POLYCOM

“Building on our Avaya Fabric Connect technology, we’ve leapfrogged other existing technology approaches with new products and capabilities, enabling a complete end-to-end SDN solution without the need to rip and replace”

“Polycom is committed to helping organisations realize hyper-connectivity by delivering the workplace of the future through solutions that defy distance, eliminate barriers and create collaborative experiences”

DRIVE TOWARDS SDN AND OTHER WORKFLOW

beyond any available meeting room service capable of hosting up to 1,000 people on WebEx and up to 25 video endpoints on the same session.” says Wael. With this new cloud-based offering, users need not worry about exceeding capacity limits or whether all participants will have access to the “right” technologies The move towards cloud-based services has positively developed the UC industry further.

For organisations that have existing Polycom deployments — on-premise, hosted or managed — services such as Video as a Service (VaaS) complement and extend that investment by adding the element of flexibility and scalability to their current portfolio of technologies.

“With ever increasing need for data centre resources, many enterprises have begun deploying modular data centres, which give them the opportunity to truly add capacity on a pay as you grow basis.” Says David.

Manisha, MarComm Manager at Finesse

Cloud-based UC solutions are especially seeing strong demand. According to a recent report, non-premises consumption models for UC and collaboration have growth rates that are 1.5 to 2 times that of traditional customer premise equipment, with up to 30 percent of UC revenue currently coming from hosted UC deployments.

Leveraging the power of the Cisco WebEx Cloud and Cisco Telepresence video infrastructure, our recently launched Cisco Collaboration Meeting Room (CMR) offering will scale well beyond any available meeting room service capable of hosting up to 1,000 people on WebEx and up to 25 video endpoints on the same session.

“Leveraging the power of the Cisco WebEx Cloud and Cisco Telepresence video infrastructure, our recently launched Cisco Collaboration Meeting Room (CMR) offering will scale well

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COVER STORY

DAVID TANIS STRATEGIC MARKETING DIRECTOR, COMMSCOPE

“As a provider of physical layer solutions, we continue to develop solutions that will provide the throughput and performance needed to support this ever increasing number of applications.” says, “SDN must create a more agile network with the development of an open interface. This enables reduction of time-to-market for service introduction, reduction of capex unit costs by focusing network elements (NEs) to move traffic, and also reducing opex unit costs for network services to deliver, such as establishing protection and restoration or provisioning new connectivity services etc”

LEADING ON THE MARKET SCOREBOARD According to Sanjay at AGC the value addition as compared to other UC solutions lies in its flexibility to interoperate / integrate with 3rd party systems, SIP openness, easy to understand topology, BYOD enabled, licensing benefits, streamlined installation, virtual awareness, far more capacity & easily accessible API’s for customization. “Avaya’s offering spans the entire stack of unified communications, from the network level to the applications such as Scopia, a rich, multi-platform, multi-device, online collaboration suite. We have worked with a number of organisations

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MANISHA MARCOMM MANAGER, FINESSE

“We have been investing heavily in learning, development and testing, and working closely with our partners to create the ecosystem of “connected world” and to deliver Unified Communications” spanning private enterprise and Governments across the GCC and broader Middle East, across their internal UC requirements and customer-facing multichannel contact centres.” says Maan.

Cisco’s latest UC solutions are designed specifically with the goal of making it easier for teams to instantly connect, communicate and collaborate – so people can respond faster and make decisions more quickly.

“We have several unique solutions which truly enable our customers to drive value in the enterprise. Three of the most impactful that are unique to CommScope include ION-E, Redwood Building Intelligence Platform, and Data Center on Demand”. says David.

Finesse’s solutions for Unified Communications help address the concerns of enterprises and ensure conceptualising, creating and maintaining a seamless ecosystem of interconnected devices.

“Our video and collaborative solutions provide channel partners and resellers with a broader services portfolio. One key advantage is faster time to revenue and return on investment with low total cost of ownership, enabling service

WAEL ABDULAL SENIOR MANAGER, COLLABORATION, CISCO UAE

“At Cisco, we look at interoperability as an opportunity to address all of the customer needs.

Our solutions can integrate with legacy systems too.”

providers to offer hosted solutions with a secure, interoperable, non-disruptive solution that easily integrates with existing service environments.”

Says Ahmed.

IOT IN UC: THE CONNECTED COMMUNICATIONS IoT promises significant value propositions for businesses and employees alike. Avaya, in partnership with Mashreq, launched the UAE’s first ‘Smart Banking Anywhere’ platform, using SmartConnect solutions to turn Mashreq into the most virtual and video-connected bank in the Middle East. “In the Middle East, companies of every size, industry, and geography are investing in UC and video solutions to enhance productivity and IT costs, and there is a tremendous opportunity for the “as a service” model in the region.” Says Wael.

“Automated Infrastructure Management systems can ensure that any changes to the physical layer are fully documented, and any unplanned changes reported instantaneously.” Says David.

“We have been investing heavily in learning,

COVER STORY

EDGES AT A GLANCE •

•

•

•

Avaya SDN Fx, Avaya Fabric Attach, and Avaya Open Networking Adaptor, all of which work towards creating a seamless, secure connectivity experience within a network.

Cisco TelePresence, Customer Collaboration (contact center), Cisco Jabber, Cisco Unity Connection, and Cisco WebEx Meetings are designed specifically with the goal of making it easier for teams to instantly connect, communicate and collaborate – so people can respond faster and make decisions more quickly.

Polycom RealPresence Mobile enables students to attend the lessons from any location or device, and boosts borderless education while reducing administrative costs and improving staff productivity for the academic institution.

Finesse’s solutions for Unified Communications help address the concerns of enterprises and ensure conceptualising, creating and maintaining a seamless ecosystem of interconnected devices

COMMSCOPE: n ION-E: An in-building wireless system that greatly simplifies DAS n Redwood Building Intelligence Platform: to manage space utilization, workplace productivity and energy efficiency on the same platform, n Data Center on Demand: a purpose built, modular data center

development and testing, and working closely with our partners to create the ecosystem of “connected world” and to deliver Unified Communications” says Manisha.

SECURING THE MOBILE WORKFORCE Looking back a few years, BYOD was one of the biggest trends in information security and enterprise communication and connectivity.

Today, BYOD is not a choice but a decision and necessity. And as Avaya puts it across, Security is definitely a primary concern and there are ongoing debates around the world today on data protection. The IoE is under threat because of the security concerns, where it is estimated that more than 70 percent of IT security breaches are caused by corporate network vulnerabilities usually caused by loose networking protections in order to enable BYOD and IoT. “Polycom Desktop and Mobile RealPresence solutions are exactly what businesses looking to expand their flexible working initiatives’ need, since they can be installed and used by employees on their

computers and laptops on the go via their tablets and mobiles.” Says Ahmed According to Maan of Avaya, next generation matrix architecture based on Ethernet transport and optimized for IP services regardless of their connectivity methodology is the solution. “Avaya introduced SDN Fx to scale, enhance security, deliver best in class reliability and provide the best foundation for IOT/IOE applications.”

“The best practice to address these security challenges of collaboration is through company policies, guidelines, and training for users as well as security measures in the collaboration technology and its network.” says Wael.

FINALLY As big data revolves around the Vs of Volume, Value and Veracity; the future of all enterprise technology and communication revolves around People, Process and Data. Connecting physical objects, machines, humans, and the wider corporate network allows organizations to maximize resource utilization and workforce potential Enterprise communication and connectivity is no longer a choice for organizations contending on lands of innovation and ability instead of capital investments. IoT has laid the playground of opportunities and forced the enterprises to rethink communication on the platform of imagination. ë

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COVER FEATURE

MO DUALEH, SALES - MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA, PURE STORAGE

HASSAN HAMADANI, SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER - EMEA EMERGING, PURE STORAGE

CHRISTIAN PUTZ, SALES DIRECTOR, EMEA AND EMERGING, PURE STORAGE

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NI, G

COVER FEATURE

PURE STORAGE

The Dawn of the Future

When storage rides a Ferrari, the possibilities of any business are catapulted instantly and before we have even realized, the future of technology, the future of storage has dawned over us. With its extremely powerful yet radically simple all-flash arrays, Pure Storage is accelerating not just businesses but also the transition to futuristic technologies. The speed of technology surely makes one ponder if all fiction will gradually be transformed into reality in the near future. n W O R D S : S O U M YA < S O U M YA @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >

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ccommodating exponential growth on flat spend seems intractable, and yet servers and networks have been getting exponentially faster and cheaper following Moore’s Law for decades. Storage has failed to keep pace because of mechanical disk.

Flash memory is key to resolving this crisis. Like servers and networks, solid-state flash gets faster and cheaper over time. But flash has not yet had a comparable impact in your data center due to exorbitant costs, and issues with reliability, scale and ease of integration. Pure Storage set out with a simple mission: to create a purpose-built

WhyPURE Pure Storage?

WHY STORAGE? Business Transformation

Achieve results previously unimaginable.

IT Transformation

Run IT as a cloud while improving efficiency and agility.

Faster

Lower Costs

Accelerate applications Increase revenue and productivity

Reduce storage costs by 50% Reduce management costs by 90% Consolidate servers and applications

Smarter

Drive Simplicity and Agility

Real-time analytic insights Drive customer loyalty

Reduce the complexity of storage to make IT more agile

More Innovative

Run IT as a Cloud

Create new, differentiated customer experiences Get to market faster

Faster time-to-market for new services On-demand, self-service delivery Virtualize all, Mobilize desktops

storage array that overcomes these barriers.

They achieved these breakthroughs via a holistic redesign of the storage architecture for solid-state.

Pure Storage is the first all-flash storage array to meet the availability, reliability, and scale requirements of the enterprise, while reducing flash storage to a price point that makes it cost effective for widespread deployment.

WHY GO THE PURE ROUTE? It’s obvious for any company to claim that they are the best in their field but when unbiased industry analysts give the elite status to a brand constantly, the reasons to not trust in the abilities of the brand surely pass into oblivion. Pure Storage has been named a Leader two years in a row in the Gartner MQ Report. According to Gartner, Pure Storage has executed well on its vision of software-led solid-state arrays that leverage off-the-shelf cost-effective hardware components providing cost-effective SSAs. Through creative marketing programs and targeted competitive campaigns, it has managed to achieve high customer awareness and challenge the large storage behemoths by making it easy for customers to buy and own its products. This is a testament to Pure’s mature and established FA-400

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COVER FEATURE

ENTERPRISE STORAGE UPGRADE MODELS MODEL 1

MODEL 2

MODEL 3

On-line data migration

l Old technology lock-in l Disruptive l Time-consuming, risky l Expensive

l Old technology lock-in l Time-consuming, risky l Performance degradation l Expensive

l No technology lock-in l No data migration l Non-disruptive l Investment preservation l Much lower cost

Source: IDC, 2015

Series, which continues to deliver capable data management services and proven data reduction implementation while based on consumer-grade SSD technology. Pure has done this with an aggressive go-to-market channel strategy, and has maintained high customer satisfaction levels as it has scaled the business. Pure’s culture and innovation has been able to attract high-quality personnel as it continues to expand across geographies.

Gartner expects that Pure Storage will be publicly traded within the next 12 months.

STRENGTHS l Pure Storage demonstrates that it understands customer pain points through new creative pricing and guarantee programs around controller upgrades, SSD warranties and maintenance pricing. l Pure is moving from being a softwareorientated vendor using commodity SSDs to being more of a hardware-engineering organization that designs and tunes its own storage array subsystem. l The vendor has gained customer trust by demonstrating it is reliable, stable and easy to work with.

TIME FOR A FACELIFT TO TRADITIONAL STORAGE Enterprise storage solutions have traditionally imposed limitations in terms of their ability to be upgraded in-place to incorporate newer storage technologies that improve performance, increase storage densities, improve efficiencies, and lower overall costs. With its Forever Flash Program and associated set of well-targeted architectural enhancements to its All Flash Arrays (AFAs), Pure Storage aims to challenge customer preconceptions about the risk, expense and waste associated with forklift storage upgrades that

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generally occur every three to five years for most enterprises.

Pure Storage’s actions establish a new Evergreen Storage model for its customers to manage major technology refreshes; the model is designed to provide the following benefits: l Allow customers to upgrade to the latest technologies across the board in controllers, external host and internal array connectivity, and solid state disks (SSDs) without any disruption or

performance degradation l Enable in-place upgrades that remove traditional risks that can be associated with forklift upgrades and data migration l Preserve customer investment since upgrades to next generation technology do not require re-purchasing hardware, re-licensing storage software products, or increases in maintenance and support costs The Forever Flash maintenance program, combined with the enhancements in the FlashArray//m, mean that a Pure Storage system is designed to be completely upgraded across technology generations without requiring any downtime, data migration, or additional hardware and software expense. In effect, the Forever Flash maintenance program aims to establish a third model for enterprise storage technology refresh that has significant advantages over the other two models.

When enterprise storage is being debated, only a technological competitive edge might not be just enough for organizations to be convinced for an upgrade. At the end, it’s all about investing in technology that cuts on time and costs.

Fortunately, Pure Storage has managed to crack the jackpot in this arena as well.

AVERAGE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF PURE STORAGE

Drive customer loyalty

Reduce the complexity of storage to make IT more agile

More Innovative

Run IT as a Cloud

Create new, differentiated customer experiences Get to market faster

Faster time-to-market for new services On-demand, self-service delivery Virtualize all, Mobilize desktops

WHY PARTNER WITH PURE?

How We Do It

HOW THEY DO IT Technology Innovation

Best Customer Experience

5+ years of investing to lead in the all-flash array market.

INDUSTRY LEADING DATA REDUCTION

WORKLOAD CONSOLIDATION

EVERGREEN STORAGE

Making storage ownership simple.

RAISING THE BAR ON RESILIENCY

Evergreen Storage

EVERYTHING BUILT-IN

Evergreen Storage the model to is our extend storage lifecycle to 10+ years.

NetPromoter

70

>

2014 Average

© 2015 Pure Storage, Inc. All rights reserved. Pure Storage, Pure1, and the P Logo are trademarks of Pure Storage, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

102% ROI IN ONLY 14 MONTHS

PARTNERING WITH THE TRAILBLAZERS

According to Forrester research, the many business benefits of going all flash with Pure Storage – include major cost savings. Replacement of legacy disks by all flash arrays from Pure Storage can yield a 102% ROI in only 14 months.

Pure Storage is leading the flash revolution.

Partnering is one of the core objectives – and one of their strengths. Together with strong partners, they believe they can power growth and profitability while transforming an industry.

ALL THAT’S PURE FLASHARRAY//M

l FlashArray//m makes server and workload investments more productive, while lowering storage spend by up to 50%. l FlashArray//m’s performance can also make your business smarter by unleashing the power of real-time analytics, driving customer loyalty, and creating new, innovative customer experiences that simply weren’t possible with disk. l FlashArray//m enables to transform data center, cloud, or entire buisiness with an afordable all-fash array capable of consolidating and accelerating all key applications l Mini size, mighty performance, modular scale and meaningful simplicity

PURE 1

l Pure1 is a single cloud-based platform that redefines global management and support. l Pure1 Manage gives the freedom to manage FlashArrays globally, from anywhere. l Pure1 Connect lets one automate and integrate FlashArray management with the tools and applications in the data center l Pure1 is powered by the rich telemetric data of 1,000s of FlashArrays calling-home continuously

COVER FEATURE

PURITY OPERATING ENVIRONMENT

l Purity implements advanced data reduction, storage management and fash management features, and all features of Purity are included in the base cost of the FlashArray//m. l Offering unrivaled 512B variable metadata that powers advanced data services, Purity delivers next-generation all-flash storage. l Purity’s advanced services are made possible by five key assets: industry-leading data reduction; Tier 1 resiliency with zero performance loss; built-in disaster recovery and protection; global flash management; and 512B variable metadata.

EVERGREEN STORAGE

l Pure Storage has pioneered an entirely new storage ownership model called Evergreen Storage. l With Evergreen Storage one can deploy storage once and then upgrade it in place over time as needed for capacity, density, performance or features, all without any downtime or performance impact and without having to migrate your data. This can be kept on for a decade or more. l Evergreen Storage gets faster and more capable with time.

l Trust and Transparency l Innovation and a disruptive business model l Differentiation through strategic product offerings l Opportunity to extend market reach l Value Addition in the form of higher, demonstrable customer ROI and elimination of disruptive upgrades

DELIVERING THE MAGIC RECIPE TO THE MIDDLE EAST Pure Storage have had representation in the region for over a year now through their distributor, Global Distribution. Witnessing the pull from the market for their product and the appetite for enterprises in the region to embrace Flash, they decided to make a further investment in the region and earlier this year, opened a direct Pure Storage office.

They are very selective when it comes to channel partners and to that end, work with a handful of key partners across the Middle East. These include ISIT, Gerab Systems Solutions (GSS), Fujisoft, Americana, Kalway, Kuwait Technology and Services Co. to name a few.

In H1 of 2015 they enhanced their channel strategy with the Pure Storage Partner program (P3), which delivers the tools, training and support for Pure’s channel partners. The benefits from P3 will continue to work in H2 of 2015 thanks to an increase in Marketing Development Funds (MDF) which has been committed to the channel alongside the program as well as new marketing on demand tools, Pure Demand, which their partners can utilize and take advantage of to support their push to market. Thanks to these initiatives, Pure partners now have an improved incentive framework, co-branded customer reference program and demo purchase program that features significant discounts on products, which are differentiated by partner tier. Looking forward, their focus will continue to be on partners that are driving value with customers by transforming the way in which their business works.

FINALLY The traditional enterprise storage upgrade cycle imposes significant burdens on data centers. Pure Storage’s Forever Flash maintenance program is designed to offer customers a much better choice . This new technology refresh strategy throws down the gauntlet to other enterprise storage providers, challenging them to provide more value to their own customers, and absolutely makes Pure Storage solutions more attractive to enterprises. ë

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MY VIEWS

NICOLAI SOLLING,

DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY SERVICES AT HELP AG

Seeing the invisible to attain the impossible GIVEN THE ONGOING POLITICAL INSTABILITY IN THE REGION, AND THE FACT THAT GLOBALLY ACTIVE CYBER TERRORISM GROUPS CLAIM ROOTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST, WE CAN ASSUME THAT WE ARE AT A HIGHER RISK. “WE ARE ALL LIVING IN A KNOWLEDGE BASED ECONOMY AND OUR ABILITY TO DO THINGS EFFICIENTLY DIRECTLY IMPACTS THE BOTTOM LINE OF COMPANIES. IF COMPETITION IS ABLE TO STEAL THIS CAPABILITY BY INFILTRATING IT SYSTEMS; IT IS AND SHOULD BE A MAJOR CONCERN” COMMENTS NICOLAI

What makes cyber-espionage more dangerous than other security breaches?

The major issue is around the amount of details and information that can be harvested. If someone were to steal non-electronic information it is actually quite difficult as it would involve handling of physical materials. You need to get access to the information and also need to copy it without leaving a trace!

In IT this is different, as organizations can be infiltrated, and data can be extracted without noticeable changes or abnormalities. In the case of espionage, the agents have been specifically trained to lie low and steal information over the long term and the chances that they will uncover sensitive information increases over the extended period. It is also very damaging as the victim organization often does not even know what happened, what data was stolen or what to do about it.This lack of visibility also creates a problem in prosecuting and taking legal action.

SOLLING, DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY SERVICES AT HELP AG IN A CANDID CONVERSATION WITH ECMEA ON THE RISING THREAT OF CYBER-ESPIONAGE.

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Apparently, the conversation about

MY VIEWS

“DLP AND ENCRYPTION ARE TWO OF THE GREAT TOOLS THAT ANY ORGANIZATION SHOULD BE LOOKING INTO, BOTH FOR DATA IN MOTION AND IN REST”

essential to avoid storing sensitive information about customers – As an example: When an implementation has been done we give them the passwords and tell them to change them so that the responsibility leaves our hands.

And since data is typically what cyber espionage is looking to extract, as general advice Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and encryption are two of the great tools that any organization should be looking into, both for data in motion and in rest.

We do understand how sensitive this issue is; but without taking names, can you brief us a little about such situations you have come across and how were those dealt with?

As the primary Information and Cyber Security Consultancy Company in the Middle East, we are often involved with investigating security incidents or issues. One observation over just the last 6 months is that we see more issues around webapplications where these are being targeted both from confidentiality and availability perspective. the infiltration of foreign intelligence into channel organizations is coming of age- how can the channel organizations keep themselves protected?

While it is not an issue that the industry would like to be brought into the limelight, it is something that we as channel organizations need to be honest and upfront about.

In Help AG we are aligning with the ISO27000 information security standard as well as applying technical controls which we also recommend to customers. As an example all computers and laptops in Help AG are encrypted, which means that our lifecycle management includes devices and disk systems.

Another thing we focus on is ensuring that we monitor our own infrastructure in the same way we recommend to any customer.This means around the clock, all the days of the week. Locally based channel organizations are typically small to medium scale businesses and are perceived as gateways to the large enterprise customers and partners that they work with. It is therefore

It’s plausible that organizations wouldn’t want third-party knowing how sensitive official information was stolen from them. So, how can this issue be countered effectively?

It is not just plausible, it is more or less the norm in our region. We do not see the big stories where organizations admit to having been a target.

One of the primary reasons is that first of all there is no culture of airing dirty laundry, such as the legal system for publicly listed companies in the US which actually enforces that there has to be a statement on anything that can impact the financial performance of a company. IT and cyber-attacks are of course factors that can impact bottom line and therefore applicable for public exposure.Unless similar legislation is passed in the region, it is unlikely that we would see the situation changing and even then, private companies would not be compelled to disclose information about attacks they have suffered.

HelpAG has different divisions to look into several aspects of

enterprise security- what’s in the kitty for dealing with cyber-espionage?

Maybe it is a little bit of a misused word, but we believe a lot of defence in depth, where you should not just rely on one solution to tackle an issue. Another huge topic that many organizations are overlooking is the cost associated with operating IT in a secure way. Understanding that security operation is around the clock and staffed by competent resources is something that many organizations still need to realise.

Time is catching up though, and we see a lot of interest in our in-country Managed Security Service (MSS) offering, where we take on the responsibility of responding to cyber threats for customers.

Also as I previously mentioned, achieving information security certification such as ISO27000 or local standards such as ADSIC is a good way to ensure that your organization has the measures in place to actively enforce data security. Help AG’s consultancy division is very well positioned to help businesses secure these certifications and we have a long list of customers who have benefited from this service.

If there could be one message or say wake-up call you could give to the enterprises in the Middle East in the wake of these security crises, what would that be?

To some extent this form of wakeup call is already happening– the fact that publications such as yours have decided to discuss this issue is a good example of such a thing. There is a lot of awareness about the topic but what we are yet to see is the action towards the same. This means that organizations should go through a holistic approach while evaluating their robustness to cyber-attacks. This also means understanding who has access to your data and sensitive information. A good guideline to read is the ISO27043 which is a guideline for how to deal with incident response. One of the requirements is in fact managing and operating events on a 24x7 basis, which is an area where a lot of customers actually have shortcomings. ë

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FEATURE

OPPORTUNITIES IN HOSPITALITY

Comfort checks-in as Anxiety checks-out

With humongous investments as well as preparation in swing for grand events like Expo 2020, hospitality industry has surely become the favourite casino for technology providers. The bet is an experience for the guests that’s unparalleled and at stake is the investment in the technologies which are promising and can bring a radical makeover of the whole ecosystem. n W O R D S : S O U M YA < S O U M YA @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >

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he growing hospitality sector in the region is based on two pillars, the increase in tourism in the GCC and the other one being the business driver – infrastructure development, industrial activities, trading and services. In the GCC, the hospitality growth varies from one country to another and for different reasons; In the UAE, we see a mix of tourism and business driving the growth. In KSA the growth is mainly driven by infrastructure, oil & gas and Makkah, where there is a massive tourism development program for pilgrims. Oman is currently developing its tourism infrastructure while Qatar is expanding its hotels capacity for the world-cup and other events that will be held in the near future.

With smart tourism a Dubai Smart City pillar, and with over 25 million visitors expected for World Expo 2020, hotels need to find a competitive differentiator. Dubai is adding 24,000 quality rooms and serviced apartments by 2017 alone.

Guest experiences are more important than ever in in determining brand loyalty and with technology playing a greater role in every industry today, guest expectations have changed fundamentally. Organizations in the hospitality sector need to transform digitally if they are to thrive in this new environment.

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MIDDLE EAST SCENARIO Debojit Das, Regional Director of B2B Sales MENA Region at LG Electronics tells us that there has been a steady increase in travellers allowing the industry to grow at a steady pace and ensuring a high return on investment. This has resulted in two key hospitality technology results.

Globally ranked hotels, such as Burj Al Arab, are demanding for luxurious in-room technology.

In contrast, the growth in the 2- 4 star category

MIDDLE EAST ECONOMIC WEATHER MAP Source- pwc

hotels and furnished apartments in the regions are demanding for smart connectivity and interactive in-room TV solutions.

HOTBED FOR OPPORTUNITIES With Dubai ramping up its status as a top destination for business travelers, hotels are increasingly enabling employees to connect over a secure guest WiFi service to work

FEATURE

while on the go, or to conduct TelePresence interviews with customers around the world.

“Hotels in Dubai are rapidly making these visions become reality by implementing Cisco’s Smart Hospitality solutions that integrate voice, mobility, high-speed Internet access, and TV with existing back-office systems on a single network”, remarks Fady Younes, Head of Enterprise Sector, Cisco UAE. Positive growth trends have been reflected in revenue, while average occupancy rates are likely to be in the range of 68% and 74% up to 2018.

There are more international chains looking to start operations in the GCC: Many international hotels are entering as well as expanding

in the region either independently or through collaboration with local hotels Demand for serviced apartments is on the rise as this is an attractive option for visitors from the region who tend to travel with larger families.

Business travelers looking for longer term stay also tend to prefer serviced apartments.

Importance of the ‘Digital Native’ segment of customers is growing with mobile technology, applications and tablets replacing menu cards and centralized automated hotel operations taking over conventional means. Hotels are also tapping user generated feedback on a real time basis through social media presence to improve their products and services as per visitors’ feedback.

TECHNOLOGIES MAKING WAVES Smart Hospitality solutions, which include networking, WiFi, Communication solutions and Collaboration capabilities are enabling hotels to meet visitors’ demands from mobile apps for booking restaurants, to customized in-room offers. Core applications for instant messaging and presence, attendant consoles, contact centers, voicemail, paging, and management enable hospitality applications such as front of house Property Management System, virtual front desks, guest services, legacy communications, room automation, and business services.

There also has been a growth in the usage of

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FEATURE

SMART HOSPITALITY SOLUTIONS

SOCIAL MEDIA CLOUD PERSONALIZED SYSTEMS

MOBILITY digital signage across public spaces including the hotel lobby, meeting rooms and spas to cross sell and up sell. Specifically, there is demand for digital signage that links back to big data.

In terms of in-room display technology, Debojit says they are personally seeing a growth in demand for premium hospitality TVs that is not only getting larger in size but is designed with the latest technology available in the market such as Ultra HD 4K displays or OLED curved.

Smart connectivity, in the form of device sharing capabilities, is another key trend that is also allowing properties to provide a stellar guest experience. The ability to control utilities from a single point for hoteliers is another interesting trend as well.

As guest experiences become increasingly important in determining future revenue, the sector is increasingly focusing on solutions that enhance that guest experience. “How your front desk and contact center staff manage guest communications can make the difference between loyal customers and missed opportunities”, comments Usama Nouri, Senior Strategic Consultant, Avaya Global Growth Markets. “Avaya specializes in delivering customized, integrated solutions that help hotels of all sizes provide each guest with a memorable, enjoyable experience from the time they begin to plan their trip until after checkout.”

Hotels these days want to interact directly with

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their guests and visitors directly to their smart mobile devices to enhance and personalize their experience. “Our ability to turn the wireless infrastructure into a smart tool with accurate locationbased services such as targeted location-based messaging has been widely popular recently”, remarks Hani. There is an ongoing revolution with regards to the management of the overall hotel environment. In parallel, we are witnessing the increasing success of eConcierge applications, which traditionally offer information about the hotel services and in the best case allow for them to be ordered.

IOT – TRANSFORMING INFORMATION INTO COMPETITIVE EDGE Through IoE, information is turned into actions that create new capabilities, richer experiences and unprecedented economic opportunity for hotels. We are going to start to see the hospitality industry benefit from IoE as it’s on the forefront of utilizing it to enhance the guest experience and increase operational efficiency.

IoT allows the guests own device to play a role in defining his preferences, whether it’s something as simple as what language should appear on the in-room entertainment system, all the way to “genius” style curated content, and automatic control of such things as lighting and room temperature. Bernard Ellis, Vice President

of Industry Strategy, Hospitality at Infor specifies, “In general IoT is giving hotels the ability to deliver a highly personalized experience, without having to rely on the initiative and memories of mere humans to both express and accommodate preferences.”

As we continue to move into a new age of mobile and connected things, IoT presents a number of advantages for hoteliers, increasing business value as well as securing customer loyalty through enhanced guest experiences.

Hotels that leverage IoE capabilities that are made possible through technologies such as Wi-Fienabled RFID sensors and Bluetooth LE. Some IoE-enabled hotel capabilities that will be the foundation of hotels of the future are online check in, upgrade and door lock automation, temperature/environmental sensors and controls and sensors for hotel security.

IoE’s opportunities are nearly endless, but it is important to understand hurdles that may arise when implementing an IoE-enabled infrastructure. Security concerns can make or break the effectiveness of how we use IoE. The future will see IoT truly connecting people on social networking sites, connecting the car from the airport to the hotel with traffic and distance information. It will be about ensuring a seamless traveller experience with more standard driven, open source, cross platform application available through multiple interfaces especially TVs and mobiles.

TOO MANY OPTIONS TO TAKE PICK FROM Cisco offers a wide range of scalable Connected Hotel and Hospitality technology solutions for hotels of all sizes, including room automation, video collaboration, contact center, and cloud.

Core applications, such as Cisco Jabber for instant messaging and presence, TelePresence and end points, attendant consoles, contact centers, voicemail, paging, and management enable a wide range of hospitality applications such as front of house Property Management System, virtual front desks, guest services, legacy communications, room automation, and business services. As a result, hotels can manage and improve customer service levels, improve the guest experience with video, monetize collaboration investments, bridge legacy communication platforms, improve the in-room experience, automate inventory, and integrate call accounting.

“Avaya’s SDN Fx networking technology is being widely adopted in the region including its recent adoption in the Buj Khalifa where the tower has been enabled with a networking platform that is secure, flexible, scalable and

FEATURE

XAVIER MONGIN

HOSPITALITY DIRECTOR MIDDLE EAST AT ALCATEL-LUCENT ENTERPRISE

“Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise was one of the first vendors to offer BYOD solutions for hotel staff more than a decade ago.”

robust to meet tenants and visitors service-level expectations”, comments Usama. The technology allows for benefits from effortless and efficient network roll-out, while ensuring reliability in service delivery and network access.

DEBOJIT DAS

REGIONAL DIRECTOR OF B2B SALES - MENA REGION AT LG ELECTRONICS

“Globally ranked hotels are “How your front desk and demanding for luxurious contact center staff manage in-room technology. While guest communications the 2- 4-star category can make the difference hotels and furnished between loyal customers apartments in the region and missed opportunities.” are demanding for smart connectivity and interactive in-room TV solutions.”

Avaya offers integrated, Omni-channel solutions supporting both inbound and outbound customer interactions over media such as voice, IM, email, social, Web chat, and more for both automated and agent-assisted interactions

BY 2017 A NEW BREED OF CUSTOMER WILL COMINATE-WE CALL THE DIGITAL NATIVES

Source- Middle East Cities Hotel Forecast, pwc 2014

USAMA NOURI

SENIOR STRATEGIC CONSULTANT, AVAYA GLOBAL GROWTH MARKETS

“We have been working with multiple hotel chains across the region to deliver innovative solutions that would differentiate their brands and enhance guest experiences”, remarks Hani Nofal, Vice President, INS, GBM. “From supporting new mobile applications and enhancing wireless and location services to next-generation technologies that targets new revenue streams”.

LG’s UHD premium UX Hospitality TV UX960H designed to provide a connected guest in-room experience definitely boosts connectivity in several ways. They offer fully / partial interactive solution on RF/IP/hybrid environment. STB integrated solution eliminates the need of a second remote in the hotel room.

WebOS platform ensures fast response time, intuitive user experience and an open platform for the developer community. They are designed in such a way that user personal data is protected with auto-delete functionality. Plus there is remote management to allow a diagnostics system to reduce down time.

At Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise they offer a fully converged solution that includes the LAN, WLAN, voice communication and hotels appli-

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FEATURE

FADY YOUNES

HEAD OF ENTERPRISE SECTOR, CISCO UAE

“With Cisco’s Smart Hospitality solutions, hotels find greater operational efficiency and improved productivity, leading to increased guest satisfaction.”

HANI NOFAL

VICE PRESIDENT, INS, GBM

“We have been working with multiple hotel chains across the region to deliver innovative solutions that would differentiate their brands and enhance guest experiences”

BERNARD ELLIS

VICE PRESIDENT OF INDUSTRY STRATEGY, HOSPITALITY AT INFOR

“In general IoT is giving hotels the ability to deliver a highly personalized experience, without having to rely on the initiative and memories of mere humans to both express and accommodate preferences.”

THE FUTURE THROUGH THE CRYSTAL BALL The hospitality industry is evolving towards providing a more personal experience, supported by an increasing amount of technology and complexity that needs to be hidden in the background and presented to guests in a simple and user friendly manner. With the increasing competition from privately rented accommodation on the Internet, hotels need to continue finding differentiators, which mostly rely on services that are not provided elsewhere.

WHAT DOES THE DIGITAL TREND MEAN FOR HOTELS?

FINALLY

Source- PwC 2014

cations as well. This seamless integration reduces the TCO, eliminates the problem of interoperability and unifies the network access alongside management. We can deliver our solutions based on capex, opex-based, a hosted solution or one that is cloud-based. “Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise was one of the first vendors to offer BYOD solutions for hotel staff more than a decade ago”

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comments Xavier Mongin, Hospitality Director Middle East at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise. “ Today our private branch exchange (PBX) can support any GSM, smartphone or tablet as a seamless integrated device starting with one single number. We also offer a Mobile Guest Softphone allowing the hotel guest to use his personal smartphone or tablet as a room phone.”

In this future world of technology and social media, hoteliers will need to find the right balance of human touch to answer the increasing demand for automated services and virtual interactions while delivering a personalized and friendly experience. It will be interesting to see how far the tech trend will go and how much human interaction will be left in the years to come. It’s time for smartness to check in alongwith comfort, while guests’ anxieties and worries can check out right now. ë

CIOS SPEAK

to enrich students’ learning?

Recently we have completely changed our Wi-Fi network to enhance student internet experience. Skyline has recently graduated three blind students who are using adaptive technologies for their learning.

Blended learning- a reality or myth for Skyline university?

Blended learning is a reality in today’s world and Skyline is planning to introduce the same for its programs.

What are the major areas of technology you are looking to upgrade your ICT infrastructure?

We are planning to upgrade our computer labs with the latest hardware and software. We are building cyber security and cloud computing labs. We are also updating our network, server infrastructure. Besides this, we have also undertaken initiatives in cloud and Mobile applications.

DR. PARAG SANGHANI,

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, CHAIR / HEAD-ACADEMIC PLANNING & OPERATION COMMITTEE, SKYLINE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

Blending SUC’s Lifecycle with IT SKYLINE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HAS BEEN AN EARLY ADOPTER OF TECHNOLOGY AND THE PHENOMENA CONTINUES. FROM ADAPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES IN LEARNING TO GRADUATE BLIND STUDENTS TO MOBILE APPLICATIONS AND ERP,

Can you shed some light on your Campus ERP? Skyline has implemented its own customized ERP which has significantly improved its productivity and efficiency. The Skyline ERP has unique modules like course delivery packages (CDP Module) which prepares complete course plans for teachers. ERP has benefitted SUC in managing and maintaining all the academic records properly.

In near future, will technology usurp the teacher?

No, the kind of attention a teacher can provide is unparalleled. However the way the electronic and the print have survived together in harmony, in the same way in future blended learning will be the way forward.

SUC IS JUST ON THE RIGHT PATH IN DEFINING FUTURE EDUCATION MODELS.

How has ICT innovation helped in the journey of your university?

ICT is integral part of Skyline University’s academic operations. ICT has changed the way the university communicates and interacts with the students. Skyline University since its inception has been the early adapter of ICT; SUC was the first university in the region to conduct online classes and examinations.

Recently SUC has adopted E-books in the campus and the moving towards the paperless education.

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How have you changed the IT infrastructure at your university over the recent times?

IT is central to our university’s operation. It plays a significant role in managing student life cycle form its enquiry to printing its graduation certificates. All the operations are completed with the help of IT. SUC has heavily invested on IT in last couple of years to strengthen its IT infrastructure.

Which are the adaptive technologies that you have adopted

CIOs debate whether IT should follow business change or lead itwhat’s your view?

It is like the chicken and the egg scenario and it’s very difficult to say which will follow what. Sometime business problems force IT to innovate and sometimes new technologies force business to change. Looking at the current pace of technological innovations, educational institutions have to adapt to the technological advancements.

What’s your view on hybrid cloud adoption?

Skyline has already adapted hybrid cloud and all our mails are now on Office 365. ë

MANAGED SERVICES

this is going to accelerate. Like flydubai is one of the top 10 companies to have chosen the onshore offset model, many companies will soon follow suit”.

NIIT

Creating New Waves in Digitalization With ‘Digitalization’ as a key arrow in the quiver, NIIT technologies prepares to heat up the region in the coming quarters with various events and services from its pipeline.

n B Y: A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >

N

IIT technology, born out of NIIT education, became an independent company 12 years back to become the second largest company catering to the travel and transportation industry globally. when it comes to providing services to the travel and transportation globally. NIIT technologies has 2 prime focus areas. “We have our own products designed to help and solve business problems; like NIIT Technologies’ Warehouse Management solution offers features including receiving, put-away, cross-docking, wave, batch, zone picking, verification, transfers, replenishments, pick-pack ship, and container tracking” says Deepak Khosla, President of NIIT Technologies.

They are also the largest resellers for GIS products in India. On the other hand, NIIT Technologies provides infrastructure and application development services. “We work with customers on their premises or off shore. We manage the infrastructure for Eurostar including their front end ticketing systems.”

WINNING HEARTS AND CUSTOMERS

Recently NIIT Technologies signed an agreement with flydubai to build their next generation passenger system The agreement will enable flydubai to build airline-specific IT systems catering to all facets of its business. This will support flydubai’s programme to deliver an enhanced passenger satisfaction. NIIT Technologies plans to deliver these services through its state-of-the-art Global Delivery Center at its campus in Greater Noida.

This will include a dedicated ‘Testing Center of Excellence’ for flydubai.

MANAGED SERVICES ECOSYSTEM Talking about the response and demand in the region of Managed services, Deepak says that Middle East is a very big market for these services. Managed services assure you of a pay as you go service model. “We are at an interesting point in UAE. The slackening oil prices have made many companies rethink the way business is done and

DEEPAK KHOSLA

PRESIDENT OF NIIT TECHNOLOGIES

“The actual meaning of Digital is still unclear to many. It is not just SMAC, it is SMAC + IoT”

DECODING DIGITALIZATION Deepak asserts that the MEA market has been slow in the migration to cloud. But the big trend that has not yet happened is migration to digital services. “There is a big new way in which digital is defined. It is not just taking everything to the cloud. It is not just SMAC- Social, Mobility, Analytic and Cloud. It is SMAC plus IOT. That unfolds digitalization. This region will probably leapfrog cloud and go to IoT because this region needs IoT more than cloud. Digital is something the new generation will go for more.”

Says Deepak. “People here have gone for more packaged implementation rather than customized implementation so there is a lot of scope for us to do consultative selling by giving customized solutions.

He also adds that one of the greatest strengths of the region is the visionary leaders. The government here has realized the importance of building smart cities and enterprises and it is a unique opportunity for NIIT as smart is nothing but Digital.

BUCKLING UP FOR IOT AND 2020 Deepak believes that building an agile enterprise would be one of the primary steps in preparing for the 2020. Digital experience would be another key area. “We have digital labs in London and Delhi that focuses on digital experience.

Design thinking is also a key part of our activities. We are conducting workshops to think differently. We train the employees to see how they think in the new world. We need to have an agile industry where people are able to think different and accept the challenges of a digital economy.

NIIT Technologies also recently held a CIO focused roundtable— “Leading the Digital Change – A Middle East perspective” , which focused on the rise of the Digital economy as CIOs are preparing for leading this wave by changing the way they deliver services to their end customers by adopting new technologies, new delivery models and revisiting their processes. ë

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SUCCESS STORY

PTA Bank: First in Africa to adopt Polycom Real Presence One With a mission to be at the forefront of extending development capital and services to advance regional growth and integration through customer focus, the bank seeks innovative ways to facilitate internal communication and improve workflows between team members in different locations in order to increase productivity.

CUSTOMER OVERVIEW Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development (PTA Bank) is a world class African development finance institution with the vision of integrating and advancing the economies of eastern and southern African countries. PTA Bank’s shareholder base includes 18 regional Member States (across COMESA, SADC, EAC, including most IGAD and IOC countries), the African Development Bank as a strategic institutional shareholder, the People’s Bank of China, Paritetbank, regional and non-regional institutional shareholders and other institutional investors. Headquartered in Bujumbura, Burundi, the bank has regional hubs in Nairobi, Kenya; Harare, Zimbabwe and Ebene, Mauritius.

OBJECTIVES

“IT IS SO SIMPLE TO INVITE ANYONE TO JOIN BY SENDING THE CALENDAR INVITATION THAT WILL CREATE THE URL. ANYONE CAN DO IT!” JUDITH MONGALA, MARKETING COORDINATOR, PTA

With a mission to be at the forefront of extending development capital and services to advance regional growth and integration through customer focus, the bank seeks innovative ways to facilitate internal communication and improve workflows between team members in different locations in order to increase productivity. Video conferencing was considered as a potential solution by the Information Services team at PTA Bank to improve team communication and collaboration in the organization.

than the others in order to deliver excellent quality video even in scenarios with less than ideal levels of packet loss. Also the Web Suite solution and its capacity to meet in a Video Meeting Room (VMR) is an excellent tool that anyone can use from anywhere and on any device,” explains Brook Yitaferu, Information Services officer at PTA Bank.

PROCESS

SOLUTION

“During the Proof of Concept, we were immediately impressed with Polycom, specifically regarding the requisite for bandwidth. The Polycom solution required significantly less bandwidth

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BANK

l

Telepresence and video conference l Polycom RealPresenceGroup 500 l Polycom RealPresenceDesktop l Polycom RealPresence One

The Polycom solution is now fully deployed at PTA Bank. “This was definitely the right decision. It obviously takes less physical space, less power requirement, reduces hardwarebased points of failure, less physical network requirements, and yet delivers all the features of the hardware-based solution and more.”

BENEFITS l

Quick adoption due to ease of use Delivers flexibility l Improves collaboration and communications l Reduces costs ë l

GEC OPEN 2015

15-OCT-15

6-NOV-15

12-NOV-15

UAE

Turkey

Bahrain

Om

Al Badia Golf Club Intercontinental, Festival City, Dubai

Kemer Golf & Country Club , Uzunkemer Mevkii, 34077, Turkey

Royal Golf Club, Al Muaskar Highway, Riffa 39177, Bahrain

Alm Go W 11 Su Om

GEC OPEN GLOBAL ENTERPRISE CONNECT

A Canvas of Technology Painting Humanity across Boundaries n B Y: A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >

BROUGHT BY GLOBAL ENTERPRISE CONNECT

SUPPORTING PARTNERS

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19

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ORGANISED BY

“We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone” — RONALD REAGAN

A

simple yet profound thought that kindled the passion to establish GEC Open as the ‘Magnum Opus’ of Enterprise Channels MEA. GEC Open 2014 flagged off with a humble aspiration to bring together the titans and trailblazers of the IT fraternity on the platform of humanity. After all, it is not every day that

CHARITY PARTNERS

GEC OPEN 2015

19-NOV-15 Oman Almouj Golf , The Wave, PC 118 Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

23-NOV-15

28-NOV-15

5-DEC-15

Qatar

Saudi Arabia

India

Doha Golf Club, West Bay Lagoon, Doha, Qatar

Dirab Golf & Country Club, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Classic Golf Course, ICT Grand Bharat, Gurgaon, New Delhi

GRAND FINALE IN D U BA I

9TH DEC 2015

business and humanity sit together on the green turfs supporting causes that enrich human lives and care for the less fortunate on this planet.

GEC Open is a golf tournament which is more than just a game. And Dubai played the perfect host in attracting, welcoming and giving the players from across the globe a marvellous experience that would linger in their memories for a lifetime, and if natures permits, beyond that as well. Dubai, being the melting point of hybrid enterprises daily goes through the rat race of living up to date with the technology and providing the same to the customers as well. At a time when Black tie and white shirt had become the identity of individuals, GEC Open kicked in- and forced enterprises, business and individuals to rethink the way business is done and humanity is preserved. A world where CONNECTION had increasingly and seemingly materialized into enterprise connectivity and NETWORKING apparently was limited to the WiFi and its bandwidth - GEC Open blossomed.

Our faith was immense when we envisioned GEC

Open, but the destination was clearly invisible.

Little did we realize that…. this is a journey that sees no end any sooner. So destination for now is just- Ambitions Boundless.

So, while we gave an image to our ambitions and visions, we made sure that it had a meaning to itself. When we retired after a tiring day on the golf course, we wanted to make sure that humanity was rejuvenated and rekindled. We let the bodies be tired not the soul of humanity in us. 2014 GEC Open was held in association with Breast Cancer Arabia that facilitated treatment for breast cancer patients who weren’t fortunate enough to pay and kill the enemy inside. Over 60 players from 15 countries took up their clubs and battled it out on the green turfs. This just added fuel to our passions that skyrocketed and left us wanting for more than this.

A year passed, 2015 welcomed us with open arms and so was GEC Open 2015. The unwavering support from the industry and faith took helped us in taking our Magnum Opus across

7 countries and our eyes are set on flagging the cause of humanity and charity across the 7 countries. GEC 2015, held in association with Dubai Autism Center, UAE Red Crescent, and Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, kicked off in UAE with more than 80 players with our proud partners Spectrum Group, Pure Storage, Dell, Rittal, Spectrami, VCE, Finesse, MHI Global, Kactus, Global Distribution, Gulf Air, BMW, Aruba Networks, Oxygen, StorIT, HelpAG, Bulwark Technologies and Oma Emirates. On 6th of November, we waved flags in the Kemer Golf course of Istanbul, Turkey. The spirit was never ending there too.

As said earlier, the journey has just begun and we have no intentions to stop. Be with us as you always have, have faith in us as you always have….

As we dream to take GEC Open 2016 across Europe, APAC and beyond that. The world is ours, the vision is ours…. So why STOP! The Purr was perfect…. And the Roar resonates!!!! ë

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GUEST TALK

OPTIMUS

Nurturing IT Talent Pools

Partner Training Programs & Certifications are the route to market-ready human resources

n WORDS: MEERA KAUL, CEO, OPTIMUS

The ME digital economy is growing at an accelerated pace, adopting new & latest technologies with the aim of capturing their competitive advantages for businesses. The rapid change in technologies gives birth to an equally rapid need for ICT skills mapped with those technologies. The initiative to address this challenge of a dearth of trained talent, which is becoming more acute by the day, needs to come from the public and private sector jointly. For leveraging the benefits of a digital economy, businesses and governments need to start investing in integrating ICT education, learning and skills training into the very fabric of the new e-environment.

Establishing a synchronic relationship between the cycle of endorsement and uptake of newer technologies in the region and the availability of adequately trained personnel that can render those services is still quite a challenge for the region. While the Middle East has significantly reduced the gap between the “mature” and “rapid-growth” markets in terms of adopting innovative technologies, availability of skilled resources has not kept pace with this evolution.

Human Capital has become a huge value-add that VAD’s can bring to partners and structuring a dedicated knowledge enablement

48

and training facilitation to train, support and qualitatively strengthen the skill level of the channel is an important responsibility of VAD’s.

Being positioned at the fulcrum of the technology supply chain, representing the technology that they resell, the onus of partner enablement, induction, training and support rests squarely on the distributors’ shoulders.

While Vendors continue to offer technical skills training for their relevant technologies, from a Channel perspective, the attitude towards Training & Certifications still remains sporadic and need driven, and is not being seen as an investment in capacity building much before the need actually arises. With technologies evolving and changing as fast as they are currently, and with technological innovations driving economies, it is crucial for channel partners to look at their resource planning and training at a strategic level to equip themselves for the future.

Distributors, as I continue to stress, need to evolve and adapt to the changing business needs of the market. And this includes providing their channels with adequate and requisite training, of the technical, or the business kind, to help them meet their client requirements.

Within the region, not enough is

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being done as distributors are slow to change, and this doesn’t keep pace with the pace at which new technology is being developed and the new ways in which it is being consumed.

Bearing in mind the new face of the channel – the value channel – partners need to focus even more to arm themselves with technical knowledge and expertise to help position their products and services better. “Demand creation” is the new model to drive sales, which is the hallmark of trained salespeople, versus the archaic order-taking approach.

Since technology and its consumption patterns change frequently, you cannot invest too much time to train people, or else the knowledge would be obsolete by the time resources are trained and ready! Moreover, without understanding its inherent business benefits, technical training remains incomplete in todays’ competitive market.

Training comes at a cost, and for resellers lower in the value chain the economics might not be justified.

Secondly, losing out on a productive staff member for the duration of the course also has a business and revenue impact.

From a technical perspective, cloud, big data, predictive analytics

and data center consultancy from the crux of the skills requirements.

Along with this, skills in business consultancy and in industry verticals are gaining popularity.

Innovation and change waits for no one. To remain competitive in an increasingly global marketplace, and to keep pace with the constant evolutionary DNA of the ICT industry, the channel market in the region will need to shift into high-gear with respect to investing in capacity building, training and certifications.

But most importantly, tackling the IT skills resource shortage cannot be done in isolation by the private sector alone. Integrated efforts between public & private sector to guide investments in ICT learning and training and e-business skills, at country and regional levels, needs to be the enduring strategy.

Optimus is a global company and belongs to a group of technology companies worldwide that allows it to have access to experienced personnel who are exposed to cutting edge technology from its offices across the world. And to extend this access to skilled talent to our channel partners, Optimus created the Optimus Academy that helps capacity building of technology resources in the region. ë

INNOVATIONS

KEY CAPABILITIES n Multimedia Chat options include 1-to-1, 1-to-many (group), 1 to multiple (same message blasted to many individuals). n Guaranteed delivery of all messages anytime & anywhere n User authentication via AD, LDAP, Radius and DB n Chat segregation over Channels & Topics for rapid information dissemination n Limitless messaging featuring access/login via web browser or on any HTML devices n Encrypted messages for confidentiality purposes and logged into audit for archival n Message details will display the date and time of acknowledgement performed by each and every individual involved n Multimedia Capability

sqoope by TalariaX sqoope developed by TalariaX is an enterprise class mobile messaging platform designed to cater to the requirements of Enterprises. It features unique notification capabilities - like guaranteed messaging status - which ensures cohesive and coherent interactivity within a secure environment.

The integration between sqoope & sendQuick results in the development of a highly efficient mobile

messaging ecosystem that is limitless in performance, enhanced with security measures and features that are applicable to all businesses. This is a great solution for enterprises seeking to reinforce and improve communication channels within the enterprise.

The product is available locally in the region. Bulwark is the authorized value-added distributor for the product in the region.

PLEASE SEND YOUR FEEDBACK AT INFO@ ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

POLYCOMVVX D60 CORDLESS HANDSET KEY CAPABILITIES n Flexibility of wireless communication with the features, functionality and superior voice quality of Polycom’s industryleading VVX solutions n Straightforward installation experience n Acoustic echo cancellation n Background noise suppression technologies n Seamless call management for users “on-the-go.”

The Polycom VVX D60 Wireless Handset phone is an enterprise-grade cordless accessory of Polycom’s industry-leading VVX business media phone technology, providing the flexibility of wireless communication with the features, functionality and superior voice quality of Polycom’s industry-leading VVX solutions. Designed for customers on the move, the Polycom VVX D60 Wireless Handset is ideal for small businesses, retail environments or administrative personnel that require the flexibility to be mobile throughout the workday. The VVX D60 Wireless Handset extends the same user experience and interfaces of Polycom’s VVX business media phones and other Polycom UC Software solutions. The VVX D60 Wireless Handset offers a straightforward installation experience and time to set up takes just minutes. With the same device provisioning and management process as the VVX desk phones, the VVX D60 Wireless Handset is easy to deploy, and interoperates with existing IT infrastructures, ensuring no need to upgrade your call control platform.

The VVX D60 Wireless Handset will offer the tightest and most feature-rich integration of Polycom’s VVX desktop and business media phones .

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INNOVATIONS

Infor CloudSuite Retail Infor Cloudsuite Retail is a new, modern suite of enterprise applications delivered in the cloud and designed for today’s retailing landscape. Infor CloudSuite Retail is intended to support the following areas: l Item Management l Inventory Management l Order Management l Price & Promotions l Cost Management l Stock Ledger & Sales Audit l Replenishment & Allocation l Integrated Planning Expected to be delivered in 2016, key design principles upon which Infor CloudSuite Retail is being built are cloud (not only multi-tenancy securely hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and upgrade with minimal downtime and interruption, but also access to supercomputing on a massive scale that transforms data analysis and decision-making), network, unification of disparate systems, digital, big data and machine learning, API- based, and user experience.

GT Nexus, an Infor company and one of the world’s largest cloud-based global commerce platforms, will help retailers to act as interconnected, agile business networks that operate far more efficiently and much more quickly than they do today.

Infor CloudSuite Retail will make it easier to integrate with other solutions versus current legacy approaches that are batch based and hard to implement. This approach will also allow retailers to open up their capabilities and assets via APIs to business partners that want to digitally innovate on their retailing platform.

KEY CAPABILITIES n Support for multiple formats and types of retailing on a global scale n Intuitive, elegant, engaging, and beautiful user experiences n API based n Cloud enabled n Digital

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R&M ThinCompact Data Center Cabling System R&M has introduced its ThinCompact Data Center Cabling System.

The latest innovation by R&M is a preterminated Cat. 6A S/FTP copper cable with an extraordinarily small outer diameter of only 13.9 mm. Despite its comprehensive shielding, it consumes 70% less volume in cable trays than conventional 6-link trunk cables and saves more than 50% in weight. This makes it the world’s thinnest and most flexible 6-link copper trunk cable.

Engineered for maximum design flexibility and high port density application (up to 48-ports in one rack space), the powerful and installation-friendly Cat.6A system offers pre-terminated cable assemblies in custom lengths and configurations. R&MinteliPhyready 48-ports HD and 24-ports PC panels accept ThinCompact systems. These can be snapped in and out with one hand, for quick installation.

Superior performance, rapid and cost-efficient network deployment, high quality and easy redeployment make the R&M ThinCompact Data Center Cabling System the perfect infrastructure solution for today’s enterprise and commercial data centers.

KEY CAPABILITIES n Consumes 70% less volume in cable trays n Up to 48-ports in one rack space n Meets the requirements of Category 6A, Class EA (500MHz) in accordance with the current ISO/IEC 11801 2nd edition standard n Powerful and installation-friendly

NOT PURE

PURE

Named a leader two years in a row in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays All-flash storage is what we do. Which is why we’ve become the natural choice for accelerating the next-generation data center. Pure Storage FlashArrays are purpose-built to deliver the full advantages of flash, pushing the speed limit for business with disruptive innovation that’s hard to imitate.

Pure Storage is a leader again in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays.

Find out why, visit: purestorage.com/gartner

© 2015 Pure Storage, Inc. Pure Storage and the Pure Storage Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Pure Storage, Inc. or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries.

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays, Gartner Magic Quadrant for Solid State Arrays June 2015. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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