Enterprise Channels MEA

DAR KMATTE R AN D DE LL E M C JOI N HAN DS / 08

PA G E S 5 6 VOLUME O4 | ISSUE 04 NOVEMBER 2016 WWW.ENTERPRISECHANNELSMEA.COM

FROM ARCHITECTURAL MARVELS TO

As smart technology dawns on each sector, it is very interesting to note how ‘Physical’ infrastructures are being ruled by ‘Virtual’ technologies.

Competency is the need! Technology is the Answer! /24

WALKI NG HAN D I N HAN D WITH DIG ITAL TRANSFOR MATION /36

INDIAECM052016

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EDITORIAL

Hello Friends

Time to see the economy afresh

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

Nobody would have imagined the backlash after the USA election results. But whatever it might look like Donald Trump, the President elect would definite turn out to be a different personality.

His first pledge is not to take salary and holidays. The point is not to praise the President elect but to understand what could be the election result impact on the global market and for the Middle East and Africa market.

The first and foremost thing is that he is less a politician and more a businessman. In his entire statement during the election campaign, he has spoken about the interest of the USA. It does mean he respects the business of his country and others country. Interest of US obviously lies in the interest of the MEA too. He would look after the business of the region. There would be a lot of bilateral business activities between both the markets.

So to my understanding, there will be gradual change in the market change in the next six to eight months. Many of the companies present in the region had apprehension about the US election results and were waiting for this to be over. Now that they could see the person with business mindset, they could now start their investment in the region. Secondly, we have already seen the attendance of people in GITEX last month. There would have been initiation of technology buying now this month would see that happen. So there is a possibility that for next two -three months the growth in the technology buying would certainly take off.

My reading of the market is that there would be surge in demand from the African market and so also from other Middle East countries minus Saudi. Saudi might be the largest country in the region from the consumption perspective, but due to its internal issues and less demand for the Saudi Oil, the demand for the IT would be less. Other countries including Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, etc. would see growth in their technology spending.

The spend on smart cities, IOT and analytics would certainly increase for next two months – until the end of this quarter. We do see the slowdown in the core banking sector though but the growth in the hospitality, aviation and retail sector would certainly be high since there an expected growth in tourism. ë

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2016 CONTENTS

VOLUME 04 ISSUE 04 NOVEMBER 2016 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

FROM ARCHITECTURAL MARVELS TO SMART WONDERS As smart technology dawns on each sector, it is very interesting to note how ‘Physical’ infrastructures are being ruled by ‘Virtual’ technologies. Competency is the need!

Technology is the Answer! /24

GUEST ARTICLE /22

FINESSE REDEFINES PERSONALISED HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS NISHRIN SEVWALA, CONSULTANT - BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AT FINESSE. MY VIEWS /36

WALKING HAND IN HAND WITH DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION HANI NOFAL, VP INTELLIGENT NETWORKS, SECURITY, MOBILITY – GBM

INNOVATIONS /53

SPECIAL STORY 3G, 4G, 5G, What’s next? /38

CANON’S IMAGERUNNER ADVANCE C5500 SERIES

The five colour A3 multifunctional devices (imageRUNNER ADVANCE C5535, imageRUNNER ADVANCE C5535i, imageRUNNER ADVANCE C5540i,

GUEST ARTICLE /30

EDITORIAL::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 04

THE SMART SWITCH:

CHANNEL STREET : ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 06

BUTHAINA BIN FAHAD, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF DAFZA’S INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT

GITEX GLIMPSES :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 44

FOCUS AFRICA : ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 32

INNOVATIONS : ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 53

ADVERTISER INDEX: PURESTORAGE 02, DARKMATTER 03, OMA EMIRATES 07, MINDWARE 09, STORIT 11, CIF 13, BITDIFERENDER 15, FINESSE 17, NEXANS 19, FITS 21, CES 23, GENETEC 29, EMITAC 31, GEC OPEN 35, MINDWARE -DELL 37, GENOME 41, STARLINK 43, VEEAM 55, DELLEMC 56

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CHANNEL

STREET VEEAM REPORTS 49% YOY GROWTH IN ENTERPRISE DEALS

Veeam Software revealed a 31 percent year-over-year growth in total bookings revenue for Q3 2016. With 71 percent of Fortune 500 and 51 percent of the Global 2000 now Veeam customers, the company reported a 49 percent YoY increase in new license bookings from large enterprise deals, solidifying the increasing demand for 24.7.365 Availability as enterprises embrace digital transformation. “Digital transformation isn’t just a trend. It’s a do-or-die business reality to transform the customer experience and unlock new levels of enterprise productivity which is now at the top of the agenda for CIOs and IT decision-makers,” said Peter McKay, President and COO at Veeam. “Veeam is playing a key role in this transformation, as our strong Q3 results demonstrate.”

SonicWall spins out from Dell Software Group

Francisco Partners and Elliott Management revealed the completion of the acquisition of Dell Software Group and the spin out of SonicWall as an independent company.

Bill Conner,President and CEO, SonicWall said, “As a standalone SonicWall brand, we can act even more deftly and quickly to serve channel partners and customers by offering products and services second to none. To protect customers against sophisticated cybersecurity threats, we are continuing our commitment to product innovation to serve our customers and invest in our partners who operate as an extension of the SonicWall team.” Dell will continue to resell SonicWall’s entire product portfolio as it has done since before the acquisition by Dell.

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MOHAMMED AMIN, SENIOR VP, META AT DELL EMC AND RABIH DABBOUSSI, SENIOR VP OF SALES, MARKETING & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AT DARKMATTER

DarkMatter and Dell EMC join hands DarkMatter and Dell EMC have partnered to help regional customers leverage the business benefits of next-generation storage and analytics, while incorporating advanced cyber threat protection.

Through this agreement, DarkMatter will combine its end-to-end, cross platform expertise in securing networks and data, by accessing Dell EMC’s best-of-breed technologies and products.

Through this agreement, DarkMatter solutions will incorporate cyber security, big data analytics and the modern data centre infrastructure across private and public data, whether housed in data centres or in the cloud.

Faisal Al Bannai, Chief Executive Officer of DarkMatter, said, “Our customers are increasingly asking us to help tap the powerful world of big data, but in a manner that keeps their data, networks and organisations safe. By partnering with Dell EMC,

we can provide hardened data infrastructure that provides world-class defence against advanced threats while delivering architecture that combines operational efficiencies with accessible and powerful analytics.”

“Through this agreement, Dell EMC looks forward to help Dark Matter enable organizations to secure their networks and strengthen their security foundation to combat advanced threats triggered by the digital transformation and driven by the modern cybercriminal” said Mohammed Amin, Senior Vice President, Turkey, Eastern Europe, Africa & Middle East at Dell EMC. The announcement deepens a working relationship that has already delivered several successful projects for strategic customers in the UAE, including converged infrastructure, virtual desktop integration and big data projects.

INTRODUCING BENEFITS BEYOND - OMA LOYALTY SERVICES

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CHANNEL STREET

DNATA Selects Avaya To Drive Digital Transformation

NIDAL ABOU-LTAIF, PRESIDENT, AVAYA INTERNATIONAL, AND PAUL GALE, VICE PRESIDENT GLOBAL CONTACT CENTRES, DNATA

DNATA has selected Avaya Private Cloud Services to deliver a customer experience transformation solution and create a seamless, personalised experience for dnata customers and partners, across communication platforms. The five-year, multimillion-dollar agreement will see Avaya provide dnata, with a cloud-based contact centre, collaboration, networking and video conferencing solution. With operations covering six continents, dnata aims to unify its travel brands around the world, along with its other services, helping to deliver personalised experiences to its customers, and achieve consistency and increased satisfaction across all touchpoints, all while reducing service delivery costs.

MIDDLE EAST TOPS THE LIST OF EMPLOYEE DATA LEAKS- DIGITAL SHADOWS STUDY Digital Shadows released its Compromised Credentials research paper which analyzed the largest 1,000 companies listed on the Forbes Global 2000. The report found that 97 percent of those companies, spanning all businesses sectors and geographical regions, had leaked credentials publicly available online, many of them from third-party breaches. Credentials for over 5.5 million employees of the world’s largest companies have been found online, as large-scale data leaks become the norm according to the report. The top breaches were from social media platforms with LinkedIn, MySpace and Tumblr breaches being responsible for a respective 30 percent, 21 percent and 8 percent of the total credentials.

SMART DUBAI GOVERNMENT SIGNS STRATEGIC MOU WITH EMARATECH Smart Dubai Government Establishment has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Emaratech to prepare a work plan and conduct a feasibility study to help further develop solutions and software that are integral to meeting Dubai Government’s goals

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and aspirations towards electronic and smart transformation. The agreement is expected to add safer electronic payment methods as the Noqodi payment gateway will attract investments that will later be developed in line with SDG’s requirements.

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In addition, the E-Wallet app will be connected to SDG’s ePay portal, which will provide a new and diverse payment method for customers–enabling them to make smart payments through various methods that can save their time and effort.

SOPHOS LEADS IN ENDPOINT SECURITY SUITES REPORT Sophos has been positioned as a ‘Leader’ in Forrester Research, Inc.’s new report, The Forrester Wave: Endpoint Security Suites, Q4 2016. Recognizing that Sophos received the highest scores in the Strategy category, Forrester refers to Sophos Endpoint Protection as delivering “the most enterprisefriendly SaaS endpoint security suite.”

Forrester evaluated 15 vendors against 25 criteria and categorizes vendor capabilities into three core needs: attack prevention, detection and remediation.

The report included vendors who have products with the above capabilities and have demonstrated an enterprise market presence with a high-level of interest for their solutions from enterprise customers.

In the report, Forrester also assesses a vendor’s strategy. Sophos scored a maximum rating across the board in the cost and licensing model, product roadmap and go-to-market strategy criteria.

Dan Schiappa, Senior VP and GM of the End-user Security Group at Sophos. “I believe that our position as a ‘Leader’ in this report is a testament to Sophos’ continued ability to assess the dynamic security landscape and listen to our customer needs to develop effective endpoint security products that exceed expectations for protection and manageability. I am proud that our customers benefit from our industry-leading technology, our strategy for both on premise and SaaS deployment through the Sophos Central cloud-based management platform and our ability to consistently bring innovative security products to organizations of all sizes.”

CHANNEL STREET IN PUBLIC

“We have strategic plans to launch a new portfolio of smart and innovative services by next year which would be a vital addition to our efforts in improving the legislative and legal system in Dubai” H.E. AHMAD SAEED BIN MESHAR, SECRETARY GENERAL OF SUPREME LEGISLATION COMMITTEE

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SECONDS

RES HAS PARTNERED WITH MIDIS GROUP RES has partnered with Midis Group to drive its

Epicor launches new partner program in EMEA and APAC

growth and strengthen its distribution channels in this region and other emerging markets. By partnering with Midis Group, RES will leverage their powerful marketing, sales and operational capabilities to immerse the organization into the market, extend its reach and solidify its presence in the Middle East.

Epicor Software Corporation launched a new partner program in its EMEA and Asia Pacific regions. Designed to further accelerate international growth and support the company’s cloud-first strategy, the innovative new program gives partners benefits that focus on the value they bring to both businesses.

Hesham El Komy, Senior Director, International Channel for Epicor Software said, “We now offer an innovative style of program that is tailored to the needs of our international partners, rather than the traditional tiered programs with stepped reward systems that have not changed in the last 30 years.

The program is based on the latest channel industry best practices that will reward our partners for adding value, growing their Epicor business and thereby helping to grow ours. This will not only help us future-proof our channel but it will also give partners access to great benefits beyond just margins.”

Raju MV, Director for FujiSoft, an Epicor partner in the Middle East commented, “The combination of great products, great support and a low number of partners makes partnership with Epicor very compelling for us.”

CLOUDHOST UNVEILS USER-BASED CLOUD SOLUTION CloudHost has launched user-based cloud platform, which allows users to pay a flat fee for various cloud solutions. The unique structure allows its customers to move away from “CapEx to OpEx” model, taking the service offering to the next level. Nikhil Katara, Co-Founder & Director Operations, says the advantage of its various offerings on a per user-based subscription model allows its clients to keep the cloud deployment cost under control.

BICSI’S STRATEGIC PLANS FOR MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA REGION BICSI affirmed its plans to support Middle East and Africa District at the official opening of its new office at Dubai World Trade Centre. “Opening this office in Dubai marks a great milestone in our strategy to support the MEA District,” said BICSI President Ensign. “We will continue to focus our efforts on MEA and Dubai specifically to meet the ever-increasing needs of the ICT community.”

GLOBAL WEARABLE SHIPMENTS TO DOUBLE BY 2020 Demand for seamless connection to the Internet

VMWARE’S ‘KUBERNETES’ AS A SERVICE ON PHOTON PLATFORM

of Things will drive wearable shipments to double by 2020, says a new Frost & Sullivan report prepared in collaboration with GITEX Technology Week. “Smart wearables will rapidly advance in

VMware revealed its built-in support for Kubernetes in VMware Photon Platform to enable IT operations teams to deliver Kubernetes as a Service to development teams. VMware Photon Platform will also add networking and storage services powered by VMware NSX and VMware Virtual SAN, respectively. With the addition of these new services, Photon Platform offers an end-to-end enterprise cloud-native infrastructure platform for running modern, containerized applications in production with support provided by VMware. VMware Photon Platform will deliver access to the services needed to build and run modern applications including Kubernetes as an on-demand service in customers’ data centers. The comprehensive Photon Platform automates IT infrastructure provisioning and allows businesses to focus on their development efforts versus building, operating and supporting a custom solution.

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technology to replace smartphones by 2020, and provide a gateway for seamless citizen interaction with the Internet of Things and Smart Cities,” said Robert Scoble, a Silicon Valley. Smart watches will dominate, accounting for more than 50 per cent of wearable shipments by 2020.

Shipments of smart watches will grow by 69 per cent annually to 2020, with revenue accelerating faster than sales at 78 per cent annually, according to Frost & Sullivan.

IMAGINE

POSSIBILITIES VISIT US @ GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK 2016 HALL 6 STAND CLD-19

AUTHORIZED VALUE ADDED DISTRIBUTOR

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Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Tel: +966.1.276.8014 | Email: ksa@storit.ae www.storit.ae

CHANNEL STREET

DEWA takes 3D printing to all new heights

HE SAEED MOHAMMED AL TAYER, MD & CEO OF DEWA.

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority has awarded Convrgnt Value Engineering a tender to design and construct the first building in the UAE to be fully printed onsite and the first 3D-printed laboratory building in the world. The laboratory will be built as part of the Research & Development (R&D) centre at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, and will conduct research on drones, and 3D-printing technology.

“The future will depend on 3D printing technologies in all aspects of our life, starting from houses we live in, the streets we use, the cars we drive, the clothes we wear and the food we eat. The construction of the 3D-printed lab, at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, reflects our on-going efforts to achieve the directives of our wise government. The Dubai 3D Printing Strategy is a unique global initiative to use technology for the service of humanity, and promote the status of the UAE and Dubai

as a leading hub for 3D printing technology by 2030,” said HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA. “We are extremely pleased with the award and even more so since this will be the first 3D printed laboratory in the world and the first 3D building in the UAE that is fully-printed onsite.

3D printed building technology is not only new to the Gulf but also the world and we are fortunate to be at the forefront with this project,” said Vibin Paul from Convrgnt. The laboratory will conduct research on drones and 3D-printing technology to support DEWA’s ongoing projects.

It will conduct research on the use of drones to develop the performance of photovoltaic panels to increase their efficiency, credibility, and lower their cost, as well as study and test different photovoltaic technologies. DEWA has been using drones for the last three years to monitor its electricity and water production, transmission, and distribution systems.

GLOBAL IT SPENDING TO REACH $3.5 TRILLION IN 2017- GARTNER Driven by growth in software and IT services revenue, worldwide IT spending is forecast to reach $3.5 trillion in 2017, up 2.9 percent from 2016 estimated spending of $3.4 trillion, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. The bright spot for the IT industry has been the software and IT services segments. Software spending is projected to grow 6 percent in 2016, and it will grow another 7.2 percent in 2017 to total $357 billion (see Table 1). IT services spending is on pace to grow 3.9 percent in 2016 to reach $597 billion, and increase 4.8 percent in 2017 to reach $943 billion.

“The immediate impact of Brexit has caused modest growth in IT spending to turn negative for 2016,” said John-David Lovelock, Research Vice President at Gartner. “Without the U.K., global IT spending growth would have been modestly positive at 0.2 percent in 2016, but with the U.K. included, IT spending is expected to decrease 0.3 percent. The immediate impact of the British pound will also cause the IT spending patterns to shift as prices for IT will increase. We have also considered the U.S. presidential race, as well as a potential rate cut by the Federal Reserve. Typically, there is a slight pause in IT spending leading into the election, and then a relief in spending, subsequently.

However, trends have shown that IT spending in the U.S. is not dependent on presidential leadership, so neither candidate should have a significant impact on IT spending in the near-term.”

OMA EMIRATES GAINS ISO 9001:2008 QUALITY MANAGEMENT CERTIFICATION OMA Emirates achieved ISO 9001: 2008 Quality Management System across the organization. It reiterates the company’s commitment to provide internationally recognized quality and high customer service levels. The independent evaluation was undertaken by Worldwide Quality Assurance and has standardized

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the company’s organizational policies, process flow, Service Level Agreements and Standard Operating Procedures. While raising the customer confidence and complying with industry standards, it empowers the company with higher efficiency and output.

“Customer satisfaction and solution excellence have been

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our on-going priority. The ISO 9001:2008 certification further demonstrates our continued efforts to deliver and maintain stringent quality standards and we are already witnessing a higher customer satisfaction index. We are confident that the Quality Management System coupled with a deeper focus on skills

enhancement will boost response to customer requirements and will subsequently have a positive impact on our business growth.

I am extremely proud of our team for their all their efforts and dedication in maintaining customer expectations,” said, Niranj Sangal, Group CEO, OMA Emirates Group.

THE CRITICAL

INFRASTRUCTURE FORUM 2016 13 DEC 2016 | BURJ AL ARAB HOTEL, DUBAI, UAE

THE NEXUS OF GCC COUNTRIES FOR FUTURE ECONOMY Unveiling the investments, roadmap, technolgies and key infrastructure pillars that put GCC on the map of global competitiveness ORGANISED BY

SECTORS IN FOCUS

BROUGHT BY

Sustainable Energy

Healthcare

Financial Services

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Transportation and Logistics

Telecom

CHANNEL STREET

Mimecast expands its horizons to ME Mimecast Limited revealed its Middle East expansion plans in Dubai and has appointed two reputed security focused distributors to accelerate its growth and enhance customer experience in the region.

This expansion is in response to the company’s growing business, robust customer base and strong demand for its cloud security solutions in the Middle East. “We are pleased to launch our new office in Dubai, which will act as our regional hub and help us scale up our operations and strengthen our ties with our existing customers and partners by offering them high-quality technical support and consulting services locally,” says Brandon Bekker, Managing Director, Mimecast MEA.

WEB CLIPS CANON EMIRATES PARTNERS WITH DYNAGRAPH Canon Emirates has signed a partnership with Dynagraph. The partnership is a result of Canon’s focused strategy to deliver printing solutions to the graphics arts industry of the region and assist in its growth and development. Dynagraph will be Canon’s digital print production partner in Emirates and using Canon’s technological expertise, will be able to advise their customers on how to sell digital printing, how to calculate ROI, and how to simply implement digital printing by leveraging their current offset workflows.

BRANDON BEKKER, MANAGING DIRECTOR, MIMECAST MEA

BENTLEY SYSTEMS UNVEILS NEW CIVILSTORM AND STORMCAD CONNECT EDITION APPLICATIONS

VERITAS UNVEILS ITS RANGE OF SOLUTIONS FOR DATA MANAGEMENT

“The CONNECT Edition releases of

Veritas Technologies has revealed its new vision for its data management platform through a sweeping range of new solutions for cloud data management designed to help organizations in the Middle East as they transform into digital businesses. The new vision and solutions address the three foundational pillars for comprehensive enterprise data management: data protection, data availability and data insight. With its new cloud data management solutions, Veritas will help organizations in the region manage the IT complexity of hybrid clouds with new capabilities that help them drive more value from their data while reducing cost and business risk.

managers,” said Gregg Herrin, director of

CivilStorm and StormCAD deliver improved productivity for storm system designers and product management, Bentley. “In addition to leveraging the personal and project portals on Bentley Cloud Services for a new connected experience, enhancements such as automatic catchment delineation and extended reporting capabilities make it faster than ever for users to evaluate and communicate the performance of their storm systems.”

NUMBER GAME

MOVEMENTS ZIAD SALAMEH is Managing Director for Cisco’s West Region

Zebra technologies has appointed TOM BIANCULLI as CTO

BILL CONNER is the new President and CEO for SonicWall

36B

$

Gartner Predicts CRM Will Be A $36B Market By 2017

NEW PRODUCT ESTIMATION SOLUTION FROM IFS The IFS Product Estimate Management solution supports manufacturing companies to establish the best possible bid price of a product when responding to sales quotation requests.Advanced cost and build-up functionality enables users to determine whether a product can be manufactured or marketed with a profit. The solution also supports estimate-specific currency and inflation rates as well as verification of quotes submitted by suppliers.

SYMANTEC’S NEW RESEARCH According to a new research released by Symantec, attackers have used Discord to distribute malicious malware to gamers using the chat servers. Symantec has even found some groups using Discord as a black market to sell malware or stolen data.

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CHANNEL STREET

Dubai Civil Defence transforms Communications with Avaya

DUBAI CIVIL DEFENCE AND AVAYA

The Directorate General of Civil Defence, Dubai, has signed an agreement with Avaya to transform its communications capabilities and increase user satisfaction with the department’s Smart Communication solutions for customer service, in addition to agreeing to adopt Avaya Equinox, The technology solution that Avaya is delivering for Dubai Civil Defence consists of numerous communication modes, such as voice calls and message services, instant text messaging among staff, and video calling facilities that can be used at desks, and even on laptops and on mobile

phones. The holistic communication solution for a department that has a high number of mobile staff can deliver the same collaborative experience from within as well as outside the physical network.“By developing a holistic communications solution with Avaya and Connect IT, we look forward to achieving our ‘Smart Vision’ goals, and proudly being a key component of a world-renowned Smart City – Dubai.” said, Major General and expert Rashid Thani Al Matrooshi, Director General of the Dubai Civil Defence.

DARKMATTER’S STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP WITH MICROSOFT GULF DarkMatter entered a partnership agreement with Microsoft Gulf to deliver advanced cyber security solutions to public sector clients in the UAE and wider Gulf region.By bringing together the capabilities of DarkMatter and Microsoft Gulf, this agreement delivers a unique, high-end cyber security offering. Clients will benefit from DarkMatter’s ability to deliver state-of-the-art, end-to-end digital defence capabilities across heterogeneous environments and technologies, as well as from Microsoft Gulf ’s unparalleled expertise in software and cyber security architecture and solutions. sThe agreement addresses the entire cyber security project life-cycle, including design, implementation, audit, assessment and review.

PURE STORAGE ACHIEVES SATMETRIX CERTIFIED NET PROMOTER SCORE OF 83.5 Pure Storage revealed that its industryleading, Satmetrix-audited Net Promoter Score has increased to 83.5.

The improved score is a reflection of the company’s dedicated focus on building a storage business based on customer success, and ranks among the top one percent of Satmetrix audited scores across consumer and enterprise businesses. “Over the 15 years we have been benchmarking NPS, across multiple industries and geographies, it is rare to see consumer companies, let alone business-to-business vendors, achieve scores higher than 75,” said Richard Owen, CEO of Satmetrix. “Based on our data, Pure is firmly within the top one percent of business-to-business companies for NPS performance.”

“For our Net Promoter Score to increase through a year of massive growth for Pure Storage is a true indicator that a customer-first approach has been thoughtfully and permanently built into our company DNA,” said Scott Dietzen, CEO, Pure Storage. “Six years ago, we set out to change the way storage is built, bought and managed, with the intention of creating Efficient, Effortless, Evergreen storage that customers truly love. As our exceptional NPS demonstrates, we re-dedicate ourselves to that effort daily, in everything we do,” added Dietzan.

ETISALAT PARTNERS WITH SMART DUBAI GOVERNMENT Etisalat has partnered with Smart Dubai Government to enhance the infrastructure of its existing network and proactively monitor and support to help achieve Dubai Government’s Smart Dubai vision.

Wesam Lootah, CEO, Smart Dubai Government said: “Smart Dubai is committed towards

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making Dubai the happiest city on Earth. Today’s strategic announcement will mainly benefit all Dubai government entities that work towards the goal of achieving this vision and work together to build the future of the city. Technology and a robust infrastructure are an integral part of this transformation, therefore it’s essential to col-

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laborate with a leading telco like Etisalat to utilise their expertise in building this smart network. We look forward to working closely with Etisalat and their team of experts to shape the future of the city and the country.”

Abdulla Al Ahmed, Senior Vice President, Government Sales, Etisalat said: “Today’s partnership

with Smart Dubai Government is in line with Etisalat’s pledge to support the long-term strategy of the nation, we have built a strong foundation by combining our strengths in robust and resilient communications and infrastructure services with our ecosystem of partners bringing global experience.

CHANNEL STREET

FGB Partners With Oracle FGB will implement Oracle’s Big Data and Business Analytics solutions as part of its ongoing efforts to offer customers a wide range of unique, competitive products to fit their banking needs and to help them in achieving their dreams. As part of the new collaboration, FGB has chosen a host of Oracle’s latest Big Data and Analytics solution components to sustain its leading position in the market with better customer profiling and customer 360 insights. These solutions include Oracle Big Data Discovery, Big Data Connectors, Big Data Appliance X5-2 and the Business Intelligence Suite. “As we move into the age of the millennial, the world of banking is being redefined. The pace of digital disruption continues to accelerate, as customers adopt new technologies and new players enter the market”, said Abdul Rahman Al Thehaiban, Senior Vice President - Tech, Middle East and Africa, Oracle. “Accurate advance prediction tools powered by big data analytics are important for financial institutions to explore new opportunities and make informed decisions. We are confident that with Oracle Big Data and Business Analytics, FGB will be able to analyze data from a variety of sources to anticipate changing customer behaviour and incorporate the best action into operational workflow”.

MISYS UNVEILS FUSION BANKING ESSENCE Misys released FusionBanking Essence, its retail banking solution, to enable banks to deliver a simpler, faster and smarter banking experience to consumers and SMEs. Streamlined digital onboarding capabilities ensure rapid account opening, while advanced technologies such as secure fingerprint authentication enable high quality customer service and security. Advanced analytics enable banks to meet customer needs more effectively, coupled with interactive financial planning tools which help customers better manage and plan their finances. Features such as multi-currency accounts, facial and ID recognition during onboarding further address the needs of a tech-savvy globalised world.

“We are seeing the emergence of two-speed banking – a world in which forward thinking banks are embracing digitalisation and analytics to put customer needs first,” said Simon Paris, President at Misys. “These fast-lane banks are in the market for modern front-to-back digital banking solutions to meet the needs of the increasingly mobile and tech-savvy customers, who demand highly personalised and relevant experiences.”

Building on the Misys “outside-in” banking philosophy, the enhancements are designed to help banks meet the expectations from consumers and SMEs for fast, relevant and convenient digital banking.

SUSE SELECTS BPS TO BUILD A CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDER ECOSYSTEM IN MENA SUSE revealed the signing of BPS as a SUSE distributor for the Middle East & North Africa. As part of the agreement, BPS will spearhead the task of recruiting and on-boarding cloud service providers (CSPs) and providing flexible and bespoke business models for these partners to offer on-demand solutions to their customers. “The cloud eco-system as a business model is a growing concept in the regional channel. BPS has been focused for several years now on cloud distribution models for various technology vendors in the region. By partnering with SUSE as a cloud distributor for Middle East, their experience will be leveraged to offer such technology-on-demand offerings as an opportunity for partners, to develop innovative delivery methods which in turn will help them become more competitive and to offer a unique value proposition to enterprises”, said Paul Abi-Chahine, Regional Director, Emerging EMEA, SUSE. “The solution offering represented by BPS in to pure-play Hybrid-Infrastructure, Application, Security and Business availability nicely complements the solutions from SUSE and only further adds value to the overall proposition, with an emphasis on Enterprise Scalable Linux workloads, Hybrid Cloud Resource Orchestration and also software defined Big Data Storage use-cases.

As such this is a win-win for BPS, SUSE, the channel community and most importantly the end customers in the region,” concluded Negib Abouhabib, General Manager, BPS Middle East.

SECURE ACCESS TO CLOUD IS A TOP PRIORITY FOR ORGANIZATIONS- HID GLOBAL SURVEY HID Global has found that the increasing mobile workforce in the Middle East is driving organisations to focus on watertight security strategies in order to protect and secure their digital assets when accessing applications and data in the cloud. A regional survey conducted by HID Global

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revealed that 47 percent of organisations believe that securing access to cloud based data and application is as important as securing physical premises. With 41 percent stating that secure access to cloud based data and applications was their number one priority. “Cloud adoption is beginning to take

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prominence and by placing data and applications in the cloud, organisations gain a lot of flexibility in terms of accessibility. This is the upside but in doing this, companies also expose themselves to risk and have to take steps to protect their assets,“ said Miguel Braojos, Vice President Global Sales, IAM

Solutions at HID Global. “A robust security strategy and solutions with multi-factor authentication will suffice because the loss or damage of digital assets can have significant ramifications for an organization.

We are glad to find that organisations are assessing and evaluating their security strategies.”

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Ministry of Interior deploys Cisco Collaboration solution

BRIGADIER ENGINEER HUSSAIN AHMAD AL HARITHI, DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES, MINISTRY OF INTERIOR & SHUKRI EID, MANAGING DIRECTOR – EAST REGION, CISCO MIDDLE EAST

Cisco and the UAE Ministry of Interior revealed the commencement of the third and final stage of deployment of the Cisco Prime Collaboration which will connect all the Ministry’s employees across the seven Emirates.

At GITEX Technology Week 2016, the MoI and Cisco also signed a Memorandum of Understanding for strategic cooperation which focuses on technology innovation to enable the Ministry to stay at the forefront of technological updates and to harness new trends. Shukri Eid, Managing Director – East Region, Cisco Middle East said, “With the implementation of Cisco Prime Collaboration, we are delivering a simplified, unified management of collaboration networks that helps MoI move away from a previous distributed model that was costly and difficult to manage to a centralized, simple to manage architecture.

COMSTOR OFFERS CISCO POWERED CLOUD

BY CLOUDHPT Westcon-Comstor revealed that the company’s Comstor business practice is extending its commitment to Cisco Powered Cloud in the Middle East region through a new agreement with CloudHPT. Comstor will now be offering Cisco Powered Cloud Services including Backup as a Service, Disaster Recovery as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, Desktop as a Service and Database as a Service.

Renton Dsouza, Divisional Director, Comstor Middle East. said, “We’re pleased to expand this portfolio with CloudHPT to continuously demonstrate the power of Cloud.”

CMCS RESELLER PARTNERSHIP WITH NOMITECH CMCS has secured a reseller partnership agreement with Nomitech Ltd. The latest collaboration allows CMCS to offer the combined cost estimating and cost management package to their clients within the Middle East.

Tolis Chatzisymeon, CEO, Nomitech Ltd., said: “By partnering with Nomitech Ltd., CMCS can deliver both world-class software and top-quality cost management services. It is a unique opportunity for both companies to expand their businesses further, offering unique products and services in the Middle East.”

“We understand that the cost estimating process is vital for every projectrelated company and CostOS software’s seamless functionality will address the estimation requirements of major sectors such as Oil & Gas, Engineering, Procurement and Construction Contracting, Construction, and Mining.

Going forward, CMCS will continue to partner with such niche companies to bring cutting-edge industry solutions to its clients,” concluded Bassam Samman, CEO, CMCS. Through the reseller partnership, CMCS will provide its current and future customers with the most complete cost estimating solution. CostOS offers real-time collaboration, with multiple estimators working at the same time on the same estimate, establishing a role-based and secure estimate.

SYMANTEC UNVEILS SYMANTEC ENDPOINT PROTECTION 14 Symantec unveiled Symantec Endpoint Protection 14. Powered by artificial intelligence on the endpoint and in the cloud, Symantec Endpoint Protection 14 is the industry’s first solution to fuse essential endpoint technologies with advanced machine learning and memory exploit mitigation in a single agent,

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delivering a multi-layered solution able to stop advanced threats and respond at the endpoint regardless of how the attack is launched.

Symantec Endpoint Protection delivers powerful protection in a lightweight package, building on industry-leading 99.9 percent efficacy, low false positives and a 70 percent reduced footprint over the

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previous generation through new advanced cloud lookup capabilities.

Powered by combined threat intelligence capabilities made possible by integrating Symantec and Blue Coat’s security telemetry, Symantec now protects 175 million consumer and enterprise endpoints, 163 million email users, 80 million web proxy users, and processes nearly

eight billion security requests across these products every day.

“Symantec Endpoint Protection 14 is a major leap forward in endpoint protection, delivering the latest innovations in endpoint security on a single platform and from a security company you can trust,” said Mike Fey, President and COO at Symantec.

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05.10.2016 18:54:21

GUEST ARTICLE

FINESSE REDEFINES PERSONALISED HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS The healthcare landscape is changing exponentially and new technologies are expected to have far-reaching implications in terms of diagnostics, treatments and delivery of care in the future. Information in such cases becomes critical. Today many health systems and networks are developing ways of using available standards to exchange clinical information within and among them to improve the patient experience and reduce costs.

Recent studies indicate that consumerism and consumer engagement in healthcare are currently way behind the rhetoric. However, today consumers want healthcare delivered to them, which is a very different paradigm from the way healthcare worked till today. We see that in the rise in funding for on-demand health startups indicates that the consumers are bringing the same expectations to healthcare as they do in other industries.

Customers/Patients are driving hospitals and health care industry to adopt technology and to give best customer experience to their patients.

Need of the day is to have information at the tip of the fingers at all times with real time updates.

These also stem from the fact that decisions in the health care industry need not be only in real time, but predictive - we are after all talking situations of life and death.

Finesse’s solution for the Healthcare vertical eases life for patients by connecting patients, doctors, primary care givers, nursing and hospitals.

One of such solution that connects doctors, hospitals, patients and care takers is the Hi-Med OpenScape Health Station which is a state of the art solution for enhanced health care.

The Hi-Med OpenScape Health Station is an integrated point of care solution that simplifies the bedside device complexity by streamlining clinical access to strategic HIT and EMR systems,

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optimizing clinical workflows to improve staff productivity and patient outcomes and keeping the patient informed, educated and entertained.

All these are aimed to increase productivity, reduce costs and improve quality of care given at hospitals and health care centers while improving overall staff and patient safety.

The benefits of the Hi-Med OpenScape Health Station are: l Stream line clinical access: Real time access is more effective, efficient and error-free for safer, accurate decisions, decreases admission times, ER cycle times, improves room availability. Point of care availability of important clinical applications and patient information like EMR/HER, CPOE, ePharmacy and PACS l Enhance the Patient Experience: Patients are better informed – reducing patient fear, improving recovery time and overall satisfaction. Automation reduces delivery burden while improving consistency, and Multi-language capabilities save translation costs. Keep the patient informed, educated and engaged through enhanced communication, patient education and compelling entertainment options l Simplify the Point-of-Care: Reduce Capex and Opex of patient room by using consolidate bedside equipment, reduces trip and fall hazards, easy cleaning and disinfection, reduce support and maintenance costs, reduced capital costs

n N I S H R I N S E V W A L A , C O N S U LTA N T - B U S I N E S S D E V E L O P M E N T AT F I N E S S E .

(fewer things to buy), reduced training, maintenance and support costs, and fewer devices to clean, therefore improved disease control. l Improve Staff Productivity: Patient self service reduces staff requests, facilitates nursing prioritization and workflow (better and accelerated response), improved shift handover quality and turnaround time – quick pick up. Beside access to EMR/ EHR allows faster more accurate decisions and reduces errors using advanced nurse call, monitor clinical care pathways, access to admin DB and remote patient monitor The analytics platform in conjunction with CCX IOT Platform can be used to develop advanced algorithms to generate insights and make intelligent decisions. It’s key features of aiding patient convenience, unified organization and billing of all offered services are complimentary to its ability of integration of patient terminals (smartphone, notebook, tablet) and integrating the Hospital Information System while using the existing hospital infrastructure.

It is a huge step in reducing operating costs, enhancing patient – doctor experience and aiding additional profits. Finesse is helping to create a future where everyone has access to affordable, personalized healthcare through sophisticated technologies that puts you in charge of your own health. ë

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COVER STORY

OPPORTUNITIES IN RETAIL

From Architectural Marvels to

Smart Wonders

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COVER STORY

GCC has always been in the frontline for its best in class and best of breed architectural wonders. As smart technology dawns on each sector, it is very interesting to note how ‘Physical’ infrastructures are being ruled by ‘Virtual’ technologies. Competency is the need! Technology is the Answer! 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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he real estate and construction market of the GCC is one of the world’s biggest and largest growing sectors and has given the world some unparalleled examples of growth despite critics pushing the sector’s dominance for 2016 due to the fluctuating oil prices. In 2016, if not fast, the growth has been steady and with the race up to magnanimous events like Expo 2020 and FIFA World Cup, UAE and Qatar are poised for strong growth.

According to International Monetary Fund, the GCC’s economy is estimated to reach $2 trillion by 2020, with Saudi Arabia contributing $902 billion, followed by the UAE ($502 billion), Qatar ($269 billion), Kuwait ($196 billion), Oman ($81 billion) and Bahrain ($40 billion).

EXPO 2020— THE RACE TO THE FINISHING LINE Connecting Minds, Creating the Future; Under this slogan, the UAE is racing up to host one of

the biggest Expos that the world has seen. By 2020, we will be witnessing a complete upheaval of the real estate and construction landscape. The marvels that will come up on to the surface of the region would not just be architectural wonders, but technical wonders too. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, has launched the ‘Smart Buildability Index’, WAM has reported.

The index, an initiative of the Federal Demographic Council, aims to standardize building

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COVER STORY

ZIAD YOUSSEF, VICE PRESIDENT- IT BUSINESS – GULF COUNTRIES, EAST MEDITERRANEAN & PAKISTAN, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

MANISH BHARDWAJ, SR. MARKETING MANAGER, MIDDLE EAST & TURKEY AT ARUBA, A HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE COMPANY

“Schneider Electric helps its clients manage their energy in ways that are safe, reliable, efficient and sustainable. We have accomplished this by enhancing existing infrastructure and legacy ICT.”

“The Construction and Real estate sector is an important sector for Aruba. We expect this sector to maintain its growth in 2017.”

designs that adopt modern building techniques such as 3D printing and use locally manufactured steel structures, pre-fabricated pillars and walls.

It seeks to promote the use of techniques and materials that accelerate construction processes, increase productivity and rationalize the use of unskilled labor.

Hani Nofal, VP of INS, Security and Mobility at GBM added, “GBM focuses on understanding the hospitality sector in depth, and working with CISCO our strategic partner to deliver competent technical solutions around wireless, analytics, mobile technologies and in-house connected applications. All that has been translated in our latest win in that industry; the Jewel of Creek in Dubai, in this project we are helping end-users to achieve their business, financial and marketing objectives.”

Ziad Youssef, Vice President- IT Business – Gulf Countries, East Mediterranean & Pakistan, Schneider Electric says that Schneider Electric has the expertise to contribute to this evolving

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infrastructure across various sectors, and is an ideal partner to government and private entities throughout the UAE. As a global leader in energy management and automation, Schneider Electric helps its clients manage their energy in ways that are safe, reliable, efficient and sustainable. “We have accomplished this not only by developing innovative smart solutions, but by enhancing existing infrastructure and legacy ICT systems.”

THE ‘SMART’ QUOTIENT Low energy consumption and low energy consuming architectural designs are the need of the hour for modern construction. Newly developed buildings have taken into account smart solutions, particularly in residential buildings where they have adopted automated processes for everyday utilities. Ziad says “This includes automated electric ovens, energy saving sensors and automated AC systems. The healthcare industry is rapidly implementing these solutions as well. The concept of smart living has very much

KAMAL MOKRANI, GLOBAL VICE PRESIDENT, INFINET WIRELESS

“New IP networks and high-performance wireless infrastructures will enable tomorrow’s smart cities and empower new possibilities for individuals, companies and the government.”

come to life in the GCC region, and this is where Schneider Electric comes in,” says Ziad.

Accenture has launched its first ever international connected hackathon, in collaboration with Expo 2020 Dubai, pitting talented young people from eight cities in Europe and Asia against each other. They will have to build innovative, scalable and replicable application prototypes by using technologies such as the sensors and connected devices that help make up the Internet of Things, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented and Virtual Reality and blockchains.

TOWARDS A CONNECTED FUTURE DEWA launched the Shams Dubai in adherence with the Smart Dubai initiative, which was launched by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to make Dubai the happiest and smartest city in the world, under which a total of 222 buildings were connected

COVER STORY

THE CIO

VERDICT

AJAY RATHI,

HANI NOFAL, VP OF INS, SECURITY AND MOBILITY AT GBM

DIRECTOR IT, MERAAS HOLDING

“GBM has a clear strategy and road map to develop technology and advanced solutions, that will improve the customer experience and maximize the efficiency and the productivity of its customers’ IT assets.”

Dubai has been in the limelight for building world class assets. The ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, has a vision of making Dubai one of most technologically advanced city. This requires that the technology is embedded in the Design of any building. Internet of things requires sensors to be placed in all the utilities, changing the landscape of building MEP contracts. Building management systems, Security, firefighting systems, AV and ICT are all now getting converged on the IP network and this requires a good investment in IT infrastructure. The Master developers are racing towards digital and connected world. Right from smart lights to smart garbage collection technology is playing a big role to make Dubai a smart city.

Most of the developers are now understanding the importance of ICT in their development and going forward we would see higher investment in ICT in any of the building been built.

BENEFITS OF WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES IN SMART CITIES INCLUDE

INCREASED EFFICIENCY

BETTER COVERAGE

FLEXIBILITY

NEW OPPORTUNITIES COST SAVINGS

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COVER STORY

4%

The UAE’s construction sector will grow by 4% in 2017, compared to 2016 estimates, according to Faithful+Gould’s David Clifton.

3

USD bn

Demonstrating BIM’s value, the global BIM market is set to grow four-fold from USD 3 billion in 2014 to USD 12 billion by 2022, according to a recent report by Transparency Market Research.

$

15bn

Kuwait’s construction sector will hit $15.6bn (KWD4.7bn) in 2020

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US$

28,566mn

Expo 2020 is anticipated to result in an increase in the building construction contractor awards from US$ 28,566 million in 2016 to US$ 28,989 million in 2017.

US$

15bn

Dubai recorded US$ 15 billion of real estate transactions in Q1 2016, through 12,568 transactions, according to Dubai Land Development (DLD)

11.4%

the annual average growth rate of Qatar’s construction industry is expected to reach 11.4 percent between 2015 and 2022

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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is realizing Saudi Vision 2030 energy goals with advanced offshore construction technology

USD

5.7bn

Oman’s construction industry is expected to see real growth in value of 3.4% in 2016, to USD5.7bn.

US$

29.9bn

KSA expected to spend US$ 29.9 Billion on Construction Projects in 2016

with photovoltaic installations. The real estate and construction sectors in the Middle East are increasingly switching to sustainable energy models, with solar energy being the prime of them.

Apart from that ‘Connected Buildings’ are yet another game changing aspect that is attracting vendors and end users alike, There are an estimated 2 billion smartphone users globally, with an estimated 80% of mobile traffic originating or terminating within a building.

A SYSTEM With that in mind, it is critical that residents, visitors and workers have access to strong and reliable cellular coverage in order to make use of their mobile devices, properly. Despite this, only an estimated two percent of commercial buildings have dedicated technology to ensure strong and reliable mobile coverage and capacity indoors “Dubai has always been on the forefront of using best of breed technology and has always been an early adopter. These new projects will have state of the art technology and there will be a lot of focus around mobility and customer engagement as the public these days rely on their handheld devices for almost everything.”Manish Bhardwaj, Sr. Marketing Manager, Middle East & Turkey at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company “One of the most promising applications of the next-generation wireless infrastructure is in the real estate and construction industry and more specifically within the emerging smart cities. To be successful, these new cities will need to rely very heavily on a comprehensive ecosystem of connectivity, starting with WiFi and its associated backhauls, LAN’s, WAN’s, VPN’s, all supported by a multitude of software tools and analytics, and aimed at automating many routine tasks and activities. Communities of people and enterprises alike will be able to significantly improve all aspects of their everyday life by adopting such high performance wireless technologies.”Kamal Mokrani, global vice president, InfiNet Wireless

FINALLY Needless to say, the 2020 will open new dimensions of development in the Real Estate and cinstruction sector. Wirless and connected landscape will drive the future of architecture. waht would be woth watching is, how would the Middle East, that is famous for its architectural excellencies breath perfection into seamless integrating technology. Challenge for the CIOs, Playground for the IT vendors and Partners. ë

Nothing happened today In a perfect world, no one thinks about access control except you.

The hundreds of people coming and going don’t think about you, or what a good job you’re doing, or how they always manage to get seamlessly where they need to go. Because you chose Synergis access control, it was another great day.

© 2014 Genetec. All rights reserved. Genetec and Synergis are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Genetec.

genetec.com/synergis

GUEST ARTICLE

The Smart Switch: DAFZA’s continuing commitment towards Dubai’s ‘Smart City’ vision In 2013, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, formally began Dubai’s transformation into a ‘Smart City’ by requesting that the emirate’s government services be efficiently provided through the use of smart devices, also urging for the extensive adoption of advanced smart technologies to make life easier, safer and more productive for all people living and working in Dubai.

The idea of a ‘Smart City’ model has emerged as one of the most exciting concepts in urban development. It involves the integration of multiple information and communications technology and Internet of Things solutions to optimize the management of city assets and the delivery of essential public services. Over the last few years, DAFZA has been at the forefront of the unified efforts to support His Highness Sheikh Mohammed’s vision of a ‘Smart City.’ In fact, long before his proclamation, DAFZA has been continuously adopting advanced technologies and tools in line with our corporate value of innovation, which encourages creativity and the innovative delivery of services.

DAFZA continues with its efforts towards focusing on various pillars anchoring global efforts to build smart cities—including Energy, Technology and Innovation, a Smart Society and Collaborative City, Governance and Economy, a Sustainable Built Environment, City Resilience and Security, and Mobility. In line with this, a dedicated ‘DAFZA Smart City Committee’ was organized to oversee all of the freezone’s Smart Transformation initiatives to ensure that they align with the Dubai Government’s Smart City Agenda.‘Tas’heel’ is the online portal of Dubai Airport Free Zone providing a one-stop solution to prospective clients looking to establish their

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companies in DAFZA and acting as a gateway for all their requirements once a company is registered. To complement the online portal, DAFZA developed a smart application that is available on all the leading mobile platforms..

Potential investors can get information on setting up new businesses facilities available and browse through the client directory to view the existing customer base. Employees working in various customer companies can use the app to browse food court directory, Prayer Hall location, retail outlets, and Dubai Metro Shuttle timings.

In 2014, DAFZA transformed into a wireless smart zone--becoming one of the first free zones in the world to integrate free Wi-Fi connectivity and smart services in the entire zone for its visitors, customers and employees. A year later, DAFZA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Dubai Smart Government to strengthen cooperation in providing support to government smart services in line with their mutual efforts to implement the directives of the Dubai’s wise leadership aimed at transforming Dubai into a ‘smart’ city. In 2016, DAFZA also launched its intranet portal, which provides a gateway that unifies access to all enterprise information and applications on an intranet network.

A supplier portal initiative was launched in 2016 to streamline DAFZA’s procurement activi-

n BUTHAINA BIN FAHAD, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF D A F Z A’ S I N F O R M AT I O N A N D C O M M U N I C AT I O N S T E C H N O L O G Y D E PA R T M E N T

ties. The ‘mSupplier Portal’ enables its existing and prospective suppliers with a secured web based, self-service business transactions.

Also in 2016, DAFZA launched a new mobile platform called ‘SMART Mir’ah’ (Mirror) to enable its leadership to access the Freezone’s Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Results, Strategic Initiatives, Operational Performance, Processes, Policies, Survey and Benchmarking Reports on-the-go via their mobile devices.

Among the numerous Smart City projects and customer delight initiatives already completed

by DAFZA are;Smart Data Centre, Building Management System, DAFZA Eye application, Automatic Number Plate Recognition, Hi-Tech Business Center, Smart Gate Pass and Smart Traffic Management systems Current ongoing smart projects include Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning, Smart Access Control, Centralized Parking Management System, Advanced Training Center and a hi-tech auditorium, to name a few.

DAFZA is also eyeing initiatives related to Open Data, Enterprise Mobility, further integration with other government departments such as the Dubai Health Authority and the Department of Naturalization and Residency Dubai, and 3D Printing – all intended to further secure DAFZA’s leadership in smart capabilities. ë

FEATURE

FOCUS AFRICA

Africa up for a ‘Digital’ Safari In the past decade, the African continent has registered a steady economic growth and investors have been reaping a good return from their projects. Team EC MEA’s recent visit to the African continent (Ghana, Kenya and Egypt) as a part of the GEC Open World Tour witnessed this surge as the countries stood on the threshold of a new era of digitization and connectivity.

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FEATURE

APM – mobile payment, crypto currencies and other emerging technologies.

The aggressive consumer adoption of mobile devices

HESHAM EL KOMY

Leveraged demand for wireless technologies

Increasing demand for homeland security

Growing number of smart phone users

SENIOR DIRECTOR, CHANNELS, EPICOR SOFTWARE

“Similar to what we see in the Middle East, the IT teams in Africa tend to be well versed in new technologies and there is a willingness to buy technology as it is seen as an important factor.”

OGY APPETITE

n W O R D S : S O N A L < S O N A L @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >

T

he Growth, Innovation and Leadership Africa 2016 conference in Cape Town outlined a sharp inclination of the African market towards digitization. According to Frost & Sullivan, The mobile revolution in Africa is the gateway to the future. Africa’s digital economy is expected to reach $315-billion by 2025, accounting for 7% of the continent’s gross domestic product.

THE AFRICAN SILHOUETTE The diversity and challenges of the various regions of Africa acts as both a adding and subtracting point for the technology providers and investors alike. On one hand, the penetration of smart phones have played a pivotal role in putting the continent at a very advanced stage in digitalization, on the other hand lack of proper, stable and a mature infrastructure have been slowing down the process.

“2016 has been a great year for the African market despite the slowdown in global com-

modities prices and political unrest in the region.

According to a report by McKinsey, the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) recently referred to African economies as ‘Lions on the Move’. They cite three key trends that are fuelling growth in these African economies including a young and growing labour force, growing urbanisation and rapid adaptation of technology,” says Hesham El Komy, senior director, channels, Epicor Software.

“Africa is one the world’s most dynamic education markets. Public-private partnerships show best practices for using technology to reach marginalised students with technology that students use in their daily lives. Africa presents exciting business opportunities for education technology vendors and startups worldwide,” said Trixie LohMirmand, Senior Vice-President, for Exhibitions and Events Management at Dubai World Trade Centre, host of GITEX Technology Week, one of the world’s most influential technology gatherings and conferences.

SATIATING THE TECHNOL-

The Guardian reported that Africa is entering into its fourth industrial revolution which is a giant step towards the digital world, and the promises that it brings along are free Facebook, mobile banking, cashless society and digitized land records.

“With OMA Emirates involvement in the payments industry, we see that market growth was very different between the African regions and even between countries in the same regions.

That said, the growth was in double digits.” Says NiranjSangal, Group CEO of OMA Emirates Group. In 2016, some regions confirmed the upward trend (Eastern) while others are still suffering from instability, be it political and others factors. The growth was also different depending on varied technology with a higher trend for mobile payments, money transfer and prepaid while there is a normal growth for debit cards.

SolaymanRefae- Group CIO- Head of IT at Webcor Group “To mitigate the unstable and non-existent communications in some of our African locations, we are building a creative and Innovative Microwave and VSAT communication network, to connect 80+ sites across Angola and Mozambique sites, to our group network.

We are also creating new efficiencies through

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FEATURE

NIRANJ SANGAL

KAMAL MOKRANI

SOLAYMAN REFAE

“With our recent investments, we are very well positioned to offer the regional partners a global platform that covers a wide range of products, services and know-how.”

GLOBAL VICE PRESIDENT, INFINET WIRELESS

GROUP CIO- HEAD OF IT AT WEBCOR GROUP

“Our biggest activities for the next 12 to 18 months will be focused on significantly increasing market awareness in the region.”

“I have been seeing and understanding those connected and not. I have been surprised to learn of their unexpected capabilities, limitations, and related habits. ”

ON GROUND STORIES

our enterprise-wide Intranet/social network and enterprise POS/SCM systems, which runs across our wholesale operations in Angola and operates in online and offline mode.”

local telco company. I would suggest that this was effectively a form of cloud-based transactions.”

According to Niranj, Africa is experiencing a huge change in payment methods especially with the adoption of alternative methods which is bringing in change at a rapid pace. At this point, Africa is recording a huge penetration in the mobile domain. “This can largely be attributed to the growing use of mobile payments, digital banking, keen interest by government and regulatory bodies to ensure a more conducive and safer payment environment, and, technology innovations that support this growth,” he adds.

“The main factors that drive the adoption of wireless technologies almost everywhere in the world is the increasing demand for smart phones and associated data traffic, as well as the desire for people and enterprises from all market sectors to stay continuously connected.” Kamal Mokrani, Global Vice President, InfiNet Wireless.

GROUP CEO, OMA EMIRATES GROUP

Based on a tete-a-tete with leading businessmen and influencers from Kenya, Ghana and Egypt, we could actually see the stance of the continent that is all set to become the next torchbearer for technology and innovation.

Director of EMBEE International, Sanjay E Khushalani, says that the Egypt market is ripe for all round development. The government is very supportive for any kind of expansion and that is one of the major success factors. EMBEE group is the first Indian company in Egypt to have acquired 33, 000 acres of land in Egypt as a part of its major foray into agri-business sector in Africa.

Kenya has become not only the gateway to sub Saharan Africa but the whole of Africa.

It’s dynamic economy, talented workforce and strategic location remain unmatched Darshan Chandaria, Group CEO and Director, Chandaria Industries Mr. ABB Babu, Honorable Consul General of India in Egypt said that Egypt is truly poised to be the next IT hub in the Middle East and Africa region and the embassy and the government is well prepared and supportive to support new entrants and entities with all due support.

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LEAPFROGGING TECHNOLOGIES, LEAPFROGGING COUNTERPARTS It is very interesting to read and know how Africa has been jumping and missing technologies to evolve from its rural landscape. Reports are rich with the facts that the government wants to switch to drones, leapfrogging all the other technologies tailing behind the drone. Quoting a report in The Economist, the project under way in Rwanda is courtesy of a startup based in Silicon Valley called Zipline. Its idea is to use small, fixed-wing drones to drop off packets of blood with parachutes from Rwanda’s five blood banks to hospitals and health-care centers, under a contract with the government.

Hesham says, “I would have to agree with that – the first time I noticed that was about five years ago in Kenya when I was on a Safari! I was in the Masaai Mara region and came across a group of Masaai farmers, all carrying mobile phones. When I asked why they were all talking and tapping away, they explained that they use the phones to buy and sell animals with mobile currency called mPesa which was hosted by the

FINALLY Though Africa is termed as one of the most promising markets for investors and technology vendors alike, there are still some major obstacles that need to be overcome. Funding for new start-ups and streamlined government policies are some of the factors that have to be streamlined to ensure business continuity and penetration of new technologies. ë

WORLD CORPORATE CHALLENGE

PREMIUM CHARITY GOLF TOURNAMENT KENYA

GHANA

EGYPT

TURKEY

QATAR

BROUGHT BY

OMAN

BAHRAIN

UAE

SAUDI ARABIA

INDIA

ORGANISED BY

I N A S S O C I AT I O N W I T H

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GECOpen

Enterprise Channels MEA

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MY VIEWS

Walking Hand in Hand with Digital Transformation A digital future that is entrenched with unparalleled security architectures— this mantra drives the operations of GBM. Hani Nofal, VP Intelligent Networks, Security, Mobility—GBM puts into words GBM’s business models and digital transformation strategies in an exclusive rendezvous with EC MEA.

2016 is set to draw curtains, and if we plot the year on a graph, we can see 2 aspects topping the charts in the world of ICT— ‘Digital Transformation’ and ‘Customer Experience’. Two aspects that Hani Nofal, VP Intelligent Networks, Security, Mobility – GBM feels has gone into the central nervous system of their business operations.

EMBARKING ON THE DIGITAL ‘JOURNEY’ “The year 2016 has seen an eruption of new technologies and also many updates in the existing ones. Hence, it becomes mandatory to analyze the inclination of the market and to scrutinize which technology will be the most sought after technology. The world is talking about ‘transformation’ and this digital transformation and its associated services and solutions has been on the minds of enterprises too.” He adds, “This year we tried to go more in-depth in digital transformation with our strategic partner

Cisco and bring real life scenarios into the show.

At GITEX we demonstrated use cases from specific industries that are real and in action.

We received overwhelming feedbacks and more opportunities to replicate what we have done across the same industry in other areas around the region.” According to Hani customers do have pain points like moving into cloud, moving into the digital era, moving into mobility, smart applications etc. The one question which bothers every client is ‘how do we start?’ It’s just not about technology as per Hani, it’s about someone guiding the customer and providing right advice with an understanding of the business and with relevant industry knowledge. ‘True partners are what customers really seek,” adds Hani.

MASTERING THE INFRASTRUCTURE Developing the core infrastructure tops the charts of all the CIOs, as the market heats up to

JEWELS IN THE CROWN

4bn

GBM has signed an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) partnership for one of Dubai’s largest hospitality projects, the Jewel of the Creek Project. The AED 4 billion project by Roda Hotels, the hospitality subsidiary of the Dubai International Real Estate, is expected to be ready by September 2017.

GBM was appointed as the first Apple Authorised Systems Integrator in UAE in May this year.

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n HANI NOFAL, VP INTELLIGENT NETWORKS, SECUR I T Y, M O B I L I T Y – G B M

major milestones and organizational revamps.

Middle East organizations are blooming and the enterprises definitely give more significance to the infrastructure in order to compete in the global world. Infrastructure being a major contributor to growth, there sure are some challenges and opportunities which it brings with it. Hani says, “The network readiness varies from country to country when it comes to this region. Undoubtedly there is a great opportunity and work we need to do to aspire to upgrade the infrastructure to keep it more agile, more cost-effective because the deployment of smart services as we go into the digital world will require a cost effective and flexible infrastructure, so there is a great opportunity for us to partner with service providers, governments and regulators to push our infrastructure to be smarter and ready for the journey to come.”

Hospitality in particular has gone through a revival when it comes to technology and enhancing guest experience becomes a key criteria for every hotel. Hotels want to differentiate and GBM is working closely as a technology providerwith hotel operators to use technology to differentiate their guest experience. Hani also revealed a testimonial for hospitality industry, GBM is working to provide ability to build a smart infrastructure that is able to customize the services to the guests, able to provide location based analytics and allowing hotel owners and managers to be more profitable by being able to launch specific services as and when required depending on their customer’s profile. ë

SPECIAL STORY

3G, 4G, 5G,

What’s

next?

In a world of ‘connected’ devices, breathe the air of advanced and swift developments in the ‘G’ arena. n W O R D S : S O N A L L U N A W AT < S O N A L @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >

W

e seldom complain about the speed of our internet or the reliability it offers.

The battle of networks to achieve secured and seamless communication has always been a topic of debate. Do you remember the bulky handsets we used with tortoise speed of internet, the loading sign and the signal difficulties? It seems we have travelled time, a place where speed and flexibility exist in reality and not just a far-fetched future.

Wireless technology has undoubtedly made the present as well as future generations hungry for improved and advanced forms of devices as well as networking capabilities.

On an average, every 10 years ‘generation’ goes through a revival- a better and more promising advancement- 2G in 1990 to the latest 4G and 4G LTE in late 2009. Talks about 5G to be rolling out

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in 2020 has already made the consumers anxious and over optimistic about allowing higher number of mobile broadband users per area unit and allowing consumption of higher and unlimited data quantities. What the future has in store only time will tell.

HOW READY ARE WE? They say one should adapt and evolve based on the contemporary world, competition, resource availability etc. Change is constant and the race just gets tougher. Are we ready to embrace 5G? Have we run out of 4G LTE usage already? What difference will 5G bring with it? These questions run in the minds of organizations and consumers and one needs to scrutinize the pros and cons of this rapid advancement.

Let’s visit the past, maybe two decades back when every mail sent was through the computer

or laptop, not many enjoyed the luxury of mailbox on their phone, with limited speed options and relatively weak connections, when plans and projections of the connected world seemed almost a myth. Compromised security was another threat which enterprises suffered. As the technology advances so does the ways and means to achieve a seamless and secured communication has intensified.

Diego Arrabal, MEA Director, F5 Networks feels that If businesses want to maximize on the latest technology developments, they will need a network that can scale adequately. He explains, “Networks could grow 10 or even 20 times more due to increased volumes of traffic and millions more devices entering the space. It’s also about maintaining security defences as the network expands. With millions of new devices entering the space, security concerns will need to be

SPECIAL STORY

SERVICES

GENERATION

2G/2.5G 3G

4G

5G

Digital Voice, SMS, International Roaming, Conferencing, Call Waiting, Call Hold, Call Forwarding, Call Barring, Caller Number Identification, Closed User Groups (CUGs) , USSD Services, Authentication, push to talk, multimedia, web based info entertainment, support WAP, MMS, SMS mobile games, and search and directory, email access, video conferencing

Mobile web access, IP telephony, gaming services, high-definition mobile TV, video conferencing, 3D television, and cloud computing, manage multi broadcast streams and handle quick-moving mobile phones, Digital Video Broadcasting, Dynamic information access, wearable devices. smooth handovers across heterogeneous networks and automatic roaming between different wireless networks

Connected people & devices, Radio signal at higher altitude, Parallel multiple services, Remote diagnostics, ease in monitoring, Visualizing universe, detection of threats quicker, greater speed

Wireless voice telephony, high speed internet access, fixed wireless Internet access, video calls, chatting & conferencing, mobile TV, Video on demand, Location-based services, Telemedicine, Web browsing, e-mail, paging, fax and navigational maps, Mobile gaming, mobile music, multimedia services like digital photos and movies. Localized services for accessing traffic and weather updates, Mobile office services, like virtual banking.

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SPECIAL STORY

MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS: FROM 1G TO 5G

addressed from day one. A growing network also means ensuring that accessibility is not limited as a result of increased protection. The best way to do this is work with a service provider and deploy NFV and cloud-based technology for the business as soon as possible.”

WHAT’S IN STORE? One already knows what 5G will bring with it, not just connected homes and organizations but a smarter way of living life boomed by speed and efficiency. But what about after 5G? As reports claim 6G is aimed to integrate 5G with satellite networks for global coverage. It will undoubtedly be a faster and cheaper way of

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internet technology. This ‘connectivity’ will spread in remote locations too providing upto 11Gbps internet speed. Presence of nano antennas in all possible locations will lead to efficient electromagnetic signals. Smart cities will be a widespread concept and its implementation will increase in terms of home automation, smart services, better navigation means, superior governance and ease of operations. There will be no looking back as every generation brings with it more improved, advanced and updated technology with better quality, high speed, increased bandwidth and reduction in cost.7G as analysts’ state will make space roaming not just a concept but reality.

FINALLY… The world wants to move to wireless, with 5G coming in the limelight this will be a reality in factual sense. However, the integration of 5G with satellite will lead to 6G which might have issues when it comes to roaming due to variable technology usage and standards. But one thing remains certain and crystal clear- telecom providers will go to every possible extent to gain maximum market share by providing thundering speed and low cost of data usage. As the ‘generation’ gets bigger and better there can just be one conclusion- ‘A world like never before.’ ë

A Miller Heiman Group Distribution Partner

YOUR TRUSTED PARTNER FOR TURN KEY IT SOLUTION www.gtcme.com From need Assessment, Planning, Supply, Installation and Support, we provide end to end solution for your entire IT Infrastructure requirement TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS ________________

105B Al Makhawi Building Oud Metha, Dubai.

Sales@gtcme.com 04 370 8091 Emerging Integrator of the year

EXPERTS AT DARKMATTER HAVE ALWAYS BELIEVED AND PROMOTED THE IDEA THAT CYBER SECURITY IS A ‘SHARED RESPONSIBILITY’.

DARKMATTER RECENTLY CONDUCTED A SURVEY ON CYBER SECURITY AWARENESS THAT POLLED VARIOUS C LEVEL EXECUTIVES FROM THE GCC ON THEIR THOUGHTS ON THE CURRENT CYBER THREAT LANDSCAPE AND HOW READY THEIR ORGANIZATIONS WERE IN COMBATING IT.

BOARD LEVEL REPRESENTATION OF CYBER RELATED ISSUES

31 YES

59 NO

10 UNAWARE

IF YOUR ORGANIZATION WERE TO EXPERIENCE A CYBER SECURITY INCIDENT, DO YOU BELIEVE THERE ARE SUFFICIENT NETWORK MONITORING CAPABILITIES IN PLACE TO IDENTIFY IT IN A TIMELY FASHION?

WOULD YOU TRUST A UAE BASED COMPANY TO PROVIDE YOUR ORGANISATION WITH END TO END CYBER SECURITY SOLUTIONS

75 YES

19 NO

06 UNAWARE

EXPERIENCED A CYBER SECURITY BREACH FROM AN EXTERNAL THREAT SOURCE IN THE PAST YEAR

23 YES

66 NO

11 UNAWARE

53 36 09 YES NO UNAWARE DO YOU BELIEVE CYBER SECURITY IS ULTIMATELY THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE OEM MORE THAN IT IS THE ORGANIZATION USING IT

83 YES

09 NO

08 UNAWARE

GITEX GLIMPSES

Technology Builds ‘Tomorrow’ GITEX 2016 opened and closed its door this October to some spellbound spectacles in the world of technology.

GITEX 2016 was a much awaited event, as the entire IT ecosystem across the Middle East, the private sectors, the governments and all the end users actually wanted to have a reality check on the situation of the market. Never has there been so much debate around business fluctuations and continuity as in 2016. Thanks to the oil price and credit crunches, as we all have been explicitly talking about in all our stories and articles throughout the year, the discussion just never seemed to cease.

So, as GITEX 2016 raised curtains on 16th October, 2016 at the Dubai World Trade Center, the UAE’s vision to be a competent country and leader in innovation, came to life. From smart city to 5G, from Robotics and drones to virtual reality, from Big Data Analytics to IoT implementations, from cyber attacks to cyber relilience, from scale out data center architectures to hyper converged infrastructure…… the trade center was abuzz with nation leading examples and real life models of next generation technology.

“Aligned with the UAE government’s vision for innovation, GITEX is committed to bringing together the world’s

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most innovative cybersecurity firms, researchers, innovators, and startups under one roof to drive the next era of Smart City innovation – starting from the Arabian Gulf,” said Trixie LohMirmand, Senior Vice-President, Exhibitions and Events Management, Dubai World Trade Centre.

Apart from Cloud solutions, Big Data and IoT was one of the show stealers at the GITEX 2016. Industry and market reports state that spending on the Industrial Internet– combining Big Data with the Internet of Things – is set to impact USD 15 trillion of global GDP by 2030, according to a recent report by the consultancy Accenture.

However, these technologies can expose companies to cyber security risk, and only 44 per cent of organizations have end-to-end security in place. “Security is becoming more relevant than ever before in today’s hyper-connected world. Our increasingly digitized ecosystem presents us with both opportunities and challenges. Governments and businesses in every industry need to adapt to this new reality by creating an agile and resilient security framework that actively prevents and combats cyber attacks,” said Tony Karam, Managing Director of Accenture Digital in the Middle East and North Africa, on the sidelines of the GITEX CISO Breakfast Briefing 2016.

GITEX GLIMPSES

RAJESH N.R - SALES MANAGER - IT INFRASTRCUTURE - RITTAL MIDDLE EAST

RITTAL We dintsee large enterprise project happening but we could see a major take off in distribution, majorly in the space of cabinets, the IT enclosures that is an indication of the positive constructions happening across the Middle East. We are also focusing a lot on SMBs and SMEs and we have a lot of solutions and products focusing on that section as well. It has started giving us great result as well.”

TAJ AL ZADJALI MARKETING MANAGER, OMAN FIBRE OPTIC

OMAN FIBRE OPTIC We have been leading the optic fibre market in the Middle East. The major projects that we have done is a part of Siteconproject , it is one of the biggest telecom projects in the Middle East. It links all the GCC countries together in one server. 5 years , shifted to main end usres and no of visitors have also been good.

And we are looking forward to 2017.

We are into aggressive marketing and look forward to building great business relations across the Middle East. “

ABHISHEK HAJRA, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA, NETSCOUT

JOSE THOMAS, MANAGING DIRECTOR, BULWARKS TECHNOLOGIES

BULWARKS “Gitex Technology Week 2016 provided an excellent platform for our brand visibility and communication, boosted our presence in the Middle East region and provided an ideal opportunity to strengthen the business relationships with our key vendors, partners and customers whilst developing many new prospects in the region which I anticipate will allow us to grow our business aggressively in the months to come.”

MOHAMMAD MOBASSERI, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO AT EMT DISTRIBUTION

NETSCOUT We are seeing a good number og growth that comes as a surprise to many vendors as they have been talking and experiencing a slowdown in business. Our business focus is optimizing cost for the customers so that is the reason why customers are lending their ears more to us. We look at difficult times as opportunity to us. We call ourselves ‘Guardians of the Connected World’ not just as a marketing term but we take it very seriously, because we keep customer experience at the center of all our technology. “

EMT . Over the last couple of years we have seen a big surge in the advent of distribution companies who have been bringing competitive products from other markets at a competitive price which somewhat hindered our reach.

But we are sure that the companies who are focused on their portfolio and professional services will stay stable and lead the way.

We have increased our profitability greatly compared to last year because customers have seen the value in our products.”

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GITEX GLIMPSES

KARIM REFAS, REGIONAL CHANNEL MANAGER, ME, EATON

EATON We are in the Mindware booth for the first time as we just signed a partnership with them. We have a smaller market share in the ME, so for 2017 all our plans and research would be invested in growing in the Middle East. We are also planning to meet more resellers, enable and empower them through various programs. Mindware is a very strong partner in achieving this target.”

BUTHAINA HAMMAD BIN FAHAD, SENIOR DIRECTOR, INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY, DAFZA

DAFZA In Dubai everyday something new is announced in conjunction with the smart city initiative, we try to be up-to-date with the direction of the government and what is happening worldwide.”

SUNIL PAUL,

VIC BAGERIA, CEO, SÀVANT DATA SYSTEM

SÀVANT DATA SYSTEM GITEX has been a channel for us to be able to get connected from people from outside Middle East. Over the years GITEX has attracted a lot of global crowd as well. We are focused on retail solutions and based on data analytics we give a lot of feedbacks to the retailers on how they could improve their operations. We have been growing from retail to different verticals. Being in this region for 13 years we have a good market share and presence in 39 countries.”

FINESSE

NASSAR HUSSAIN, MANAGING DIRECTOR, EMEA, SOTI

COO & CO FOUNDER, FINESSE

The Participation was overwhelming, given the fact that the market was claimed to be slow. Compared to the last 5 years, we have had the highest footfall this year.

We also signed a major partnership with Dubai DoF project connecting individuals and corporate to providing deeper insights and maintain transparency among all the stake holders..”

DIMITRIS RAEKOS,

ESET

GENERAL MANAGER, ESET

We are here at GITEX to present new tools and programs for our channel partners. We are offering the MSP program.We are also elaborating here our B2B portal which is also the extension of our online store, so are partners will be able to login and find all the opportunities, pending renewals as well as do some registration of new deals as well.”

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SOTI SOTI has always been ahead of the trend when it comes to using mobility and technology to enable customers and partners to enhance their services. We provide 100% mission critical scenarios and reliabilities right down to enabling email or any kind of technology to be used by a customer. Our focus for GITEX is to showcase how different types of technology can be enabled in what we called the Internet of Things.”

GITEX GLIMPSES

STEPHEN FERNANDES, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, TRANSSYS SOLUTIONS

TransSys Solutions This year at GITEX we are demonstrating how TransSys has helped its clients from verticals like BFSI, retail, aviation etc. and deliver transformation solutions.

We are offering a lot of cloud based transformation solutions to our clients.This year at GITEX we are demonstrating how we have delivered SaaS solution predominantly in the ERP space, on HCM and CXM. We are also focusing on PaaS for SaaS extensions.”

KENAN ABOULTEIF, SALES DIRECTOR- MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA, CITRIX

CITRIX This year we chose to participate with Microsoft, Citrix has always had an alliance with Microsoft but this year we strengthened the alliance. We virtualize desktops and applications and Citrix is the perfect fit when it comes to integrating with Microsoft Azure cloud. Instead of our customers having to invest in their own infrastructures for their desktops management and so on and instead they can host it on the Microsoft Azure cloud and that will save them a considerable amount of Capex.”

FIRAS JADALLA, REGIONAL DIRECTOR - MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA, GENETEC

NASSER EL ABDOULI, REGIONAL CHANNEL SALES MANAGER, META, F5 NETWORKS

F5 NETWORKS We are insisting a lot on our security solution and cloud solution as well as subscription model during this GITEX. 2017 is going to be another exciting year for F5 as our eco-system keeps evolving. We will continue to invest in hand holding our key partners and elevating ourselves to the next level. 2017 will bring with it more innovative and creative projects apart from our core activities of structuring data centres, disaster recovery sites, networking security solutions etc.”

JOHN MCGUIRE, VICE PRESIDENT INNOVATION & STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS CEMEA, VISA

GENETEC Today, the security landscape has evolved and new threats, specifically cyber-security threats, have emerged.

Access control system should not only secure doors, but it should itself be protected from cyber-attacks.

During this year’s edition of GITEX, we showcased and demonstrated next generation technologies and trends that are shaping the physical security quotient for various industry verticals in the region.”

VISA VISA is contributing to the Vision 2020, by bringing innovative realities to payments.

We have partnered with TECOM and Dubai Internet City, as strategic partners we are going to host joint collaborative hackathons and we are participating together at GITEX this year. We were invited to be a part of GITEX in the TECOM and Dubai Internet City stand, we accepted the invitation and put our best product type here as well as future payment technologies.”

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GITEX GLIMPSES

HUSNI HAMMOUD, GENERAL MANAGER, RES

AMANULLA KHAN, MANAGING DIRECTOR, LINKSYS, MIDDLE EAST, TURKEY &AMP; AFRICA

LINKSYS We are pretty focused on consumer space as well as small and medium businesses. We concentrate on making our technology simple to deploy, manage and maintain.

The need of SMBs is similar to enterprises, they want to improve efficiency, they want to give great support and keep the customers happy. We bring out solutions which are affordable and very simple to manage at the same time providing enterprise level standards.”

RES This is the first year of participation at GITEX. We have partnered with the Midis group already. Mindware is a distribution arm we look forward to work with them and Mindware will make sure we have a proper eco-system across our channel. GITEX is one of the largest IT exhibition in the world, it’s a good chance for us to participate at such a big platform. This is an exposure we are lucky to have since we can showcase what we do and meet potential customers.”

JUSTIN DOO, REGIONAL SALES DIRECTOR, META, ENTRUST DATACARD

ENTRUST DATACARD We are all about identity, how businesses can ensure people can access the internet, applications, government portals with a secured identity so that their transactions are protected. GITEX for us is all about meeting new customers and recruiting new partners. We are working with our partner Redington to find new partners so that we can take our technology to the market.”

MOHAMMAD AQUIBAFTAB, CARBON BLACK’S REGIONAL DIRECTOR OF THE MIDDLE EAST, TURKEY AND AFRICA

MR. TAYMUR AL SHANFARI,

OCS INFOTECH

MANAGING DIRECTOR, OCS INFOTECH

CARBON BLACK Our strength comes from our integration with various other technologies within the network.

The era of interconnectedness has resulted in a rising number of advanced cyber attacks.

Most of these breaches remain undiscovered because of traditional detection and response solutions. With these solutions, hunting for threats and malware is inefficient and laborious.

We help empower companies to go beyond their traditional detection and response solutions to gain immediate insight and results.”

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Everyone is sharing to make this technological progress at this platform successful. This is our first year at GITEX, we took part in GITEX to highlight our strengths and showcase our technology. Our focus has been on showcasing two solutions- UC and strategic ERP solution. We have got a fantastic response at GITEX this year especially from the KSA market. We are looking to have more partners and we believe we will get more support from end-users through our partners.”

GITEX GLIMPSES

PULSE SECURE

PAUL DONOVAN, EMEA SALES DIRECTOR

ABDUL REHMAN TARIQ, REGIONAL MANAGER- SALES AND CHANNELS MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

Middle East is the fastest growing region for Pulse Secure. We have also dramatically increased the capabilities of Pulse 1 which is a cloud and on premise managed based system. Pulse addresses cloud and security on the mobile side very well.

GITEX has been a fantastic show for us, we’ve had a lot of customers and lots of opportunities for people who can come and meet us and buy.

We have technical teams as well as customer care teams here as well. We will continue to invest more in this region.”

Our focus is around the user experience in making the uses more productive. Our story revolves around providing secure access to next generation workers, applications, networks and Internet of Things. Compared to last year’s GITEX we have seen a lot more traffic this year. With the support of Mindware we have been able to get our messaging out to people.”

MR.GHASSAN GEBRAYEL,

GLOBALIS INTERNATIONAL

CEO

We are taking part in GITEX since its inception that is 36 years. This is the occasion where we get to meet not just our customers but other exhibitors as well and discuss on key matters like partnerships and potential future plans. This is a great platform and it’s a good way to exhibit and showcase what each company is doing. We are hoping 2017 will be much better and in the technological front as well we expect quite a few advancements.”

GAMAL EMARA COUNTRY MANAGER , GCC AT ARUBA NETWORKS - HP

ARUBA We have launched a very good number of products and solutions this year. We also announced our ‘Partner Ready for Networking’. This new channel program takes the best elements of the Aruba PartnerEdge and HPE Partner Ready programs to create a new program that enables partners to capitalize on the burgeoning enterprise mobility market opportunity.We have more coming in 2017, Dubai Airports being one of the major projects in hand.”

MASDAR We are announcing very interesting programs and activities around promoting new entrepreneurships in Dubai by providing incentives to come and implement their ideas so that they can establish their entities with minimum requirement and minimum cost. We also have Masdar free zone that provides wide range of services to our tenants’ right from registration to providing office to helpingtenants by providing platform to network with other entities in Abu Dhabi. Masdar city follows the guidelines set by the city and Abu Dhabi development council.”

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GITEX GLIMPSES

GITEX 2016 KEY TAKE-AWAYS

Dubai’s own Acacus Technologies, winner of the USD 100,000 GITEX Global prize provides comprehensive fleet management solutions that optimise fleet dispatch and improves fleet safety. Recently awarded a contract for Dubai Taxi, Acacus installs in-vehicle driver cameras and sensory devices to capture eye movement, head tilt and driving behaviour in real time

Eng. Ahmed bin Jamil Al-Maiman, Vice-President of the Supervising Committee of Saudi Ministry of Interior’s Participation at GITEX 2016 and the PR and Media Director of the National Information Centre (left) seereceived today a trophy from Ahmed Al Khaja, Senior Vice President, Dubai World Trade Centre (right) in recognition of the Kingdom’s largest-ever Saudi participation as the Official Country Partner for GITEX Technology Week.

Etisalat conducts the region’s fastest 5G live trial reaching 36 Gbps at GITEX 2016.

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DarkMatter Demonstrates First-of-its-kind Cyber Resilience Platform, Which Will Help Predict and Mitigate Cyber Security Risk Between Connected Entities

GITEX GLIMPSES

The Dubai World Trade Centre successfully achieved a Guinness World Record for most participants riding in a virtual reality roller coaster in one hour at GITEX Technology Week, putting Dubai on the map as a global hub for VR innovation and earning a place in the history books.

Government of Dubai’s Department of Finance (DOF) in partnership with Finesse revealed at GITEX a unique digital portal to educate individual and corporate customers on governmental fees and fines.

Dubai Police has signed a “Collaboration Agreement” with Nissan Middle East, outlining a partnership that will see the introduction and implementation of a new road safety technology service called “Smart Response”, which is the first of its kind in the Middle East.

Dubai Airports partner with Huawei to design and build the world’s first Tier III certified Modular Data Centre Complex (MDCC) at Dubai International (DXB)

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GITEX GLIMPSES

IN GITEX 2016, DUBAI WELCOMED

4,000+

4,00+ Startups

Global tech leaders

200+

64+

Global investors

Countries

1,000+ Young tech founders

230+ Tech experts with 130+ hours of real business case studies

CONCLUSION

D

ubai is increasingly the hub for Southeast Asian innovators expanding to emerging markets in the Middle East and Africa, according to experts who spoke at GITEX Technology Week.Thanks to increasing purchasing power, Internet penetration, and online offerings, the ASEAN e-commerce market is set to grow more than nine-fold from USD 7 billion in 2013 to more than USD 67 billion by 2017, according to a recent report by consultancy

AT Kearney.

This market growth presents a strong opportunity for digital marketing firms and startups to expand their innovations from Southeast Asia and localise them to emerging markets. Many of these firms are based in Singapore, a major business hub and the top Southeast Asian city for startup support, according to a recent ranking by the Compass Startup Ecosystem.

“Africa is one the world’s most dynamic education markets. Public-private partnerships show best practices for using technology to reach marginalised students with technology that students use in their daily lives. Africa presents exciting business opportunities for education technology vendors and startups worldwide,” said Trixie LohMirmand, Senior Vice-President, for Exhibitions and Events Management at Dubai World Trade Centre, host of GITEX Technology Week, one of the world’s most influential technology gatherings and conferences. ë

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INNOVATIONS

KEY CAPABILITIES n Universal Login Manager software provides a unique combination of user-based authentication n The devices are easily integrated with optional uniFLOW software n imageRUNNER ADVANCE C5500 series is instantly interoperable with existing processes and mobile working n A single-pass duplexing document feeder that holds up to 150 originals ensures seamless digitisation n A huge paper capacity of 6,350 maximises time between replenishment while status notifications monitor performance at all times n Smart, adaptive technology ensures software can always be up to date for a consistently optimised performance n Saves money, increases efficiency and improves overall productivity n V2 (Vivid & Vibrant) imaging technology ensures outstanding colour quality output on a wide range of media

Canonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s imageRUNNER ADVANCE C5500 Series The five colour A3 multifunctional devices (imageRUNNER ADVANCE C5535, imageRUNNER ADVANCE C5535i, imageRUNNER ADVANCE C5540i, imageRUNNER ADVANCE C5550i and imageRUNNER ADVANCE C5560i) enhance productivity through intelligent document workflows and an intuitive user experience and help to address the total cost of print across a business. The series launches with the new

imageRUNNER ADVANCE shared platform for next level print management, and usability. The new devices offer an intuitive user experience thanks to a large, responsive colour touchscreen which can be customised to meet the needs of individual users and businesses. advanced personalisation capabilities which can ensure a seamless, highly personalised experience across an entire fleet environment.

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R&Mâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S SYNO DOME SOLUTION R&M, has developed a new modular outdoor closure for fiber optic networks. R&M will offer three models of the solution, the largest of which can hold up to 1,152 fibers and splices. The system also guarantees a bending radius of 40 mm, regardless of packing density, which is gentle on fibers. Cables up to 28 mm and micro ducts up to 14 mm in diameter fit in the kits, making the dome closure suited to virtually any application including distribution, branch, and cable joint closure. With the new SYNO dome closure, the cable entries can be opened, closed, changed, and retrofitted in just a few simple steps.

KEY CAPABILITIES n The cable bays and individual cables remain freely accessible n Fluctuating temperatures, mechanical loads, or water pressure cannot damage the dome-end splice in any way because it is sealed in the closure, gel surrounds each cable, preventing dust and moisture from getting in n The dome closure can be modified or fitted with additional fiber optic cables even during network operations n Eliminates the laborious task of threading fiber optic cables through the closure bottom plate

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VxRail Appliances by Dell EMC

NEC’s PX1004UL laser projector

The VxRail Appliance Family, the industry’s only HCI appliances specifically developed and fully optimized for VMware environments, now have configurations powered by the latest Intel Broadwell Platforms, VMware vSphere and VMware VSAN technologies and based on PowerEdge servers. These feature 40% more CPU performance for the same price, increased flexibility and scalability with more configurations than before, all-flash nodes equipped with 2x more storage and a new 3-node entry point that is 25% less expensive. New addressable workloads include: Storage Heavy, Graphics Heavy, Remote Office/Branch Office.

NEC Display Solutions Europe launched the PX1004UL laser phosphor projector. Offering significant user and display benefits, features include outstanding picture quality with 4K picture processing as well as maintenance-free operation for up to 20,000 hours. With up to 10,000 ANSI lumens brightness, the PX1004UL completes NEC’s Solid State Light source line-up of projectors with 5,000, 6,000, 8,000, 10,000 and 12,000 ANSI lumens. 4K signal support offers a future-proof and superb picture quality option with enhanced colour reproduction and high brightness.

KEY CAPABILITIES n The solutions are specifically optimized for client virtualization n Offers flexibility and high performance to accommodate a variety of needs n Decreases time-to-delivery of the solution from weeks to days n VxRail Appliances is based on the PowerEdge R730xd platform n Everyone from knowledge workers and mobile professionals to designers and engineers will benefit from VxRail with the PowerEdge R730 platform including GPU acceleration

KEY CAPABILITIES n PX1004UL delivers up to 20,000 hours of operational use n Laser technology also eliminates the need for lamp replacement, reducing time-consuming maintenance n The laser projector utilises a filter-less design technology and is essentially dust proof, removing the need for filter cleaning or replacement n The projector offers easy and flexible installation options with support for third party lenses n The projector supports automatic camera-based stacking and blending n Low total cost of ownership

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