EC-MEA November 2022

SVEN HERZING CTO, talabat

MANAGING GROWTH THROUGH EVENT STREAMING

This multi-country delivery portal has successfully managed to scale its development teams through the usage of event streaming using Kafka from Confluent.

talabat

Teams building digital

Businesses born in the cloud are surprisingly usually challenged by a host of lesser-known issues. Hard selling and marketing by hyperscale, cloud hosting, networking, security, UX, vendors, as well as service providers lead us to imagine that all challenges faced by digital businesses today revolve around these themes or a combination of them.

In the lead feature in this issue, we look at how innovative data streaming has been used by delivery portal talabat to share data with its development teams without building a regime of dependencies and permissions on each of the active teams. By doing the latter, that is building a policy of permissions and approvals, the portal would be limited in its speed to innovate and would not be able to scale.

When a start-up is using a monolithic database with many dependencies, when you add new services, it still goes to the same data source. The scale up of the team brings lower benefits over time. If you go from 80 to 100, it works. If you go from 80 to 250, it starts to crack, talabat’s Sven Herzing points out.

After growing in operational size for close to 15 years, and with multiple mergers and acquisitions, talabat faced challenges in enabling real time updates to its monolithic application made by its product development teams.

How do you make a small team of seven or eight people independent of another team? How do you transport data across the board so that everybody can access it, without an ownership team?

Herzing realised that every person being added to the team does not bring the same benefit because of data dependency. To decouple from data dependency from the monolithic database, Herzing approached Confluent that manages the Kafka open-source portal.

Kafka decouples the sources of data to the seats of data, says Confluent’s Fred Crehan. Also, there are scalability challenges with modern kind of transport mechanisms for data, while Kafka is scalable. With Kafka, it is almost instantaneous in real time.

For talabat, to get to a centralised nervous system data platform, you need to build more and more use cases and you need to add a democracy to data and make data decentralised and available, for whoever in the company needs it. And that takes a bit of time says Crehan.

Established in 2017, the World CIO200 Summit is a multi-country, multi-region event, organized by Global CIO Forum, dedicated to the dynamics of CIOs and their IT departments. With the finale of the road show scheduled in Thailand towards the end of this month, we present in this issue the highlights of the Saudi Arabia, India, and Singapore editions.

Turn these pages to read more about innovation in IT and our thought leadership opinions.

Hoping your business is doing better than ever by the end of the year.

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CREATING SMART AND SAFE NETWORKS BY USING AI

A friendly device may not always be friendly, and enterprises should always be on the lookout for recognised devices trying to access different parts of network.

Many organisations are struggling to secure this rapidly expanding attack surface. This is not the first time IT teams have faced a device-based security challenge. Rise of BYOD and remote working both introduced an influx of mobile devices into the business environment for IT to deal with.

#1 Visibility

Put simply, you cannot secure what you cannot see. Before you can take any other steps, it is crucial that you are able to accurately map what devices are connected to your network, who is operating them, and how and why they are connecting to your network.

Traditionally identification has been fairly straight forward – IT teams worked against a narrow set of devices using well practised techniques and then employed profiling to say what each person or device should or should not be allowed to do on the network. But with many of today’s devices built with generic hardware and software, or coming from emerging vendors who do not follow standards; discovery, profiling and identification is proving more and more challenging.

The answer is to increase focus on context and machine learning. In many scenarios a combination of what protocols a device is using and what data, applications or web links it is accessing is the way to build up an accurate picture of what the device actually is, and whether the device is malicious.

#2 Enforce automatically

AI is also important in the next stage of securing IoT – enforcing policy. Today’s IT teams need closed-loop, end-to-end access control from the moment a device joins the network. Given the sheer quantities of IoT devices, however, manual intervention is no longer practical. IoT devices are likely to be operating around the clock, or with some devices connecting at non-specific times to carry out a task before returning to sleep mode.

Deploying AI allows teams to develop policies that leverage context, such as the user role, device type, certificate status, and location or day of week, to make quick and accurate decisions each and every time. When an IoT device joins a network or starts to act suspiciously, it can be automatically segmented, keeping traffic separate and secure, with the policy consistently enforced across wired and wireless networks.

Machine learning-based analytics can also build baselines for normal of IoT devices – like authentication, remote access, and internal access to

JACOB CHACKO Regional Director

high-value resources and cloud app usage – across network and log data.

#3 Monitor for behaviour

Once you have followed the above steps to allow a device onto your network however you cannot just leave it unchecked. You can only enforce and create a relevant and applicable access policy if you are continually monitoring activities. Active monitoring is essential to keeping your network secure, looking for authenticity, new behaviours and new vulnerabilities – profiling and analytics are key here. A friendly device may not always be friendly, and you should always be on the look-out for recognised devices acting in unusual ways or trying to access different parts of the network. Security is a constantly evolving and changing landscape, and unfortunately the job will never be done.

Security is not a barrier to IoT adoption, it is the cornerstone for successful adoption. ë

Middle East, Saudi and South Africa Aruba HPE.

With many of today’s devices built with generic hardware and software, profiling and identification is proving challenging

ENABLING GROWTH OF SMART CITIES BY MANAGING THE EDGE

An automated, edge-based system is smaller than data centres which departments have relied upon in the past and requires far fewer people to manage.

Thirty years ago, all of an organisation’s intelligence would have been held in data centres. Today, we’re at a stage where some of that workload can be moved onto edge devices.

Mobile network providers, probably the pioneers of edge computing, use it to bring processing power close to the network edge and massively reduce latency, which is especially important in enabling the speed and availability promised by 5G. It has been widely adopted in sectors such as manufacturing, too.

Typically microprocessors with limited intelligence, these sensors monitor and measure factors such as pressure, heat, or water flow. A domestic smart meter is, effectively, an edge device - it has some processing capability, it records a household usage of gas, electricity, or water, and it makes use of that information.

Following this logic, perhaps the best use case for edge computing in local government is in the management of smart cities. As smart meters will, in time, be used to manage domestic energy use, so edge devices can be used to manage various aspects of a city.

Consider the task of managing traffic flow in the city centre. Only by understanding how busy the roads are at any given point in time is it possible to know whether or not to close a particular road, or to change the phasing of traffic lights to alleviate congestion.

Relying on centralised processing means any data will always be out of date. By the time it’s addressed, the issue in question may have moved elsewhere, grown in size, or vanished altogether.

However, by putting the processing power as close to the roads as possible, and adding AI and machine learning technology to the mix, it’s possible to give a degree of autonomy to the traffic light systems. By understanding cause and effect from previous similar instances, and by learning what’s needed to remedy a particular situation, the combination of technologies will enable an edge device mounted on the lights to identify the issue and apply the appropriate fix - in real-time.

Traffic management is just one way in which edge technology can be applied to managing a city. Other examples include the monitoring of HVAC systems in council-run properties for more cost-effective energy usage, and measuring shifting household and business behaviours for more efficient waste or water management. It has a role to play in contingency planning, too.

For example, the Japanese city Fuji has edge devices located in strategic locations, constantly streaming various forms of environmental data,

enabling the emergency services to react almost instantly in the event of an earthquake, deploying emergency personnel where they’re most needed at any given time.

The potential of edge processing continues to grow. Ultimately, its benefits - and capabilities - will be seen in the places where it’s most useful. The sensors mounted on a city’s traffic lights could be used to manage traffic flow by employing image recognition technology, for example, as well as adapting the phasing of the lights themselves.

It’s no secret that government departments do not always have the budget or resources they need for everything they want to do. An automated, edge-based system, however, is far smaller than the data centres which departments have relied upon in the past, and requires far fewer people to manage.

By enabling departments to choose what data they collect, and for what purpose, it also allows them to decide where that data should be collected from, and whether that edge device even needs to be connected at all times. ë

ADRIAN KEWARD Chief Technologist, Red Hat.

Technologies will enable an edge device mounted on the lights to identify the issue and apply an appropriate fix in real-time

ABANDON RIGID DIGITALISATION IN FAVOUR OF PEOPLE-DRIVEN INITIATIVES

To succeed in the new era of transformation, organisations should jettison rigid roadmaps in favour of decision makers who can shrug off crises and innovate without constraint.

It is important that employee experiences are flexible and intuitive so that non-technical users can amend simple workflows, forms, and dashboards with ease, and without input from IT. But when it comes to customer experiences, enterprise-grade platforms can only be deployed by professional developers who understand security and interface design and who can work with everything from online forms to chatbots.

In this new plan, vendors play a role, but that role is one of enabler, rather than builder. Vendors should be the purveyors of collaboration platforms that integrate with the enterprise environment and enable teams to work rapidly, flexibly, and efficiently.

Just because the landscape has changed, does not mean the approach to its navigation must be thrown out. Precise maps and plans may be obsolete, but the approach remains the same. Let each individual serve the digital agenda according to their own talents. And let them be equipped with the tools that ensure no employee, or group of employees, is disproportionately encumbered.

As a general rule, to succeed in this new era of digital transformation, organisations should jettison their rigid digitalisation roadmaps in favour of more flexible, people-driven initiatives. This will make for a more agile business in which decision makers can shrug off crises and innovate without constraint.

Regional IT stakeholders should face the new landscape with a new plan. Let IT teams focus on core systems. Internal developers, properly equipped with the latest tools and appropriately versed in the innermost workings of the business, are best placed to create and maintain such systems, and this should be their top priority.

But IT teams can also accelerate each individual application project –and hence, the whole digital transformation journey – by using low-code development for complex solutions.

In the experience-driven era, the applications that connect users to core systems must roll out rapidly, but the more complex ones will lie outside the expertise of citizen developers. By using low-code development,

coders can not only meet the time demands of business stakeholders, but they will spend less time away from core systems. And citizen developers come into the picture where simple automated workflows and lightweight apps will suffice. Business users understand the problems they are trying to address. They understand them better than any technology stakeholder ever can. No-code platforms can fulfil these project requirements under appropriate IT governance, assuming the platform supports all-inone rapid prototyping, development, and deployment. ë

SURESH SAMBANDAM CEO Kissflow.

And let them be equipped with the tools that ensure no employee is disproportionately encumbered

CIO 200

Glimpse of largest gathering of CIOs in UAE

World CIO 200 Summit

Saudi Arabia recognises close to 50 top IT decision makers

The World CIO 200 Summit 2022 Saudi Arabia edition was held on 27 September at Voco Riyadh Hotel in Riyadh and followed previous Bahrain, UAE, Qatar in-person editions. Europe, Africa, Kuwait editions, were staged previously and concluded as virtual events.

The CIO 200 Saudi Arabia edition started with registration and lunch for the half-day long event. The event was joined by 100+ delegates, speakers, and panelists. The World CIO 200 Summit Saudi Arabia edition felicitated nearly 50 top IT decision makers across the categories of Leader CIO, Legend CIO, Master CIO, Next-generation CIO.

The event partners were Redington, Zero&One, VAD Technologies | Pure Storage, Darwinbox, Raqmiyat, Paessler, Alteryx. The World CIO 200 Summit 2022 brought together digital leaders who have gone the extra mile in living up to the expectations of their organisations.

Attendees, speakers panelists, were welcomed by Ines Ben Rejeb, Media Sales Manager, GEC Media Group who further handed the stage to Anushree Dixit, Global Head, Global CIO Forum. Anushree welcomed all the keynote speakers and attendees for joining the event and congratulated all the winners of the Saudi Arabia edition. Anushree also shared the collective vision of the Global CIO Forum as a platform of knowledge sharing and networking for like-minded CIOs globally, with the audience.

Ines Ben Rejeb, Media Sales Manager, GEC Media Group.

Ali El Kontar, CEO, Zero&One.

Anushree Dixit, Global Head, Global CIO Forum.

Abdul Aziz Oraij, CIO, Kabi Holding.

Dr Raed AlHazme, CIO, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs.

(Left to Right) Anushree Dixit, Global Head, Global CIO Forum; Mohamed A. Raouf, Director of Services and Projects, Gulf Medical; Wissam Al Adany, Group Chief Information Officer, ADES Arabia Holding; and Imdath Nazim Head Of IT, InterContinental Hotel Group, Voco Hotel Riyadh.

Eslam Taha, Solutions Development Expert | Chief Technology Officer, Riyadh Airports Company.

Dr Maher Aldukheil, VP of Technology and Digital Transformation, Hail Health Cluster.

(Left to Right) Eng. Mohammed Mahnashi, Digital Transformation and Data Management Advisor, Saudi Electronic University; Mohammed Fayez Alshehri, Chief Information Security Officer, Al Amthal Financing and Dr Ali Shaya Almdaoi Alasmari, Cyber Security Expert.

Yahya Jaber, Sales Manager, PureStorage.

Raheel Barl, Head of Pre-Sales and Technical Services – MEA, Naizak Distribution Services.

Mohammed Adel Alshawbani, CIO, Saudi Arabian Cooperative Insurance Company.

The World CIO 200 Summit Saudi Arabia Awards

Leader: CIO: Experience of 10-15 years and multiple domain expertise.

Legend CIO: Lifetime achievement awards.

Master CIO: Experience of more than 15-20 years and unparalleled technological experience in a career life span.

Next-generation CIO: Experience of 5-10 years or less and undertaken mammoth projects in a less span of time.

NAME CATEGORY

Imdath Nazim Leader

Abdul Baseer Mohammed Leader

Abdullah Hamidah Leader

Abdulrahman Almutairi Leader

MHD Tahseen AlAktaa Leader

Muhammed Sawy Leader

Mohammed Adel Alshawbani Leader

Sulaiman AlKharashi Legend

Waqas Butt Legend

Syed Fakruddin Albeez Legend

Mohammed Mahnashi Legend

Dr. Mustafa Hassan Qurban Legend

Eng. Khaled Alnuaimi Legend

Ayad Aldaijy Legend

Raed AlHazme Legend

Asim Badhuralam Syed Legend

Samer Marouf Legend

Hazem Jarrar Legend

AbdulAziz AlOraij Legend

Waheed Khayyat Legend

Wissam Al Adany Legend

Abdullah Al-Attas Legend

Abdul Quader Mohammed Legend

Hamdi Aljadani Legend

Zakir Shaikh Legend

Dr Maher Aldukheil Legend

Piyush Chowhan Legend

Turki Almutairi Legend

Sami Al Harthi Legend

Ghassan Al Mansour Legend

Mir Dawar Ali Legend

Anas Mosa Legend

Mirza Rahmathullah Baig Master

Osama Merghani Master

Amin Siddiqui Master

Saghir Ahmad Khan Master

Abdalla Alothman Master

Aijaz Regoo Master

Mohamed A. Raouf Master

Nadeem Aslam Master

Fawad Shah Master

Yazeed Almarshoud Master

Irfan Ul Haq Master

Mohammed Al Doseri Master

Abdullah Alkhalaf Master

Naif Alharbi Master

Ahmed Borham Next-Gen

Mohammad Habeeb Next-Gen

OUR SPONSORS

The World CIO 200 Summit, South East Asian edition

Leveraging technology to drive excellence in South East Asia

The World CIO 200 Summit saw an amalgamation of technology experts from Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Vietnam.

The GEC Media and Global CIO Forum recently organised the SouthEast Asia edition of the World CIO200 Summit 2022 in Singapore. This year’s summit revolved around the theme of LeadX, leading through transformation. The summit which saw an amalgamation of technology experts from the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore, celebrated the bold spirit of technology leaders in exceeding challenges and barriers while bringing innovative solutions forward and driving organisational growth through technology interventions and digital transformations.

Established in 2017, the World CIO200 Summit is a multi-country CIO felicitation ceremony that recognises the achievements of digital leaders of today who have transformed the IT infrastructure of their organisations driving growth and change. Having completed Africa, Europe, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Egypt edition of the Summit, the South East Asian edition of the summit was hosted at the Sands Expo Convention Centre, Marina Bay Sands in Singapore on 4 November 2022.

The summit which is touring 40+ countries will culminate in the Grand

Finale on 23–24 November 2022 in Thailand.

The South East Asian edition of the World CIO200 Summit in Singapore was sponsored by 3i infotech, Kissflow, and Infinite Blue | CTO as the Gold partners; Lingaro as the Silver partner; Seeburger Business Integration as a Business Integration partner; and Infocomm Media Development Authority and RosettaNet as Supporting partners.

Welcoming the delegates to the in-person summit, Malavika Shanker, President, South East Asia, Global CIO Forum highlighted the importance of the event and how the forum has helped CIOs and digital technology experts connect and share information on trends, challenges, and deployments to help the community drive technology implementation and lead the transformation journey. “We believe in building human connections so together we succeed,” she said.

The Summit began with a session by Manoj Saxena, Chairman, RosettaNet Singapore GS1 Digital standards non-profit consortium. A dynamic senior IT executive with 20+ years of experience in consultancy and management across all areas of business operations, Saxena shared his insight on Partnership and Research. This was followed by a presentation

SNAPSHOT

DATE: 04 November 2022

VENUE: Sands Expo Convention Center, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore 100+ ATTENDEES

Speakers

EVENTS

30+ AWARD WINNERS

Leadership Snippet: Rapid Fire Session 1

Leadership Snippet: Rapid Fire Session 2

Malavika Shanker President, South East Asia, Global CIO Forum

Rajeev Dutt General Manager, Infinite Blue Company

Setiaji Setiaji Chief of Digital Transformation Office, Ministry of Health, the Republic of Indonesia

Rajesh Nandakumar Head of Technology, Westpac Banking Corporation

Dinesh Varadharajan Chief Product Officer, Kissflow Inc

Edmund Situmorang Chief Technology Officer, Asian Bulk Logistics

Khalid Nizami Head of Information Technology and Digital Transformation, Ecolab

Sham Arora Global Head Enterprise Technology, Standard Chartered Bank

Manoj Saxena Chairman, RosettaNet Singapore GS1 Digital standards non-profit consortium

Tuan Anh Pham Group CIO, Becamex IDC

Jim Sarka CIO and VP of Business Technology for Asia Pacific, Johnson & Johnson MedTech

Manju Jalali Global Head of IT, International Baccalaureate

Arivuvel Ramu CEO, Inypay

Sin Yong Loh Director, TradeTrust, Sectoral Transformation Group. Infocomm Media Development Authority

Vinay Awasthi Worldwide Head of Print Supply Chain Ops, HP

Santosh Nair Regional Head, IT Innovation and Process Consulting Siemens Healthineers

by Dinesh Varadharajan,

Chief Product Officer, Kissflow who highlighted the role of technology in driving business transformation.

An expert in building next-generation digital financial experience platforms, Arivuvel Ramu, CEO of Inypay shared his insight on his digital journey from being a CIO to becoming a CEO of a Fintech company. A former Group Chief Technology Officer at Tonik, the Philippines’ first purely digital neobank overseeing the digital banking IT organisation, Ramu built and launched the first pure-virtual digital bank in South East Asian edition region from the ground up across the multi-cloud platform.

The banking-as-a-service platform helps financial institutions reevaluate the way money works to join the future digital ecosystem. The session was followed by a presentation from industry expert Rajeev Dutt, General Manager, Infinite Blue Company.

The summit also featured a unique Leadership Snippet: Rapid Fire session that saw Setiaji Setiaji, Chief of Digital Transformation Office, Ministry of Health, the Republic of Indonesia; Jim Sarka, CIO and VP of Business Technology for Asia Pacific, Johnson & Johnson MedTech; and Khalid Nizami, Head of Information Technology and Digital Transformation, Ecolab share views on leadership qualities. The session was moderated by Vinay Awasthi, Worldwide Head of Print Supply Chain Ops, HP.

The other speakers included Tuan Anh Pham, Group CIO, Becamex IDC who shared a Solution Providers Roadmap to the CIO’s Mind. This was followed by a presentation by Edmund Situmorang, Chief Technology Officer of Asian Bulk Logistics. An industry veteran with over 15 years of senior management experience in strategy, information technology, and human capital development, Situmorang shared the story of a CIO’s transformation and the lessons learned from the journey. Next, Sin Yong Loh, Director, TradeTrust, Sectoral Transformation Group, Infocomm Media Development Authority shared information on the role of IMDA.

The penultimate session was the next round of rapid-fire Leadership Snippet with experts including Rajesh Nandakumar, Head of Technology, Westpac Banking Corporation; Manju Jalali, Global Head of IT, International Baccalaureate; and Sham Arora, Global Head, Enterprise Technology, Standard Chartered Bank. The session was moderated by Shanker.

The World CIO 200 Summit in Singapore concluded with the felicitation of CIOs and Industry leaders who have accelerated digital and business transformation, creating a better future for their businesses and driving growth. Delivering the Vote of Thanks, GEC Media Group’s Global Head for Content and Strategic Alliances Anushree Dixit talked about the forum’s history, reach, and the South East Asian edition network. She thanked the delegates and speakers for joining the event and making it a big success.

By Shubhendu Parth.

2022 AWARD WINNERS SOUTH EAST ASIA

Ichwan Peryana, Izzat Aziz.

Alvin Ong, Arul Jesuvivek Chinnappan, Biren Kundalia, Clara Lee, Javen Lim, Jim Sarka, Khalid Nizami, Krishna Ayagari, Madhivanan Periannan, Manju Jalali, Manoj Saxena, Mayda Lim, Miao Song, Osman Ershad Faiz, Rajesh Nandakumar, Ravi Gerald-Vishwanath, Santosh Nair, Sham Arora, Shashank Singh, Shui-Min Tan, Sudhanshu Duggal, Teck Guan Yeo, Thirumal Raj C.

Aaron Lee, Arivuvel Ramu, Juliana Chua, NIRUPAM DAS, Setiaji Setiaji, Tuan Anh Pham, ASHISH MATHUR.

in 2017, the World CIO200 Summit is a multi-country CIO felicitation ceremony that recognises the achievements of digital leaders.

The World CIO200 Summit, India

Role of CIOs in championing innovation, Make in India story

The India edition brought together technology decision makers and enterprise users sharing insights on how to drive digital adoption and innovation in the country.

India is not merely a growing IT market but a dominant global player with businesses fast adopting digital technologies, paving way for highlypersonalised customer service. The market and businesses in the country are also driven by the adoption of next-generation technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and big data analytics on the one hand and the traditional ERPs that are driving the manufacturing and the Make in India story.

This summarises the interaction at the India edition of the World CIO200 2022 Summit held online on 04 November 2022. The Summit was organised by the GEC Media Group and Global CIO Forum, along with the Global CIO Manufacturing Forum. This year’s Summit revolved around the theme of LeadX, leading through transformation; where technology is borderless, ambitions are fearless, and leadership is limitless.

Established in 2017, the World CIO200 Summit is a multi-country CIO felicitation ceremony that recognises the achievements of digital leaders of today who have transformed the IT infrastructure of their organisations driving growth and change. The Summit has completed Africa, Europe, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and

Egypt editions. The Summit which is touring 40+ countries will culminate in the Grand Finale on 23–24 November 2022 in Thailand.

The virtual India event culminated with the presentation of the World CIO 200 Awards to recognise the achievements of CIOs and technology leaders driving IT infrastructure adoption in their organisations. The awards were presented in four categories of Legend, Master, Leader, and Next Generation CIO.

Welcoming the delegates Ronak Samanataray, Co-Founder and CEO, GEC Media Group highlighted the importance of India for the GEC Media group. “India is an important market not just for us but for the entire world. The way technology has evolved in India, the country is leading the digital transformation across the world,” he said.

Delivering the Summit’s Opening Keynote, Pratap Patjoshi, Global CIO Manufacturing Forum highlighted that the CIO Manufacturing Forum has come a long way from a small group of 10-12 members and evolving into a global organisation in a short span, to focus on concerns related to the use of digital technologies in the manufacturing sector.

“From a small group of 10-12 CIOs, the forum evolved to become a

SNAPSHOT

DATE: 04 NOVEMBER 2022

TYPE OF EVENT: ONLINE

ONLINE ATTENDEES

AWARD WINNERS

100+ CIO organisation focusing on manufacturing units in Pune alone. A partnership with GEC Media this year has, however, helped us become a global organisation. We launched the Global CIO Manufacturing Forum or GCFM in Dubai earlier in 2022 and later in other cities. Overall, we are now an organisation with 500+ members in India and expect to add 2,000 more members from across the globe,” he said.

“The manufacturing processes across the sectors, irrespective of whether it is the manufacturing of a small component like a screw or products like a car or a truck, is the same. Barring things that may be unique to a product, all manufacturing companies follow the same process of raw material procurement, processing, and manufacturing a product is almost the same. This brings in synergy and GCFM has emerged as a platform for sharing experiences of technology deployments in the manufacturing sector.”

“This is also very important, particularly since the country and the Prime Minister have a lot of focus on Make in India and the organisation is looking forward to contributing to the momentum and taking forward the manufacturing journey in India,” he added.

With organisations adopting digital technologies in a big way, data has been projected as the new oil and data mining as the new way of driving growth. However, not all organisations are able to harness and utilise data in the same way. Talking about the issue Khushru M Mistry, CIO and Senior Vice President of Eureka Forbes India shared his insight into how organisations can democratise data to enhance their consumer experiences.

Sharing an example of the intricate pattern of a leaf, he explained that like the lines or the arteries on a leaf, businesses have a complex structure including services, direct sales, retail, B2B and e-commerce sites, and digital marketing. Besides, companies also have manufacturing, R&D, supply chain, human resources, finance, and admin functions

SPEAKERS

Ronak Samanataray Co-Founder and CEO, GEC Media Group.

Pratap Patjoshi Global CIO Manufacturing Forum

Khushru M Mistry CIO and Senior Vice President of Eureka Forbes India

Allauddin F Mohamad Global Head of Information Technology, Camlin Fine Sciences

to deal with. “All of these are interconnected with the customer at the centre,” he said, adding that the strength and loyalty of the customer, like the central artery of the leaf is critical for the success of a company.

Integration of material movement with finance is critical for any organisation and a proper ERP solution provides the right tool for the stakeholders to be on top of the information. Talking about the rapid deployment of SAP, Allauddin F Mohamad, Global Head of Information Technology, Camlin Fine Sciences shared insight on the templatebased approach to rolling out the solution.

Talking about the key considerations while selecting an ERP partner, Mohamad pointed out that choosing the right partner for is as important as selecting the ERP solution itself. “The success and failure of your ERP implementation depends on the partner’s capabilities and experience. It is also important to trust and stick with the partner for the long term. Frequent change is a sure recipe for an ERP disaster,” he stressed.

“The other aspect is to conduct a gap analysis and define the scope of the project and break the rollout into phases. For example, Phase 1 can include the rollout of the standard modules so that there is no disruption in business transactions. Phase 2 can focus on third-party integration while Phase 3 can take care of enhancements for customisation. Organisations should consider any additional raptors for the last phase of the rollout,” he advised. He also pointed out that weekly target review meetings should be held to ensure the rollout meets the timeline.

The World CIO 200 Summit in India concluded with the felicitation of CIOs and Industry leaders who have accelerated digital and business transformation, creating a better future for their businesses and driving growth.

By Shubhendu Parth.

2022 AWARD WINNERS INDIA

LEGEND

Abhishek Agarwal, Akshay Kumar Sahani, ALLAUDDIN FAKIR MOHAMAD, Amzad Sheikh, Anand Sinha, Avneesh Vats, Balvinder Banga, Bhaskar Rao, BHUPENDRA KUAMR PANCHAL, CG Balaji, Chandran R, Deepak Kalambkar, Dipesh Thakar, Dr Chitranjan Kesari, Dr Rizwan Ahmed, Dr. Biswajit Mohapatra, Dr. Sunil Pandey, Dr.Amrut Urkude, G.D. Pandey, Ganesh Joshi, Girish Kulkarni, Hegde Subbarao, Indranil Chatterjee, Jitender Kumar Yadav, Jitendra Panchal, Kamal Matta, Kiran Neve, Krishna Dhumal, Krishnamurthy Rajesh, LAKSHMANA VADAGA, Milind Borse, MINU THOMAS, Nagraj Rao, Navin Nathani, NAVNATH BARAVKAR, Nayan Desai, Nikhil Kumar Nigam, Nirvan Biswas, Panish Javagal, Pareshkumar Goswami, Pradipta Patro, Pragnesh Mistry, Prakash Kumar, Prasad Katta, Pratap Patjoshi, Prerak shah, Prince Joseph, Rahul Biswas, Rajesh Kulkarni, Rajesh Thanua, Rajesh Tiwaskar, Ramkumar Mohan, Rasvinder Singh Nagpal, Sanjay Singh Galod, Satish Papnoi, Satyanarayana Kasturi, Selestin K Thomas, Subhakar Rudra, Sunil Kankal, Susil Kumar Meher, Unni Menon, Upkar Singh, Vijay Bhat, Vijay Varshney, VIKAS GUPTA, Vishwajeet Singh.

LEADER

Amey Subhash Lakeshri, Gaurav Vyas, Neha Sivaprakasam, Pradip More, Rahul Raj.

MASTER

Amit Jaokar, Amit Kumar, Ankit Goswami, Ashok Thalavaiswamy, Gajendra Patil, GAURAV VIJ, Harmit Singh Malhotra, INDRA BHUSHAN SINGH, Jagannath Sahoo, Mahendra Kandukuri, Mahendra Soni, Prashant Kurhade, Ravinder Arora, Ravishankar Ramakrishnan, Sanjay Shirsat, Shashi Tripathy, Subroto Panda, Sumit Jain, Viral Davda, Viren Italiya, Yogendra Singh.

Ritesh Gupta, Srinivasan Mahalingam.

Gitex 2022 recap in pictures

From Oct 10 to 14, Dubai World Trade Centre hosted the global tech ecosystem, with over 1,000 thought provoking speakers, 5,000+ companies from 90 countries, across 26 halls and 2 million sqft of exhibition space. The GITEX 3.0 edition featured seven technology themes: North Star Dubai startups, Ai Everything, Future Blockchain Summit in association with VARA, Fintech Surge, Marketing Mania, GLOBAL DevSlam and X-VERSE.

INFOTECH ECOSYSTEM @ GITEX 2022

IT VENDORS @ GITEX 2022

IT VENDORS @ GITEX 2022

DISTRIBUTORS @ GITEX 2022

CYBERSECURITY VENDORS @ GITEX 2022

PERIPHERAL IT VENDORS @ GITEX 2022

POWERED BY

2022 ROADSHOW

AUGUST-NOVEMBER 2022

GRAND FINALE 22-24 NOV

2022

GRAND FOURWINGS CONVENTION, HOTEL BANGKOK THAILAND

THE

WHERE TECHNOLOGY IS BORDERLESS, AMBITIONS ARE FEARLESS, AND LEADERSHIP IS LIMITLESS

Amazon moves to new Saudi corporate office in Riyadh Front Tower

Amazon.sa has unveiled its new office in Riyadh that houses employees from various sectors of the company’s operations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including e-commerce, smart devices, Amazon Payments Services, Amazon Internet Services, and Amazon Advertising.

Amazon’s new office is in the Riyadh Front Tower, an iconic destination offering an

CNS Middle East, part of Ghobash Group, signs MoU with Injazat

extraordinary urban experience that reimagines how people work, play, dine, shop, and share space. The tower, the tallest in the area, provides an ideal work environment to attract and retain talent in line with Amazon’s mission to strive to be Earth’s Best Employer.

Since the launch of Amazon.sa in 2020, the company has recruited more than 1,400 talents

in its various sectors, and the new office paving the way for attracting more local talent to join the company and to help Amazon innovate on behalf of customers.

With the opening of the new office, Amazon is also working to launch an initiative to empower and train Saudi talent by meeting with employees working in various functions across the company. Details about the initiative will be announced later this year.

Since launching its operations in Saudi Arabia in 2020, Amazon has boosted its investments across the Kingdom and expanded its activities in various business sectors. Amazon has also provided hundreds of jobs and launched many local programs and products. For example, the Amazon Prime programme offers free same-day delivery in Riyadh and Jeddah, and Amazon is introducing, for the first time ever, Alexa with an Arabic language option with the Khaleeji Gulf dialect.

Last March, Amazon.sa signed a Memorandum of Understanding MoU with the Ministry of Investment MISA and the Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority Monsha’at. The MoU will enhance Amazon’s presence in the local market, enable tens of thousands of small and medium enterprises to sell their products to millions of customers across the Kingdom, and help scores of entrepreneurs set up their logistics businesses.

Aligned with its commitment to serving at the forefront of digital transformation, CNS Middle East which operates from within Ghobash Group, a leading and highlydiversified business conglomerate in the Middle East, signed a memorandum of understanding MoU with Injazat, a G42 company, leading the region in digital transformation, cloud and cyber security.

Both market-leading entities will be combining their local capabilities and strengths to jointly explore and create new potential business opportunities by leveraging cutting-edge technologies.

Headquartered in Abu Dhabi, Injazat draws on its local expertise combined with several global technology partnership networks to develop market leading services.

Injazat’s purpose is to empower human achievement through end-to-end digital solutions that deliver impact and value for its customers and communities. It also empowers organisations to optimise their business goals utilising cloud and emerging technology solutions, and by co-creating transformational digital platforms and services through public-private partnerships.

Acer Middle East successfully stages 13th edition of annual Acer Partner Week

Acer Middle East recently held the 13th edition of its annual Acer Partner Week, during GITEX Technology Week. The company hosted its regional partners and the media across three days at Jumeirah Emirates Towers hotel, where they met with key stakeholders, shared technology updates and business outlook for the region, and showcased its latest products and technologies.

During the event, partners were invited to experience the latest suite of products from Acer, including its new range of sustainable devices including the eco-

conscious Aspire Vero laptops that use post-consumer recycled plastic and recyclable packaging. Another highlight product was the Acer Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs – the first of its kind gaming laptop with a stereoscopic 3D display.

Apart from Acer’s eco-minded devices and its gaming range of laptops and monitors, a wide range of other products were also on display for partners to discover and have a hands-on experience.

During the Partner Week, Acer welcomed partners from around the region including distributors, retailers, commercial partners, education partners, IT industry partners and many more. Together, they discussed emerging market trends, supply chain challenges and key growth areas

UAE, Malaysia, Egypt, Tunisia, lead in adoption of OICCERT 5G Security Framework

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation –Computer Emergency Response Team, OICCERT, which is currently the third-largest CERT collaboration platform in the world, continued the OIC-CERT 5G Security Framework adoption among member countries in 2022.

Earlier this year, the OIC-CERT 5G Security Framework Workshop, hosted by CyberSecurity Malaysia was held in conjunction with the Malaysian Edition of Safer Internet Day 2022. It aimed to provide awareness of the importance of 5G security, to develop a common 5G security framework for risk assessment and management, and to develop a common standard for OIC member countries that can be used to mitigate any technical difficulties in rolling out 5G. This event set the ball rolling for similar workshops held in other OIC-CERT member countries.

According to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, “The OICCERT 5G Security Framework will be another

reference point guiding in ensuring the overall network security, resiliency and survivability of Malaysia’s 5G implementation.”

With the UAE leading the adoption of the 5G Security Framework, the country will become an ideal reference point that will provide guidance on how the framework can be utilised to promote the standardisation of 5G security on an open and transparent platform to accelerate the seamless, cost-effective roll-out of 5G among the OIC-CERT member states.

The OIC-CERT 5G Security Framework is designed based on the Plan, Do, Check, and Act PDCA cycle of the security management systems. However, this framework does not extend many controls under PDCA, but instead further clarifies and simplifies the journey of 5G adoption for OIC member countries in terms of cybersecurity. These four components are uniquely developed as the enabler of PDCA, focusing on baseline and indispensable elements to better maintain and operate a 5G security system in a holistic manner.

Dato’ Ts Dr Haji Amirudin Abdul Wahab, CEO of Cybersecurity Malaysia and the OIC-CERT Permanent Secretariat.

StarLink partners with OutSystems for high-performance low-code development platform

StarLink, an Infinigate Group Company, announced the signing of a partnership agreement with OutSystems, a global leader in highperformance application development, for MEA distribution.

OutSystems high-performance low-code development platform empowers organisations to rapidly build and deploy their own business-critical applications, without compromising quality, security, or scalability. OutSystems offers state-of-the-art, AI-powered development tools and a visual, model-driven approach to reduce the time to value in development and increase the productivity of developers from varied backgrounds and skill levels.

EDGE Group entity, JAHEZIYA signs MoU with

UAE Cybersecurity Council

EDGE Group entity, JAHEZIYA, a single-stop service provider for defence solutions and emergency response services, and the UAE Cybersecurity Council have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote cooperation between the two organisations by conducting exchanges in cybersecurity-related fields, while JAHEZIYA will deliver cyber awareness programmes to designated communities. The agreement was formalised at GITEX.

The agreement was signed by His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Hamad Al Kuwaiti, Head of Cybersecurity for the UAE Government, and Omar Al Zaabi, Senior Vice President Trading and Mission Support, EDGE.

As per the MoU, the two organisations will promote

Rami Refaat, Business Unit Head, Spire Solutions.

Corelight partners with Spire Solutions to launch Zeek opensource based Corelight Investigator

Corelight, the leader in open network detection and response, launched Corelight Investigator, a solution that extends the power of open-source driven network evidence to SOC teams everywhere, in partnership with Spire Solutions. Investigator delivers advanced capabilities for transforming network and cloud activity into evidence in a fast, intuitive platform that is easy to deploy and use.

Based on insights learned from savvy defenders in the Zeek opensource community, Corelight Investigator provides not only advanced analytics and open access to the best network evidence but the ability to do custom evidence enrichment unique to each environment. With Corelight Investigator, security teams can quickly accelerate threat hunting and investigations by mapping threat activity across the MITRE ATTandCK framework and reducing alert volume with intelligent alert scoring.

and conduct exchanges in ICT cybersecurity-related fields, with a particular focus on cooperation, deterrence, prevention and responses to cyber-attacks across relevant cyber fields, awareness-building and educational programmes, as well as scientific and technological research and development, all conducted in accordance with the UAE principles of equality, reciprocity, and respect.

JAHEZIYA, part of the Mission Support cluster at EDGE, provides systems engineering, technical project management services, and knowledge and training solutions. It is the region’s leading provider of emergency firefighting and rescue services, comprehensive military training, systems engineering and technical project management services, inclusive of systems integration.

(Left to right) His Excellency Dr Mohamed Hamad Al Kuwaiti, Head of Cybersecurity for the UAE Government, and Omar Al Zaabi, Senior Vice President Trading and Mission Support, EDGE.

Yas Holding’s Advanced Technology Consultancy partners with Automation Anywhere

where to expand its digital service offering to provide automation services and software solutions to customers across the region.

Under the agreement, the two companies will empower clients in major strategic sectors – including government, oil and gas, education and healthcare – to improve productivity through the automation of business processes, as part of their digital transformation journeys.

Through its digital workforce platform, Automation Anywhere provides technology that enables organisations to unleash the potential in their workplace by liberating staff from mundane tasks and enabling them to solve more creative, higher-order business challenges. This is achieved through the use of RPA automation software, where robots, or “bots”, learn, mimic and then execute rule-based business processes. RPA interacts with any application or system in the same way that people do, however, it is more efficient as a result of its ability to operate around the clock, non-stop and at speed – with 100% reliability and precision.

Smart solution specialist Meerana Technologies joins Software AG’s PartnerConnect

Global technology company Software AG and Meerana Technologies, a home grown digitalisation company that aims to connect the world through the power of IoT and blockchain, have signed a strategic partnership to optimise future business and operational models that drive new business value in line with the region’s ambition to boost digital economies.

The agreement was signed by HE Matar Almehairi, Chief Executive Officer, Meerana Technologies and Rami Kichli, Senior Vice President, Middle East and Turkey of Software AG. Under the alliance and as a leading partner to global software companies, Meerana Technologies will

enable enterprises to unlock future business value by capitalising on the power of data via Software AG’s full-range of cutting edge solutions across IoT, Integration, API Management, Business and IT Transformation technologies. This will further facilitate remodelling of systems and speed, agility, resilience and scalability across enterprises.

The Software AG PartnerConnect programme empowers its partners to better deliver outcomes based on its products to meet evolving customer’s needs. Software AG’s products in API and Integration, IoT and analytics and business transformation are highly regarded and consistently ranked as leaders by multiple industry analysts.

Advanced Technology Consultancy, a subsidiary of Yas Holding’s technology division, United Technology Holding, and a leading

advanced technology consultancy systems integrator, has signed an agreement with Robotic Process Automation vendor Automation Any-

(Left to right) Rami Kichli, Senior Vice President, ME and Turkey, Software AG; and HE Matar Almehairi, Chief Executive Officer, Meerana Technologies.

Injazat awarded Premier status inside Software AG’s global partner programme, PartnerConnect

Injazat, a G 42 company, and Software AG extended its strategic partnership to boost digital transformation efforts in the Middle East. Under Software AG’s global partner programme, PartnerConnect, Injazat has been awarded Premier status elevating Injazat’s position as an elite member within Software AG’s global partner network with proven technical expertise and customer success in digital transformation enablement and innovation.

Through aligned visions, the two parties will collaborate to further the region’s digitalisation efforts with significant contributions that strengthen digital economies.

Under the strategic partnership, both companies will leverage their joint capabilities and regional scale to harness the huge volumes of data as a strategic asset for powerful insights to empower government entities and businesses in their transformation journeys to drive

Emircom adds SAS to portfolio offering AI and data analytics to customers

SAS announced its partnership with Emircom. The two companies aim to provide advanced solutions for customers who want sustainable business growth through data-driven technology that extends beyond just numbers on how profits are made or lost but also insights into what’s happening within your organisation right now so you can make better decisions about future projects too.

Through its strong partner network, Emircom is committed to bridging the businesses’ needs and customers’ expectations with comprehensive and advanced technology solutions. With SAS solutions a part of its portfolio, Emircom will allow its customers to leverage the best breed of AI and Data Analytics driven solutions to do business, security, and workforce transformation quickly and purposely.

vation. The association will enable enterprises to revolutionize systems and processes and facilitate increased agility, speed, response and scalability via Software AG’s Business transformation solutions and its industry leading IoT platform.

The Software AG PartnerConnect programme empowers its partners to better deliver outcomes based on its products to meet evolving customer’s needs. Software AG’s products in API and Integration, IoT and analytics and business transformation are highly regarded and consistently ranked as leaders by multiple industry analysts.

(Left to right) Mohamad Abu Zaki, CEO Emircom; and Michel Ghorayeb, Managing Director, UAE SAS.

inno-

(Right to left) Ussama Dahabiyeh, CEO Injazat; and Rami Kichli, Senior Vice President, ME and Turkey, Software AG.

Zebra adds Location and Tracking specialisation to PartnerConnect channel programme

Zebra Technologies announced the new PartnerConnect Location and Tracking Specialisation for partners focused on selling RFID and real-time location systems RTLS. Developed as a strategic component of Zebra’s award-winning PartnerConnect programme, the new Location and Tracking Specialisation provides resellers with the tools they need to drive RFID and RTLS sales and help businesses successfully deploy these solutions for transformational business benefits.

Zebra’s Location and Tracking Specialisation recognises partner expertise and investment in passive and active RFID and RTLS technology solutions. Qualified programme members will have exclusive access to business-building benefits including pre-qualified leads, growth incentives, discounts on RFID and RTLS portfolio offerings, go-to-market support, marketing funding, increased channel account management and planning as well as a customisable logo recognising their expertise in the industry.

Specialists in the programme can sell and deploy location and tracking solutions while advanced specialists can sell and deploy at an enterprise-wide scale and deliver advanced integrations.

Zebra leverages decades of experience and innovation with location solutions ranging from passive RFID tags on packages to the active tracking of athletes in real time, helping turn edge data into business value. This location and tracking solutions support the tracking of inventory, assets, and people in retail stores, warehouses, distribution centres, manufacturing lines, hospitals and sports arenas.

IBM is technology partner for UN Climate Change Conference in Sharm-el-Sheikh

IBM has been named technology partner of the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP27, to be hosted by the Egyptian government in Sharm-el-Sheikh during November 6 to 18. At the conference, IBM will showcase how technology and consulting can help business and government leaders align sustainability goals to organizational objectives, responding to regulatory demands and without compromising profitability.

This collaboration with the Presidency of Egypt builds on IBM’s history of environmental commitments and alliances, such as establishing a goal to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 or being a founding

member of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Science-Policy-Business Forum on the Environment. IBM also enables organizations and communities to tackle environmental issues through programs like the IBM Sustainability Accelerator.

COP27 President-Designate, Sameh Shoukry, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egypt welcomed IBM as technology partner of COP27. He highlighted the critical role that technology plays in helping governments, companies and organizations meet climate goals. Also, he recognized IBM’s expertise in creating innovative solutions that can contribute to push the climate agenda forward.

Bill Cate, Vice President of Marketing and Channels, Zebra Technologies.

Qatar’s leading conglomerate, Al Faisal Holding selects Oracle Fusion Cloud to support its digital transformation

Recently joined CIO, Kashif Fateh Dad has accelerated the conglomerate’s digital transformation road map by selecting Oracle Fusion Cloud and on-boarding Oracle Consulting Services as part of the three-year revamp.

Al Faisal Holding is one of Qatar’s leading diversified private holding companies. It has an international outlook and operations and has played a significant role in the development of Qatar’s economy. Established in 1964, Al Faisal Holding has since developed in step with the growth and prosperity of Qatar’s economy.

The founder of Al Faisal Holding is HE Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani, one of the region’s known visionary entrepreneurs.

Al Faisal Holding’s diversified business model operates across eight clusters which comprise over 50 companies in property, hospitality, trading, education, culture, leisure, services and manufacturing sectors.

Al Faisal Holding has embarked upon a digital transformation roadmap. One of the key

initiatives is modernisation of their ERP backoffice for a more modern, digitally enabled, cost-effective IT environment.

A key fact in fast paced conglomerates, especially those that are operating in global

and local markets is that business strategy often leads the IT strategy, many times overtaking it, leaving IT operations in a catch-up game

“The business strategy changes a lot of times, especially in conglomerates,” says Kashif Fateh Dad, CIO Al Faisal Holding, who joined the conglomerate in May 2021, “for this very reason.”

After joining Al Faisal Holding, Fateh Dad conducted his due diligence on the overall IT operations across the 50+ business groups and prepared a three-year, forward looking, IT strategy and digital transformation strategy for the conglomerate.

Fateh Dad distinguishes between the two strategies. The IT strategy is meant to be an overview of how you want to run the IT department for the next three years. It is much broader

The whole strategy revolves around moving to the cloud

than the digital transformation strategy. This addresses key questions like how IT wants to perform business critical functions and provide improved IT services to its customers.

On the other hand, a digital transformation strategy is meant to address the automation of business processes and the kind of tools to be used. “This is why I differentiate between IT strategy and digital transformation strategy,” says Fateh Dad.

When Fateh Dad joined more than a year ago, the conglomerate had outsourced the entire IT operations to a separate internal company. After evaluation of the pros and cons, an internal corporate IT department was created at the end of last year, managed and steered by Fateh Dad.

Having got approval for his three-year road map for the conglomerate, Fateh Dad now needs to deliver on his key deliverables including the complete digital transformation of the conglomerate as well the ability to incorporate the vision of the leadership family for tomorrow’s business. “How do we digitally transform these businesses and takes them to the next level from a customer service standpoint and from a nation standpoint, is the challenge,” he explains.

Opening score for technology and business landscape

The IT operations of the Al Faisal Holding conglomerate and business processes have been built around Oracle E-Business Suite, that was implemented close to twenty years ago. Other than Oracle ERP as its core business application and platform, the conglomerate is also using cloud based, Microsoft Office 365 and other specialised applications inside its travel, healthcare, manufacturing businesses, and human resource functions.

“As part of IT strategy and the digital transformation roadmap we do have business units where we will use isolated ERPs. But the wider plan is to connect these from a financial reporting standpoint into Oracle,” explains Fateh Dad.

A key enhancement of application productivity took place two years ago, when the on-premises E-Business Suite was moved to the cloud and the application services become cloud enabled.

A part of Fateh Dad’s evaluation was to assess the success of close to twenty years of usage of Oracle E-Business Suite across the conglomer-

ate. Fateh Dad did find shortcomings in the continuing usage of manual operations across the conglomerate.

A key reason for this was the disconnect between the speed of business operations and the IT operations. “The setup was outdated because it was done two decades ago. There were no real iterations done to the ERP to catch up with the business processes,” he explains.

Another reason for the lack of automation and reliance on manual processes, picked up by Fateh Dad during his evaluation, was the fragmentation around the Chart of Accounts. Instead of a near-unified Chart of Accounts, Fateh Dad found more than twenty in operational usage.

Having such a large number of Chart of Accounts inside a conglomerate, also limits inter-company reconciliation, since it is almost like dealing with external businesses rather than internal businesses.

On the flip side for Fateh Dad, the long baseline of usage around Oracle E-Business Suite, does give the conglomerate an advantage in upgrading and migrating towards more modern and digitally transformed platforms from Oracle.

“We have a lot of staff that is well versed in Oracle usage. They know how the Oracle application works. They know high level workflows, high level frameworks. We obviously want to be able to utilise that

We did not go for a fresh RFP, but we definitely re-evaluated if Oracle is still fit for purpose for our business

KASHIF FATEH DAD, CIO Al Faisal Holding.

Oracle Fusion Cloud will be the future application of our conglomerate

experience when we move forward,” points out Fateh Dad.

Initiatives to leap forward in transformation

Modernisation of the IT department and digital transformation of the conglomerate, as outlined in the strategy documents, are now key deliverables for Fateh Dad. Standardisation and restructuring of multiple Chart of Accounts into a single Chart of Accounts is one of the most important deliverables in the near future.

An immediate benefit from this would be the reduction in manual work and human error, the ability to deliver inter-company reconciliation, and the reduction of continuity risk levels and adherence to continuity risk compliance.

Another critical requirement is to integrate the specialised ERP solutions that have been implemented in select businesses of the conglomerate. “We are going to push and consolidate within a single application platform now,” says Fateh Dad.

These objectives, to connect all the dots into one platform, are now part of the modernisation and upgrade of Oracle E-Business Suite. A strategic partner identified to complete these deliverables for the conglomerate is Oracle Consulting Services.

As part of the initiative to modernise the Oracle E-Business Suite this year, in 2022, Fateh Dad invited quotations from the industry leaders. The objective was to do a points-based technical evaluation and comparison, based on fit for business purpose objectives and five-year public cloud SaaS licensing prices.

Al Faisal Holding had already completed a full-blown RFP exercise in 2017 when it moved Oracle E-Business Suite from on-premises to the cloud using a lift and shift approach. A fiveyear cloud hosting and software license pricing was in play with Oracle since 2017, that was due for renewal in 2022.

“We did not go for a fresh RFP, but we definitely re-evaluated if Oracle is still fit for purpose for our business. We did a technical evaluation using a points-based system, whereby we compared our business requirements against functionalities available in Oracle,” explains Fateh Dad.

The net result was that Oracle outscored and Oracle Fusion Cloud was selected as the most suitable solution to replace Al Faisal’s existing Oracle E-Business Suite, cloud hosted platform. “It turned out to be a good match for our business needs,” he reflects.

Other than the market focussed, points-

based evaluation, there were other factors that also swung in favour of migrating to Oracle Fusion Cloud, according to Fateh Dad.

Al Faisal Holding has already been spending on Oracle licensing and it made more sense to relook at the strategy and see in which areas they could improve to have better application performance. “It makes more sense for us to

not reinvent the wheel and just look at our strategy,” says Fateh Dad.

The other aspect was the long baseline of close to twenty years of Oracle application usage. “We wanted to avoid the change management cost because our workforce is used to Oracle. If we look at something else at this stage it will incur a huge change management cost,” he indicates.

Al Faisal Holding has now set its targets on Oracle Fusion Cloud as its future ERP application flagship with Oracle Consulting, partnering to provide services in the area of best practices, process optimisation and selection, implementation, and migration.

“Oracle Fusion Cloud will be the future application of our conglomerate. The whole strategy revolves around moving to the cloud,” says Fateh Dad.

With a good fit between, ability to deliver digital transformation from Oracle platforms, and the high levels of Oracle user competency inside Al Faisal Holding, the future is likely to see a transformed conglomerate inside Qatar. ë

We wanted to avoid the change management cost because our workforce is used to Oracle

MANAGING GROWTH THROUGH EVENT STREAMING

This multi-country delivery portal has successfully managed to scale its development teams through the usage of event streaming using Kafka from Confluent.

By Arun Shankar

talabat is the region’s leading online food delivery and q-commerce platform, with operations in Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq. Aggregated, the portal has 70,000 + restaurant partners and provides job opportunities for 81,000+ delivery riders, with 4,000 employees across 80+ different nationalities.

talabat was launched in 2004 in Kuwait and expanded operations into Saudi Arabia in 2008; UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman in 2012-2013. It was acquired by the Delivery Hero Group in 2015.

On the technology side, talabat is one of the largest regional hubs with 300+ technology and product specialists based in Dubai. The technology team includes talent that has moved from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Careem, UBER, Grab, Yandex, amongst others.

The talabat mobile application has been downloaded 100+ million times, and the core application is updated hundreds of times a week, while it supports 100,000 actions per minute. It reached a milestone of 100 million orders in 2018.

Similar to all digital businesses today, managing operational scale, skilled teams and technology complexity are principal challenges through which all businesses progress and master.

Continuous growth in operations across multiple countries, exceptional growth during the pandemic lockdown, partnership with Dubai Expo2020 and mergers of other operations into talabat, have been growth milestones that the product development and technology teams have had

The requirement was everybody needs all the data

SVEN HERZING Chief Technology Officer, talabat.

The question was as the team has grown to 350 people; how do you make them independent

to navigate inside talabat. Innovative use of Kafka from Confluent has helped talabat to move forward effectively.

Growth of teams

When talabat was formed in 2004, it was a fast-paced start-up with a focus on rapid delivery. Everybody knew all the complete architecture and how the different components worked together at that time as the team was still small” reflects Sven Herzing, Chief Technology Officer, talabat.

The first big change was when talabat was acquired in 2015 and became part of the larger delivery Hero Group. “In 2019, we started our journey as a technology and product organisation,” he adds.

From 2019 to 2021, the role and scale of operations of the technology team changed quite rapidly. The team size was 80 and transaction speed was an average of 140 orders per minute.

In 2020, talabat transformed into a self-organised and empowered teams’ model. The team size had grown to 200+ and transaction speed multiplied.

In 2021, talabat began to focus on building the right thing, in the right way, where speed is enabled by engineering culture and technology excellence. The team reached 250+ by middle of the year and transaction speed increase that technical limits of the stack started to show

When a start-up is using a monolithic database with many dependencies and when you add new services, it still uses the same data source. “The more we grow and scale up, we need to adjust the way we work as well as our architecture. What worked for us when we were 80 doesn’t work when we are 350 as inter-team dependencies become too big and may cause friction, as time required for teams to coordinate with others increases exponentially with the number of teams.” Herzing points out.

Every person you add to a team does not bring the same benefit because of dependencies. The code base depends on a single database which has all the schemas in there.

“If a team demands a change which hinges on another team we need to look at compatibility. The coordination efforts between teams then becomes an implication” says Herzing.

For talabat, the question was as the team has grown to over 350 people, how do you make them independent. How do you make a small team of seven or eight people independent of another team, by removing dependencies, and removing the bottleneck of a monolithic application with a monolithic database.

The requirement was that everybody needs all the data. How do you transport that across the board so that everybody can access it, without an ownership team.

“If you have Terabyte of data on your main database, then the data definition language change actually takes a while. It is no longer a millisecond but it is a couple of minutes,” says Herzing.

Understanding dependencies

“We have actually seen that many dependencies between

Using Kafka, talabat publishes all the data using a schema registry that makes sure the data is sent to a stream in the same format and does not cause any downstream problems. In other words, publish the same schema to the consumers of the data and then they can consume it as they want. Talabat now puts all the data required for a set of services into an event and calls it a fat event differentiating it from a thin event.

talabat manages

How do you make a small team of seven or eight people independent of another team.

Every person you add to a team does not bring the same benefit because of dependency.

How doyou transport data across the board so that everybody can access it, without an ownership team.

Image courtesy: talabat

growth of teams

talabat drew a diagram of all its dependencies and there were some meeting points including orders, vendor data, vendor availability.

The code base depends on a single database which has all the schemas in there.

If you have Terabyte of data on your main database, then the DDL change actually takes a while.

Database coupling was hindering the speed of teams to operate independently.

talabat moves ahead with Kafka

After incorporating Kafka from Confluent, a number of positive changes and initiatives have materialised. Amongst the changes initiated with Kafka are:

• Make every team independent

• Allow them to move independently

• Break dependencies on a single source of truth

• Plan to allow scale

Teams can now build their own services with fewer dependencies on other teams and act independently. All events are being streamed with full data, reducing dependencies on the individual teams to provide data or services. Data can also be cached locally.

This is boosting the operational speed of the teams through the decoupling of functionalities and all services operate independently. Further this is allowing the organisation to scale in team size and order volumes and allowing downstream services to be added without fanout requests.

Each vertical can have their own order service, creating multiple producers of events on the same stream. With this, the source of truth will be the stream and not the monolithic database, hence there is a decoupling. There is a move away from a single database with all the data leading to reduction in operational cost. Disaster recovery also becomes simplified in setup by reducing data dependencies.

On the other hand, event schemas need more upfront thinking in design to make the best out of the solution.

the teams are reflecting on two data points, orders and vendor information. After an initial conversation we had with Confluent about how they could help us and what their solution offers to break source dependencies,” says Herzing.

At this stage, the priority for talabat was to enable teams to build services with fewer dependencies and act independently, and to drive operational speed by decoupling of functionalities between teams.

This was expected to allow the organisation to scale in order volume and team size and reduce operational cost around the monolithic application and monolithic database. talabat’s technology and application architecture had reached a stage where, “adding more people to the team did not make us faster, but made the problem more pressing,” says Herzing. Since the code was dependent on the existence of the monolithic database, the monolithic database had become the orchestrator and limiter of team performance by coupling and dependencies between teams and services would need to be resolved.

While inside talabat, most services needed order and vendor information to function, the challenge was that, “no service should depend on another service for data availability, functionality or uptime,” says Herzing.

Kafka from Confluent

Kafka answers the needs of the modern-day company that is trying to be digital first. The challenge with building a complex IT environment is that generally you have to connect an application to a database, and that is a very tight coupling.

If you change anything on the database or the application side, you need to evolve that connection, that coupling. And if you think about companies that have several hundreds, and in some cases thousands of databases, applications located in different areas, that adds a lot of complexity.

“To simplify that architecture, Kafka decouples the sources of data to a stream of data. With Kafka, it is almost instantaneous in real time. So that is the real benefit that drives that convenience and great customer experience,” explains Fred Crehan, Area Vice President Emerging Markets, Confluent.

When talabat adopted Kafka, it looked into how to avoid the challenge and issues that every start-up faces. “Every big company wants to move fast and I actually believe the ability to iterate fast is a key to business success,” says Herzing.

While the number of orders grew significantly, a single database became a bottleneck at some point. This is a factor that limits the ability to scale horizontally and increase operational overhead.

A big database costs money and having multiple instances of it and keeping them up to scale was actually becoming expensive for talabat. “That is when you start thinking how to solve that,” says Herzing.

talabat drew a diagram of all its dependencies automatically, which looked like a big spider web in the end. However, there were some meeting points as well including orders and vendor information.

“We thought about this afterwards, and how do you provide this information to everybody in real time, so that they can consume it on their own,” reflects Herzing. talabat started publishing this data on a Kafka topic using schema registry from Confluent. “It works great but you need to be careful how to employ it,” he points out.

Kafka changes ops

Using Kafka, talabat publishes all the data using a schema registry that makes sure the data is sent to a stream in the same format and does not cause any downstream problems. In other words, publish the same schema to the consumers of the data and then they can consume it as they want.

talabat now puts all the data required for a set of services into an event using a fat event to provide all data needed to process it, as compared to only sending identifiers on the stream.

With this, every downstream consumer has all the data related to the order including items, amount, vendor address, location, rider information and customer’s address, all in one event. This avoids the

No service can depend on another service for data availability

Technology snapshot

• talabat is working with the data warehouse team, beginning next year to consume the data stream into the BI solution.

• The product and technology team scaled rapidly over the last 3 years, quadrupling its size and still continuing to grow

• The talabat monolithic application and database are built with .Net core running on SQL server and hosted on AWS as a public cloud. It is supported by 35+ technology teams using 150+ services. Newer services are using .Net core or golang and PostgreSQL databases

requirement of sending out queries after the event is generated by the various teams.

Other than order events, the Kafka data stream also has order status events. Everybody who influences the order event, and that could be multiple producers, writes to the order status event stream with the consumer correlating the data. All change events get collated and evaluated and then sent again as a stream.

talabat emits all events to the Kafka stream, which then replaces part of the monolithic database over time. Whatever can be covered by the data stream and the consumer, is removed over time from the monthly code base to lighten the workload on the monolith database. This makes it easier

to work in the code base. “Smaller code bases are easy to understand, easy to build, and fast to deploy,” points out Herzing.

All talabat data is published on the Kafka stream and the teams read only the subset required and write it to the database. While the teams make changes all the time, “we try and isolate those changes to their own area. They have no dependencies but yes, dependencies still happen,” says Herzing.

Are we still too tightly coupled? What is the next evolution? How do we start to move things out? “It is a process and it is not finished,” answers Herzing. “As long as we have the monolithic application around, we will still have those dependencies,” he points out. ë

The growth of talabat delivery portal.

FRED CREHAN Area Vice President Emerging Markets, Confluent.

WHAT IS KAFKA

Kafka is an open-source project for event streaming, called data in motion, and enables companies to get started into some sense of scale.

Kafka is an open-source project, which is licensed to the Apache Foundation and is amongst the top three most popular open-source projects of all time. Kafka enables event streaming, called data in motion. It enables a lot of companies to get started into some sense of scale and Confluent completes Kafka with a set of features around governance, security, support.

Confluent also provides thought leadership and guidance on how to build a central nervous system around Kafka.

Think of Kafka as an engine and Confluent is the car. The engine by itself, is not much use; and the car without an engine does not move. So, they are complimentary to each other. Some companies want to build their own car, but the majority of companies want to buy the finished product.

There are two types of available platforms. There is Confluent platform, which is a self-managed platform and companies have to implement and

operate that platform by themselves. They can choose to deploy that in their own datacentres or in public or private clouds and responsibility of management is on the customer.

The second platform is a fully managed Kafka in the cloud, delivered as a SaaS and guaranteed through SLAs. The Confluent Cloud platform is fully managed and is like a self-driving autonomous car.

Kafka is a transport mechanism for data, it is software that sits between other software. Within Kafka, there is compute and storage, which is very different to messaging - messaging is not a storage tool. Kafka has ability to process data as it is moving.

What that means is in the analogy of transferring money, the bank can, as you are requesting the bank to transfer money for you, it can process whether this is a fraudulent or verified transaction. And that is happening in real time.

Kafka enables real time processing of data. Data can be stored within

Kafka just as data can be stored within the database. That is something most people only discover as a second step because people will see Kafka initially as a message.

Kafka answers the needs of the modern-day company that is trying to be digital first. The challenge with building a complex IT environment is that generally you have to connect an application to a database, and that is a very tight coupling.

If you change anything on the database or the application side, you need to evolve that connection, that coupling. And if you think about companies that have several hundreds, and in some cases thousands of databases, applications located in different areas, that adds a lot of complexity.

To simplify that architecture, Kafka decouples the sources of data to the seats of data. Also, there are scalability challenges with modern kind of transport mechanisms for data, while Kafka is scalable. What that means is the more messages that you have, the more events that are flying through Kafka, Kafka can actually handle that.

With Kafka, it is almost instantaneous in real time. So that is the real benefit that drives that convenience and great customer experience.

To get to a centralised nervous system data platform, you need to build more and more use cases and you need to add a democracy to data and make data decentralised and available, for whoever in the company needs it. And that takes a bit of time.

There is some impact on organisation and processes as Kafka is brought into the organisation and Confluent provides expertise around how to build that within the organisation. ë

Kafka enables real time processing of data. Data can be stored within Kafka just as data can be stored within the database. The challenge with building a complex IT environment is that generally you have to connect an application to a database, and that is a very tight coupling. If you change anything on the database or the application side, you need to evolve that coupling. To simplify that architecture, Kafka decouples the sources of data to the seats of data.

You need to add a democracy to data and make data decentralised and available, and that takes a bit of time

ABDELILAH NEJJARI Managing Director, Cisco Gulf.

UPSKILLING, HYBRID WORK TOP CONSIDERATIONS FOR TECHNOLOGY LEADERS

For organisations to make their digital transformation plan work, they need to stop viewing it as a fight for survival and incorporate it in their long-term planning.

Many organisations have a big vision, but struggle to break it down into feasible steps and processes. Often it helps to identify a smaller project, then collect the data and the learnings. And never do it alone: build an ecosystem inside and outside the organisation, engaging partners and suppliers.

From a technology perspective, it is worth thinking through digital transformation via four essential questions: how an organisation can re-imagine its applications, power hybrid work, transform the infrastructure and secure the enterprise.

Digital transformation initiatives tend to be unsuccessful because businesses would often either fail to meet their basic goals or exceed their budget or have a combination of these hiccups before they’re cut short. Companies with competitive pressure to accelerate their digital journeys combined with financial

stress would have their transformations concentrate on instant and necessary cost reduction – ending up with a failed outcome. For organisations to make their digital transformation plan work, they need to stop viewing it as a fight for survival. Instead, they

need to incorporate it in their long-term planning which enables them to reach the full potential of their business, enhance their processes and infrastructures or utilise smart technologies to take on an opportunity or a challenge.

Upskilling and attraction of talent is the largest challenge. Next to that cybersecurity, sustainability and making hybrid work a success are important considerations for leaders.

Hybrid work is probably where Cisco has seen the biggest and swiftest transformation, across all sectors of the economy. Cisco has helped accelerate the region’s digital transformation, through Country Digital Acceleration. Cisco collaborated with Medcare Hospitals and Medical Centres in the UAE to roll out advanced telehealth technology that gives patients access to health services via videoconferencing on their laptops and mobile phones.

With Majid Al Futtaim, Cisco launched the Store of the Future - bringing customers an immersive, digitalised, and personalised shopping experience. The store elevates the traditional shopping experience by incorporating digital retail to introduce customers to a futuristic shopping journey.

From quantum to augmented reality many exciting technologies will enter mainstream over the next five to ten years. But Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will progress rapidly over the past few years, driven by a vibrant research community, as well as the availability of ML-ready datasets, increase of compute power, and mathematical advances.

Cisco has been working on a first-of-its-kind predictive analytics engine that will help IT teams prevent issues and elevate the user experience. Cisco has tuned and tested predictive models with customers across a variety of industry segments, incorporating advanced analytics and machine learning techniques to enable greater precision and ease of use.

Cisco sees an increased interest in such futurefacing capabilities and whilst many talk about it, from a business perspective it’s still not clear what they will look like and how people will want to use them. Metaverse has the potential to create new opportunities for enterprises: examples include the product delivery lifecycle from development and design through to marketing, point-of-sale and new customer and employee experiences, but specific use cases will still need to evolve. ë

Digital transformation initiatives tend to be unsuccessful because businesses either fail to meet basic goals or exceed budget

KARIM BENKIRANE Chief Commercial Officer, du.

AI, BLOCKCHAIN, CLOUD, CONNECTIVITY CAN BOOST AGILITY

du is enabling enterprises to digitise customer journeys, make precise decisions with artificial intelligence, and automate internal processes.

support enterprises’ innovation end-to-end, from digital infrastructure and cybersecurity through to innovative customer experiences and operations. The key challenges addressed include barriers to delivering customer service excellence and optimising operations across industry verticals.

Further, du helps executives put their data into action and support the enterprise with new tools, skills and methodologies that enable innovation and continual transformation. In a world that is constantly changing, du enables enterprises to digitise customer journeys, make rapid and precise decisions with artificial intelligence, and automate more of their internal processes.

The most significant technology and business disruptions in the next five years are likely to be:

l Artificial Intelligence will drive breakthrough ideas and applications, future-proof operating models and support business challenges

l Enterprises will increasingly rely on blockchain to accelerate the adoption of technology and focus on their business needs.

l Cloud management, datacentre solutions, enhanced enterprise connectivity will help increase agility, reduce risk and simplify a complex ICT ecosystem

du helps organisations build and manage digital platforms that bridge silos of technology innovation and scale up digital transformation. du removes the silos of innovation with their digital platform and intelligent core. They make orchestration and integration of data and insights between processes seamless, supported by foundational pillars, an ecosystem of partners and a capability framework.

As businesses today are shifting the way they operate in the digital economy, they will need to innovate by harnessing technologies that drive exceptional customer experiences, operational excellence and data monetisation, embracing technologies such as the Internet of Things IoT, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence AI.

They also need to leverage agile, resilient,

secure and scalable digital infrastructure solutions built on a foundation of hybrid and multi-cloud, in-country datacentre services and software-defined enterprise networks. du’s portfolio includes Infrastructure Services, Cloud Management, Datacentre Solutions and Connectivity Solutions. du views challenges as opportunities to

du is on a journey to becoming a leading digital telco with new values that drive a purpose-driven mindset and sustainable ethos. In line with the government vision, du leverages innovation to create solutions that reduce its environmental footprint and help build a greener society.

CIOs are looking at process automation, migration to the cloud and greater security to build a more robust infrastructure that will offer greater agility and cost less. According to IDC, more than 60% of organisations across the UAE are engaging in digital transformation projects.

Digital transformation is more than moving applications and data to the cloud. It is about enabling organisations to securely adopt new technologies, integrate data and processes, and benefit from continuous transformation.

Most say that their major challenge is integrating their core and external IT. Around 60% of UAE CIOs have multiple digital technologies that are separate from their core IT platform, which creates silos of innovation and inhibits organisations from scaling up their digital transformation. ë

du’s portfolio includes Infrastructure Services, Cloud Management, Datacentre Solutions and Connectivity Solutions

RIGHT APPROACH OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY

A well-integrated system with cross connected people will enable a collaborative ecosystem that will achieve the results of agility, productivity, efficiency.

Businesses are moving ahead in transformation initiatives, sparked by a chain reaction of challenges stemming from the pandemic. Some are pursuing transformation to harness new business opportunities while others are attempting to stabilize their companies after a challenging period of uncertainty.

Acquiring and developing talent is critical to driving successful transformation and this is seen as a huge challenge today. A non-collaborative environment does not encourage knowledge sharing across the organisation and results in an ineffective ecosystem. A well-integrated system and cross connected people enable a connected and collaborative ecosystem that will achieve the desired results of agility, productivity, and efficiency.

Implementing technology decisions without having clarity and agreement on the short and long-term transformation objectives is a wasted exercise. Having the right approach from the beginning, business and technological, will enable seamless access to one’s own system, partner systems, knowledge bases. Moreover, facilitating cloud, open source and digital-first strategies is enabling more efficient experiences.

New advances in technology is constantly disrupting the world and people’s lives to create new and improved experiences. While many technologies are already in place, they still continue to evolve and change at an extremely rapid pace and the impact only seems to be amplifying.

These include - artificial intelligence, virtual, augmented reality, cloud, open source, Internet of things, blockchain technology, and e-commerce are some of the disruptive technologies significantly influencing the future.

The metaverse can be a business disruptor as it potentially brings new interaction possibilities, expanding how a brand can provide to their stakeholders. Companies are still experimenting on what can really be done to improve experiences using it, but the most important thing to keep in mind is that any innovation should aim to answer customer’s needs and expectations, no matter the industry.

So, adopting strategies using the metaverse, or any new trend that might come up, requires understanding the customer journey, their habits and preferences. ë

Implementing technology decisions without having clarity on the short and long-term transformation objectives is a wasted exercise

MOUSSALAM DALATI General Manager, Middle East and Africa, Liferay Middle East.

services are helping companies digitise their offerings in terms of delivering better customer and employee experiences. For example, healthcare organisations use Logitech video products to provide personalised healthcare in outpatient settings, inpatient hospitals, and nursing home facilities.

NO ADDRESSES, NO SEATS, NO SHIFTS

Logitech is giving businesses the opportunity to redesign their workspace setups and hybrid work models with the needs of today’s hybrid work employee in mind.

Business models are changing, and so are perspectives around work - there are no fixed addresses, assigned seats or designate shifts - the job now gets done on around the clock with globalisation. Logitech B2B platform gives businesses the opportunity to redesign their workspace setups and hybrid work models with the needs of today’s hybrid work employee in mind. Logitech’s solutions will help them in re-tooling work and re-designing work spaces so that the job can get done from anywhere.

Logitech provides solutions that comprise a complete ecosystem of video collaboration and personal collaboration hardware, software, services, and world-class partnerships. From boardrooms to living rooms, hot desks to huddle spaces and personal work desks.

Logitech video collaboration and personal collaboration devices range from the newly launched Zone Vibe Wireless headphone and Brio 505 webcam for personal work desks, to Rally Plus; a premier modular video conferencing system for large rooms, for everyday video call needs.

Logitech’s line of products, solutions, and

Logitech’s video collaboration tools provide the ability to convert any small room or workspace for telehealth to connect providers to patients, and patients to family members in long-term car. Especially, when healthcare organisations have remote working sites, Logitech video collaboration tools provide a cost-effective solution that can reduce the need for travel, improve internal collaboration, boost productivity and increase connectivity.

Logitech’s advanced technologies and design innovations make video conferencing easy and natural. The vendor developed RightSight to automatically move the lens and adjusts the zoom so that no one gets left out. For better audio and video, Logitech RightSight automatically optimizes voice for conversational clarity and Logitech RightLight optimizes light balance and fine tunes colour and saturation for better video.

The vendor’s room and personal workspace solutions designed with the user in mind, are plug and play, easy to use, easy to deploy and are rigorously tested and certified for compatibility with major video platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet. To help business manage their video conferencing real estate and devices that are now spread across many locations, Logitech provides cloud-based device management software to support hybrid workforces

Logitech has more than 100 tier-1 partners, distributors, and solution integrators in the Middle East. Together with our market-leading solutions, these key partners enabled Logitech to achieve rapid growth in its video collaboration business. The Logitech Video Collaboration Summit 2022 in Dubai earlier this year, was a huge success. The Logitech channel ecosystem, is a key pillar of strategy and success in the region. ë

Logitech’s solutions will help them in re-tooling work and re-designing work spaces so that the job can get done from anywhere

LOUBNA IMENCHAL

Head of Video Collaboration, Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, Logitech.

SOHAM SHAH Founder and CEO, Selfdrive.

AI IS HELPING DRIVERS FIND RENTAL CARS ONLINE

Selfdrive helps customers source cars typically not available with other rental companies and offers flexibility to subscribe from 1 day to 36 months.

understand that this client is within the luxury segment, so he, she doesn’t have to waste his, her time navigating through the entire app.

Selfdrive is crafted in a way which makes it easy for users to access the platform. The integrated technology is simple, yet robust making it a seamless process for the users to navigate through the app. The super app car rental platform gives customers in the region access to over 20,000 vehicles at 100+ locations across UAE delivered to their doorstep.

Selfdrive has expanded into Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, which is a testament to its growing popularity and success and an indicator of the changing landscape of the automotive rental market in the region and beyond. It aim to acquire 65 per cent of the digital rental market share in these markets with its seamless customer experience and range of product offerings through the app.

Selfdrive, is a Smart Mobility Super App, that allows users to rent a car on demand in a simple, safe and flexible way. The app is designed on a proprietary tech foundation concept known as search–select–pay, which uses machine learning and artificial intelligence AI to match users’ profiles with the cars they wish to drive.

As compared to other car rental services, Selfdrive is a Super App, which basically means that it is end-to-end integrated. Being the only platform to have direct tie ups with dealers and car manufacturers, Selfdrive helps customers source cars that are typically not available with other rental companies and also offers flexibility to subscribe from 1 day to 36 months.

In addition, its AI integration helps the company to profile customers based on their specific requirements. For example, if a

customer is a registered user on its platform and have been driving a certain segment of a vehicle, say BMW – every time they return to the application, the look and feel of the application would typically change based on the client profile. This helps Selfdrive better

Recently, Selfdrive launched launched NEOS – the UAE’s 1st New Car Every Year programme giving customers flexibility to drive a brand-new car every year that would offer an alternative to car ownership and a hassle-free experience. In addition, the app offers doorstep delivery, service across all seven emirates, no early termination penalty, booked and pre-paid services, convenient and secure payment models, and more.

The super app offers various products for users, express booking daily and weekly, micro lease 1 month to 12 months and LeasePro lease to own offering brand new “0” KM cars direct from the dealership from 1 year to 3 years. Its latest offering NEOS allow customers to exchange their cars every year with a brand-new car.

As such, the customer needs to select a car for a 1-year tenure and just pay a monthly fee. A brandnew car will get delivered as per the date and time requested.

The predetermined monthly amount for subscribing to the vehicle under the NEOS program includes insurance, service and maintenance, replacement vehicle and roadside assistance at zero additional cost. With zero maintenance or no overhead cost and no 20% down payment, the Super app’s latest offering aims to provide Car Ownership with Zero Liability. ë

As compared to other car rental services, Selfdrive is a Super App, which basically means that it is end-to-end integrated

CEZMI EROGLU Transformation Solutions Director MET, Software AG.

MOVING FROM SYSTEMS OF RECORDS TO SYSTEM OF ENGAGEMENT

While reorienting company strategy for a new business model is relatively easy on blueprint, the actual implementation of decisions is very difficult.

The second issue that organisations face since the start of the pandemic is the flexible working environment that uses varied resources across different geographical locations. Organisations must ensure employees have the needed hardware and software that is necessary to foster productivity available in such an environment. It is vital to create a culture in which flexibility can thrive. A flexible work environment is the new norm and will remain important and vital for years to come.

The most important challenge faced are from external sources - the face of change and keeping up with changing factors such as market conditions, competition, global economic factors, which compel top executives to derive important and drastic decisions from time to time. While reorienting a company strategy and decision making for a new business model is relatively easy on the blueprint, the actual implementation of these altering decisions for overhauling the business model is very difficult as it requires an organisation wide adoption through people, processes, technology.

While it may sound like a buzz word, it is vital for companies to become ‘agile’ and be ready to keep up with these changes to act quicker. This will aid to stay on track staying focused despite external forces– in the short and long term.

Most organisations in the region have completed what is called ‘systems of records’ such as ERP, CRP and CRM systems. Moreover, in the recent years, there has been added focus on ‘systems of engagement’ which include mobile applications, customer engagement portals, etc. Organisations are now focusing on innovation and trying to identify new business models, new revenue streams, with the focus shifting towards delivering newer products and services to engage the customer defining differently.

The shift towards cloud application is increasingly accelerating versus earlier when there was extreme resistance due to security and legal challenges. This is changing now with government hosted solutions such as G42 picking up pace which brings focus on integration as most enterprises have a hybrid infrastructure and need to integrate across

environments.

Siloed departments, functions and applications burden large organisations. The rapid transformation with newer technologies has led to greater complexity and fragmentation of data sources and applications. Customer engagement is spread across every process and system at each stage of the customer lifecycle, leading to problems with integration, inconsistent data, and slower adoption of new tools at scale. A company hence needs to have cross departmental and cross organisational synergies to foster innovation.

The level of business transformation is a key indicator of an organisation’s maturity. Most organisations that are based on business data are mature, with shifting focus on hybrid integration – connecting applications, devices. The level of maturity in understanding the importance of integrating and harnessing the value from data is expected to be the biggest disruption in the coming years. Connecting everything together and using data to generate value.

Metaverse will be an additional channel for businesses to interact with customers in addition to traditional physical or digital channels to attract customers for sales conversion. For travel, one can get a real understanding of hotels, its facilities, rooms, services. This is also relevant in real estate where a metaverse version will provide a near to real experience of what a customer can expect post construction and development of the premises. Metaverse possibilities could include teaching medicine, or maintenance of an airplane. ë

Siloed departments, functions and applications burden large organisations

Qualys acquires Blue Hexagon’s deep learning NDR to convert 10 trillion points on its cloud data lake

Qualys announced it has acquired the assets of Blue Hexagon. This brings AI machine learning to the Qualys Cloud Platform to help convert petabytes of highly integrated data into meaningful insights for customers.

This acquisition will enable Qualys to leverage its powerful Cloud Platform and its more than 10 trillion data points to uncover behaviour patterns including active vulnerability exploitation, identification of advanced network threats, and adaptive risk mitigation across all assets and applications. This dynamic combination of highly integrated security data with machine learning technology will bring predictive and automated reduction of cyber security risk to Qualys customers.

Blue Hexagon is an AI ML innovator of Cloud Threat Detection and Response solutions enabling enterprises to adopt the public cloud securely through real-time detection of several types of cloud attacks, from supply chain infection in containers and storage, to

crypto miners and APTs with command and control, to unauthorised activity from malicious actors.

The Blue Hexagon AI/ML technology will be integrated throughout the Qualys Cloud Platform allowing customers to: Detect active vulnerability exploitations — Blue Hexagon’s AI/ML-based threat detection capability, integrated into Qualys VMDR, will augment vulnerability assessment by detecting active exploitations based on behaviour patterns and suspicious activities over the network.

Implement adaptive risk mitigation — Leverage the Qualys Cloud Platform for predictive analytics to reduce the risk of open vulnerabilities and threats including exposure of business-critical assets with adaptive mitigations.

Augment detection and response with the context of network threats — Blue Hexagon’s AI/ML-driven network detection will allow

Lenovo announces Infrastructure Solutions V3 enhancement coinciding with 30th anniversary

Lenovo announced the most comprehensive portfolio enhancement in its history, unveiling new end-to-end infrastructure solutions and services optimised to accelerate global IT modernisation with advanced performance, security and sustainable computing capabilities.

The new Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions V3 portfolio delivers industry-leading innovations to help companies of all sizes more easily deploy and manage hybrid multi-cloud and edge environments, as well as traditional and

artificial intelligence workloads across retail, manufacturing, financial, healthcare, telecom industries and more.

The Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions V3 portfolio encompasses the next generation of ThinkSystem, ThinkAgile, and ThinkEdge servers and storage systems, recognised as the industry’s most reliable and secure systems. Supported by next-generation AMD EPYC , Intel Xeon Scalable and Arm-based processors, as well as AMD Instinct and NVIDIA GPUs

Qualys Multi-Vector EDR and Context XDR to collect, inspect and analyse network telemetry, protocols and traffic in an agentless manner, including encrypted traffic, for early signs of ransomware and malware attacks.

All Blue Hexagon employees are joining the Qualys team with Nayeem Islam becoming Vice President of Product Management for the threat analytics platform.

and NVIDIA AI Enterprise software, Lenovo customers can execute high-performance computing, AI and mission-critical business workloads across hybrid multi-cloud compute environments.

To simplify management from edge to cloud and provide greater agility, Lenovo also unveiled XClarity One, an industry-first, open cloud software management platform that combines TruScale Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Management-as-a-Service and Smarter Support analytics into a unified customer portal.

Lenovo XClarity One provides a modern, intuitive interface that simplifies IT orchestration, deployment, automation, metering and support from edge to cloud. Customers benefit from visibility into infrastructure performance, usage metering and support analytics. Lenovo TruScale Infrastructure as-a-Service provides a pay-as-you-go model, eliminating overprovisioning and providing real-time usage cost insight. Customers can also easily customise where management data resides, from public to private, across hybrid multi-cloud environments.

Sumedh Thakar, President and CEO, Qualys.

Intel demonstrates Thunderbolt with 80 gbps bi-directional USB4 v2 standard

to meet the growing needs of content creators and gamers, all while maintaining compatibility with previous versions of Thunderbolt and USB.

This prototype demonstration marks a major milestone in the journey to delivering next-generation Thunderbolt to the industry. The bandwidth needs of content creators and gamers are increasing significantly for highresolution displays, low latency visuals, and the backup or transfer of huge video and data files. Next-generation Thunderbolt will deliver up to three times the capability of Thunderbolt 4 and make creating and gaming more efficient and immersive.

Intel has demonstrated an early prototype of next-generation Thunderbolt in action, aligned to the USB Implementers Forum’s release of the USB4 v2 specification today. Next-generation Thunderbolt will deliver 80 gigabits per second of bi-directional bandwidth and enable up to 120 Gbps for the best display experience, providing up to three times the capability of today’s technologies

Confluent releases Stream Designer to help developers deploy streaming data pipelines

Confluent announced Stream Designer, a visual interface that enables developers to build and deploy streaming data pipelines in minutes. This point-and-click visual builder is a major advancement toward democratising data streams so they are accessible to developers beyond specialised Apache Kafka experts. With more teams able to rapidly build and iterate on streaming pipelines, organisations can quickly connect more data throughout their business for agile development and better, faster, in-the-

moment decision making.

In the streaming era, data streaming is the default mode of data operations for successful modern businesses. The streaming technologies that were once at the edges have become core to critical business functions. This shift is fuelled by the growing demand to deliver data instantaneously and scalably across a full range of customer experiences and business operations. Traditional batch processing can no longer keep pace with the growing number of use cases that

With the vision to make Thunderbolt available to everyone, Intel contributed its Thunderbolt protocol specification to the USB Promoter Group in 2019, which served as the basis for USB4. As a leader in this industry group, Intel has worked to extend the performance of USB4 to the next level.

depend on sub-millisecond updates across an ever-expansive set of data sources.

Organisations are seeking ways to accelerate their data streaming initiatives as more of their business is operating in real time. Kafka is the de facto standard for data streaming, as it enables over 80% of Fortune 100 companies to reliably handle large volumes and varieties of data in real time. However, building streaming data pipelines on open-source Kafka requires large teams of highly specialised engineering talent and time-consuming development spread across multiple tools. This puts pervasive data streaming out of reach for many organisations and leaves existing legacy pipelines clogged with stale and outdated data.

Stream Designer provides developers a flexible point-and-click canvas to build pipelines in minutes and describe data flows and business logic easily within the Confluent Cloud UI. It takes a developer-centric approach, where users with different skills and needs can seamlessly switch between the UI, a code editor, and command-line interface to declaratively build data flow logic at top speed. It brings developeroriented practices to pipelines, making it easier for developers new to Kafka to scale data streaming projects faster.

SolarWinds announces Observability dashboard to manage IT ops in hybrid and multi-cloud

SolarWinds announced launch of SolarWinds Observability, a fully-integrated, cloud-native SaaS offering that provides unified and comprehensive visibility for today’s modern, distributed, hybrid, and multi-cloud IT environments.

SolarWinds Observability enables customers to accelerate digital transformation through powerful machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities that make it easy to manage highly complex IT environments. The new SaaS platform blends SolarWinds observability solutions across network, infrastructure, systems, application, database, digital experience, and log monitoring in one end-to-end solution across private and public clouds with singlepane-of-glass visibility.

SolarWinds Observability is built for IT Ops and DevOps teams, developers, cloud archi-

tects and IT executives to achieve optimum performance, compliance, and resilience by providing actionable business insights needed to identify and remediate issues.

SolarWinds Observability is designed to solve this problem by providing visibility into the complete environment—in both public and private clouds—and expedite anomaly identification and resolution. By enabling IT Ops, DevOps, and SecOps teams to shift from reactive to proactive postures, SolarWinds Observability helps ensure optimal performance and superior user experience, regardless of how distributed a business’s services are, where they run, or how often they change.

The launch of SolarWinds Observability follows the company announcing its new Transform Partner Program earlier this month.

SolarWinds Transform enables partners to accelerate digital transformation for their customers through simple and AI-powered SolarWinds observability solutions.

Juniper Networks announced Apstra Free form, the newest expansion to its multiven dor data centre automation and assurance platform. This capability allows Juniper’s enterprise, service provider and cloud pro vider customers to manage and automate their data centre operations regardless of topology and protocols used.

Veritas Technologies advanced its Autonomous Data Management strategy with the launch of Veritas Alta, a cloud data management platform that helps enterprises transition mission-critical workloads to the cloud. Alta harnesses the benefits of the cloud to reduce costs, strengthen ransomware resiliency, and ensure data is protected, available, and compliant.

Veritas also introduced Veritas Alta View, a cloud-based management console that provides a unified view and control of the entire data estate—across edge, data centre, and cloud—from a single pane of glass.

The rise of multi-cloud creates a transformative infrastructure and application development platform for enterprises. However, customers own the security, protection, compliance, and availability of their data within the cloud as part of a shared responsibility model with the cloud service provider. Tools offered by CSPs deliver basic functionality, but mission-critical applications require enterprise-grade capabilities, optimised cost management and cross-cloud data mobility and visibility.

Juniper Apstra was built from the ground up to address this new era of operations. Apstra Freeform aims to unify experiences across vendors and automate key data centre workflows as the single source of truth for data centre configuration.

Freeform builds upon Apstra’s powerful intent-based networking capabilities for full lifecycle data centre management across a range of data centre topologies and vendors, enabling a reliable user experience that encompasses the following key features:

New reference design covering any topology. With this new software release, Apstra simplifies IT operations by extending its intent-based networking capability to any protocol, any topology and any network domain. Customers can now choose the architecture that fits their business needs while taking advantage of Apstra capabilities.

Reliable operations. Apstra’s role as the single source of truth enables data centre designs to be applied consistently, every time. Closed-loop feedback provides IT professionals with reliable operations across disparate infrastructure. Value now accessible to more customers. As part of this new release, Juniper is introducing a new Apstra licensing model. Freeform extends Apstra capabilities to significantly more use cases. Customers can now choose from three licensing tiers with the option to seamlessly upgrade at any time as needed.

(Left to right) Rohini Kasturi, Chief Product Officer at SolarWinds; and Sudhakar Ramakrishna, President and Chief executive Officer, SolarWinds.

Veritas announces autonomous cloud data management through Alta, Alta View

Juniper Networks announces Apstra Freeform for multivendor data centre automation

Greg Hughes, Chief Executive Officer, Veritas Technologies.

Mike Bushong, Group VP of Data Centre Product Management, Juniper Networks

Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi automates 3,000 operations in 3 months using IBM Turbonomic

Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi and IBM discussed boosting cooperation to fuel growth, accelerate digital footprint and drive sustainable development across various operations. The collaboration enables SCAD to leverage IBM Turbonomic Application Resource Management to automate processes, optimise digital infrastructure performance and minimise costs.

SCAD selected IBM Turbonomic to scale intelligent automation capabilities to run across any hybrid cloud environment. Over the duration of three months, IBM Turbonomic executed over 3,000 automated actions, including continuous placement for virtual machines, containers, and scaling infrastructure resource saving SCAD more than 500 hours of manual work with a projected expectation to save 2,000 hours over 2023.

SCAD is responsible for building an information network and a unified channel that serves the statistical ecosystem in Abu Dhabi by organising, unifying, and managing all aspects

of the Emirate’s statistical data. SCAD develops a leading statistical ecosystem to empower decision makers and users in the government, private sector, and society.

The partnership between SCAD and IBM is

aligned with efforts to reach a balance between carbon neutrality and application performance. Through leveraging IBM Turbonomic, SCAD will be able to minimise energy consumption and reduce carbon footprint by 17 tonnes.

Oman Government adds second Oracle Dedicated Region Cloud@Customer for disaster recovery

Oracle announced that the Government of the Sultanate of Oman will implement a second Oracle Dedicated Region Cloud@Customer to help meet national data sovereignty requirements and establish a comprehensive disaster recovery process.

The first Oracle Dedicated Region Cloud@Customer led by ITHCA Oman Information and Communications Technology Group was implemented earlier this year and is now live in production. With the implementation of this second Dedicated Region, the Oman government is able to migrate its IT systems to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure while retaining physical control of its hardware and data to help meet the Sultanate’s data sovereignty requirements.

Following the implementation of the second Oracle Dedicated Region Cloud@Customer, the ITHCA Group will be able to offer all 100+ OCI cloud services as well as Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications to Oman government entities. The Oman government will also be able to move its business-critical workloads to the cloud, enabling operational efficiency and cost savings while ensuring compliance with the Sultanate’s data sovereignty requirements.

Designed for single-tenant usage, the Oman government’s Dedicated Region Cloud@Customer is a self-contained region where all data, including API operations and metadata, remain local to the region. The ITHCA will also have access to the tools needed to reliably run Oracle

and third-party applications, create cloud native applications, and modernise existing ones with machine learning and modern cloud services.

Oracle has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Oman ICT Group to train and upskill Oman government executives and Oman government customers on OCI’s cloud services with live technical seminars and training labs. Oracle University’s training programme on OCI will also be offered as part of this agreement. The executives will receive OCI certifications following the successful completion of the training.

(Left to right) Islam Hemdan, Senior Sales Representative, IBM; Mohamed El-Shanawany, Principal Sales Manager, Data and AI and Automation, Gulf, Levant, and Pakistan IBM Technology; HE Abdulla Alqezmi, Executive Director Data, SCAD; Wael Abdoush, General Manager, IBM Gulf, Levant, and Pakistan; Saad Toma, General Manager, IBM MEA; HE Ahmed Mahmoud Fikri, Director General, SCAD; Mostafa Zafer, Vice President, IBM Data, AI and Automation, IBM Technology MEA; Ahmed Ateeq Al Balooshi Director Stakeholder Management and Portfolio Planning; Aziz Al Kayyoumi, Acting Director Information Technology.

Oracle, KPMG Lower Gulf, Tech Mahindra to support digital transformation at Dubai Investments

Dubai Investments launched a major digital transformation programme in collaboration with Oracle, KPMG Lower Gulf, and Tech Mahindra to drive continuous innovation, launch new business models faster, and enhance efficiency with automation. The company has begun a series of digital transformation projects to prioritise the needs of its customers and investors and create a more user-friendly set of engagement and transactional platforms.

The new programme launched in collaboration with global strategy firm KPMG Lower Gulf, cloud and software giant Oracle and global technology systems integrator Tech Mahindra will be a turning point for Dubai Investments as it comprehensively enhances its digital capabilities and brings itself at the forefront of innovation. The implementation of the new technology will facilitate reduced transactions costs, redefine business processes and optimise business organisational structures, streamlining processes across Dubai Investments entities in the long-run.

Under this implementation, Dubai Invest-

MENA based BitOasis implements Freshdesk and Freshchat to manage customer queries

ments will deploy Oracle Fusion Property Management, Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning ERP across Finance, Investments, Procurement, and Projects, Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management EPM, Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management HCM, and Oracle Fusion Cloud Customer Experience CX.

Dubai Investments will deploy Oracle Fusion

Property Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, Enterprise Performance Management, Human Capital Management, Customer Experience

A set of information security assurance standards have been developed to raise the minimum level of protection of information assets and to support systems across Dubai Investments Group.

Freshworks announced that cryptocurrency exchange giant, BitOasis, implemented Freshworks solutions Freshdesk and Freshchat to help manage a large increase in customer queries due to the demand for information about digital currencies.

BitOasis is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the Middle East and North Africa with a presence in 14 countries, making them a hotspot for customer usage and questions, especially in the volatile market of cryptocurrency. With the challenging macro conditions for crypto investment, daily customer interactions with the BitOasis chatbot surged from approximately 300 to nearly 3,000 this year.

With an increase in customer queries, BitOasis needed a faster way to

respond to its large customer base efficiently, that would delight its customers and customer service agents. In order to achieve these goals, the company selected both Freshdesk support software and Freshchat conversational messaging software.

BitOasis created a ticketing system using Freshdesk to help support agents prioritise and collaborate to respond to customer questions quickly. Adding Freshchat enabled the customer service team to incorporate Whatsapp into the company’s troubleshooting abilities. The BitOasis bot – an intelligent bot built using the Freshchat AI chatbot – now handles more than 50% of customer queries over WhatsApp which enables live agents to focus on responding to queries that need human intervention.

French Ministry of Interior selects Airbus, Capgemini for secure mobile communication system

The consortium led by Airbus and Capgemini was selected by the French Ministry of the Interior and Overseas territories for the role of Package 2 integrator for the Réseau Radio du Futur, RRF – radio network of the future, the secure and resilient broadband network for

domestic security and emergency rescue forces. This pioneer project, led by France, is key to modernising domestic security forces. More than ever, this contract reinforces Airbus’ position as European leader of critical communications, as well as that of Capgemini as trusted

partner in the modernisation of emergency rescue and security forces, and provision of sovereign services.

The Réseau Radio du Futur will be a national, secure and high-speed, 4G and 5G, priority mobile communication system, with a high level of resilience in order to guarantee the continuum of security and emergency rescue missions on a daily basis, including in the event of a crisis or major event. RRF intends to equip up to 400,000 users in the security and emergency rescue forces, such as the national gendarmerie, the national police force, firefighters and other civil security forces.

It will allow these users to benefit from many new data-centred services, such as video, in particular.

In the context of RRF, Airbus will, through its activity, to provide a solution that will allow its various stakeholders to communicate via this new network, with support from a variety of partners, including Econocom, Prescom, Samsung and Streamwide. For its part, Capgemini will integrate the many sets of expertise provided by all the project partners. This includes Dell Technologies for the cloud infrastructure it will provide, in support Ericsson’s 5G telecommunications services.

Proofpoint finds only 21% Saudi businesses using DMARC protection reject, allowing email fraud

Proofpoint, released research which shows that even though more than half 57% of the top 150 Saudi organisations have published a DMARC record, Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance, only 21% have implemented the strictest and recommended level of DMARC protection reject, leaving their customers at risk of

DMARC is an email validation protocol that authenticates the sender’s identity before allowing the message to reach its intended designation. It is designed to protect domain names from being misused by cybercriminals. ‘Reject’ is the strictest and recommended level of DMARC protection, a setting and policy that blocks fraudulent emails from

The global findings of Proofpoint’s research showed that 38% of the top 150 organisations worldwide have the strictest, recommended level of DMARC Reject, meaning 62% are not using secure communication methods to proactively block fraudulent emails from reaching customers. This makes companies potentially more susceptible to cybercriminals spoofing their identity and increasing the risk of email fraud targeting their customers.

Emile Abou Saleh, Regional Director, Middle East and Africa, Proofpoint.

Kaar Technologies implements SAP

S4HANA Private Cloud for YBA Kanoo Group

The Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo Group, one of the largest independent family-owned multinationals in the Middle East, has announced its successful deployment of enterprise resource planning private cloud solution, Rise with SAP, delivered by global technology company SAP

SE in conjunction with channel partner Kaar Technologies.

With the deployment of the SAP S4HANA Private Cloud Edition, the YBA Kanoo Group has reached a significant milestone in its digital transformation journey aimed at aligning

Dubai Police signs MoU with HPE to develop security projects and innovations

The Dubai Police General Command has recently signed a memorandum of understanding MoU with Hewlett Packard Enterprise HPE, to develop joint activities in areas of common interest, explore and innovate across future security projects, develop security innovations.

The MoU paves the ways for cooperation in cooperate in setting comprehensive strategies for research and development projects.

The MoU was signed by His Excellency Major General Khalid Nasser Al Razooqi, Director of the General Department of Artificial Intelligence at Dubai Police, and Ahmad Alkhallafi, Managing Director for UAE, Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

Maj Gen Al Razooqi said that Dubai Police, under the directives of His Excellency Lieutenant General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police, is consistently continuing its efforts to support security sectors with research, studies, and knowledge.

its businesses with regional strategic visions and enhancing services to its customers. YBA Kanoo Group has an extensive portfolio of businesses in shipping, logistics, travel, industrial and energy, capital, and real estate across the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Asia.

In its digital roadmap, the YBA Kanoo Group is working with channel partner Kaar Technologies to deploy a wide range of solutions. The SAP Cloud Platform is integrating SAP and non-SAP systems, including mobile applications.

(Centre) YBA Kanoo Group Director, Ahmed Fawzi Kanoo; SAP Senior Vice President of Middle East North, Ahmed AlFaifi; and YBA Kanoo Deputy Group Chairman Fawzi Ahmed Kanoo were among the executives at the go-live ceremony.

(Left to right) Ahmad Alkhallafi, Managing Director for UAE, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and His Excellency Major General Khalid Nasser Al Razooqi, Director of the General Department of Artificial Intelligence at Dubai Police.

KPMG signs MoU with UAE Cyber Security Council to raise awareness of cyber safety among students

KPMG Lower Gulf has signed an MoU with the UAE Cyber Security Council, to raise awareness of cyber safety among students across the nation and help create a safe and strong cyber infrastructure in the UAE.

Last year, the UAE introduced major amendments to its Cybercrime Law with a new Federal Decree Law No. 34 of 2021

covering crimes committed online, including an article punishing anyone using or luring children with illicit content. The MoU will allow both KPMG and the Cyber Security Council to collaborate, develop and execute nation-wide campaigns in the coming year to educate UAE students, and ultimately ensure a safe and secure online environment for them.

Petrofac deploys Oracle ERP Cloud for its Engineering and Construction asset management

Petrofac has implemented Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Suite to enhance its operations and support the company’s ongoing expansion. Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning, Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Management Planning, and Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management will help Petrofac integrate core business processes across its global operations, generate real-time insights, and better support its growing workforce. Petrofac has implemented Oracle ERP Cloud for its Asset Solutions business unit with

deployment underway for the company’s Engineering and Construction business unit.

The Oracle Fusion Applications implementation with Petrofac is being managed by Oracle Consulting.

With offices in 29 countries, Petrofac’s portfolio spans the design, construction, maintenance and optimisation of oil, gas, petrochemical, new and renewable energy infrastructure. Petrofac needed to automate and streamline its key business processes across all verticals, manage resources more effectively,

and better align the business behind its expansion plans.

With Oracle Fusion Applications, Petrofac can connect operational data across its HR, sales, finance, and procurement functions to improve management insights, accelerate decision-making, and realise a faster time to value. Moving business processes to Oracle Fusion Applications will also help the company eliminate manual processes, enhance supplier communications, boost transparency, and create a single user experience and data model.

Tim Wood, Partner and Head of Cyber Security, KPMG Lower Gulf.

THE ANSWER LIES IN DETECTION EFFICACY

Lack of confidence can become a selfpropagating problem, as the more alerts that require human inspection, the slower you are to validate the problem.

Over the years I have seen hundreds of company’s trials and deploy cybersecurity capabilities, and whilst these evolve, the selection criteria and metrics of success has stayed more static. Meeting with executives at events such as the World Economic Forum, I often get asked what is the one metric I should use to measure success.

This is not a simple question, and I can guarantee many of you would have differing answers. For me, there is one that is all too often overlooked and ties into another metric that is also too often glossed over: Detection Efficacy.

All too often, I see testing that is capability

GREG DAY Vice President and Global Field CISO EMEA, Cybereason.

based rather than usability. I remember not so many years ago, an organisation doing some testing and they came back with the statement that more or less everyone found the same threats. I have to say, I was somewhat shocked by their answer. So I started to dig into their statement, and I found that they had a team of ten testing capabilities, whereas when deployed the solution would be 50% of one person’s job.

Furthermore, while in the end the results were similar, the journey to get there was very different. Some had triggered thousands of alerts, and other millions. This would mean that you would need a lot more human power to process one solution output to the next. So the time to resolution, which is a metric that is very commonly used in SOC teams MTTD and MTTR, mean time to detect and mean time to respond would be very different.

I was with a group of CISOs not so long ago, and we all agreed that there simply is not the human capacity to scale to the needs to today’s SOC, as the volume of threats, security tools and things we need to protection–and the time the business allows for MTTD and MTTR gets shorter.

This is the time-paradox problem we face. The only way we solve this challenge is to reduce the number of alerts that require human inspection. We must start to automate some of the simpler levels of detection and response.

If we know we have to make this shift, you can rightfully ask why we are not making better headway. The answer is detection efficacy; talk to most analysts and they will always prefer to have human inspection, cross-checking to ensure we have made the right determination.

This goes back to simple psychology: we are five times more worried about being seen to have made the wrong decision, as we are of getting it right. If you do not believe me, go read The Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters.

Today’s threats are complex, there is no denying it. I go back 30 years, and you could find something unique in each threats’ code typically a standalone binary and be confident in knowing what you found. Today, threats are made up of many components that occur in different places both on and off your end-device.

So, knowing if you have a specific threat has become an ever more complex jigsaw puzzle. You need to put enough pieces of the detection alerts together to have the confidence that what you are seeing is what is definitely there.

I challenge you next time you are looking at an alert: could you put a figure on the detection efficacy? How confident are you in what you are seeing? If that figure is not high enough, you will always need to ask a human to validate it.

This becomes a self-propagating problem, as the more alerts that require human inspection, the slower you are to validate the problem, and typically the more you add in incremental tools to spot the problem, but end up simply duplicating the detections.

Having two solutions both give you an

answer that you are 40% confident in does not add up to suddenly being 80% confident, as they may be duplications, or they could be two disparate things. The only way to confirm a correlation between them is through more human effort.

If we are not able to scale to future demand as the cyber-time paradox problem will only ever get worse sorry, that’s just simple math, we will have to leverage automation to help us scale. If at every stage we require human intervention, that can never happen.

As such we must start to focus on the efficacy of detection. This is evidence of how often the determination of a threat is right versus wrong technically, but I would challenge it is just as much physiological: if we do not trust the tools, we will always want humans to validate.

This is the core of how we detect the process, and if we get this right, the outcome will surely improve through less false positives and other noise so teams can scale, and they can focus on the complex problems. With less noise, the MTTD and MTTR inherently improves, and where we have the confidence to truly take the human out of the equation, we can make huge strides forwards.

I am sure some of you will still argue that for CEOs and other executives– there is a better metric, something along risk lines etc. But businesses inherently take risks, that’s typically where the greatest margins can be made. The key being they understand risks. In cyber, if we cannot understand if the problem is real or not, honestly we cannot determine if the risk is real or not, effectively neutering our ability to make any decision. ë

Talk to most analysts and they will always prefer to have human inspection

While in the end the results were similar, the journey to get there was very different

ED HOPPITT Director Apps and Cloud Platforms, VMware EMEA.

REMOVING STEREOTYPES AROUND APPLICATION DEVELOPERS

If we are to achieve diversity amongst developers and help ease the talent crisis, we need to completely break these down so that true inclusion can be achieved.

Professional stereotypes exist in all industries. Investment bankers in sharp suits, advertising gurus with horn rimmed glasses, sipping flat whites – they’re everywhere. The technology sector is equally victim to stereotypes, with developers in particular being regularly

typecast. For many the title developer conjures up thoughts of a young, white, male, wearing a hoodie and most likely working alone, illuminated by the soft glow of their monitor. And yes, there are plenty of developers who fit this description.

Yet they do not benefit from this stereotype either. Many enjoy

characteristics, attributes and lives outside of the technology world that would most likely defy this narrow stereotype. And if we are to achieve diversity amongst developers and help ease the talent crisis, we need to completely break these down so that true inclusion can be achieved.

Proving the developer stereotype wrong is essential not just for ensuring that the welldocumented talent gap is filled, but also for organisations to benefit from the myriad benefits diversity is proven to achieve. As we sit on the edge of a talent precipice, we must not only welcome diversity of talent, but we must actively pursue it.

Those working in technology know that there is no single type of developer, and no single definition of a developer role. Job descriptions vary widely, but it all coalesces around helping drive organisations’ digital strategies. They are a central factor in organisations reaching their modern app ambitions of the future.

You can often think of a developer as a driver. Just like a Formula One racing driver is trained for speed, a lorry driver is a long-haul expert and specialises in manoeuvring valuable cargo. Urban taxi drivers navigate complex streets and traffic to get a passenger from A to B in the shortest time possible, and a stunt car driver is an expert in speed and precision, in light of death-defying manoeuvres.

At its basic level, each driver is doing the same thing – moving a vehicle. Yet within each they are building on the same base of knowledge, adding their mastery of tools, but putting their individual skills to use in their particular environment. Developers are the same, and in the same way people from all walks of life can, and are capable of being drivers of various vehicles, so the same goes for developer talent, helping to drive businesses’ digital strategies. It is about providing a wider range of people with

a driving seat to suit their skills and ensure they can picture themselves in the vehicle.

If we cannot get a grip on breaking stereotypes we will not succeed in strengthening the developer talent pipeline, and we will all suffer. That means we all have a role to play. Organisations themselves must consider how to shine a spotlight on diversity in all its forms, and celebrate authenticity, individuality and stories of those in their teams. Organisations can also support their teams to become vocal advocates - whether that is through supporting time out of the office for outreach, or additional training.

Developers can support this by being gener-

ous and open with their stories and insights, sharing their interests, and demonstrating their human side beyond their technology abilities. Whether this is through engaging on social media, contributing to blogs, connecting with local schools, colleges and universities, careers fairs, youth groups - anywhere they can engage young people.

It is about getting out there, being clear about why diversity matters and actively saying no to stereotypes, even if they feel they might fit it. We all have a vehicle we can drive, and it is time we take the steering wheel.

If, as an industry, we can build the will to get out there and challenge the stereotype, we will find the way. When writing job descriptions to applicants, we make sure to sell the challenge of the position, rather than outlining what would be the ideal characteristics of the perfect candidate. Using this approach has helped drive twice the amount of female and URM applicants.

Whilst each of these are small steps, combined together with the other efforts of organisations, we can hopefully change stereotypes and drive the developer talent pipeline that the technology industry so desperately needs. ë

Developers can support this by being generous and open with their stories and insights

You can often think of a developer as a driver

What’s trending

What’s trending

Chris Kaddaras moves from Transmit Security to Juniper as Executive VP and Chief Revenue Officer

Juniper Networks announced that effective Chris Kaddaras has been named Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer, reporting to Chief Executive Officer, Rami Rahim. Kaddaras will be responsible for continuing Juniper’s sales growth momentum and driving the strategic and operational elements of the sales and partner functions for the company. Kaddaras will lead a global organisation that includes direct and indirect sales, systems engineering, advanced technologies sales and field operations.

Prior to Juniper, Chris served as Chief Revenue Officer at Transmit Security, a provider of customer identity and access management SaaS solutions. Before that, he held multiple roles at Nutanix from 2016-2021, including Chief Revenue Officer. Prior to joining Nutanix, Chris was with EMC Corporation for 16 years, where he held positions including Vice President of Commercial Sales and Vice President of Sales Engineering across EMEA.

Yahya Kassab joins Commvault from Dell Technologies as Senior Director and GM for GCC, Pakistan

Commvault, a global enterprise leader in cloud data management, appointed Yahya Kassab as Senior Director and General Manager Gulf Cooperation Council and Pakistan region. Kassab will be responsible for driving business growth, building new customer relationships and accelerating the company’s sales trajectory and goto-market motion to expand Commvault’s market share across the region.

Kassab brings vast regional experience in technology sales and management from reputable multinational companies. Prior to joining Commvault, Kassab worked for more than a decade with Dell Technologies as their Director of Public sector, focusing on UAE government entities and helping them with their transformation journeys. His proven sales management track record includes tenures at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, 3Com, GBM, and CA Technologies. Yahya Kassab holds a bachelor’s degree in computer sciences from King AbdulAziz University and has completed several courses in leadership and technology throughout his career.

Swimlane, the low-code security automation company, announced its expansion to the Middle East, Turkey and Africa META with the appointment of Ashraf Sheet as vice president of the region. Sheet will build on the increasing demand for Swimlane security automation throughout META while accelerating the company’s go-to-market and channel growth plans in the region.

Ashraf Sheet is an accomplished sales leader with more than 20 years’ experience in the cybersecurity market. He has held progressive roles leading sales and channel teams across local and multinational companies including InfoBlox and LinkShadow. Throughout his career and through customer and channel relationships, Sheet has established himself as a trusted advisor to many of the world’s mostrecognised brands across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa.

Sayed Hashish moves from Microsoft to Cisco as VP CX for Middle East and Africa

Cisco has announced the appointment of Sayed Hashish as Vice President for Customer Experience, Middle East and Africa, succeeding Adele Trombetta who was promoted to Vice President for CX, EMEA in late 2021. Hashish, a 24-year technology veteran of Microsoft, brings more than three decades of diverse experience in executive leadership and digital transformation to the wider region. CX is one of Cisco’s largest business units, and a key growth engine for the company’s transformation to a recurring revenue business model.

Prior to joining Cisco, Hashish was General Manager, Microsoft UAE, where he spearheaded planning and growth initiatives that enabled and empowered digital transformation in the UAE. Before that, he was Regional General Manager for Microsoft Gulf where he successfully launched the company’s Middle East Cloud regions. Hashish holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics from the American University in Cairo.

Kodak Alaris promotes Naji Kazak to MD for Middle East, Africa, India, Europe region

Kodak Alaris has named Naji Kazak as Managing Director for the EMEIA, Europe, Middle East, India, and Africa region. He is an exceptional leader, with deep knowledge and expertise that will help deliver continued growth and expansion within the region.

In his new role, Kazak will be responsible for Kodak Alaris’ go-to-market strategy and sales performance in the EMEIA markets, reporting into Cassio Vaquero, Vice President of Global Sales. He has a strong track record in driving sales success, having held a number of key posts within the business, most recently as General Manager – Middle East, Africa, Turkey, and Russia METAR.

Swimlane expanding into META with appointment of Ashraf Sheet as Vice President

Trellix, the cybersecurity company delivering the future of extended detection and response, has announced Kim Anstett has joined Trellix as Chief Information Officer. As CIO, Anstett leads Trellix’s global information and technology systems organisation and joins the Executive Leadership Team.

With more than 25 years industry experience, Anstett was most recently Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Iron Mountain leading teams across product development and innovation. Prior, she was CIO at Nielsen, focused on customer value and increased cybersecurity outcomes. She holds a BS from Tufts University and currently serves on the Board of Directors for Quotient Technology. Anstett began at Trellix on September 01 and reports to CEO Bryan Palma.

Crayon, a global leader in IT services and innovation, announced the appointment of Eyad Halawani as its new Managing Director for Crayon Arabia. Eyad has over 20 years of managerial, operational, and technical expertise in leading local and multinational organisations at several stages to success and expansion.

An entrepreneur at heart, Eyad believes in the start-up mentality and its importance in organisational growth of all sizes. This along with his distinct approach to managing big projects has led to top class growth results in the companies he has led.

Throughout his career, Eyad held several executive positions in governmental entities, local and international companies where he managed high-impact functions, established departments and sectors from scratch, and elevated their products and service offerings. This led to an impressive accomplishment in the fields of cloud and innovative technologies.

Lookout, a provider of data-centric endpoint and cloud security solutions, announced the appointment of marketing executive Deborah Wolf as its new chief marketing officer. Wolf will lead the global go-to-market functions for Lookout including revenue marketing, integrated campaigns, digital marketing, field and event marketing, product marketing, corporate communications and marketing operations, as well as its team of business development representatives. Wolf’s hire comes at a pivotal time for the Company as it accelerates its commitment to design and deliver digital security solutions for the intersection of enterprise and personal data.

Freshworks announced that Dennis Woodside is joining the company’s executive leadership team as President. Reporting to Freshworks CEO and Founder Girish Mathrubootham in this newly created role, Woodside will be responsible for leading Freshworks’ global business operations and strategy.

Woodside most recently served as president of Impossible Foods where he oversaw operations, manufacturing, supply chain, sales, marketing, HR and other functions for more than three years. Previously, he was chief operating officer of Dropbox where he was responsible for all customer-facing functions and revenue generation for four years, helping the company reach $1 billion in annual revenue.

Woodside held various sales roles at Google over 9 years, from 2003 to 2012, including Managing Director of Emerging Markets, Vice President of Sales in the UK and President of the Americas, where he oversaw an $18 billion advertising sales business. From May 2012 to April 2014, Woodside served as CEO for Motorola Mobility LLC, reporting directly to Larry Page after the company was acquired by Google. Woodside currently serves on the board of the American Red Cross and was previously on the board of ServiceNow from 2018 to 2022.

Wolf brings more than 30 years of marketing and brand experience to Lookout. She most recently served as CMO at Integrate, a leading B2B marketing technology firm, where she was responsible for designing and delivering the category of Precision Demand Marketing. Prior to Integrate, Wolf was the first CMO at BetterUp, a virtual coaching platform, where she helped shape the growth and direction of the company.

She also previously served as CMO at Lookout from 2015 to 2018, where she led the organisation through a successful transition from a consumer-focused company into one supporting the enterprise. Earlier in her career Wolf served as vice president of corporate marketing at Workday where she led the marketing efforts from its earliest stage through its successful public offering.

Veteran digital marketing professional Deborah Wolf elevated to CMO at Lookout

Kim Anstett moves from Iron Mountain to Trellix as CIO

Dennis Woodside joins Freshworks CEO and Founder Girish Mathrubootham as President

Eyad Halawani moves from Tamkeen Technologies to Crayon Arabia as MD

Kissflow

As it looks to aggressively grow its share in the $50 billion low-code market, Kissflow announced appointment of Sujay Patil as its new Regional Director for the Middle East and Africa. In his new role, Sujay will be responsible for driving Kissflow’s vision and revenue objectives in the MEA, championing digital transformation success for regional end-customers, and driving the sustainability and profitability of the company’s valued channel ecosystem.

Alongside the appointment, the company also announced the inauguration of its new regional headquarters in Dubai Internet City, which will be followed by a large-scale expansion of its team, with appointments spanning sales, channel, and operational roles. Another key initiative Sujay will look to drive in his early days at Kissflow is the implementation of a structured partner programme with the aim of replicating the successful alliance the company has built with Google in the APAC region.

Dataiku, announced appointment of Daniel Brennan as its new Chief Legal Officer. Brennan, who previously spent more than a decade at Twitter, joins the company during a surge of enterprise demand, traction and exceptional customer retention rates.

Before joining Dataiku, Brennan served as Vice President, Deputy General Counsel of Twitter, where he helped to build and lead the organisation’s commercial, international, corporate and securities, and legal operations teams.

Veeam Software announced it has appointed Rick Jackson as Chief Marketing Officer. Jackson is an experienced marketing leader who most recently held chief marketing roles at Qlik, Rackspace and VMware. He will lead Veeam’s global marketing organisation as it continues to drive brand preference and ongoing growth as the #1 market leader of Modern Data Protection solutions spanning Cloud, Virtual, Physical, Hybrid, Software-as-a-Service SaaS and Kubernetes environments.

Jackson has been at the forefront of technology throughout his career. He joins Veeam after eight years at Qlik, where he led the global marketing organisation and was part of the leadership team that transformed Qlik into an end-to-end data and analytics SaaS company. Jackson also served as CMO of VMware where he helped drive the transformation from virtualisation to cloud infrastructure and launched the Software-Defined Data Centre SDDC initiative. It was at VMware where Jackson was first introduced to Veeam and its market-leading products. Jackson holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from California State University, Northridge.

The company has significantly bolstered its C-Suite throughout 2022. In addition to Brennan’s appointment as Chief Legal Officer, Adam Towns was hired as CFO in March formerly at SiSense, Mimecast, and Bridget Shea joined as Chief Customer Officer in June formerly at Mural, Salesforce.

SAP appoints Dominik Asam as CFO and member of Executive Board

Software AG announced appointment of Mamdouh Al-Olayan as Country Manager for Saudi Arabia. The appointment comes soon after Rami Kichli assuming the role of Senior Vice President for Middle East and Turkey to drive the company’s regional growth.

With a long career spanning 17 years in technology, Al-Olayan is based in the company’s Riyadh office and is responsible for leading the company’s strategy across the kingdom, growing the team and supporting the growth of customers across industries that include the Public and Private Sector – spanning Financial Services Industry, Oil and Gas and retail amongst others. Al-Olayan will also focus on scaling the connected enterprise ecosystem in Saudi Arabia. In addition, he will also have an eye on contributing to the community through sustainable solutions for business as well as by infusing youth programs that empower the younger generation of the country.

SAP SE announced that the SAP Supervisory Board has appointed Dominik Asam as CFO and member of the Executive Board of SAP SE. Asam will start on March 7, 2023, and comes to SAP from his current role as CFO and member of the Executive Committee at Airbus.

As previously announced, Luka Mucic will remain a member of the SAP SE Executive Board until March 31, 2023. Dominik Asam joined Airbus in April 2019 from Munich-based Infineon Technologies AG, where he had been CFO since 2011. At Airbus, Asam helped steer the firm through the COVID-19 pandemic while driving business transformation and innovation. Dominik Asam also serves on the Supervisory Board of Bertelsmann.

Daniel Brennan moves from Twitter, joins Dataiku as its Chief Legal Officer

appoints Sujay Patil as Regional Director for Middle East and Africa

Mamdouh Al-Olayan moves from Capgemini, joins Software AG as Country Manager Saudi Arabia

Rick Jackson moves from Qlik to Veeam Software as Chief Marketing Officer