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ISSUE 06

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2017THE YEAR OF INTEGRATED GROWTH

INDIAECM012017

A year that is ripe with expectations of organic growth and massive changes. Sophisticated technologies and a mature platform would make way for naÃ¯ve enterprises to embark on digital transformation. /24

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EDITORIAL

Hello 2017!

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

A very happy new year to all the readers, friends and colleagues! Like every year, 2017 too has come with its own share of expectations, predictions and resolutions for the global economy. Though it would be worth a wait to see how the Trump rule will impact the global economy, it is worth stating that the Middle East is undisputedly poised for strong growth, keeping in mind all the structural transformations that are happening in the physical infrastructure. Countries like KSA, Qatar, Bahrain and UAE are standing on the threshold of organic growth driven by the visionary leaderships. Digitalization has emerged as the new ‘mandate’ in 2016, leaving its Midas touch on all sectors. The need for automated and connected enterprises have risen like never before, which in turn pinched the technology providers and the channel partners to work towards a common goal and bring in the best of both the worlds. According to IDC, the servers and external storage market that comprise the enterprise infrastructure, suffered a 7% YoY decline in Q3— the reason being the Middle East affected by the low oil prices and Africa hampered by the currency depreciation. The need for customizing and optimizing the available resources will be yet again seen pushing the ‘Digitization’ down the nervous system of the modern enterprise. Virtualization would once again see ruling 2017 enterprises. The Critical Infrastructure Forum, organized by EC MEA, also mirrored the growth and pullbacks existing in the regional infrastructure and its varied sectors. On one hand, we have future-ready projects like Hyperloop One that is set to redefine next-gen transportation, while on the other hand we have great initiatives like Shjseen (Sharjah Seen) by the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry that is empowering new organizations to thrive and succeed in the modern economy. With a great interest around cloud solutions and intelligence driven architectures, 2017 would definitely bring in fresh wave of changes in traditional enterprises. While CIOs should not shy away from adopting new technologies, they should definitely see its compatibility within their organizational structure. Any technology should be ‘Adopted’ and not ‘Pushed’. Solutions and service providers should take this resolution in 2017 to take showcase the value in their solutions rather than selling the solutions. The IT fraternity will have to keep this in mind that growth in 2017 would be cohesive and not in isolation. ë

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2017 CONTENTS

VOLUME 04 ISSUE 06 JANUARY 2017 W W W. E N T E R P R I S E C H A N N E L S M E A . C O M

COVER STORY

‘2017’ THE YEAR OF INTEGRATED GROWTH A year that is ripe with expectations of organic growth and massive changes. Sophisticated technologies and a mature platform would make way for naïve enterprises to embark on digital transformation. /24

CEO SPEAK /22

‘INNOVATIVE’ FACILITY MANAGEMENT JAMAL ABDULLAH LOOTAH, CEO, IMDAAD

GUEST ARTICLE /30

THE PROTECTION REVOLUTION – A NEEDED COUNTER TO ATTACKS

INNOVATIONS /45

SPECIAL STORY Economic Outlook 2017 /36

ARUBA 2540 SERIES SWITCHES

Aruba has launched the 2540 Series Switches – the IoT ready and cloud manageable access switches. Designed for the digital workplace,

SCOTT MANSON, CYBER SECURITY LEADER FOR MIDDLE EAST AND TURKEY, CISCO MY OPINION /35

‘PARTNER READY’ FOR 2017

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

OMAR AKHTAR, REGIONAL CHANNEL MANAGER - MIDDLE EAST & SAARC AT VEEAM SOFTWARE

GROWTH OF SI MARKET :::::::::::::::::::::::: 32

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

INNOVATIONS :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 45

ADVERTISER INDEX: RITTAL 02, FITS 2017 03, NEXANS 07, BULWARK 09, FINESSE 11, CATALYST 13, PURESTORAGE 15, HID 17, MINDWARE DELL 19, GENOME 21, CES 23, MINDWARE VXRAIL 29, VEEAM 47, DELL 48

JA N U A R Y 2017

MEA

CHANNEL

STREET PEGASUS SIGNS MOU WITH DUBAI POLICE

Pegasus, a DarkMatter company, has entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Dubai Police to provide a comprehensive Big Data platform on which custom analytic solutions will be developed to help solve and prevent crime and make citizens safer. Pegasus Big Data Platform is capable of processing billions of data points per day to power a variety of analytic solutions that generate critical insights in near real-time. In relation to the MoU with Dubai Police, Pegasus will assist Police authorities to maintain safety and security by applying both technology tools and professional services to create a holistic ecosystem for producing high-value and high-impact information to drive decision-making. Peng Xiao, Pegasus Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are honored that Pegasus Big Data Platform can be leveraged by Dubai Police in its mission to improve safety and security.”

GULF AIR DRIVES FUTURE BUSINESS GROWTH WITH DELL EMC Gulf Air has selected Dell EMC’s Data Domain and Data Protection Suite solutions to create a highly scalable protection and availability foundation for supporting rapid data growth. Gulf Air aims to leverage the backup and recovery capabilities offered by this solution to help meet its data accessibility requirements. Gulf Air opted to deploy a highly scalable and sophisticated Dell EMC data protection solution to power the IT transformation of its existing storage infrastructure, reduce related costs, future-proof it with advanced efficiencies and safeguard critical data and processes.

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The Critical Infrastructure Forum Brings a Fresh Wave of Change The Critical Infrastructure Forum, held at the Burj Al Arab Hotel today, won many accolades from industry veterans as it raised curtains to explore some of the key aspects of the modern infrastructure. Hosted by Enterprise Channels MEA and Global Enterprise Connect, the event set a differentiating mark in the industry and brought a fresh wave of change in the way technology was seen and discussed from an infrastructure point of view. We are in a world….where Technology builds today, technology builds tomorrow. From everyday business to securing the most complicated and critical national grids…technology runs deep down the spines and nerves of the modern day enterprises, business…..and our lives in general. Critical Infrastructure Forum discussed, analyzed

and scrutinized the infrastructural challenges, opportunities and the futuristic roadmap for 2020 of not just a particular vertical but the 5 major pillars of GCC- Energy, Healthcare, Transportation and Logistics, Telecommunications and BFSI. Middle East has acquired a prominent position in the world map due to its thundering infrastructure developments and the widespread implementation of digitalization. As such it becomes mandatory to significantly highlight the steps taken by the GCC countries and the enterprises in the region who compete in the globally advanced modern world. The GCC Infrastructure Excellence Awards was also held in conjunction with the forum that celebrated various leadership models in the GCC for their unwavering commitment and dedication towards their organization.

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CHANNEL STREET

MEA Cloud Data Center Traffic to Grow 440% by 2020, says Cisco

MIKE WESTON, VP, CISCO MIDDLE EAST

The 6th sixth annual Cisco Global Cloud Index reveals that global cloud traffic is expected to rise 3.7-fold, up from 3.9 zettabytes (ZB) per year in 2015 to 14.1 ZB per year by 2020. In Middle East and Africa, data center traffic will reach 451 exabytes per year by 2020, up from 105

exabytes per year in 2015. This rapid growth of cloud traffic is attributed to increased migration to cloud architectures and their ability to scale quickly and efficiently support more workloads than traditional data centers.

OOREDOO MARKS A DECADE OF QATAR DATA CENTRE INNOVATION Officially launched in 2006, the Qatar Data Centre was the first facility in Qatar to offer businesses a full suite of enterprise services, evolving into one of the most important technology assets in Qatar’s drive to become a truly “smart” nation. H.E. Sheikh Abdulla Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al Thani, Chairman, Ooredoo, said: “Today is a proud day for Ooredoo and for Qatar. The Qatar Data Centre has evolved into the most advanced and sophisticated facility in the region and continues to enable businesses to achieve greater efficiencies and deliver significant success. We will continue to invest in new services and solutions for our customers and look forward to further innovation in the future.”

ARA NETWORKS PARTNERS WITH BULWARK Bulwark Technologies has signed a distributor agreement with ARA Networks. The Value-Added Distributor will distribute ARA Networks SSL Visibility products through its extensive network of channel partners to customers across the Middle East region.ARA Networks delivers Next Generation SSL products for strong & selective traffic decryption and seamless network transmission. SSL-PRISM is an all-in-one network appliance designed to analyze and control SSL traffic and deal with various security threats without the hassles of reconfiguring existing network appliances already deployed on network. The company has been named Global Top 6 Company in Transparent Caching Market by Frost & Sullivan 2013 Report. Bulwark is excited to announce its distribution partnership with ARA Networks. The vendor provides technology that delivers unsurpassed performance & reliability for best Network Traffic Management. Our collaboration with ARA Networks represents a strategic addition, which highly complements our existing product portfolio, enabling our channel partners to deliver cutting-edge technology to customers in the region,’’ says Jose Thomas Menacherry, Managing Director, Bulwark Technologies. “Bulwark’s regional expertise along with a strong partner network will enable in delivering our solutions to rapidly eradicate business challenges caused by rapid traffic explosion, across the region. We are looking forward to a highly fruitful partnership,’’ said Fayez Tinawi, Global Business Development Manager, ARA Networks.

PURE TO MAKE ENTERPRISES NVME-READY Pure Storage’s NVMeReady Guarantee enables every newly purchased FlashArray//M to be upgraded to full NVMe through its EvergreenTM Storage program. “Seven years ago, we saw the potential of flash as an industry standard. We

have reached a similar inflection point with NVMe, and enterprises will need to be prepared for the shift to take full advantage of technological improvements in 2017 and beyond,” said Matt Kixmoeller, VP of Product, Pure Storage. “.

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MEA

Any organization buying new storage today needs to be NVMe-ready to protect its investment. Pure has widened the gap between purpose-built arrays and legacy retrofits, and is best positioned to lead the industry transition to NVMe.”

MATT KIXMOELLER, VP, PRODUCTS, PURE STORAGE

CHANNEL STREET IN PUBLIC

“We are proud to announce that residents and visitors to Dubai can enjoy benefits of 121 smart initiatives and 1,129 smart services that are making Dubai a new global benchmark for smart city experiences.”.” HER EXCELLENCY DR. AISHA BIN BISHR, DIRECTOR GENERAL, SMART DUBAI OFFICE.

SECONDS

EHDF & SYMANTEC HOST CYBER SECURITY SEMINAR Hosting DataFort and Symantec hosted a semi-

Genetec to Leverage Security & Surveillance at Intersec 2017

nar titled ‘Stay Ahead of Cyber Security Threats’ in Dubai.Senior representatives from eHDF and Symantec shared their insights on the regional threat landscape. The seminar highlighted the importance of Managed Security Services in the modern-day context, the need for advanced Cloud security services through a Cloud Access Security Brokerage (CASB) solution. Topics like Advanced Threat Protection and securing enterprise applications were also covered. SAGE INKS DEAL WITH SAUDI ARAMCO ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTER Sage, together with Sage’s exclusive distributor in Saudi Arabia, Josor, signed a contract for the implementation of the Business Management Solution for enterprise sized businesses Sage X3 with Saudi Aramco Entrepreneurship

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

Centre (Wa’ed). In consultation with Wa’ed on the best possible Sage solution to meet current and future requirements, it was agreed the full Sage X3 suite including Sage X3 Finance, Sage X3 People, and Sage X3 Distribution, would be implemented at Wa’ed by implementation partners GulfNet Solutions and Providian..

Genetec will be showcasing high-end security and surveillance systems at the 2017 edition of Intersec. The company has expressed its confidence in meeting the growing demand in the Middle East region’s retail and transportation segments—leveraging the integrated security platform that it has developed to meet the needs of all sectors of the industry. “The region is currently witnessing a great change and growth in the Middle East security landscape. We are looking forward to being at the

2017 edition of Intersec, which has positioned itself as a very important security event for our industry that attracts a broad audience of visitors from throughout the Middle East,” said Firas Jadalla, Regional Director – Middle East and Africa, Genetec. Firas Jadalla, Regional Director – Middle East and Africa, Genetec. The company is also set to throw the spotlight on ‘Genetec Security Center 5.5’ and ‘Security Center Federation.’

SKY PRIME ENHANCES GUEST EXPERIENCE WITH HONEYWELL Sky Prime Aviation Services has chosen Honeywell’s JetWave Ka-band satellite connectivity hardware and Go Direct Cabin Connectivity services for its Airbus A319 and A330 aircraft Moreover, The latest additions to Sky Prime’s fleet will have access to Inmarsat’s Jet ConneX high-speed in-flight connectivity service enabling VIP business jet passengers to stay connected at 40,000 feet with an ‘office in the sky’ experience.

HP REDEFINES MANAGED PRINT SERVICES

HONEYWELL SMART MOSQUE THER-

HP has redesigned HP Managed Print Services (MPS) to help protect corporate print environments against cyberattacks with the world’s most secure printing. New HP Secure MPS capabilities include advanced security professional services, software solutions and expanded core delivery capabilities for customers’ multi-vendor print fleets. “Networked printers can no longer be overlooked in the wake of weakening firewalls to the growing sophistication and volume of cyberattacks,” said Ed Wingate VP & GM, JetAdvantage Solutions at HP, Inc. “That’s why HP has established a new benchmark in managed print services, infusing security best practices into everything that we do to enable our customers to stay on top of growing endpoint security challenges.”

Honeywell received the Dominic de Sousa Award

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MOSTAT BAGS AWARD for Innovation for a new approach to temperature control that helped a mosque save 37 percent* on its energy usage at The 6th Annual Climate Control Middle East Awards, which recognizes innovation excellence in the field of Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (HVACR), that held in Dubai last month.

CHANNEL STREET

BAPCO is first Oil & Gas customer on Avaya Fabric Network

MOHAMMED AREFF, VP, AVAYA MIDDLE EAST AND TURKEY, AVAYA

Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco), the national oil company of Bahrain, has chosen Avaya to transform its network infrastructure. In line with its business objectives of digital transformation and rebranding, Bapco will deploy Avaya’s next-generation fabric networking technology to power the corporate network across its locations in Bahrain, enabling the company to securely and seamlessly add services and devices in the Internet of Things (IoT) era. The first company to discover oil in the Arabian Peninsula in 1932, Bapco will become the first company in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s oil & gas sector to deploy Avaya SDN Fx fabric networking. The technology will give Bapco a future-proof infrastructure that automates and simplifies deployment of new services while it reduces the potential for human

error, outages and negative impacts on business processes. “Avaya’s state-of-the-art technology will deliver the resiliency, scalability and security to ensure there is no impact on business processes, while simplifying the provisioning of new services as and when required.” said Mr. Daij Khalifa, Manager - Information Technology, Bapco “This project symbolizes our commitment to Bahrain, and highlights the importance to us of this key growth market. By working closely with Bapco, we can play our part in Bahrain’s economic development, while helping Bapco deliver the next-generation solutions that will help it take its business into the future.” Mohammed Areff, VP, Avaya Middle East and Turkey, Avaya

LEVANT’S DIGITAL ECONOMY CREATES NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR TECH ENTREPRENEURS Startups in Jordan and the Palestinian Territories will be vital in driving the Levant’s Digital Economy and job creation for technology talents, SAP revealed at the Start-up Focus Event in Amman, hosted by startup enabler and technology company SAP and supported by Zain Innovation Campus (ZINC) and USAID West Bank and Gaza through its Compete Project. “Tech startups can drive Jordanian and Palestinian diversified economies, and Zain is committed to joining forces with global and local partners to activate and ignite the Levant’s startup ecosystem. By providing innovative entrepreneurs with hands-on mentorship and guidance, we aim to make their startups profitable, change daily lives and businesses, and drive the region’s Digital Economy,” said Ahmed Hanandeh, CEO, Zain Jordan.“Emphasizing that entrepreneurship is of paramount importance to the regional economy and society, USAID is pleased to support initiatives like SAP Startup Focus, which drive the creation of an entrepreneurial eco-system in the West Bank and Gaza and beyond,” stated Jonathan Kamin, Acting Mission Director of USAID West Bank and Gaza. “This partnership is integrated with USAID’s objective to develop and enhance the Palestinian ICT sector by helping Palestinian companies grow and increase their competitiveness, thereby enabling them to enter regional and international markets and attract global investment.”

NETAPP EXPANDS ALL-FLASH PORTFOLIO TO SUPPORT DATA FABRIC NetApp shares the latest advancements in its portfolio of flash, cloud, and next-generation data center solutions that help manage and protect the world’s data: The new NetApp All Flash FAS (AFF) A200 is an entry-level all-flash array that delivers enterprise-grade flash performance at a very attractive

price point. The new system makes it easy for midsize businesses to move to all flash, and it features a compact 2U chassis design with an internal solid-state drive (SSD) shelf. “All-flash is the clear number one technology for productive workloads”, says Peter Wüst, NetApp Senior Director Emerging

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MEA

Solutions & Innovation EMEA “Our new entry-level A200 expands our all-flash portfolio and gives midsize businesses the full and proven strength of NetApp’s Data Fabric, enabling them to manage a common set of data across flash, disk, and cloud resources. For every budget need and business

requirement, NetApp now offers an all-flash data management solution that massively improves data center ergonomics through footprint and energy consumption savings and gives customers control over their data across all on-premise and cloud deployments.”

CATALYSTS

AWARDS 2017

RECOGNIZING EXCELLENCE

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Palo Alto Automates Cloud Security Deployments on AWS

WEB CLIPS WORLDWIDE SERVER REVENUE DECLINED 5.8% Q3 2016

Palo Alto Networks has integrated its VM-Series virtualized next-generation firewalls with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Auto Scaling and Elastic Load Balancing (ELB). Using a combination of AWS Lambda, CloudFormation Templates, and Amazon CloudWatch services, along with bootstrapping and XML API automation features supported by the VM-Series, joint customers can now automatically scale the cyber breach prevention capabilities of the Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Security Platform as their AWS workload demands fluctuate.

In the third quarter of 2016, worldwide server revenue declined 5.8 percent year over year, and shipments declined 2.6 percent from the third quarter of 2015, according to Gartner. Among the top five vendors, only Cisco increased revenue in the third quarter, while Huawei and Inspur Electronics saw growth in shipments. HPE, Dell and Lenovo all experienced declines in both server revenue and shipments. ‘MEA ENTERPRISE INFRASTRUCTURE LEE KLARICH, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, PRODUCT MANAGEMENT, PALO ALTO NETWORKS

MARKET DECLINES’ SAYS IDC BThe Middle East and Africa (MEA) enterprise infrastructure market, which covers servers and external storage, suffered a 7%

SANS DUBAI 2017 PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON CYBER SECURITY

year-on-year decline in value to total $581

SANS Institute has opened registrations for ‘SANS Dubai 2017’, a training event hosting three cyber security training courses, taking place from January 28th to February 2nd, 2017. The instructor-led classroom trainings feature a mix of security courses covering continuous monitoring, web app penetration testing and ICS/SCADA. Ned Baltagi, Managing Director, Middle East & Africa at SANS said, “SANS Dubai 2017 features courses that specifically address key security challenges that plague the region. These courses will impart a great deal of knowledge and real-world experience, and will best prepare attendees for the GMON, GWAPT and GICSP Certifications.”

Tracker from International Data Corporation

million in Q3 2016, according to the latest Quarterly Server and Disk Storage Systems (IDC). This decline is in line with IDC’s previous forecast, which factored in the unstable political and economic environment currently characterizing the MEA region. AGILITYGRID TO FORTIFY SECURITY AT INTERSEC 2017 AgilityGrid will participate at Intersec 2017 to showcase its comprehensive video security solutions across key vertical sectors.

MOVEMENTS JASON ROOS is Channel Director for MEA at Mimecast

Veritas has appointed DAMIAN WILK as Senior regional Director for ME

HATEM HARIRI is the new GM at Juniper Networks MEA

Ingram Micro has appointed MARC KASSIS as Cyber Security Director

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NUMBER GAME

18.7

AgilityGrid is bringing together hardware and software partners to highlight fully integrated solutions combining best-of-breed technology to cater to the expanding security needs of both public and private sectors across the region. AVAYA CELEBRATES ACHIEVEMENT AT AVAYA ENGAGE 2016 Avaya celebrated the support, innovation and contributions of its customer and partner community from Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at Avaya Engage,

percent

a four-day forum hosted at the Atlantis the

IoT spending in Healthcare to rise by 18.7% over 20162020, acc to IDC

play in driving Avaya’s success across the

Palm in Dubai. The Avaya Awards celebrate the role Avaya Connect channel partners combined geographies. As customers’ needs and challenges evolve, Avaya’s partners are central to its strategy of delivering servicesled, outcome-focused engagement.

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CHANNEL STREET

Finesse and Geo & Logic Solutions Shake Hands

Finesse has been signed up by Geo & Logic GIS Solutions LLC, a Dubai based tracking & fleet management Solutions provider to offer cloud solutions. Geo & Logic GIS Solutions partnered with Finesse to assist with their business and IT platform transformation program using Finesse’s cloud solutions. Finesse has been signed up for their capabilities in offering infra service and cloud provisioning capabilities. Roy Nasrallah, Regional General Manager, Geo and Logic GIS Solutions LLC said, “We truly believe that moving onto

cloud will increase the efficiency of our services as it is ideal for our business model and operation due to the growing of our Data base fluctuating.” Anand Lakhwani, Practice Head- Infra Services at Finesse said, “Challenges like legacy systems running with high CPU utilizations should be offered with the new era cloud technology which will enable the clients for such pay as you grow model. We at Finesse ensure the enablement of Geo & Logic from an on premise to cloud model effectively with customer satisfaction”.

DRIVERLESS ELECTRIC VEHICLE FEATURED AT 2016 FUTURE MOBILITY CONFERENCE NERVE is causing a stir at this year’s 2nd International Conference on Future Mobility. Taking part as Gold Sponsors, they are showcasing some of the company’s very latest in electric and driverless vehicle technology, set to completely disrupt urban transportation models the world over. NERVE’s Smart Cruiser is a next-generation and multifunctional public transport solution.. Smart, green and multifunctional, it is an intelligent electric vehicle with flawless suspension and robot technology, giving it unmatched high-speed, all-terrain capability

A TALE OF TWO TECHNOLOGIES The Middle East hardcopy peripherals (HCP) market declined 1.5% year on year in Q3 2016 to total 754,760 units, according to the latest Quarterly Hardcopy Peripheral Tracker results published by IDC. The decline was much steeper in revenue terms, with the market’s value falling 10.8% year on year in Q3 2016 to total $242.22 million. While the inkjet market posted strong growth in both units and value, this was offset by a corresponding decline in laser shipments, which account for the majority of the HCP market’s overall value. Total inkjet shipments increased 12.4% year on year in Q3 2016 to reach 400,427 units, with the segment’s value rising 18.5% to $43.20 million. Surprisingly, Saudi Arabia was one of the region’s biggest growing inkjet markets, recording an increase of 12.8% in units and 12.4% in value to total 132,486 units worth $8.86 million. Vendors operating in the kingdom ran a number of successful promotions during the quarter, including popular “Back to School” campaigns. “The surprisingly positive performance in the inkjet segment indicates that consumer demand is still relatively robust, particularly for products that boast with innovative features,” says Roberto Alunni, research manager for imaging, printing and document solutions at IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey. “While we don’t project a significant recovery in the region’s HCP market over the short term, there are encouraging signs that the market may be close to bottoming out.”

TREND MICRO’S SECURITY GUIDE FOR HOLIDAY SEASON Trend Micro has published “Internet of Things Buyer’s Guide for Smart Parents and Guardians” as part of an informative content package for holiday shoppers. Infographics and an interactive quiz are also available, highlighting product features that threat actors can use for accessing personal

information and monetary exploitation. “Our goal with these resources is to help parents and guardians keep their families safe from online privacy and security risks,” said Lynette Owens, founder and global director of Internet Safety for Kids & Families at Trend Micro. “So

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many things that our children use daily, including toys, games, and apps, are increasingly connected to the internet and collecting a lot of information. Our goal is to raise as much awareness about this among all consumers, but especially parents whose kids may be impacted. We believe a more informed

consumer is a safer one.” Trend Micro has released this buyer’s guide and interactive content package to prepare shoppers this holiday season and inform parents and guardians about potential privacy and security vulnerabilities in smart toy features and other internet-connected devices

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5/4/16 11:50 AM

CHANNEL STREET

Digital Commerce Converting Economic Pressures into Opportunities Booz Allen Hamilton has found that investing in customer analytics offers exciting opportunities for the growth and development of the regional retail sector. The comprehensive report – titled ‘Next Generation Retailers: Power Up Your Analytics’ discusses how the global retail sector is changing in the face of an unprecedented shift in customer behavior, fueled by advanced technology and wider acceptance of online shopping and ecommerce. According to Euromonitor, the MENA region is emerging as a global hub for retail and the

sector is expected to grow from US $996 billion in 2015, to US$1.05 trillion in 2016. Increased real estate and labor costs are also driving businesses to seek a profitable mix of traditional and digital sales channels. The onus is therefore increasingly on the retailers to embark on digital programs to ensure that outlets remain both relevant and profitable. Against this backdrop of economic growth and infrastructure development, the report tracks the changes sweeping the MENA retail industry and the factors that will fuel growth in the sector.

ZEBRA TECHNOLOGIES IDENTIFIES “INTELLIGENT ENTERPRISE” AS DECADE’S MOST IMPACTFUL TREND Zebra Technologies said that global leaders from healthcare, retail, transportation and logistics (T&L) and manufacturing validate the “Intelligent Enterprise” as the defining trend of the decade for industries globally. Less than six months after introducing its vision for Enterprise Asset Intelligence (EAI), Zebra, in partnership with the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard (TECH) assembled 40 leading executives, industry experts and policymakers for the 2016 Innovation Symposium: The Intelligent Enterprise. Executives from organizations such as Google, GE Healthcare and IBM defined the “Intelligent Enterprise” and explored best practices and opportunities for organizations of varying sizes and industries related to the Internet of Things (IoT). Tim Kottak, CTO, GE Healthcare said, “We believe IoT holds endless opportunities in healthcare, from predictive patient care to the way pharmaceuticals are made – and we’ve only just begun.” “Organizations across industries are already using automated data capture and processing today to gain an advantage. This leaves organizations a choice: become an industry leader and embrace the future today by harnessing the full potential of IoT – or fall behind,” said Kevin Ashton, Co-founder, Auto ID Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

INGRAM MICRO LAUNCHES META CYBER SECURITY BUSINESS UNIT Ingram Micro has appointed Marc Kassis as Cyber Security Director following its launch of its Cyber Security Business Unit in the META region.Kassis is the former CEO Middle East of AtoS, one of the largest European services providers. With this appointment Ingram Micro has launched its Cyber Security business practice in META region which now consists of more than 40 highly qualified professionals in the Cyber Security field. Kassis’s role will include driving the Cyber Security strategy and its execution in close collaboration with Ingram Micro’s countrylevel’ go-to-market teams. The business unit will ensure the introduction of a complementary range of Cyber Security vendors, Security trainings, consultancy services and ultimately Security managed services. The business unit will also be responsible for channel partner development and enablement as well as rolling out strategic marketing programs. “Our target is to enhance the value proposition to the market through our business partners with dedicated range of services and more relevant blue chip vendors,” said Ali Baghdadi, senior vice president and chief executive of Ingram Micro’s META region. “We welcome Marc to Ingram Micro and look forward to the contributions he and his team will make to our business. “It goes beyond the simple common sense of gathering under a single business unit all Cyber Security vendors. We are going to deliver value added services and become much more relevant to our vendors and market in this domain,” said Kassis.

ARUBA EYES EGYPT WITH AGGRESSIVE GROWTH PLANS Aruba is looking to build on its success in Egypt in FY’2016 by implementing an aggressive growth strategy for the forthcoming year. The company had several high profile customer wins in the healthcare, hospitality, government and education sectors. It is implementing a massive wireless

network project at Zewail City of Science and Technology designed to enable the institution to leverage BYOD for innovation in education. On completion of the deployment, the Institute will begin to offer campus wide connectivity to its students and faculty..

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Mr. Ahmed Fathy, Territory Manager, HPE Aruba, Egypt said, “As trends like mobility and Bring-Your-Own-Device sweep the country, Aruba and its partners are well placed to cater to the increasing demand for the ‘all-wireless workplace’ that supports BYOD securely and reliably,

enabling communication and delivering business apps wherever people work. The launch of the new partner program will enable our partners to engage closely with customers in Egypt in order to capitalize on the tremendous business potential in the country.”

CHANNEL STREET

Tejari signs MoU with Dubai SME

ABDUL BASET AL JANAHI, CEO OF DUBAI SME

MARWAN AL NAQI, CHAIRMAN AT TEJARI

Tejari has signed a MoU with Dubai SME, the agency of the Department of Economic Development (DED) in Dubai mandated to develop the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector to deploy a dedicated eProcurement platform for SME members.The collaboration aims to automate member requests, enable supplier categorization and reporting capabilities through

the BravoAdvantage Supplier Value Management capability. The platform will fully integrate with the eSupply and will act as a gateway for membership payment. The announcement follows the successful automation of Dubai SME’s registration, pre-qualification and approval processes to their Government Procurement Program.

SUSE ACCELERATES GROWTH & ENTRY INTO NEW MARKETS SUSE has entered into an agreement with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to acquire technology and talent that will expand SUSE’s OpenStack Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution and accelerate SUSE’s entry into the growing Cloud Foundry Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) market. The acquired OpenStack assets will be integrated into SUSE OpenStack Cloud, and the acquired Cloud Foundry and PaaS assets will enable SUSE to bring to market a certified, enterprise-ready SUSE Cloud Foundry PaaS solution for all customers and partners in the SUSE ecosystem.

SYMANTEC PROVIDES KEY EVIDENCE FOR “BAYROB” Symantec revealed the findings of a decade-long research campaign that helped unearth an international cybercriminal gang dubbed “Bayrob.” Symantec’s intelligence led to a successful FBI sting operation and the capture of three criminals in Romania. The group is responsible for stealing up to $35 million USD from victims through auto auction scams, credit card fraud and computer intrusion. Through its research, Symantec discovered multiple versions of Bayrob malware, collected helpful intelligence data, and witnessed Bayrob as it morphed from online fraud to a 300,000+ botnet for cryptocurrency mining. Over time, Symantec’s research team gained deep technical insight into Bayrob’s operations and its malicious activities, such as its recruitment of money mules. “The Symantec Security Response team responsible for gathering the intelligence that assisted the FBI in this operation has an unparalleled track record when it comes to detecting cyber criminals and their stealthy methods,” said Mike Fey, president and chief operating officer at Symantec. “We expect our success record will continue to grow now that we’ve combined Symantec’s global threat intelligence with Blue Coat. By unifying our threat telemetry we’re seeing 500,000 additional detections every day to help us get ahead of attacks and defend our customers.”

GEC OPEN NAILS 2016 EDITION ON A HIGH NOTE An evening filled with music, memories and some amazing and overwhelming foreign guests, the GEC Open 2016 closed on a highly successful and happy note. Held on the 15th December, 2016 at the Emirates Golf Course Dubai, the grand finale gathered some acute and avid golfers from across

the Middle East who battled it out for the champions trophy. Sergio D’Souza from Dubai emerged as the 2016 champion. GEC Open 2016 toured 8 countries— Ghana, Turkey, Oman, Egypt, Kenya, UAE, Bahrain and India. Qualifiers from across the countries flew down to Dubai for the grand finale.

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Initiated in 2014, GEC Open kicked in- and forced enterprises, business and individuals to rethink the way business is done and humanity is preserved. A world where CONNECTION had increasingly and seemingly materialized into enterprise connectivity and NET-

WORKING apparently was limited to the WiFi and its bandwidth – GEC Open blossomed. Our faith was immense when we envisioned GEC Open, but the destination was clearly invisible. Little did we realize that….. this is a journey that sees no end any sooner. So destination for now is just- Ambitions Boundless.

A Miller Heiman Group Distribution Partner

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

105B Al Makhawi Building Oud Metha, Dubai. Sales@gtcme.com 04 370 8091 Emerging Integrator of the year

CEO SPEAK

us, facilities managers, ever since the Gulf states have embarked on their respective economic diversification policies in preparation for a post-petroleum era. Moreover, we will sustain our momentum in the technological innovation department to keep pace with worldwide trends and developments. We are planning ways to boost market awareness of the significance and benefits of integrated FM solutions and what these can bring to businesses in terms of their bottom line.

JAMAL ABDULLAH LOOTAH,

CEO, IMDAAD

‘INNOVATIVE’ FACILITY MANAGEMENT FOR 2017, IMDAAD IS OPTIMISTIC THAT THE REGIONAL INDUSTRY IS POISED FOR A CONSIDERABLE GROWTH IN THE COMING YEARS. VARIOUS KEY FACTORS AND ELEMENTS ARE DRIVING THIS PROGRESS, INCLUDING THE INTEGRATION OF

What are the smart services provided by Imdaad? We offer numerous smart services as part of our commitment to exceed customer expectations and enhance client satisfaction. More importantly, they are part of our ongoing contributions to the smart transformation efforts of the UAE and the rest of the GCC. Imtedaad is one such service. Designed to intelligently analyse the performance trends of interconnected assets, Imtedaad correlates all essential data with the behaviour of the building’s eco-system to come up with a set of recommendations and corrective actions. We recently launched Imtedaad’s mobile version in line with our initiatives to address the growing demand for access to business information and applications through mobile technologies. We also offer an e-payment gateway in collaboration with Dubai Trade. Under our partnership, we utilize the trade facilitator’s ‘Rosoom’ online payment gateway to process the payment of ourclient base of around 2,900 customers for services rendered.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES WITH FM INDUSTRY PRACTICES, RAPID TECHNOLOGICAL

tions and integration of advanced technologies across our processes, globally recognised solutions, and effective and timely delivery of services.

What is Imdaad’s vision for 2020? At Imdaad, we will help unlock new possibilities for people and communities to become successful contributors to the future and highlight the importance of progress without compromising the needs of the future generation. We fully understand that the key to a successful longterm regional business lies in its commitment to responsible, social, and ecological practices, among others.

What are the unique and innovative solutions we can expect from Imdaad in the coming months? Imdaad is rapidly building new strategic partnerships with major players across industries in the region. Over the next 12 months, we expect to close major contracts with our new partners in Oman, the UAE, and Qatar – three of our most important markets in the GCC. Considerable opportunities have opened up for

Can you share Imdaad’s roadmap or key strategies for 2017? We will aggressively pursue our expansion strategy across the GCC by bolstering our business in Qatar and venturing into Oman, in addition to driving inorganic growth through mergers and acquisitions. This strategy is supported by our value-added offerings such as waste recycling, energy management, and our innovative Remote Asset Management. ë

INNOVATION, AND THE GROWING POPULARITY OF ENERGY FM SERVICES.

Imdaad is known in the region for its integrated facilities and waste management solutions in the GCC. The entire industry is ripe with many key players in the market. How does Imdaad ensure it emerges as a leader in the market? Amidst stiff market competition, Imdaad remains one of the leading providers of top-notch integrated facilities management (FM) solutions in the GCC due in part to our steadfast commitment to deliver world-class services to our diverse clients. What set us apart from our competitors are our widely recognized customer service, unique innova-

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Your brain might need a second to catch up.

Jan. 5-8, 2017 Î&#x2122; Las Vegas, NV Register now at CES.tech #CES2017

COVER STORY

OPPORTUNITIES & GROWTH IN IT MARKET

‘2017’

THE YEAR OF

INTEGRATED

GROWTH

A year that is ripe with expectations of organic growth and massive changes. Sophisticated technologies and a mature platform would make way for naïve enterprises to embark on digital transformation. In spite of conservative IT spending, once again technology will leave no scope for taking a foot backward. Yes, We are finally in 2017! TOP TECHNOLOGIES TO LOOK FOR IN 2017

Digital transformation

Next-generation data centres

Mobile analytics

AFAs

IOT

AR & VR

MPS

On-Demand apps and software

Humanized Big Data

Cloud services

Machine Learning

Threat intelligence & Sandboxing

Physical-Digital Integration

JA N U A R Y 2017

COVER STORY

3.2bn

As per IDC, IoT spending in the Middle East is expected to reach $3.2 billion in 2019

$ bn

3.2bn

According to Frost and Sullivan, GCC’s network security spending is set to grow to $1 billion by 2018.

As per IDC, IoT spending in the Middle East is expected to reach $3.2 billion in 2019

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

he global community witnessed a conservative 2016 with many ups and downs, seismic market upheavals, political unsteadiness and mixed sector-based growth. The GCC region was more conservative in its IT Spending, but strangely 2016 also witnessed some major IT projects coming up ,specially within the energy sectors and the BFSI sectors. 2017 is here and as the region has been talking about, it is a year of expectations. Digital transformation was the buzzword of 2016 and in 2017 we can definitely see organizations gearing up for the same. Like every year, we bring to you the opinions of some of the leading tech players in the region on how they see 2017.

CHALLENGES THAT EXISTED; OPPORTUNITIES THAT EXIST 2016 was named as the year of absolute dichotomy. The need for cost effective solutions led to the replacement of traditional technologies.

As a Gartner report says, organizations went for SaaS instead of software licenses, voice over LTE [VoLTE] instead of cellular and digital personal assistants instead of people. Patrick Hayati, Vice President - Global Channel and General Business, SAP MENA said, “2016 was a banner year for SAP in announcing major co-innovation partnerships, and driving take-up of cloud solutions running on the SAP HANA platform and SAP S/4HANA real-time business suite.” According to Christian Putz, Director, EEMEA, Pure Storage, the IT landscape is dominated by vendors who are treating data as a compromise. “As the businesses of legacy storage companies continue to falter, some have asked ‘why build a storage company at all?’ Our belief is simple: in the increasingly digital economy data is key. Independent of whether your infrastructure is public cloud, private cloud, SaaS, or most likely some hybrid of all three – data is key.” Maged Eid, Regional Director, Nexthink believes 2016 has been a little bit of a challenging year for everyone. “However, things are settling

JA N U A R Y 2017

COVER STORY

PUI CHI LI, HEAD OF MARKETING, MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA, XEROX

DANA MURUGAN, SENIOR MARKETING DIRECTOR – ECEMEA, ORACLE

“2016 has been a year of change for Xerox with a number of significant announcements over the future structure of Xerox and how we interact with our customers”

“The most consistent technology trend we see is building momentum toward cloud technology adoption, even among the world’s largest corporations.”

down. We are seeing a major development and strategy change across countries in the gulf region who are looking for new energy sources and who don’t want to depend on oil anymore, which is very smart.” The UAE government and the entire GCC has gradually anchored their visions to diversity, sustainability and innovation – these are three aspects of growth in which Sávant Data System sees a significant role to fulfill,” says Michael Lodge – COO, Sávant Data System.

THE WAY AHEAD FOR

JA N U A R Y 2017

“In 2017, SAP’s resolution is to remain committed to joining forces on publicprivate partnerships that will upskill local talent and drive Digital Economy competitiveness, and provide full support to our channel ecosystem”

DONTS

DOS l Customers should understand exactly what kind of technologies they currently have in their portfolios and how they are being used. l Compare and contrast the different options which your prospects are facing daily to better understand the course of action which needs to be taken. l continue in adding more resources to manage the growing demand of the region; l focus on international partnerships to fuel local economy

Is your organization a great company to work for? 26

PATRICK HAYATI, VICE PRESIDENT - GLOBAL CHANNEL AND GENERAL BUSINESS, SAP MENA

l Organizations should not buy technologies based on vendor commitment alone. l businesses should not make firm plans based only on the published information l Do not hard sell your product or service. Marketing is a delicate procedure l never say no to change in technology trends.

Companies with engaged employees, outperform those without by 202%. (SOURCE: DALE CARNEGIE)

COVER STORY

CHRISTIAN PUTZ, DIRECTOR, EEMEA, PURE STORAGE

“As we look at the next chapter for Pure and for the industry, we’re focused on a central theme: exponentially expanding the value of data.”

MAGED EID, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, NEXTHINK

“Nexthink is a company focused on the future. We approached the market over 10 years ago with a unique end-user monitoring solution, and continue to invest in innovation around IT Analytics today.”

“2017 will bring a shift to more data-centric security. Meaning that in 2017, companies will finally demand an answer to the question, Where does our sensitive data actually reside?”

2017

PARTNER ECOSYSTEM XEROX: Partner Planning process with our key partners to mutual benefit of increased transparency and joint objectives Pure Storage: Pure On The Go, a mobile app that gives the partners the ability to register deals, share leads, search content libraries and most importantly configure, price and quote our recently announced //m10 product all on their phone. Epicor: New partner program in and Asia Pacific regions to further accelerate international growth and support the company’s cloud-first strategy Savant Data System: Our partnerships with various businesses will expand, allowing us to pursue our vision of integrating intelligent systems providing both retailers and consumers the best shopping experience in-store and online. Buzinessware: ‘buziness-in-a-box,’ which has been designed to empower the reseller channel with end-to-end infrastructure solutions from Middle East Data Centres

Are you looking for top level talent & retain them?

RAFIK HAJEM, VP, EMEA, GUIDANCE SOFTWARE

Robots, drones, autonomous vehicles etc. is predicted to be among a top technological trend for 2017 by Gartner. Ambient user experience on the other hand is also termed to be a gravity force that would force solution providers to rethink the way solutions are crafted. According to Dana Murugan, Senior Marketing Director – ECEMEA, Oracle, the most consistent technology trend they see is building momentum toward cloud technology adoption, even among the world’s largest corporations. “The question for HR leaders and their IT partners is

Highly engaged employees are 38% more likely to have above-average productivity. (SOURCE: WORKPLACE RESEARCH FOUNDATION)

JA N U A R Y 2017

COVER STORY

HESHAM EL KOMY, SENIOR DIRECTOR, CHANNELS, EPICOR SOFTWARE

“In 2017, we will be looking to bring on partners that can help us extend our ecosystem geographically, vertically and by adding additional technical expertise such as is required in the cloud space.” now typically when they’ll move to the cloud, not if. The most successful CHROs hold their teams accountable for focusing on the transformational activities that can help their businesses win.” Xerox sees growth of Managed Print Services (MPS) up take in the Small Medium Business (SMB) space. “Within the MEA geography, MPS awareness and usage still varies greatly between countries, however independent studies show that there is an increase with both awareness and interest to engage with a form of MPS. ,” says Pui Chi Li, Head of Marketing for Middle East and Africa, Xerox. Real-time cloud solutions will also

MICHAEL LODGE, COO, SÁVANT DATA SYSTEM

SAJID MULLA, CEO, BUZINESSWARE

“The UAE government and the entire GCC has gradually anchored their visions to diversity, sustainability and innovation – these are three aspects of growth in which Sávant Data System sees a significant role to fulfill.”

“Buzinessware believes that the customer experience will soon overtake price as the new differentiator for customers.”

be vital for digital innovations such as virtual reality, drones and robotics, and blockchain. Rafik Hajem, vice president, EMEA, Guidance Software is of the opinion that clients will look for complete solutions that include a variety of tools for detection, investigation, remediation, and coordination. Tools like threat intelligence, sandboxing, forensics, analytics and artificial intelligence will be required to detect advanced zero-day attacks. Hesham El Khomy, Senior Director Channels of Epicor Software says that Epicor sees a great inclination towards cloud in 2017. “I definitely see a growing acceptance and increase in adoption

of cloud services here in the region. In fact, a July 2016 Gartner report predicts that the public cloud services market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region will grow by 18.3% in 2016 to US$879.3 million.”

FINALLY 2017 would indeed be an interesting phase in the technology calendar. We are 3 years away from 2020, the opportunities are immense and the regional organizations’ appetite is also ripe for the emerging technologies. Digitalization is knocking at the doors! Time to open it ‘Wide’. ë

NOMINATE NOW http://ec-mea.com/TOP-IT-COMPANY/

JA N U A R Y 2017

GUEST ARTICLE

The Protection Revolution – A Needed Counter to Attacks

Just as technologies and capabilities for attackers have improved, so have technologies and capabilities for defenders. This gives us a unique opportunity to move toward security systems built on a foundation of broad-based visibility, depth of data collection, the ability to learn through correlation and context, and then dynamically apply controls.

The Industrial Revolution changed the world forever, creating faster, better, and more efficient sectors of the economy. Drawing on parallels to this important period of history, much has been written about the “Industrialization of Hacking” which has created a faster, more effective, and more efficient sector aimed at profiting from attacks to our IT infrastructure. Fueled by the convergence of mechanized and process-driven methods, economic and political incentives, weak links in the security chain, and new vulnerabilities in evolving business models, hackers are executing more sophisticated and damaging attacks. Hacking has evolved over time and protection will evolve over time as well. It requires moving across a scale of controls that include static, human intervention, semi-automatic, dynamic, and predictive, as outlined below: l Static –Many traditional, point-in-time security technologies work this way with defenders needing to wait for vendors to update protections. This approach worked fairly well when basic PC viruses were the primary method of attack. But today, in and of themselves, they don’t provide defenders with what they need to properly assess their security posture and make adjustments in real time. In some deployments, however, these process-laden controls are

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intended to be static to meet regulatory compliance mandates. And while they do provide a baseline of protection, they still lack the agility to protect and scale in a constantly changing environment. Human intervention – Visibility and intelligence is available, but defenders still need to manually change controls. Labor-intensive intervention isn’t sustainable given the pace and complexity of attacks and the cybersecurity skills shortage. Although static controls are the reality of most organizations today, more Security Operations Centers (SOC) are being built to compensate for the lack of flexibility and agility of these controls and a dearth of trained internal staff. Reliance on human intervention to make security adjustments is no match for modern threats that use new methods that make it easier, faster, and cheaper to launch attacks, penetrate the network, and change rapidly as they progress through the enterprise. l

l Semi-automatic – Highly-sensitive data is precisely the type of data that well-funded and fast-moving attackers target. Unfortunately, practitioners lack confidence that they have the right intelligence to make decisions. They tend to revert back to human intervention, leaving open a window of opportunity for attackers. In

n SCOTT MANSON, CYBER SECURITY LEADER FOR M I D D L E E A S T A N D T U R K E Y, C I S C O

semi-automatic environments protection begins to evolve, but it is not sufficiently standardized, mechanized, and process-driven to be as effective as required. l Dynamic – Dynamic controls are about high degrees of automation, where security systems automatically respond to threats. Automation was at the heart of the Industrial Revolution and it is at the heart of the Protection Revolution. It is the only way to combat modern attacks that circumvent protection using methods such as port/protocol hopping, encrypted tunneling, droppers, and blended threats and techniques incorporating social engineering and zeroday attacks. With dynamic controls, security practitioners increase degrees of automation based on ‘adaptive trust’ or increased confidence in devices, users, and applications over time. l Predictive – Predictive doesn’t necessarily mean seeing an attack before it happens, but leveraging machine learning and advanced analytics to learn and improve intelligence continuously, leading to the prioritization of controls, protection, and remediation. The foundations of predictive technologies exist but are in their early days. Over time they will continue to evolve and improve, unleashing the full power of a new era in protection. ë

MY VIEWS

Bringing IoT Device Manufacturers to Account for Sub-standard Cyber Security Given the relentless rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), and the fact that the very devices that are being hacked to orchestrate these types of incidents are the same ones finding their way into our lives at an ever-expanding rate, the cascading effects of this latest attack have implications at every level of digital transformation.

HARSHUL JOSHI

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF CYBER GOVERNANCE, RISK AND COMPLIANCE AT DARKMATTER

ate last year reports surfaced that the entire internet infrastructure of the African nation of Liberia had been knocked off-line after it was targeted by hackers using the same weapon that caused the largest cyber attack in history only a month earlier. The attack on Dynamic Network Services Inc., (Dyn), a New Hampshire-based Domain Name Server (DNS) on October 21 was a massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) incident. This type of attack is not new, and is based on standard techniques where a network of infected computers – a botnet – are directed to bombard its target with traffic, overloading its servers. The weapon used in the October attack, the Mirai botnet, was particularly effective because it harnessed infected, internet-connected devices, or so-called ‘Internet of Things’ devices, which, ominously from an expanding cyber threat landscape standpoint, are finding their way into more households around the world. The same weapon was reportedly used for several days in continued attacks on the West African nation of Liberia, where two companies

that co-own the only fibre going into the country are being targeted. During the attacks, websites inside the country are rendered unavailable. The incident in Liberia raises alarm even further given: 1. The national level impact of the attack on Liberia, which could affect the functioning of critical national infrastructure, which could in turn have devastating real-life consequences, even resulting in the loss of life. 2. The particular Mirai botnet that attacked Liberia, officially named Botnet 14, had a Twitter account and is open source, meaning it can and is being shared, and anyone with the requisite technical skill can use it. 3. DDoS are successfully targeting connected devices with lower cyber security postures to gain access to high-value networks and targets, with severe consequences. It has been suggested the rise of IoT is likely to prompt similar attacks in the future as inadequately secured IoT devices will continue to be an engine to facilitate breaches. Protecting digital environments in the age of the IoT and ultimately IoE (Internet of Every-

thing) requires a new type of standardisation and regulation approach to be adopted, which ultimately penalises the vendors flooding the market with insecure devices. At present there is no regulation or standardisation requiring a base-line security standard for IoT, meaning there is little incentive to make device manufacturers meet any minimum criteria of security, as there are few, if any commercial repercussions for not having done so outside of successful third-party litigation. For as long as device manufacturers are removed from the negative financial and logistical impacts triggered by the compromise of poorly secured devices, we will continue to count the escalating costs of botnet attacks through IoT devices. Minimum cyber security levels should not be an optional feature for IoT device manufacturers, but rather there should be mandatory standards and controls introduced, and high commercial sanction to the vendors that fall short of them, given that such oversights jeopardise the security of the digital eco-system for all connected stakeholders. ë

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FEATURE STORY

The Way Ahead for System Integration The rising need and demand for cost effective and automated and integrated solutions would be the key drivers of growth for SIs in the 2017 market and beyond. According to Markets and Markets research, the system integration market size is estimated to grow from USD 269.62 Billion in 2016 to USD 387.85 Billion by 2021, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.5%.

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FEATURE STORY

n WORDS: ANUSHREE DIXIT <ANUSHREE@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM>

long with the changing technologies, the role of SIs also changed and evolved dynamically in 2016. From providing solutions and services to providing ‘Cost-effective’ and ‘Valueadded’ solutions and services, system integrators have come a long way in their journey as partners..

THE CHANGING ROLE OF CIOS 2016 was a very decisive year for the CIOs as they witnessed a very monetarily conservative year that showed no signs of slowdown when it came to moving upfront with digitization. Hence, the CIOs were in a dilemma; to have a check on the pockets or on the technology. Hyper converged infrastructures, SDNs, all flash…etc were the predominant technologies that compelled the CIOs to rethink business on a newer platform. Pay as you Go models were a win-win situation for the CIOs and the Sis came in to play a great role here. “Finesse is at the forefront in working closely with our partners/CIOs to offer them with best of the opex models. We now have most of our offerings on cloud and on Pay as you Go model. Finesse continues to deliver innovation and we have signed up for several new projects which will be executed in the coming months,” says Sunil Paul, COO and Co-founder of Finesse. According to Savita Bhaskar, COO of Condo Protego, as the majority of systems integrators shift from competing on selling products to competing on value-added services, they should act as trusted advisors, and stay on top of technology trends and industry certifications. “Client CIOs should drive organization-wide data management skills. Both sides need to be knowledgeable about 2017 technology trends such as hyper-converged infrastructure, software-defined technology, and all-flash storage.” “The major and most important transition is happening now. The broad role of SI is witnessing a key transferal in the offerings. Who will embrace the new transformation and align with the impending necessities of the clients will reap good results. We have done our own survey with some of the leading organizations in the UAE and we see a lot of the enterprise and SMB customers moving towards Managed and Cloud Services on an OPEX model which can provide high quality of services while keeping operational costs under control. The major markets would be UAE and KSA,” says Tony Alam, CEO of Emitac Enterprise

Solutions. “Our new brand identity reflects the spirit of strategic transformation that we embrace within our organizational culture to serve our customers every day, every time, with unwavering enthusiasm” adds Tony.

WALKING WITH THE TRENDS The third platform technologies have already made their way into the mainstream business. In 2016, despite the market being slow, the region saw a good number of government and large enterprises investing in these emerging technologies. As Sunil says, “In spite of the market being slow at present, the possibility for the System Integration market is huge with an increasing adoption of Artificial Intelligence, Big data Analytics, mobile, cloud, social and IoT. We see this trend continuing in the coming years as well.” Condo Protego is also set to walk with the trends. “In 2017, Condo Protego’s resolution is to

TONY ALAM,

CEO, EMITAC ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS

“We are known for our achievements – We now need to be equally known for “Redefining Excellence to power growth for our customers and lead the IT solutions & services space” with our renewed vision.” JA N U A R Y 2017

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FEATURE STORY

SUNIL PAUL,

COO AND CO-FOUNDER OF FINESSE

“We are no longer identified with getting disparate technologies and systems to work together. We are catering to the ever increasing use of cloud, mobility, social and virtualization.”

HANI NOFAL,

SAVITHA BHASKAR,

“2016 has been another successful year for GBM, especially with mega transformational wins in the education, transportation, hospitality and banking sectors.”

“In 2017, Condo Protego’s resolution is to continue being a trusted solution provider to our customers, providing the right solutions at the right time and cost to meet their business needs.”

VICE PRESIDENT – INTELLIGENT NETWORK SOLUTIONS, SECURITY AND MOBILITY, GBM

MAJOR WINS OF 2016

CONDO PROTEGO: Among Condo Protego’s significant deployments were a government agency on CCTV, a free-zone authority on software-defined infrastructure, and a multi-national bank on software-defined architecture and virtual desktop infrastructure for thousands of users across over 50 sites worldwide.

GBM: The addition of Apple to our strategic partnerships has enriched our portfolio and allowed us to enable our customers to achieve their digitization goals with innovative mobility solutions. GBM is currently the only Apple Authorized Systems Integrator in the region FINESSE: We have signed up with leading enterprises like Lamprell, ASGC, Planet Payment, Zulekha Health care Group, Byrne and many other Banks and Financial Institutions along with various Government departments. EMITAC ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS: Apart from our Rebranding, we also had major project wins in 2016 including Al Fara’a Group. We also launched our own Offshore Development Center in Bengaluru India.

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COO, CONDO PROTEGO

continue being a trusted solution provider to our customers, providing the right solutions at the right time and cost to meet their business needs. While Condo Protego is targeting customers across all industry verticals, the government, banking and finance, and tourism and hospitality sectors are showing a strong pipeline. Hani says, “We completely understand how governments and enterprises are embracing technology to optimize and enhance their operations, compete and deliver better services. GBM is committed to continue to bring the most advanced digital solutions to the region.”

FINALLY As we have been saying all through 2016— Digitization is the next ‘Reality’ and Value added cost effective solutions and services are the present ‘Need’, and there is no escaping this need and reality. As more and more enterprises gear up to embrace this new reality, SIs can see the grass greener on all the sides. What the SIs have to take care is that, there is very thin line between ‘Providing’ and ‘Pushing’ services. Know your customers, understand their requirement…. Success is just a sign away!! ë

MY OPINION

benefit from Veeam’s big launch in August 2016 of the Veeam Availability Platform for the Hybrid Cloud? The announcement last August was hugely significant for our ProPartners because it enables them to up-sell and cross-sell a host of new services that sell business continuity and tell the broader ‘availability’ story that is at the core of everything we do. As part of the launch, Veeam has included new products such as Veeam Availability Orchestrator, Veeam Availability Console, Agents for Windows and Linux, and new capabilities for Azure and Amazon Web Services. With these, we close the loop between physical servers, the virtual environment and public cloud. Our new products will have a major impact on Veeam’s partner market penetration. I think this launch really made it clear to the market that we’re not just about data backup. People understand more broadly now the importance of data availability and 24.7.365 uptime.

OMAR AKHTAR,

REGIONAL CHANNEL MANAGER MIDDLE EAST & SAARC AT VEEAM SOFTWARE

‘Partner Ready’ for 2017 VEEAM, WHICH IS NOW OFFERING BACKUP TO VIRTUAL, PHYSICAL AND CLOUD PLATFORMS, IS EXPECTING FURTHER GROWTH NOW FOLLOWING A NUMBER OF NEW ADDITIONS TO BENEFIT ENTERPRISE CUSTOMERS WITH THE LAUNCH OF ITS VEEAM AVAILABILITY PLATFORM FOR THE HYBRID CLOUD, INCLUDING THE VEEAM AVAILABILITY SUITE 9.5 PRODUCT RELEASE. EC MEA HAD AN EXCLUSIVE ROUND UP WITH OMAR AKHTAR, REGIONAL CHANNEL MANAGER - MIDDLE EAST & SAARC AT VEEAM SOFTWARE ABOUT WHAT THE IT SECTOR IN GCC AND ITS PARTNERS CAN EXPECT FROM VEEAM IN 2017.

How can Veeam’s channel partners expect to grow their revenue stream and continue being successful as part of its channel ecosystem? Firstly, I should make it clear that unlike other vendors, we’re a 100-percent channel-focused company. We are continuously adding to the revenue stream of our ProPartners by offering new products and features. Recently

this has included quicker recovery times of data, integration with Microsoft Office365, and tools that provide greater visibility and monitoring. We do this because we’re committed to enabling our partners to keep the 30-40 percent annual growth rates they’ve received in recent years. How will your channel partners

Veeam has a number of alliance partnerships in existence, but what else is Veeam planning to do to make its software even easier for the reseller community to sell? Building on the relationships with the likes of Dell EMC, HPE, Cisco, VMware, Microsoft (and IBM in v10 next year), we believe our channel partners are looking for us to further expand the coverage to include seamless support of all public cloud providers (Azure, AWS, IBM SoftLayer, etc.). Larger customers tend to have a presence in all the major public cloud providers and therefore Veeam support across all of them will remove any potential roadblocks for resellers. We’re also delivering more in the way of Solution Design documents similar to the recent Cisco Validated Design (CVD), which covers the availability with Veeam on the Cisco Hyperflex platform. How do you see Veeam making an impact in 2017 on the (country) technology landscape? In 2017 we and our partners will continue to pursue the enterprise business, but also build out our strong SMB and commercial customer base and drive the availability of our customer’s data as they digitize and transform their companies. Our partners have been such a critical component to Veeam’s success to date, we look forward to continuing that globally over the coming years. ë

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SPECIAL STORY

Economic Outlook 2017 36

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SPECIAL STORY

We are just 3 years away from the much awaited Expo 2020— A year that is set to be a benchmark in the global economy. As fresh dew drops settle on the branches of 2017, we take a look at the economic market worldwide and how it will impact the Middle East and Africa region. n WORDS: ANUSHREE DIXIT <ANUSHREE@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM>

eople of words and wisdom have bifurcated the world economy of 2016 with some amusing phrases; from ‘Brexit blues’ to ‘Trump bump’, from ‘Patchy recovery’ to

‘Oil slump’. The three key areas that economists around the world have observed are; lower prices for energy and other commodities, the United States’ gradual tightening of monetary policy, and the gradual slowdown and rebalancing of economic activity in China away from investment and manufacturing towards consumption and services. Though the China government has aimed for a 6.5% growth in the next five years, economists and strategists have claimed that this would be a mission next to impossible. “President Xi Jinping will begin the final year of his first term in 2017, and the challenges he faces managing the world’s second largest economy are manifold” as said by a Fortune report. The demonetization wave that swept the Indian economy was yet another ace that played

a key role in redefining the ways in which a national economy thrived, survived and balanced. In spite of that, Asia is still perceived to grow and come out as a Trump card (no pun intended) in the global economy. The Indian subcontinent

A GLIMPSE INTO IMF FORECASTS FOR 2017

6.2%

China’s economy is forecast to expand 6.2 percent

0.6%

Growth in Japan is expected to remain subdued at 0.6 percent

9.5%

1.1%

U.K. growth is predicted to slow to 1.1 percent

KSA fiscal deficit to decline further to 9.5 percent

1.3%

Austria’s (GDP) growth up by 1.3 percent

2.6%

Oman to pick up growth by 2.6%

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SPECIAL STORY

has been showing steady growth and is predicted to remain the same under the leadership of the Hon. Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. The concept of ‘Populism’ was also seen rising in the 2016 amidst a world that expected increased stock market volatility, rising inflation and widespread political uncertainties. For the Middle East region, a major step that would have (or rather say, has) impact the oil dominated economy is the deal by Russia and other non-Opec oil producers to cut output. “The first such coordinated move in 15 years, promising a much-needed uptick in oil revenues for producers after more than two years of depressed prices,” as quoted in The National. According to reports, “Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest economies continue to struggle with lower commodity revenues, weighing on growth in the region. Nigeria’s economy is forecast to shrink 1.7 percent in 2016, and South Africa’s will barely expand. By contrast, several of the region’s noncommodity exporters, including Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Senegal, are expected to continue to grow at a robust pace of more than 5 percent this year.” Talking about the Middle East market, reports claim that the infrastructure market would be the highly accounted for as well as impacted market in the 2017. A number of factors have been contributing to the decline in server and storage device purchases. IDC expects the Saudi enterprise infrastructure market to suffer the biggest decline in 2016, with revenues falling by more than 30% year on year. However, 2017 should see some recovery as a number projects are expected to materialize in the kingdom’s all-important government and oil & gas sectors. A number of extremely large projects in the telecommunications, banking, and aviation industries have helped keep the UAE afloat in this drowning market, with enterprise infrastructure revenues for 2016 expected to be up 3% year on year. IDC forecasts a decline of 25% for the combined OGCC region (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar) in 2016, as all major projects have been put on hold; IDC believes there is little prospect of any traction even as preparations gear up for World Cup 2022 in Qatar.”

FINALLY The global economy is set to set to go through some ardent changes in 2017, owing to the impact that the US monetory policies will have. The influence that it will have in the Middle East market and the way it will impact the technical offerings will definitely be a determining factor for years to come. ë

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GUEST ARTICLE

To Think Like an Attacker, You Need to See Like an Attacker Adversaries are no longer merely watching networks and endpoints to determine how they will attack. Social media, mobile computing, cloud services and the Internet of Things (IoT) have changed the way we do business. As we operate in this digital era and take advantage of the business benefits these new technologies offer, we leave behind a digital footprint – an electronic trail of activities.

To truly understand which threat actors pose a viable threat to your assets and business operations, as a security professional you need to a better understanding of your organization’s attack surface and own set of unique threats. You need an attacker’s eye view. While organizations have relied on cyber threat intelligence (CTI) to gain a better understanding of threats and threat actors, we need to do more. Data feeds, vulnerability feeds, indicators of compromise (IOCs) and profiles of threats and research reports will continue to be pertinent. But what’s lacking is cyber situational awareness that provides a more holistic and specific view of threats and vulnerabilities relevant to your organization. With this view, you can think like an attacker and more effectively address potential threats, instances of sensitive data loss or compromised brand integrity. So how do you move your security practices in this direction? This three-staged approach can help. And at each stage you’ll see real benefits. Stage 1: Perception – Building on the internal

n A L A S TA I R PAT E R S O N , C E O A N D C O - F O U N D E R , D I G I TA L S H A D O W S

information and CTI feeds you already gather to understand threats, the focus of this first stage is to understand how you are perceived by hostile threats. By knowing where key information assets, employee credentials and sensitive documents are being exposed online, you can understand where it is likely to be most vulnerable. Information is gathered by examining millions of social sites, cloud-based file sharing sites and other points of compromise across a multi-lingual, global environment spanning the visible, dark and deep web. Cyber situational awareness also analyzes and provides information on which malicious actors might be targeting an organization or industry, why and their methods of attack. The perception stage provides the basis for better cyber situational awareness and in and of itself provides significant new insights that you can immediately act upon to address vulnerabilities or behaviors that violate policies. Stage 2: Comprehension – With data about yourself and your attackers, the next step is to apply con-

text to understand what information is relevant and meaningful to your specific circumstances. You do this by ensuring that the intelligence directly references your organization’s brands, assets, concerns and weaknesses, systems and defenses (i.e., those things most relevant). Through this lens you can identify which threats pose the greatest risk and use this information to guide security investment decisions and strategies. Stage 3: Projection – The highest level of cyber situational awareness involves making educated and informed assessments about what might be around the corner to reduce uncertainty and determine what action to take to mitigate the threat. Techniques include analysis of past behavior to predict future behavior, identification of trends, geopolitical analysis and understanding pre-cursors of previous attacks. Cyber situational doesn’t happen overnight, but with the right approach you can see what an attacker sees, think like an attack thinks, and better protect against cyber-related incidents today and in the future. ë

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THE CRITICAL

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

WORLD CORP ORAT E C H AL L ENG E

GUEST ARTICLE

Why Private Cloud Is Best Of Computing Worlds When integrity and security of data is the primary consideration, private cloud delivers the best of cloud and onsite benefits.

When an organisation decides to enter the journey into the cloud, they need to build realistic assumptions on how they would operate. They need to consider how much of their applications and IT resources can they outsource from third party cloud solution providers; how much do they need to keep under their control but hosted in a third party data center; and how much do they need to keep under their control and hosted on-premise. If the answer to the first question on how much they can completely outsource is very little, and the answer to the next two questions is a significant amount under their control, then such organisations need to consider private cloud as an option for their cloud computing needs. Typically, governments, critical infrastructure, transportation, telecom, banking, finance, ERP centric, end users would be those who prefer the private cloud computing approach. The biggest difference between public cloud computing and private cloud computing is therefore the ease with which configurations can be modified and adapted to meet internal requirements rather than being restricted by service level agreements dictated by the one-to-many approach of the shared public cloud service. This is particularly useful for application developers who first need to scale in terms of

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n SACHIN BHARDWAJ, DIRECTOR MARKETING & BUSINESS D E V E L O P M E N T, E H O S T I N G D ATA F O R T

development coding environment, then testing and improvement, and lastly deployment. All three stages require vastly different types of technology environments and if the private cloud has been setup to deliver platform-as-aservice, then internal application development teams can gain significant benefits. Other services that a private cloud can deliver for internal users are infrastructure-as-a-service and software-as-a-service. Private cloud computing is therefore in many ways the best of both worlds - cloud based computing and the security of on-premises based administration. According to Yankee Groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recent survey on cloud computing, private cloud computing is preferred 2:1 over fully managed public cloud solutions. The key benefits of a private cloud environment can be summarised as follows: l Highest levels of security in terms of data integrity l Break down of internal departmental silos of computing l Reduced costs of scale-out computing l Cloud computing policy and services managed internally l Leverages Shadow IT across the organisation into visible demand

l Brings into focus costs of IT for business managers l Greatly benefits internal application development capabilities l First step towards business continuity and disaster recovery l Virtually unlimited capacity if cloud bursting is supported by third party data center

There are also some disadvantages associated with private cloud computing environments, which can be summarised as: l Higher initial outlay of investment in comparison with public cloud migration l Return on investment largely depends on internal economies of scale and demand for computing l Return on investment largely depends on removal of departmental silos of computing l Return on investment largely depends on demand for application development environments However, over a medium to long term, wherever a business is highly dependent on the integrity and control of its business data, private cloud computing environments will generally give the best return on investment and support for the scale out of business users and business requirements. ĂŤ

INNOVATIONS

KEY CAPABILITIES n Enhanced access security n ACLs, traffic prioritization, sFlow, and IPv6 host support n Capable of user-based and port-based wired traffic tunneling n Speed remote deployment with Aruba Central. n Consistent wired and wireless experience with Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager and AirWave Network Management. n Zero Touch Provisioning n Optional cloud-based management to allow enterprises to simplify and slash network deployment and management costs.

ARUBA 2540 SERIES SWITCHES Aruba has launched the 2540 Series Switches – the IoT ready and cloud manageable access switches. Designed for the digital workplace, the Aruba 2540 Switch Series is optimized for mobile users. With advanced security and network management tools — Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager and Aruba AirWave — this layer-2 access switch is easy to deploy and manage. With support from cloud-based Aruba Central, enterprises can quickly set up remote branch sites with little or no IT help. The Aruba layer 3 switches (29xx/3810/5400) are also capable of user-based and port-based wired traffic tunneling

to an Aruba Mobility Controller so that policies can be applied, advanced services can be extended, and traffic can be encrypted to secure the LAN, further reducing risk to networks. To meet the demand for the rapid growth in IoT and connected devices in distributed enterprises, the cost-effective Aruba 2540 Series support Zero Touch Provisioning and optional cloud-based management to allow enterprises to simplify and slash network deployment and management costs. PLEASE SEND YOUR FEEDBACK AT INFO@ ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

ZXP SERIES 9 Zebra Technologies has enhanced its ZXP family of printers with the ZXP Series 9. This new printer gives the user more control with its all-new, user-selectable print quality mode, allowing for higher speed and improved print resolution. Featuring industry-leading throughput, Zebra’s second generation retransfer technology enables users to produce cards that have more detail with sharper images. With improved first card out performance, the ZXP Series 9 has the fastest print speeds in the industry, printing up to 190 cards per hour, while the dual-sided, simultaneous retransfer process provides best-inclass printing, encoding and laminating throughput. KEY CAPABILITIES n Superior image quality with Zebra’s exclusive Color Predictive Technology n Edge-to-edge images on a wide variety of card types including a biodegradable option n Fast print speed: With improved first card out performance n Transfer films and laminates with a multitude of holographic security features n Patented waste-free laminate technology provides low cost-per-card operation n Eliminating more than 50 percent of the waste compared to competitor

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INNOVATIONS

HP DeskJet GT 5820/10 All-inOne series HP has unveiled the new HP DeskJet GT 5820/10 All-in-One series, in the UAE, targeted at high-volume users looking for a wireless ink tank printer that never stops. The HP DeskJet GT series prints up to 8,000 pages with a set of three HP colour bottles or up to 5,000 pages with a HP black ink bottle out of the box. Original HP inks are specially formulated to deliver sharp text, vibrant graphics and photos that resist water and fading and professional quality, borderless printing. The working environment today needs to be connected and wireless. The new HP DeskJet GT 5820 All-in-One printer makes it easy for users working remotely to connect via smartphones and tablets. The printer can be set up out of the box using just a mobile device. Even without a wireless network, Wi-Fi direct enables users to directly connect their printer to the mobile device at home. In addition, with the HP All-in-One Printer Remote app, users can quickly send scans to email or cloud storage through their mobile device. KEY CAPABILITIES n HP’s innovative spill-free refill system n Users can easily monitor ink levels with the transparent ink tanks n Makes it easy for users working remotely to connect via smartphones and tablets n Easily print from a variety of devices including iPhone and iPad using AirPrint, or smartphones and tablets running Android, Windows 8, Windows 10, and Google Chrome operating systems.

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SNC-EB640 Sony has launched eight new Full-HD video security cameras to its latest line up of sixth generation (G6) range of network cameras, delivering on the ever increasing demand for greater image clarity within the video security market. Using advanced imaging technology, Sony’s cameras offer security professionals clear detail and higher visibility through excellent lowlight sensitivity, ideal for a wide range of demanding applications, including city, transport and commercial surveillance. Further displaying Sony´s heritage in core technologies, these upgraded G6 cameras include high performance image sensors, lenses and image processors. The new V and E series cameras can capture images beyond the reach of conventional security cameras, helping to provide security professionals with better visibility and in turn greater accuracy. KEY CAPABILITIES n Recording quality to suit your network n Edge recording on SD card for reliable operation n Detect in confidence with Edge-based Analytics n Reduce cabling costs with Power Over Ethernet (PoE) n View and control with your smartphone n ONVIF (Open Network Video Interface Forum) compliance. n Triple streaming for extra operational versatility

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