December 2013 by GEC Media Group

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SAGE

CREATING ITS OWN SPACE

IN ME APPLICATION MARKET

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The ever-growing SME market needs solutions that will maximise business benefits, provide a rapid ROI and satisfy increasingly complex business requirements. /28

PROTECTI NG CR ITICAL I N FRASTR UCTU R E /30

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Cayan Business Centre, 10th Floor, Tecom Area of Al Barsha, Dubai, U.A.E. Tel: + 971 4 4500600 | emc@mindware.ae

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PALO ALTO PARTN E RS WESTCON

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C O N TA C T C E N T R E M A R K E T

GOING WITH THE TREND

As every industry is working towards accommodating new technological innovations in its workflow so is the Contact Centre market. /24

TECHNOLOGY ROUND UP 2013-14 /30-40 TOP 10 VADS /43-47

INDIAECM122013 B E I NG A STRATEG IC ADVISOR /42

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For deeper network security

look beyond the obvious.

Dell™ SonicWALL™ next-gen firewalls provide a deeper level of network security without slowing down performance. Not all next-generation firewalls are the same. To start, Dell SonicWALL next-generation firewalls scan every byte of every packet while maintaining the high performance and low latency that busy networks require. Additionally, Dell SonicWALL network security goes deeper than other firewalls by providing high-performance SSL decryption and inspection, an intrusion prevention system that features sophisticated anti-evasion technology, and network-based malware protection that leverages the power of the cloud. Now your organization can block sophisticated new threats that emerge on a daily basis. Go deeper at: www.sonicwall.com/deepernetsec

Come and visit Dell SonicWALL at Gitex, booth number D1-21

EDITORIAL

Exciting times Ahead...

S A N J AY M O H A PAT R A EDITOR@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

First of all on behalf of Enterprise Channels MEA I would like to congratulate our wise leaders, President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, on winning the bid to host World Expo 2020 in Dubai. More than anything, it is a bid to transform the identity of the City on the global level, which means it will have humongous and positive impact on every subject. It will transform the persona of the residents of UAE because the country will emerge as a very strong economic force. It is believed to the third largest global non-commercial event, following the Olympic Games and the Fifa World Cup. The direct impact is that it will create infrastructure projects to the tune of $6.9 billion in and around Dubai and the UAE. Various estimates say that there will be Dh140 billion injected into the economy, creating thousands of jobs. Expo 2020 is expected to attract 25 million visitors to the UAE and this will have a huge economic impact on the region and the hospitality industry. There will be more than 1000s of hotels constructed to accommodate this mammoth number of visitors. RTA will fast-track a US$1.36 billion expansion of the Dubai Metro’s Red Line to connect to the Dubai World Central. There are plans to construct an underground railway system to connect the different pavilions at the expo site. As per Nakheel Properties large scale projects like The World would be complete by 2020. After 2020, the Expo site will remain as a permanent attraction and will further enhance the country’s long-term appeal as a premier destination in hosting high-profile global events. After the six-month event, the 438-hectare facility hectares would be further developed as a state-of-the-art exhibition and convention centre. If this is not enough, investment in Qatar is expected to reach a staggering US$150 Billion in the next 10 years. The biggest triggering factor is 2022 FIFA project. As of December 2013, well over US$225 Billion worth of projects are under various stages of development. Plus, Saudi is investing nearly $77 billion on mega infrastructure projects, including roads, bridges and rail projects, etc. So it is exciting times ahead. Keep investing. ë

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CONTENTS VOLUME 01 ISSUE 05 DECEMBER 2013 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

2013

COVER STORY

GOING WITH THE TREND

As every industry is working towards accommodating the new technological innovations in its workflow so is the Contact Centre market. /24

MY VIEWS /49

“UNDERSTANDING PARTNERS AND CUSTOMERS”

ABHAY JOSHI, BUSINESS MANAGER -INTERNATIONAL SECURITY SALES MIDDLE EAST, MATRIX COMSEC

SPECIAL PACKAGE

TECHNOLOGY OUTLOOK 2013-14 /30-41

POWER MANAGEMENT DESKTOP VIRTUALIZATION ENTERPRISE SECURITY BIG DATA MANAGED PRINT SERVICES ENTERPRISE NETWORKING UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS BI AND ANALYTICS

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INNOVATIONS /53

DELL EQUALLOGIC PS6210 STORAGE ARRAYS

FEATURE Sage /28 Creating its own space in ME Application Market

It extends Dell’s ability to deliver flash at the price of disk solutions for customers seeking both faster performance and higher cost efficiency for their data-intensive virtual environments.

EDITORIAL::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 05 CHANNEL STREET:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 08 ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS::::::::::::::::: 42 TOP 10 VADS::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 43 EMERGING VAD::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 48 SHOWCASE::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::50, 52 INNOVATIONS:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 53

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Harnessing the value of information

DATA ANALYTICS watch every move

Authorized Value Added Distributor

StorIT Distribution fzco P.O.Box 17417 Jebel Ali FreeZone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Tel: +971 4 881 9690 | Fax: +971 4 887 1637 Email: info@storit.ae | www.storit.ae

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CHANNEL

STREET FORTINET ACCELERATES BUSINESS GROWTH IN AFRICA

Fortinet appointed Adel ElNaggar as its new Country Manager for Egypt, Libya and East Africa. By investing in local resources in that region, Fortinet aims at accelerating its business growth through the penetration of the high-end market and the expansion of its channel presence. IT industry veteran Adel ElNaggar will build on his market expertise as well as Fortinet’s success in South Africa to grow market share in Egypt, Libya and East Africa on key sectors, targeting primarily Telco, Government, Education and Financial Institutions. Fortinet will also be relying on its two high value-added distributors, Mantrac and Redington, which are established and committed partners in that region.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF NETWORK OUTAGE CAN BE HUGE It is indeed strange that in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), while it is apparent that organizations are all eager to deploy the very best technologies to streamline business processes, increase agility, create new revenue streams and deliver new services, many are overlooking the most basic and fundamental element of their IT infrastructures in doing so. In a world where commercial viability equals reliable connectivity, some people still don’t seem to understand why the network matters.

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JOHN SWAINSON, PRESIDENT, DELL SOFTWARE,

New Innovations by Dell to Tackle IT Challenges Dell Software announced technology innovations that address a host of pressing IT challenges. New solutions and technology integrations within Dell’s mobility/BYOD offerings provide customers the tools to increase workforce productivity, while also ensuring secure control over corporate assets. Continued integration of Dell’s network security and identity and access management technologies further enhances security for users, regardless of location or access need, while Dell’s modern business intelligence and analytics solutions are helping universities simplify their complex data environments. Two key enhancements to its data protection portfolio round out Dell’s newest innovations aimed at keeping corporate assets safe, and the business agile and profitable. Dell is building on earlier announcements with a unified solution that provides mobile device management (MDM), mobile applica-

tion management (MAM), mobile content management (MCM), and a Secure Remote Access gateway (SonicWALL/SRA) to establish secure endpoints. John Swainson, President, Dell Software, said, “Innovative solutions and technology integrations like those announced today are a testament to Dell Software’s commitment to providing our customers with affordable, simple-to-use, scalable solutions that help accelerate business results. By focusing on today’s challenges, including security, mobility and business intelligence, we make it possible for businesses of all sizes to enhance the capabilities of their datacenters, boost employee productivity and maintain compliance. By innovating and continually transforming our end-to-end solutions portfolio, we easily adapt to the ever-changing needs of our customers, and help IT become a valuable partner to the business.”

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CHANNEL STREET

StarLink and DSG host Partner Roadshow channel partners to enable them StarLink and Dell Software to recognize opportunities, Group (DSG) successfully hosted deliver business agility, and a Partner Roadshow in the generate revenue opportunities Middle East aimed at enterprise to help their business thrive. We partners and resellers to present also aim to provide exceptional DSG’s solutions portfolio, responsiveness, leading-edge business strategy and channel practices, and technical excelprograms. lence to support channel partners Delegates received an and their customers.” overview of DSG’s solution Dominique Honnay, Director capabilities and learnt about Emerging Markets, Dell Software channel enablement and revenue NIDAL OTHMAN, MANAGING DIRECTOR, STARLINK Group said, “We are very pleased incentives, putting partners with the success of the roadshow. in the right path to help their This will provide enough leverage to our partners customers make the most of their IT and create to utilize our latest software solutions and share business opportunities by efficiently bringing knowledge and experience with their customers, DSG’s innovative software to market in the together with StarLink’s technical resources and Middle East region. skilled engineers to extensively help them target Nidal Othman, Managing Director, StarLink, enterprise, telcos and government segments.” said, “This partner roadshow has helped us train

INTERACTIVE INTELLIGENCE ADDS THREE NEW VPS Interactive Intelligence has added three vice president positions to further enhance the company’s cloud communications infrastructure, service and support.Ray Cappola, Jose Martinez, and Steven Vaughan all fill newly created vice president positions, and bring a combined 48-plus years of experience to the Interactive Intelligence Communications as a Service offering. “Given that our cloud solutions have represented the fastest growing segment of our business for the past several years – with cloud-based orders up 75 percent last quarter alone – we decided to add several key positions to ensure we can continue offering our customers the best cloud deployment experience possible,” said Mike Szilagyi, Interactive Intelligence vice president of CaaS.

ACTIVEID AUTHENTICATION APPLIANCE RECOGNIZED HID Global’s ActiveID Authentication Appliance has been selected by the European Banking Forum (EBF) organization as the winner of the Most Innovative Security or Risk Service or Product in the 2013 Retail Banking Awards – Security and Risk. The award recognizes and champions excellence as a celebration of success and innovation in the banking industry. “With the rapid rise in mobile and traditional online banking, financial institutions need to apply consistent security practices and take a holistic view of fraud in all channels since customer information and transactions can be performed at multiple points of access,” said Harm Radstaak, MD, EMEA with HID Global. “HID Global’s ActiveID Authentication Appliance addresses banking customers’ needs to conveniently and securely access their accounts, online or on their mobile phone, and this prestigious award is further validation of our ongoing commitment to developing innovative authentication solutions. We are honored to be acknowledged by a renowned organization such as the European Banking Forum.”

BT Eyes Expansion in AMEA market Highly qualified specialists, better infrastructure and additional services to help customers expand in high growth markets BT is entering a new phase of investments into the rapidly growing economies of Asia Pacific, Turkey, the Middle East and Africa (AMEA) with the objective of accelerating its expansion in high growth markets. By hiring more people in the region, launching more competitive capabilities across a larger number of countries and delivering a differentiated service experience, BT will be in a strong position to capture opportunities in

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LUIS ALVAREZ, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, BT GLOBAL SERVICES

a total AMEA market evaluated at around 32 billion GBP. This new phase of investments

builds on the success of earlier programmes announced in 2010 for the Asia Pacific region and in 2012 for Turkey, the Middle East and Africa. Earlier this year, BT brought those regions together into a single integrated market unit to better address the needs of a new generation of regional multinationals and big domestic players that are increasingly expanding from China and India into the Middle East and Africa. The combined geography is expected

to generate 44% of the global GDP growth by 2025, with 3 billion people expected to enter the middle class over the next decade. Luis Alvarez, chief executive officer, BT Global Services said, “In 2010 we launched our first phase of investments to accelerate ourexpansion in Asia Pacific. This has allowed us to generate strong growth in the region and to nearly triple the number of new Asia Pacific customers signing with us. We are investing again to further grow our business, in a wider region combining Asia Pacific with Turkey, the Middle East and Africa.”

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CHANNEL STREET

CommVault Appoints Halian as CASP our companies. Halian’s investment Halian announced that it has signed in the programme will extend and a ‘CommVault Authorised Support enhance the scope and capabilities Programme’ (CASP) partnership of CommVault’s support services agreement with CommVault, throughout the region.” extending to the Middle East & North Halian will provide a comprehenAfrican (MENA) territories, includsive range of support services for ing Greece, Cyprus and Malta. CommVault users. This will range Stuart Fry, Managing Director, from 24x7 telephone support, includEmerging Markets at Halian, said, STUART FRY, MD, EMERGING MARKETS ing local language Arabic support, “We are proud to be the first ComAT HALIAN which will be fully manned during the mVault partner in the Middle East ‘local’ ME working week, i.e. inclusive of Saturday to be able to offer support services under CASP. and Sunday. The value-added offerings from We have built a very strong partnership with Halian, radically enhances the current support CommVault and this new agreement is a logical portfolio available to CommVault customers. extension of the existing relationship between

MANAGEENGINE IT360 NAMED “VALUE LEADER” ManageEngine’s integrated IT management software, IT360 has been named “Value Leader” by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA). Specifically, EMA recognized IT360 for its leadership position in the “Service Impact and Performance Management” category of the report, “EMA Radar for Application Discovery and Dependency Mapping (ADDM): Q4 2013,” by EMA Vice President Dennis Drogseth. The EMA report also honored IT360 with “Strong Value” badges in the “Change Management and Change Impact Optimization” and the “Service-aware Asset Management” categories. Finally, ManageEngine earned EMA’s “Vendor on the Move” award.

AVAYA BESTOWS PROLOGIX AT PARTNERCONNECT Prologix was named Avaya’s ‘Partner of the Year: Mid-Market Category’ at the PartnerConnect Conference held in Atlantis, Dubai on 21 November, 2013. Prologix, having achieved Avaya’s highest certification level, is one of the vendor’s select ‘Platinum’ Partners in the region. The system integrator was presented the award in recognition of its technical expertise, strategic sales momentum and effectiveness in the delivery of complex large-scale Unified Communications (UC) solutions based on Avaya’s industry leading technologies, to mid-market customers in the region.“We are extremely proud to be honoured at such a prestigious event. This has been another tremendously successful year in which we have managed to grow our business with Avaya by leaps and bounds,” said Faisal Tromboo, Commercial Sales Director at Prologix.

RED HAT ENTERPRISE LINUX 6.5 LAUNCHED Red Hat announced the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5, the latest version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 expands Red Hat’s vision of providing an enterprise platform that has the stability to free IT to take on major infrastructure challenges and the flexibility to handle future requirements, with an extensive partner and support ecosystem. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 is designed for those who build and manage large, complex IT projects, especially enterprises that require an open hybrid cloud. From security and networking to virtualization, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 provides the capabilities needed to manage these environments, such as tools that aid in quickly tuning the system to run SAP applications based on published best practices from SAP. Jim Totton, vice president and general manager, Platform Business Unit, Red Hat said, “Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 provides the innovation expected from the industry’s leading enterprise Linux operating system while also delivering a mature platform for business operations, be it standardizing operating environments or supporting critical applications. The newest version forms the building blocks of the entire Red Hat portfolio, including OpenShift and OpenStack, making it a perfect foundation for enterprises looking to explore the open hybrid cloud.”

RIVERBED ENHANCES ITS PARTNER PROGRAM Riverbed Technology has added important improvements to its partner program that will simplify processes, training and competency certification to help partners capitalize on new market prospects and accelerate their growth The changes to the Riverbed Partner Program include:

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n Enhanced partner benefits. Partners who invest in certifications and training will receive increased benefits, with enhanced features to reward high performance and growth.

n Simplifying business processes. Riverbed has improved sales opportunity workflow and policies

and is implementing a Deal Desk to drive best practice sales engagements globally. n Streamlining training and certification. Partners can take advantage of updated online sales and technical pre-sales training on all Riverbed products and solutions for accreditation. Riverbed is

investing in additional virtual labs, field roadshows and advanced certification training for both pre-sales and post-sales. n Changing to a new competency model. The four competencies as part of the 2014 program are WAN Optimization, Storage Delivery, Application Delivery and Performance Management.

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CHANNEL STREET IN PUBLIC

“ While BPaaS dominates as the largest cloud segment, the high growth rates of IaaS, PaaS and cloud management and security services make them important markets to watch”. ED ANDERSON, RESEARCH DIRECTOR AT GARTNER.

SECONDS

EPSON UNVEILS NEW POS PRINTER IN MIDDLE EAST Epson has announced the Middle East launch

Palo Alto Partners Westcon

Managing Director, Westcon Middle Westcon Middle East has signed a East. “We believe Palo Alto Networks distribution agreement with Palo adds considerable value to our existing Alto Networks. As per the agreeportfolio of leading security solutions. ment Westcon will push Palo Alto Our partnership sees us further cement Networks’ portfolio of security soluour position as the market-leading tions through its network of channel security solutions distributor in the partners in the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Middle East and Africa with the ability Oman and Bahrain markets. In addition, Westcon will to invest in STEVE LOCKIE,GROUP to deliver outstanding support to our on-the-ground pre-sales, technical MANAGING DIRECTOR, customers and channel partners.” WESTCON MIDDLE Palo Alto Networks has pioneered and maintenance resources to EAST next-generation network security with an effectively support both new and existing Palo innovative platform that allows businesses and Alto Networks customers in the Gulf Cooperagovernments to secure their networks and safely tion Council (GCC) region. enable an increasingly complex and rapidly grow“We are delighted to have partnered with a ing number of applications. recognized market leader in the Next Generation Firewall market,” said Steve Lockie,Group

of its TM-T70II POS printer featuring fast print speeds and greyscale printing for clearer receipts. It is designed to help busy hospitality and retail businesses deliver faster and more efficient customer service. The printer’s compact design allows it to fit under most till counters and can easily be operated from the front. With a Mean Cycle Between Failure (MCBF) of 17 million lines and an auto cutter life of 1.7 million cuts, the TM-T70II is ideal for high-volume environments where reliability is crucial. Its fast print speeds of up to 250mm per second enables businesses to serve more customers quickly. GEMALTO ENTERS GLOBAL BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP WITH IBM Gemalto announces a global business partnership with IBM for its enhanced Ezio eBanking security platform. Featuring cutting-edge levels of security and versatility, the Ezio eBanking Server platform has been further updated with the ability to support a wider range of end-user solutions. The platform has been tested and confirmed to

REDINGTON TO DISTRIBUTE PHILIPS AND AOC DISPLAYS MMD, the brand license partner for Philips displays, and AOC, the manufacturer and marketer of AOC range of displays, signed a distribution deal with Redington Gulf for Saudi Arabia. Under the accord, Redington Gulf will distribute Philips and AOC range of displays in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. “After spending time reviewing our distribution network and analyzing our potential growth markets, we have gone ahead and signed Redington Gulf to promote our range of AOC and Philips displays throughout Saudi Arabia,” explained Vineeth Sebastian, Regionals Sales DirectorMEA at MMD and AOC. “We chose to work with Redington Gulf, because we feel our company principles are the same. We have an individual approach to every customer, with responsiveness and flexibility in our day to day operations. It is indeed a great pleasure to work with a company who really want to sell displays that will satisfy customer needs.” As per the distribution pact, Redington Gulf will focus upon industry verticals such as SMB, Corporate and Retail segments, in addition to expanding its channel partner base in Saudi Arabia.

work with more than 30 authentication devices from 20 different vendors, ranging from physical tokens to mobile applications. It is made available worldwide, directly from Gemalto and also through IBM Security Services. “Our ability to deliver innovative authentication solutions is of critical importance to our clients, particularly those in the banking industry,” said Kris Lovejoy, general manager of IBM Security Services. “Making this new offering available as part of the IBM Total Authentication Solution will enable both IBM and Gemalto to address that growing demand with an even more comprehensive and flexible authentication capability.” COMGUARD STRENGTHENS ITS CHANNEL BASE FROM GITEX 2013 This year Comguard participated on a much bigger scale than ever before and was ably supported by Kaspersky as its platinum partner

IBT WINS ‘SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD’ IBT has been awarded‘Systems Integrator of the Year Award’ for 2013. The System Integrator of the Year award recognizes IBT for its excellence and innovative vendor agnostic approach to Systems Integration apart from dedication to quality and service while implementing several major projects in UAE and other part of Middle East. Jai Mulani, CEO, IBT, said, “The System Integrator of the Year award 2013 also re-enforces our position as the region’s leading systems integrator on account of our technical and support capabilities.” .

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and Engenius as gold partner, while several of its key vendor partners like Winmagic, SafeNet, Bluecat, Airtight, Array Networks, Tripwire, HP, Infor, Acunetix, WatchGuard and Motorola also participated at GITEX Technology Week 2013 along with Comguard. GITEX 2013 provided an excellent platform to strengthen its channel base by adding new resellers from various countries that will help to increase its market penetration in the Middle East.

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Meet the Dell Venue 11 Pro tablet. Featuring Windows 8.1 Get anywhere with a Windows 8.1 DELL Venue 11 Pro tablet Dell Venue 11 Pro

The Venue 11 Pro oﬀers ultimate 2-in-1 ﬂexibility, with the power of an Ultrabook, and the convenience of a variety of keyboard options to work in the way that works best. The Windows 8.1 tablet features a large, high-resolution 10.8-inch full HD IPS display, and PC-grade performance with up to 4th Generation Intel Core i3 and i5 processors.

Keep working

No matter where you go, you can stay connected and productive with Microsoft Oﬃce. Now you can power through important projects quickly and eﬃciently, even when you’re on the go. A compact 10.8" screen combined with an exceptional battery life of up to 9 hours means you can take this tablet anywhere you go without having to constantly recharge. Use it as a tablet to play your favorite games, or click it into the optional docking keyboard and power through a report or send an email.

It’s your tablet

With Windows 8.1, if multiple people use your tablet, everyone gets their own account, so everybody’s stuﬀ stays the way they want it. Not only that, your ﬁles, apps, and settings follow you to any other Windows 8.1 PC that you sign in to.

Aptec recommends Microsoft® software APTEC - an Ingram Micro company P.O.Box 33550, 1st Floor, EIB Building 3 Next to Mashreq Bank, Dubai Internet City, Dubai . UAE Telephone : +971 4 3697111 | Fax : +971 4 3697110 | www.apteconline.com

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Spectrami Rewards Channel Partners

EMDAD TO IMPLEMENT EPICOR ERP

staffs exciting rewards. The rewards Spectrami, the pioneers in developprogram is based on points systems ing world’s most advanced threat and for every sale of Fidelis XPS detection and intelligence solutions both Sales and Pre-Sales is allotted announced a special rewards certain points and these points can program for channel partners. be redeemed against exciting gift Fidelis XPS is one of the world’s rewards or cash rewards. most advanced threat detection and intelligence solution that will Channel partners from UAE, enable ADIB to discover, investigate Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and contain threats that bypass ANAND CHOUDHA, and Bahrain can participate in this other network security systems. MANAGING DIRECTOR, SPECTRAMI rewards program by registering With XPS in its Network Security themselves online at Spectrami website before Infrastructure, bank will be now able to cover 15th December 2013. Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) in detecting Anand Choudha, Managing Director, the untraceable malwares and malicious traffic Spectrami, said, “We believe that it is extremely and to prevent such threats jeopardizing ADIB’s important for us to reward the efforts of sales infrastructure. The solution is intelligent enough and pre-sales staff of our channel partners with in detecting the malicious traffic, infected gifts or cash rewards. Such initiatives not just nodes and any backdoor connections getting encourage people to perform better but also established. unlock the big opportunities for our channel Spectrami has devised the rewards program in partners that can further enhance the potential of the simplest of the formats to support the efforts their businesses.” of channel partners and enable sales and pre-sales

ELLUCIAN FORMS STRATEGIC ALLIANCE WITH DIMENSION DATA Ellucian has bolstered its capabilities to help higher education take advantage of the strategic benefits of cloud computing. Ellucian offers a comprehensive set of cloud solutions including application hosting and management services, and a rapidly growing family of Software as a Service offerings. These higher education technology solutions are efficient, secure, and scalable, and free up your IT staff to focus on strategic priorities. Ellucian formed a strategic relationship with Dimension Data to support the growing scope and scale of its cloud services business. Dimension Data is a $5.8B IT solutions and services provider with more than 15,000 employees in 51 countries across 5 continents.

EMDAD, a leading Oil & Gas services provider and major EPC contractor, has chosen to implement the nextgeneration Epicor ERP solution. Epicor ERP modules including project management, supply chain management, human capital management and customer relationship management will be implemented at EMDAD’s head office in Abu Dhabi, UAE. EMDAD selected Epicor as its preferred vendor due to the superior functionality of the Epicor solutions, its excellent fit within the Oil & Gas industry, and robust regional customer references. EMDAD expects the deployment of Epicor ERP to lead to integrated business processes, increased operational efficiency, and better decision making via improved reporting. “After rigorous consultations with various vendors we found Epicor to have the best solutions for our Oil & Gas services and EPC contracting business,” said Samir Al Otaibi, finance manager, EMDAD. “We have been able to achieve industry leadership status through our strategic business and operational models, and this is something that Epicor ERP will further enhance. The new ERP systems we are incorporating will enable us to focus more on our core activities and better help the energy players of Abu Dhabi achieve higher levels of performance and reliability.”

New Tools and Services in Xerox’s MPS As enterprises look to better manage an influx of documents and data, Xerox has responded with new tools to print for less – and print less – while simplifying how work gets done in a secure and sustainable way. “Work is no longer a physical place. It happens anytime, any-

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where – causing both challenges and opportunities. Our next generation of managed print services helps clients take control of information while managing everyday

DAN SMITH, HEAD OF INTEGRATED MARKETING FOR THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA REGION OF XEROX’S DEVELOPING MARKETS OPERATIONS.

concerns such as productivity, mobility, security and sustainability,” said Dan Smith, Head of Integrated Marketing for

the Middle East and Africa region of Xerox’s Developing Markets Operations. Xerox’s three-stage approach – assess and optimize; secure and integrate; automate and simplify – is a roadmap to help bridge the paper and digital worlds.

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CHANNEL STREET

Jumbo Strengthens Portfolio

JUMBO ELECTRONICS CEO VISHESH L. BHATIA

Jumbo Electronics has been appointed as the exclusive distributor for Yota Devices for the GCC. From January

2014, Yota Devices will be made available to customers in the GCC region through the Jumbo network of retail stores as well as through Jumbo’s distribution partner network across the entire GCC region. Jumbo Electronics CEO Vishesh L. Bhatia commented, “Jumbo is very proud of our capabilities to provide companies like Yota Devices with a fantastic retail network, servicing and distribution facilities for their products. It is excellent news to welcome Yota

to our portfolio of world-class brands that we already sell and distribute in the UAE and across the GCC market.” Yota Devices CEO Vladislav Martynov commented, “We are delighted to have signed this agreement with Jumbo that provides us with an excellent opportunity to provide our highly-innovative products to demanding and discerning Jumbo consumers across the region.”

WEB CLIPS AOC UNVEILS SUPER PLS MONITOR Display specialist AOC unveils a brand-new 27″ (68.6 cm) Super PLS monitor. With a WQHD resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels, this sophisticated LED-backlit screen from AOC’s Professional Line boasts stunningly sharp images for demanding home users and professionals. The high-luminosity q2770Pqu comes with a wide array of connectors, full ergonomic flexibility and a number of additional benefits to provide the ultimate in LCD user experience. WINDOWS 8 CERTIFICATION FOR ESCAN eScan has achieved certification from Microsoft for Windows 8. eScan anti-virus solutions have been certified by Microsoft to be fully compatible with Windows 8 (and Windows 8.1) operating

LOGICOM BAGS ‘HP PPS DISTRIBUTOR OF THE YEAR’ AWARD Logicom has been awarded the ‘HP PPS Distributor of the Year’ Award for 2013 at their recent channel awards event. The award was presented to Sajith Raj, Logicom Gulf ’s General Manager, who accepted it at the awards ceremony held on October 22 at the Ritz-Cartlon DIFC. According to the HP PPS Team at Logicom, this award was the result of great teamwork. Sneha John, Logicom’s HP PPS Product Manager said, “We would like to thank HP for recognizing our contribution and to our partners who made this award possible. It is our focus in HP’s product lines and value added services to our partners differentiated from others to reach this level”

system and will ensure secured computing environment to its users against evolving cyber threats. MANAGEENGINE LAUNCHES SOCIAL IT PLUS ManageEngine has launched Social IT Plus, private social networking software for IT departments. Social IT Plus is on-premise software that helps IT shops at large enterprises and data centers collaborate in real time by establishing a one-stop, cascading wall for real-time display of IT infrastructure health. “We have bridged the long-standing gap between IT management tools and a communication platform with Social IT Plus,” said

MOVEMENTS Fortinet has appointed ANTOINE HAKIM as its new Channel Accounts Manager for the Middle East region

Polycom Appoints PETER A. LEAV as President and CEO

ESET has appointed PRADEESH VS as its new General Manager for the Middle East

channel street.indd 18

Dev Anand, director of product management

NUMBER GAME

growth

The public cloud services market in MENA is on pace to in 2013 to total $534 million.

at ManageEngine. “Now, admins have a way to collaborate on issues in real time and improve the mean-time-to-repair.” ARAB WOMEN AWARDS WINNERS ANNOUNCED The Arab Woman Awards UAE 2013 winners were honoured at a red carpet gala reception held at the Rosewood Abu Dhabi . The awards ceremony was attended by over 400 women from the seven Emirates. The annual event recognised sixteen inspirational winners from diverse industries including Business, Education, Literature, Entrepreneurship, Art and Fashion. Her Highness Jawaher Bint Mohammed Al Qasimi was acknowledged as the UAE’s Inspirational Arab Woman of the Year 2013 and the Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Her Excellency Raja Al Gurg, Managing Director of the Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group.

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CHANNEL STREET

Aruba Networks and Aramex Sign a One Year MoU Aramex. Global companies Aruba Networks signed a are constantly searching for one year memorandum of reliable wireless network understanding (MoU) with access to support a broad Aramex, a leading global variety of mobility requireprovider of comprehensive ments. Logistics management, logistics and transportation guest services, and Bring Your solutions, to achieve the Own Device initiatives are objective of widespread global just an example of the areas of use of information technology AMMAR ENAYA, GENERAL MANAGER collaboration between Aruba and communication. This OF THE MIDDLE EAST AT ARUBA Networks and Aramex,” said partnership will see Aramex NETWORKS Ammar Enaya, General Manager of the Middle use of Aruba’s secure WLAN technology, East at Aruba Networks. Network Access Control, BYOD and Network In addition to its Wireless LAN, ClearPass and Management System. Airwave portfolios, Aruba Networks will provide The memorandum outlines the complete Aramex with ArubaCare and PartnerCare supcoverage of Aruba Networks wireless connectivport to improve technical assistance and reduce ity across all Aramex locations globally. This partoperational costs. ArubaCare provides immedinership will ensure wireless coverage is secured ate access to the Aruba Technical Assistance in Aramex offices and warehouses, enabling guest Center (ArubaTAC). Recently introduced to the access to partners, suppliers and auditors and to global market, ArubaCare benefits both multinaprovide constant and secure access to employees tional and regional resellers, while PartnerCare is to use their own tablets and smartphones. the leading support program option for resellers “It is with great excitement that we announce outside of North America. this memorandum of understanding with

ALCATEL-LUCENT ‘CONNECTING THE WORLD’ AT CAIRO ICT 2013 Alcatel-Lucent is showcasing its innovative technologies to connect the world during the upcoming Cairo ICT 2013 scheduled to be held from 9 to 12 December at the Cairo International Convention Center. The show is being positioned to highlight Egypt’s role as a bridge between the Middle East and North Africa in terms of technology delivery and innovation. From its booth in hall 3, Alcatel-Lucent will be demonstrating its technologies in three key areas: Ultra-Broadband Access for All; Combining IP and Optical to maximize your profits; and Embrace Innovation, Embrace the Open Cloud. Each segment aims to help Telecom operators realize the advantages of speed and flexibility to better connect their customers and retain a competitive edge.

MASOOD MAHMOOD BECOMES DU BOARD MEMBER Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du) has appointed Masood Mahmood as a Board Member with effect from 10 December 2014. Mahmood replaces outgoing board member Jassem Mohamed Al Zaabi. Masood Mahmood is CEO of Yahsat, the region’s first multi-purpose satellite system providing customised satellite solutions for governments as well as the commercial sector in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Central to South West Asia. In his role at Yahsat, Masood Mahmood is responsible for the management and full deployment of Yahsat’s operational capabilities. Prior to his role as CEO, Masood held senior positions at Mubadala’s Information and Communications Technology unit (ICT) where he was responsible for corporate strategy and management of all assets within the unit including du, EMTS, Inizat and Yahsat. Ahmad Bin Byat, Chairman of du commented, “Masood is a very well-respected sector expert with a wealth of experience relevant to our company. I am delighted to welcome him to the du Board. I would also like to thank Jassem Mohamed Al Zaabi for his service since the establishment of du as a board member and wish him every success in his future endeavors.

COMGUARD UNVEILS WIRELESS SOLUTIONS FROM ENGENIUS Comguard displayed the wide range of wireless solutions for SMB and Enterprise from EnGenius at one of the biggest technology confluence in the world, GITEX 2013. EnGenius is the leader in longrange, versatile, wireless networking solutions providing best-in-class performance & coverage for home and small and medium businesses

channel street.indd 20

(SMB) networks. The company’s entire line of award-winning devices is designed to deliver long-range, fast speeds, robust security, and ease-of-use. Ajay Singh Chauhan, CEO at Comguard, said, “The main aim to participate with EnGenius at GITEX was to earn customer loyalty and create brand awareness within

known and unknown vertical markets. The show offered us an excellent opportunity to highlight the advantages of EnGenius wireless solutions that delivers a critical combination of performance, versatility and value to the fast expanding SMB market in the region.” “Our solutions enable users to deliver fast data speeds to desktops

and devices on the wired network, and extend that connectivity wirelessly to devices within the building and outside the physical walls, which is critical for supporting bandwidth-intensive applications as well as an ever-increasing number of devices on the network.” Said, Yuhan Wang, Managing Director, EnGenius International.

D E C E M B E R 2013

MEA

19/12/13 9:17 am

STILL FRAUGHT WITH IT MANAGEMENT HICCUPS?

Gain control through SMS (Text) alert notifications and 2 Factor Authentication

CMY

sendQuick® is the industry’s first appliance based SMS gateway for enterprise messaging. Implemented by clientele across 20+ countries worldwide - many being Fortune Global 500 companies from industries that include banking, finance, insurance, manufacturing, retail, government and healthcare. Enterprises depend on sendQuick® to send SMS (Text) for IT alerts, 2 factor authentication with SMS OTP, SMS marketing and emergency broadcasting as part of their business IT management. sendQuick® is supported by a growing network of channel partners from Australia to the United States. sendQuick® Customers can be found globally in countries like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Oman, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Kenya, Tanzania, Morocco, Switzerland, United States of America, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Philippines, Australia and Singapore.

Take the first step and be notified by sendQuick® SMS (Text) appliance gateway. visit www.talariax.com │ enquire info@talariax.com

Singapore │ USA │ Malaysia

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CHANNEL STREET

ATLAS Threat Portal Provides Globally Scoped View their research and integrate the Arbor Networks announced that latest news and social activity that its recently launched advanced is going on across the industry. threat portal combines Arbor’s The dashboard has a great mix unique threat intelligence and of data, analysis, news and social analysis with industry-wide news commentary that is constantly and social media content. updated and relevant to what is The ATLAS Threat Portal also going on in our industry,” said features a unique collaboration Dan Holden, Arbor Networks between Arbor and Google Ideas Director of Security Research. called the Digital Attack Map. Mahmoud Samy, Area Google Ideas used anonymous Head, Middle East, Pakistan and data from Arbor Networks’ Afghanistan at Arbor Networks ATLAS to build a data visualizaARBOR NETWORKS’ ATLAS said, “The Middle East has seen tion that allows users to explore a number of high profile cyber historical trends in DDoS attacks, attacks in recent years and regional enterprises and make the connection to related news events are now beginning to pay closer attention to on any given day. The data is updated daily, and monitoring these threats. As such, the ATLAS historical data can be viewed for all countries. Threat Portal is an excellent resource for compa“Arbor was funded out of a groundbreaking nies in this region to gain an understanding and research project at the University of Michigan. keep abreast of the latest security risks, which will Research has always been at the heart of what we help them put relevant measures and technology do. This portal allows us to share global threat in place to ensure data protection and business information with the community at-large, to continuity.” feature our team of expert analysts, highlight

ARABIC SUPPORT FOR POLYCOM VVX BUSINESS MEDIA PHONES Polycom’s VVX business media phones, including the latest VVX 600, now support Arabic.The recent unified communication software update 5.0.1 automatically updated all existing Polycom VVX line of business media phones with Arabic language support in addition to various other significant enhancements. The new update also provides users with added support for: Selecting the audio and video mode when retrieving parked calls, A digit map timeout for on-hook and off-hook dialing and BToE (Better Together over Ethernet) auto-pairing. “We are excited to announce the launch of Arabic support for our successful line-up of VVX business phones. As Polycom further strengthens its presence in the Middle East, this enhancement to our nextgeneration of business phones will enable our regional customers to fully utilize our technologies and provide a more intuitive user experience,” said Daniel Schmierer, ASVP, Polycom, Middle East.

BROCADE CONDUCTS ‘CHANNEL 2020’ GLOBAL SURVEY ‘Data Center Availability’ has topped the list of IT concerns that enterprises face, according to the latest ‘Channel 2020’ global survey conducted by Brocade Communications Systems. Over 350 of the company’s channel partners, including Mindware and Westcon that both have significant operations in the Middle East, participated in the survey which aimed to uncover business pain points and identify areas of opportunity in the networking domain for channel organizations. Over 60 percent of respondents see fabric technologies as the future of data center networks and while adoption of new data center technologies in the Middle East has been encouraging, Khaled Kamel, Territory Channel Manager, MENA at Brocade feels that channel organizations need to play a key role in guiding customer investments. He said, “Virtualization and cloud are hot topics in the Middle East and customers can be easily swayed into making investments in these technologies because of the perceived benefits that have so often been touted in the media. However, channel players need to highlight the underlying concern of data center availability and ensure that the customer’s underlying infrastructure is ready to support not just todays but also future requirements.”

CANON TO FOCUS ON REGIONAL GROWTH Canon Middle East held its 2013 Partner Conference in Dubai under the theme ‘Steering to Our Vision,’ which discussed opportunities to create value in the market through diversifying the innovative product offering, focussing on managed print services (MPS) and enhancing online activities. Building on the company’s mission to become closer to its customers, the three day conference, brought together over 100 partners from 45

channel street.indd 22

countries in the Middle East, North, West and East Africa region and presented a platform to unveil Canon’s business strategies, objectives and latest innovations for 2014. Anurag Agrawal, MD, Canon Middle East, said, “Canon will con-

tinue to focus on regional growth, and aims to increase our market share through diversifying the product offering and meeting the demands of fast growth businesses. This will be led by investments in our core strengths of enabling increased connectivity, cross media imaging, managed print services and the most innovative technology. We will also build on previous investments covering colour and mid-high segment products and driving efficiency in after-market sales.”

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19/12/13 9:17 am

GUEST TALK

TECHNOLOGY

Innovation Happens Everywhere Nicky Sheridan is talking about how trust and innovation is key to the success of business in the GCC region

n W O R D S : N I C K Y S H E R I D A N , S E N I O R V P – M I D D L E E A S T, A F R I C A & T U R K E Y, S O F T W A R E A G n PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

Companies have many different philosophies when it comes to innovation and growth, but I think they fall into two main categories: • Not invented here – basically all innovation needs to happen inhouse. All innovations outside the confines of the corporate firewall are considered inferior and poor and should be avoided. • Innovation happens Everywhere – basically innovations happens inside the company and innovations outside the company are embraced and included into internal innovations where appropriate. Innovation happens even in places where tradition is highly treasured. The Middle East, for one, places a lot of weight on trust in its business dealings and has a unique way of managing its organizations. But the region has come to embrace innovation as well, with GCC countries ranked among the top innovating nations. The recent Global Innovation Index 2013 published by Cornell University, INSEAD, the leading international business school, and the UN’s World Intellectual

Property Organization points to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait as leading the Middle East in overall innovation performance. This is reflective of how innovation has become a visible and crucial tool for Arab countries to pursue economic diversification, competitiveness, and global integration. I am happy to say Software AG falls into the ‘Innovation happens Everywhere’ category and this is why we have been able to take the leadership position in the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant. We are naturally very proud of this achievement, but we would not have got there ourselves. A few years ago we realized that our messaging backbone that is at the heart of our integration offering just didn’t have the scalability and performance that would carry us forward for multiple years. It still worked (and still does work) great but it lacked some additional sophistication like active-active clustering to name just one feature. To solve this problem we acquired a company called MyChannels and have integrated this product as our core messaging component

into the webMethods Integration offering. This integration work was hard, but it was the right thing to do and honestly we wouldn’t be where we are in the market and in the Gartner MQ without this work. It wasn’t enough to just buy a messaging product; we had to do the hard work of integrating it into our product so our customers could get a fully integrated product that “just works!” Similarly we saw our customers asking for higher performance on larger and larger data sets (now everyone is talking about this category as big data) and we looked outside the company again for a technology leader that could bring in-memory technology into Software AG. We purchased a company called Terracotta to create the underpinnings of a new big data offering from Software AG. We have used this product extensively inside of webMethods creating increased performance and scalability across the suite. Here again it wasn’t enough to just acquire technology, we needed to acquire the right technology and the right teams that would work together to create an

integrated suite that our customers can take advantage of. We don’t just rely on outside innovation, we have created completely new products without any acquisitions – webMethods CloudSteams and webMethods Active Transfer are two examples where it was better for us to innovate inside the firewall and create products ourselves. What sets us apart from the competition is that we have wonderful innovation happening inside the company and we are not constrained by the NIH (not invented here) syndrome. Our unique selling point still remains that we do all the hard integration work, with products that we build and that we acquire, allowing customers to have one product that works together and solves their needs. We will continue to innovate both organically and inorganically with a strong focus on creating an integrated product that works and gets the customer to production faster. Especially for the benefit of unique markets such as the Middle East which demand continued and impactful innovations. ë

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FEATURE

CONTACT CENTRE SOLUTIONS

Going with the trend

As every industry is working towards accommodating the new technological innovations in its workflow so is the Contact Centre market.

n WORDS: MANALI MISRA <MANALI@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM>

ith the advent of technological advancements in IT, the contact centre industry has undergone numerous changes. The customer engagement is transformed by use of social media, e-mail, web chat, SMS, collaborative browsing, speech analytics etc. With huge amount of customer data getting accumulated, Big Data has come into picture and contact centre infrastructure too is getting into the mould accordingly. Cloud and hosted contact centres are also gaining traction in the industry.

THE MARKET GAUGE The latest report by Frost and Sullivan states that the EMEA Contact Centre Systems Market earned revenues of EUR 694.2 million in 2012 and is estimated to reach EUR 854.9 million in 2017 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4 percent. The report also indicates that Africa and the Middle-East will be the fastest growing regions. “Currently, Middle East and Africa tend to have approximately 8-10% of the global market share for Contact Centre Solutions. Research indicates that Middle East and Africa are and continue to experience the highest levels of growth, with increases of 20% + year on year,” comments Shaheen Haque, Territory Manager,

Middle East & Turkey, Interactive Intelligence.

EMERGING TRENDS Several technology trends are helping reshape the ways businesses manage the customer experience. “Mobile and wearable computing, the big data phenomenon, cloud computing, real-time monitoring, advanced analytics, and grid computing are coming together at the same time to create a new paradigm — one that enables organizations to achieve a much more intimate level of interaction with existing customers and prospective new customers anywhere and anytime,” says Yaser Alzubaidi, Contact Centre Solutions Sales Lead, Avaya Middle East, India, and Turkey. In a yet another report by Frost & Sullivan, it is noted that demand for hosted contact centre solutions in EMEA is on the rise. Companies seek to reduce the total ownership costs of their contact centre IT systems and divert spending from heavy capital to manageable operational expenditure, the report says. “We are witnessing a lot of momentum in adoption of workforce management adoption and creation of Cloud based Contact Centre. On the other hand growth and revenues of traditional on-premise models might see moderate slowdown as most organisations facing a contract renewal or new

deployment could be reluctant to commit to long contract terms in a rapidly changing technology landscape,” explains Sanjay Ahuja - Vice President (MEA), AGC Networks Limited. On the adoption of Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS), Alzubaidi feels that the reasons for exploring different aspects of CCaaS are that the offerings are more mature and comparable to premise-based offerings in terms of functionality, scalability, reliability, and security. Also, more and more service providers are getting ready especially in more mature and dynamic contact centre markets such as South Africa, Turkey, U.A.E., and Saudi. “However, like any new trend; there are still some challenges, fears, and perceptions that some early adopter customers report. We expect adoption to accelerate in next two or five years driven by increased acceptance of the technology & appreciation of real benefits that cloud offerings bring to businesses,” he adds.

THE CHANNEL PERSPECTIVE Irrespective of the region, channel plays a vital role in taking the offerings of the vendors forward. “The channel allows us to get to the wider market quicker and reach out to customers we may never have thought might use our solutions. Our channel typically have a broad technology

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INTERACTIVE INTELLIGENCE OFFERS THE FOLLOWING FOR CONTACT CENTRE

experience not just in the contact centre space thus adding value in terms of CRM, databases, networking etc.,” comments Haque. Avaya Customer Experience Management solutions are sold primarily through Avaya authorized partners. All partners must first meet the minimum authorization requirements in order to sell and design Avaya products, and partners may also achieve optional authorization to implement or maintain Avaya solutions. A small group of partners have been approved to deliver services only, meaning they do not resell Avaya products but only implement and integrate solutions. In MEA, there are many partners who are capable today to sell, implement, and maintain Avaya Customer Experience Management solutions. Prologix, a Platinum partner for Avaya deals

mainly in the mid-market space and much of the momentum in this segment has been driven by banking and finance, BPOs and government sector domains. “Integrating contact centre solutions with mission critical applications and CRM systems have become a mandatory part of deployments in the region. This gives contact centre agents instantaneous access to customer details and a holistic view of the data thereby enabling them to provide better service and quicker resolution,” says Sarwan Singh, Managing Director, Prologix. To heighten market potential and sales outcomes, and in contrast to conventional channel programs, Interactive Intelligence partnership philosophy encourages its partners to align the solutions and enablement programs from

n Interaction Center Platform, the foundation on which all Interactive Intelligence products are based—centralizes business interactions (including phone calls, e-mail, faxes, Web chats/ callbacks) as well as business processes. n Customer Interaction Center (CIC) for contact center automation and enterprise IP telephony n Interaction Dialer for outbound/blended dialing and campaign management n Interaction Recorder for multimedia recording/scoring and quality management n Interaction Director for network-based pre- and postcall routing (“intelligent multi-site routing”) n e-FAQ for Web selfservice and e-mail response management (ERMS) n Interaction Optimizer for workforce management n Interaction Feedback for post-call customer satisfaction surveys n SIP-based Interaction Gateway n Interaction SIP Proxy n SIP-based Interaction Media Server n Interaction Monitor n Interaction SIP Station n Interaction Process Automation for communications-based process automation n Interaction Analyzer for real-time speech analytics

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FEATURE

SANJAY AHUJA

SARWAN SINGH

VICE PRESIDENT (MEA), AGC

MANAGING DIRECTOR, PROLOGIX.

NETWORKS LIMITED.

YASER ALZUBAIDI CONTACT CENTRE SOLUTIONS SALES LEAD, AVAYA MIDDLE EAST, INDIA, AND TURKEY.

“We are witnessing a lot of momentum in adoption of workforce management adoption and creation of Cloud based Contact Centre.”

Interactive Intelligence with their own business strategies. In addition to sales, the program allows the partner business to also capitalize on implementation, service, and support opportunities.

CHALLENGES With new trends gaining momentum, even customers are demanding better efficiency and faster results. This is in turn places a lot of pressure on vendors, agents and channel partners. “For customers, particularly in the mid-market segment, budgets continue to remain a very formidable challenge. Driven by customer demands, even SMB organizations now find the need to deploy enterprise grade contact center solutions. The problem however is that with limited budgets, they tend to approach solution providers directly without first outlining the needs of their business. This often results in misguided investments and lack of knowledge that raise long term operational costs due to inefficiency,” says Singh. However, Ahuja adds another aspect to the

“Integrating contact centre solutions with mission “More and more service critical applications and providers are getting ready CRM systems have become especially in more mature a mandatory part of and dynamic contact centre deployments in the region.” markets such as South Africa, Turkey, U.A.E., and Saudi.” AVAYA CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT (CEM) SOLUTIONS THREE PILLARS:

1 2 3

Avaya Assisted Experience Management solutions increase productivity and expand opportunity by providing a unified platform for managing inbound and outbound customer interactions across voice, email, IM, text, web chat, fax and social media. Applicatons include Avaya AuraTM Call Center, Avaya AuraTM Contact Center and the Avaya Interaction Center Avaya Automated Experience Management solutions increase efficiency, lower costs, and empower customers by delivering information where and when it’s most actionable. Applications include Avaya Experience Portal, Proactive Outreach Manager, and Proactive Contact solutions Avaya Performance Management solutions deliver an enterprise wide, unified solution that handles historical and real time reporting and analytics for full, end to end performance management.

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FEATURE

MAGIC QUADRANT FOR CONTACT CENTRE INFRASTRUCTURE LEADERS

CHALLENGERS

Cisco

Genesys Avaya

TERRITORY MANAGER, MIDDLE EAST & TURKEY, INTERACTIVE INTELLIGENCE.

“The channel allows us to get to the wider market quicker and reach out to customers we may never have thought might use our solutions.”

Siemens Enterprise Communications NEC Ineractive Intelligence Alcatel-Lucent Aspect Mitel Altitude Software SOURCE: GARTNER (JUNE 2013)

SHAHEEN HAQUE

ABILITY TO EXECUTE

Huawei

Enghouse Interactive Aastra ZTE

SAP

Vocalom

NICHE PLAYERS

VISIONARIES

COMPLETENESS OF VISION

challenging market needs. He says, “While CIOs extend the usage of data, voice and video communication along with business/workflow applications to a larger set of users, the volume and pace of information flow on the connectivity infrastructure is growing. The challenge is for network infrastructure to deliver the performance that users expect, with the features and flexibility your operations need, at an operational cost you can live with.” For solutions providers, high customer expectations have always been a hurdle. Customers demand enterprise grade solutions but simply do not have the required budgets. “This is where we have found our partnership with Avaya to be particularly useful. The vendor has leveraged its strong contact center heritage to delivery enterprise class benefits to the midmarket segment at very competitive costs. These solutions are easy to install and implement and their scalability means that they provide excellent investment protection,” adds Singh.

THE ROAD AHEAD The market is readily adopting to the new technologies. Today, Avaya is redefining this segment as Customer Experience Management (CEM) in order to strengthen its leadership in this competitive market space, enhance revenue opportunities for our channel partners, and deliver differentiated solutions to our customers. Singh says, “With businesses now looking to formalize their support offerings with the deployment of dedicated contact centers, the first phase that we will see with the new entrants will be engagement of marketing teams with business consultants. While solutions providers are best positioned to identify and deliver the appropriate contact center solution, this is only possible when the client has a clear understanding of its contact center needs. Another noteworthy trend in the market is that collaboration of services is currently the primary driver for new solutions in the market.” Ahuja comments that the two key shifts

in the industry are minimal investments in infrastructure and investments in applications for improving efficiencies. A project which was earlier done by 100 heads is now aimed to be achieved by 85 or 90. “For that Contact Centers are willing to invest in Work Force Management, Speech recognition and Unified Desktops. But the innovations and dynamism the industry is currently witnessing it might be too early to say if even these might go redundant and something more revolutionizing may come up,” he adds.

FINALLY ... To improve customer engagement, contact centres are willing to invest in newer technologies and adapt to the changing market needs. The bone of contention is how vendors can help contact centres improve services and infrastructure accommodating the latest technology within their constraint budget. ë

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CORPORATE STORY

SAGE

Creating its own space in ME Application Market The ever-growing SME market needs solutions that will maximise business benefits, provide a rapid ROI and satisfy increasingly complex business requirements. This is where end-to-end business management solutions come into play in order to meet the demands of diverse business environments. n WORDS: NIVEDAN PRAKASH <NIVEDAN@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM>

age Middle East, a leading provider of business management software has uniquely positioned itself as an SME specialist. The company believes that the Middle East is one of the fastest growing regions in the SME sector and sees this as a major reason for their dynamic growth in the region. With revenue during the last six months substantially up on the same period last year, the company’s strategies are seen as the main reason behind the recent success in this market. “We are following a different path now, we have become a more aggressive and growth-oriented company. We have seen increasingly positive results over the last six to nine months,” says Reggie Fernandes, Regional Director, Sage Middle East. Sage has enjoyed a presence in the region for over twenty years and offers a host of solutions for many markets. Products include Sage 50 US Edition (formerly known as Peachtree) catering for small businesses, Sage 300 ERP (formerly Accpac) for the mid- market and Sage ERP X3, our flagship product, for the upper mid-market. To date the company has over 6000 sites, assisted by over 40 certified partners in the Middle East who market and support the product. Sage ERP X3 is the Sage Group’s Global ERP solution for mid-market companies and subsidiaries of large companies with international demands. A fully integrated business management solution, Sage ERP X3 is easy to use, quick

to implement and provides a rapid ROI. A highly scalable solution, it allows you the option of a large scale roll out, or of a local deployment with the option of adding users, locations and geographies as your business grows. Testament to the company’s success in the Middle East region is last year’s sale of Sage ERP X3 to a major airline, marking its entry into the airline industry. “Let’s also not forget the importance of Customer Relationship Management. Business today is highly competitive – businesses need a complete view of their valuable customers in order to keep them happy. Businesses today also need to

make the most of new sales opportunities. We like to provide our clients with a holistic view of their customers. Sage CRM tracks all communications between stakeholders, employees and customers, and by integrating with Sage ERP solutions, you have a 360 degree view of your customer. As a result, businesses are able to reduce costs, increase productivity and revenues while maximising customer satisfaction “ adds Fernandes. Globally, Sage operates in over 14 countries and has a strong presence in the Gulf region as well as Egypt and Libya.

SAGE AAMEA TURNOVER FOR THREE YEARS

9% £138.2

£152.7 MILLION

MILLION

FY 2011

COMPARED ORGANIC REVENUE GROWTH

£151.0 MILLION

FY 2012

FY 2013

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CORPORATE STORY

An exciting example of solutions available in the cloud is the recently launched Sage Inventory Advisor and we believe this will be a game changer for us. Trading and distribution companies in the Middle East rely heavily on optimal inventory levels. SIA is an affordable solution that integrates with Sage ERP solutions, helping companies reduce excess stock, free up working capital and eliminate costly stock-outs. We have seen huge demand for this product in just over a month since launch date” states Fernandes.

PARTNER ECOSYSTEM

“We have the bandwidth, knowledge and skill sets to succeed in this market. Where we previously focussed on business specifics by region, we are now taking a more country specific approach. For example, different countries have different needs and legislations – by being able to offer an adaptable country centric solution we hope to increase our presence in more regions as well,” he adds.

FOCUS AREAS In the MEA region, Sage is looking to increase its reach in the market by expanding into new territories. Secondly, the partner enablement program must be executed on a wider and more efficient scale in order to help our partners meet the increasing demands placed on them, by a rapidly expanding market. Lastly, the focus is on strategic marketing. “Six months ago our marketing activities were quite conservative. With new management and leadership put into place recently, we have identified the need for a more aggressive approach and strategic marketing activities. Collaborative marketing and joint events together with our partners, more engagement on the social media front and increased lead generation will, we believe, enhance our presence in the market,” states Fernandes. Sage is committed to technology and choice, and ever mindful of changing market trends has recognised the growing need for mobility and Cloud Computing. Traditionally an on-premise

REGGIE FERNANDES,

REGIONAL DIRECTOR, SAGE MIDDLE EAST

“We are following a different path now, we have become a more aggressive, growth-oriented company. We have seen increasingly positive results over the last six to nine months.” software provider, Sage has aligned its platform and product strategy to accommodate these trends. Fernandes highlights, “The ability to provide our customers with a choice i.e. cloud solutions or on premise has given us a huge advantage when talking to telecom companies for example – we have solutions for any size business in multiple industry segments.

Across the globe, Sage markets its product through a channel of highly qualified, certified business partners. In the Middle East there are over 40 partners, most of who operate in the SME space and market Sage products exclusively. These partners have been nurtured over time to provide a superior customer experience on Sage’s behalf and are regarded as part of an extended family. “As a channel operation we look to our partners to efficiently and responsibly represent Sage and our products in the market. To do so, we need to support them on both the marketing and product / technical support fronts. We follow a stringent partner enablement strategy providing in depth product and marketing training. Depending on the complexity of the product set, this induction and training exercise can take from six to 12 months but at least we know they are well qualified when they venture into the ERP market. At the same time, our partners are comfortable with us in the knowledge that we are there to assist them with marketing plans and their business strategies. Empowering our partners with sales and demo skills, familiarising them with social media, mapping the competition and sound implementation skills are just a few key areas we have identified as essential to conclude a sale and secure a good reference site. We believe empowering our partners and helping them to be successful is the key to our success and growth in the region. We are looking to grow our partner channel by about 20% over the next year so we can capture new markets we don’t yet operate in” asserts Fernandes.

FINALLY... “We have created our own brand, realigned strategies and have the right people in place to capitalise on our efforts. Our house is in order, we have a strong partner ecosystem and our account managers are ready to take on new markets in new territories. We believe we are perfectly positioned and look forward to achieving great success in the year ahead” ë

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POWER MANAGEMENT

Protecting Critical Infrastructure

The enterprises in the MEA region are increasingly demanding power backup as well as management solutions in order to reduce their operating cost and increase uptime. n NIVEDAN PRAKASH <NIVEDAN@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM>

rrespective of the region, power back up products as well as power management solutions has always been in demand. This is one high growth market that has always compelled the technology vendors to come out with comprehensive as well as innovative offerings in this space. The MEA market too has been in the fray of fast adoption of power backup products and power management solutions and this has helped the players to have their fair share of market in this region. If taken a look at the UPS market’s performance in the MEA region, it has returned to growth in the last couple of years, after three consecutive years of declining sales. In fact, the year 2013 is remarkably a good year for the UPS market. While oil prices are expected to weaken in 2013 and continue to be soft in 2014, some countries in the Middle East have other market drivers that are creating new applications for UPS. Building out the transportation and utility infrastructure will affect numerous regions’ UPS markets, as well as some new data center construction that will boost sales in the region. Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) is another critical component of this domain, which has been growing quite significantly. Enterprises always want to know where and how their power is being used, which is also generating demand for DCIM software. Peter Lambrecht, Vice President - Sales IT and Finance Segment, Emerson Network Power in Europe, Middle East and Africa, says, “Emerson Network Power has experienced good growth across all power back up related products in the

MEA driven by the company’s increase in resources and focus on the region. We have seen strong investment in particular from the banking and government sectors and associated support channels. “We have also seen a drive by the SME’s to embark on in house projects across a wider number of sectors than previous years. This has allowed Emerson and their partners to engage deeper than ever before with end users who all seem to be talking a common language based around TCO, efficiency and availability. These are the very core values that Emerson Network Power promotes in the region as power availability and associated costs become more challenging as the demand grows. In terms of growth in this area it has certainly allowed Emerson Network Power to experience an extremely positive year with a very exciting outlook moving forward,” observes Lambrecht.

REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENTS In terms of true power management, the past year has been very strong for Emerson Network Power in Middle East & Africa that has also been greatly supported with the launch of several new innovative products in the Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) and intelligent PDU area of the business. “We launched the enhanced operating platform of the award Global award winning Trellis, Emerson’s DCIM package with great success in the Middle East & Africa region. This was complimented with the investment in the Liebert MPH and MPX series of our intelligent PDU’s to ensure we deliver the latest leading edge technol-

PETER LAMBRECHT,

VICE PRESIDENT - SALES IT AND FINANCE SEGMENT, EMERSON NETWORK POWER, EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

“Emerson Network Power has experienced good growth across all power back up related products in the MEA driven by the company’s increase in resources and focus on the region.” ogy into the epicenter of IT power management,” highlights Lambrecht.

WAY FORWARD As per the IHS estimates, looking just at the Middle East, growth of the UPS market is projected to stay around the 5 percent range during the next two years. Saudi Arabia and the UAE will drive growth in the near term, while more emerging UPS markets like Oman and Qatar will generate higher long-term growth. Besides, power quality, emerging data center construction, and infrastructure development will affect UPS market growth over the next five years. ë

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DESKTOP VIRTUALIZATION

Embarking on VDI Journey

Desktop virtualization is seen as a natural technology evolution to deliver high value, high performance end-user computing that is simple to consume and optimized for operational efficiency. n NIVEDAN PRAKASH <NIVEDAN@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM>

he desktop virtualization has started to gather steam in the Middle East & Africa market, wherein it has evolved into a mainstream technology redefining the way the enterprises work and triggering off trends such as BYOD and work-shifting. Meanwhile, market pressures, budget constraints and an enterprise focus on mobility are driving organizations in the MEA region to desktop virtualization as a viable alternative to traditional PC computing. The industry estimates suggest that since market is aware of the virtues of Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), it is not only the large enterprises but also a lot of small and mid-size companies are deploying desktop virtualization. “In the Middle East, desktop virtualization continues to grow as IT leaders begin focusing on implementing business solutions that improve workforce productivity. With growth in mobility, there is a major requirement for desktop and application virtualization to allow organizations to accommodate this surge in mobile devices. At Citrix, mobile and desktop technologies accounted for 56% of the total net revenue in 2012,” points out Johnny Karam, Vice President of Middle East and Africa, Citrix.

KEY MILESTONE Desktop virtualization is no doubt a powerful technology that has the potential to deliver a virtual desktop to any user, on any device. A combination of changes in costs, the rise in popularity of BYOD schemes and the increasing use of public and private clouds, means that now could

be the time that the virtual desktop does become a mainstream technology. The big advantage of desktop virtualization is that it allows organizations to build easily scalable models while adding much more value than the existing traditional desktop, which is loaded with an operating system, applications and data files. “In an economic climate where every dollar counts, companies want a clear picture of their own potential for savings, and the likelihood of near-term ROI, before they commit funds to the additional servers and storage needed for desktop virtualisation – a solution Citrix has perfected over the years. In general, we have seen upwards of a 50 percent savings in desktop and application administration costs. In 6-12 months, most of the below scenarios can achieve a ROI of more than 100 percent,” explains Karam. In May this year, Citrix launched XenDesktop7 which is designed for a mobile future and includes benefits such as access to Windows apps, saving time when using 3D apps, transforming migrations into simple upgrades, adopting new windows releases, reduced footprint and enhanced scalability, reduced time spent on maintenance and accessing PC under desks.

WAY AHEAD While desktop virtualization is yet to become mainstream, but with the costs and risks of the traditional desktop environment growing every now and then, more and more IT decision makers will move VDI up in their priorities list. Karam says, “In the mobile enterprise, consumer technology has taught us to care about the apps, and having those apps and the data behind

JOHNNY KARAM,

PRESIDENT OF MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA, CITRIX

“In MEA region, desktop virtualization continues to grow as IT leaders begin focusing on implementing business solutions that improve workforce productivity.” the apps available anywhere. For the thousands of Windows applications in corporate circulation today, the ability to host and deliver apps and virtual desktops, optimized for any device, without leaving a trace of data behind only becomes more critical to enterprise mobility strategy.” “Many industry pundits have declared 2014 to be the year of VDI. At Citrix, we predict that 2014 WILL NOT be the year of VDI. While VDI will continue to gain mainstream traction across all industries, the big conversation for 2014 will be about apps, not desktops. While VDI can play a role in cloud-hosted desktops, the conversation turns away from where the desktops are running and instead centres on the lifecycle management of those desktops,” concludes Karam. ë

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ENTERPRISE SECURITY

Mitigating the threat vectors

The Middle East network security market is all set for rapid growth as organizations in the region realize their vulnerability to increasingly complex cybercrimes. The need to comply with government’s cyber legislation has further encouraged businesses to implement network security solutions.

n WORDS: NIVEDAN PRAKASH <NIVEDAN@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM>

he year 2013 has marked a significant growth for the security market in the MEA region, as enterprises continue to invest in the technologies to not only improve their security infrastructure but also protect from modern day threats. According to Gartner, the security technology and services market is forecast to reach $67.2 billion in 2013, up 8.7 percent from $61.8 billion in 2012 and is expected to grow to more than $86 billion in 2016. Moreover, the latest IDC tracker published in September this year suggests that the total security appliances market has increased by approximately 11.13 percent in H1 2013 compared to H1 2012 in the Middle East region. Alain Penel, Regional Vice President – Middle East, Fortinet, states, “IDC figures indicate that in the Middle East region, Fortinet represented over 30 percent of the UTM market over the first six months of 2013 and that our growth in the region was higher than 25 percent. New IT adoption and network expansion means that there is a greater need to secure the network. Security has become both an IT and a business issue for global and big local corporations. We have many projects on these matters and lot of customers have deployed our solutions either on private or government sectors.” “At Kaspersky Lab, we pay special attention to the Middle East market, and we see increase in

our market share as well as revenue here as well. Over the last year, we continued to strengthen our presence in the region. Today, we have 23.5% market share in the Middle East, according to the latest IDC Secure Content and Threat Management Tracker,” says Khalid Abu Baker, Managing Director, Kaspersky Lab, Middle East.

ACHIEVEMENTS Fortinet addresses that need for speed in the data centres of enterprises, large service providers, cloud providers and carriers with the launch of a new firewall appliance, FortiGate-3700D. Our new platform, includes four 40 GbE (QSFP+) and 28 10GbE (SFP+) ports, and is able to achieve up to 160 Gbps firewall throughput. “Fortinet is the first network security company to deliver 100 Gbps+ firewall throughput and 40 GbE ports in a compact appliance, which redefines the standard for price per gigabit protected, price per port density, power dissipation per gigabit and space per gigabit,” opines Penel. Over the last year, Kaspersky Lab has introduced a host of best of breed technologies that encompass security solutions like Kaspersky Internet Security for Multi-Device, Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business, and Kaspersky Small Office Security for personal use as well those that can be deployed against a larger enterprise network to ensure a

comprehensive state of security. “Kaspersky Lab has been recognized as one of the fastest growing IT security companies in the world, with our solutions being said to lead the industry by various well known independent research agencies. Our objective is to sustain the gained growth and become the first choice for enterprises looking to deploy a trusted and secure IT security solution,” points out Baker. Embarking on this journey, Dell SonicWALL is also enjoying a strong level of adoption for its next generation firewalls, from SMBs to the large enterprises. The company has launched the Supermassive 9000 series earlier on this year followed up in May with a complete refresh of its NSA series - Gen6 NSA – to meet today’s network security requirements and enable business to securely embrace the consumerisation of IT. “We also have a comprehensive Connected Security portfolio that offers a breadth of security solutions to connect and protect customers from endpoint to data centre to cloud,” highlights Florian Malecki, EMEA Product & Solution Marketing Director, Dell Software.

FUTURE SCENARIO As per the Gartner predictions, there is a prospect of continued growth of the enterprise security market in the MEA region in the face of steadily

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ALAIN PENEL,

VICE PRESIDENT – MIDDLE EAST, FORTINET

“New IT adoption and network expansion means that there is a greater need to secure the network. Security has become both an IT and a business issue for global and big local corporations” increasing volume and complexities of attacks combined with the simultaneous increase in attack vectors driven by heavy digitization, mobile and internet connectivity. According to Frost & Sullivan, the estimated revenues from sales of various IT security solutions will reach $933.6 million by 2018. As a leading and trusted provider of security solutions, Kaspersky Lab will continue to invest in research and development to bring comprehensive suites of solutions to market that are aimed at helping organizations combat consistently growing

FLORIAN MALECKI,

EMEA PRODUCT & SOLUTION MARKETING DIRECTOR, DELL SOFTWARE

“We have a comprehensive Connected Security portfolio that offers a breadth of security solutions to connect and protect customers from endpoint to data centre to cloud” security threats. Similarly, in 2014, Fortinet will continue to innovate, develop and expand its portfolio of products and services to make sure its solutions address the new IT security challenges of the customers. “The enterprise security market will keep on growing, as IT security is a critical agenda for the future growth of any business. Without a strong and clear IT Security strategy, organisations won’t be able use and benefits from the consumerisation of IT, which could result in loosing market shares and declining revenues,” concludes Malecki. ë

KHALID ABU BAKER,

MANAGING DIRECTOR, KASPERSKY LAB, MIDDLE EAST

“We pay special attention to the Middle East market, as we see increase in our market share here. Our objective is to sustain the gained growth and become the first choice for enterprises looking to deploy a trusted and secure IT security solution”

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STORAGE & BIG DATA

Riding on the Transformation wave

Big Data is gradually leaping from the ‘buzz’ state and moving ahead to be a true requirement from customer.

n WORDS: NIVEDAN PRAKASH <NIVEDAN@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM>

nterprise storage has experienced exponential growth across Middle East market in 2013; whereas, Big Data is still an emerging trend in the region, as businesses are only now beginning to understand its implications. Under enterprise storage solutions, there has been a shift in the demand towards converged infrastructure, as more and more enterprise in the region are looking for fully integrated stacks that can fit into their existing data centers. On the other hand, the demand for traditional infrastructure solutions has remained steady. According to IDC, the external storage market in the MEA grew only two percent in the first quarter of 2013. The external storage revenue in MEA expanded slightly year on year in Q1 of 2013 to total $233 million, with terabyte capacity rising around 32 percent over the same period. The GCC countries excluding the UAE and Saudi Arabia posted growth of 83 percent in the external storage market in the first quarter of the year, with Bahrain and Qatar registering triple-digit growth, bolstered by projects in the government and finance vertical markets, respectively. “In Saudi Arabia, there has been an emphasis on upgrading of old infrastructure, and a

majority of NetApp’s new projects in the region are taking place in the country. Qatar has seen a recent boom in business growth, which in turn has increased demand for enterprise storage solutions. UAE and Oman are other countries experiencing an uptake in enterprise storage adoption,” asserts Husam Abdul Hamid, Regional Channel Manager, NetApp Middle East & Pakistan. Adding further, Havier Haddad, Channel and Alliances Director – Turkey, Emerging Africa & Middle East, EMC, says, “Most businesses in the Middle East region are turning to transformational technologies such as cloud, virtualization and big data to sustain competitive differentiation by driving down operational costs and maximize efficiencies. A key element of focus for most enterprises in the region today is to consolidate their storage infrastructures not just to drive down costs but to enable centralization and enhance visibility.”

KEY MILESTONES With the goal of reducing complexity and accelerating the time to market, the MEA market has witnessed an increased demand for converged infrastructures replacing traditional approaches of integrating various infrastructure components.

This was a transformational year for EMC, as the company saw the future of storage being software-defined where it has introduced the world to the first Software-Defined Storage Platform, EMC ViPR that provides the virtualization, automation, and management capabilities necessary to create a single pool of virtual storage. “EMC also recently announced general availability of EMC XtremIO, the industry’s first and only all-flash array to provide consistent and predictable extreme performance to any application workload over any period of time, regardless of whether the array is idle or busy, empty or full,” adds Haddad. For NetApp, the major highlights in the enterprise storage domain include the expansion of its FlexPod portfolio in partnership with Cisco, thus revamping of its cloud strategy to provide seamless cloud management using Data ONTAP, and the launch of its new flash storage arrays. FlexPod supports the growing need to tie storage, networks, applications, and analytics, such as Big Data, into a more automated and responsive system that increases efficiency and lowers operational expense. “In 2013, we also introduced two new hardware platforms (NetApp EF550 flash array

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HUSAM ABDUL HAMID,

CHANNEL MANAGER, NETAPP MIDDLE EAST & PAKISTAN

“By offering the broadest and most complete flash portfolio in the industry, we are maximizing the value of flash across the entire compute, network, and storage stack, improving efficiency and accelerating business-critical application performance” and NetApp E2700 SAN array) and updated a third (NetApp E5500 SAN array) to address the broad performance requirements of dataintensive applications. By offering the broadest and most complete flash portfolio in the industry, we are maximizing the value of flash across the entire compute, network, and storage stack, improving efficiency and accelerating business-critical application performance,” highlights Hamid.

OUTLOOK In the MEA region, enterprise storage will witness

HAVIER HADDAD,

CHANNEL AND ALLIANCES DIRECTOR – TURKEY, EMERGING AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST, EMC

“A key element of focus for most enterprises in the MEA region today is to consolidate their storage infrastructures not just to drive down costs but to enable centralization and enhance visibility”

rapid growth, where the converged infrastructure solutions are expected to move further ahead in 2014. According to IDC estimates, in the Middle East market, external storage is expected to grow 20.7 percent year over year (2012/2013) and at a healthy CAGR of 11.8 percent over the next five years. There will be an increase in adoption of big data solutions in 2014. Flash will also continue to be front and center of the storage transformation industry, fueled by the industry’s ability to produce larger SSD’s and at lower price points.

FINALLY.. NetApp’s main focus for 2014 is to grow more in the enterprise storage space, which still presents huge opportunities in the MEA region. In addition to its established expertise in the energy sector, the company will be focusing on growing its presence in the government, healthcare, telecom and financial sectors. EMC is putting forward a lot of investment in the Software Defined Data Center together with its VMware and Pivotal sister companies to help enterprises achieve new efficiencies and achieve their IT transformation goals. ë

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MANAGED PRINT SERVICES

Streamlining Work Processes

Managed Print Services is poised to record consistent growth in the coming years, owing to the fact that enterprises going to achieve significant cost savings and improvements in workforce productivity in the long run

n WORDS: NIVEDAN PRAKASH <NIVEDAN@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM>

he demand for Managed Print Services (MPS) is definitely surging in the MEA region, as enterprises have started realizing the business benefits of this solution area. While the growth is steady in this region, the traction is mainly seen in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Lebanon. There is a significant market opportunity for genuine print services in this region that will help clients reduce their costs and at the same time, improve their business efficiencies and workflow. Besides, enterprises are stepping forward to outsource their printing services to benefit from the cost efficiencies offered by MPS. “MPS within the region is growing at a rapid rate, and will no doubt form the platform for additional service lines to be built upon to broaden the offering. There is a significant market for online print services in the ME region and GCC and it will gain ground with time as market awareness increases. Through MPS, enterprises gain visibility and control of their spending. This helps them free up budget for innovative projects that improve efficiency and drive competitive advantage,” says Simon Howells, MPS Manager, Global Document Outsourcing, Xerox MEA. Adding further, Naoshi Yamada, Deputy Managing Director, Canon Middle East, states,

“Two of the defining features in this growth, reflected in the MEA markets are the emergence of mobile technologies and the rapid growth of the small and medium business sector; this has changed how people access data, and is further driving the growth of the MPS. The growth of the SME sector in the MEA region means more businesses are exploring cost-effective options to manage their imaging and printing requirements.”

MAJOR BREAKTHROUGHS Xerox has recently launched the next generation of MPS. Having demonstrated leadership in all research company assessments, Xerox recognizes that it must push on to maintain the gap against the competition. The new launch by Xerox highlights 3 key stages for the MPS development: Assess & Optimize – During this phase Xerox will conduct a thorough assessment, not only of the print environment but importantly the infrastructure and processes that surround it. This will enable Xerox to present back a clear baseline of current costs and affected processes. From this the roadmap can be built

SIMON HOWELLS,

MPS MANAGER, GLOBAL DOCUMENT OUTSOURCING, XEROX MEA

“MPS within the region is growing at a rapid rate, and will no doubt form the platform for additional service lines to be built upon to broaden the offering.

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NAOSHI YAMADA,

DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR, CANON MIDDLE EAST

“The emergence of mobile technologies and the rapid growth of the small and medium business sector have changed how people access data, and is further driving the growth of the MPS. The growth of the SME sector in the MEA region means more businesses are exploring cost-effective options to manage their imaging and printing requirements”

to drive the journey to the requested future state. Secure & Integrate – This will cover the implementation of the future state design, and the connectivity to the existing processes. Importantly this integration will be compliant with security protocols and also include the smartphone/tablet applications to support the mobile workforce. Automate & Simplify – Xerox will now have removed the burden of the old print and document environment and have the responsibility to collect, review and analyse the data that will demonstrate the benefits of the new service. During this phase Xerox will also look for new, innovative ways to automate existing processes and drive down volumes. On the other hand, Canon has successfully developed Canon Emirates, its subsidiary company in UAE, as a benchmark for MPS solutions. This direct approach sets a business best practice that helps the company to consolidate its business. Canon is also strengthening its market presence in the region through Canon Middle East Business Development Managers and regional partner network. “This year, Canon Emirates signed a five-year

MPS contract with global hospitality brand Fairmont The Palm, which was the first deal of its kind for the company with a major hotel in the UAE and is further evidence of the company’s position among the top providers of printing solutions in the region,” mentions Yamada.

GROWTH PROJECTIONS According to a research report by Photizo Group, by 2014, nearly 50 per cent of global printing revenue is forecasted under MPS contracts, with the sector set to overtake the spend on purchase of equipment by the end of this year. From Xerox’s perspective, 2014 will be a key year for MPS that will continue to grow as organisations look to reduce print and associated costs of print. There will be a key focus on broadening the existing agreements to support new and existing clients with business process services and content management as the print and IT worlds continue to converge. And while Canon Emirates has had great successes this year, it is aiming for 20 percent growth in 2014. Through its partners, the company is also targeting to grow MPS across the region by up to 10 percent. ë

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ENTERPRISE NETWORKING

Mapping the Networking Needs

The fast adoption of cloud services and mission-critical mobility applications is accelerating the growth of enterprise networking in the MEA market. n NIVEDAN PRAKASH <NIVEDAN@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM>

he enterprise networking market in the Middle East region has seen rapid growth in the last one year. Most of the networking vendors are posting double-digit growth across their businesses from a range of verticals. The primary reason is that enterprises of all sizes have not only embraced trends like cloud, computing, mobility, and virtualization but also started implementing them. The increasing adoption of these concepts are giving a definitive push to networking investments, as these technologies are very network dependent and this is why a lot of enterprises are reassessing their networks and making investments. According to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Ethernet Switch and Router Tracker, the Ethernet switch market in the Middle East and Africa grew strongly by 22.7 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2013. At the same time, the enterprise and service provider router market also performed well in the third quarter of 2013, registering more than 30 percent growth in the MEA market. And as far as enterprise WLAN market of this region is concerned, it has just posted a single digit growth year-on-year in Q3 of 2013. Den Sullivan, Head of Architectures and Enterprise, Emerging Markets, Cisco, says, “Cisco is committed to supporting the Middle East region, as it’s a significant contributor to our overall business success. The importance of public-private partnerships for driving economic growth and prosperity throughout the Middle East is important moving forward. Cisco is at the forefront of driving such unions across a number of learning-based initiatives to help cultivate ICT start-ups and entrepreneurs. These include the

DEN SULLIVAN,

Cisco Networking Academy Program and Cisco Entrepreneur Institutes.”

HEAD OF ARCHITECTURES AND ENTERPRISE, EMERGING MARKETS, CISCO

MAJOR HIGHLIGHTS

“The demands for video continue to drive the need for increased capacity and faster switching speeds.”

For Cisco, there are two major highlights this year. Firstly, the company started the year with the announcement of Unified Access, wherein it has blended its technology leadership in wired and switching space with its innovation in the wireless market to give the world a single box and a single operating system. “This is a box with over $100M of R&D investment coupled with over 300 years of Engineering Years and a custom ASIC chipset. The benefits are significant for our customers, including even times the horsepower of the previous platform, offering 480G of stacked switch bandwidth with an integrated 40G wireless Controller, and a rich feature set designed to deliver high performance, reliable and secure network services at scale. Then there are the benefits for those in the hardworking IT department where multiple policies for wired and wireless have made way for a single policy and true converged access,” adds Sullivan. Another key highlight for Cisco this year is 11.AC wireless. The company was the first vendor to announce commitment to 11.AC and also the first to deliver the first 11.AC Access Point. In addition, the company also delivered a number of the features out of the box that customers now come to expect as native to Wireless, including Clean Air and Client Link.

GOING FORWARD While growth in the Ethernet switch market will largely come from 10GbE and 40GbE in the

coming years, it is encouraging to note that the market for Gigabit Ethernet is holding its own, largely in campus, aggregation, and network edge deployments. And while enterprise mobility is being keenly focused by IT and network managers, the underlying wired infrastructure is also continuing to get mindshare in the context of a holistic approach to the network in delivering applications to end-users. “A Cloud is an island without the network. Intelligent routing to the cloud and between the cloud is important in the world of many clouds - private, public and hybrid - to provide optimal access and performance. Furthermore, the demands for video continue to drive the need for increased capacity and faster switching speeds. Coupled with the continued build-out of infrastructure in the region, enterprise networking remains an important pillar of enabling businesses and organizations to realize their goals,” concludes Sullivan. ë

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UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS

Collaboration is the new mantra

With the rising adoption of unified communications from the enterprises of all sizes, a compelling picture has emerged in the MEA market. n NIVEDAN PRAKASH <NIVEDAN@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM>

nterprises across the globe has always seen unified communications (UC) as a boon for the industry, especially in these tough economic times where the focus is solely on reducing costs in the best possible way. The same holds true for Middle East & Africa market as well. This region has gradually started embracing the whole concept of UC, owing to the fact that there are lots of operational benefits attached to it. In general, some of the key drivers for the UC market in this market include increasing investments to optimize the communication infrastructure, desire to reduce travelling costs, SMB adoption, and a shift towards mobile applications. However, the true success of complete UC suite lies in any company’s operations model, microeconomics of the region in which they are operating as well as the telecom infrastructure offerings and regulations. “Enterprise business concerns in Middle East have a ‘structural formation’ which highlights a need for UC. For example, due to business flexibilities within GCC, companies have multiple offices and partner network. There is a general tendency that skilled workforce is stationed in one location and roams in the region for the business. Telcos have launched 4G services in most of the areas. This combined with many other factors generate a true ‘operational need’ for adoption of technology. However, constraints step in because regulations do not support the VOIP breakouts and this limits the functionality,” says Haris Hasan Khan, Head – Middle East, Unify Communications N.V.

The year 2013 has been so far good in terms of adoption of this solution area in the MEA region. Apart from large enterprises, SMB segment has been showing keen interest in UC, as they are slated to gain substantial benefit from UC suites as far as cost savings are concerned. Khan states, “We would like to highlight that we are promoting unified communications into SMB market. Adoption of certain UC functionality allows entrepreneurs to save costs by clever use of smart collaborative features. With this concept, we had a good success for our SMB UC portfolio that we introduced in this year. Going forward, we expect a double digit growth next year.”

MAJOR HIGHLIGHTS Today, end users expect to see vendors map their business needs to UC applications. In terms of its product positioning, the major highlight for Unify was to embed together unified communications and collaboration experience. The company has achieved a milestone of creating a ‘vibrant conversation’ rather than a simple ‘communication’, thus delivering a richer user experience and further improving responsiveness and business agility. “All the tools you use every day, including email, blogs, social media, community forums, and beyond, are blended together into an intuitive activity stream, rather than a set of distinct and disparate communications tools. In today’s communication and collaboration systems, meetings are transformed into a seamless textual, voice, video & web sharing experience, with contextual information about meeting topics, previous meetings, or latest topic messages automatically available to

HARIS HASAN KHAN,

HEAD – MIDDLE EAST, UNIFY COMMUNICATIONS N.V

“We would like to highlight that we are promoting unified communications into SMB market.” everyone on the team,” points out Khan. With the introduction of its flagship product, Project Ansible, Unify is leading the market with its vision of a dynamic communications and collaboration platform. Though not all components of this product might be immediately relevant for mid-market or smaller customers that go through the channel, it will be ready to be sold by 2014 for the large enterprise.

OUTLOOK Enterprise telephony, video conferencing, contact centers, and mobility are expected to be the major contributors for revenue until 2019. Looking at the current level of adoption amongst enterprises of all sizes and regulatory environment, it can be clearly stated that in Middle East market, UC will see an organic growth. Unify expects its growth in UC offerings to be around 20%, while major transformation would be coming from the SMB sector. The company would be launching a new portfolio of products that will have built-in UC functionality. ë

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TECHNOLOGY ROUND UP 2013-14

BI AND ANALYTICS

Enabling Real-time Decision Making Considering the ever increasing BI and analytics demand in the MEA market, vendors are concentrating their efforts in building strong BI platform capabilities and delivering enterprise wide implementations

YASIR NAVEED,

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, EMITAC ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS

n NIVEDAN PRAKASH <(NIVEDAN@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM>

usiness Intelligence (BI) and analytics have always been key priorities with the IT decision makers in the MEA region and few businesses have already begun harnessing big data analytics and more are following the league.In fact, big data processing framework is increasingly being factored into BI architectures. According to Gartner, the Middle East and North African (MENA) BI software market is forecast to reach US$182 million in 2013,an 11 percent increase from 2012. This includes revenue for BI platforms, analytic applications, and corporate performance management (CPM) software. Yasir Naveed, Business Development Manager, Emitac Enterprise Solutions, says, “With constant increase in data centers trends in MEA region, the need and importance for effective data analysis and business intelligence cannot be ignored at any level. All enterprises especially public and Oil & Gas sector has shown great interest and trend in investing on BI solutions in year 2013.” “Mobile will also continue to drive BI adoption in 2014 and in 2013, we have witnessed organizations endorsing and implementing mobile platform and BYOD concept much easily than the previous year which opens door for vendors who could provide different services and products related to BI including device management on web and mobile,” adds Naveed.

MILESTONES AT A GLANCE BI and analytics remain a top-priority technology for CIOs to help companies boost revenues, improve customer service, or control costs by making better as well as faster decisions. Sensing this increasing as well as diverse market demand, Emitac has been actively participating in public tenders for business intelligence platform. The company’s alignment with leading BI platform vendors like Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, and Micro Strategy has allowed it to create some unique synergies in the marketplace. Realizing the strong emergence of SAP platform in MEA region in year 2013, Emitac has been working closely with SAP and services partners to increase its domain knowledge and expertise. Naveed asserts, “Being one of the largest and best system integrators in the region for last two consecutive years, our focus was to strengthen and improve our BI competency, consulting and system integration abilities. This year has been successful for us in establishing a strong and reliable platform for our customers, where we provide all business intelligence related infrastructure and software solutions by our various technology partners which differentiate us from others in the market.”

FUTURE ROADMAP The industry estimates suggest that growth in BI and analytics will continue strongly in 2014, driven by fundamental changes in how

“With constant increase in data centers trends in MEA region, the need and importance for effective data analysis and business intelligence cannot be ignored at any level.” enterprises are using information to make business decisions. Looking at these market predictions, Emitac is working to close few BI deals in the start of 2014 and in the process, it has strengthened its in-house capabilities to deal with such huge and complex BI projects along with its renowned BI partners in the region who can offer quality on-site and off-site services and support utilizing the vast experience in BI domain not only in MENA region but globally. In order to achieve this, the company has scheduled effective and attractive training programs for its resources in the year 2014. The company is also planning to establish relationships with other robust yet lesser known platforms like Pyramid Analytics and DataZen solutions that are appropriate for companies that cannot afford the SAP, Oracle and Micro Strategy platforms. ë

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ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS

REDHAT

Being a Strategic Advisor

Apart from updating its portfolio, Red Hat is strengthening its relationship with partners and making its way as an advisor to the decision makers in the industry. n MANALI MISRA <MANALI@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM>

MICHEL ISNARD,

ast year with $1.3 billion annual revenue, Red Hat created a mark by becoming the first billion dollar open source company. Red Hat is growing at 20% YOY. “We decided to be the main player in open source space ten years ago. Today, our main revenue provider is Linux, middleware is the second. We are growing and we are hiring,” says Michel Isnard, Vice President, Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa (SEMEA), Red Hat. Enterprises are the target of Red Hat with five major product lines namely platform, middleware, cloud, storage and virtualisation. In a recent development, Red Hat announced the general availability of OpenShift Enterprise 2, the latest version of its award-winning, on-premise private Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering. With OpenShift Enterprise 2, customers can increase the velocity, efficiency and scalability of their IT service delivery, drive faster development of new applications and business services and reduce time-to-market. Red Hat’s strategy is to be a strategic advisor to C-level with an offering which is based on 1:34 offline. “That will drive our marketing programmes and recruitment of partners. With our current portfolio, we can address any need as far as infrastructure is concerned except database. We can address any infrastructure need from any company be it mid-sized, SMB or large enterprise MNC. Every company is interested in open source solutions and more specifically enterprise open source solutions,” says Isnard. Red Hat had launched a new initiative called

Red Hat.indd 42

On-Ramp to Enterprise OpenStack to drive enterprise adoption of OpenStack, the popular framework for building and managing private, public, and hybrid Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) clouds. In Middle East region 100% of Red Hat’s business is done through partners. The company has key account managers that run the relationship between Red Hat and those large accounts. “We want them to help the customer explain what are their challenges, what are their pains and then build and shape a solution that we want to propose in order to fix their pains. The sale at the very end will be made with the partner but we want our people to get in touch,” adds Isnard. Red Hat OPEN is a new online partner enablement network. As Red Hat’s global network of partners expands, the company’s partner enablement initiatives are designed to make accreditations available to partners 24 x 7 without partners having to leave their homes or offices. This puts training in the control of our partners and can greatly reduce time and expense enhancing partner satisfaction. To enable partners in these areas, Red Hat OPEN includes several features that aim to enhance partner skills, provide expanded accreditation options, and offer a one-stop repository for technical assets. Red Hat OPEN also offers a robust online technical library The way Red Hat wants to move with its clients is by helping them to manage three criteria: risk reduction, operational efficiency, and cost control. The power of Red Hat comes from the ecosystem which not only comprises of good

VICE PRESIDENT, SOUTHERN EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA (SEMEA), RED HAT.

“We can address any infrastructure need from any company be it mid-sized, SMB or large enterprise MNC.” products and people but also System Integrators. “Some of the largest SIs in the world is using our products. We have large span of partners able to address this market. When we used to do just Linux, our addressable market was 15 bn dollars, now since we have expanded, our addressable market is 53 bn dollars,” he says. Red Had Day was held on 4th December in Riyadh. Through a series of presentations and real-world use cases, company executives and industry leaders illustrated how businesses in the region can transform their IT infrastructures and drive strategic impact for their business through deployment of open source technologies.

FINALLY.. Constantly launching new products to enhance its portfolio and getting its channel strategies at the right track, Red Hat is well-positioned to achieve even a greater feat. ë

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TOP 10 VADS 1

KEY EXECUTIVE: Ramkumar B, Senior Vice President, Redington Gulf

REDINGTON GULF – VALUE DIVISION

Redington Value was conceptualised in 2006 with Networking and Security solutions being offered to resellers. In just six years, the division has expanded its portfolio to include solutions for technology domains such as Voice, Servers, Storage, Software and Infrastructure. Value division provides end-to-end solutions to over 1,000 resellers across Middle East and Africa. Redington Value provides in-country training and an online training engine to strengthen the sales and technical know-how of its partners. There is also a Proof of Concept Centre and Demo Centres in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Kenya and United Arab Emirates to enhance the training experience. To optimise the impact of pre-sales, Redington Value offers in-country pre-sales teams with specialisation in every relevant domain. Members of these teams have certifications in CCIE, ACE, JNCIE, RHCE, MCSE, MASE, etc. Support is also extended for building BOQ’s to help customers’ IT investments. Redington Value also supports marketing through recommended partner initiatives that are either in-country or online. Redington targets the second tier channel partners and mid-market. There the company closes the gap the principal has in terms of Pre-sales, post-sales, implementation and train the partners in the rapidly changing landscape of technologies.

TECH HEADCOUNT: 42 GEO PRESENCE: 14 locations across Middle East and Africa

“We do not paint the entire market with single

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: One of the most reliable partners in the value added distribution market KEY SERVICES: Training, POC, support services, credit management, NO. OF BRANDS: 24+

brush”

TURNOVER: Year 2012 - US$ 2.024 billion (Redington Gulf turnover) Year 2013 - US$ 2.12 billion (Redington Gulf turnover) GROWTH FOR PAST 5 YEARS: 40%+ CAGR

CONTACT: Sales.value@redingtongulf.com www.redingtonvalue.com

KEY EXECUTIVE: Steve Lockie, Group Managing Director, Westcon Middle East.

WESTCON MIDDLE EAST

Westcon Group Middle East comprises of Westcon Middle East & Comstor Middle East, the leading Value Add Distributors (VAD) of Convergence, Infrastructure, Mobility, Security & Cisco centric solutions in MENA. The company has a portfolio of best in-class products, services and solutions from highly reputed vendor partners that interoperate with and complement each other. It is highly qualified staff¬ deliver outstanding support and unmatched relationships with our vendor and channel partners, including technical expertise, network design, sales consultancy, logistics and integrated marketing. Westcon delivers excellence in core distribution services around the region. Westcon Group has business units around the world with significant sales channels for Avaya, Blue Coat, Cisco, Juniper, Motorola and close to 100 other industry leading vendors. The company has specific expertise in the Convergence of voice, data & video application technologies, including VoIP, internet security, wireless and mobility solutions. CONTACT: JAFZA Showroom SRA109, PO Box 17124, JAFZA, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Tel: + 971 4 883 9888; Fax: + 971 4 883 9353; Email: marketing.ae@westcon.com

GEO PRESENCE: 14 locations in Middle East and Africa region

“Creates unique programs and provide exceptional financial and technical support to accelerate the business of our partners.”

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: Creates unique programs and provide exceptional financial and technical support to accelerate the business of our partners. KEY SERVICES: Project management, network design, network assessment, data and network analytics, logistics, supply chain and deployment services. NO. OF BRANDS: 30+ BRANDS TO ADD NEXT YEAR: Not available TURNOVER: Year 2012 - US$ 144.04million Year 2013- US$161.2million

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TOP 10 VADS

KEY EXECUTIVE: Mario Gay, General Manager

MINDWARE

Part of the Midis Group, Mindware is a Value Added Distribution company in the Middle East and North Africa market. Started before 22 years, the company is presence in Middle East and North Africa, Through the VAD concept and structure, Mindware is offering its business partners a variety of value-add services which facilitates the reach and penetration into specific segment of the markets and helps develop their business. Mindware offers to its resellers Pre sales consultancy, sales & technical training , demo support, implementation services, demand generation events, CRM follow up & support, joint marketing activities, customized marketing campaigns, partner loyalty programs, call center regional technical support, credit facilities & a logistics center within Jebel Ali Free Zone. -

TECH HEADCOUNT: 140 (total headcount) GEO PRESENCE: 10+ locations across Middle East and Africa

“We are working with almost all SIs and reseller partners across Middle East.”

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: One of the best partners in the value added distribution market KEY SERVICES: Pre-sales, channel enablement, POC, level-1 support, implementation, marketing NO. OF BRANDS: 22+ NO. OF PARTNERS ALIGNED: Over 2,500

CONTACT: Cayan Business Centre 10th Floor, Tecom Area of Al Barsha, Dubai, U.A.E. Tel: + 971 4 4500600 Fax: + 971 4 4500678 Sales : sales@mindware.ae

TURNOVER: Year 2013 - US$ 145 million (Company revenue) GROWTH FOR PAST 5 YEARS: Above 15%

KEY EXECUTIVE: Mr. Sarwan Singh, MD, Mr. Aditya Sahaya, Director-BD

PROLOGIX

A veteran and trusted provider of IT Systems Integration in the Middle East since 16 years, Prologix LLC reinvented itself by introducing its value-added distribution arm, Prologix Distribution in 2006 in order to cater to the increasing demand in the region for niche solutions especially in the fields of wireless, RF, telecom and test & measurement technologies. Prologix Distribution maintains strong emphasis on technologies and solutions which are tailored to key verticals like finance & banking, government, oil & gas, healthcare, hospitality, education, aviation, and others in the region. The company regularly identifies and introduces to the market technology solutions which help meet the specific IT needs of the region. To introduce a ground-breaking range of products and solutions to the companies and customers in the Middle East and outside, Prologix entered into product marketing and distribution of innovative products that could help organizations streamline business activities.

TECH HEADCOUNT: 17 GEO PRESENCE: UAE, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Nigeria, India and SriLanka.

“2013 has been a fantastic year for us and we aim to be the leading VAD in this region by providing the right mix of

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technologies to our clients”

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: To work with system integrators to provide right mix of technologies to the customers. KEY SERVICES: Pre-sales, sales, marketing and entire post-sales support, etc NO OF BRANDS: 20 global brands NO. OF PARTNERS ALIGNED: About 1150 channel partners TURNOVER: Year 2012 - US$ 70 million Year 2013 - US$ 95 million GROWTH FOR NEXT 5 YEARS: To have about 5000+ channel partners and 50+ brands in the products portfolio.

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TOP 10 VADS

KEY EXECUTIVE: Mr. Nidal Othman, Managing Director, StarLink

STARLINK

TECH HEADCOUNT: 36

Starlink is a leading IT compliance and next-generation threat driven solutions provider, recognized as a “Trusted Security Advisor”, a True Value Added Distributor, and a market leader by more than 500 customers to secure critical enterprise assets and safeguard access to sensitive data in the most demanding datacenter environments. StarLink, has helped enterprise organizations in the Government, Banking & Finance, Telco, Oil & Gas, Education and Healthcare sectors achieve and sustain compliance standards and optimally manage risk through full policy, procedure and controls lifecycle management. StarLink, founded in 2005, in Dubai, today has on-the-ground sales and technical presence with physical offices in 8 countries across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa to support its channel partners, and in turn its customers.

GEO PRESENCE: 14 countries

“The intensity

KEY SERVICES: sales, marketing, Product Management, Pre-Sales, post-sales and support services,

and the personal touch are

NO OF BRANDS: 18

two key areas which differentiate us from

TURNOVER: Year 2012- $30 million Year 2013 -$50 million

CONTACT: 1403 Tiffany Tower - Jumeirah Lake Towers Sheikh Zayed Road, P.O.Box 99580 Dubai – UAE E-mail: avinash@starlinkme.net Web: www.starlinkme.net

GROWTH FOR NEXT 5 YEARS: 25% Year-on-Year

KEY EXECUTIVE: Ajay Singh Chauhan, CEO at Comguard

COMGUARD

Comguard FZ LLC is one of the leading Value added Distributor in the IT security space and has a reach across the Middle East and North Africa region. The company was established in 2002 and is headquartered in Dubai, UAE. Comguard is a part of Spectrum Group which is engaged in IT networking and security training, and consultancy. Hence, the biggest strength for Comguard is the skill sets which has made it one of the fastest growing Value added Distributor in the region and have been recognized by several awards from vendors and industry platforms like Top 5 Value added Distributor by Reseller Middle East magazine and the Choice of Channel Award from VAR MEA magazine.

BRANDS TO ADD NEXT YEAR: 2 NO OF PARTNERS ALIGNED: Over 200 partners across the regions

others”

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: Drect touch engagement model

TECH HEADCOUNT: 60 technical staff GEO PRESENCE: UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain

“A “True” VAD as adds value to vendors, partners and customers.”

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: Higher margins, qualified leads, Co-funded events and free trainings KEY SERVICES: Pre- consultancy, training, POC, Post sales, NO. OF BRANDS: 27 BRANDS TO ADD NEXT YEAR: At least 10 across the Middle East NO. OF PARTNERS ALIGNED: Approximately 800 TURNOVER: Year 2012 - US$ 31 million Year 2013 -US$ 40 million

CONTACT: Comguard FZ LLC 29th floor, BB-2, Mazaya Business Avenue, JLT P. O. Box 500182, Dubai,U.A.E. Phone:+971 4 391 64 00 | Fax: +971 4 391 68 67

GROWTH FOR NEXT 5 YEARS: 20% growth year on year

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TOP 10 VADS

KEY EXECUTIVE: Boby Joseph, CEO of StorIT Distribution

STORIT

StorIT, which was incorporated in 2002, is a uniquely focused Value Added Distributor that offers value in selling specialized products in emerging ground breaking technologies and services. With offices in Dubai and Riyadh and active operations spanning more than 12 countries across the region, StorIT works with a wide channel network comprising of Value Added Resellers and Solution Providers in offering comprehensive end-toend turnkey solutions to customers in the SMB, SME and high Enterprise segments of the market. StorIT has always been ahead with introducing emerging technologies and solutions in the data centre and storage space. Our current offering is in itself revolutionary to what we were offering a year back. StorIT is among the very few Distributors, who pro-actively invests in resources and channel, and approaches the market in a focused way with enhanced solutions. This approach gives our channel partners & our vendors confidence that their business will grow year on year.

TECH HEADCOUNT: 6 qualified technical professionals GEO PRESENCE: MENA and Pakistan through channel partners and Dubai and Riyadh (Direct)

“Our primary value proposition to our vendors continues to be a loyal reseller.”

BRANDS TO NEXT YEAR? 6

GROWTH FOR NEXT 5 YEARS: 30% Year-on-Year

KEY EXECUTIVE: Abdul Rauf Chougle, Group General Manager TECH HEADCOUNT: 10 GEO PRESENCE: 4 locations - Middle East, Levant, North Africa, India and East Africa

“Our vision is to be the Best Distributor of IT products in the region by developing and working closely with the proper channels”

CONTACT: SNB Middle East FZC , P.O Box : 54942 Dubai Airport Freezone , Dubai , UAE Phone : +971 4 2602760 Fax : +971 4 2602762

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NO OF BRANDS: 9

TURNOVER: Year 2012 - USD 30 million Year 2013 - Forecasting 35% growth

SNB DISTRIBUTION

SNB is a Value-added Distributor focusing on Security Surveillance, Data Storage, Networking and IT Security products and solutions. It represent some of the leading IT vendors like Allied Telesis, Axxonsoft, Enterasys, Infortrend, Mobotix, Nexsan, Proxim Wireless, Retrospect, Seclore, Sentry360 and TandbergData. And, the company work swith more than 1000 IT resellers, system integrators, consultants, and contractors in Middle East, India and East Africa. SNB focuses on Security Surveillance, Data Storage, Networking and IT Security products and solutions.

KEY SERVICES: Pre-sales, Sales and Post-sales, Marketing support

NO OF PARTNERS ALIGNED: 1200 channel partners across the region.

CONTACT: StorIT Distribution FZCO Jebel Ali Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, P.O. Box : 17417 Tel : +971.4.881.9690; Fax : +971.4.887.1637; E-Mail : info@storit.ae

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: Fulfils all areas of interest and every aspect of business for its channel.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: Creates unique programs and provides technical support KEY SERVICES: Pre-sales and post-sales, marketing NO. OF BRANDS: 11+ BRANDS TO ADD NEXT YEAR: Not available NO. OF PARTNERS ALIGNED: 1000 TURNOVER: Year 2013 - $5 Million Year 2013 - US$10million GROWTH FOR NEXT 5 YEARS Double Digit

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TOP 10 VADS

KEY EXECUTIVE: Anand Choudha, MD at Spectram

SPECTRAMI

Spectrami started with a vision of Vendor Extension model for the vendors that do not have a direct presence in middle east. The purpose is to act as their extension arm of the principal in the ME in terms of delivering the same service level as they would in case they had a presence here. These are niche and specialized solutions that need an proactive engagement with the customer and partner ecosystem. The key to delivery of such solution is not just in presenting the solution to the market, but really in terms of creating a value for it, making customers understand and appreciate the value the solution gives to their business,. The success lie in empowering partners to sell it, carry out POCs, implementing and supporting them in customers infrastructure. This requires a comprehensive connected body of ecosystem consisting of sales, pre sales, post sales and marketing which works as a single entity to deliver a seamless experience to the customer and deliver the same experience as a large vendor would give. So essentially taking certain products which did not have a presence in the region and delivering the same high level SLA as a Tier 1 vendor would is the overall contribution to business development that Spectrami creates.

TECH HEADCOUNT: Six (6) GEO PRESENCE: Uae, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: Intensity and personal touch

“We try to bridge the gap in terms of a higher experience which is expected by the customer and partner.“

CONTACT: Spectrami JLT 1207, Indigo Icon, Cluster F3, JLT, Dubai (UAE) Tel : +971 4 4357209; Fax : +971 4 4357216; info@spectrami.com

BRANDS TO ADD NEXT YEAR: 1 to 2 NO. OF PARTNERS ALIGNED: 38 partners. TURNOVER: July 2011 – Dec 2011 - US$ 1 million Jan 2012-Dec 2012 - US$ 6.7 million

KEY EXECUTIVE: Jose Thomas, Managing Director, Bulwark Technologies TECH HEADCOUNT: 10 GEO PRESENCE: Middle East region and other countries Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Yemen, Egypt.

“With properly trained and certified staff on board, we work very closely with vendors extending their reach to end

CONTACT: Bulwark Technologies LLC, P.O. Box 48739, Office No:910, IT Plaza, Dubai Silicon Oasis Dubai, UAE Phone: +971-4-3262722; Email: info@bulwark.biz

NO. OF BRANDS: 7

GROWTH FOR NEXT 5 YEARS: Focus on consolidation

BULWARK TECHNOLOGIES

Bulwark Technologies is the leading value-added distributor for IT Security Solutions in the Middle East. The company started out in 2000 and home to more than 20 brands in the GCC region. It currently work with more than 12 principal vendors in the IT Security and Solutions space. The vendors include Accellion, Application Security, Beyond Trust, Communigate, Cyberoam, Cyber-Ark, EiQ Networks, ESET, Kerio, MailStore, NetSupport, Webtrends and more. On the other side, the company works with resellers and system integrators in the region to take its portfolio to the end customers.

KEY SERVICES: Sales, pre sales, post sales and marketing services

customers through the channel!”

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: Ensures that the end users get proper support and services KEY SERVICES: Sales, technical, POCs and demonstrations support NO. OF BRANDS: Around 12 BRANDS TO ADD NEXT YEAR: A few new vendors NO. OF PARTNERS ALIGNED: More than 250 partners TURNOVER: Being a private company, does not reveal financial information. GROWTH FOR NEXT 5 YEARS Very good growth

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EMERGING VAD

EMT

To be on Top 5 list of the Best Companies With the tight grip on the reseller market, EMT Distribution possesses capability to change the game in the region. n MANALI MISRA <MANALI@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM>

MOHAMMAD MOBASSERI

CEO, EMT DISTRIBUTION FOR ENTERPRISE CHANNELS MEA

wned by EMT Holding, EMT Distribution is increasingly becoming resellers’ choice for selected solutions throughout the Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa region. The company is committed to sell its entire product portfolio through channel partners enabling distribution through a large reseller base. EMT Distribution has a strong and dedicated technical support team. With technical support teams located within Australia, Dubai, Vienna, London, Austria and the Philippines it has the ability to offer support outside the standard business hours. This means its customers and channel partners can bank upon a quality of service. In Dubai the company has about five dedicated technical resources, focusing on the area of Security, Cloud and Virtualization. But other

BRANDS AVAILABLE

than Dubai, it has Experts in other countries as well, so with help of group resources EMT is able to help its partners to achieve and accomplish bigger projects faster and successfully. At the helms of the Middle East and Africa operations is a veteran in the Middle East IT channel market and a hands-on person in the information security and storage business Mohammad Mobasseri. He says, “We are internationally recognized as a Value-Added Distributor offering range of products and services across globe. We believe our global reach provides us extra bandwidth and induces best practices in distribution business act as a differentiator for us. Over the years we have increased our knowledge base, which helps us to both quality and quantity at same time.” He adds, “Being a global entity, we are in tune with the global technology trends in the industry and can help feed the best of breed technology

“Over the years we have increased our knowledge base, which helps us to both quality and quantity at same time.” products to both end-users and channels at much faster pace than most of others in the market. “ As per him, the company has created a pool of resources on global level and can deploy any required resource to support a partner to execute any project or bidding, which is crucial to the success of our business. It’s not been long since the company started its operation in the region but it has been able to garner the allegiance of more than 700 resellers in the Middle East and African market. Mobasseri maintains, “However, for our high tech solutions we work with key System Integrators in each countries in the region which is less than 70 partners.”

FINALLY… With an objective of becoming one of the top 5 best companies in the area of Virtualization, Cloud, Security and Education, EMT will surely focus on high tech as well as education and cloud opportunities. Therefore, the company plans to add 5 more products in Q1 2014 and expects a robust growth going forward. ë

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MY VIEWS

as well as internal efficiency enables it to deal with these challenges and convert it as opportunity for our partners. I believe we as principals are able to create tremendous value by providing partner “Ease to commit customer” as they know we shall be able to cope up and deliver any value addition requirement for them. For instance, today matrix high powered COSEC software for Time Attendance/Access control is available completely in Arabic interface and this feature development is nothing but an output from above efficient system. We are here to understand pain areas of customer/partner and deliver accordingly. What countries are you targeting in the Middle East region and why? Currently all GCC countries are at our radar simply due to developmental investment which governments are willing to make in this region resulting into big market opportunity. Though, to be more specific KSA has always been our prime hub. Furthermore, we are working ahead on developing Dubai as central Territory for Middle East market as training and logistic hub followed by, Qatar and Oman as high demand market.

ABHAY JOSHI

BUSINESS MANAGER -INTERNATIONAL SECURITY SALES MIDDLE EAST, MATRIX COMSEC

Understanding partners and customers OUR VISION IS VERY SIMPLE AND CLEAR. IT IS TO PENETRATE MARKET VIA PROVIDING FEATURES THAT CUSTOMER DEMANDS. AS A TERRITORY WE

What channel program does Matrix Comsec offer partners in the ME? Matrix provides an extensive long hand to its partner in the form of financial and back end support to either develop or maintain stability in the market. We have chartered a comprehensive “International Network Development Program” in light of this. One out of many activities that Matrix does is to support the partner for participating in exhibitions and undertaking roadshows as a joint venture across globe.

WOULD LIKE TO FOCUS ON GCC COUNTRIES WHERE DEVELOPMENT IS UNDERTAKING ON A LARGE SCALE.

Take us through Matrix Comsec channel strategy in the Middle East region? Middle East is a very strategic region for Matrix. We are looking to align more and more with System Integrators to provide required solution. We are appointing partners who are focused and most important capable to work in this industry as ‘solution providers’ rather than ‘box movers’. Matrix is moving ahead with partners capable to perform equally well in projects as well as distribution. What vision do you have for Matrix’ security business in the Middle East region? Our vision is very simple and clear. It is to pen-

etrate market via providing features that customer demands. As a territory we would like to focus on GCC countries where development is undertaking on a large scale and further progressing ahead to the Northern part of region. What growth prospects are you looking at in the channel? We are already growing rapidly in this region and aim to double the penetration and gain higher market shares every fiscal. Any unit operating under this industry specifically with TimeAttendance and Access control solution faces challenges to meet requirements demanded by customer. These requirements change from one organization to other and presently there is no vendor providing solution to it. Matrix’s approach

What pre-sales and post-sales support and services are you offering channel partners in the Middle East? One of the biggest assets of Matrix is support and that makes the partner feel different while working with Matrix compared to competition. Our support works on principle of being “Partner/customer obsessed”. Though, this claim by me is just not on paper, rather proven as that makes us bonded with our partners worldwide for more than 20 years now without any hitch along with quality products. Matrix has dedicated pre-sales team that helps our partner understand the requirements in light of Matrix offerings and design solution/proposal for them. Furthermore, matrix provides extensive 24 x 7 post-sales support to its partners worldwide. Along with this, matrix also deputes engineer in a required territory as onsite support for large scale projects. ë

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SHOWCASE

‘YOU LOVE OR DIE BY YOUR CHANNEL’

GLEN OGDEN

REGIONAL SALES DIRECTOR, MIDDLE EAST, A10

A10 Networks, the leader in Application Networking, helping organizations of all sizes to accelerate, optimize and secure their applications is planning to have physical presence in Dubai beginning of the next year. “We have got the right people and partners. Our main distributor is Scope Middle East. Then we have select partners in different regions in UAE and Saudi Arabia,” says, Glen Ogden, Regional Sales Director, Middle East, A10. He feels that in the Middle East, brand awareness is important and it is important to continue the relationship. “Part of being at GITEX is to make sure we have a presence here. It is also for people to know how much expansion and investment we are making in ME beyond anything a vendor would do in first 12 months. We are participating to launch the product, maintain relationships and support channel partners. Channel is very important for us. You live or die by your channel,” he adds. A10 Networks doesn’t believe in talking about products but solutions and is looking for solution partners. “We are addressing Capex and Opex issue of the industry. A10 has a no license model. You can use all the features of the box and there is no license, this reduces Capex. Enterprises love our technology because it is predictable, they know how much is the support cost, they don’t like licenses,” he adds. As informed, all the top carriers in the world are running on A10 Network’s technology. “Carriers have got the most complicated and fastest network in the world. If you can survive in a carrier network, the moving to enterprise from interoperability is easy,” Ogden concludes.

THE ‘NEW PC ERA’

BAHER EZZAT

REGIONAL SALES DIRECTOR, ALCATELLUCENT ENTERPRISE, MIDDLE EAST, ALCATEL-LUCENT

This year at GITEX, as part of its ‘new PC era’ focus, Alcatel-Lucent was joined by several eco-system vendor partners to showcase vertical sector solutions. Baher Ezzat, Regional Sales Director, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, Middle East, AlcatelLucent comments that the two trends reshaping enterprise are its consumerisation with the other pillar as cloud services. “Consumerisation of enterprise leads us to have a couple of solutions to address this which is related to the Unified Access and BYOD as well as applications developed specifically for tablets, smart phones. More and more applications are moving towards the cloud which leads to more solutions mainly around data centres and also in terms of virtualisation,” he adds. In terms of cloud, Alcatel-Lucent provides data centre solutions. At GITEX 2013, it showed an innovative architecture of data centre that evolves from a couple of 10-15 servers up to 14,000 physical server with a latency of five micro second of delay. “We are showing something innovative coming up early next year which is personal application running on personal device,” he says. It also showcased OpenTouch. OpenTouch makes mobility a natural extension of the communication, collaboration, sharing, multi-tasking and multimedia experience. In terms of Consumerisation, the company showcased Unified Access. Alcatel-Lucent’s Unified Access is the first converged wired and wireless solution to address networking challenges, management complexity and offer a consistent user experience. It comprises a rich set of secure BYOD services that enables employees and customers to use corporate or personal, wired or wireless devices on the enterprise network, while the enhancements also help simplify IT operations, improving security and protecting the business’ investments.

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SHOWCASE

FIONA MOON

MARKETING DIRECTOR, EMEA COMMVAULT SYSTEMS

FOCUSING ON BIG DATA At GITEX 2013, CommVault focused on Big Data and showcased its signature product Simpana. “Customers in the Middle East need to certainly understand the challenge of Big Data and need to help that drive their business. If they ignore it for too long, they are going to suffer as data volumes are growing,” says Fiona Moon, Marketing Director EMEA, CommVault Systems. The management that started CommVault 10 years ago had a vision on data management which then was quite ahead of its time. The volume and types of data and where it is to be stored are to be managed today. “We realised that companies were going to change and adapt. You have to enable a company to manage its data, protect it, back it up, secure it, file it, archive it and more importantly use it. So, we have created products which allow you to do that heterogeneously, it doesn’t matter what your hardware or application is,” she adds. CommVault has a platform that takes everything. It tells where your data is, how old it is, how much have you got and how to get it back. CommVault doesn’t believe in making any regulations but it makes its customers work with the regulations they have. “Our competitors have acquired companies. Here at CommVault, we develop our software and add our own functionalities. We grow organically. The potential benefit for the customers is that this keeps it simple as instead of multiple software sources, the client has just one,” she comments. CommVault has a channel environment across the world and in most communities it has two tier distribution and OEM partnerships.“We have various channels to market but the important thing is we sell through the channel. There is sophistication in Middle East region. People are looking for the best which is available in market-led solutions.This is a very exciting market,” she concludes.

DREW BRANDY

VICE PRESIDENT, ENTERPRISE INDUSTRY, INMARSAT

LEADING IN THE SATELLITE NETWORK Inmarsat Enterprise, the pioneer of mobile satellite communications is head quartered in London. The company is in the satellite industry since 1979. Inmarsat offers services of Broadband, Voice, Machine-tomachine (M2M), Safety, Global Express, VSAT and TVRO. Inmarsat satellites are based on IP technology. Participating at GITEX is about building upon the brand for Inmarsat. “It is an important show for us. We are introducing the market to some of the new capabilities that will be launched in the coming years. Also, to ensure that our channel partners and customers in the region have access and understand what we do with our portfolio and where are we going in 2014 and coming years,” says, Drew Brandy, Vice President, Enterprise Industry, Inmarsat. Inmarsat works with an ecosystem of partners who develop solutions and applications that work in the network, typically from enterprise perspective for the customers who are working in the remote region they use our services to send data or files back to their corporate office. “We have global partners in this region and we have some local distribution partners who work with Inmarsat to deliver our services. They contract with us in providing the airtime, terminals and help integrate the customer’s applications,” he adds. The company has customers from government, media organisations who want bureau connectivity, Oil & Gas etc. “Any organisation working in remote region of the world where networks are unavailable or unreliable, they look to use our solutions,” he comments. Inmarsat-5 F1 (I-5 F1), the first satellite in the Global Xpress (GX) network was launched on board a Proton Breeze-M rocket from Kazakhstan.

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HID

Focusing on Security Services HID Global is strong in providing security solutions and now the company has adopted services to its portfolio n MANALI MISRA <MANALI@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM>

ID Global, a worldwide player in secure identity solutions, is focusing on the physical side of security. The market is moving to higher security which translates for HID in traction of migration products helping customers from the current legacy technology to higher security platform ecosystem. HID is paying attention on the Seos ecosystem which is a high security infrastructure ecosystem for smart card technology, where it offers credential in a virtual form in a piece of plastic or any device of your choice – be it smart phone or something else. It is a virtual credential within the ecosystem. Harm Radstaak, Managing Director EMEA, HID Global says, “We are very strong in the physical access control but have expanded our portfolio substantially to present the company

MOHAMMED JOUEID

CONSULTANT, HID GLOBAL

“The nature of Middle East is the key growth area for us. We have a lot of partners positioned in the GCC countries.” 52

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in the different way. What we see on the end user side is because of its increased security the complexity around the portfolio of products is getting more cumbersome for the end-user and channel,” Radstaak says. To counter the problem, HID has launched within its security ecosystem framework, Secure Identity Services through online for the end user and channel to manage their credentials, either in the handsets or on the cards. It is helping the customers to migrate from base security to higher security which is seen as the trend of convergence. “We are seeing there is a convergence between physical and logical access control,” he says. HID is a part of ASSA ABLOY. It is a company which offers security around doors, where one can see convergence between electronic access

control and mechanical access control. “This translates for us as a company which are built within Cylinder and security gates in a combined format. HID has been a driver within ASSA ABLOY organization to develop these technologies within the ecosystem of Seos which is stored in a card or a mobile device,” Radstaak adds. He feels that geographically, HID Global invests where the infrastructures are getting built up. The growth area geos are the Middle East, North Africa Sub-Sahara and selected regions in the countries of Easter Europe. Vertically, in this region a lot of investment is going in the financial market and public infrastructure including healthcare, education, etc. Mohammed Joueid, Consultant, HID Global, comments, “Emerging markets are very important for us. The nature of Middle East is the key growth area for us. We have a lot of partners positioned in the GCC countries. So undoubtedly there is a lot of investment going in this region. No matter how you look at it, it is always user centric and services centric.” Joueid tells that security is a key target for a lot of GCC governments. “We have seen a lot of governments have issued identity cards but are pushing online services. You can go on to the internet request and monitor the services in terms of how do you authenticate those credentials, whether it is tamper proof, so all these are very important. For us identity and access management is the whole of thing from the point of issuing the credential to using the credentials,” he says.

FINALLY.. As per the company, it is enabling the partners to differentiate in the market because it is getting crowded. ë

HARM RADSTAAK

MANAGING DIRECTOR EMEA, HID GLOBAL

“We are very strong in the physical access control but have expanded our portfolio substantially to present the company in the different way.”

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INNOVATIONS

KEY CAPABILITIES n Dual controllers, each with 16GB3 non-volatile cache of memory n Two 10GBASE-T RJ45 auto-sensing (10Gb/1Gb/100Mb) ports n Two 10GbE SFP+ ports for fibre or copper cabling n Up to 24 hot-pluggable drives, including SAS, NL-SAS and SSD n Model options for 2.5” drives and 3.5” drives n Up to 96TB3 system capacity per array

Dell EqualLogic PS6210 storage arrays Dell EqualLogic PS6210 storage arrays extends Dell’s ability to deliver flash at the price of disk solutions for customers seeking both faster performance and higher cost efficiency for their data-intensive virtual environments.

The series offers IT generalists the ability to manage more data with fewer resources. The family has the capability to tightly integrate with common application environments and the flexibility to use with various operating systems. The

PS6210 Series is designed to deploy in virtualized VMware environments, Exchange and SQL server applications and distributed DAS implementations. The series supports block and file data along with the FS Series through a single intuitive interface,

supports server and desktop virtualization, promotes server/storage/network consolidation to ease management of the virtual ecosystem. It also supports multi-way replication for robust disaster recovery. The series unlocks the power of flash, allowing customers to achieve up to 3 times the IOPS performance compared to the previous generation of flash-enabled arrays.

PLEASE SEND YOUR FEEDBACK AT EDITOR@ ENTERPRICECHANNELS.COM

AOC SUPER PLS MONITOR Q2770PQU AOC brand-new 68.6 cm Super PLS monitor offers WQHD resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. This sophisticated LED-backlit screen offers stunningly sharp images for demanding professionals. The high-luminosity q2770Pqu comes with a wide array of connectors, full ergonomic flexibility and a number of additional benefits to provide the ultimate in LCD user experience. The q2770Pqu provides users with over 3.6 million pixels – nearly twice as much as conventional Full HD models. Professionals and demanding home users alike will profit from the extraordinary detail that the WQHD (Wide Quad High Definition) resolution delivers on the large 68.6 cm screen. Plans, tables, photos, videos and – thanks to a response time of 5 ms only – even games will appear in a clarity and crispness unseen before. Super PLS (Plane-to-Line Switching) is a display technology with especially high brightness and wide viewing angles. AOC decks out the q2770Pqu with a multitude of connectors for a maximum of user convenience. The PLS model receives signals via VGA, DVI-D and HDMI sockets and in addition features a DisplayPort. Practical: the q2770Pqu comes with speakers and a USB hub integrated in its bezel. Pen drives, digital cameras, hard drives and countless more USB gadgets can be connected via four sockets (two conforming to the USB standards 2.0 and 3.0 each). The monitor stand offers full ergonomic flexibility, including 130 mm height adjustment as well as tilt, swivel and pivot functions, allowing working comfortably on large tables, documents or photos editing.

KEY CAPABILITIES n 3-year warranty for its WQHD-model. n Intelligent software such as “e-Saver” and “Eco Mode” additionally helps reducing energy costs. n The energy consumption does not exceed 29 W, which is very moderate for a 27-inch monitor. n Pen drives, digital cameras, hard drives and countless more USB gadgets can be connected via four sockets

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INNOVATIONS

Buffalo TeraStation 7120r

NetApp EF550 flash array

Buffalo’s TeraStation 7120r and 7120r Enterprise for large and business critical applications come with 12 bay network and iSCSI storage up to 48TB. These products are packed with advanced features and functions including IP camera and video surveillance support. The Buffalo TeraStation Enterprise is ideal for businesses looking to implement a reliable RAID-based network storage solution for large networks and business critical applications. Both devices feature a powerful Intel Xeon E3-1225 / E3-1275 quad core processor and up to 8 GB of upgradable DDR3 RAM. Buffalo TeraStation 7120r and 7120r Enterprise runs on Buffalo’s TeraStation NAS System, providing a host of business-class features from network file sharing and security to RAID management, iSCSI targeting, Active Directory support, disk quota support, share level replication, quad gigabit Ethernet ports, hot-swap hard drives and fans, an add-on PCI Express card support for remote access, and more. The devices provide exceptional performance while running many services simultaneously with minimal performance degradation and maximum network throughput while replication and backup tasks run in the background. Managing data, backups, and data sharing in a production environment or larger business is made easy with this NAS operating system. Included on all Buffalo TeraStation devices, TeraStation NAS System simplifies everyday business data needs.

NetApp EF550 flash array delivers high performance and consistent low latency for business-critical applications for which responsiveness and enterprise reliability are critical. It is ideal for performance, density, and modular flexibility for the widest range of data-intensive workloads. NetApp EF550 all-SSD enterprise storage can Increase the speed of business with sub-millisecond response times. It eliminates over-provisioning and improve IT efficiency. It offers achieve the transactional performance of 1,000 15K RPM drives—in a 2U enclosure requiring just 5% of the rack space, power, and cooling. It detects and resolve issues fast with advanced monitoring and proactive repair. It helps protect against data loss and downtime with NetApp’s Snapshot copies, remote replication, and other advanced data protection. The EF550 flash array continues NetApp’s longstanding heritage of delivering powerful solutions to meet unique business needs. Designed specifically for customers with high-speed transactional applications that demand high IOPS and low latency, the EF550 flash array delivers over 400,000 sustained IOPS and submillisecond response times. Bandwidth-oriented workloads also benefit from the EF550’s ability to provide up to 12GBps of throughput. By combining extreme IOPS, sub-millisecond response times, scale-up capacity, and enterprise-grade reliability, the NetApp EF550 flash array helps you increase productivity and achieve faster business results.

KEY CAPABILITIES n runs many services simultaneously and the quad core processor enables the ability to focus on concurrent tasks with minimal performance degradation n Create user and group profiles and control folder and file access to protect business critical content and privacy. n You can set up failover to automatically switch main operation over to the redundant TeraStation if the main unit ever becomes inaccessible. n Improve your virtualization work load efficiency n Achieve outstanding performance and reliability n Provide complete investment protection and reduced risk

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KEY CAPABILITIES n Delivers more than 400,000 IOPS, submillisecond latency, and up to 12GBps throughput n Cuts space utilization, power, and cooling through IOPS density n Maximizes uptime with full redundancy and automated failover n Meets growing capacity requirements with scalability up to 96TB n Leverages NetApp’s experience from 650,000 installed systems ecosystem improvement

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Redefining office IT. PowerEdge VRTX.

The first and only full integration of servers, storage, networking and management in only 5U. Up until now, there hasn’t been an IT solution designed specifically for an office environment. Enter the new Dell PowerEdge VRTX powered by the Intel® Xeon® processor, an integrated end-to-end solution built specifically for the growing office. It’s the only 5U PowerEdge shared infrastructure platform design based on input from over 7,000 customers, featuring four integrated servers, 48TBs of storage, networking and systems management to simplify all aspects of IT. You inspired it. We built it. To see how we can redefine your office IT, visit www.dell.com/ae/vrtx

Dell PowerEdge VRTX is a trademark of Dell Inc. Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. ©2013 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

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