March 15

B U LWAR K PARTN E RS WITH RADAR SE RVICES /08

PA G E S 6 8 VOLUME O2 | ISSUE 08 MARCH 2015 WWW.ENTERPRISECHANNELSMEA.COM

ANAND CHOUDHA, MANAGING DIRECTOR, SPECTRAMI

Incepted with the vision of bringing Niche and specialised technologies relevant to customers who don’t have a presence and deliver a seamless service level akin to leading vendors in the region. /40

INDIAECM012015

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EDITORIAL

Surge of Hybrid Cloud

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

IDC predicts that the global cloud market, including private, public and hybrid clouds, will hit $118 billion in 2015 and cap at $200 billion by 2018. If the market shows that much growth next year, it will mean a 23.2% rise over the $95.8 billion market it reached in 2014.IDC noted that 2014 showed a 25.9% increase over 2013, when the market was worth $76.1 billion.

With the market becoming very competitive, there will be a huge spur of hybrid cloud as well and there are some encouraging figures when it comes to MEA. As per EMC and Dun & Bradstreet survey in Middle East Market, 95% of enterprises surveyed have already implemented or plan to implement a cloud computing model. Around 49% of enterprises stated to have currently implemented a private cloud model and 35% would consider their environment to be a public cloud.

Private Cloud adopters cited a clear focus on security and control when making a decision about a cloud computing model. 46% cited the maximized control and security as being a primary factor for selecting private cloud. 31% meanwhile said they selected the private cloud for the universal network access with seamless connectivity to public cloud resources. 12% also cited the ability to meet local data hosting regulations as a primary reason.

While public cloud adopters cited a focus on compliance and costs as being primary factors for choosing this model, 37% said it was the ease of meeting compliance requirements that pushed them into choosing such a model. 35% cited high CAPEX savings, while 18% said it was because of maximum scalability.

The study reveals a growing interest in advanced hybrid cloud solutions. 23% of the respondents stated they have plans to implement an advanced hybrid cloud model. Respondents also reported to be inclined to adopting an advanced hybrid cloud model cited a heightened need for flexibility that a blend of the two models allows.

So, taking the market potential in consideration, we have brought out a symposium on Hybrid Cloud for the CIOs at hotel the Address, Downtown, Dubai, on 16th of this month. I hope there will be a good number of people attending this event and tring to learn from each other’s experience. We have invited CIOs from all across the sectors including manufacturing, hospitality, retail, banking and finance, construction, IT and etc. I personally request you to be present at the event and make this event successful.

I will also request you to nominate for the Catalysts Awards and join us at Catalysts event same day at 3 PM to see the individual geniuses. ë

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2015 CONTENTS

VOLUME 02 ISSUE 08 MARCH 2015 W W W. E N T E R P R I S E C H A N N E L S M E A . C O M

COVER STORY

BIG DATA- TIME TO GO FULL THROTTLE

The main challenge now is to actually reap benefits of all the data being generated.. /26

MY VIEWS /36

“Unifying legacy with innovation” THOMAS VEIT SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT EMEAR CHANNELS AT UNIFY

CORPORATE STORY /40

Transparency and Efficiency Makes Spectrami Different ANAND CHOUDHA, MANAGING DIRECTOR, SPECTRAMI

INNOVATIONS /66

ARUBA 7000 SERIES CLOUD SERVICES CONTROLLERS

FEATURE STORY Smarter Governments /32

Aruba 7000 series Cloud Services Controllers eliminate the time, cost and complexity of managing disparate single-purpose point products in the branch, EDITORIAL::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 04 CHANNEL STREET:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 06

BIG DATA /44

Big Data to Drive Middle East Competitiveness DR PIETER DEN HAMER, THE BIG DATA, BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE & ANALYTICS LEAD,ALLIANDER

GARTNER ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 22 SECURITY SCANNER :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 37 MY VIEWS :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 36 ENTERPRISE STORAGE ::::::::::::::::::::::::: 38 COROPROATE STORY:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 40 BIG DATA ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 44 CIO SPEAK : ::::::::: 46,48,50,52,53,54,62,64 INNOVATIONS : ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 66

ADVERTISER INDEX: STORIT 02, EPICOR 03, TOSHIBA 07, EMITAC 07, CYBEROAM 09, COMGUARD 11, TP-LINK 13, HID 15, ESET 17, RITTAL19, ACTIFIO 21, EMT 23, FINESSE 25, BULWARK 37, TALARIAX 39, OXYGEN 51, GISEC 55, GEMEC 57, GEC OPEN 59, NEXANS 61, GEMEC / GISEC PARTNER SHIP 63, EMITAC 67, UNIFY 68

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CHANNEL

STREET HP TO ACQUIRE ARUBA NETWORKS

In a move that clearly shows HP’s shift from its PC legacy towards enterprise service offerings, HP is all set to acquire Aruba for $24.67 per share in cash. This new combined organization will be led by Aruba’s CEO Dominic Orr, and CSO and CTO, Keerti Melkote, reporting to Antonio Neri, leader of HP Enterprise Group. With this move, HP will be uniquely positioned to deliver both the innovation and global delivery and services offerings to meet customer needs worldwide.

“Enterprises are facing a mobile-first world and are looking for solutions that help them transition legacy investments to the new style of IT,” said Meg Whitman, Chairman, President and CEO of HP. “By combining Aruba’s world-class wireless mobility solutions with HP’s leading switching portfolio, HP will offer the simplest, most secure networking solutions”

ESET UNVEILS NEXTGEN BUSINESS SECURITY ESET is all set to showcase its aggressive approach to the market with the global availability of its completely re-engineered and redesigned range of IT security products for business. At the heart of the upgrades is the new ESET Remote Administrator- a platform-independent, remote management console that has been rebuilt to enhance usability, improve security and lower the overall cost of implementation and management.

“Falling victim to cyber attack is now a matter of when rather than if for companies in the ME.” said Neo Neophytou, MD, ESET ME. “ESET’s revamped range of business security solutions address the specific challenges of usability, flexibility and performance that ME organizations face and deliver comprehensive IT security to companies of any size.”

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DR ERIK BRYNJOLFSSON, DR ERIK THE THEBRYNJOLFSSON, DIRECTOR OF DIRECTOR OF THE MIT CENTRE FOR DIGITAL BUSINESS, USA

Dubai sets model in harnessing digital revolution The pervasive impact of the digital revolution on societies and economies across the world was raised at an insightful session by Dr Erik Brynjolfsson, the Director of the MIT Centre for Digital Business, USA, during the first day of The Government Summit, held in Dubai.

He cited Dubai as a leader in successfully harnessing digital revolution by investing in high-tech infrastructure. Dr Brynjolfsson encouraged other nations to display such foresight in order to avoid being left behind and considered uncompetitive.

Dr Brynjolfsson said: “There is no doubt that we are living in an era of rapid change. The evolution of digital technologies has never been quicker and is only continuing to accelerate. Meanwhile, globally, our skills, organisations and institutions are often lagging behind and failing to adjust to the rapid progress.

This will not be solved by adopting a ‘business as usual’ approach and nations should follow the lead of

Dubai in considering projects which benefit the economy and people across the full spectrum of society. Only by investing in the future will we avoid a situation where millions of people are left behind.”

“In the same way that the industrial revolution transformed the world in the 19th century, the 21st century is being shaped by the evolution of technology on an unprecedented scale. If exploited effectively, this has the potential to create widespread benefits and sustainable wealth across society, although it remains essential to ensure that inequality is avoided.”

One potential challenge raised was the impact on low-skilled workers , as the advancement of technology means that such roles can be done more economically by machines rather than humans.

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CHANNEL STREET

Tripling Cloud Market Accelerates UAE’s Innovation Economy The GCC’s tripling cloud market will drive the UAE’s innovation economy, according to comments stemming from a meeting between the CEOs of Mubadala and SAP. Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Managing Director and Group CEO of Mubadala Development Company, met with Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP. “Global businesses are continuing to look at innovative ways to manage their operations, particularly with the cloud becoming increasingly important for ensuring the security and sustainability of the

rapidly-growing knowledge-based economy,” said Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak.

“Since my first meetings back in 2011, it is clear that UAE’s leaders and businesses continue to be early adopters of the latest innovation trends,” said Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP. “We believe that the cloud, big data, and a consumer-grade user experience will continue to change the way business is done and shape the future of the UAE’s digital economy.”

LENOVO STRENGTHENS SERVER PORTFOLIO IN MEA Lenovo has debuted its Think Server family of products for the first time in UAE, Qatar and Egypt, strengthening the company’s portfolio to become a one-stop solution provider for enterprises and small and medium-sized business (MSB) clients.

Lee Allcorn, Enterprise Business Group Leader, Lenovo MEA said: “Lenovo is well positioned as a strong global contender in the enterprise and SMB market, offering customers complete end-to-end solutions, including storage, server, networking, and related software and services. The launch of ThinkServer in the region is a testament to our commitment to our clients in the country who desire exceptional performance, reliability, and easy-to-use tools and solutions.”

NEW DIGITAL ALTERNATIVES TOOL FROM XEROX Xerox’s new Digital Alternatives Tool is a workflow solution that supports today’s mobile work population, providing the ability to complete multiple workflows within a single application and without the need for paper. “Printing less isn’t just about using less paper – it’s about working smarter, improving productivity, connecting with clients faster and using data to bolster business,” said Mike Feldman, president, Large Enterprise Operations, Xerox.“At first thought, we may be an unlikely source to say ‘print less’, but we bridge the digital and paper worlds to help enterprises better understand, protect and use information more intelligently.”

BULWARK PARTNERS WITH RADAR SERVICES

JOSE THOMAS, CEO, BULWARK

Leading value-added distributor for IT Security solutions in the Middle East, Bulwark Distribution FZCO, has partnered with RadarServices Middle East, expert for pro-active IT security monitoring and IT risk management.

RadarServices Middle East, headquartered in Dubai, is the Middle Eastern arm of RadarServices, Europe’s Number 1 for pro-active IT security monitoring and IT risk management as a managed service.

Commenting on the tie up, Jose Thomas, CEO of Bulwark explained, “RadarServices provides key services in the field of IT risk management as a managed service.

We see a strong demand for such services.”

Aji Joseph, General Manager, RadarServices Middle East adds, “Our Risk Detection & Intelligence Service allows pro-active, continuous risk identification.

No data leaves the client’s premises. There is no additional investment in personnel or in hard- or software necessary. Results are delivered in an easy to understand Risk Cockpit, through which near-time management of potential risk becomes possible. ”

KASPERSKY LAB BOOSTS SUPPORT FOR ITS PARTNERS Ovanes Mikhaylov, MD of Kaspersky Lab in the Middle East has highlighted the company’s focus on aggressive growth in the enterprise security sector across the region. He elaborated on the company’s strategy to meet this target by combining innovation and intelligence with a boost in support for channel partners.

“In the last couple of years we have witnessed a surge in the

08

frequency and complexity of cyberattacks targeted at enterprises and governments in the Middle East.

This, together with the growing investments in ‘smart city’ initiatives across the region, demands a greater focus on cyber security. At Kaspersky Lab we work with partners and customers to enable this state of advanced security both through our industry leading enterprise security portfolio and intelligent services,

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and by developing our channel partners across the region,” said Mikhaylov, Managing Director of Kaspersky Lab in the Middle East.

Mikhaylov also announced important improvements to the company’s partner program, aimed at helping local partners protect their current investments and focus more on driving business growth. Kaspersky Lab is automating a number of processes,

such as renewals, and is offering new tools and resources. Many of the enhancements are aimed at enabling partners to create comprehensive security portfolios that include a mix of advanced technologies: the company will provide partners with access to new Intelligence Services to enable them to extend the right combination of expertise, solutions and services to their customers.

CHANNEL STREET IN PUBLIC

“The private sector has proven that they can serve the public interest with creativity and innovation. Our governments and leadership now need to explore incentives for sustainable business practices” HE BAN KI-MOON, SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS

6

SECONDS

FOCUS SOFTNET ADDS HOSPITALITY SOLUTIONS TO ITS PORTFOLIO

TP-LINK Expands SMB Products Array in MEA

Focus Softnet has launched Focus Hospitality

TP-LINK Technologies has expanded its SMB products portfolio with the launch of the EAP220, a business class indoor Wi-Fi access point and T3700G-28TQ, a 28-Port Gigabit stackable Layer3 managed switch. “One of the main considerations for access points in the workplace is placement and flexibility,” said Denny Liang, Vice President MEA,TP-LINK Middle East. “The EAP series was designed to be as compact and as versatile as possible to allow for easy installation and maximum coverage,” he said.

He explained that the inclusion of TP-LINK’s intuitive centralised management controller

CONNECTEM

software, means that administrators are able to deliver high end wireless control over their Wi-Fi coverage, with no extra cost. “The inclusion of our controller software means that our EAP represent an extremely cost-effective one-stop solution such as easy configuration and installation for small and medium businesses,” added Liang. Liang explained that the T3700G-28TQ comes with multiple Layer3 routing protocols, including Static Routing, RIP, OSPF, ECMP and VRRP. “These integrated routing protocols provide reliable, high-performance and scalable routing function for a wide range of network installations,” he said.

Management Suite, its comprehensive suite of Hospitality Management Solutions that digitizes and automates almost all processes of the Hotel Management Domain.

BROCADE PLANS TO ACQUIRE Brocade plans to acquire Connectem, a startup that specializes in vEPC software as a part of its commitment to provide enterprises and service providers with an end-to-end infrastructure as they transition to ‘The New IP’.

SOFTWARE AG LAUNCHES EVENT ANALYTICS FOR ADABAS It dynamically monitors sensitive data used in critical business operations processed by the company’s high performance Adabas database.

Any data access or updates outside of normal defined times, from unusual geographical locations or outside of any other predefined criteria will result in a real-time alert

XEROX EMIRATES TARGETS SMBS IN 2015 Xerox Emirates recorded a 50 per cent growth in its channel partner business in 2014. The annual partner event held earlier this month, at Dubai Autodrome marked the review of 2014’s performance as well as unveiling of the new channel strategy and direction for 2015in the UAE. This year Xerox Emirates will focus on driving and increasing incremental business revenue within the channel segment as well as continue their proactive expansion strategies.

“Our strengths are our channel program 2015 with its promotion incentives, marketing co-op funds and the robust business processes that facilitate mutual business. This year we are expanding our distribution partnerships to participate in more buying decisions, particularly in the rapidly growing small and medium-size businesses market with increasing opportunities for colour and multifunction products, as well as document imaging and print management services” said Andrew Horne, GM, Xerox Emirates

AVAYA TO RE-DESIGN MALL OF QATAR’S HOSPITALITY EXPERIENCE Avaya has entered into a mega deal with the Mall of Qatar to build and support the mall’s end-toend technology. The project includes designing, building and supporting the mall’s next generation network infrastructure, high definition wireless indoor and outdoor connectivity, as well as the mall’s CCTV network, to deliver the smartest and most secure retailing and shopping experience in the region.

ETISALAT AND HUAWEI JOIN FORCES FOR ‘NETWORK2020’

FORTINET ROADSHOW FOR PARTNERS ACROSS THE ME

Etisalat Group and Huawei planned to jointly

Fortinet will kick-off its regional Advanced Technology roadshow across the Middle East region, starting from March 16, 2015. “Fortinet is a channel driven company, and our goal is to empower them to excel, so that they continue to achieve their business goals, and help expand out footprint across the region,” said Alain Penel, Regional VP- Middle East, Fortinet. “The annual roadshow is part of our commitment to our partners and we design our sessions to give them the tools they need to address customer needs and expectations, and overcome challenges. The roadshow is also an excellent platform to exchange opportunities and gain valuable market feedback from our partners. “ The roadshow will be attended by a number of senior Fortinet executives and takes place in Dubai at the One & Only Royal Mirage Hotel on March 16th, 2015, Kuwait at the Movenpick Hotel & Resort Al Bida’a on March 17th and Riyadh at the Intercontinental Hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on March 18th.

that the year 2020 will require a different telecom

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develop a framework and architecture for end-to-end network2020.The companies believe networks to address customers needs.

Network 2020 is a vision that comprises of a number of technology advancements like virtualization, software defined networks, ultra high speed networks, cloud and etc.Those will be the building blocks for a completely new network architecture that should address the transformation towards a more connected society and digital living.

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CHANNEL STREET

Organisations Warned- Go Digital or Perish

Dimension Data’s annual Global not the case. The reality is that Contact Centre Benchmarking their scope has been broadened, Report has clearly shown that and the types of interactions are organisations that don’t embrace becoming more complex and digital customer engagement more critical. channels within the next 2years, “Organisations will need to are likely to see their customers focus on getting their staff highly jump ship to competitors that do. skilled and putting systems in “But,” stresses Adam Foster, place to enable them to answer Dimension Data’s Group Execu- ADAM FOSTER customer enquiries immediately.

GROUP EXECUTIVE tive – Communications, “That’s If agents can’t resolve the cusCOMMUNICATIONS not to say that contact centres tomer’s call, it will reflect badly on DIMENSION DATA are dead, and customer service the organisation, and could lead to agents will become redundant. That’s definitely the search for an alternative supplier.”

“QLIK SENSE” TO EMPOWER INTERACTIVE DATA VISUALIZATION IN THE UAE Qlik Sense is a next-generation self-service data visualization and discovery tool designed for enterprise-class governance and performance that empowers everyone to create a range of flexible, interactive visualizations that drive exploration and discovery. Kerry Koutsikos, Regional Director, Middle East, Africa & Turkey at Qlik said: “Our vision for Qlik Sensebuilds on our belief that anyone in an organization should be able to easily create dynamic dashboards to explore their data to uncover meaningful insights. When we set out to create Qlik Sense, we envisioned a world where every knowledge worker, from any device, could rapidly create visually rich analytics to explore theories, prove hypothesis, or discover new trends that can change the trajectory of their business.”

CISCO LAUNCHES MOBILITY IQ Cisco has introduced Mobility IQ, a mobility software as a service analytics solution that unlocks the power of visual network knowledge and drives unparalleled business outcomes for service providers in the Middle East. Mobility IQ combines data from Wi-Fi, 3G, and LTE network activity for real-time visibility into the network, user, and business intelligence.

Fady Younes, Head of SPs, Cisco UAE says, “This powerful new solution helps service providers and their business customers understand their own networks better, optimize the delivery of their services, and ultimately increase revenue.”

VMWARE LAUNCHES NEW GENERATION OF ENTERPRISE STORAGE Designed to enable mass adoption of software-defined storage, VMware Virtual SAN 6 will introduce significant scalability and performance enhancements to the company’s hypervisor-converged storage solution and VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes will offer new levels of storage integration to make third-party arrays natively aware of virtual machines.

“Customers have told us they need a more flexible, cost-effective and cloudaware approach to storage,” said Raghu Raghuram, executive vice president and general manager, Software-Defined Data Center Division, VMware. “VMware Virtual SAN 6 and VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes will deliver on this, and represent the next phase of our software-defined storage strategy. They address customer requirements through an improved hypervisor-converged storage tier, and a new virtual machine-aware integration with existing storage arrays.”

VMware Virtual SAN 6 introduces double the scalability and up to fourand-a-half times greater performance while adding several new enterprise-class capabilities, making it the ideal storage platform for virtual machines. VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes is a set of storage APIs that will enable a more granular integration between storage and VMware vSphere at the individual virtual machine level.

HELP AG TO BECOME PRIMARY SUPPORT CENTRE FOR BLUE COAT Help AG has been approved as a BlueTouch Support Partner by Blue Coat Systems. This allows the security specialist to extend 24x7 Level 1 and Level 2 technical support to regional businesses that leverage Blue Coat’s market leading security, visibility and performance optimization technologies.

Help AG boasts an over eight year partnership with Blue Coat and holds the status of Gold Partner. “We

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remain committed to addressing the complete life-cycle of our vendors’ solutions. Our post-implementation service excellence has helped us establish long standing relationships with key enterprise and public sector customers in the ME who look to us as their trusted advisor and support partner,” said Stephan Berner, MD at Help AG. “Achieving the BlueTouch partner qualification enables us to extend the same

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quality of expertise, reliability and availability that we deliver for other key vendor partners, across the entire spectrum of our Blue Coat solutions portfolio.”

Blue Coat ensures that all BlueTouch support partners meet a set of stringent support-readiness and training requirements. Having met these, Help AG will now be the primary support contact for all its Blue Coat customers. The company’s

dedicated support division, the Help AG Security Assistance Centre, is a benchmark support centre in the ME. All members of the team are fully certified on all the major vendor platforms that the solutions provider offers to its clients.

Customers can avail of support via a comprehensive set of communications channels and are also provided access to a fully automated web-based support system.

CHANNEL STREET

StarLink Becomes Arbor’s Distie StarLink has signed a Distribution agreement with Arbor Networks. The IT Security distributor will sell, install and support Arbor Networks products through its extensive network of Channel Partners to enterprise and government customers in theregion.

“If you want to rapidly gain market share in the Middle East’s lucrative IT security market, you need StarLink as a distributor,” said Jeremy Nicholls, Arbor Networks’ Vice President Global Channels & Alliances. Mahmoud Nimer,

MAHMOUD NIMER, GENERAL MANAGER AT STARLINK

General Manager at StarLink added, “DDoS attacks in the region are becoming more fre-

WEB CLIPS HID PARTNERS WITH SAMSUNG HID Global, has partnered with Samsung to

quent, taking down networks, tarnishing reputations and impacting businesses. Arbor has solutions that specifically address the needs of the Middle East’s enterprises and service provider customers. We are excited to align Arbor’s best-of-breed technology with our Channel so that Partners can deliver the situational awareness, security intelligence, incident response and forensic capabilities that customers need to detect, mitigate and analyze DDoS threats.”

provide enterprises with a secure and seamless management and door opening experience via the robust KNOX 2.4 mobile platform that will be integrated into the new Samsung Galaxy S6 smart phone.

MANAGE ENGINE LAUNCHES FREE EC2 MANAGER ANDROID APP The mobile app enables admins to perform the EC2 management tasks on the go. They can also monitor the performance of EC2 cloud instances on Amazon and receive alerts on the health of EC2 resources.

KANOO IT AND CYBEROAM HOST CUSTOMER MEET IN BAHRAIN Kanoo IT, in partnership with Cyberoam conducted a Technical Workshop for select customers, showcasing Cyberoam Information

GULF AIR TO ENHANCE IT SECURITY SOLUTIONS

Security portfolio. During the event, Cyberoam

Gulf Air has entered into an agreement with Intel Security to provide security solutions to Gulf Air. “We are continually striving to offer the best IT solutions to safeguard our national carrier’s information and help improve the passenger experience. We believe that Intel Security, with its renowned information security credentials, is achieving our information security goals and further supporting our commitment to managing critical business data”, said Dr. Jassim Haji, Gulf Air Director of IT.

strategy with all the challenges awaited for the

discussed its future roadmap and expansion region with the gathered community.

GOOGLE LAUNCHES NEW CONSUMER BAROMETER Now in its fourth year, the tool has been updated in size, scale and depth of questions covered. It enables users to compare digital mobile, video and online shopping habits across 46 countries.

MOVEMENTS SPECTRAMI, has appoined PUNIT BHATIA as its new EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR – SALES & OPERATIONS.

SOFTWARE AG has appointed RAMI KICHLI as the new VP for the firm’s UAE division.

EMT has appointed ERDAL OZKAYA as CISO.

VMWARE has appointed SCOTT DODDS as VP OF CHANNEL AND ALLIANCES IN EMEA.

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72 NUMBER GAME

%

The MEA will have the strongest mobile data traffic growth of any region with a 72per cent average annual growth rate, increasing 15-fold between 2014 and 2019.

SMARTPHONE SALES SURPASSED ONE BILLION UNITS IN 2014 Worldwide sales of smartphones to end users had a record Q4 of 2014 with an increase of 29.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2013, according to Gartner. Samsung lost the top spot to Apple.

ZOTAC RE-DEFINES PC GAMING WITH STEAM MACHINE The gaming platform of ZOTAC Steam Machine SN970 finally conjoins uncompromising graphical experience with the television, unchaining gaming from the desk to the home entertainment center.

“The ZOTAC Steam Machine delivers a fully optimized gaming platform with full emphasis on graphics. We have employed the latest Intel CPU and NVIDIA GPU technology so gamers can keep the graphics sliders on ultra, and enjoy smooth, 4k gaming,” says Tony Wong, CEO, ZOTAC International.

Secure access to cloud, data and door

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With the ever increasing risk from advanced IT security threats, organisations are looking to take authentication beyond passwords, while lowering cost at the same time. HID Global’s authentication solution provides you with the convenience, flexibility and comprehensive control you need to deliver secure access, without compromising on security. HID Global can empower your employee’s, partners and customers with anytime, anywhere access to enterprise cloud applications, data and the door.

Experience authentication beyond passwords. hidglobal.com/identity-assurance © 2014 HID Global Corporation/ASSA ABLOY AB. All rights reserved. HID, HID Global, the HID Blue Brick logo, and the Chain Design are trademarks or registered trademarks of HID Global or its licensor(s)/supplier(s) in the US and other countries and may not be used without permission.

CHANNEL STREET

DSG’s mPay App Generates over AED 163 million in 2014 DSG’s mPay app for mobile payments through smartphones saw a 418% increase in collections in 2014. H.E. Ahmad Bin Humaidan, DSG Director General, said: “These results clearly indicate the rising pace of smart transformation and our success in fulfilling the vision of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, VP and PM of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, for providing a world-class smart government in Dubai, and in implementing the directives of HH

Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, for prompt transformation to smart government in a bid to ease the lives of all the segments of the society and make them happy. This is substantiated by the increasing rates of customers’ adoption of the mPay on one hand and by the rising rate of their confidence in the efficiency and security of this option on the other.”

GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION PARTNERS WITH FUJITSU TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS Global Distribution will be supplying the entire Fujitsu portfolio of IT products and solutions including the leading PRIMERGY servers and ETERNUS storage. New Fujitsu partners and existing SELECT partners and SELECT Experts within the channel partner program of Fujitsu will experience improved presale capabilities and business support from Global Distribution, as well as from Fujitsu.

“Global Distribution has a great reputation in regional channel development and enablement. We are pleased to work with them to expand Fujitsu’s footprint in the ME” commented Farid Al-Sabbagh, VP and MD of Middle East at Fujitsu. “Our vision is to enable the reseller community to embrace solution selling and we are committed to support our partners with all necessary tools and tailor-made solutions.

Partnering with Fujitsu, with its world class variety of products, is a great step forward in our mission.” added Mario M. Veljovic, VP Solutions MENA at Global Distribution.

IT-SECURITY IS A MATTER FOR SPECIALISTS BUT THE BOARD IS LIABLE! The complexity of attacks on the IT of companies is growing rapidly. In case of a severe incident, executives are personally liable in many jurisdictions worldwide, whether they understand the technical background or not. Radar Services has introduced RADAR RISK COCKPIT, a live overview on IT security particularly designed for the top management.

The RADAR RISK COCKPIT provides the essentials obtained from regular or real time IT security monitoring: security issues recognized and classified by RadarServices, urgency, internal employees responsible for remediation and the current status of the remediation process. A push message on the mobile phone is possible if desired.

TOSHIBA UNVEILS THE CANVIO AEROCAST Toshiba Gulf FZE introduces the new CANVIO AeroCast, an HDD storage device with highly advanced features including wireless connectivity for the quick and convenient transfer of files.

The HDD creates its own wireless LAN network, so users do not have to be connected to the Internet to access their content. It is compatible with today’s most popular platforms—Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. The CANVIO AeroCast is already available in the Middle East.

Santosh Vargehese, General Manager, Digital Products and Services, Toshiba Gulf FZE shares, “Because today’s average home houses more than one PC and several mobile devices, the new CANVIO AeroCast has been designed to make file sharing fast and easy for everyone in the family.”

The portable HDD has a massive 1TB of storage that can be accessed by as many as six devices simultaneously, including smartphones, tablets and laptops, providing users a simple way to share files with family, friends and colleagues within the home or the office.

Toshiba has created a dedicated “Toshiba Wireless HDD” app for Android and iOS devices, making browsing, streaming and saving files on mobile devices considerably easier. The app comes free with every CANVIO AeroCast.

The user interface for the CANVIO AeroCast includes preview for images and keyword search, delivering an efficient navigation experience.

SAMSUNG CEO SHARES ITS MODEL OF ‘PRODUCT, PROCESS & PEOPLE’ Batting for an open ecosystem to usher in a future led by the Internet of Things (IoT), Boo Keun Yoon, Chief Executive Officer of Samsung Electronics, has said that the fundamental drivers of the company’s successful innovation journey were led by three core pillars – Product, Process and People.

Highlighting how Samsung drives innovation to stay ahead of

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the curve, he told delegates at the opening of the third Government Summit in Dubai that Samsung’s focus on ‘product, process and people’ have encouraged a culture of innovation across the company to emerge as a global leader, adding that these 3 Ps can do the same for governments in accelerating innovation.

He observed that the UAE and

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Korea share the same attitude towards innovation – that “anything is possible with imagination and anything can be built out of almost nothing.”

“In the IoT, everyday objects are connected to the Internet. They are able to understand and meet our needs. In other words, IOT is not about technology, it is about humans and this makes it perfectly

aligned with Samsung’s future of innovation. I believe IOT is a game-changer. In fact, the IOT is market is estimated to hit $7 trillion US dollars by 2020. It will transform how we live our lives as individuals and will explain beyond the cities to cities and nations,” he explained.

Dubai Internet City Bldg 2, Off 305 Dubai United Arab Emirates Tel +971 4 3754052 - Fax +971 4 4290967 www.eset.com/me - info@esetme.com

CHANNEL STREET

Data Science Technologies Joins Cumulus Networks Partner Program DST, a subsidiary of StorIT has joined the Cumulus Networks channel partner program and is now offering open networking solutions for a broad range of data center networking architectures. DST will promote and sell Cumulus Linux to its customers and reseller partners and provide SI and consulting services within various customer environments.

“We welcome Data Science Technologies to the Cumulus Networks channel partner program and look forward to serving our joint customers with open networking solutions that accelerate innovation and improve economics in the data

center,” said Reza Malekzadeh, VP Business, Cumulus Networks.

“This is an exciting time for DST and Cumulus Networks as key players in the next generation networking movement as the networking world moves towards a disaggregated hardwaresoftware model,” said Mr. Shashi, Sales Manager – Big Data Practice & Open Infrastructure Solutions, Data Science Technologies. “By joining the Cumulus Networks program, DST now partners with a major player in the networking arena, enhancing our standing as an exceptional technology service provider.”

PALADION OPENS A NEW GSOC TO ENHANCE CUSTOMER SECURITY IN THE ME Paladion Networks opened their new Global Security Operations Center (GSOC), which is designed for the clients from the Middle East region. FiroshUmmer, the MD for EMEA at Paladion Networks, said, “Our GSOC initiative is equipped to analyse billions of events every day and protect hundreds of its customers regionally and globally from cyber risk..” Amit Roy, the regional Sales head for EMEA, said, “Paladion being the region’s only analytics driven Managed Security Services can leverage both its regional insight and global expertise to make proactive security monitoring and rapid incident management a reality. This makes our offering a one-of-a-kind service in this region, and sets a new benchmark for information security providers everywhere.”

DATA BREACHES INCREASED 49 % IN 2014 Gemalto’s Breach Level Index has revealed that more than 1,500 data breaches led to one billion data records compromised worldwide during 2014. “We’re clearly seeing a shift in the tactics of cybercriminals, with long-term identity theft becoming more of a goal than the immediacy of stealing a credit card number,” said Sebastien Pavie, regional sales director, MEA, Gemalto. “Not only are data breach numbers rising, but the breaches are becoming more severe,” added Pavie.

“Being breached is not a question of ‘if ’ but ‘when.’ Companies need to adopt a data-centric view of digital threats starting with better identity and access control techniques such as multi-factor authentication and the use of encryption and key management to secure sensitive data. That way, if the data is stolen it is useless to the thieves.”

EMT TO OFFER FREE ONLINE COURSE FOR CHANNEL

MOHAMMAD MOBASSERI, CEO, EMT DISTRIBUTION

emt Academy has tied up with Australian’s leading university, Charles Sturt University (CSU) to offer free online course for its preferred channel partner on virtualisation. Mohammad Mobasseri, CEO at emt Distribution said, “This is for the first time, that any distributor is offering an international recognised from world’s leading university in Middle East to its channel partners free of cost. The successful candidates after completing the course will also be awarded certification from Charles Sturt University, which will further enhance the credibility of our channel partners and boosts the confidence of their customers to work with them”.

Regionally the course will administered by the CISO for emt Distribution, Erdal Ozkaya. Commenting on this unique initiative, Erdal stated, “It is a rare feet, that emt has achieved to enable channel to grow faster by powering them with such a specialised course free of cost to its partners. This could be a game changer, and I am excited to be part of this unique initiative.”

SOFTWARE AG AT CEBIT 2015 WITH STRONG PARTNERS At CeBIT 2015, Software AG and its partners will show visiting professionals how to bring IT out of the basement and make it their business with impressive use cases. Using the steel industry as an example, Software AG is presenting the successful implementation of IT in an increasingly networked industry (Industry 4.0). Software AG and its

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university partner RWTH Aachen will present another example of truly life-saving apps at CeBIT: sudden cardiac arrest.

“At Software AG, partnering is not a choice,” says Eric Duffaut, Chief Customer Officer and board member of Software AG, underlining the importance of partners. “The choice has been made! We do value

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our ecosystem of partners who add industry-specific expertise and act as an extension of Software AG to deliver together seamless connectivity and adaptive game-changing applications to customers who want to innovate to stand out in the digital world. We are simply better together!”

The partners/sponsors present-

ing their solutions at the Software AG booth at CeBIT 2015 in hall 4, C11 are Amazon Web Services, CrossVista, Cumulocity, FACT, IDS Scheer Consulting, nterra integration GmbH, Pepperl + Fuchs, Roundcube, Salesforce and Telefónica Deutschland Holding.

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CHANNEL STREET

KAEC DAZZLES AS THE GATEWAY TO THE KSA Al Salem Johnson Controls (ASJC), a joint venture between the Al Salem Group of Companies and Johnson Controls has laid the foundation stone for their new, state of the art manufacturing facility and training center at King Abdullah Economic City’s Industrial Valley.

Mr. Fahd Al-Rasheed, Group CEO and MD of KAEC, stated, “ The presence of ASJC further diversifies the types of manufacturing operations in the Industrial Valley and adds significant value to both the city’s and the Kingdom’s economic progress and development.”

Sheikh Saleh Binladen, Executive Board Member of ASJC, said: “Our second new factory in King Abdullah Economic City is proof of our continuous growth and shared vision of engaging in the economic, social and urban development of the Kingdom.”

Mr. Rayan Qutub, CEO of the Industrial Valley in KAEC, said: “The immense investment opportunities available at Industrial Valley being directly connected to King Abdullah Port, position it as the new manufacturing&logistics Hub, and set it as the gateway to Saudi Arabia and the region, enabling investors to reach 250 million consumers in the Arab world in addition to East Africa”. He added: “To date we have signed with more than 93 national and global companies of which 8 are already in operation and 23 others are under construction.”

NetApp Reports Net Revenues of $1.55 Billion for Q3 NetApp’s financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2015 that ended January 23, 2015 reveal that the net revenues were $1.55 billion.

NetApp ended the third quarter of fiscal year 2015 with $5.25 billion of total cash, cash equivalents and investments and during the quarter generated $275 million in cash from operations.

“To position NetApp for success now, and in the future, we remain focused on extending our data fabric vision, a differentiated strategy for the hybrid cloud which allows customers

to seamlessly manage their data regardless of where it’s stored,” said Tom Georgens, Chairman and CEO. “In the third quarter we continued to deliver against this vision, enhancing our strong product portfolio with new software, services and systems to help our customers to realize the value of the hybrid cloud.”

For the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2015, net revenues are expected to be in the range of $1.55 billion to $1.65 billion.

OOREDOO LEADING IN NEW CONTENT PARTNERSHIPS Ooredoo has launched multiple new offers to give customers access to a range of new exciting content “firsts” in the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia. Dr. Nasser Marafih, Group CEO, Ooredoo, said: “With 25 percent of Ooredoo customers now actively using mobile content services, we need to continually enhance the range and diversity of mobile services on the market. With Ooredoo’s growing global scale and reach, we are in an excellent position to support people’s digital lifestyles. Our customers increasingly expect world-class mobile content in their own language – and Ooredoo is becoming their preferred provider.” “Through the introduction of affordable smartphone devices, and by continuing to create and nurture partnerships with major technology and content players, we plan to make mobile services an integrated part of our customers’ everyday activities”, he added.

FUJITSU LAUNCHES NEW NETWORK SCANNER Fujitsu has launched a network scanner which sets new standards in network scanner image processing. Thanks to its enhanced CPU and GI processor, the Fujitsu N7100 speeds up image processing within the scanning workflow by a factor of ten compared to its predecessor the N1800, offering the user a near-instant view of resulting scans and significantly cutting waiting time. The new active paper feeding mechanism prevents paper jams and maintains separation between sheets to avoid multiple pages being loaded into the scanner at the same time.

The new Fujitsu N7100 is on show at CeBIT 2015 (16 – 20 March) at the Fujitsu booth in Hall 7, Stand A28.Given that the scanner is shared in a workgroup environment amongst multiple employees, the N7100 offers security features like login authentication, encryption, automatic deletion of temporary document data and secure initialization leaving no trace of old user data.

UNMATCHED PRODUCTIVITY AND SECURITY WITH BLACKBERRY EXPERIENCE BlackBerry Limited has unveiled its software and services vision to infuse BlackBerry’s unmatched power of productivity, communication, collaboration and security across all smartphone and tablets running iOS, Android, and Windows OS, giving users the unprecedented ability to work seamlessly and securely across any

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device.

The BlackBerry Experience Suite represents a major company-wide initiative in BlackBerry’s commitment to build out its robust software portfolio. “BlackBerry’s core values of security and productivity are more in demand than ever – as we demonstrated with the successful expansion of BES12

and BBM to other platforms,” said BlackBerry CEO and Executive Chairman John Chen. “Flexibility without compromise is what current and former BlackBerry users tell us time and again they want from their mobile device.

They want BlackBerry’s legendary security and core productivity and collaboration capabilities while

still being able to choose a device that matches their lifestyle and personality.”

Chen added: “Our goal is to be wherever our users need and want us, with our software suites, whether that’s on an iPhone or a BlackBerry Classic.”

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ANALYSTS SPEAK

GARTNER

Getting ready to Solve tomorrow’s Problems today Gartner Says by 2018, 40 Percent of Large Enterprises Will Have Formal Plans to Address Aggressive Cyber security Business Disruption Attacks. Recent Large-Scale Attacks Move Focus from Blocking and Detecting Attacks, to Detecting and Responding to Attacks.

A

lthough the frequency of a cybersecurity attack on a large scale is low, by 2018, 40 percent of large enterprises will have formal plans to address aggressive cybersecurity business disruption attacks, up from zero percent in 2015, according to Gartner. Business disruption attacks require new priority from chief information security officers (CISOs) and business continuity management (BCM) leaders, since aggressive attacks can cause prolonged disruption to internal and external business operations.

“Gartner defines aggressive business disruption attacks as targeted attacks that reach deeply into internal digital business operations with the express purpose of widespread business damage,” said Paul Proctor, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “Servers may be taken down completely, data may be wiped and digital intellectual property may be released on the Internet by attackers. Victim organizations could be hounded by media inquiries for response and status, and government reaction and statements may increase the visibility and chaos of the attack.

Employees may not be able to fully function normally in the workplace for months. These attacks may expose embarrassing internal data via social media channels — and could have a

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longer media cycle than a breach of credit card or personal data.”

To combat these types of attacks, CISOs must pivot approaches from blocking and detecting attacks, to detecting and responding to attacks.

“Entirely avoiding a compromise in a large complex enterprise is just not possible, so a new emphasis toward detect and respond approaches has been building for several years, as attack patterns and overwhelming evidence support that a compromise will occur,” said Mr. Proctor.

“Preventive controls, such as firewalls, antivirus and vulnerability management, should not be the only focus of a mature security program.

Balancing investment in detection and response capabilities acknowledges this new reality.”

The rise of ubiquitously connected devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) has expanded the attack surface, and commands increased attention, larger budgets and deeper scrutiny by management. Digital business should not be restricted by these revelations, but emphasis must be placed on addressing technology dependencies and the impact of technology failure on business process and outcomes. Information owners should be made explicitly accountable for protecting their information resources, ensuring they will give due consideration to risks when they commission or develop new digital business solutions.

PAUL PROCTOR,

VICE PRESIDENT AND DISTINGUISHED ANALYST AT GARTNER

“CISOs and chief risk officers (CROs) can and should persuade executives to shift their thinking from traditional approaches.”

The expectation that digital business will be a successful consumer business model relies on IoT devices being “always available.” An interruption at any point during the end-to-end transaction process means that business transactions may not be completed, thereby negatively affecting customer allegiance and the revenue stream expected from the digital business offering.

As a result, the standard of due care for security program maturity will increase, with risk, security and BCM leaders getting more pressure and more support from executive boards than ever before.

“CISOs and chief risk officers (CROs) can and should persuade executives to shift their thinking from traditional approaches toward risk, security and business continuity management. Security is not a technical problem, handled by technical people, buried somewhere in the IT department,” said Mr. Proctor. “Organizations need to start solving tomorrow’s problems now.” ë

MOBILITY

ARUBA NETWORKS

Hospitals of Tomorrow

Aruba Networks predicts that mobility is going to completely revolutionize healthcare in the times to come. Mobile Cloud-based hospitals could reduce misdiagnosis by up to three quarters through accessing real-time data from mobile, wearable devices.

BASHAR BASHAIREH,

REGIONAL DIRECTOR, GULF AND PAKISTAN, ARUBA NETWORKS MIDDLE EAST

H

ealthcare organizations in United Arab Emirates (UAE) could make drastic improvements to efficiency and reduce mis-diagnosis levels through embracing mobile technology at all levels, Aruba Networks has claimed.

According to newly released data by research analyst International Data Corporation (IDC), UAE’s and Saudi Arabia’s markets for IT solutions in healthcare will continue to undergo rapid growth in the coming years. IDC estimates that spending on IT services and products among healthcare providers in the countries will increase at 11.2% annually until 2018. UAE is the second fastest-growing healthcare IT market in the MEA region after Saudi.Healthcare is the secondfastest-growing sector after government in terms of IT spending. Nino Giguashvili, senior research analyst for IDC Health Insights mentions that ‘while markets like the UAE present exceptional opportunities to healthcare IT suppliers across the whole ecosystem, it is the right time to focus on mobile solutions to healthcare providers’ organizational needs, and MEA’s healthcare challenges overall.’

By 2025, Aruba Networks predicts hospital systems will be primarily run through cloud based applications, accessible through mobile devices and fed by real-time data from a huge range of mobile medical equipment and instruments, including wearables.

Built on evidence from early adopters of

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this mobility infrastructure, it is estimated that efficiency could be boosted by 50% with mis-diagnosis reduced by three quarters, while helping to meet the ever-growing public expectations of the health service.

Against the backdrop of the rapid pace of ICT innovations in the healthcare industry, Aruba Networks predicts the following trends in the healthcare industry in UAE for the next decade.

1.

Hospitals to be 50% more efficient through the birth of the ‘m-Cloud’. The m-Cloud will be a centralized, secure hub used for storing patient information that is accessible anywhere and anytime. By having this tool, it will mean that medical records will be stored entirely on a private and secure cloud service, allowing staff to be fully briefed on any situation from any location.

2.

Reduce misdiagnosis by 75% through the combination of real-time data and mobile technology. Through the use of mobile software and wearable devices, future hospitals will take advantage of real time data, including medical information. This data will allow more accurate diagnosis, giving consultants greater visibility into patients’ ailments and reducing mis-diagnosis by over 75% through access to relevant symptom information.

3.

Deliver a truly paperless and wireless world driving better confidentiality and collaboration. Given the velocity of technology innovation in the last decade, it is a realistic prediction that money spent on purchasing paper and filing

“We are already seeing organisations in the UAE put mobility at the heart of their infrastructure, to the benefit of their staff, patients and visitors.” storage will continue to substantially decline. The progression in wireless working environment goes hand in hand with the reduction of paper, yet introducing gains in communication and collaboration as documents can be shared at the touch of a button.

4.

A customised and smart patient experience. For both patients and visitors, the hospitals need not be a place for long waiting periods. The hospital of tomorrow will be fully mobile, personalised and will resemble a modern day hotel. The development of ‘Smart rooms’ will allow for ease of interaction between patient and consultants, both in house and remotely. The use of mobile apps will allow patients to make appointments and even locate amenities within the hospital. Bed side care will be directly affected as tests such as x-rays can be shared in an instant with decisions on next steps being made much quicker than they are today. ë

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COVER STORY

COVER STORY

Big DataTime to go full throttle Data has always been a valuable asset and a source of insights for businesses. Expenditure on Big Data and Analytics is exponentially rising in the Middle East. A research report by IDC published last year ratifies this fact and forecasts as high as 20% compound annual growth rate of investment over the next five years. Too much has been said and written about big data; the main challenge now is to actually reap benefits of all the data being generated. n B Y: S O U M YA < S O U M YA @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M > n P H O T O : S H U T T E R S T O C K

I

n recent years, there has been significant investment on large-scale infrastructure schemes and technologyinitiatives to create employment and foster economic growth.

With overall economic development and increasing awareness about data analytics in general, C-level IT executives have realised the benefits of analytics. This has led to renewed confidence in results generated by analytics tools.

CURRENT SCENARIO OF BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: The world of data is changing. “After years of

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hype, 2015 will be a make or break year for big data for many organizations in the Middle East.

Inside the IT shop talent levels are beginning to meet demand; however outside the IT shop stakeholders and users are expecting more – often times this is the CEO, CFO, CMO, their SMT and the likes! IT leaders will have to either continue investing in the big data technologies their stakeholders need or deal with any fallout as non-IT business leaders, users, and Customers eschew IT and turn to SaaS offerings” comments Shams Hasan, Enterprise Product Manager, Dell Middle East.

On a global scale, in 2015, IT leaders will be

shifting gears from thinking about the possibility of making investments in big data platforms to thinking about how to get more out of the investments they’ve already made. This will drive an increased focused on marrying their new infrastructure to existing relational infrastructure (i.e., marrying a Hadoop cluster to existing data warehouses), and will drive industry wide growth (in their regions and value-chain) in the application of advanced analytics in order to derive actual business value from all of this new data.

Shams expects IT expenditures in big data in 2015 to focus on new turnkey solutions from current supply chain providers that are also in

COVER STORY

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COVER STORY

SAVIO TOVAR DIAS, DIRECTOR – SALES ENGINEERING, AVAYA GLOBAL GROWTH MARKETS

“Avaya is looking to play a significant role in delivering contextual data to the most skilled individual in an enterprise in customer engagement scenarios.”

accordance with existing corporate policies and compliance requirements.According to Savio Tovar Dias, Director – Sales Engineering, Avaya Global Growth Markets, the Middle East has moved a long way in its understanding of the power of what Avaya likes to call “Contextual” data, which, in simple terms means that you leverage big data to proactively build a “life time customer”.For example, Avaya is working with a number of enterprise and government customers to apply data analytics to be able to build real time value of customer and operational data, to enhance Customer Engagements, with Contextual data from Large Data Pools.

“Although this is a complex process where multiple databases and analytic processes are combined to get relevant information out in real time, there is a massive evolution in the region to transform from reactive based analysis (why somebody called my call center in last 30 days) to proactive and real time analysis (this current customer is going to call me in the next 5 days,

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VIMAL SETHI, MANAGING DIRECTOR, SYNECHRON MIDDLE EAST

“Investments in Big Data analytics are expected to go up considerably in 2015 as buying and selling of data will become a new business model for organizations.”

with this set of information and we as a company will deliver this value to him or her)” comments Savio. This transformation is especially prevalent in the banking industry where customers are actively transforming their call centers to smarter, omni-channel based customer engagement experiences where contextual data is playing in incredible role is building a the value-based, lifelong customer.

According to Rami Kichli, Vice President, Software AG, UAE region, “as of now, 40 per cent of Chief Information Officers (CIO) in the Middle East are considering investments in analytics and big data technologies”. The interest is mainly driven by governance, regulation and compliance requirements, transparency, and reporting as cited by 58 per cent of CIOs in the UAE.

OPPORTUNITIES IN THIS FIELD Tremendous opportunities already present in the field of analytics include Data Visualization,

Data Science, Operations Research, Optimized Algorithms and Data Mining. Scope in future is expected in roles like Sentiment Analysis, Natural Language Processing, to highlight a few. It will unleash plenty of new opportunities in the field of knowledge creation.

In a recent study, it was concluded that the biggest talent and hiring gap in the industry is in the analytics space with 37 per cent of companies’ surveyed saying that they are understaffed and in need of capable recruits.

According to Gartner, there will be 4.4 million jobs within the sector available in the next two years; however, only a third of the demand will be met. Such developments have also spurred subcategories such as big data, mobile data, performance data, campaign data, product data, and data on tracking data. Machine learning, pattern recognition and predictive maintenance will also continue to be used in the future.

There is no limit to what we can do with contextual data, from building life-time customers or saving lives, to delivering on the true promise of smart cities, public safety and citizen engagement.

Our entire decision-making process is evolving in light of data analytics, not only as businesses and governments, but also as individuals.

Predicting the future with such a high level of accuracy makes our entire risk management process less risky and more intelligent.

“What we are inevitably gearing towards is using contextual data to build the next generation of artificial intelligence that will transform the way we work, live and engage. This is not far in the future and we are currently working with a number of organizations to innovate new ways of integrating data analytics with AI, to define the next generation of engagement technologies” says Savio.

The humdrum of “big data and analytics” have been around for a decade – but the industry has been quite mystified on meaningful and achievable applications so far. Today, the need for big data and analytics becomes pervasive as nations, institutes, and organizations roll out or definitively plan for large-and small- scale projects that are dependent on live data capture and analytics to make and show success. Large-scale examples in the Middle East include smart city efforts, internet of things, and computing everywhere.

More focused verticalsor smaller-scale examples include the rising need for live decision making in areas such as retail, manufacturing, services, etc.

SOLUTIONS ON THE PLATTER “Big Datahasbecomeakey expertise withinDell-

COVER STORY

SHAMS HASAN, ENTERPRISE PRODUCT MANAGER, DELL MIDDLE EAST.

“Our approach is to focus on delivering a comprehensive, yet modular portfolio of solutions that empower IT to join forces with the business to create and implement a complete big data strategy.”

withmanyCustomersinitiatingprojectstobetterleveragetheirdataassets” claims Shams, Enterprise Product Manager. “As a vendor Dell can provide end-to-end value in a Big Data engagement – from subject matter expertise, to top-ranked hardware solutions, to software solutions, to services.Our approach is to focus on delivering a comprehensive, yet modular portfolio of solutions that empower IT to join forces with the business to create and implement a complete big data strategy that starts with addressing business goals and challenges–one in which data is shared by systems, cost-effectively managed, and quickly and securely made available to be analyzed and acted on by business teams.” Dell’s end-to-end big data solution includes advanced analytics solutions such as the newly acquired Statistica platform, BI and data discovery tools such as Toad Business Intelligence Suite and Kitenga, data integration tools such as Boomi and SharePlex, and database management tools such as Toad for Oracle and Toad for SQL, all

SUNIL PAUL, OPERATING OFFICER, FINESSE.

“There is no one-sizefits-all solution. As more and more data is being captured, policies and platforms for data management will play a key role for effective analytics”

underpinned by the company’s storage, server and services offerings, as well as its broad range of industry relationships with Apache Hadoop, Cloudera, and Intel.

Avaya is transforming call centers worldwide to what they like to call “customer engagement centers.” They believe businesses need to make sense out of their customers’ information so that they can segment, profile and enhance our approach to their specific profiles. When they reach out to customers, businesses are able to understand the context of the conversation. This, they call “contextual customer experience.”

Savio explains, “Whether logging in from a website, or through a phone call, or via click-tocall or click-to-video, to a call center, the agent at the other end of the conversation is empowered when he or she has got relevant or “contextual” information about the caller. What we are actually doing by enabling a contextual conversation is reducing the average handling time, increasing the customer satisfaction, and turning every

conversation into an opportunity”.

Bob Plumridge, CTO of Hitachi Data Systems EMEA says “Hitachi as a global company has many opportunities to contribute in the coming years with our heavy involvement and input from various industry sectors: such as smart cities, medical industry and transportation.

As an entity, we have the ability to collect all this data, understand it and provide analytic platforms to look at this data. Hitachi Data Systemshas been heavily involved in developing our Hitachi Content Platform portfolio. It opens the opportunity to truly integrate a solution that brings together object storage, file sync and share and file gateways to create truly secure, simple and smart cloud storage solution”.

HDS have recently acquired Pentaho- the largest private big data acquisition transaction to date. “This shall help us fulfill our strategy of delivering business innovations that integrate machine data, information technology and analytics to distill value from big data and the Internet of Things. In the Middle East we also work quite closely with partners such asWipro and HCL. Our partnerships are extremely valuable; giving us the opportunity to develop the big data platform in conjunction with our existing platforms” adds Bob. Synechron offers analytics solutions around Big Data using Apache Hadoop and Cloudera for Insurance and Banking domains.In addition to Microsoft which is one of their key technology partners, they have partnered with Cloudera and MapR. At Software AG, they offer solutions that help the administration securely and efficiently handle large volumes of disparate and complex data, from threat and risk assessments to incident logs and sensor data, no matter where it resides.

They also offer Federal Data Center Consolidation (FDCCI), Real Time Fraud Detection, and Real Time visibility and control solution. They cooperate and co-innovate with many global SIs and Consulting Firms. They worked closely with Wipro to develop a joint solution platform for streaming analytics that provides real-time actionable intelligence for the IoT market.

Further, they have also combined PricewaterhouseCoopers’ leadership and expertise in Risk Assurance with their product suite to deliver solutions that help management make well-informed decisions and turn risk into value, going beyond the traditional boundaries of GRC. Finesse provides solutions for Data Analytics Platforms, In-memory data management platforms and tool sets for Analytics& Reporting.

Their strategic partners for Big Data include IBM, Software AG, Customer XPS, Qlk etc.

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remarks Shams.

THE YEAR AHEAD FOR BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS-

RAMI KICHLI, VICE PRESIDENT, SOFTWARE AG, UAE REGION

BOB PLUMRIDGE, CTO OF HITACHI DATA SYSTEMS EMEA

“Big Data could have a massive impact on solving some of the world’s most complex and lingering problems. Think of the possibilities in the fields of medicine and finance.”

“Hitachi Content Platform portfolio opens the opportunity to truly integrate a solution that brings together object storage, file sync and share and file gateways to create truly secure, simple and smart cloud storage solution.”

If used appropriately, Big Data proves to be one of the best ways to derive precise patterns out of the population data. However, individual privacy is of prime importance. Today, a growing number of Consumers interact with technology in a growing number of ways. The digital revolution is becoming infused into our daily lives as technology becomes more available, and makes everything simpler and possible. However behind the scenes of digital utopia our personal data is collected and traded per click with often very little control. Information security is and will always be a concern.

ing privacy risks. For example, Dell’s Statistica is used to anonymize data before passing on to the processing environmentand then bring the results back on-premises for correlation with privacy-sensitive data.

The outcome of data analytics and information sharing should be to advance citizen engagement, build public safety pillars and deliver customers for life. Responsible governments who have the happiness of their citizens at the core of their strategies are the best to take a call on the extent of regulating data analytics. Governance and Compliance standards in the region will also influence the adoption of Big Data from multiple cloud sources of information. However, regulation becomes a difficult task often as localized regulations cannot apply effectively on global organizations and cross-border operations.

“What is needed is glocal standards that protect the data that is collected and more importantly as data is correlated and exchanged – the challenge is who will own the creation of these standards”

IMPORTANCE OF PROTECTION OF INDIVIDUAL PRIVACY IN HARNESSING THE POWER OF BIG DATAThe key is to work with vendors who have security inherent in their solutions design.

Technical measures also play a role in minimiz-

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Exponential growth in this field is expected as more and more devices get connected and the data generated increases dramatically. Analysis and Data Mining techniques applications will need to continuously improve speed and contextual nature of the information.“Avaya is looking to play a significant role in delivering contextual data to the most skilled individual in an enterprise incustomer engagement scenarios.

I see 2015 as a year where a number of vendors, such as us, will deliver new and innovative approaches to building enterprise capabilities to leverage contextually based relationship building with customers, and technologies that are the foundation for next generation data analytics” comments a confident Savio.

IoT analytics is likely to be the hot trend in 2015 according to VimalSethi, Managing Director, Synechron Middle East. “Big Data analytical tools will be all set to provide text mining, ontology modeling and machine learning combined together for anomaly detections, predictions and even prevention programs. Investments in Big Data analytics are expected to go up considerably in 2015 as buying and selling of data will become a new business model for organizations.”

Rami Kichli, Vice President, Software AG, UAE region is very hopeful of the benefits big data can bring in. He says, “Big Data could have a massive impact on solving some of the world’s most complex and lingering problems. Think of the possibilities in the fields of medicine and finance. Big Data, from a technology angle, has the potential to create breakthroughs in the medical and finance fields like never before”.

Companies are attempting to create software solutions presently, but while analytics might be handling the problem on the surface, this model is not going to last with the vast amounts of data soon to be heading our way. So, what’s the solution?

DEALING WITH THE HUGE AMOUNTS OF DATA What enterprises need are open platforms that can quickly adapt to the dynamic data pools being created and not have to wait on software vendors to reinvent themselves with newer releases of software. Avaya has created a platform that provides the ability for any enterprise to develop reusable code to fetch data from multiple sources and send them to the right decision process so as to deliver a business outcome. These small code modules (snap-ins) can be reused and

COVER STORY

dynamically changed to meet growing data pools and process flows.

The way Savio puts it across, “what Avaya ultimately would essentially like to do with Snapins is what Apple has done with iTunes -- develop a marketplace, a delivery mechanism, and a way to collect payment. Over time, an enterprise will be able to bring an “endless number” of Snap-ins together.This we see as the solution that enables customer-facing agents to take the right decision at the right time, and enable businesses to build a real competitive edge to retain customers for life”.

“There is no one-size-fits-all solution. As more and more data is being captured, policies and platforms for data management will play a key role for effective analytics” commentsSunil Paul, Chief Operating Officer, Finesse.

The primary purpose of using Big Data is to manage and reach out to customers across the globe. This can be achieved only if it is integrated with Internet of Things. So, the question is can successful IoT solutions be built with big data tools?

BUILDING SUCCESSFUL IOT SOLUTIONS WITH BIG DATA TOOLS Big Data ecosystem contains all tools and technologies to design a successful IoT solution.

Some possible challengesexist in the cases where data is ‘Big’,and it leads to reduced storage and processing speeds. “But the good news is that we now have several options like Hadoop, NoSQL databases and processing environmentsto store such data” says Vimal of Synechron ME. The list of NoSQLs is long, but there are options available to choose from (depending on requirement).

ADOPTERS OF BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS IN THE MEA REGION Primarily, governments and the banking industry are at the forefront of building initiatives that transform data into tools to build customers and citizenship engagement. Early adopters of Big Data are social networking sites.Big Datahas also forayed into other domains like Insurance andRetail where potential payoffs include identifying insurance frauds, customer retention, identifying potential customers and delivering quality products.Moredomains that are looking towards this technology include financial institutions, telecommunications, energy &utilities andoil &gas.The opportunities are limitless. The UAE healthcare industry is moving into the right direction and we expect that once the private sector healthcare is linked to the public sector database, there will be a huge leap forward in

FINDINGS OF DELL’S GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION INDEX (GTAI)** • Organizations that effectively leverage big data experience higher revenue growth rates.

• Big data presents a major competitive opportunity, as those organizations that are the most effective in deriving business insights from big data are seeing much higher growth rates than those that are not.

• The average three-year growth rate (14 percent) for those most effective in leveraging big data is almost twice as high as that of organizations least effective in using big data (8 percent). **Dell launched the Global Technology Adoption Index (GTAI) and announced its findings at Dell World 2014 to provide a greater awareness of how midsize organizations across the globe are benefitting from these disruptive technologies and what obstacles, if any, are holding them back from harnessing the competitive edge they provide. To develop the GTAI, Dell commissioned TNS to conduct quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews with critical IT decision-makers at midsize organizations (workforces ranging from 100 to 5,000 employees) worldwide. TNS surveyed 2,038 employees of midsize public and private organizations, distributed across 11 regions worldwide and multiple industries.

patients’ engagement. The UAE is, in fact, a leader in this space.

Consider how the government is reaching out to us as citizens on a number of public services.

The question however lies in what the future will be,and how the UAE government is doing to enable the next wave of transformation and see you and me as one citizen, from any government department or service.

In spite of all the zing big data promises, the realization that implementation of Big Data analytics and related technologies hasn’t matched expectations is a common thread across a recent spate of research reports. So, what’s the story on that front?

THE ROAD AREN’T THAT ROSY ALL THE WAY As Shams puts it across, “One of the biggest challenges in “matching expectations” is to know clearly what to expect to begin with!” When it comes to business, the expectations keep varying and growing due to various reasons. In earlier days, there used to be very few and standard types of business models in the market. As the population grew and technology as well as human needs changed, we saw different types of business models coming up in the market, whichalso brought aboutvarioustypes of data and their structure. Now, to keep pace and perform analytics on a variety of data structures

is a challenge. Nevertheless, the current Big Data related technologies fulfill most of the data requirements but still there is a scope to address corner cases. One of the reasons to think that the Big Data related technologies did not match the expectations may be due to dynamics of the business. Today, the technology might meet the expectation but very soon it gets outdated due to changing business expectations. It is crucial to understand what you need and proceed with an eye on current as well as future forecasted development of your business.

FINALLY… The Big Data revolution is already changing the way that international governments and corporations think, plan – and analyse. And GCC nations are at a pivotal stage with regard to Big Data infrastructure build and business analytics investments. Governments across the Middle East are pioneering the use of business intelligence and technology to better serve citizens.

A big data engagement goes beyond just technologies and touches upon users, consumers, and organizational cultures and norms; regulations; as well as business strategy. Organizations of all sizes are struggling to implement solutions that not only help them cope with ever-expanding data, but also more crucially capitalizing on it – what do you do with all this data once you collect it is the bigger question. ë

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GOVERNMENT

Smarter Governments

The emirates are already witnessing smart infrastructure being built based on the latest and cutting edge technologies, ensuring better efficiency and an enhanced working environment for the tourists, international investors and new businesses before and during the Expo. There will be a need for greater infrastructure planning and businesses will also be required to invest in additional storage and network capacity. n W O R D S : S O U M YA < S O U M YA @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M > n P H O T O : S H U T T E R S T O C K

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ver 25 million visitors are expected to visit Dubai for the World Expo 2020, an event that has opened up a number of avenues that will shape the technology trends in the region for the next few years. Recently the Dubai government announced its strategy to transform Dubai into a “Smart City”, which has led to a boom in the technology sector.

The Qatar World Cup 2022 will open up similar avenues, as governments and companies continue to invest in IT solutions for smart city infrastructure development, effective data storage and backup systems. With top-down initiatives such as e-Government, m-Government, and now Smart Government, there is a brisk pace of technology adoption, and the good news is that this is not for technology’s sake alone. The nation’s leadership insists on technology that can transform the lives and experiences of citizens, residents and tourists alike.

As Mohammed Areff, Managing Director –

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GCC, Levant, Iraq, Pakistan, Avaya interestingly puts it across, “in most markets in the world, governments are not exactly at the cutting-edge of technology adoption. This is not the case in the UAE, and particularly Dubai. Here, IT companies actually struggle to keep pace with the technology innovation demanded by the government”.

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE GOVERNMENT SECTOR FOR THE LATEST TRENDS OF TECHNOLOGYWith the increased focus on mobility, there will be a positive impact on ICT spending especially in the areas of mobile security, CRM, geo-localisation software, mobile enterprise management and mobile content management, amongst others. All of this will require a strong backbone IT infrastructure which is secure and scalable.

Hence, we will see increased investment in data centre hosting services and cloud infrastructure as a service which offers scalable infrastructure

on demand at low operational costs enabling faster adoption of online and mobile services.

There is a growing demand for better connectivity. “Telcos, many of which are in part state-owned, have been rolling out 4G, Fiber to the Home and other services that are in line with broader government initiatives” says Taj ElKhayat, Regional Vice President, Middle East, Turkey, North, West, and Central Africa at Riverbed Technology. These also include increasing the availability and usage of eServices and mGov services. “This has resulted in new opportunities for IT providers to address everything from application development to optimization and security” continues Taj. Maintaining the highest levels of IT security and ensuring relevant compliance and regulatory demands have also become imperative technology requirements. Ensuring the availability of IT systems in case of any disaster is also becoming a key reason for investments in Disaster recovery and Business continuity. In summary, “we believe that the advancement of technology will take a

FEATURE

new meaning in the near future as the UAE aims to transform into a major technological hub not just within the region, but at a global level” says Yasser Zeineldin, CEO, eHosting DataFort .

Regional governments are aiming to adopt solutions for smart city development especially technologies that help integrate key transport and infrastructure systems, utilities, e-government services within aviation and immigration, healthcare and many more. Dubai’s Smart City initiative, unveiled last year, has called for 1000 government services to go ‘smart’ during the next three years.

The Government is spending a large amount on IT infrastructure development for upgrading the country’s infrastructure. Government-backed projects to increase the use of ICT in educational institutions, together with regulations in the

healthcare sector that mandate a reduction in paper-based processes, are other major factors driving IT spending in this sector.

In terms of IT solutions and services, government entities will take advantage of managed services and hosted private cloud infrastructure services for building a connected city where everyone has access to data from any location.

There are many examples where government sector has implemented technology to transform their IT.

EXAMPLES OF TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION IN GOVT. SECTOR ENTERPRISES Yasser cited an example of one of eHDF’s clients – UAE Ministry of Public Works. eHDF

deployed a fully managed hosting environment for the UAE Ministry of Public Works’ e-project portal. This enables all departments within the ministry as well as external contractors to view the entire project lifecycle in real time. It ensures highly confidential tender and contracts data is safeguarded against any threats. The eProject streamlines the internal process to reduce operational overhead costs for the government as well as increase the process efficiency.

Avaya deployed the Fabric Network for the Dubai World Trade Centre across their exhibition facilities a year ago. Instead of having to plan and manage the reconfiguration of the network at the access layer, distribution layer, and core layer for each show, DWTC staff can now simply click on a location, select a service and deploy, while being confident that no individual component

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MOHAMMED AREFF MANAGING DIRECTOR – GCC, LEVANT, IRAQ, PAKISTAN, AVAYA

TAJ ELKHAYAT

REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT, MIDDLE EAST, TURKEY, NORTH, WEST, AND CENTRAL AFRICA AT RIVERBED TECHNOLOGY

YASSER ZEINELDIN CEO, EHOSTING DATAFORT

“Our work with the “Gone are the days of “Telcos have been rolling government sector over the shifting boxes– we are in out services that are in line years reflects their trust in the business of addressing with broader government our services and solutions. customer challenges, We have implemented initiatives. This has resulted and the technology complex and innovative in new opportunities implementation should cloud computing, managed for IT providers to be the building-blocks in services and disaster address everything from addressing the broad vision application development to recovery projects for both of the outcome.” government and private optimization and security.” sector organizations.”

can cause a network outage.

Another interesting example was a deployment that Riverbed Technology was involved in last year. This was for a regional government entity that delivers pension related eServices.

Deployment of the Riverbed SteelCentral solution enabled it to conduct thorough analysis of its network, infrastructure and application tiers. The organization can now proactively troubleshoot and mitigate application performance issues even before customers’ raise complaints.

STATUS OF VIRTUALIZATION IN THE GOVT SECTOR The adoption of virtualised IT environments is increasing across verticals including government.

Due to the abundance of devices, making a shift to the cloud is necessary to integrate critical IT functions and enhance connectivity between people including anytime anywhere access to

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data.

A hybrid model that spans public and private clouds stands out as the most popular. The reason behind this wide-spread acceptance is that cloud has matured and delivered on its promise.

sector are also touching the traditional customer call centers. The country is going through a wave of call centre transformation towards smarter, mobile and social enabled customer experiences.

HOW MOBILE IS THE MODERN GOVERNMENT-

BIG DATA- CHALLENGE OR OPPORTUNITY FOR THE GOVT

Creation of mobile engagement environment is a key milestone across government departments.

While these have matured and been built across the board, the challenge now is to integrate them and drive that investment to deliver a holistic experience to the people of the UAE. Another aspect is to ensure Mobile engagement environments are truly engaging every member of the public. Avaya has recently introduced an app for individuals with speech and hearing difficulties; this sort of innovations is getting a lot of attention and we’re proud to be part of its roll out. Mobile engagement environments in the government

This is a very exciting area that the government is looking into, especially with the concept of IoT, big data and analytics becomes essential in delivering value and building smart services. The government is looking however at the foundation that will drive IOT related analytics. Avaya is all set to extend the fabric technology beyond the data center, something that no other vendor has done yet. What this means that, managing networks, provisioning applications and adding devices to the edge of the network is going to be simple and fast, as plug-and-play. “We’d like to look at SDN Fx as the smart foundation to Smart

FEATURE

GAUTAM CHAKRABARTY VP – SALES, OPTIMUS

“The advantage, we bring to the table, is the combination of complementary product portfolio along with our value added services to enable the most optimized offering to the sector”

anything, smart X” quotes the confident Areff.

NO DIRTH OF SOLUTIONS The Government sector is a very strong growth area for Avaya, particularly in their Global Growth Markets region, which comprises some of the fastest-growing nations in the world.

Governments, like businesses everywhere, are constantly challenged to be more efficient in the delivery of their services and operations, and have to innovate for newer ways for their audiences to interact with them.

“Across the world, we are working with government entities to build mobile engagement environments to deliver not only government but other services like banking, education and healthcare to remote areas of the country and India and China are great examples” says Areff. They are working on different projects to transform government to citizens’ experiences through digital transformation and enablement of engagement

on different channels. More recently, they’ve been working on a number of initiatives to build smart foundations. “Our promised outcome is that with a smart foundation, smart cities can be built to deliver effortless transformation and to be the right structure for true social and economic value creation”.

In the channel ecosystem, Avaya works with a number of partners for government sector, but our prime consideration is that they should understand outcomes and work with our customers accordingly. Areff clarifies, “Gone are the days of technology sales by shifting boxes and cut-throat competition– we are in the business of addressing customer challenges, and the technology implementation should be the building-blocks in addressing the broad vision of the outcome”. eHDF being a managed hosting and cloud infrastructure services provider, offers an array of customized solutions that enable government entities to outsource some or all of their IT infrastructure management. This includes servers, networks, storage, back-up and security, monitoring, etc. which are all backed by SLAs required for high availability, reliability, security and redundancy.

They have been in the managed hosting business since 2001 and are one of the oldest Data Centre and Managed Hosting SPs in the region. “Our work with the government sector over the years reflects their trust in our services and solutions. We have implemented complex and innovative cloud computing, managed services and disaster recovery projects for both government and private sector organizations.

These implementations have attracted a number of highly esteemed and reputed clients in the government sector such as Dubai e-Government, Emirates e-Government and Ministry of Public Works to name a few” comments Yasser.

The Riverbed Application Performance Platform enables the complex and ‘hybrid’ government bodies to the latest technology trends and initiatives, so that business objectives – not technical constraints – drive how applications and data are delivered.

The Platform comprises three key solutions: SteelHead, SteelCentral, and SteelFusion. In addition, open APIs and developer tools, known as SteelScript, are part of each platform component to facilitate programmability, interoperability, and intelligence across the government infrastructure, Riverbed platform and partner ecosystem. This enables our government customers to automate the analysis and resolution of performance issues across their IT infrastructure, customizable for their unique sector needs.

Optimus, works closely with vendors as well as channel partners to offer the best products and solutions to the Government Sector. This involves not just product availability but also enhancing the offering via consulting services, bundling of complementary technologies and enterprise applications. They provide customized solutions for this sector in the areas of enterprise applications, data center solutions as well as SLA driven infrastructure enablement. “The advantage, we bring to the table, is the combination of complementary product portfolio along with our value added services to enable the most optimized offering to the sector” says Gautam Chakrabarty, VP – Sales, Optimus.

OUTLOOK 2015 FOR THE GOVT. SECTOR More government entities are expected to gravitate towards the cloud in 2015. “Backup-asa-service (BaaS), Software-as-a-service (SaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platforms will see increased uptake. From all the industries that prioritize cloud as a critical IT requirement, 39% are governments or public sector bodies and over the next few years, more public sector officials will adopt Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS)” comments Yasser.

An increased update shall also be seen in virtualisation, Big Data and Security solutions in the government sector in 2015. Areff says, “More specifically, based on IT adoption trends we are seeing among our Government clients, the year will be all about the personal touch. A number of routine tasks will continue to be automated.

Customer-facing roles, however, will still remain human.”

There will be increased M2M (machine to machine) communication, which can reduce the number of touchpoints that humans need to be involved with. An increased number of connected devices in the publics’ hands, and a higher commitment of Government departments to opening newer avenues of communications for their audiences, can see a higher number of automated transactions.

FINALLY… 2015 has been declared by the UAE as the year of innovation. ‘Smart’ will continue to permeate every aspect of the UAE in this year, but as mentioned earlier, this is not about technology for technology’s sake, but about the outcomes it can bring. ‘Smart’ is not just about technology, but is largely about processes and people. The more considered, inclusive and involved the migration to ‘Smart’, the more sustainable and effective it will prove to be. ë

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the corner; we are already half away through the decade. Where does Unify see itself by 2020? What’s on the radar?

The focus is on services and software. While others are talking of having a cloud offering, we already have one in place.

You can go ahead and find which vendor in the telco space can scale up from zero to whatever number you like- I mean it. Our scalability is second to none. .

We are already a software enabled company.

Now with the new way to work, we are even more device independent and location independent.

Our solutions suit the new generation as well as the millenials.

Unify’s next-generation communication and collaboration platform, Circuit marks a radical shift in the human work experience, providing a single-pane-of-glass that brings together voice, video, screen sharing, messaging, and file sharing.

We have been first to introduce such an innovative solution.

THOMAS VEIT

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT EMEAR CHANNELS AT UNIFY

Unifying legacy with innovation WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF CIRCUIT, THE PROUD BEARER OF SIEMENS’ ENGINEERING DNA, UNIFY IS LEADING THE MARKET WITH ITS VISION OF A

So, that definitely indicates that Circuit is a big differentiator for you, isn’t it?

It’s a main differentiator simply because none of our competitors have something that you could really compare with that. Circuit brings us together for the way we really work. Circuit is simplicity.

Now that you’re all set for the channels, which are the regions you’re focusing on now in the MEA? Well to start with, Tech Access will distribute our solutions across the KSA, while FVC is in charge of the distribution across the UAE. Though we are open to expansions, too much dilution at the outset wouldn’t be a good idea.

DYNAMIC COMMUNICATIONS AND COLLABORATION PLATFORM. ENTERPRISE CHANNELS MEA TEAM HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO TALK TO THOMAS VEIT, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT EMEAR CHANNELS AT UNIFY WHO SHARED THE AGGRESSIVE CHANNEL STRATEGIES OF THE COMPANY IN THE REGION. EXCERPTS.

There has been a restructuring of team as well as strategies. Please tell us about it.

We do have a completely new structure. I have come board as part of the move to transform the company to a channel centric entity. Rather than being revenue driven, our strategy now is to be more opportunity driven.

What have been the recent developments in the ME from your

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side?

The appointment of two leading distributors namely Tech Access and FVC has been done already. We will have more resellers that will join the business with the help of the distributors. We have moved to a bigger office as well. People have been appointed in specific channel defined roles.

We will ensure there is a win-win situation for us as well as our partners.

The much abated 2020 is around

Are there specific verticals you are focusing on?

We are clearly strong in military space, and have been partners of defense and govt organizations in different countries. Moreover, we have been historically strong in the healthcare sector.

What do you think might be the possible challenges on your way?

Well, it’s all about setting the right team in the right places in the region. We need to give more power and autonomy to local entities, make maximal utilization of the local intelligence to spread our wings in the new territories. We are fully on track. Keep an eye on us; you would see for yourself. ë

SECURITY SCANNER

KASPERSKY

The Fright of the Falcons Multiple high profile organizations and individuals in ME targetted by the cyber espionage group Desert Falcons n W O R D S : S O U M YA < S O U M YA @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >

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aspersky Lab’s Global Research and Analysis Team have discovered Desert Falcons – a cyber-espionage group targeting multiple high profile organizations and individuals from Middle East countries. Kaspersky Lab experts consider this actor to be the first known Arabic group of cyber mercenaries to develop and run full-scale cyber-espionage operations.

Desert Falcons started developing and building their operation in 2011, with their main campaign and real infection beginning in 2013.

The peak of their activity was registered at the beginning of 2015.Apart from the Middle East countries focused on as initial targets, the Desert Falcons are also hunting out of the territory. In total, they have been able to attack more than 3,000 victims in 50+ countries globally, with over one million files stolen.

The attackers utilize proprietary malicious tools for attacks on Windows PCs and Androidbased devices. The list of targeted victims include Military and Government organizations - particularly employees responsible for countering money laundering as well as health and the economy; leading media outlets; research and education institutions; energy and utilities providers; activists and political leaders; physical security companies; and other targets in possession of important geopolitical information.

The main method used by the Falcons to deliver the malicious payload is spear phishing via e-mails, social networking posts and chat messages. Phishing messages contained malicious files (or a link to malicious files) masquerading

DMITRY BESTUZHEV,

SECURITY EXPERT AT KASPERSKY LAB’S GLOBAL RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS TEAM.

as legitimate documents or applications. Desert Falcons use several techniques to entice victims into running the malicious files. One of the most specific techniques is the so-called right-to-left extension override trick.

This method takes advantage of a special character in Unicode to reverse the order of characters in a file name, hiding the dangerous file extension in the middle of the file name and placing a harmless-looking fake file extension near the end of the file name. Using this technique, malicious files (.exe, .scr) will look like a harmless document or pdf file; and even careful users with good technical knowledge could be tricked into running these files. For example, a file ending with .fdp.scr would appear.rcs.pdf.

After the successful infection of a victim, Desert Falcons would use one of two different Backdoors: the main Desert Falcons’ Trojan or the DHS Backdoor, which both appear to have been developed from scratch and are in continuous development. Kaspersky Lab experts were able to identify a total of more than 100 malware samples used by the group in their attacks.

The malicious tools used have full Backdoor functionality, including the ability to take screenshots, log keystrokes, upload/download files, collect information about all Word and Excel files on a victim’s Hard Disk or connected USB devices, steal passwords stored in the system registry (Internet Explorer and live Messenger) and make audio recordings. Kaspersky Lab experts were also able to find traces of activity of a malware which appears to be an Android backdoor capable of stealing mobile calls and

“The individuals behind this threat actor are highly determined, active and with good technical, political & cultural insight” SMS logs.

Using these tools the Desert Falcons launched and managed at least three different malicious campaigns targeting different set of victims in different countries.

“The individuals behind this threat actor are highly determined, active and with good technical, political and cultural insight. Using only phishing emails, social engineering and homemade tools and backdoors, the Desert Falcons were able to infect hundreds of sensitive and important victims in the Middle East region through their computer systems or mobile devices, and exfiltrate sensitive data. We expect this operation to carry on developing more Trojans and using more advanced techniques.

With enough funding, they might be able to acquire or develop exploits that would increase the efficiency of their attacks,” said Dmitry Bestuzhev, security expert at Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research and Analysis Team. ë

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GRAHAM PORTER,

MENA CHANNEL SALES MANAGER AT NETAPP

“Making the right investments” NETAPP BEGAN THE YEAR 2015 WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF THE NEW ALLFLASH STORAGE ARRAY DESIGNED TO ACCELERATE HIGH-PERFORMANCE FOR ENTERPRISE-CLASS SAN APPLICATIONS. ENTERPRISE CHANNELS MEA TEAM TALKED TO GRAHAM PORTER, MENA CHANNEL SALES MANAGER AT NETAPP ABOUT THE NEW FLASH OFFERINGS FROM THE COMPANY AND HOW FLASH IS REVOLUTIONIZING ENTERPRISE STORAGE.

Flash storage, which was once just confined to theoretical fantasies, is gradually becoming mainstream.

What’s your take on that?

Suddenly, a lot of people are looking at flash.

There are a number of reasons why flash is attractive. Lot of people have high performance

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computing requirements where they couldn’t do things before; take for example, BI, database applications, etc. where they have huge amounts of data which they couldn’t manipulate it with the disk as it was not big enough or good enough. In such a scenario, flash helps. There are pure flash arrays as well as hybrid versions too. Price points

are also favourable while considering flash when building a new data centre is expensive.

To cite a small example, consider telcos- they have a heavy workload, need to process very quickly and print several bills at the end of the month; this used to consume a lot of time that has come down considerably by using flash instead.

The same can be said for banks, electricity and water companies as well.

The earlier perception was that flash was considered an expensive technology. However, with our EF 560 solution, we can get down to a comfortable pricing. So, the thought that only telcos and oil & gas companies can afford flash is a myth. It’s becoming more mainstream.

So, do you see an increase in the customer base for flash storage?

We got some educational companies right now which are looking at flash. Then there’re people looking at database applications or those who are upgrading their Microsoft Server version.

Is NetApp planning to go all for an all flash

MY OPINION

portfolio in the future?

This is an extension of our existing product line. EF 560 replaces EF 550; we have a constantly developing product line. One of the things we are extremely good at is we spend a big chunk of our revenues in R&D (~14%; one of the highest in the industry). Cisco spends 11%; Intel spends 12%, our competitors like HP & Dell spend 2-3% of their revenue for research.

We have two product lines to cater to customers’ different requirements. The E series/ EF is aimed at people who are doing things like broadcast, CCTV, medical imaging, etc ; and then we have got the high-performance database applications where you have a lot of data and need to crunch it very quickly.

Flash is something we have integrated into both ends of the product line. There are many companies in the market claiming to be the only flash company; we sell lot more flash than they do. We have got over 200 patents for flash whereas one of the well-known companies here, which is fairly new is claiming to be the leader in flash with just five patents. We have sold more flash than many of the smaller competitors combined and are one of the leading flash vendors.

But what we think is important for the customers is the portfolio; the customers need disk, SAN, NAS, flash, etc. And we are also talking of FlexPod with Cisco- the converged stack.

If you look at what’s doing really well for us is our portfolio reflects what customers are buying in the market. Three months ago, we put up our last quarterly update of the stock market; FlexPod business is growing at a rate of 50% year-on-year.

It’s a complete solution, certified and it works. We have over 50 certified designs with Cisco; it could be scaled from low-end units upto several million dollars worth of configurations. Gartner is saying that the converged stack market will be 50%.

FlexPod features as a leader in the Gartner magic quadrant for Integrated Systems. When you look at the market by revenue, just like the phone market, in the storage market too, the top two vendors make all the profit and the others still need to invest more in the R&D. We look upon EMC as the obvious competition. We invest in research and refresh our product line from time to time and it does pay off.

If you look at what we have done in terms of software, Data Ontap- the software we use is the leading software in the market and so is the OS. We would like to tell a couple of things- EMC has got multiple products and multiple software Operating Systems because they grew by acquisition. The challenge there is that customers have different boxes which are physically different and they have different operating systems. That makes

it harder for the customer to grow and manage; whereas it’s easier for NetApp because primarily we are running on Data Ontap. Software companies prefer to work with the No. 1 vendor so they’re more likely to choose us. Whether you’re talking Comm Vault, Symantec, several of these vendors work with us. That’s one of the things that are different about us.

Apart from Flex Pod, the other thing which is doing really well is that we got the Dated OS- so we got Clustered Data Ontap. The philosophy we are seeing is if you’re going with VMware or Microsoft and looking at virtualization of your server, the next on your agenda is storage.

Clustered Data Ontap allows you to virtualize your storage and make it more effective. So, what we’re promising with Clustered Data Ontap is reliability, no downtime and management of different storage modules hence resulting in a much better performance. Clustered Data Ontap is growing 80% year on year; so it’s the No. 1 storage OS. The third thing which is growing really well is Flash. We are an engineering company, investing

all use the same disks, we put a controller on top that we develop and then we have the software OS; and that’s the value. Moreover, you got those challenges that what do IBM and HP do around hardware. A lot of customers who bought storage from IBM or Dell have bought a NetApp box without even knowing it may be.

Which are the verticals you’re witnessing maximum growth in?

We have been strong in the Oil & gas business worldwide. We are also seeing a lot of interest from CCTV surveillance and security sectors.

Media sector is coming up too. And we are seeing growth in medical imaging as well. Banks are doing very well and investing a lot in technology. The region definitely has a large public sector market which is witnessing good growth.

Infrastructure projects are on a rise. Data growth is there and visualization is a requirement, so lots of opportunities for growth there too.

What’s your channel strategy like?

Do you have direct sales too?

“NETAPP IS A STORAGE DATA-MANAGEMENT COMPANY; YOU CAN’T DIVIDE US. WE ARE FINANCIALLY STABLE; INVEST HEAVILY IN R&D. WE ARE GARTNER LEADERS, WELL PLACED AND GROWING. ”

heavily in R&D. We have shipped over 35000 hybrid systems and more than 1500 all flash arrays.

We continue to invest and grow in the Middle East. We opened new office in Qatar. Honestly, people are keen to see us. We are a good alternative particularly for EMC. If you look at the four vendors in the storage market generally today- what you see is –HP has its challenges; it’s dividing into two, while IBM is going through tough phase in finances. Dell has taken it private and the transition as well as less investment in the R&D portrays its image more as a marketing and distribution company whereas we see ourselves as an engineering company. If you look at lot of these companies, if they sell servers, it’s an Intel processor with Intel mother board and memory that comes from five companies, screens on tablets that come from five companies, an operating system that comes either Microsoft or Google or Apple and there’s a brand on the box. So, what’s your added value? If you look at storage, the disks are commodity- we

We are 100% channel driven company. In terms of our team here, we have 5 sales development managers of whom three are in the KSA and two are in Dubai. In total, they cover 70 large customers. But all of that business goes through our partners. Our partners as a result make higher margins unlike the case with our competitors with large sales teams and small margins for partners and resellers. Over the last few years, we are growing at a rate of approx 30% YoY. We have offices in Dubai, KSA, Qatar. The Dubai office looks after several territories in Africa and GCC. As for partners over here, we work with Ingram Micro, Fujitsu and Logicom, We have a focused channel. We have team of Partner Account Managers, Inside Sales etc basically ensuring an excellent channel team.

NetApp is a storage data-management company; you can’t divide us. We are financially stable; invest heavily in R&D. We got a partnership with Cisco. We are Gartner leaders, well placed and growing. And we are a logical alternative to EMC. ë

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CORPORATE STORY

ANAND CHOUDHA, MANAGING DIRECTOR, SPECTRAMI

“We have invested in people, processes and Technology to give a very high level of service satisfaction to our customers.

We have dedicated team of professional support engineers who work to deliver on Service levels we commit to customers.”

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CORPORATE STORY

CORPORATE STORY

Transparency and Efficiency Makes Spectrami Different

Incepted with the vision of bringing Niche and specialised technologies relevant to customers who don’t have a presence and deliver a seamless service level akin to leading vendors in the region and building up a successful business model, Spectrami has today emerged as a nice player in the region. n B Y: S A N J AY < S A N J AY @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >

H

aving designed its business as vendor extension model, wherein Spectrami aspires to give same experience a vendor would give to the customers for enterprise solution starting from sales & pre-sales to marketing and channel fulfilment, Spectrami has been successful so far and trying further to excel by adding a number of value added services..

To accomplish the excellence, Spectrami banks upon three strengths one of its strengths is technology excellence. Its technical team consists of highly qualified Business Technologists who try to understand customers’ business requirement and map technology to it. And its services delivery team consisting of highly skilled resources and PMO who ensure better support structure for service delivery to

partners and customers in the region. One of its initiatives we undertook to deliver better experience to our customers in using our CEC (Customer Experience Center), which simulates real world scenario, and use its technologies to demonstrate solution capabilities. The company has also invested in state of the art training facilities wherein certified and expert instructors deliver Certified training.

Anand Choudha, Managing Director, Spectrami, says, “An ode to our successful journey has been the large ecosystem of channel partners in the region that has been created by us. Spectrami since beginning believed to create a 100% channel driven business model through enablement.”

“We have well defined Channel programs and initiative to empower our channel with continuous skill development. There

are special incentive plans launched to motivate not only the sales and but also the presales resources of our reseller partners to promote our products and upgrade their knowledge base. We also regularly conduct Tech workshops wherein we get reseller partner- sales and technical to understand successful delivery of our solution model to their customer base,” he added.

The specialty of the company is also to work very closely with its Vendors and reseller to conduct Customer focused events such TechCafe and CIO round table sessions where its invites key decision makers from customer ecosystem, validates our technology architecture and helps them realize a higher operational efficiency and resiliency that they can drive with the solutions.

Recognizing excellence in sales and technical delivery of partners by instituting

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CORPORATE STORY

excellence awards and other channel incentive plans is another attribute of the company, which both motivates and enables reseller partners team - sales & presales, marketing and post sales team to deliver highly effective solutions like we or the vendor would.

With current revenue of approximately US$ 10 Million, Spectrami solution portfolio consists of leading and bleeding edge technologies in the Security, Mobility and Storage space with many of them endorsed by industry analysts as leaders or innovative solutions in their space.

This includes Advanced Threat Protection, SIEM, Network Security Anaiytics, Incidence Response Platform, Vulnerability Management, DLP, Advanced Forensics, Open Source Intelligence in security, Enterprise Mobility Management in Mobility and Copy Data Management and All Flash Array in Storage solutions.

However, the market is not so kind to the vendor or the partners. Therefore, the organizations in the ecosystem need to always hammer and chisel their approach to their go to market.

Anand added, “We are making efforts to continuously innovate new approach to dealing with changing market dynamics – both internally and externally.”

He maintains, “As part of the new strategy in 2015, we are trying to create multiple new touch points and engagement strategy to engage with customers to demonstrate the capability of our solutions. The focus is not only to help customers adopt solutions but being able to engage with customer on a continuous basis to make them realize the true potential of technologies by re-engaging with them through persistent touch model.”

The company realizes that as they are growing, the next challenge is to scale up internally as well. As a result, Spectrami has put up local resources and presence in all the GCC countries to be closer to its customers and reseller channel partners. The company has also created a focused Channel vertical division to engage ad work with Channel partners to ensure that they are trained, certified and enabled with right tools to be able to represent our technologies on their own.

The think tank at Spectrami believes applying the concept of interdependence and collaboration is critical to providing its customers with highly innovative and reliable products and services available in the market.

Anand said, “Together with our Ecosystem Partners we are able to deliver solutions that accelerate time-to-market, improve ROI and enhance the customer experience. This allows us to address performance improvements in a wide range of operational areas like: quality, throughput, workforce, and regulatory and environmen-

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ACCOLADES

Specialist VAD of the year

by Enterprise channel 2014

Best Security Solution provider by Reseller in 2014

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR SALES & OPERATIONS

PUNIT BHATIA

Emerging Value added distributor in channel Middle East Awards 2013

Visionary VAD of the year in Integrator Awards 2013

Emerging Distributor of the year in Reseller Middle East Awards 2013

EMEA Best performance partner by Actifio

tal compliance across many industries. Through shared processes and intellectual property developed by our vendors, we deliver solutions that lead the market in flexibility, interoperability and client value.”

Last but not the least, the success of the company is also attributed to the support structure of the company. As per Anand, the key to long term success of your business model lies in a successful repeat business and this can only be achieved by having a satisfied customer.

We believe it is not only important to have skilled and knowledgeable pre sales team to

“The mandate provided to me has been to bring in the required structure, discipline and focus to build a high performance organization.”

Punit is a MBA degree holder from Manchester Business School (MBS) apart from holding a graduate degree in Engineering from Pune University and a diploma in Management from London School of Economics Prior to joining Spectrami, Punit had played a pivotal role in the start-up and expansion of Perot Systems in Middle East and later at Rolta where he was instrumental in strategic planning, positioning of IT business of Rolta in the region while leading a team of seasoned sales personnel. During his stay at Perot Systems which was later acquired to become Dell Services, he held numerous key roles in area of Sales and Operations for varied verticals ranging from BFSI, Commercial and Government. He successfully led Application Services & supported Dell-Secure-works business in M.E.

demonstrate the capabilities of our solutions to Customers but also create a post-sales support system.

He added, “We have invested in people, processes and Technology to give a very high level of service satisfaction to our customers.

We have dedicated team of professional support engineers who work to deliver on Service levels we commit to customers. We are about to launch Customer Satisfaction Team who constantly interact with customers to ensure that they are happy with the service being delivered and any escalations or CSAT issues are addressed through

CORPORATE STORY

CHANNEL DIRECTOR

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

MARKETING MANAGER

“On top of vendor deal registration Spectrami has its own deal registration program which gives channel the confidence that their investment is protected.”

“Our solutions are not really a band-aid to a broken process but innovative and often disruptive take on solving customer problems.”

“To promote Spectrami products and services, we work closely with vendors marketing team to formulate and then implement marketing plans.”

Prior to joining Spectrami Ilyas was with Waterford Technologies as a Regional Manager ME where his core responsibility was to launch in ME and build business. Ilyas has also worked with Aptec (an Ingram Micro Company) for 11 years in different capacities and was instrumental in launching new products in the region for Aptec.

His Aptec tenure started in 1998 as IBM product manager and he graduated to become the Head of software busniness unit for MEA. Ilyas was also instrumental in realizing special initiatives like - VAD, Professional Services, Enterprise Sales etc. .

Sarfaraz has deep experience in security solutions and consulting and has worked with leading enterprises across Govt, Banking, Telco, Defense and Manufacturing sectors across the region A Management level executive with Technical Sales and Business Operations experience in the field of Information Technology in Middle East and Africa with a cumulative experience of 14 + years .Sarfaraz has worked closely in startup environment to conceptualize, seed and develop business operations.

Strong analytical and planning skills combines with the ability to co-ordinate the efforts of many to meet organizational goals. Key strength includes a high level of maturity, passion, people management skills, strategic and tactical thinking plus a high degree of “must win attitude” while facing the changing dynamics of market conditions.

Ashutosh is a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree holder in Marketing & Finance apart from holding a graduate degree in Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Science).

Prior joining to Spectrami, Ashutosh had worked with one of the largest banks in India (HDFC) in area of Research market needs, Analyze business potential for new product lines and then on the marketing positioning of the same, while leading a large team of professionals.

the team. By this we are trying to ensure highest level of customer satisfaction being delivered to our customers and stay closer to them.”

Spectrami has two teams of technical competency: one the Business Technologist team, which works with customers’ pre-sales in terms of helping identify and adopt technology and service delivery team consisting of service delivery professionals and PMO who are responsible for service delivery post sales. The company also does various activities like delivering turnkey projects, specialized services including delivering intelligence as a service, incidence response,

SOC augmentation and threat identification and mitigation.

So far Spectrami might be operating through 150 resellers across GCC in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, KSA & UAE – Dubai and Abu Dhabi that are focused on the Security, Mobility and Storage solution offering but starting from 2015 the things are going to be very different as the company will engage these partners along with the customers more closely with them for a symbiotic relationship. Plus, the company will eye the African market including Egypt and Kenya.

And from the products’ perspective, there will

certainly be a lot of addition – of course complementing the existing portfolio. But Mr. Anand Chouda is very clear about his strategy as he will add products which are disruptive in nature and provide more service opportunity.

ILYAS MOHAMMED

SARFARAZ KAZI

ASHUTOSH BARONIA

FINALLY… For Spectami the concept is simple: try to work with more focused partners, which will automatically lead to more innovations, more choice, and more satisfied customers. And based on this clarity and confidence on the team, Spectrami is all set to achieve revenue growth of 60% in 2015. ë

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BIG DATA

BIG DATA

Big Data to Drive Middle East Competitiveness Businesses across the Middle East have an opportunity to use ‘Big Data’ and analytics to optimize business processes and even introduce brand new innovative business models, according to one of Europe’s leading big data experts.

DR PIETER DEN HAMER,

THE BIG DATA, BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE & ANALYTICS LEAD,ALLIANDER

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

I

f one looks at Gartner Magic Quadrant report 2014,Silver Peak was the only company placed alongside Riverbed in the leaders’ quadrant. Although from 2012 till 2014, there has been fluctuation in the placement of the players in those boxes but one thing sure when others are going down Silver Peak is gaining its position.

Dr Pieter Den Hamer, the Big Data, Business Intelligence & Analytics Lead for Alliander, one of the largest energy distribution companies across The Netherlands and Germany, made the forecast ahead of his upcoming appearance at The Big Data Show. The two day big data and analytics conference and exhibition taking place at Dubai World Centre on 9-10June, 2015 will showcase

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business insights and industry knowledge from a range of international keynote speakers and regional experts.

Speaking about the importance of big data to the Middle East, Den Hamer said: “In the 21st century, big data and analytics are of critical importance to business innovation and indeed society at large, including of course the Middle East region. Having a dedicated event in the region lowers the bar for more people to gain knowledge about important trends and practical applications.”

However, Den Hamer also warned companies against missing upcoming big data opportunities, as while “there is a wide range of possible benefits, ranging from optimizing existing business

“Awareness about the huge potential of big data is not to be taken for granted – communication and pro-activeness are key” processes to completely new, innovative business models, the reverse is also true, as firms that do not pursue big data opportunities will eventually lose their competitive edge in an increasingly global business ecosystem,” he said.

Dr Den Hamer will be appearing at The Big

BIG DATA

Data Show to showcase the latest big data innovations being undertaken by Alliander in order to manage the ever increasing fluctuations of energy supply and demand, as well to provide real-time and more detailed data to take advantage of the latest smart energy grids and smart meters. For example, Alliander are currently in the process of using big data and analytics to assess and monitor the health of its energy assets, such as piping, cables and transformers, with inspection and maintenance data, geophysical data, sensor data on operating conditions, supplier data and technical materials data all playing a role in this. Being able to use this data to produce a more accurate picture of the health of the company’s assets has helped Alliander to reduce premature or unnecessary maintenance and replacements, as well as preventing outages or corrective maintenance.

These practical business applications for big data underscore what Den Hamer believes is the cornerstone of any big data strategy, as big data “should always be targeted at concrete, tangible business issues and opportunities, existing or new.”

“Awareness about the huge potential of big data is not to be taken for granted – communication and pro-activeness are key,” added Den Hamer.

Also taking part in The Big Data Show this year

will be Dr David Stephenson, Chief Data Officer and Managing Director of Data Science Innovation. Dr Stephenson was formerly the Head of Global Business Analytics for the eBay Classifieds Group, where he gained extensive experience of working with both structured and unstructured big data systems and specialised in managing the lifecycle of financial and operational data while enabling the data-driven execution of customer strategies.

Speaking about the challenges facing companies looking to adopt big data business applications, Dr Stephenson said: “I believe the biggest challenge is not the technology itself so much as linking technology to the business case.

Many people get excited about products and vendors, but far fewer people seem to see the real strengths and weaknesses of placing the products within their organizations or know how to decide between a small-data solution and a big-data solution.”

Dr Stephenson went on to highlight that with recent innovations and developments across the big data market, he believes that the big data solutions with the greatest potential are those with the lowest threshold of implementation. Recently expanded product offerings from vendors such as SAP, as well as an increase in company

acquisitions, such as the purchase of Revolution Analytics by Microsoft, have shown that big data developments in this area have perhaps the greatest potential for impacting the market.

Dr Pieter Den Hamer and Dr David Stephenson are just two of the international big data and analytics experts who are set to appear at The Big Data Show at Dubai World trade Centre on 8-9 June, 2015. The Big Data Show has been created to be a pioneering platform for data analytics and business intelligence insights for Middle East executives across industries and functions to create a clear big data business case.

The two day conference and exhibition will feature a range of unique insights into leading big data and analytics innovations, as well as a programme of international keynote speakers, interactive breakout sessions and an extensive exhibition showcase of big data and analytics technology. The event is set to attract more than 1,000 regional business leaders to access the very best ideas and technologies in adopting and improving big data and analytics practices and strategies in their domains.

To find out more information about this year’s event, please visit www.bigdatashow.ae, where prospective sponsors can also download a sponsorship brochure. ë

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ENTERPRISE SECURITY

CIO SPEAK

Gulf Air’s Enterprise Information Security Strategy

Gulf Air has implemented security measures/ controls and solutions on its private cloud to ensure adequacy and coverage of its information security architecture.

G

ulf Air’s (GF) information security architecture is designed around the core concept of information safeguard, business optimization, performance management and compliance. Its basic goal is to align the information security requirements with the Gulf Air’s core goals and strategic direction.

The architecture comprises information security management system, set of security systems, personnel and sub-organizational components monitored by the concepts of management oversight.

Information security implementation at GF is approved and monitored by the Information Security Committee (ISC). The ISC is chaired

by GF’s Chief Executive Officer and its members include the Divisional Directors and Information Security Management System (ISMS) team.

The Committee meets quarterly to oversee the management of information security architecture goals, review information security policies and issues, and identify action plans to achieve continual improvement. ISC also recommends, reviews and prioritizes information security policies, projects and initiatives.

The purpose of Information Security Management System (ISMS) is to protect the informational assets and resources of Gulf Air. Through the selection and application of appropriate safeguards, ISMS supports GF’s mission by

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protecting its physical and financial resources, reputation, legal position, employees, and other assets. The ISMS consists of a set of documented administrative, preventive, detective and corrective controls. ISMS is certified against the world renowned ISO 27001:2005 certification.

It also works along the IT Service Management System (ISO 20000-1:2011certified) and Quality Management System (ISO 9001:2008 certified).

GF has implemented security measures/controls and solutions on its private cloud to ensure adequacy and coverage of its information security architecture. Web applications and internet infrastructure is covered against the DDoS attacks while the email infrastructure is secured against virus and spam attacks usingemail and antivirus protection solutions. Applications published over the internet are secured through state-of-the-art SSL VPN protections. Secured De-Militarized Zone is created to separate internet and public cloud from GF private LAN cloud. Secured file transfer systems are also implemented to secure the transfer of data between GF and its business partners. Furthermore, intrusion prevention systems are implemented in the internal and external network nodes.

GF also manages an IT Risk Management solution for the identification, calculation and treatment of vulnerabilities related to Information assets. Threats related to authorized/unauthorized access from the IT administrators (also referred to

DR. JASSIM HAJI

DIRECTOR-IT, GULF AIR

as the insider threat) are managed using centralized access management, real time monitoring and detailed audit logging. Security patches for the devices are performed using centralized processes to keep them up-to-date. Controls are also implemented compliant solution. Furthermore, physical and environmental controls are implemented as per the good industry practices to ensure data security on all different layers.

GF also has a staging environment to test the changes prior to implementation into production environment. GF private cloud is equipped with redundancies on memory, processing and storage to ensure availability in case of component failure and also has a disaster recovery process to ensure continuity. Access to all these assets is logged and maintained centrally.

Personnel information security practices are also one of the critical aspect of the GF’s information security architecture. This includes physical security of the users, workplace safety, periodic information security awareness programs, and improvements on the user experience and business continuity operations.Pre-employment background checks are performed on all potential candidates for employment and security clearance is obtained from local law enforcing agencies. Periodic audits and security assessments are performed to monitorGF information security architecture. ë

ENTERPRISE MOBILITY

CIO SPEAK

Enterprise Mobility is the Most Visible Term In the Gulf region and I think globally, many business processes have been automated using mobility as core technology and medium for conducting business.

M

obility is a byproduct of human behavior which has been continuously changing over centuries and decades.

The present generation is mix of multiple generation demands offsite working as well as work on move. In the corporate sector, a large number of workers are carrying out their work from offices outside their native workplace.

Offsite working is also very prominent in Millennia and generation Z who really do not want to stick to fixed work timing and fixed work place.

They want to work from anywhere. All factors require robust connectivity and smart mobile devices. And probably that is why the term like Enterprise Mobility is being used so prominently in current business. Enterprise Mobility is primarily a set of devices, workforce and working habits. No organization can be thought of without employees carrying and using mobile devices and therefore it has become an ingrained factor of businesses today. Although mobility and mobile best business function have brought in increased efficiency and prepared organization to sustain competitive pressure; these have also brought in severe challenges mainly in the domain of data loss and corporate network compromise. Related side effects are terms like BYOD which have become very common these days. Enterprise

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Mobility is the most visible term with very high impact and potential to last a very long duration in future. Its relevance is global and cannot be seen in the context of a region.

In the Gulf region and I think globally, many business processes have been automated using mobility as core technology and medium for conducting business. Over last few years, I have seen many such projects being successfully deployed and used which are based on mobility.

This trend is prevalent across different industry verticals but it appears very prominent in the domain of Distribution, Logistics, Retail and Oil & Gas. Banks are able to differentiate themselves based on how effective their Enterprise Mobility solution is. In fact, for banking, it has become a key to survival.

I would like to touch upon few deployments which I’ve seen very closely and how the result largely benefited the organizations.

I’ll begin with a project which we carried out successfully in our organization for all our heavy duty vehicles operating in airside for the supply of Food and Beverages to aircrafts. These heavy duty vehicles as called Hi-loaders and our organization has a large fleet of such vehicles. With the help of mobility technology, we are able to see and monitor the Hi-Loader movements across the entire airport in real-time mode; either from a control

ARUN TEWARY,

VP (IT) & CIO, EMIRATES FLIGHT CATERING

“No organization can be thought of without employees carrying and using mobile devices.” room or on a mobile device. It is not a safe practice for drivers to make and receive calls in airside while driving mainly for safety consideration.

Therefore, we have installed rugged tablets in all our Hi-loaders through which the job assignment to drivers, all communication and alert transactions are carried out, thereby eliminating any voice calls. These have made the entire operation very smooth and agile.

I also came across few deployments in Retail sector where distributions logistics have been very efficiently managed using Enterprise Mobility. Another very impressive project I learned is in the gas sector where the vehicles coming to a petrol pump for refueling are serviced in a fully automated manner without any human intervention other than of course the process of placing the nozzle in the fuel tank for petrol refueling.

This process is under POC in few petrol pumps in the region.

These are few of the numerous examples in the area of mobility in the region and this is a wave which is moving ahead full force which is adding productivity and efficiency in business organizations.

The author Arun Tewary is the VP (IT) & CIO of Emirates Flight Catering. ë

ENTERPRISE SECURITY

CIO SPEAK

How Can We Secure the Internet of Things (IoT)?

Dan Lohrmann is an internationally recognized cybersecurity leader, technologist and author.

During his distinguished career, Dan has served global organizations in a variety capacities.

O

nce again, as we started 2015, a hot trend that grabbed everyone’s attention was the growing buzz around the Internet of Things (IoT). The concept is that virtually every device will have an IP address, including refrigerators, cars, pacemakers and wearable tech.

Depending upon who you listen to, and/or which conferences you attend, IoT will either bring about amazing new opportunities or be the end of all privacy and security as we know it.

For one example on the positive side, Google CEO Eric Schmidt predicted last month that the “Internet will disappear.”

The Washington Post explained that he meant that: “The Internet will be seamlessly integrated into our lives, by way of a lot of connected devices and sensors.”

One IoT goal: Instant access to every aspect in our connected homes. For example, you can turn up the heat (or air conditioning) and start cooking the casserole in the oven — while driving home from work.

Looking a bit further out, your robot vacuum cleaner can tidy up the family room while you’re at work. Or imagine doctor’s visits from the comfort of home or clothes that report your blood pressure is too high.

For CIOs, how about systems that are smart

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enough to talk to customer’s scheduling assistants (which are really the new personal computers or smartphones). My Memorial Day weekend campground reservation could be made on the first possible day nine months in advance, while my kids are getting ready to go back to school.

Sound awesome? For many in society, the answer is probably yes. But it also raises the question: How can we possibly secure…, everything?

A Dark Side of IoT? Shortly after the Google CEO made his Internet prediction, 60 minutes aired a new program which demonstrated how car brakes and more can be hacked via WiFi –right now. This program was so alarming that my 91 year old mother called me from across the country to ask if it was really true.

Check this video clip out to see what I mean: So which one is it? Is IoT an exciting innovation or a trend to be feared?

Learning From History: Can we possibly secure the IoT if we can’t even secure the current Internet?

Before we address that question, I’d to look back at security lessons from the past two decades. Let me start with a comment I left regarding a PC Magazine article on IoT back in December 2013:

DAN LOHRMANN

CHIEF STRATEGIST AND CSO, SECURITY MENTOR, INC.

I’m always amazed at how history keeps repeating itself in the world of computer security. Think back: operating systems, apps, smartphones, cloud computing and more — released with known vulnerabilities.

More than a decade ago, Microsoft (and other leading high-tech companies) declared that security will be job No. 1, and yet industry continues to release new products and “complete” services without adequate security protections.

Why? The rush to market. Because it pays off in the short term. And because consumers like to buy the latest “cool thing” without a second thought. No doubt, doing the right thing is harder and can slow things down — but no one ever uses that argument when considering good brakes in a car.

Here’s a prediction for you: Someone will write “an insightful article” for Wired magazine three years from now about how we should have thought to build security into XYZ hot new device way back when.

Near the beginning of that article, we’ll see words similar to: “We never really thought about security when we first introduced the XYZ product.”

And I’ll say, “Really?”

One silver lining: a vibrant cybersecurity industry for decades to come. ë

ENTERPRISE MOBILITY

CIO SPEAK

At the Forefront of the Modern Mobile Economy

Over 70% of smartphone users are below 34 years old. They tend to be technically savvy and stay more connected and they expect to use their mobile devices to interact with Governments, banks, service providers and to make purchases online.

T

he United Arab Emirates and Qatar are experiencing the highest levels of smartphone penetration in the world and are even ahead of the USA and Canada.

Over 70% of smartphone users are below 34 years old. They tend to be technically savvy and stay more connected and they expect to use their mobile devices to interact with Governments, banks, service providers and to make purchases online. They are also keen to bring their own devices at work.

Therefore it is clear that embracing mobility is a necessary step for any organization wishing to reinvent its business and reach and increase employee productivity.

In this region we have seen Governments leading the adoption of mobility with projects like Dubai mGovernment aiming to change the G2C relationship with the model switching from people reaching out to the government tothe Government reaching out to the people through their smartphones.

In the same way private banks are redefining the way they serve their customers through mobility: Universities are getting students and educators connected round-the-clock to access learning materials and other relevant information while improving services and reducing costs.

However adopting mobility is more challenging than than it might seem and adding a new consumer channel is not just a matter of developing an application.

Mobile application development is gradually becoming more “enterprise.” Smarter organiza-

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JOHN BANKS

DIRECTOR OF SOFTWARE, GULF BUSINESS MACHINES

tions now treat mobile application development on a par with enterprise application development; as a result, there has been a considerable impact on middleware approaches, cloud-based deployment, and development tools.

Given the significant opportunities posed by mobile technologies, what should companies consider when adopting mobility? l Business needs to have an integrated enterprise-wide approach to mobility adoption and avoid the mistake of siloing operations to take best advantage of mobility at a corporate level. l Starting from the first application, IT needs to put in place all the needed building blocks to address the broad challenges of implementation.

“John Banks has over 30 years of ICT industry and management experience. He has worked in the outsourcing and software divisions of IBM in Australia/ New Zealand and Asia Pacific regions.”

This is from development to management, from integration to security, from embedded sensors to analytics. l Due to limited mobile technology skills and resources, organizations need a close partnership with vendor and system integrators that can offer an end to end solution.

As the region’s number one provider of IT solutions, GBM successfully works with many organizations across the region to help them provide services; anytime, anywhere and in a secure way. ë

ENTERPRISE MOBILITY

CIO SPEAK

Enterprise Mobility Strategy

In Middle East where in people are so habituated to mobile devices & gadgets, I believe this is a great opportunity for all the business lines to come up with effective Enterprise mobility strategy.

AMIT BHATIA

HEAD OF INFORMATION SECURITY GOVERNANCE, OMAN INSURANCE COMPANY

E

nterprise Mobility strategy is eminent keeping in view how the business transformation has taken place in last couple of years or so.

CIOs needs to step in and play major role in building up an Enterprise mobility strategy which must be in line with overall business strategy of the organization. In last few years customer behaviour has widely changed esp. on the mobility front wherein they are glued to smart mobiles, tablets. I believe this brings a huge opportunity for all the businesses to encash by building up smart & secure mobility Apps, which ensure customers to have delightful experience while using them. On the employees’ front it helps in boosting their Productivity too.

In Middle East where in people are so habituated to mobile devices & gadgets, I believe this is an great opportunity for all the business lines to come up with effective Enterprise mobility strategy. Overall it’s good for both the customer and the business entities to boost their bottom line.

For an effective and successful Enterprise Mobility strategy CIOs need to ensure it address the organization’s key business requirement and stand on wide range of mobility issues. Further inputs from different business and support units should also be taken while building up an effective enterprise mobility strategy.

Few key factors which will play an important role in building Enterprise Mobility strategy are: l Understand Business goals &strategy:

CIO should understand whether mobility will create new opportunities for business, and if so, how can these opportunities be capitalized. Further it needs to be understood what all processes need to be re-engineered & managed to ensure right experience to employees and customers. l Security: One of the key challenges for CIOs today is to ensure the corporate data is secured on mobile platforms. Any data leakage or compromise of corporate data may leads to huge repercussions not only on the financial & legal aspect but reputation too. Corporate mobile policy must mandate to use password, encrypt data and further remote wipe provision to ensure risk of Data leakage is duly mitigated.

Data leakage tool should ensure any leakage of data intentionally or unintentionallyis noticed and due mitigation Controls are put in place.

Sandboxing or containerization esp. on BYOD (Bring your own device) devices ensure corporate data is secured and isolated from user’s personal data. Secure authentication measures further add another layer of security l Multiple mobile platforms Provisioning & Management: Corporates either have Corporate- owned, BYOD or COPE (Corporate owned, personally enabled devices), hence the solution must be in place to manage all these flavours effectively and efficiently. Solution should have the capability to understand and develop the process for Life cycle mgmt. of these devices. Single unified console will ensure ease of managing different mobile platforms & further help in user accessing provision for the mobile work force hence leads to better control.

“CIO should understand whether mobility will create new opportunities for business, and if so, how can these opportunities be capitalized..” l Delightful customer experience: Mobile devices have played a key role in consumerization in the enterprise, giving people new ways to work with application. Effective mobility strategy should ensure people can access these apps and data on any device they use. It should further empower people with self service provisioning & further allow secure automated controls on data sharing and management for the customer perspective. l Mobile Application management: Mobile application management lets centralize management, security & control for any mobile apps as well its data and settings as part of container. While building a strategy, it should be well thought that organization actually requires any corporate application catalogue for enterprise users and further how these apps are distributed, managed & secured. ë

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ENTERPRISE MOBILITY

TALARIAX

Enterprise Mobility will be in Great Demand

Enterprise Mobility also has to deal with additional issues such as security, data leakage, enterprise espionage and impersonation apart from technical issues. Ashok Kumar, Chief of Business Development, EMEA & SAARC, Talariax makes some points about their solutions. Excerpts

What is your perception about the changing dynamics of enterprise mobility?

Just recently, we have seen tremendous proliferation of wireless networks into hitherto inaccessible areas paving the way for full-fledged remote connectivity. In tandem, Mobile devices have become more powerful. This means workers can now roam across multiple networks, use various connection types while they hook up to the enterprise. This brings in newer challenges as the networks that support such connectivity are outside ‘agents’ and each of them use different protocols, versions, software, standards and connection speeds. An enterprise has to be prepared to offer seamless connectivity to its remote workers by ensuring timely upgrades, fault finding and resolution in order to provide for a certain quality of user experience that one sees in a wired network. Enterprise Mobility also has to deal with additional issues such as security, data leakage, enterprise espionage and impersonation apart from technical issues cited above. And yet, Enterprise Mobility is here to stay. Reducing time to respond and flexibility to operate from anywhere are key elements that will distinguish an enterprise from that of its competitor in a fast paced world. Products that aid aspects of Enterprise Mobility will be in great demand as more and more companies facilitate

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remote access.

How does Talariax help to the whole concept of mobility?

Well, TalariaX has been supporting the cause of Enterprise Mobility from the very beginning.

We have a range of self-sufficient appliances that are targeted at niche applications such as Alert Notifications, Enterprise Messaging, Third Party Application Integration, 2 Factor Authentication and Network Monitoring. When other solutions tend to become complex in its n-tier architecture, the sendQuick portfolio leverages SMS and email for message delivery. sendQuick also supports a wide variety of protocols and interoperability with industry veterans making for easy adoption in a heterogeneous mix of platforms. Since SMS is an out-of-band service, 2FA via SMS-OTP enhances security of remote access.

What new solutions are you showcasing this year’s expo? sQoope, a new messaging and collaboration platform. sQoope allows local and remote users to communicate over the internet to hand-held smart phones to share text, voice and video in a highly secure and close knit environment with the sQoope server located at the corporate office.

It is the next generation in enterprise mobility offerings from TalariaX.

ASHOK KUMAR

CHIEF OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, EMEA & SAARC, TALARIAX

“sendQuick and sQoope together offer unmatched message delivery capabilities to aid Enterprise Mobility.”

How are they superior in performance compared to the previous versions? sQoope complements sendQuick in that messages emanating from sendQuick may be sent via sQoope. sQoope enhances message delivery capabilities of sendQuick from SMS and Email which we were offering up until now - to an Internet based secure collaboration platform. It’s a quantum leap.

How do these offer competitive advantage to the customers over the competition platform? sendQuick and sQoope together offer unmatched message delivery capabilities to aid Enterprise Mobility. TalariaX continues to innovate in the Enterprise Mobility space.

What kind of benefits are they getting out of implementing your solution?

In a nutshell our solutions helps save time, improve workforce effectiveness and efficiency.

Other benefits include enhanced remote access security, ensure minimum downtime and facilitate enterprise mobility. ë

26-28 APRIL 2015

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SMART CITY

CISCO

Seven Verticals to Drive Dubai Smart City Initiative

Cisco Report Shows How Interconnected Internet of Everything Era Will Contribute to Dubai’s Transformation n W O R D S : S O U M YA < S O U M YA @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >

S

even key verticals will drive the Dubai Smart City initiative in the build-up to World Expo 2020 and beyond, according to Cisco’s new report unveiled at a panel session at Cisco Connect UAE 2015.

Dubai is primed to leverage the emerging Internet of Everything (IoE) era, in which Cisco predicts that 50 billion things will be connected worldwide by 2020 - improving lives by connecting the unconnected, and creating unprecedented value for Dubai’s public and private sectors, and transforming daily lives.

Key Opportunities for Internet of Everything in Dubai Smart City: l Municipality - With billions of people now online, citizens expect to connect with governments and public sector agencies in a secure, smooth, and reliable environment. Public service employees also need to collaborate across multiple agencies and geographies in real time. l Ground-transport automation Developing the infrastructure and best practices to further automate ground transportation: IoE can enhance Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority’s ability to mitigate interruptions in services, and aim for very high levels of satisfaction from

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residents and visitors to Dubai. l Policing - Increasing communications and connectivity technologies: Connected safety and security can extend police presence into more areas of the city and enables new services such as remote video-based language interpretation to meet the near-term World Expo 2020 and beyond. l National Security and Defense - Implementing a common, unified, connected communications platform that enables various safety and emergency services to share information, coordinate, and collaborate. l Utility Smart Grid - Deploying IoE to increase output, reduce energy consumption, and improve carbon footprint: Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) is planning a smart-grid deployment to automate grid-control decisions, and to deliver new services to consumers, allowing them automate and control their power consumption. l Travel and Tourism - A unified platform for hosting and engaging with visitors would provide uninterrupted coverage along with location intelligence to ensure that their brief experience in Dubai flawless, especially as the city is expected to welcome over 25 million visitors for World Expo 2020.

RABIH DABBOUSSI,

GENERAL MANAGER, CISCO UAE

“The IoE is offering a whole new level of opportunity for technology leadership in Dubai. IT will be in the spotlight to enable actionable information, build new connections and open new revenue streams for organisations throughout the country.” l Retail - Closely related to travel and tourism, a vision for promoting Dubai as a retail destination as part of a Dubai experience.

Guided by Dubai Smart City and Dubai Plan 2021, Dubai aims to become one of the world’s best connected, smartest, and happiest cities by 2017. By leveraging the Internet of Everything’s projected 50 billion networked connections by 2020, Dubai can achieve a potential value of AED 17.9 billion (USD 4.87 billion) by 2019. ë

GULF ENTERPRISE MOBILITY EXHIBITION & CONFERENCE

MOBILITY & SECURITY STRATEGY FOR MIDDLE EAST GOVERNMENT & ENTERPRISE www.gemec.ae

26 - 28 APRIL 2015 Dubai World Trade Centre

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SECURITY

PALADION

Paladion Predicts the Top Ten Cyber Security Trends for 2015 As security breaches become a commonplace in the news, Industry leaders like Paladion offer support and guidance to stakeholders.

P

aladion Networks has highlighted the top 10 cyber security trends that will impact global digital security in 2015 and beyond.

These trends can have long-term impact on the enterprises in Middle East.

“After rigorous analysing the ever-increasing data flow regionally and globally, we have identified the top 10 cyber security trends that the enterprises in the Middle East needs to be cautious and should not ignore them in their strategic planning processes. “ said, Amit Roy, VP & Regional Sales Head-ME & Africa at Paladion Networks. “Organisations in the region need to follow these trends closely to ensure protection against the rising tide of cyber threats, which has high potential for disrupt their business.

01 Focus on Regulatory and Compliance

framework that is both sustainable and flexible enough to meet compliance audits.

03 Focus on an Holistic Program-Based

Foundation for Greater Security – The threat landscape is changing rapidly, in particular, security attacks, which grow more sophisticated with each passing day. CISOs will be hard-pressed to remain vigilant. They will need to develop flexible strategies that identify and mitigate vulnerabilities in their IT Infrastructure.

04

Promoting Risk-Based Security Behavior in Organizations, Not Just Awareness – Instead of only conducting employee awareness workshops, organizations must focus their employee workshops on the dos and don’ts of Information Security.

AMIT ROY

VP & REGIONAL SALES HEAD-ME & AFRICA AT PALADION NETWORKS

“Regions will see a surge of compliance and regulatory requirements.” attack by reducing the time from detection to remediation.

07

Proactively Managing Security Predictive security, the need for having a 24/7 Security Intelligence center, is surging in the region.

We will see an increase in Managed Security outsourcing based for a proactive and measurable security defense in the region.

08 No Single Silver Bullet for All – Integration is the key to get proper defense against the high profile cyberattacks. This will require different niche security technologies to work cohesively under a common security framework.

Requirements – Regions will see a surge of compliance and regulatory requirements to maintain a solid foundation of security controls toward people, process and technology levels for National Banking/Government/Oil & Gas, Retail and Critical infrastructure sectors.

05 Automated Detection and Alerting –

09 Securing Embedded Platforms – The

With cutting edge SIEM technologies and fully fledged Security Operations Centers, corporate networks will have complete 360 degree visibility to provide real time, meaningful and actionable alerts.

recent attacks on the Oil/Gas and Retail Sectors demonstrate clearly that embedded platforms or devices like SCADA systems/Telecom infrastructure/POS terminals/Hand held devices are no longer immune from Cyberattacks.

02 Automation of Security GRC Will

06

10 Mobile Malware is on the Rise – No

Surge – As organizations are compelled to follow various compliance and regulatory standards and frameworks, CISOs face increasing challenges to maintain and manage the GRC Security

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Automated Incident Response – Automated detection and alerting is no longer enough.

Automated incident response against the highly sophisticated cyber breaches is now required with the objective to minimize the impact of an

longer are attacks aimed solely at the traditional desktop. We see a surge in Malware attacks on mobile devices, making these devices extremely vulnerable. ë

CASE STUDY / FORTINET

The Holy Spirit University of Kaslik Secures its Campus Network with Fortinet 8,000 students, 1,300 instructors and 400 employees now protected from web-based attacks

With the proliferation of the university’s students and faculty staff use of personal mobile devices (BYOD), such as tablets, smartphones and laptops via the university’s wireless network, it became crucial to implement a solid security strategy to enforce both wired and wireless access and use policies to both internal and external resources to prevent possible security threats without compromising the user experience. USEK were seeking a UTM solution/ NGFW that contains rich features like IPS, Application control, Bandwidth management, Web-content filtering and VPN with the ability to create, deploy and manage security profiles in a very efficient and simple way.

In May 2014, the university decided to replace its existing Cisco, Tipping Point and Blue Coat security solutions with a single provider in order to standardize our network security and simplify the management of its security appliances.

Technology and solutions: USEK conducted an analysis of IT security solutions and Fortinet was identified as the only vendor offering the best security solution in terms of features, performance, simplicity and reliability. The institution then implemented Fortinet’sFortiGate Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW), FortiAuthenticator™ user identity management, and FortiAnalyzer™ for network security logging, analysis and reporting. Fortinet’s appliances were chosen for their high-level of performance, broad range of security features and

ease of deployment and management.

The implementation of two FortiGate-800C next generation firewall appliances, two FortiAuthenticator-1000D and one FortiAnalyzer-1000C was completed in May 2014 by Fortinet’s partner, Triple C, to deliver the following integrated features : IPS, application control, web-content filtering, SSL and IPSec VPNs, with the ability to create, deploy and manage security profiles in a simple and efficient way. The migration from the previous Cisco firewalls to Fortinet was smooth and seamless, while a unique approach integrating with the existing wireless controllers, USEK were able to receive accounting messages related to 802.1x wireless authenticated users through the Forti-Authenticator device.

User identity and access security was strengthened using the FortiAuthenticator-1000D Single Sign On (SSO), to manage and enforce the unique user’s security profile for both wired and wireless access. The big advantage of Fortinet over all the competition is the ability to do seamless authentication with Active Directory. It enables user identity based security without impeding the user or generating work for network administrators. Built on the foundations of Fortinet Single Sign-On, the FortiAuthenticator is the network’s gatekeeper, identifying users, querying access permissions from third party systems and communicating this information to the FortiGate devices for identity-based policies enforcement.

Now a user will benefit from the same security

profile applied whether using a desktop or using any mobile device.

Finally, the Forti Analyzer-1000C, Fortinet’s logging and reporting appliance, securely collects and centralizes daily logs of FortiGate devices and allows the creation of reports and statistics for complete visibility of the network security posture and network traffic analysis. Thanks to FortiAnalyzer, the reports generated help USEK in improving its services and optimizing our security profiles.

Benefits: l All applications have been identified and their usage is being controlled efficiently l UTM policies are being applied to both wired and wireless users. l Maximum productivity with fair‐use enforcement. l Identity‐driven policies without complexity of deployment. l Improving ROI and significantly lowering TCO (Total cost of Ownership).

Partner in the project: Fortinet’s Gold partner Triple C carried out the implemention.

“Very soon we will implement FortiGate-300C at our biggest branch in the Zahle area., explains Abdo Karaki, Head of Network and Security Division at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik. ë

JACQUES RAHMOUCH,

VP OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AT TRIPLE C

“WE ARE GLAD THAT USEK ENTRUSTED TRIPLE C FOR ITS SECURITY EXPERTISE AND OUTSTANDING TECHNICAL SUPPORT AND FORTINET SECURITY SOLUTIONS TO SOLVING THE PROBLEMS THEY HAD WITH THE EXISTING SOLUTION.”

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LANactive

Switch to the future

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FTTO Active & Passive Solutions Nexans is pleased to announce LANactive, an alternative approach to structured cabling. Using Fibre To The Office (FTTO) topology together with access switches installed near to the work place, it provides Ethernet services via standard copper based RJ45 technology to the device.

• Long distance transmission • Eliminating the costly Floor Distribution (Space, Switching & Passive accessories) • Reduced cable containment • Refurbishment with minimum disruption

The approach offers significant cost savings and other benefits in specific circumstances:

• Redundancy at user level

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ENTERPRISE SECURITY

CIO SPEAK

The State of Enterprise Security Steve has worked in information security for the last fifteen years and leads a global team of risk management professionals.

STEVE WILLIAMSON,

MBA, CENG MBCS, CISA, CRISC

T

he foundations of good security are the layers of technological and procedural controls which make up an organisation’s Information Security Management System (ISMS).

This willinclude: malware defences, account management, vulnerability management, security awareness, etc. Thesecontrols are described in industry standards such as SANS, which form the basis of Audit and Certification.

There are two common limitations of such frameworks: 1. The focus is on protecting assets which are enclosedwithin the perimeter of the organisation.

2. Modern day cyber attacks are designedto evade established safeguards The Challenge for Information Security Officers In days gone by, the information security officer may have had the privilege of creating Policies to prohibit Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD) or cloud storage of business data. Nowadays, executives expect that they and their employees have access to business data from anywhere on any device. Furthermore, business partners need to be more closely integrated into information workflows. The job of the security officer is to make this happen, whilst ensuring the benefits of such innovations are not outweighed by increased security risk.

The result is our data is more widespread and

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is stored on devices that are not under our direct control. This trend represents an enlarged attack surface, i.e.the point of attack available to a threat agent.

A second challenge is the nature of a modern day cyber-attack. Many organisations fall victim to targeted exploits which make use of valid credentials and bespoke malware. This enables a threat actor to mimic the actions of legitimate users,harvest passwords and exfiltrate data.

Such attacks are more commonly referred to as Advanced Persistent Threats (APT’s); the perpetrators are skilful, work in teams and are willing to invest time and effort for a strategic reward. The aim may be the theft of trade secrets, financial fraud or to inflict damage on the company’s reputation.Furthermore, APT’s are often difficult to detect. The Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) of 2014 provides a rich analysis of breaches over the last ten years, andone finding of particularly concern,is the gap between the timeto-compromise and time-to-discover. According to this report, in most cases the bad guys need hours to compromise a system (more than 75% of the cases) whereas the good guys need weeks to detect a breach (only about 25% of the breaches are detected in days or less).

Our Response If we make the assumption that APT’s will circumvent established security safeguards, then more emphasis must be placed on detective and

“Increasing dependency on ICT has made cyber threats as one of the major security concerns.” response controls. The security industry has responded with a large armoury of data centric and event monitoring technologies which help the good guys detect suspicious activity. Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is one such technology.

DLP can be configured to monitor the movement of data records which have been identified as sensitive. For example, if a user e-mails a strategic marketing plan outside of the organisation, this action will be captured and an event log generated (it can also be prevented).

Conclusion Effective information security requires an understanding of modern-day cyber-attacks and an awareness of the expanding attack surface. It is not possible to protect everything against all potential threats. Security Officers must take a risk based approach to ensure the most valuable assets are protected against the most likely threats. An effective cyber-defence will cover the full data lifecycle and utilise technological, procedural and human safeguards.. ë

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OFFICIL P R E - PRE-SHOW SHOW

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ENTERPRISE SECURITY

CIO SPEAK

Cyber Threat Evolution and Prospects of Security Industry

Increasing dependency on ICT has made cyber threats as one of the major security concerns.

Remote and geographically vast operations in the Middle East are highly dependent on ICT, which in turn magnify its vulnerabilities to attacks.

D

igital revolution has provided unprecedented opportunities for nations to utilize Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to spur innovation and wealth creation. The Middle East nations have invested in ICT infrastructure to improve their functions and delivery of critical services. ICT has transformed the region, in turn leading to wealth creation. The region has already known as a global hub for oil and gas services, and with ICT, it is attracting investments that will shift the region to both high value-added ICT and cyber security industries.

Evolving Cyber Threats Today’s cyber threats are often in the forms of Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) carried out using a combination of technical sophistication, excellent coordination, and exploitation. Among the favorites targets include critical sectors or specific targets that will result in high impacts on security, prosperity and public safety. Industrial espionage is on the rise with the growth of critical infrastructure and the trend of Internet of Things.

The world has witnessed the sophistication of malware such as Stuxnet, Duqu and Flame that provides an insight into the future state of the ever-changing cyber threat landscape. The Middle

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East region cannot forget Shamoon, spyware with a destructive module that caused huge impacts namely on its oil and gas companies.

Cyber Security Industry Evolving cyber threats create good prospects for the growth of cyber security industry. The global cyber-security market has grown steadily to reflect the rapidly changing cyber threat environment. Global Industry Analysts estimated that the cyber security industry is worth of $80 billion (£51.3 billion) by 2017. Visiongain had estimated around $60 billion (£38.5 billion) for the 2012 market, and the limited cyber-warfare sector at $15.9 billion. The cyber security markets in Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) is expected to grow at an annual rate of 11.66 percent and to reach US$5.79 billion by 2017, according to IDC’s recent research. In 2011, cyber security spending of Middles East and Africa was 4% from the global market came after North America (38%), Western Europe (27%) and Asia Pacific (26%).

However, the Texas-based global consulting firm MarketsandMarkets, recently estimated that that the Middle East cyber security market would grow from the current figure of around $ 5.2 billion to reach $ 9.5 billion by 2019, with Saudi Arabia expected to be the largest market in terms of spending on products and services.

DR AMIRUDIN ABDUL WAHAB,

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

CYBERSECURITY MALAYSIA, MINISTRY OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

Enhancing Global Collaborative Efforts Recognizing cyber threats as trans-border issues, there are several organizations that Middle East nations can engage with to strengthen their domestic cyber security. Amongst them include the Organization of Islamic Cooperation - Computer Emergency Response Team (OIC CERT) and the Asia Pacific - Computer Emergency Response Team (APCERT). In this regard, Malaysia is the co-founder and currently, the Permanent Secretariat of the OIC-CERT. Malaysia is also the co-founder and the member of the APCERT steering committee since 2003.

Cyber security is a great global concern due to nations’ increased dependency on cyberspace.

In the case of Middle East, incapacity of any of critical infrastructure would cause a chain reaction that can lead to a devastating impact on the region. However, evolving cyber threats and vulnerabilities that add a new element of risks to national security also give opportunities to the growth of cyber security industry. It is foreseen that the fast growing ICT infrastructure will potentially turn the Middle East region into the hubs of added-value services, high technology and cyber security industries in turn leading to wealth creation. ë

GUEST TALK

EPICOR

BYOD Policies Changing as Mobility Becomes Critical Not only does mobility drive efficiencies, it also causes a major shift in IT structures and cost saving strategies.

ANISH KANARAN,

CHANNEL DIRECTOR - MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA &INDIA, EPICOR SOFTWARE CORPORATION

I

n a recent CIO survey conducted in Middle East, India and Africa, when asked what will be the ‘next big thing’ that will impact the role of the CIO the resounding answer was mobility. BYOD is one such strategy that can support the mobility of the workforce and it represents a key approach for reducing costs and infrastructure.

A recent worldwide study, conducted by IDC Manufacturing Insights showed that their top business initiatives are focused on growth and differentiation through value-added services and improved customer experience. Responding to customers with speed and efficiency through strategies such as BYODplays a critical role in achieving these objectives.

The mainbenefit of BYOD for employers is the improvement in workplace productivity; less hardware is needed and telecoms expenditure will belower. BOYD makes it possible for employees to work remotely, from any location where they have connectivity.

Many employees already have their own device, and this is driving businesses to review their BYOD strategy. In emerging markets, more than 70% of employees who own a smartphone or tablet confirm using it for work. But less than 30% of enterprises say they support any employeeowned smartphones or tablets. Many businesses are yet to embrace the concept and the benefits of a BYOD strategy while all the major enterprise resource planning (ERP) players in the market are gearing up for BOYD. Many already have clients with limited functionality for the most popular

mobile device operating systems.

One of the biggest concerns that employers have about BYOD is data security, however, this need not be a concern when an organisation has proven business software in place with built-in security measures and specific requirements for employees.

Devices should only be allowed to connect when they provide sufficient levels of anti-virus and malware protectionand as a result some businesses provide such software for staff members’ devices.

Another concern for employers is that mobile devices are highly prone to loss, so controls that enable the remote wiping of corporate data and any such data should be held in encrypted partitions. Then, interactions with corporate data should be logged and controlled with a clear understanding among data security and governance staff of what data is being made available and where it is made available.

New staff appointments and termination of employment processes also require careful consideration. Fine-grained removal of data from devices is essential. New techniques for data partitioning and grooming from mobile devices are being developed to help with this.

New technology and tools that are coming out to help with these issues is called Desktop as a Service or DaaS. This is not to be confused with Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) which has been out for a while. With virtual desktops and applications in the cloud, you get all the benefits of desktop virtualization without the headaches.

Even better, you can leave the hardware, software, SLA’s and performance worries to the cloud provider. Optimal performance is maintained because you’re leveraging a global network of data centres, thus providing you with easier deployment, secure data and applications, and better performance.

The next question is how to compensate an employee for data as part of an organisation’s BYOD policy. The best way to do this is for employees tocomplete an expense claim form for their home internet usage as well as cell phone costs associated with business usage. The employee should obtain their device by taking out a contract with one of the cellular providers, paying for it on a monthly basis and then submitting the cost of monthly business usage as part of their expense claim. Some organisations opt to make a small contribution to the cost of the device while others opt not to.Every company will decide on their own strategy, if any, for the implement of BYOD based on their needs and the needs of their employees.

BYOD will never be as straightforward as today’s IT service model where approved and known hardware is provided and data carefully managed in a controlled environment. It requires a more complex IT backbone with greater management demands,however, the benefits that it offers in terms of improved efficiencies and cost savings make it a very attractive offering for tech savvy organisations with the right business software in place. ë

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Aruba 7000 series Cloud Services Controllers Aruba 7000 series Cloud Services Controllers eliminate the time, cost and complexity of managing disparate single-purpose point products in the branch, while enabling businesses to extract more value from existing cloud-based unified communication and firewall investments.

Growing legions of enterprise applications and services are migrating to public and private clouds because businesses can realize significant performance gains while saving up to 48% per site – all while having centralized visibility and

control across every branch location.

The Aruba 7000 series collapses a wide set of enterprise network capabilities into a single networking platform for the branch. It eliminates the time, cost and complexity of lighting-up branch office networks.

The appliance supports two Ethernet broadband WAN connections and a 3G/4G LTE cellular back-up link for assured business continuity in virtually all conditions. Branches that use certificate-based 802.1X RADIUS with EAP-TLS get uninterrupted service even if RADIUS servers

are unreachable. It also delivers context-aware control to a variety of branch networking requirements, namely:Web Content Filtering, Microsoft Lync Mobile Unified Communications, Integration with Palo Alto Networks Firewalls, Performance Gains for Cloud-based Applications, and Advanced Routing.

KEY CAPABILITIES n Web Content Filtering – Provides web content filtering to create contextual policies based on web site reputation. n Microsoft Lync Mobile Unified Communications – Automatically integrates with Lync Server 2013 SDN API and fingerprints hosted Lync Online traffic for a better user experience across the WAN. n Integration with Palo Alto Networks Firewalls – Automatically extends threat protection to every branch, for mobile devices and users by context, with no additional hardware or software. n Performance Gains for Cloud-based Applications – WAN optimization and application visibility and control with AppRF technology improve the performance of business-critical apps in the cloud. n Advanced Routing – Implements context-based routing across dual Ethernet WAN and LTE WAN links to preserve bandwidth for prioritized, business-critical traffic.

PLEASE SEND YOUR FEEDBACK AT INFO@ ENTERPRICECHANNELS.COM

TOSHIBA CANVIO AEROMOBILE Toshiba CANVIO AeroMobile is a Solid State Drive-based storage device that useswirelessconnectivity for the fast and convenient transfer of files. It creates its own wireless LAN network, allowing users to access their content even without an Internet connection.

The CANVIO AeroMobile has been especially tailored for mobile users. It empowers them to mitigate the constraints of their mobile device storage, so they can keep taking new photos and videos even when their smartphone’s or tablet’s storage is full.

The pocket-size CANVIO AeroMobile has 128GB of SSD storage, boasting the ability to resist shocks and vibrations better than conventional external HDD storage solutions.

Toshiba has created a dedicated “Wireless SSD for Toshiba” app for Android and iOS devices, making browsing, streaming and saving files on mobile devices considerably easier for users. The app comes free with every CANVIO AeroMobile device.

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KEY CAPABILITIES n DNS Queries per Second – 61,000 to 143, 000 n DHCP Leases per Second - 375 to 600 n Hardware Redundancy – Hot swappable redundant power supplies fans and four disks RAID 10

We unify.

You thrive.

In this hyper-connected, always-on world, todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s anywhere workers are demanding more from the devices and enterprise apps they use to connect and collaborate.

We say, give in to their demands.

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Formerly Siemens Enterprise Communications

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Copyright Š Unify GmbH & Co. KG, 2014

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