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PA G E S 6 8 VOLUME 02 | ISSUE 03 OCTOBER 2014 WWW.ENTERPRISECHANNELSMEA.COM
A NECESSITY Gone are the days when having a full-fledged communications infrastructure was a choice. Today, more or less it has become a necessity for enterprises. /36
LEXMAR K: “LEADI NG TH E M PS MAR KET” /46
INDIAECM102014
ENTERPRISE COMMUNICATIONS
EDITORIAL
Thank You!
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
I would like to thank the entire Middle East and Africa IT industry, specially the B2B partners and CXOs who have supported Enterprise Channels MEA to grow to a stature where it can represent the entire industry on its own. In last one year, we have not only brought out twelve magazines focusing on the entire technology influencing the market but also talked about the ecosystem that supports the distribution and implementation. Apart from two issues, we have brought out at least six –seven supplements around special events and solutions’ landscape including Big Data, Security, Infrastructure, Smart Governance, etc. As our successful one year journey is culminating, we have organized the award event for the industry that has supported us. Of course it is based on a nomination process and transparently done. Plus we have done a Golf tournament for the C-level executives of the IT industry to bring them together and support the Breast Cancer Arabia Foundation. Along with these activities, we have participated in Gitex 2014 in a big way. Our booth will showcase all our magazines and supplements published in various geographies of the world and it will also facilitate one-on-one video and audio interviews with the visitors and exhibitors. We will support all our partners who have been with us in our arduous journey by uploading their Gitex content from the booth. These contents can be in the formats of print or AV. However we also have provision of interviewing the senior executives from government and Telcos. In order to show the successes in the region, we have brought out a voluminous supplement known as “InfraInsight Coffee Book”. This supplement focuses on the successful implementation of projects by the customers. Plus it talks about the IT market opportunity in KSA and Africa. It has taken us a two months to create this content and I am optimistic that this will help in giving good insights into how the industry is operating and how the customers should start implementing technologies. Plus, this issue of magazine talks about the growth opportunity of enterprise communications. We have got viewpoints of various stake holders of the industry and created our own opinion. Alongside this, we have a full coverage of office automation and solutions that make the offices smart. So there is a great description from the industry pundits about how to make the offices smart using various technologies and applications. However our focus here is to keep the hardware part highlighted. I wish everyone from the MEA IT industry a grand success during Gitex. ë
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I N FO M E DIA PUBLISHED BY ACCENT INFOMEDIA MEA FZ-LLC PO BOX : 500653, DUBAI, UAE 223, BUILDING 9, DUBAI MEDIA CITY, DUBAI, UAE PHONE : +971 (0) 4368 8523 A PUBLICATION LICENSED BY INTERNATIONAL MEDIA PRODUCTION ZONE, DUBAI, UAE @COPYRIGHT 2013 ACCENT INFOMEDIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. WHILE THE PUBLISHERS HAVE MADE EVERY EFFORT TO ENSURE THE ACCURACY OF ALL INFORMATION IN THIS MAGAZINE, THEY WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ERRORS THEREIN.
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CONTENTS VOLUME 02 ISSUE 03 OCTOBER 2014 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
2014
COVER STORY
ENTERPRISE COMMUNICATIONS A NECESSITY
Gone are the days when having a full-fledged communications infrastructure was a choice. Today, more or less it has become a necessity for enterprises. /36 ENT. SECURITY /57
Reimagines Security with Adaptive Defense Security Model ASHAR AZIZ FOUNDER, FIREEYE
ENT. APPLICATION /46
Leading the MPS Market MATHIAS MILITZER GENERAL MANAGER, LEXMARK MEA
INNOVATIONS /63
DELL POWEREDGE 13TH GENERATION SERVER PORTFOLIO
FEATURE Offices With Minds Of Their Own /50
As technology continues to transform the modern workplace, tomorrow’s “smart office” will be one where technology is central—but less visible and more integrated, intuitive, mobile and fluid.
its is designed to leverage modern storage that enable customers to accelerate applications by bringing data closer to the processor
MY VIEWS /24
“We are 3-4 years ahead of other players” BRIAN KENYON VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER MCAFEE
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EDITORIAL::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 05 CHANNEL STREET:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 08 ENTERPRISE APPLICATION :::::: 26, 30, 46 MY VIEWS ::::::::::::::::::: 24, 34, 42, 44, 58, 60 ENTERPRISE SECURITY :::::::::::::::::: 57, 62
We’re all geared up! Visit Us @ GITEX 2014 Hall 2, Stand # D2-1
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Deliver On
CHANNEL
STREET DSG’S MPAY APP COLLECTED AED 105 MN IN FIRST 9 MONTHS
Dubai Smart Government’s mPay app collected AED 105 million over the first nine months of 2014, which is a spectacular increase of 600 per cent compared to the same period last year. Commenting on these results, H.E. Ahmad Bin Humaidan, Director General of Dubai Smart Government, said: “Great importance is attached to this app as an effective channel for enabling customers to access government services around the clock on their smartphones. Our products and services revolve around the concept of a connected smart government, by providing customized solutions that meet their needs and aspirations, in implementation of the initiative of HH Sheikh Mohammed Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, for easing access to all government transactions from one place and through one smart device.”
KUWAIT’S PAI DEPLOYS EMC SOLUTION Public Authority for Industry (PAI), Kuwait has selected EMC VMAX enterprise storage and VNX unified storage solutions to prepare to redefine its storage infrastructure and to create a sound foundation for future business growth. PAI has also deployed EMC Avamar to create an efficient and reliable backup infrastructure, drive data retention and availability, and meet compliance regulations. In addition to this, PAI has also deployed a data archive system based on EMC Source One software and EMC Centera technology. VMAX has improved the performance of PAI’s mission critical applications such as Oracle by 700% further. By VMAX and VNX, PAI has created a centralized, highly automated infrastructure so that employees can focus on innovation.
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H.E. AHMAD BIN HUMAIDAN DIRECTOR GENERAL, DUBAI SMART GOVERNMENT
DSG Launches “Smart Employee” App Dubai Smart Government Department (DSG) has launched the “smart employee” app for Dubai government employees. The launch is in implementation of the initiative of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to shift to smart government and smart city; and in line with the ‘Dubai Government Towards 2021’ initiative of HH Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council. The app, created by DSG’s Government Resources Planning (GRP) team, was launched recently by DSG’s HR team in the presence of HR representatives from all 31 departments participating in the service. Commenting on the launch of the smart employee app, H.E. Ahmad Bin Humaidan, DSG Director General, said: “We are inspired by the vision of our prudent leadership led by HH
Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and the directives of HH Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council; to be among the finest smart governments in the world. You can expect some more apps including enhancements to mPay to be launched during Gitex 2014 next month.” He added that this app has been developed by their GRP team after nine months of testing and coordination with other DSG sections. In the first phase, it will be used and tested by the HR department in 31 government entities. Following their feedback, the app will be launched on 12 October at Gitex 2014 so that 20,000 employees from the participating government entities can use it as a shared service app. Shared services help Dubai Government save money from unnecessary duplication costs.
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www.lexmark-me.com Š 2014 Lexmark International, Inc. All rights reserved. Lexmark, and the Lexmark logo, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lexmark International, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
CHANNEL STREET
Mindware Unveils New Brand Identity Mindware will roll out the visual identity chosen delivers launch of its new corporate and connects visually to both logo this October 2014, markends of the spectrum to the ing this as the most dramatic channel & vendors on our change in its visual identity commitment, loyalty, and since 1991. The new visual success. identity presents Mindware as In addition to the launch of modern and evolving, reflects new logo, Mario said, “As part the strength and direction of of our strategy to ensure our its IT portfolio and where we partners and customers are up MARIO GAY, GENERAL MANAGER, are heading, and emphasizes its MINDWARE to date with upcoming event, commitment to sustainability new product updates, news and focus on its corporate strategy. Mario Gay, and careers we have launched a Mindware APP General Manager, Mindware, said, “Our new available for download for free on APP Store & logo better communicates what Mindware is Google play which will be ready for use during today and reflects our expertise, loyalty to the Gitex 2014.” “In addition to the availability of key partners and vendors with the focus on the colors features to our channel partners and end users on of Blue chosen, the mnemonic incorporated the APP; to make the Mindware APP experience defines our corporate strength and emphasizes a more interactive and enjoyable experience we on our forward thinking mindset and objective have also launched a game within the APP which to achieve strong growth, drive innovation and users can play, collect points for a chance to win focus on sustainability in the IT market.” The rewards,” he added.
SEAGATE DELIVERS NEW SURVEILLANCE SERVICES FOR MIDDLE EAST BUSINESSES Seagate has unveiled the industry’s first dedicated surveillance hard disk drive (HDD) engineered specifically for surveillance and video analytics applications, allowing businesses to keep their surveillance systems in the field longer and reducing post-deployment expenses. Featuring new Seagate Rescue services, the Seagate Surveillance HDD employs data recovery services designed to help organizations restore their data from malicious or accidental failures. “Over 413 petabytes of data are produced in just one day by video surveillance cameras installed worldwide in 2013—that’s 150,000 petabytes of data every year, most of which are stored on high-capacity surveillance systems for archive or video analytics purposes,” said Scott Horn, Seagate vice president of marketing. “That data is invaluable to the user to either meet industry regulations or leverage for content analysis or security— so when data loss occurs it’s an expense to the customer. Seagate’s Surveillance HDD with Rescue services addresses this issue head on and alleviates these concerns.”
INFOR NEW TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM, INFOR XI Infor has launched Infor XI, an enterprise technology platform for nextgeneration applications. Building on its current Infor 10 x platforms, Infor XI will deliver a major step in achieving the company’s vision for cloud applications that address specific industry needs with responsive design infused with machine-learning and big data analytics. Lee Miles, regional director for Infor in the Middle East says modern technologies like the cloud; big data, machine-learning, and mobility have created new and exciting engines for innovation and increased the pressure on companies to stay current and competitive. He adds, “Infor has spent more than a billion dollars in research and development that will culminate in Infor XI-powered applications that will help our customers stay ahead of the game in today’s rapidly-evolving global business climate.” The three major pillars of Infor XI are enhanced cloud, mobile-first design and advanced science. Infor XI applications will include multi-tenancy and support for open source systems, helping speed performance, boost scale, and reduce cost. Infor is delivering elements of Infor XI now, and will roll the platform out across its product suites, including Infor CloudSuite industry suites, enterprise resource planning (ERP), enterprise asset management (EAM), human capital management (HCM), customer relationship management (CRM), and supply chain management (SCM).
ELM LAUNCHES NEW BUNDLE OF MARKET-LEADING E-SERVICES ELM, a provider of innovative electronic solutions and government support services in Soudi, will participate at Gitex Dubai 2014, to launch three new services as part of its ongoing efforts to meet local market requirements. The newly launched ‘Eligibility Program,’ ‘ELM Cloud’ and ‘Natheer’ will be highlighted at the company’s stand located at Al Sheikh Saeed Hall in Dubai World Trade Center, among
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MAJID ALARIFI, MARKETING MANAGER, ELM
a comprehensive set of leading services and solutions that are aimed at attending to future customer needs.
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As a key partner in achieving the goals of the country’s e-Government program, ELM offers leading solutions based on local market needs and challenges. Its new bundle of services is intended to expedite the KSA’s efforts to enhance economic and social services quality through enhancements to usability, accuracy, speed, and authorization. Majid Alarifi, Marketing Manager, ELM, said: “Gitex Dubai is consid-
ered a leading platform that enables major ICT companies to highlight and launch their latest services to the regional markets. We are planning to benefit from this important event to introduce a set of new services”. He added that ELM’s new services include ELM Cloud, which is a comprehensive bunch of systems that are offered via cloud computing technology, aiming at minimizing time and human and technical efforts.
CHANNEL STREET IN PUBLIC
“The region’s Smart City developments demonstrate how GCC governments are increasingly innovating delivery of services to people and businesses. MARWAN BIN HAIDER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT, DUBAI SMART GOVERNMENT
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SECONDS
PHILIPS DISPLAYS - SMART INNOVATIONS FOR ANY APPLICATION
Spectrami Ready for a Bigger Presence at GITEX 2014
MMD will showcase its latest innovations for work
Spectrami will participate at GITEX Technology Week 2014, marking its third year of participation at the region’s largest IT extravaganza and will throw the spotlight on advanced security and storage solutions from its vendor partners such as General Dynamics Fidelis Cybersecurity Solutions, Tenable, Xceedium, Good Technology, Violin Memory, Actifio and LogRhythm. This year two of Spectrami’s key channel partners; Oman based ITSS and UAE based Magnus will also be present at its booth. During the show, the
Among new products to be showcased at the
company will also be highlighting its Presales and Post Sales services, which go a long way in enabling and empowering its channel partners. Anand Choudha, MD, Spectrami, said, “GITEX has always been a very successful platform for Spectrami to showcase the latest trends and products to our customers and resellers across the region.” The company is exhibiting at GITEX Technology Week 2014 at Hall No. 1– Stand A1 -10, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai, UAE.
and play at GITEX Technology Week 2014. The event will see MMD exhibiting its latest products featuring the company’s brand-new SoftBlue display technology. The company will also show off its UltraClear 4K displays, gaming monitors that feature NVIDIA’s G-SYNC technology. event, include the company’s 288P6 UltraClear 4K monitor, with four times the resolution of a Full HD monitor. ICDL FOR TEACHERS ICDL Arabia, the governing body and certification authority for the ICDL certificate program in Egypt, the GCC States and Iraq, has launched a new initiative specially designed for teachers in the region. The ‘ICDL for Teachers’ initiative aims to empower teachers with the skills they need to develop modern teaching strategies using ICT in
INFOBLOX NETWORK INSIGHT BRINGS ALL THE SILOS TOGETHER
their teaching practices, allowing them to achieve
Infoblox has announced enhancements to Infoblox Network Insight, a solution that brings previously disparate real-time network infrastructure data into a single authoritative database, to help make enterprise networks easier to manage and more secure. Infoblox Network Insight brings all the silos together in a single authoritative IP address management (IPAM) database. This database empowers network engineers to automatically gather a broad range of information, analyze it, and in the latest version, take action in real time. “Enterprise networks today are full of blind spots that slow down day-to-day work and increase operating expenses,” said Scott Fulton, executive vice president of products at Infoblox. “One network manager told us it is sometimes easier for him to buy a new switch than figure out what ports are available on current switches. Another manager described days of work by multiple teams to fix network outages in multiple branch offices, which turned out to be caused by a well-intentioned employee who had installed a home router without permission. These examples show the benefit of Infoblox Network Insight in overcoming the lack of visibility that prevents IT teams from fully controlling and securing their networks.” Infoblox Network Insight is available now worldwide.
and plan lessons more efficiently.
educational goals more efficiently. Enhanced ICT skills enable teachers to simplify routine tasks
AL FALAK ACHIEVES 20 PER GROWTH Al Falak Electronic Equipment & Supplies Company has recorded a growth average of 20% for the last three years in both the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the rest of the GCC region. Ahmad Ashadawi, CEO and President of Al-Falak Company, said, “The company remains fully committed in investing in its people and new product lines that continuously emerge in today’s IT and communications markets. This commitment has been a key formula to our continued success as a company—reinforcing our leading position in the IT industry via a highly proficient and confident workforce”.
STORIT TO FOCUS ON BIG DATA, ANALYTICS AND CLOUD COMPUTING StorIT Distribution will focus on its latest data management, Cloud and Big Data solutions at GITEX 2014. The company will also showcase its extensive portfolio of solutions and technical services from its vendor partners in addition to holding demonstrations for visitors at the leading ICT exhibition in the Middle East. “Over the last 12 months, we have added several new technologies and solutions to our portfolio and GITEX will be an important vehicle to introduce these to our customers and channel, which will also create new business opportunities for our partners,” says Manju Mathew, Marketing Manager, StorIT Distribution. She adds that at GITEX, they plan to highlight the technical services capability that they offer as a value distributor. They also wish to announce their new partnerships and their channel expansion initiatives, at the forum.
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DUBAI POLICE AND AVAYA TO SHOW VIRTUAL SMART GOV. SERVICES Inspired by the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to transform Dubai as the world’s smartest city, Dubai Police and Avaya will jointly showcase a range of Dubai Police smart services on Avaya’s smart communication solutions at Gitex Technology Week 2014. Dubai Police will be the first public sector entity to experiment extending its services to smart self-service stations.
CHANNEL STREET
Riverbed adds new web application firewall capabilities to SteelApp
TAJ ELKHAYAT, MANAGING DIRECTOR FOR MIDDLE EAST, TURKEY, NORTH, WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA, RIVERBED TECHNOLOGY
Riverbed Technology has announced new features for Riverbed Steel App Traffic Manager. As companies evolve toward the hybrid enterprise model with private assets on-premises and public services in the cloud, they face new performance challenges -- including greater architectural complexity and blind spots for support, management and security. As Taj ElKhayat, Managing Director for Middle East, Turkey, North, West and Central Africa, Riverbed Technology puts it across, “Companies are going hybrid in droves, extending their data centers to the cloud, and then often struggling with complexity and performance challenges. Riverbed SteelApp Traffic Manager 9.7now delivers greater protection against the latest app-level attacks and simpler manageability in the cloud.” New features of SteelApp Traffic Manager 9.7 include stand-alone Web App Firewall(WAF), support for Microsoft Azure VHD deployments, progressive image download capability etc. Riverbed SteelApp Traffic Manager 9.7 is generally available now.
FORTINET TO HIGHLIGHT SOLUTIONS TO COMBAT SOPHISTICATED THREATS AT GITEX 2014 Fortinet will showcase its latest Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) framework and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attack Mitigation Appliances at GITEX Technology Week 2014. “Threats are evolving rapidly; the traditional security systems that are still implemented across the region are proving ineffective against today’s sophisticated threats. Look at the volume of data breach incidents that have been reported in 2013 and 2014 to see that there is a real risk for organisations in the region which are not immune,” says Alain Penel, Regional Vice President Middle East, Fortinet. Fortinet offers a wide range of next generation security solutions based on the new FortiOS 5.2and FortiDDoS Attack Mitigation Appliances. FortiDDoS is 100% based on behaviour-based detection and ASIC DDoS processors, which enables the appliance to detect every DDoS threat, including sophisticated low-volume application layer attacks. Penel adds that Fortinet’s participation at will enable usthem to showcase their latest ATP and DDoS solutions to a wider audience and demonstrate efforts to help CIOs make decisions. Fortinet will be in hall 2- stand B2 – 1A.
WATCH GUARD RATED HIGH IN NSS LAB ANALYSIS WatchGuard’s XTM 1525 is one of the toprated Next Generation Firewalls (NGFW) based on a real-world comparative analysis by NSS Labs. Designed for the enterprise, the XTM 1525 delivers a leading combination of security effectiveness and value in terms of both the cost per protected Mbps and security effectiveness. “Understanding the real-world performance and security effectiveness of next generation firewalls is vital for organizations that are looking to invest in these technologies to protect their business,” said Vikram Phatak, chief executive officer at NSS Labs. “The WatchGuard 1525 maintained consistent evasion and protection capability throughout the testing process.” “Our team is dedicated to continuing to deliver world class network security solutions and the NSS Labs results highlight how effective our platform is at blocking attacks with one of the industry’s most powerful combinations of cost and performance,” said Dave R. Taylor, vice president of corporate strategy and product management at WatchGuard Technologies. “This kind of third party validation is critical to our customers in instilling confidence they are choosing market leading solutions.” As per the report, the XTM 1525 blocked 96.7 % of attacks against server applications, 98.7% of attacks against client applications, and 97.8% overall. It proved effective against all evasion techniques tested and passed all the stability and reliability tests. WatchGuard device successfully passed the NSS Application Control tests.
FIREEYE REIMAGINES SECURITY WITH ADAPTIVE DEFENSE SECURITY MODEL FOR MENA FireEye recently showcased two new solutions designed to equip organizations to scale their defense strategies and previewed some of the findings of its latest research into cyber threats affecting customers in the Middle East. The opening of a new office in the United Arab Emirates, where FireEye’s team of technical experts constantly monitors and evaluates the evolving
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regional threat landscape, signals the company’s growing commitment to the region as well as the region’s emergence as a nexus for organized cyber-attack. The new FireEye as a Service offering is an on-demand security management offering that allows organizations to apply FireEye’s technology, intelligence and expertise to find and stop cyber
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attacks. FireEye Advanced Threat Intelligence provides access to threat data and analytical tools that help identify attacks and provide context about the tactics and motives of specific threat actors. Ashar Aziz, FireEye founder, commented: “While the Middle East region may not possess the arsenal of zero-day exploits available in Russia, or the brute-force numbers
of China, it plays host instead to many hackers that rely on cyber tactics that emphasize novelty, creativity, and deception.” The Adaptive Defense security model is an approach for defending against advanced threat actors that scales up or down based on the unique needs of each security organization at any point in time.
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CHANNEL STREET
Global is the Strategic Distributor for Overland Storage Overland Storage launched its V3 hyper-converged virtual desktop appliance to address the rapidly growing virtualization and cloud markets. The purpose-built V3 Appliance delivers an easy-to-deploy virtual desktop solution with simplified management tools and lower TCO. Tan Lee Ann, Regional Sales Director APAC and Middle East, Overland Storage, said,
“With the appointment of Global as a strategic partner, they will be among the first to be enabled to deploy and support the VDI technology in the Middle East. I believe with “Global’s” reach and technical capabilities we will be able to build a strong VDI business together.” Mario M. Veljovic, Vice President Solutions MENA at Global Distribution FZE
says their vision is to enable the Reseller Community to embrace Solution Selling and they are committed to offer partners the latest technology in the market and all necessary support to become successful.” “Partnering with Overland Storage, with its pioneering technologies, is a great step forward in our Mission.”, he added.
WEB CLIPS JUST GOT EASIER WITH AUTODESK 360 Autodesk Fusion 360—a cloud-based tool that combines 3D industrial and mechanical design, collaboration, and machining in a single package— has become the first solution of its kind available for purchase worldwide on the Mac App Store. “The fundamental methods of design and manufacturing are experiencing radical disruption,” said Robert “Buzz” Kross, senior vice president at Autodesk. “We started from scratch and co-created Fusion 360 with the product design community to reimagine 3D CAD and CAM. NEXTHINK V5.2 UNVEILED Nexthink has launched Nexthink V5.2 to improve IT services, endpoint threat detection and security compliance and workplace
APTEC IS BROCADE’S NEW VAD FOR MENA REGION
transformation projects. The new smart search
Aptec has joined Brocade’s Alliance Partner Network (APN) as a Value-Added Distributor (VAD) covering the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, in an effort to grow the company’s regional footprint and market share. Initially Aptec will focus on promoting and distributing Brocade’s products through its vast reseller network, and later will also offer implementation and technical support services. Yarob Sakhnini, Regional Director, MEMA at Brocade interestingly puts it across that signing Aptec is more strategic rather than tactical. They are not looking for short term wins, but rather building on their vision of their distribution landscape. Aptec’s wide regional geographical coverage, extensive customer base and vendor portfolio that complements Brocade’s products and enables ‘solution-based’ sales, made it a perfect fit.
enterprises understand they have a problem, but
will help organizations lower the level of technical expertise needed to leverage IT analytics. “Most few have the necessary information, leadership, funding and strategy to solve that problem. Organizations often overlook print, although Gartner has found that organizations that manage their printer, copier, MFP and fax fleets can save up to 30% of their printing costs,” said Sharon McNee of Gartner. HDS AND CLARION SHAKE HANDS Hitachi Data Systems Corporation (HDS) has partnered with Clarion Corporation of America
MOVEMENTS Riverbed appoints PAUL MOUNTFORD as the Senior Vice President and Chief Sales Officer, reporting to David Peranich, President, Worldwide Field Operations at Riverbed. Sennheiser has appointed JOHN MCGREGOR as its new BDM for the Middle East. Bit9 plus Carbon Black Appoints DAVID FLOWER Managing Director for EMEA Xerox has appointed JOHN KENNEDY as chief marketing officer and a vice president of the corporation, effective July 28, 2014. Brocade has appointed BRIAN LEVY as senior director of technology, EMEA.
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75 NUMBER GAME
percent
of Mobile Applications will Fail Basic Security Tests Through 2015
to jointly research and develop new data-driven solutions for deployment in the next generation of Clarion in-vehicle connectivity products. “Given the extraordinary proliferation of the local auto industry, with double-digit year over year growth in the UAE, there is a clear requirement for the type of machine-to-machine data research this partnership is championing,” says Aaron White, general manager Middle East and Pakistan, HDS. TAIWAN COMPANIES REVEAL EXCLUSIVE PRODUCTS IN DUBAI Award winning companies from Taiwan’s business and lifestyle focused technology sectors, showcased their exclusive products for the first time in Dubai at the ‘Taiwan Excellence days’, held from September 21st through the 23rd, 2014. The event was held in collaboration with the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) to feature new products and highlight industry trends, a part of Taiwan’s global initiative to promote “Made in Taiwan” brands.
CHANNEL STREET
Dell Unveils Latest Range of End-to-End Solutions at GITEX Tech Week 2014 Dell continues to innovate and part of Dell’s progressive softwarebroaden its portfolio of industry defined strategy featuring Dell intelstandard, scale-up, and scale-out lectual property and collaborations technology solutions that span with leading enterprise software the desktop to the data centre companies to integrate and optimize and to the cloud. Dell infrastructure and management During GITEX, end users capabilities, with some of the most and channel partners can take a widely deployed applications and DAVE BROOKE, GM, DELL ME workloads in enterprises today. closer look at new Networking solutions including the Dell Dave Brooke, GM, Dell ME: Networking Z9500, an energy efficient, highest “Dell continues to introduce new solutions in density per rack unit, and only pay-as-you grow the region designed to address common IT 10/40 GbE data centre core switch. End users challenges for customers of all sizes. GITEX has and channel partners can also take a closer look become a key regional platform and many of our at Dell Storage solutions that are helping redefine customers and partners travel down each year the economics of Enterprise Storage. On display from the region. This is a great opportunity for us will be the new Dell Storage SC4000 Series arrays to highlight our end-to-end integrated solutions and a portfolio of software-defined storage and and showcase our global capabilities available in converged solutions. These products make up the Middle East.”
EMIRCOM RECOGNISED AS VCE GOLD PARTNER Emircom has achieved the Gold Partner status from VCE Partner Program for Solution Providers which will enable it to benefit from VCE tools and resources to grow its converged infrastructure business. This designation recognises Emircom as having fulfilled the training requirements and program pre-requisites to sell, deploy and support end-to-end VCE solutions at the highest level. VCE Gold Partners are the highest tier in the Partner Program. Commenting on the new status, Mohamad Abou-Zaki, Chief Operating Officer at Emircom, said: “This recognition is in line with our commitment to constantly develop our capabilities to the frontiers of technology and innovative solutions. As the first system integrator in the region to execute large projects with VCE, we have made significant investments to align our company with technology verticals and provide our customers with exemplary experiences, one of which being the adoption of a Converged Infrastructure. We are confident that this solution will help companies achieve data center consolidation, save their IT costs and transform their existing IT infrastructure to the level that can provide users with data center service capabilities which legacy infrastructure is unable to support.” Dany El Khoury, channel manager, Middle East and Turkey at VCE is of the belief that since converged infrastructure combines several traditional silo-ed IT components into a single solution, for their customers to be successful, it is critical that VCE has partners who can work alongside to the highest ability across all those areas.
FULL VERSION OF QLIK SENSE FOR BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND DATA VISUALIZATION AVAIABE Qlik has finally introduced general availability of Qlik Sense, the first device-independent, self-service visualization and discovery product engineered for enterprise-class governance and performance. It gives users the unrestricted ability to create personalized data analyses and explore the relationships that exist in data to reveal connections instantly. “Our vision for Qlik Sense builds on our belief that anyone in an organization should be able to easily create dynamic dashboards to explore their data to uncover meaningful insights,” said Lars Björk, Qlik CEO. “The problem with self-service BI has always been that you either get rich BI capability with weak usability, or a very approachable product with limited analysis capability,” said Anthony Deighton, Qlik CTO and Senior Vice President of Products. “With Qlik Sense, we set out to change that. That’s why we built Qlik Sense on the second generation of our patented associative data indexing engine, but gave it a rich, modern visualization front-end that is intuitive, yet powerful.” Qlik Sense is available immediately. With the token-based licensing model, customers can deploy multiple servers, across multiple geographies, to optimize for performance and availability without paying any additional costs.
COMMVAULT UNVEILS PRIVATE CLOUD SERVICES DESIGN FOR DATA MANAGEMENT CommVault has launched a new consulting service to enable customers to rapidly design data protection services as a critical component of their private cloud infrastructure. Using CommVault’s Private Cloud Services Design offering, customers can now design a servicecentric approach for data manage-
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ment supporting the private cloud in approximately six weeks, achieving improved quality of service levels, increased security and faster market response times. Robert Kaloustian, vice president, worldwide technical services, CommVault says, “CommVault’s new Private Cloud Services Design
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offering addresses cost, time and risk - the Achilles’ heel of private cloud implementation – to speed the transition to cloud infrastructure and help improve agility, business alignment and service level transparency.” Following the recently announced Simpana solutions, the new consulting service extends
ROBERT KALOUSTIAN, VICE PRESIDENT, WORLDWIDE TECHNICAL SERVICES, COMMVAULT
CommVault’s commitment to enable data management for any cloud infrastructure.
CHANNEL STREET
Red Hat to Acquire FeedHenry Red Hat has signed a definitive agreement to officer, FeedHenry said, “We are excited to become acquire FeedHenry, an enterprise mobile applicapart of Red Hat, the leader in open source entertion platform provider. FeedHenry expands Red prise solutions, and see this as confirmation of the Hat’s broad portfolio of application combined power of mobile and development, integration, and cloud, the mass-market adoption Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) soluof mobile application and MBaaS tions, enabling Red Hat to support platforms, and the growing popumobile application development in larity of Node.js.” Craig Muzilla, public and private environments. senior vice president, Application FeedHenry is an important Platform Business, Red Hat addition to Red Hat’s JBossxPaaSbelieves that FeedHenry will help forOpenShift strategy, announced CATHAL MCGLOIN, CHIEF RedHat enable customers to take EXECUTIVE OFFICER, in September 2013, providing a advantage of the capabilities of FEEDHENRY (L) WITH CRAIG MUZILLA, SENIOR VICE platform and services for mobile mobile with the security, scalPRESIDENT, APPLICATION developers and applications. ability, and reliability of Red Hat PLATFORM BUSINESS, RED Cathal Mc Gloin, chief executive HAT (R) enterprise software.
STARLINK TO FOCUS ON CYBER DEFENSE AT GITEX 2014 StarLink will showcase its next-generation IT Security portfolio with its participating vendor partners at GITEX Technology Week 2014. This year the firm has plans to expand further into Southern Europe and North Africa, as well as, North America. Currently over 250 partners are managed across the 14 countries where StarLink has on-the-ground channel management, channel sales and technical resources to support partners. “At GITEX this year, StarLink will showcase a unique mix of defensein-depth solutionsto combat the latest cyber-threats and address today’s compliance challenges in the Middle East,” said Mahmoud Nimer, General Manager, StarLink.
EMT TO SHOWCASE NEW RANGE OF SECURITY AND PRODUCTIVITY SOLUTIONS AT GITEX 2014 emt Distribution will be participating at GITEX 2014, where it will unveil new products from its new vendor partners Whats Up Gold and Bee Ware, in addition to showcasing new products from its existing vendor partners. According to Mohammad Mobasseri, the CEO at emt Distribution, emt Distribution has this year booked a bigger space at the event, in order to be able to show case more products from new and existing vendors. They expect all their vendor partners to be present. He adds, “Our team possesses leading industry qualifications, and is equipped with all relevant vendor certification to act as ‘Trusted Advisors’ for channel partners and end-users. And this is one of the main highlights we will be reiterating at GITEX Technology Week 2014”.
CANON PARTNERS WITH EMIRATES GREEN TO PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE LIVING In line with Canon Middle East’s efforts to promote sustainable living, the imaging solutions provider has partnered with the Emirates Green Building Council to support initiatives in the UAE regarding renewable resources and conservation. As part of the campaign to increase community awareness while nurturing young talent, an environmental themed student photography competition was launched to mark World Green Building Week. World Green Building Week is the largest annual opportunity to shine the spotlight on the mission of Green Building Councils to create sustainable built environments. In the UAE, Emirates GBC, with support from partners such as Canon, is marking World Green Building Week under the theme of ‘Get Up Green Up.’ As the inaugural activity, the ‘Get Up Green Up’ themed photography competition was open to students enrolled at any university in the UAE to submit their images for review. The competition was intended to encourage the community to become ambassadors of ‘green lifestyles’ and highlight the positive contributions individuals can make. The winner was Nadia Saleh from the American University of Sharjah, and she was awarded the latest Canon DSLR camera. Saeed Al Abbar, Chairman of EmiratesGBC, said: “With World Green Building Week we hope to motivate both corporations and the local community to consider their ecological impact on our natural resources.”
VEEAM CERTIFIED ENGINEER: NEW CERTIFICATION TO PROPARTNERS AND END-USERS Veeam launches new technical training and certification programs for both its reseller ProPartners and end-users. The new program set to roll across Middle East region starting at the end of September 2014 will educate and certify partners and end-user engineers as Veeam Certified Engineers (VMCE). The designation of VMCE establishes a
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level of expertise required to implement and configure Veeam software correctly and most effectively. The designation also verifies the engineer has the necessary knowledge and experience to be hired. Distribution partners of Veeam such as Aptec are selected as Veeam Authorized Education Centers (VMAEC) to deliver fee-based
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education courses with a curriculum developed by Veeam. The first VMCE session is planned for September 28-30th in Dubai, UAE at Aptec-Ingram Micro’s office in Dubai Internet City, Dubai, UAE. “As the only distributor across Middle East and Africa delivering Veeam’s VMCE program, we are excited to help grow Veeam and the
market awareness about its products,” said Zornitza Hadjitodorova, Head of Ingram Micro Training, Middle East and Africa. Veeam plans to empower its engineers specifically by providing education on Veeam product capabilities, their interaction and alignment with compatible technologies.
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Gitex, Dubai World Trade Centre, 12-16 October 2014 Stand B2-4, Hall 2 Sheikh Saeed Entrance hidglobal.com 息 2014 HID Global Corporation/ASSA ABLOY AB. All rights reserved. HID, HID Global, the HID Blue Brick logo, the Chain Design, iCLASS SE, Secure Identity Object, SIO and Seos 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. All other trademarks, service marks, and product or service names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
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CHANNEL STREET
Cisco Unveils Industry’s First ThreatFocused Firewall Cisco has introduced the indusafter an attack. try’s first threat-focused Next-GenCisco ASA with Fireeration Firewall (NGFW). Cisco POWER Services is a new, ASA with FirePOWER Services adaptive, threat-focused provides the full contextual awareNGFW that delivers superior, ness and dynamic controls needed multi-layered protection from to automatically assess threats, the data center to the network correlate intelligence, and optimize to the endpoint, extending its defenses to protect all networks. capabilities far beyond legacy By integrating the proven Cisco MAHER JADALLAH, CISCO NGFW solutions. SECURITY SALES MANAGER ASA 5500 Series firewall with “In today’s climate of MIDDLE EAST & NORTH application control, and Intrusion industrialized hacking and AFRICA. Prevention Systems (NGIPS) and sophisticated cybercrime Advanced Malware Protection gangs, we’ve entered an era in which legacy (AMP) from Sourcefire, Cisco is trying to NGFW solutions are not enough to thwart provide integrated threat defense across the attackers,” said Maher Jadallah, Cisco Security entire attack continuum – before, during and Sales Manager Middle East & North Africa.
BROCADE ACQUIRES VISTAPOINTE SOLUTIONS FOR MOBILE OPERATORS Brocade has acquired the network visibility and analytics technology assets of privately held Vistapointe with offices in the US, Ireland, and India in an all-cash transaction. The Vistapointe technologies are software-based, carrier-grade network visibility and analytics solutions for mobile operators embracing Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) architectures. These capabilities will be essential for MNOs rolling out 4G/LTE technology across the billions of mobile devices deployed worldwide, led primarily by data networking requirements. Moreover, the Vistapointe acquisition directly complements the existing Brocade MLX-based IP telemetry solution to provide MNOs with an end-to-end network intelligence solution, from the network packet broker to analytics applications. Jason Nolet, Vice President of the Switching, Routing, and Analytics products group, Brocade says, “The Vistapointe team has recognized the disruptive opportunity of leveraging NFV-based solutions for analytics, and we believe its technology is at the forefront of this space and perfectly aligned to the needs of mobile operators.” Vistapointe CEO, Ravi Medikonda, has joined Brocade as Vice President of the Network Visibility and Analytics product group. Furthermore, Brocade has hired the Vistapointe development team, and they will report into Medikonda as part of the new business unit.
NETAPP TO SHOWCASE LATEST PRODUCTS AT GITEX 2014 NetApp will showcase its broad product and solution portfolio at GITEX 2014, with a particular emphasis on NetApp Data ONTAP, the Open Networked Branded Storage Operating System. NetApp’s booth will feature their FAS, E-Series, Flash and FlexPod portfolio. NetApp is also partnering with NEC and Axis to showcase a face recognition solution in connection with their E-Series video surveillance storage solutions. Alliance Partner Veeam Software and reselling partner Diyar United Company will join NetApp at their booth. “This is NetApp’s first time having our own stand at GITEX, and we’re very excited to be a part of one of the world’s leading technology trade shows,” said Fadi Kanafani, regional director Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan NetApp. Kanafani added that at NetApp, they believe that GITEX is a great opportunity to grow footprint in the region, by not only showcasing their solutions portfolio, but also demonstrating their relevance to the region. “With the rising demand for data stemming from infrastructure development ahead of Expo 2020 in Dubai and World Cup 2022 in Qatar, as well as on-going investments in Saudi Arabia’s transportation, health care and education sectors, the Middle Eastern region is now experiencing a surge in demand for robust storage solutions. ” Further, NetApp will be located at CLD15 in Hall 6 (Cloud Hall).
FARO NAMES OMNIX INTERNATIONAL AS NEW DISTRIBUTOR Omnix International is the official distributor for FARO for the territory of UAE, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Omnix will offer FARO’s latest line of laser scanners through its networks in the region, thereby serving the needs and requirements of surveyors, contractors, engineers and geospatial professionals. Under the terms of the agreement, the company will be
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selling and providing support for the FARO Laser Scanner X Series as well as its accompanying software SCENE. Chris Holligan, Vice President of Sales at FARO says the decision to chose Omnix was based on the large customer base it has , which overlaps with FARO’s target customers, with several products based
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on CAD and digitation. Moreover Omnix is an Autodesk partner, which fits in seamlessly with FARO’ strategic partnership with Autodesk worldwide. “The Middle East region is currently demonstrating a large demand for quick, accurate and easy to use laser scanning solutions. Our new partnership with FARO seeks to address
this challenge as they have come up with a product that is versatile, compact and very user-friendly for the 3D scanning market. We are very excited to offer FARO’s X Series as part of our diverse portfolio through our strong Middle East distribution network.” concluded Dr. Jayant Deshpande, Director - CAD Division, Omnix International.
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11/09/14 9:52 pm
MY VIEWS
they want and what’s the best way to protect them both from accidental change or misconfiguration to all the way of protecting from attack. Once you define this strategy then it’s time to say that I need this product or solution. So, this comes at the end and organizations need to focus on that. The biggest weakness I see in industry today is that we are using technology to make up for lack of practice and policy. That’s a challenge. What is the latest technology getting infused into the McAfee products? We are really focused on the idea of connected architecture. We have a concept of Security Connected for almost ten years now where we have taken our portfolio and found ways to integrate our technologies to work better. So, I can take something I learn from one technology and use that to make a better defence capability with another.
BRIAN KENYON
VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER - MCAFEE
“We are 3-4 years ahead of other players” THE SECURITY WORLD IS CHANGING RAPIDLY AND VENDORS ARE INNOVATING CONSTANTLY TO KEEP WITH THE THREATS. ENTERPRISE CHANNELS MEA SPOKE TO BRIAN KENYON, VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER – MCAFEE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE COMPANY’S PLANS.
Your competition says that antivirus is dead. There has been enough discussion on that point, some agree and some don’t. What is your viewpoint? I don’t believe that anti-virus is dead but I do believe is that anti-virus is not enough. Years ago, it used to be prescribed solution. AV today is part of a broader solution. It is a necessary part but we need different techniques as well. We are investing both in our legacy anti-virus technology and also investing in different kinds of capabilities to bring advancements, to do analytics and there is a lot more in our capability now. What is the biggest threat to the industry? Threats are getting lot more complicated and
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sophisticated and much more targeted. Attackers are very well aware whom they are targeting which allows them to hone their skills and capabilities. The biggest challenge we have now in security is complexity. Because of the regulatory compliances, organizations have bought lot of security tools and they are struggling to make them work in sync which is adding to the lot of complexity and a lot of cost. Technology itself is not enough to counter the threats, the right kind of practice is important. What should be the right practises? I think tools or product solutions should come at the end. This should be the manifestation of your strategy. Organizations need to identify which assets they need to protect what
Do you have any customization as far as the regions are concerned? While I see some need for that, I will say the threat is worldwide so the attacks that are being used here will get used in different parts of the world may be by different group or attacker but all that stuff is being transferred and used. So, the capability we build for one region is very much transferrable to the other. Now, we are working to build compliance initiatives that are specific to given regions but when it comes to detection or protection, a lot of it scales across the world. We have duplicated technologies in multiple products. There is an AV component to firewall. We did that for a purpose because we want to have different layers of defence as you go through your architecture. What makes you different from other players? For our strategy we have been focused on the single initiative of tying our solutions together. We are 3-4 years ahead of other players in the market. We are not just talking about it but implementing our strategy. Tell us about the roadmap of your products? We have 50+ products in our portfolio. In next 12 months, you will see new releases from our virtualization capabilities. We will have some releases related to our SIEM, analytics and risk visualization. The real focus for our roadmap always is security first. ë
www.datacenterfuture.com
ENTERPRISE APPLICATION
EPICOR
Going with the Trend ERP is changing with the coming of new trends and it’s inevitable for the vendors to cater to the new demands n B Y: M A N A L I M I S R A < M A N A L I @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >
I
n recent years, IT has been associated with the term ‘comsumerization’. Cloud computing, BYOD, Big Data and Analytics are no longer hyped words but have become reality for the IT industry. With these getting seeped into the system, the way hardware, software and services are used is also changing. ERP is definitely not left untouched. The demand of users is changing accordingly. To support the same, at Epicor EMEA Insights 2014 customer conference, Epicor demonstrated its newly launched ERP version 10. “Users are becoming more demanding from interface as well as hardware point of view. It is extremely important to bring something that provides ease of use and Epicor has invested heavily in bringing simplicity. The business has evolved and our product had to evolve as well. That’s what we have done with Epicor ERP 10,” comments Jawad Squalli, regional vice president for Epicor in Middle East, Africa & India. Epicor ERP version 10 is built entirely on Microsoft technology. ERP version 10 boasts dramatic improvements in performance and scalability. The latest version is based on five principles of collaboration, choice, responsiveness, simplicity and mobility to support today’s business requirements. Malcolm Fox, Vice President, Product Marketing, Epicor Software Corporation says, “We realise that ERP is changing and we need to provide best solutions to our customers. ERP is not an easy thing for the companies and it’s not an easy thing to change. There are new trends coming in the technology, we felt that the time was right to take the products we had and make them a lot of amenable to some of the trends taking place.”
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JAWAD SQUALLI,
REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT FOR EPICOR IN MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA & INDIA.
“Some of our customers are using our ERP from 15 wyears and have moved from platform to platform,” Fox informs that Epicor has been working behind this technology for seven years. There is huge investment from the company’s side and it reinforces the technology advancement that has played central role in its solutions. “It was worth making the investment because it has given us phenomenal agility, twice the performance, and four times scalability,” he says. The new social enterprise solution that is added with this release makes it possible to remove that barrier in 90% of the organizations that don’t use ERP. For those non-ERP users,
there is now a pure browser based access and enables individuals to choose to follow or to be notified when something of the interest happens within the application. It can connect to external data streams. “This is very interesting aspect of social enterprise solution, it is available outside the ERP and yet it’s connected to the very heart of it. We don’t constrain our customers but empower them to take this wherever they want to for their business,” explains Fox. He says that Epicor has looked into eliminating the complexity in entire process including
ENTERPRISE APPLICATION
implementation. It has also been working on the tools so that any existing customer can easily get to the new version which is free of charge. So, customers are going to face shorter implementations, IT organizations will experience improved administration. There are tools like solution workbench that enable customers to take any customization, configuration or changes from release to release. It’s easier not only to use but to install as well. The seamlessness of the migration will depend on the level of change where the customers have implemented on their system and the age of the existing system. “Theoretically, it’s easier than a normal upgrade. We have a very good relationship with Microsoft so it was easy to standardize on the Microsoft stack,” he says. As far as the expectations with version 10 are considered, Jawad says that for this region, this will have new business perspective. “Secondly, it is proving to the market that we are ahead. We have more than 600 customers in the region. Some of our customers are using our ERP from 15 years and have moved from platform to platform,” Jawad adds. Having the right product can never suffice. It has to be followed by the right kind of marketing and placement along with channel enablement catering to local needs. Epicor has taken care of this aspect as well. “Any product we market in the region, we invest a lot of time and energy and include country-specific functionalities to take care of the local rules and regulations and requirements and also from the language perspective,” he added. Fox asserts that the company is certain that this is going to address some of the concerns out of the customers. This is going to improve customer satisfaction. As far as vertical penetration is concerned, Fox says that the company focused on some industries and verticals within those industries the strategy is to own those areas and then move out to other areas. “We have substantial presence in some verticals and we are looking to build on that in subsequent releases,” he says. The new release is particularly important for the partners because moving to a pure Microsoft stack really opens up partners to develop add-on solutions. They don’t have to learn new tools or skills. Epicor follows a mix of direct and channel model in Middle East. In Middle East, some areas are 100% channel while other are not. In the UAE, there are couple of direct sales people focused on the most part of the UAE, the rest of the ME is 100% channel. “Our model is not SAP or Microsoft kind of model where we will have 1000+ partners in the UAE. We have a handful of solid partners in the UAE. What we want to do is get more vertical with our channel. We are
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MALCOLM FOX
VICE PRESIDENT, PRODUCT MARKETING, EPICOR SOFTWARE CORPORATION
“It was worth making the investment because it has given us phenomenal agility, twice the performance, and four times scalability.” never 100+ partners because we don’t have the channel infrastructure to do that,” says James Frampton, Vice President Channels EMEA, Epicor Software. According to him, for Epicor, Middle East is the biggest growth region both revenue-wise and channel. The company is actively looking for partners in Saudi Arabia and has got a couple of new partners in Kuwait. “In the UAE, we would like to bring bigger partners. We have already recruited a new partner in Bahrain. Across Middle East, there are 15 partners and we areadding 15-20 more,” he adds. Epicor has a dedicated channel manager focusing on Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar. For South Gulf, a channel manager is based out of Dubai managing Oman and the UAE. There is yet another channel manager for Saudi Arabia. “We don’t want hundreds of partners. In the UAE, for eg, if I could get 3-5 big partners, who have technology expertise, customer base and can take us to the markets that we have not touched,” says James. Any product Epicor market in the region, it invests a lot of time and energy and includes country-specific functionalities to take care of the local rules and regulations and requirements and also from the language perspective. “Our partners will be enabled, trained and certified before they start with this product. 50% business comes
direct and 50% from the channel. Our channel business is growing on the double digit growth because of the geographic expansion. We are not in the business of quantity but quality. We are extremely rigorous on what type of partners we are bringing into our ecosystem,” adds Jawad . Spoeksperson3 informs that Epicor is movingfrom providing perpetual licensing to Software as a Service model. “We need to think how to position that in this region and globally. We need to work out what’s good for the partner. There is a mentality that ERP cannot be held out as a service on the cloud. We will be announcing more things in coming next 3-4 months,” he adds. Epicor has launched Partner Enablement Program which is in collaboration withEpicor University.
FINALLY... ERP is changing with the coming of new trends and it’s inevitable for the vendors to cater to the new demands. There are more changes ahead but Epicor seems to be geared-up to face the challenge. “We are the only ERP vendor who has undertaken the process of convergence. We have built a next-gen, highly functional, global ERP solution that took 8-9 of our existing applications and built into one. The future is going to be different and it’s going to change very fast,” says Fox. ë
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AOC G2460PG 24”
G-SYNC TM Gaming Monitor NVIDIA G-SYNCTM Technology 1920 x 1080 @144Hz Up to 1 ms GtG NVIDIA 3D VISION™ Ready
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Input: DisplayPort USB: 2x 2.0, 3x 3.0 130mm ergonomic stand
www.aoc-europe.com ©2014 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. NVIDIA and NVIDIA G-SYNC are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the United States and other countries. © 2014 Activision Publishing, Inc. ACTIVISION, CALL OF DUTY and CALL OF DUTY: ADVANCED WARFARE are trademarks of Activision Publishing, Inc. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
See the latest AOC innovations at GITEX in Hall 8, booth C8-30
ENTERPRISE APPLICATION
HELP AG
The Strength of Partnership
No vendor can practically be present in all parts of the world. In such a scenario, partners form an important cog in reaching out to targeted customers. n B Y: M A N A L I M I S R A < M A N A L I @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >
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hile entering new markets, a partnership with a company having regional reach becomes a must. Help AG, the leading IT security solutions, services and consultancy company is active in the Middle East since 2004. Focusing solely on the security aspects of Information Technology, Help AG helps its partners understand customers’ needs to the optimum. “We are into security and we need to understand the customer requirement and if I have identified the requirement and talk to him from the beginning to help them put the right specification. When we sell our products, our customers expect 24*7 local support and we can only do that if we have a portfolio which are able to handle. We are not selling products. We have services like Strategic Consulting, Security Analysis, Support and Technical Services,” comments, Stephan Berner, Managing Director at Help AG. Infoblox, the company with the largest global installed base of DNS, DHCP, and IP address management (DDI), partnered with Help AG seven years ago. The company has re-launched itself and has done a lot in the last year in having direct sales. “Now, we can proudly say that more than 80% of the Oil & Gas sector knows Infoblox. We have started now to focus a lot on healthcare. So, having a direct presence is helping. We are doing a lot of awareness events for partners and
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STEPHAN BERNER
MANAGING DIRECTOR AT HELP AG
“Managed Security Services were not very well accepted in the past but now they would be and customers are going to buy that concept more and more.”
ENTERPRISE APPLICATION
DR. CHERIF SLEIMAN
GENERAL MANAGER MIDDLE EAST & TURKEY, OFINFOBLOX.
ENTERPRISE DEFENCE ARCHITECT, ACCESSDATA.
“We want quality and Help AG is a very well-known brand and has aggressive strategy in the region to function.”
“We already had our name in Forensics but when it came to information security, people didn’t know us.”
events. Help AG is the catalyst in this region and they are very selective in the way they partner. Putting your brand under Help AG gives incredible amount of mileage,” says Dr. Cherif Sleiman, General Manager Middle East & Turkey, of Infoblox. With a team of 12 people, Infoblox has a presence in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar and is eyeing other countries like Egypt. Infoblox has invested heavily in the region and has doubled its team. “For us this market is a booming market. There is great opportunity to educate customers. Security is a big play. We are not interested in the quantity of partners. We want quality and Help AG is a very well-known brand and has aggressive strategy in the region to function. We have been working very closely. We have fortifies our distribution, created a very aggressive channel
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strategy with partners on-board who have served different geographies. We have focused a lot on training these partners at Infoblox cost,” says Dr. Cherif. The company provides solutions in only two flavours. One is hardware appliance and the other is virtual machines. It works with service providers and big system integrators and customers can have service from them. “To say that there is no challenge would be an understatement. HelpAG is a leader and we all have to work very hard because the trends are not easily to deal with. Virtualization, cloud computing, different kinds of threats, mobility, the need for forensics etc. are changing the parameters. The challenge is dealing and mastering the trends and mapping them to the customers and educating them and helping the customers to mature,” comments Dr. Cherif.
As its partner, Berner says that Help AG appreciates that Infoblox has a new team in place here, focusing on sales and technical enablement. Help AG signed up Access Data in the beginning of this year. Access Data is known for Digital Forensics. “From the marketing perspective we were extremely underinvested. We already had our name in Forensics but when it came to information security, people didn’t know us. The attitude has changed now. Today, we have a CMO and tripled our marketing,” says Lucas Zaichkowsky, enterprise defence architect, AccessData. AccessData. “We signed up with AccessData because we understand a lot of requirements coming. Either you wait until the whole market is going to do it or you can be a leader and line up with the right vendor partner. Today, even though Access Data has its own professional services, we are happy to have them. With Infoblox business we have six certified engineers. It is going to take time with Access Data to have that amount,” comments Berner. Access Data believes that it is important for the partners to have training to understand where the prduct fits in so that they can present it properly. They should also be able to access customers’ needs and pain points. “It is about education. We have sales people who do direct as well as channel management. Consolidation into a single interface and automation are two of our value propositions. These both extend to our integration,” adds Lucas.
FINALLY... Infoblox is channelizing its investments into direct events/education/awareness, PR, channel marketing and incentives rolled out to shape behaviour. AccessData’s goal this year is to get the brand recognition and next year to have the breakthrough revenue year as the result of the brand recognition. In 2012, Help AG comprised 28 people and by the year end it will be 90. “In 2016, we expect to be a 100 people organization. By 2016, we expect to be $80 million company. We are going to strengthen our position in existing markets and grow into new markets like Saudi Arabia. In managed security services and cloud services, we will be offering additional services,” says Berner. As far as, Managed Security Services are concerned, Berner says that this is the right time for building managed security services and to have a sustainable business model. “Managed Security Services were not very well accepted in the past but now they would be and customers are going to buy that concept more and more,” he concludes. ë
MY VIEWS
launched two websites. To engage with the new breed of shoppers and to provide easy and instantaneous access to its comprehensive range of best-in-breed antivirus and IT security solutions, we launched an online store that caters to both business and home customers in Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, KSA, Kuwait, the UAE, Jordan and Yemen. The other portal, GoExplore.net, curates the best of the web’s content and encourages people to explore the web safely. With the World Wide Web reaching its 25th birthday this year, ESET’s aim is to create an easy-to-use-web portal for everyone who wants to explore the online universe, upload interesting content and contribute to collating content for their fellow web surfers.
PRADEESH VS
GENERAL MANAGER AT ESET MIDDLE EAST
Growing in Stature ONE CANNOT JUST RULE OUT THE IMPACT OF AN END POINT SECURITY ON THE EFFICIENCY OF THE INFORMATION WORKERS. THERE MIGHT BE PERSONAL REASONS WHY SOME VENDORS OPINE THAT ANTIVIRUS IS NONIMPORTANT. HOWEVER ESET IS STRONGLY COMMITTED TO ITS POSITION AND CONTINUE INVESTING IN THIS MARKET.PRADEESH VS, GENERAL MANAGER AT ESET MIDDLE EAST SPOKE TO ENTERPRISE CHANNELS MEA ABOUT THEIR MEA STRATEGY. EXCERPTS
What has been your performance for last one year? Over 2014 ESET has expanded as a team and as a result, our market reach has also expanded. We now have the right mix of partners catering to every sector of the market and this has helped us open new opportunities. Our success can also be attributed to the growth of the regional security market. There is a lot of spending happening in this area and both the size and complexity of projects warrant greater competency and solution’s delivery capabilities from the channel. 2014 has been a year in which many of the trends and ‘hot topics’ that we discussed in 2013 have been implemented. How many products have you launched? In March this year, we launched our new and improved ESET Cyber Security Pro and ESET
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Cyber Security solutions. These protect Mac users against phishing attacks and social media based exploits and both products come with added layers of protection to Apple’s built in Internet security features. Later in May, we launched the newest version of ESET Mobile Security, which arms Android users with proactive Anti-Theft features to track lost or stolen mobile devices, through an easy-touse web interface at my.eset.com. While the basic protection is free for a lifetime, it’s up to users to decide if they want to subscribe and benefit from Premium features. We are launching our Version 8 of our flagship Smart Security and NOD32 Antivirus solutions at GITEX. The latest line-up includes Botnet Protection and Enhanced Exploit Blocker that protects against exploits and offer anti-phishing and social media scanning capabilities. In addition to these product launches, we also
What kind of innovation have you incorporated in your portfolio? Innovation is particularly important for ESET since the domain of IT security requires constantly evolving and updating our portfolio to remain a leader. We have helped foster innovation through our ESET Technology Alliance program. The aim of the program is to better protect businesses with a range of complimentary IT security solutions that seamlessly integrate with ESET products. All members of the ESET Technology Alliance are strategically selected security companies that specialize in a specific IT security area which complements the ESET product portfolio. The program’s partners are carefully vetted against a set of established criteria to extend “best-in-class” business protection across IT environments. The first entrant into the ESET Technology Alliance is DESlock, an encryption software company. We have started incorporating these solutions in to our existing customers’ environments. How many partners have you created in the past year? We have been here in Middle East for almost a decade and most of the partners are already associated with us. However, we have managed to have more focus on making every partner active and this is where we have succeeded. How have you strengthened your internal resources ? We have grown as a team and with this we have been able to establish a dedicated team taking care of renewals and new business. We have also added resource in marketing and to our technical staff. Our technical team is known to deliver prompt support and for this we have dedicated resource for both presales and post sales. ë
SECURE DATA
ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES Enjoy Safer Technology Protected by ESET Our line of solutions for business ensure that all your vital IT infrastructure that runs your business is protected. From servers to the last smartphone out on business, you can relax and enjoy your safer technology, looked after by ESET.
Visit us at Gitex 2014 Hall 1, Stand A1-13
www.eset.com/me I Info@esetme.com I Tel +97143754052 I Fax +97144290967 I Office 305, Building 2, Dubai Internet City
COVER STORY
UC
Enterprise Communications:
A Necessity Gone are the days when having a full-fledged communications infrastructure was a choice. Today, more or less it has become a necessity for enterprises. n WORDS: MANALI MISRA <MANALI@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM> n PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
C
ommunication technology is at the heart of every enterprise irrespective of its size and location. The constant need to stay connected and the advent of internet have opened new realms in the space of enterprise communications.
EMERGING TRENDS Several new technologies are engulfing enterprise communications today. The most significant are: Mobile Collaboration, Communications-enabled Processes, and Cloud Delivery. In the times of cost-cutting, Unified Communications has grown in leaps and bounds. “Enterprise communications (or more commonly unified communications) used to be considered a luxury and something that only large enterprises could afford. This is no longer the case. These days with the advent and the mainstream use of unified communications, enterprises of all sizes no longer see it as a luxury but as a necessity for daily business use,” comments Dharmendra Parmar, General Manager-Marketing, FVC. BYOD and Infrastructure consolidation are other emerging trends in the enterprise communications space.
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Today IT is expected to be a vital business unit as well as a technology provider, and IT leaders must provision a more versatile voice and data infrastructure to meet business objectives, at the business’s pace. “However, multi-system, multi-site communications infrastructures are not conducive to being “nimble” — the result of nonstandardized legacy equipment, greater network impacts for data storage and reporting, disjointed administration among systems and locations, and the integration complexities that are native to such disparate architectures. Enterprises are creating agility by moving away from multi-system, multi-site communications infrastructures and are consolidating communication infrastructures,” says Shaheen Haque, Territory Manager, Middle East & Turkey at Interactive Intelligence.
THE MOBILE EFFECT Mobile devices have brought a sea change in the way of communication and collaboration. Mobile devices, if used in a proper way can have huge advantages for the organizations. Security is obviously a major concern, and managing access has to be absolutely seamless. “At Avaya, we set the stage with a scalable software defined architecture that provides
the ability to provide either public or private cloud delivery of communications services to any device. And the architecture scales to meet the requirements of the mobile enterprise. Today, 75% of enterprises have at least 20% of their employee base working mobile,” says Savio Tovar Dias, Director – Technical Operations, Avaya Global Growth Markets. The rapid advance of smartphones and the development of mobile apps have given consumers newfound freedom and convenience. The Middle East region is expected to account for the second-largest mobile phone population of any region in the world, according to eMarketer’s Global Media Intelligence Report. “For businesses, this new mobile approach has provided a way to serve customers better and faster and form stronger and more lasting relationships — if done correctly. But that’s the problem. Many organizations in the Middle East have struggled to determine how best to use these new tools to their advantage, and provide their customers with a capability that works well and adds value. Gaining that advantage requires delivering the type of mobile experience users have come to expect, an experience that can take place from anywhere, and with less effort,” says Haque.
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COVER STORY
DHARMENDRA PARMAR, GENERAL MANAGER-MARKETING, FVC
“FVC is actively working with some of the key ISPs in the region to offer UC as a services and helping its partners leverage these opportunities for their customers.” -
SHAHEEN HAQUE, TERRITORY MANAGER, MIDDLE EAST & TURKEY AT INTERACTIVE INTELLIGENCE.
“UC moving to the cloud is the natural migration, especially as the technology is now here to allow this.”
UCAAS IS GROWING RAPIDLY, AND WHILE THERE IS NO SPECIFIC VERTICAL THAT IS TAKING A DOMINANT ADOPTION, THE COMMERCIAL MODEL FOR COMMUNICATIONS AS A SERVICE SEEMS TO BE ATTRACTIVE TO ENTERPRISE ACROSS VERTICALS.
Parmar comments that one of the other key changes FVC is noticing seeing is that technology decisions are not necessarily being made by the traditional IT departments any more. These are now being decided at departmental levels from sales and marketing to accounting, administration and management.
CLOUD-BASED COMMUNICATION MODEL The general opinion is that cloud-based communication model would be the future of communications and the MEA market is responding positively to it. “The Middle East is extremely interested in the cloud for applications, storage and of course communications. We have seen the
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trend globally with tremendous tide of customers turning to cloud based solutions. The Middle East has been skeptical of the security implications and threats, but that has been dissolving over time,” says Haque. Dias feels the same about the growing opportunity in MEA. As markets deregulate, cloud delivery is seeing a rapid uptake – it is being driven largely by big enterprises who are deciding to build private cloud infrastructures for their geographically-dispersed offices. “But at the same time, many service providers and system integrators are starting to bring cloud offerings to market, with initial offerings focused on the small to midsize environments. So the other side of the market is also thriving,” he adds.
SAVIO TOVAR DIAS, DIRECTOR – TECHNICAL OPERATIONS, AVAYA GLOBAL GROWTH MARKETS.
“The channel community is morphing, beginning to support all of the innovation that Avaya is coming out with.”
Since enterprises are also looking at managing operational and capital expenditure, more and more telecommunications organisations are offering communications capabilities as a managed service. “This makes it not only easier to adopt with an OPEX model rather than a CAPEX one, it demonstrates faster ROI for organisations because they need no longer dedicate resources to managing these services. FVC is actively working with some of the key ISPs in the region to offer UC as a services and helping its partners leverage these opportunities for their customers,” comments Parmar.
UPTAKE OF UC AS A SERVICE Due to their ability to connect different geographies, the amalgamation of video, audio and web conferencing has witnessed huge uptake globally. It is cost-effective as well. FVC points out the following key vertical sectors where we have seen higher adoption of these technologies. l Education especially for distance/remote learning as well as for sharing teaching resources
COVER STORY
MIGRATING FROM LEGACY TO NEXTGEN VOICE AND DATA SERVICES The migration to newer technologies is quite fast. Enterprises are adapting to the technology changes. Today, analogue users are few and far between. Dias says, “We have assisted our customers’ transition through every single technology trend to affect the industry for the last forty years here at Avaya, beginning with the switch from analog to digital, then IP to SIP, then based IP to the Internet of Everything. This methodology of transitioning is built into our DNA, and we have always made it simple for our customers to adopt new communications technologies, by leveraging their existing investments in technology.” Dias says that the channel community is morphing, beginning to support all of the innovation that Avaya is coming out with. Avaya has begun to partner with all of the major service providers and system integrators, and can nurture and grow new partner that are helping to assist it address the small-to-medium enterprise market as well.
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EMEA UNIFIED COMMUNICATION MARKET, 2012-18 (US$ BILLION)
14.8%
6.36
2011
2012
2013
Revenue
2014
2015
2016
Growth Rate
CHALLENGES
2017
2018
Source: Transparency Market Research
l Oil & gas allowing for communications and emergencies in remote locations like rigs, etc l Healthcare enabling medical practitioners to provide consultations to clinics and hospitals in remote locations l Hospitality where hotels are increasingly leveraging better communications to differentiate themselves from competition, increasing loyalty from its guests by offering better unified services across all their properties Interactive Intelligence has seen a steady growth and then explosion of cloud-based contact center solutions. “UC moving to the cloud is the natural migration, especially as the technology is now here to allow this. For example advanced web based video codecs and WEBRTC. Doubtless to say, the Middle East and Africa will follow suit,” says Haque. The telecoms, banking and government seem to be the leaders in putting their feet in the water in this arena with already many trials and pilots across the EMEA region. However, Dias feels that UCaaS is growing rapidly, and while there is no specific vertical that is taking a dominant adoption, the commercial model for communications as a service seems to be attractive to enterprise across all verticals. “Predominantly in midsize businesses, where UCaaS gives players the ability to adopt large enterprise functionality, and thus compete against larger and more mature competitors, this technology is taking off,” he says.
THE ROAD AHEAD
a huge impact in enterprise communications,” comments Haque. Over the next 12-18 months, FVC expects to see a steady growth in UC in the GCC countries. In UAE, a large part of the adoption is in the private sector followed by education and finance. These are the main vertical sectors followed by the oil & gas sector. In KSA, the demand for UC solutions is and will continue to be stronger in the oil & gas, education, hospitality and government sectors. We see the trend in the education, hospitality and government sectors continue in Qatar. In Oman, the demand is in the oil & gas, government and education sectors. Dias says, “The future will lie in how communications can continue to deliver true value into the business processes or applications that are impacting individual verticals – so while we’re seeing broad application from UCaaS deployments today, we’ll begin to focus on how industry needs specify different requirements in the future. It will come down to our ability to subscribe to communications services within business applications moving forwards, and our focus on removing Human Latency. Soon this will drive enterprises to let applications talk to applications or users in a structured manner.”
It was only a few years back when video conferencing and application sharing were only available to the biggest and richest organisations. Now, even individuals are using video conferencing for personal purposes. “We are definitely in a different world where communication is all-encompassing. Apart from the other trends, Video and the Internet of Things (IoT) will have
In the highly competitive business environment, the enterprises cannot afford to overlook the benefits of hosted and cloud-based communication model. UCaaS will also see greater traction. Organizations can no longer cling to the old ways. ë
No doubt enterprise communications market is witnessing the adaptation of new technologies but the road is not that easy. Parmar comments, “I think the biggest challenge is for the local technology implementers to be ready to support. The pre-sales teams in these resellers/SIs need to understand business benefits to be able to speak to the customer on a business-level rather than just churn out technology-speak Since a lot of these enterprises are also looking at managing operational and capital expenditure, partners need to understand the possibilities of doing UC business as a service rather than as a capital expense.” Dias points out three challenges namely Security, Compliance and Governance and all have their own pitfalls to overcome, but the industry is tackling them aggressively, and enterprise communication is driving workplace and customer engagement across the board as a result. Haque says, “The challenge is always over adaptation. The Middle East needs to ensure enterprises are using industry standards. Corporate regulations and governance are issues that need to be strictly adhered to.”
FINALLY…
TRADITIONAL SECURITY SOLUTIONS ARE EASILY BYPASSED. DATA THEFT OFTEN GOES UNNOTICED. Imaging a determined hacker breaks into your network to steal your intellectual property. He’s an expert, so he encrypts the data before removing it from your network. Would that trigger an alarm in your defences? Could your security solution distinguish between this attack and an employee banking online? It’s a tough call. And one that Websense can help you make.
CONTACT WEBSENSE For more information email: me@websense.com Meet with the Websense team, visit our distributors at Gitex.
Hall 1, Stand A1-12
Hall 1, Stand B2-3
Hall 2, Stand A2-2
TRITON STOPS MORE THREATS. WE CAN PROVE IT. © 2014 Websense, Inc. All rights reserved. Websense and the Websense logo are registered trademarks of Websense, Inc. in the United States and various countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owner.
MY VIEWS
incredibly low total cost of ownership. Xerox provides the best level of service and support, to name a few services: n Help desk support anytime 365 days a year n In case of technical issues Xerox Emirates has a response time of less than 4 hours n Xerox Emirates have over 110 on and off site trained and experienced engineers throughout the UAE n All engineers are trained on Lean Six Sigma n Xerox Emirates are currently proactively managing 500 clients n In order to guarantee customer support and satisfaction, Xerox Emirates constantly ensure they maintain high inventory of spares and supplies
ANDREW HORNE
GM, XEROX EMIRATES
Printing Solutions Xerox Way WITH THE OFFICE PRINTING JOB GUZZLES CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF THE CORPORATE BUDGET, THERE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A NEED OF THE THINK TANK TO GET RID OF IT OR REDUCE IT CONSIDERABLY. ENTERPRISE CHANNELS MEA SPOKE TO ANDREW HORNE, GM, XEROX EMIRATES TO KNOW ABOUT THEIR WAY OF LOOKING AT THIS ISSUE AND MITIGATING IT.
How relevant is Xerox as a printing solution company to this market? Xerox Emirates, a joint venture between Xerox Corporation and Mohammed Hareb Al Otaiba Group, is a market leader in Technology, Document Management and Consulting Services. With the wide range of technology and services that Xerox has to offer, we have the right solutions for every size of business - be it an SMB or large enterprises. How are you different from other printing solutions vendors? When it comes to performance and reliability, Xerox products outshine the rest. Xerox has been recognized as a market leader by Quocirca, IDC Marketscape, Gartner and The Forrester Wave which is a key differentiator. Xerox prides itself
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in making sure that Xerox technology investment pays off, providing all aspects of the Xerox experience: Xerox equipment, Xerox service, Lease & Warranty, Xerox analysts, Xerox support & service center and Xerox parts and supplies. Our multifunction systems built onConnectKey technology gives real,practical solutions that easily streamline how a customercan communicate, process and share important information, simplify complexpaper-driven tasks and drive down costs. One of the other leading innovations is the Solid Ink Technology, an innovative, awardwinning color printing technology available only from Xerox. Xerox Solid Ink is easy to use and produces stunning color print quality. It also generates up to 90% less printing waste than comparable color laser printers and enables an
What all services do you provide apart from MPS? For more than half a century, Xerox has been a leader in document technology and services. We continue to build on this heritage of innovation. Our services, technology and expertise enable workplaces – from small businesses to large global enterprises – to simplify the way work gets done. Broadly, the Xerox portfolio consists of Xerox Services (Information Management & IT Outsourcing); Technology Products (Office, Production and MPS) and Post Sale (Copy Centers, Supplies, Call Center and Service) Our Xerox services is strongly oriented towards delivering end – to – end solutions to the customers by taking care of its vital functions like Data Migrations, Back up and Disaster recovery and storage optimization. Xerox Services integrated offering combines Managed Services, Consulting services, System Integration, and Industry products. Information Management includes Customer Experience management, enterprise content management, Capture & scanning and Business Process Management. Our technology portfolio of products includes a range of A4 and A3 multifunction printers (both Color & Mono), Solid Ink Technology, and softwares to support SMB’s & Large enterprises. Our production segment includes high end color and black and white digital printers and presses, solutions for short-run book publishing, on-demand documents, transactional applications, cross-media customized campaigns, etc as well as workflow software to simplify how print jobs are created and managed. Our Post Sale includes our strategically located Copy Centers in Dubai & Abu Dhabi, our service center with over 100 trained engineers, and supplies & spares. ë
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MY VIEWS
and even the big organizations don’t seem safe anymore. So, what’s the main reason behind all this in your opinion? All these attacks which happened started possibly from some vulnerable desktops. Moreover it needn’t be technology failure all the time. In most of such cases, the technologies were there but either they were not properly implemented or not monitored. Alerts might have been overlooked. So it’s more about a process failure than the lack of technology in the bigger organizations.
RAJAT MOHANTY
CEO-AT-PALADION-NETWORKS
“Paladion has always been a risk management company” PALADION IS A SPECIALIZED PARTNER FOR INFORMATION RISK MANAGEMENT TO LEADING ORGANIZATIONS ACROSS INDUSTRIES. ENTERPRISE CHANNELS MEA TEAM SPOKE TO THE CEO OF PALADION, MR RAJAT MOHANTY. EXCERPTS...
What’s your main area of specialization? We specialize in managed security; we take over day-to-day management of security in a company and then deliver it through our product, our platform, on-site services- a mix of that. For that we will have a security operations centre somewhere in the offsite we would have our management platform at customer site . We ensure that day to day security operations are managed. What do you really mean when you say you provide for risk management by data mining and analytics? Today the IT security is flooded with too many products and customers are struggling to make sense of the same. There are too many alarms that go on so the user may not know which ones to focus on more. Many small errors accumulate
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over a prolonged period of time to give rise to bigger security issues. In majority of the cases, the low and slow attacks are recognised as the ultimate culprits. Herein, analytics can come handy. These can analyze the historical perspective, can detect those events which are outliers meaning you don’t know what really you are looking for. Most security systems try to look for particular signatures and filter accordingly; but if the pattern is different, it might escape filtering by normal security barriers but can be detected possibly by analytics. Analytics gives a long term perspective, it helps organizations to make sense out of the big amount of data and boiling it down to manageable meaningful info that can be analyzed. Recently there has been a lot of buzz about the increasing cybercrime
How is Paladion useful in such a scenario? Paladion has always been a risk management company. Security has several aspects; one is the vulnerability management wherein we periodically test the system for any mis-configuration, or wrong settings. We also help our customers to continuously monitor the operations, keep on the lookout for newer things that might be happening. We have 24*7 threat monitor. So, Paladion helps customers to manage the security. We also try to leverage our experience with one customer across our entire customer base. Paladion has been helping companies to establish mature risk management processes and monitoring and helping our customers to sustain their security practices. What distinguishes Paladion from other players in the market? Paladion has been traditionally a service focussed company. We have never tried to push specific products into the customers’ premises unlike most of the players in this market. May be that’s why we have more than 50% of the market share in the realm of managed security. People are our strong forte. What’s the main reason of Paladion always making it to the Gartner’s excellent rating? We are a very focussed company. We don’t do anything other than security. And our customers speak highly of us. Gartner always looks at what the customers say. Security being such a dynamic field can’t be run as an add-on business. What are your future plans in this region? We just raised $10 million two months back. We want to build security operations centres in Qatar, KSA and UAE. We are also working on the machine learning platform for security intelligence. We are also looking at cloud delivered security. ë
ENTERPRISE APPLICATION
MPS
Leading the MPS Market In today’s economy structure, every company wants to reduce their cost from whatever opportunity available. MPS on the printing solutions side helps the organisations to reduce significant cost. n B Y: 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 >
R
esearch shows that organisations spend anywhere from one to six per cent of their annual revenues on office copying and printing. It’s clear that offices still tend to print a lot of pages unnecessarily. It’s time for businesses to rethink the way they deal with paper. Lexmark Print Management is the key to helping cut paper waste and improve printing efficiency Operational in the Middle East for more than 15 years, Lexmark is a trusted company for printing solutions and MPS in the region. During past 15 years, the company has established a firm base of customers in all industries verticals. Mathias Militzer, general manager, Lexmark MEA, “Over the course of Lexmark’s history, we have remained agile by acquiring several companies that have bolstered our offerings and solutions portfolio.” Lexmark is uniquely focused on connecting unstructured printed and digital information across enterprises with the processes, applications and people that need it most. Lexmark’s strategic approach to solving the unstructured information challenge is the advantage businesses need to exceed customer expectations, drive financial performance and promote future flexibility. He added, “To put it simply we are best known for managing printing needs. But, printed information is now only part of the wider unstructured information challenge. Whilst printing to paper may be on the decline, the amount of information and content that’s being generated just continues to grow from every source, like email, fax, scan, online etc. The ability to access this content in an organised way is a key challenge for businesses,
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whether they print it or not.” From the innovation perspective, Lexmark has a robust portfolio of products. Recently the company launched the new MS911 and MX910 series as part of itsMFP series.Even the newly launched MS415dn and MS312dn offer increased features and functionalities to help improve the paper workflow. Lexmark has introduced the Business Solution Dealer program which is geared specifically towards those partners that want to engage with their end customers and allow them to make sure they are providing end to end solutions over a contract period with their end customer, training, exclusive products and overall profitability for the channel partner will be a key initiative to move forward. Mathias added, “We have also introduced Lexmark Print Management (LPM) which delivers a new level of flexibility, enabling businesses to create a secure, shared printing and imaging environment with enduring benefits.” Through LPM, not only can partners offer their business customers the ability to reduce printing costs and shrink carbon footprint, but also introduce new functionality in a timely, cost-effective manner. For instance, through LPM, partners can help their customers strengthen access controls, security and compliance, enable printing from mobile devices, track activity and increase user accountability and add redundancy, ensuring printer availability. As part of LPM, Print Release lets users send print jobs from anywhere, e.g. from their desktop, tablet or smartphone and release the jobs for printing whenever and wherever they want to. All documents are held in the print queue until their owners release them. This means confidential information stays
protected and print jobs don’t pile up endlessly on office printers. The queue can be hosted onpremises or in the cloud for additional features and benefits. On average, around 80 per cent of the data within a business is considered to be unstructured – according to analyst firm Gartner. Not only is there is a lot of unstructured data throughout organisations, the creation of new data has never been more distributed, and the velocity of this information moving around networks and into storage is accelerating. Managing unstructured data is extremely important if a business wants to improve efficiency – as well as reduce storage and compliance costs. This task has been painfully difficult due to the time, resources and overhead required to manually insert, process and classify this immense volume of data. Not only is this process time consuming, it’s error prone too. Gartner analysts predict unstructured data will grow a whopping 800 per cent over the next five years. This presents a real challenge for organisations that want to automate and improve their ability to understand their business, anticipate what’s coming and act quickly on risk and opportunity. If enterprises don’t have the right software to prepare for these forthcoming content management issues, they should start planning to do something about it. Mathias commented, “This is where Lexmark comes in. Our journey, underpinned by our core technology ownership, including Content, Output and Process Management, our deep industry experience and superior customer intimacy, we have a unique value proposition to bringto our customers.” “Through the evolution of Managed Print Services, we are able to assist
ENTERPRISE APPLICATION
MATHIAS MILITZER,
GENERAL MANAGER, LEXMARK MEA
“Through LPM, partners can help their customers strengthen access controls, security and compliance, enable printing from mobile devices, track activity and increase user accountability and add redundancy, ensuring printer availability.” MPS plays a key role in the optimisation of the entire document lifecycle. It is vital that documents, whatever their format, can be captured at the point of entry to the organisation and integrated directly into business processes and workflow systems to ensure information is available whenever, and wherever it’s needed across the business. It is this approach which is delivering the true business value of MPS, accelerating the return on investment that can be achieved. MPS thereby increases the speed at which information is captured, processed and made available across organisational systems, and automates internal business processes. With a full understanding of the benefits that MPS nowadays brings, it is clear that businesses can efficiently and effectively deal with growing corporate data volumes, optimise processes across document input and output, and create efficient workflows across an entire organisation
our customers to not only gain benefits from an optimised infrastructure under proactive management but to achieve true Business Process Optimisation through industry focused solutions. This is a journey of continuous improvement for our customers, where Lexmark is able to leverage its experience, skills and people to assist in achieving their
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goals,” he added. Lexmark’s strategic approach to solving the unstructured information challenge is the advantage businesses need to exceed customer expectations, drive financial performance and promote future flexibility. Its commitment to customers, industry analyst validated rankings and the best technology sets up apart from the rest Lexmark was recognized as a clear leader in the research firm IDC’s 2014 MPDS Marketscape report, which analyses the competitive fitness of companies providing Managed Print Services (MPS) and document services. IDC says “Among the vendors evaluated, Lexmark has the longest history of providing specific horizontal and vertical business solutions, backed by a vertically-aligned organization, a mature global infrastructure and a focus on execution excellence.” IDC also praised Lexmark’s strategic acquisitions to augment its strong software portfolio. Even Granter has recognisedLexmark as a leader in 2013 Gartner Magic Quadrant for MPS. In 2012, European-based industry analyst firm Quocirca positioned Lexmark as a market leader in its report, Vendor Landscape: Managed Print Services. Lexmark launched its first multi-country services engagement in the late 1990s, making it a veteran in the field of MPS. From banking to government, Lexmark has bagged many customers under its MPS
strategy. As Lexmark owns its technology, the company is able to deliver a strong integrated MPS and solutions platform. However, Lexmark is very strong across many industries – manufacturing, healthcare, education, government, services, and utilities. Lexmark’s offerings have been extended following its acquisition trail of 10 companies over the past 4 years. The acquired companies allow Lexmark to tap into the elements of the capture, process, content management, and search across various vertical industries in document management. Typically, the intelligent capture solutions can eliminate 85-95 per cent or more of the manual data entry that is otherwise required to key information into back-end systems. Fewer keystrokes translate directly into reduced cost of data entry, fewer errors, and faster input cycle times.
FINALLY... As the MEA region is on a constant quest to adopt technologies that help it remain competitive on a global scale. Companies are daily realizing that there is a key requirement for such technologies. In order to service these companies Lexmark will continue to strengthen its partnership program with its partners through the course of next year. The company adding training sessions and tech support for its partners and providing added benefits to their offerings which they will they pass on to their customers. ë
FEATURE
SMART OFFICE
Offices With Minds Of Their Own The Middle East is one of the world’s most connected regions and we are witnessing the rise of the “always-connected” user which in turn is driving the need for integrated solutions across businesses. As technology continues to transform the modern workplace, tomorrow’s “smart office” will be one where technology is central—but less visible and more integrated, intuitive, mobile and fluid. 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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FEATURE
O
ffices in the Middle East have gone a complete makeover. The changes are visible in every aspect. The smart office has rather evolved than been subject to a revolution over the past years in emerging markets. Emerging markets traditionally have employed staff rather than look for ways of improving efficiency electronically. Due to increased competition and globalisation many companies have looked to the electronic office
to increase efficiencies. People have traditionally used some of the components of the smart office without any convergent strategy pulling the vision together. Earlier paper documents were being integrated in the business processes, however nowadays digital documents are used throughout the organisation. This is what is being called â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Scan-toProcessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. This helps drive cost savings and more efficient work practices for early integration into business processes.
Another trend is mobility. An increasing percentage of the workforce now performs work tasks out of the office, at a customer site, at home or even on the road. Customers are looking for fully integrated, intelligent office solutions that enhance productivity and facilitate crossappliance communication. The market is flooded with several new technologies. Tablets and smart phones are becoming more and more widespread and powerful in their functionalities. Cloud applications make storing
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FEATURE
KLAUS SCHULZ
RAVINDER KUMAR
MANAGER PRODUCT MARKETING EMEA, PFU IMAGING SOLUTIONS EUROPE LTD.
GENERAL MANAGER – BUSINESS SOLUTIONS DIVISION, SHARP MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
We lead the document scanning market, technologically and by market share, which puts us in a very prominent position. We listen to the market and constantly innovate our products and develop features that our customers really need.
At Sharp Business Solutions, we remain committed to technology innovation and evaluating how market trends and disruptions can impact business and IT growth strategies.
and sharing data a lot more efficient than before. Mobile scanners enable users to digitise documents no matter where they are. With offerings like Fujitsu’s latest mobile Scan Snap model users can transfer paper scans wirelessly to their mobile devices and into the cloud. Integration into cloud apps like Evernote or Dropbox ensure that access is guaranteed for all authorised users, even when they are on the move. Business decision makers are more discriminating in their choice of smart office technologies today as they look to adopt integrated solutions that deliver quality results, improve efficiency and positively impact the bottom line. Strong growth has been seen in sectors such as retail, corporate and education. Offices are demanding interactive software capabilities, where for example, a large office needs software to integrate and manage multiple devices within their premises. In addition, it is no surprise that multifunction printers have experienced an increase in sales and popularity. With the constant drive
to increase office efficiency, businesses are constantly looking to save time and lower costs. Printing solutions that deliver high quality and enhanced functionality in a cost-effective manner are invaluable. Smart office is no more location dependent. The newest addition to the Fujitsu ScanSnap line of products, the ScanSnap iX100 has built-in Wi-Fi and claims to be the perfect scanning solution in order to be independent of the user’s location. It is targeted at lawyers, insurance agents, sales people or any other professional who needs to scan documents in an environment outside his office. Acer as a primarily Access Device company has always been providing products for this dispersed environment. As Mr Paul Collins, Commercial Channels Manager – Acer interestingly puts it across, “We have a full range of Smartphones, Phablets, Tablets and Notebooks with a range of connectivity options built in, enabling an office environment whether in Lagos or Los Angeles”.
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The smart office solutions market has become very competitive of late. All players are trying to bring the best solutions for the customers. Fujitsu’s latest product launch is the ScanSnap iX100. This ultra-portable solution with built-in Wi-Fi connectivity and battery makes scanning on the road more efficient and productive than ever before. Weighing just 400g and scanning at a speed of 5.2 seconds per page (A4, colour, 200/300 dpi) it is the fastest in its class to date. The ScanSnap iX100 takes the business professional to new levels of productivity and efficiency, wherever he or she is doing business. Sharp is is uniquely positioned to offer Information Display panels, Intelligent Interactive LEDs and Multi-Function Printers that are inclusive of integrated software solutions tailored to Middle East and Africa customers’ specific requirements. Through a vertical, customized, business-oriented solutions perspective, Sharp tries to deliver affordable and reliable offerings to customers and partners. Sharp’s new solutions include the 60” and 70” Intelligent Touch Board for the education sector that helps create a smart learning environment as well as their new PN-Y series of professional thin bezel LED displays that are designed to operate upto 20 hours a day, 7 days a week and include a full range of PC and video connections. In addition, they are going to introduce regional businesses to our 55” high-definition, crystal clear LCD video wall that has an ultra-narrow bezel width of 3.5 mm. They also recently launched their new flagship multi-function printer (MFP), Polaris Pro (model: MX-7500N/MX-6500N), in the GCC. The new full-featured MFP is designed to meet the rigorous, high-volume demands of large offices, copy-rooms or corporate data centres by combining speed, power and functionality to deliver an uncompromising performance to organizations. At Sennheiser they offer a comprehensive range of communication tools that could fall in to the ‘smart office’ category. Team Connect system is their latest smart solution. Team Connect is a plug and play solution for office conferencing needs. Based around a central processing unit, a set of table top microphones, and speakers, Team Connect plans to change the way companies work and communicate. They have built in the ability to connect your handheld device, web conferencing software or even your telephone line directly to the Team Connect system; you are able to stay connected to all your partners and customers from the centre of your business. As a display specialist MMD brings multiple solutions in which the key highlights are the Philips USB docking monitors, Smart All-in-
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FEATURE
XEROX WORKFLOW SOLUTIONS
Web Submission
one displays, Philips Cloud base. The docking monitor allows to connect your notebook with only one cable in order to be connected to all the rest of your peripherals (external hard drive, printer, network, keyboard, mouse…) The Smart All-in-one allows you to use the content of your smaller portable devices, like mobile on tablet, on the big screen. It´s convenient, easy to adapt and doesn’t require a PC. In today’s era of data sharing and big organizations, people opt more often for cloud data storage. Philips Cloud base increases security and reduces costs by managing your software and data in one central location. It is designed to integrate with Citrix or VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). Mathias Militzer, General Manager, Lexmark Middle East believes that the Managed Print Services (MPS) market is growing and running parallel to this growth, it is also evolving. MPS has the power to transform an organisation and deliver increased value through business solutions. Increasingly companies signing up to managed print services are assessing how information – both paper and digital – is currently managed and processed and how it could be handled more efficiently to bring increased business value. With automation top-of-mind for print service providers, Xerox has been showing how simplifying operations can lead to profitable growth. Its latest releases include Free Flow Core and other workflow solutions that eliminate
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FreeFlow Process Manager
FreeFlow Output Manager
costly touch points from the print process, while meeting or exceeding quality and production targets. FreeFlow Core 4.0easily and quickly constructs workflows that intelligently automate file preparation. Building on its successful launch last year, the enhanced browser-based software solution takes the guesswork out of print and electronic file production with two new optional modules: Output Management Module that logically groups and routes jobs through the print shop and Variable Data Printing Module that easily converts jobs to PDFs and improves workflow productivity associated with complex, customized print jobs. Looking to eliminate manual steps required to prepare and process customized job orders generated online, Henry Wurst, Inc.turned to FreeFlow Core. According to Tim Wurst, director, Marketing Services, Henry Wurst, Inc., FreeFlow Core also served as a catalyst for improvement throughout their print operations. Their efficiency – how closely their output matches their machines’ rated output– has climbed from just under 50 percent to near 100 percent. “The automation has created a workflow that has all but eliminated the possibility of manual operator-type mistakes. Turnaround time is fast and, like the staff, the presses now have more available time to apply to other work.” So on what basis shall the end users chose one provider over the other. Every firm has its own strengths in this category.
FreeFlow Print Server
For example, according to Klaus Schulz, Manager Product Marketing EMEA, PFU Imaging Solutions Europe Ltd, “We lead the document scanning market, technologically and by market share, which puts us in a very prominent position. We listen to the market and constantly innovate our products and develop features that our customers really need”. He adds that Fujitsu partners closely with leading imaging software companies and the best local channel partners because customers nowadays expect a completely integrated solution consisting of document scanners, software solutions and systems integration. Additionally they offer customers the best warranty and service plans in the industry. Ravinder Kumar, General Manager – Business Solutions Division, Sharp Middle East and Africa believes that the two key factors that differentiate Sharp from others are their commitment to innovation and their attempt to make a difference through solutions in the form of adaptable, tailor-made integrated software that enables customized, business-oriented solutions for small, medium and large enterprises within the Middle East & Africa. “The key advantage that Acer offers is that we have end to end solutions. It is widely believed that the smart office of today owes its roots to the smart classroom of the 1990’s, and Acer has always been a driving force in this area. This manifests in our Smartboard Technologies offer-
FEATURE
ing complete interactivity, Professional projector range and a complete end user device solution” says Paul Collins, Acer. At Sennheiser, they believe what sets them apart is the fact that they have looked at everything from the position of making sure that you are always receiving crystal clear audio. “We are passionate about sound and because of this we understand that the most important part of any meeting or conference is being able to understand what everyone is saying so as not to miss the message” says John McGregor, Business Development Manager at Sennheiser Middle East. He adds that unlike other remote conferencing systems, that are difficult to set up, difficult to manage and provide poor audio, Sennheiser has created a system that would be easy to setup, easy to use and most importantly give the Sennheiser quality of sound that they are renowned for. So, the question arises as to what are the latest smart office solutions that can enable Middle East businesses to effectively and affordably manage their operations. All the information in the office, including memos, printouts or papers, has to exist in electronic form. This is where Fujitsu scanners come in with innovative scanning concepts: ‘Scan-to-Cloud’ transfers paper documents into such cloud applications like Evernote, while ‘Scan-to-Mobile’ allows scanning of paper-based documents to an iPhone/iPad or to Android-based smartphones/tablets. Fujitsu’s latest scanner models support these concepts to the max with integrated Wi-Fi and seamless connectivity to cloud applications. The smart office should not be seen as a way to reduce staff but rather to enhance efficiencies. Solutions such as interactive smartboards enable people to brainstorm and formalise plans quickly and document and action. This becomes fantastic when supplemented with rapidly reducing remote meeting capabilities such as Skype bringing team members from any office together. This is critical in areas such as MEA with huge geographical regions under management. Even as companies are readily resorting to smart office solutions, some concerns still persist in the minds of the CEOs. Suitable measures are needed to balance out these and grow ahead. With the advent of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), the boundaries will blur, not only between IT equipment that is used privately and professionally, but also between the work world and private life. Reinforcing this trend is the number of workers engaged in social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn where professional and private contacts are converging. Some IT managers have actually termed this “Bring Your Own Danger“, because of the risks
to lose sensitive information and exposure to security vulnerabilities and malware. A practical framework with a unified security procedure needs to be put in place in order to have a secure BYOD ecosystem. As businesses continue to undergo massive transitions, CIOs are under pressure to reduce costs and deliver the best solutions with limited resources. In order to evaluate the right solutions, they look to work with vendors to provide them with the knowledge they need on the types of IT solutions available in this ecosystem and how these can be customized to suit their requirements. Other key challenges include the investment made by vendors into training their distributors and channel partners to ensure that they have the right skills, knowledge and tools they need to educate CIOs on the importance of choosing the right solutions. The main challenges when it comes to smart office solutions seem to be simplicity, simplicity and inclusivity. This is what needs to change, to the point where the members of your team that are technophobic feel inspired to use these new devices. Once we have team members being inspired to change the way they work and communicate by & through this technology then we will truly have a smart office. Flexibility, compatibility, security and maintenance are some of the top concerns of each CIO. Vineeth Sebastian, Regional Sales Director-MEA at MMD says, “With our Philips docking station for example we take away a big concern which is compatibility. The cloud base (zero client) gives the outmost on data security and maintenance efficiency. With our Smart All-in-one we pay respect to the need of flexibility!” Still, there continue to be several firms who are not using those yet owing to budget constraints, unfamiliarity with technology, bandwidth availability, or lack of inter-operability. Companies are considering these consumers as well while designing their smart office solutions. Earlier this year Fujitsu launched the Scan Partner Series of scanners for entry-level customer requirements. The Series is bundled with a professional software package and is prepared for easy integration into users’ applications. It is available for sale via the distributors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and in the United Arab Emirates. The wonderful thing about the smart office is that all of the solutions are scalable. One does not need a formal point to point remote office solution to have a smart office. “A smart office could be two Acer smartphones and Google Hangouts, and the right management of course!” says Paul Collins of Acer. As with any solutions, vendors and distribu-
tors have an important role to play even when it comes to smart office solutions. Sharp sells its products solely through partners and distributors in the Middle East and Africa region. As a vendor, Sharp focuses on empowering partners and distributors by providing them with sufficient knowledge and resources to help them effectively sell our solutions. For Sharp’s display products though, they follow an open channel strategy. They also run channel development programmes, annual meets and so on, on a regular basis to boost the morale of our regional and local channel partners. Ravinder Kumar adds, “Our distribution channels are vital to our business and are key to our success in the region. Our strong channel partnerships have enabled Sharp to be a leading player in the B2B sector”. Sennheiser’s main distributors/vendors are Venuetech in the UAE, Adawliah Electronics in Kuwait and Ertebat in Iran. They support all their distributors and vendors with full technical and design support. So what lays in the future of smart office? The worker of the future will have no boundaries. The key will be collaborative management trends supported by technologies like Google Hangouts allowing virtual teams with minimum management direction the ability to solve problems and complete tasks. This will drive complete independence from brick and mortar offices and see the breakdown of the hierarchical structures of 20th century business in all but the largest companies. Physical boundaries are being bridged by the increased use of mobile technologies and a more mobile workforce. Just as critical as the access to information is the ability to pass it on quickly. Disruptive technologies that can radically re-invent how business is done will be the norm as organizations compete to stay productive. For example, a bank that adopts smart visual display technologies that has the intelligence to manage customer queues or a retail store that uses technology to display intelligent information when a customer picks up a specific product in-store. Ultimately, technology isn’t just about allowing organizations to function more easily and efficiently; it’s offering opportunities to create entirely new processes and services that enable businesses to remain competitive and productive. The future of the smart office is true simplicity. At the moment there are lots of very smart devices out there that are trying to make our lives easier and simpler in the office. However there is still a need to go through and connect these devices to networks and make sure that they’re communicating when we need them to. What we will see in the future is a more ‘plug & play’
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FEATURE
JOHN MCGREGOR
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER AT SENNHEISER MIDDLE EAST
VINEETH SEBASTIAN
REGIONAL SALES DIRECTOR-MEA AT MMD
MR PAUL COLLINS
COMMERCIAL CHANNELS MANAGER – ACER
“We are passionate about “With our Philips docking “We have a full range of sound and because of this station for example we Smartphones, Phablets, we understand that the take away a big concern Tablets and Notebooks most important part of any which is compatibility. The with a range of connectivity meeting or conference is cloud base (zero client) options built in, enabling being able to understand gives the outmost on data an office environment what everyone is saying so security and maintenance whether in Lagos or Los as not to miss the message.” efficiency. With our Smart Angeles” All-in-one we pay respect to the need of flexibility!” WITH THE ADVENT OF BYOD (BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE), THE BOUNDARIES WILL BLUR, NOT ONLY BETWEEN IT EQUIPMENT THAT IS USED PRIVATELY AND PROFESSIONALLY, BUT ALSO BETWEEN THE WORK WORLD AND PRIVATE LIFE.
way of working from these devices. Basically this will mean that the devices will do all the work of setting themselves up to use certain infrastructures without you needing to intervene with any complicated set-up needs. Once we get to a stage where you don’t need to have a modicum of technical knowledge to run these systems them we will truly be in the era of the smart office. The market has witnessed smart phones, smart TVs, smart TVs, and smart Projectors, etc; so it’s plausible to be curious about what’s the next thing which is going to get the “smart” tag in near future. The concept of smart learning is still quite new to the region. However, the education industry
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is on a strong growth trajectory and various educational institutes across the Middle East have now started to embrace a smart learning environment. Furthermore, with the explosion in digital content and online usage, interactive whiteboards enable students and teachers to create, share and interact with this new-age of digital content. Sharp foresees a continued growth of interactive whiteboard and classroom technology over this year. Paul Collins of Acer says, “Data has to be the new ‘smart’, as well as access to the cloud. The new smart will be access to all of your cloud services from one device with one sign on. That’s really smart!”
Another interesting opinion came from McGregor of Sennheiser Middle East who thinks that one of the most interesting areas for businesses will be smart technologies that enable automation of processes that ultimately results in cost savings. “A good example is the smart thermostat. Especially in a region such as the Middle East where offices require air-conditioning throughout work hours, having a device that can regulate temperate and turn the air-condition system on and off intelligently can result in significantly lower energy expenses.”
FINALLY... It is very much evident that workplace transformation remains a critically important phenomenon across all industries in the Middle East. This has led to many industry decision-makers focusing on adopting new technologies to improve business operations by addressing developments such as the convergence of social, mobile, cloud and big data. The UAE market is leading the way and we are seeing this trend being followed right across the MENA region. ë
ENTERPRISE SECURITY
FIREEYE
Reimagines Security with Adaptive Defense Security Model
Cyberspace is a global battlefield; what are required are strong threat detection and response systems 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 >
C
onventional security detects threats too late, and resolves them too slowly. It gives security teams a fragmented, incomplete view into what’s going on in their network. It’s passive and blind tobroader threat trends. Today’s advanced attacks call for a more advanced approach. Organizations need a flexible, deeply integrated framework that offers a far-reaching view of threats and evolves as quickly as conditions do. FireEye has launched two new solutions designed to equip organizations to scale their defense strategies. The opening of a new office in the UAE to constantly monitor and evaluate the evolving threat landscape signals the company’s commitment to the region as well as the region’s emergence as a nexus for organized cyber attack. FireEye’s research indicates that the main drivers behind most of the recent incidents tend to be of a political nature. Regime changes in
the ME have given rise to a wave of attacks. KSA and Qatar top the list in terms of number of encounters with malware over a 30 day window out of the GCC countries. Enterprise architecture is not simple; it has many doors which allow an attacker to come inside. These doors/vectors are email, files, web, etc. Attacks are complex and multi—staged so require a sophisticated approach. Traditional security systems are already under scanner and are readily compromised. Fire Eye technology on the other hand is based on dynamic analysis of the suspicious object inside a specially built virtual machine. It is designed to monitor multiple kinds of threat vectors, hence the name MVX Architecture or multi vector execution. It helps to discover unknown attacks in real time. This analysis is possible inside your appliance, inside your network. Though many players may claim to be launching virtual machine architecture for
THE TIGHTLY INTEGRATED LAYERS OF AN ADAPTIVE ARCHITECTURE Analyze and Repond Detect and Prevent
Threat Intel (Strategic, Tactical) Network Forensics and Endpoint Live Response Advanced Threat Protection (Signature-Less) Signature Based Detection
Narrative-Based Response
ASHAR AZIZ
FOUNDER, FIREEYE
“We have ability to analyze millions of objects per hour while others can just manage three to five per hour”. threat analysis, it’s not an easy task that can be accomplished in one to two years of time. Ashar Aziz, FireEye founder says, “We have ability to analyze millions of objects per hour while others can just manage three to five per hour”. The new FireEye as a Service is an on-demand security management offering that allows organizations to apply FireEye’s technology, intelligence and expertise to find and stop cyber attacks. The other new solution, FireEye Advanced Threat Intelligence provides access to threat data and analytical tools that help identify attacks and provide context about the tactics and motives of specific threat actors. The Adaptive Defense Security model is an approach for defending against advanced threat actors that scale up or down based on the unique needs of each security organization at any time. The governments of KSA and the UAE are among the ME governments increasing their spending on cyber security, while the private sectors in both countries are forecast to increase their technology security budgets by 18% between 2012 and 2018, according to consulting firm Frost and Sullivan. ë
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MY OPINION
KERRY KOUTSIKOS
REGIONAL DIRECTOR – MEA & TURKEY AT QLIK.
Business Intelligence To Business Discovery QLIK PARTICIPATED AT THE FOURTH EDITION OF ‘INRETAIL SUMMIT’ THAT WAS RECENTLY HELD IN DUBAI. QLIK’SFOUS HAS BEEN TO LEVERAGE THE ADVANTAGES OF BI TECHNOLOGIES AS A FOUNDATION TO ENHANCE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AND DRIVE PRODUCTIVITY. SOUMYA OF ENTERPRISE CHANNELS MEA SPOKE TO KERRY KOUTSIKOSREGIONAL DIRECTOR – MEA & TURKEY AT QLIK. EXCERPTS.
How far are Qlik’s offering relevant to the retail industry? According to Dubai FDI, the country’s retail sector is poised for strong growth and is estimated to grow around 32.9 per cent from Dhs114 billion in 2012 to reach Dhs151 billion by 2015. As the sector continues to experience unprecedented growth, business intelligence tools have become the foundation for performance management and customer intelligence for retailers seeking to build
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competitive advantage. Retailers today are faced with mounting pressure to enter new sales channels, changing consumer demands, and continuing globalization, which means retail companies need business intelligence solutions that allow them to make better business decisions. At Qlik, we are committed to help our retail customers and partners by offering them the business intelligence architecture they need to be able to reduce costs, increase
revenue and maximize the value of information. As both shopping trends and consumer behaviour evolve, leading retailers are taking advantage of BI solutions to offer personalized customer experiences and drive brand loyalty. Is Qlik Sense worth the hype it has been creating? Just as Qlik disrupted the business intelligence (BI) industry to pioneer the data discovery category, the company is now leading the next transformation as the category matures to governed, user-driven creation with the launch of Qlik Sense. According to Gartner, Inc.’s 2014 Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platform report , “By 2015, enterprise buyers of BI platforms will predominantly purchase platforms that support both strong and broad business-user-accessible data discovery capabilities and IT-driven enterprise features for data reuse, governance, security and scalability.” The vision for Qlik Sense is that anyone in an organization should be able to easily create dynamic dashboards to explore their data to
MY OPINION
uncover meaningful insights. Qlik Sense is the first offering to deliver selfservice BI based on a server-side development and distribution model. Qlik Sense empowers every user with the full capability to create, customize, or extend visualizations from any device, at any point in time. What is the chief factor behind Qlik in Gartner’s leader segment? I think it is the ease of use. Qlik solutions are cheap, fast and easy. We are not just concerned with the data, but also with the person who is going to do something useful with that data. Qlik focuses on people first. Our customer satisfaction holds proof of that. How is BI changing? Intelligence is moving down the tree. Initially it just used to be for the highest bosses. Then it was for his/her subordinates. But now it is all pervading. It has the potential to be the next “Microsoft Office”; it will be everywhere. Which are your top focus verticals? Public sector is the fastest growing market for us in this region. Finance is starting to move now. We are also witnessing a massive demand from SMBs. One sector we have succeeded abroad but haven’t focused much here is education. We will do that in this region as well. Is BI going to cloud soon? BI in cloud isn’t that easy as it may appear to be. There are many statutory laws and compliance regulations. What we are sure to witness a mas-
sive growth is internal cloud. Most of our enterprise What is the strength of your customers want to have it already. The fate and organization? possibility of wide scale public cloud yet remains to People are our strength. Apart from that, we focus be seen. on CSR activities for the true purpose of the same, not for sheer publicity. ë Tell us about Qlik’s presence in the Middle East. In ME, we have sales, support and services, finance, legal and HR; so we operate as complete independent entity. We got training centres too. We have 35-40 partners in the region. How do you empower your partners? We provide sales and after sales support. We have training centres to educate them. We also hold regular webinars to update them about the latest trends and solutions. We are the largest independent BI vendor in the region. What’s your partner selection strategy? Choosing a wrong partner can be very costly; moreover it would be bad for the partner as well. We pick partners on various levels. At times we choose them who are delivering a breadth of solutions and then we are focusing on verticals like finance, retail, and public sector. And then we are focusing on SMBs. What are your future plans? We will continue as a focused BI vendor. We shall continue to invest in upgradation of technology and innovation. We want to be the best in what we do. We have stability in the region and we plan to prosper with happy customers and successful partners.
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MY OPINION
REGGIE FERNANDES
REGIONAL DIRECTOR, SAGE MIDDLE EAST V
UAE and Saudi Arabia are Our Major Markets ENTERPRISES APPLICATION MARKET IN THE MEA REGION HAS ALL THE REASONS TO GROW. ALONG WITH MODERNIZING THE EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE BY THE ORGANIZATIONS, THE EXPANSION IS BECOMING ORDER OF THE DAY. ENTERPRISE CHANNELS SPOKE TO REGGIE
companies, we have Sage 50 which is small accounting software. For the mid-range we have Sage 300 ERP and then we have Sage ERP X3 which is for the bigger ones. At GITEX, we are launching the new version of Sage ERP X3 which is a more modernized version. This new version comes with seven unique benefits which can be a game-changer in this kind of software in terms of usability, responsiveness, expansion, etc. There are seven messages which we are communicating.
FERNANDES, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, SAGE MIDDLE EAST TO KNOW ABOUT THEIR STRATEGY. EXCERPTS…
What has been your performance for last one year? Overall we have been growing since the new management has taken over in March 2013. We have been registering double digit growth. Since we are a public listed company, we can’t disclose the numbers but the growth is even higher than we had been expecting. Primarily this is because of the way we approached the market. Earlier it was more partners driven; now it’s more Sage
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driven. So now we drive the business along with the partners. People have started seeing the Sage presence in the market and that has resulted in the growth. How many products have you launched? We have the same products which have just got better. We have a tier of CRM solutions which have been there with us for long. For the small
What kind of innovation have you incorporated in your portfolio? The new Sage ERP X3 comes with the latest innovation conferring seven benefits namely usability, mobility, control, intelligence, responsiveness, profitability and expansion. So, as a result, organizations get more done and faster, go where business takes, control over business processes, get the insight when required; serve customers better, create cash flow and expand business. How many customers have you bagged in the past year?
MY OPINION
7
7 6
WAYS YOU WILL GROW WITH SAGE ERP X3
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Expansion: Scale and expand to new markets or geographies.
Profitability: Create cash flow from within the invest in growth.
Responsiveness: Serve your customers better and earn repeat business.
Intelligence: Get the insight you need, when you need it.
Control: Take back control over your business processes.
Mobility: Go where your business takes you.
Usability: Get more done, faster.
Dubai has always been a strong hold for Sage. A significant revenue comes from the UAE sector. The change we have seen this year is KSA has also picked up for us for the first time. With Sage ERP X3, we are placed quite strategically and give tough fight to all our competitors. From the second half of this year, we also have made strong inroads with big road shows in Jordan and expect to close big deals therein. We are also entering into strategic alliances in Saudi Arabia to drive our business in that region. What has been your country specific growth and why – pertaining to MEA region? UAE and Saudi Arabia are our major markets in MEA for now. KSA looks promising from the perspective of product growth. UAE is a big market that’s still growing for us. Other than that Oman and Jordan look promising to Sage. What is your expectation in terms of market growth post Gitex? We didn’t participate aggressively in GITEX over last few years. But this year with the growth pattern we have been observing, we think we need to make an impact in the market. We got an impressive stand at GITEX this year. It’s time for us to announce that we are among the top players in this realm. We plan to use GITEX platform to enhance the visibility of the Sage brand. We further plan to shorten our sale cycle by people coming and seeing us there. Moreover in GITEX
“WE PLAN TO HAVE DOUBLE DIGIT GROWTH FOR THE NEXT FEW YEARS. WE WANT TO BE PRACTICALLY IN EVERY DEAL. WE ARE ALSO EMPHASIZING ON CUSTOMER CENTRIC APPROACH.”
we get many visitors from outside the UAE whom we can target. We are planning to make two strategic announcements down there, which would even enhance the footfall to our stands. I think we shall be termed as a viable alternative to some of our big brothers in this field.
are trying to lead by example and are following the “train the trainer” concept too. Most of our partners are small to medium scale enterprises and their focus is on cash flow to a large extent. Along with cash flow, we need to also create the vision for them that they can become a big company. We have taken two of our partners Which kind of customers are you across the region. expecting to meet in Gitex and from Selection of partners is done by a strict evaluwhich countries do you wish to meet? ation criterion. We prefer to select people who We have solutions to cater to all kinds of customers. wish to make it big with Sage and who want to The customers can come to our stand and see the make big money with Sage. Our focus is to ensure Sage advantage for themselves. that our partners are successful. What kind of changes you want to make to your existing partner programme to accommodate the growth of next year? Partners are our strength. So we are continuously working on our partner programmes. Another reason why we have been growing also is due to our partner community. We train them on field instead of just leaving them to do things on their own. We
So what message would Sage like to give to the market? Well, Sage is live and kicking. We plan to have double digit growth for the next few years. We want to be practically in every deal. We are also emphasizing on customer centric approach. We wish to take care to make little things in a better way to be closer to the customers and deliver the best to them. ë
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ENTERPRISE SECURITY
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Mobile Device Security
The new landscape many organisations are facing is a mobile one, where employees, partners and customers want to access information from anywhere, at anytime, using the latest mobile devices they have at hand to conduct their business. 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 >
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n recent years there has been a healthy flow of innovation and new start-ups in the mobile security and identity authentication space, so we know that it’s a problem the industry is trying to solve, and one for which there is no silver bullet. In the world of enterprise security, what used to be a fairly contained universe – with the ability to put effective controls at critical physical and online entry points – is now a constantly expanding target thanks to the widespread uptake of BringYour-Own-Device (BYOD) workplaces. For far too long we have relied on the lowest denominator of identity authentication to secure access – the password. However, taking into account the multifarious nature of present-day threats, it represents a considerable leap of faith to place complete trust in this singular perimeter defence. Indeed, with corporate resources no longer residing behind the traditional security firewall, the password is a scant form of defence. An alternative is ‘strong authentication’ that goes beyond a single password to authenticate users. This multi-layered approach requires additional factors to establish the user is who they say they are. It may be something the user knows, such as a unique password or personal identification number (PIN); something the user has, such as a smart card, token, or mobile phone; or even something the authentication system gathers, such as fraud and behavioural intelligence, that’s used to bring the authentication to a more secure level. The new landscape many organisations are facing is a mobile one,
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where employees, partners and customers want to access information from anywhere, at anytime, using the latest mobile devices they have at hand to conduct their business. While the opportunities and productivity gains that can be garnered from anywhere, anytime access, are plentiful – many businesses find themselves struggling to effectively support and shield their valuable data resources from unauthorised viewers. Unsurprisingly, mobile devices and tablets, which are being used to access enterprise resources and cloud applications, can make for highly attractive targets. Against a backdrop of increasing mobile malware and Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) implementing a secure mobile access solution is important. . Creating separate secure areas, or zones, for personal data and work data within the device in use is a potential solution. This concept of developing separate zones based on the classification of data enables organisations to secure corporate assets residing on personal mobile devices by first creating a remotely-managed zone inside the device that is encrypted. Then, according to policy, the organisation can limit the interaction between the zone containing corporate data and the rest of the device. All applications and other ID credentials are completely segregated between personal and enterprise use. Best practice would advise that an additional layer of security must be applied to accompany this “zoning” of data. Identity management is key here. Taking a layered approach, starting with implementing a system that takes into
NAT PISUPATI
REGIONAL SALES DIRECTOR IDENTITY & ACCESS MANAGEMENT, MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA WITH HID GLOBAL
“Best practice would advise that an additional layer of security must be applied to accompany this “zoning” of data.” consideration the behaviour patterns, risks and preferences of its employees, offers a potential solution. Incorporating strong two-factor authentication measures for those looking to access the information residing within this separate corporate zone can further create a robust security defence for any malicious internal or external parties trying to gain access to the restricted area. While news headlines serve as a constant reminder of the dangers of cyber-crime, it is of equal importance that enterprises consider the risks posed by those with access to sensitive information that already operate within the company network. It has therefore never been more timely to focus on getting the practice of secure identity management under control. Taking equal account of people, property and assets enables an organisation to be better coordinated in their approach to managing user identities and access privileges in the workplace. Without encroaching on end-users time as they access systems and information, layered security and “zoning data” reduces the risk of identity fraud, manages users’ expectations and offers businesses a practical way of addressing mobile device security. ë
INNOVATIONS
KEY CAPABILITIES n Accelerate the most important data by offering high performance with NVMe Express Flash storage and deployment of Dell Fluid Cache for SAN and SanDisk DAS Cache. n Zone large datasets by doubling the RAID performance with optional dual PERC9 controllers. n Support software defined storage and optimised data placement by providing hybrid storage configurations within the compute node that enable tiering capabilities
Dell PowerEdge 13th Generation Server Portfolio The Dell PowerEdge 13th generation server portfolio features customerinspired engineering built to optimise price performance for the widest range of web, enterprise and hyperscale applications, and features state-of-theart advancements in storage, processing and memory technology coupled with industry-leading systems management capabilities. The first of the new Dell PowerEdge servers includes the PowerEdge R730xd, R730, and R630 rack servers, the M630 blade server, and the T630
tower server, which are built with the latest Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v3 product family. Combined with Dell’s end-to-end portfolio of enterprise infrastructure offerings, software and services, the new PowerEdge servers enable increased levels of operational efficiency and flexibility at any scale for the most demanding applications and environments. Dell’s new PowerEdge servers are designed to leverage modern storage technologies that enable customers to accelerate applications by bringing data
closer to the processor for increased application performance. With cost effective 1.8-inch SATA flash drives, the Dell PowerEdge R630 can deliver customers up to 2.4 times the input/output operations per second (IOPS) in the same amount of space as 2.5-inch SSDs. With the PowerEdge R730xd, Dell also provides up to 100TB of storage for workloads such as Microsoft Exchange, where it also delivers up to a 50 percent increase in mailbox size over previous generation servers.
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DELL SONICWALL SUPERMASSIVE E10800 Dell SonicWALL SuperMassive E10800 next-generation firewall (NGFW) recommended by NSS Labs runs SonicOS 6.0 and integrated Intrusion Prevention Service. The NGFW Series delivers effective firewall, intrusion prevention and deep security scaled to the largest networks-at multi-gigabit speeds, without the complexity of having to manage separate appliances, GUIs and deployments. It utilises Dell’s patented Reassembly-Free Deep Packet Inspection engine to detect and prevent the advanced evasion techniques used to conceal traditional intrusion attacks at all layers of the network stack. The solution uniquely scans every byte of every packet of inbound and outbound traffic, regardless of port and protocol, and delivers full content inspection of both plain text and SSL encrypted traffic. Dell SonicWALL’s IPS adds to these deep security capabilities with advanced context awareness that includes geolocation visibility, user identification, and application identification. Dell SonicWALL next-generation firewalls also offer inspection and identification of documents and content, and can scan for administrator-specified custom content like text strings and credit card numbers. The SonicWALL SuperMassive E10000 Series can be deployed as an inline bump-in-the-wire mode to provide an additional layer of security in an existing network without introducing complexity or requiring topology changes. It also can be deployed at the network perimeter, adding next-generation firewall threat prevention and security capabilities, and lowering Total Cost of Ownership by providing equipment consolidation and ease of use.
KEY CAPABILITIES n Demonstrated one of the highest security effectiveness ratings in the industry n Blocks 96.4 percent of attacks against server applications, n Demonstrated scalability with 16.4 Gbps of threat protection performance and multi-gigabit SSL decryption and inspection throughput
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Anniversary THANK YOU ALL Thank you all for supporting Enterprise Channels MEA for bringing out so many meaningful magazines and supplements. Please subscribe to these magazines by dropping a mail to info@accentinfomedia.com or if you wish visit www.enterprisechannelsmea.com to read the magazines.
INNOVATIONS
AccessData ResolutionOne Platform AccessData ResolutionOne Platform, the world’s first Continuous Automated Incident Resolution (CAIR) platform, delivering comprehensive, real-time insight, analysis, response and resolution of data incidents. ResolutionOne is a Continuous Automated Incident Resolution (CAIR) platform, delivering the workflows and capabilities necessary to detect, analyse, and resolve any data event—from security breaches to e-discovery and other Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) issues. It is the industry’s first integrated, and automated platform to work seamlessly across third party security solutions and the sharing of incident data across company organizations. The ResolutionOne Platform integrates network, endpoint and malware analysis, endto-end e-discovery and remediation technologies into a single, scalable solution. This makes it possible for all security, legal and compliance teams to do their jobs using one platform, automating tasks and collaborating in real time to address virtually any security incident or legal matter. AccessData announces industry’s first mobile threat detection and response for iOS and Android devices, fully integrated with the ResolutionOne Platform. In a technology first, the mobile device support provides comprehensive, real-time visibility, intelligence and resolution capabilities across iOS and Android devices on or off corporate networks. KEY CAPABILITIES n First technology to provide deep visibility through activity recording and data collection on both iOS and Android devices. n First to auto-correlate mobile data against ResolutionOne’s ThreatBridge™ threat intelligence engine to detect known threats. n Identify unusual behaviors and anomalies that stand out when looking at aggregated mobile device data across the enterprise. n Allows users to see what happened at any point in time in detail, formulating a timeline of events and the ability to reconstruct an incident. n Provides geolocation information so investigators can track devices accurately on a graphical map.
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SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive 64 GB
The SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive instantly adds up to 64 GB of storage space to your iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire, and Android device. Portable and easy to use, the drive gives you wireless mobile access to your movies, photos, music, and documents. You can wirelessly connect up to 8 devices and stream media to as many as 3 devices simultaneously without the need for an Internet connection. The drive’s battery recharges via USB and offers up to 4 hours of continuous streaming on a single charge*. It makes easy to access all your favourite videos, photos, music, and files across your mobile devices. This compact and portable drive works anywhere—no Internet connection, cables, or router required. It has a range of 150 feet, streams up to 4 hours of video on a single charge, and recharges via your computer’s USB port. The user needs to download the SanDisk Wireless Flash Drive Mobile App to his/her devices to help organize all media files for easy storing, sharing, and streaming. When plugged in via USB, the SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive requires a USB 2.0 connection or higher. For mobile devices: iOS version 5.0 or higher or Android version 2.3 or higher is required. A Web browser is required for other Wi-Fi enabled devices. Further, it is backed by 2-year warranty in EMEA & APAC. KEY CAPABILITIES n Instantly adds up to 64 GB** of storage for your mobile devices n Connects wirelessly to up to 8 devices--no Internet required n Supports up to 3 simultaneous media streams** n Provides up to 4 hours of wireless streaming per charge** n Works with SanDisk Wireless Flash Drive Mobile and Web apps** for easy media file management n Compatible with iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire, Android devices, and PC and Mac computers
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