Arabian Computer News - Sept 2010 by ITP Business Publishing

CONTROLLING THE BEAST

INVALUABLE INTELLIGENCE

LOCKING OUT INTRUDERS

Talking IT management with Al Batha Group CIO Saji Oommen

How to avoid failure when rolling out a BI system at your company

SEPTEMBER 2010 | VOL.23 ISSUE 9

Aligning business and IT strategies for the Middle East

NEW DAWN Way e Hull, General Mana Wayn nager, Cisco UAE

How Cisco is banking on a fresh wave of investment to drive its business in the Gulf

SEPTEMBER

Contents September 2010 | Volume 23 Issue 9

5 News Update This month in Innovate: tourism specialists Sabre Travel Network teams up with Cisco to deliver the industry’s ﬁrst telepresence system for videoconferencing, HP’s datacentre breakthrough cuts running costs in half, the Ministry of Health’s new datacentre is launched, and SAP releases the ﬁrst Arabiclanguage version of its ERP software. Whilst in Update: Dubai Silicon Oasis upgrades to Oracle’s eBusiness Suite, Dubai Municipality goes green with HP, and APC launches its software division.

12 Online ACN rounds up the top stories from ITP.net.

22 CIO Interview Saji Oommen is responsible for the IT operations of the Al Batha Group, one of the largest independently-owned businesses in the UAE. We ﬁnd out just what it takes to do his job.

26 Cover Story Cisco Gulf speaks exclusively about its commitment to the region and its plans for the Middle East’s enterprise market.

14 What does the Intel-McAfee deal mean for enterprises in the Gulf? We take a look at the ramiﬁcations of this year’s biggest surprise so far.

30 Best Practice With a huge roster of projects currently underway, Dubai’s Ministry of Public Works needed an IT system that would allow it to keep track of its works, as well as enable its partners to submit bids online. We look at how eHosting DataFort helped it achieve it.

16 Smartworld Cloud Launch

Every month, ACN brings you opinion from key ﬁgures within the Middle East enterprise market. This month, Booz & Company partner Ramez Shehadi on why going green is the CIO’s responsibility, and Cedar Consulting’s Abhijit Pendse on why IT is a risky business.

www.itp.net

37 Business Intelligence Has the recent worldwide recession ﬁnally made business intelligence a technology that Middle Eastern enterprises can no longer do without?

48 Healthcare When IT can mean the difference between life and death, it pays to look closely at the beneﬁts that medical good technology brings.

54 Rising Stock

As the Etisalat-Dubai World joint venture ﬁnally launches its service offering to the Middle East, ACN investigates the possible implications of cloud computing on the region’s enterprise market.

20 Comment

ACN speaks with up-and-coming vendors who feel they have what it takes to get on your must-buy list.

56 Recruitment

Employment news, including promotions, moves and new jobs from around the region.

Good Governance

58 Get to know

ACN looks at why businesses in the Middle East can’t afford to not pay close attention to good IT governance.

ACN sits down with leading ﬁgures from around the industry to ﬁnd out what makes them who they are.

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

THE FIRST WORD

Registered at Dubai Media City PO Box 50024, Dubai, UAE Tel: + 971 (0)4 444 3000 Fax: + 971 (0)4 444 3030 Web: www.itp.com Offices in Dubai & London ITP TECHNOLOGY PUBLISHING CEO Walid Akawi Managing Director Neil Davies Managing Director Karam Awad General Manager Peter Conmy Publishing Director Natasha Pendleton EDITORIAL Group Editor Andrew Seymour Tel: +971 4 444 3320 email: andrew.seymour@itp.com Editor Ben Furfie Tel: +971 4 444 3643 e-mail: ben.furfie@itp.com Contributors Piers Ford, Imthishan Giado ADVERTISING

Forever optimistic

f there is one thing this industry gets swept away by, it’s optimism. How many times have we heard that technology ‘X’ is going to revolutionise the industry before having to wait 10 years for the wave of enthusiasm to break and the said technology to ﬁnally arrive. True to form, the past month has had its fair share of optimism. Standing head and shoulders above the rest is cloud service provider Smartworld’s claim that in the next couple of years, one-in-ﬁve enterprises will have little or no IT infrastructure. Coming from a background in the European market, I know there are system integrators and vendors currently working with CIOs to roll out large-scale cloud implementations, but to the level that Smartworld is anticipating? I don’t see it happening personally – especially as many CIOs still have nagging doubts about the practicalities of the model . In my experience, they simply aren’t ready to place trust for their entire IT infrastructure in hardware and a team they have no direct control over — at least not just yet. In addition, many are sceptical of public cloud

services, even those that have much in common with private cloud roll-outs. Speaking of cloud computing, the ACN Arab Technology Awards are just around the corner and ‘Cloud Vendor of the Year’ is one of several new categories that have been introduced this year. As nominations close in early September, make sure you get around to sending in your company’s entry. You can get all the information you need about the awards, nomination process and tickets by visiting www.itp.net/acn-awards

New look As you’ll have already noticed, ACN has a new look and feel to it this month. We’ve consulted a number of CIOs and enterprise executives throughout the region to come up with a design that gives you the information you need to keep abreast of the latest regional IT developments and the trends that are shaping the future of the industry. As well as some brand new sections that are designed to bring you closer to the people and organisations making their mark in the Middle East enterprise sector today, we hope the abundance of facts, ﬁgures and data that this month’s issue contains will help you make the right decisions for your own business too. As ever, we’re always keen to hear your feedback on the magazine, as well as any news and views that you have to share on the issues affecting the enterprise industry today. Feel free to contact me at: ben.furﬁe@itp. com or call +971 (0) 4 444 3643.

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

Group Advertising Manager Brett Pearson Tel: +971 4 444 3345 e-mail: brett.pearson@itp.com STUDIO Group Art Editor Daniel Prescott Art Editor Simon Cobon PHOTOGRAPHY Director of Photography Sevag Davidian Senior Photographers Efraim Evidor, Jovana Obradovic Staff Photographers Isidora Bojovic, George Dipin, Murrindie Frew, Lyubov Galushko, Shruti Jagdesh, Mosh Lafuente, Ruel Pableo, Rajesh Raghav PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION Group Production & Distribution Director Kyle Smith Production Co-ordinator Basel Al Kassem Managing Picture Editor Patrick Littlejohn Distribution Manager Karima Ashwell Distribution Executive Nada Al Alami CIRCULATION Head of Circulation & Database Gaurav Gulati MARKETING Marketing Executive Martin Chambers Event Manager Preeta Panicker ITP DIGITAL Assistant Editor Vineetha Menon Tel: +971 4 444 3579 e-mail: vineetha.menon@itp.com Sales Director ITP Digital Websites Ahmad Bashour Tel: +971 4 444 3549 e-mail: Ahmad Bashour@itp.com Group Sales Manager, ITP.net Nathalie Akl Tel: +971 4 444 3520 e-mail: nathalie.akl@itp.com ITP GROUP Chairman Andrew Neil Managing Director Robert Serafin Finance Director Toby Jay Spencer-Davies Board of Directors KM Jamieson, Mike Bayman, Walid Akawi, Neil Davies, Rob Corder, Mary Serafin Circulation Customer Service Tel: +971 4 444 3559 Printed by Color Lines Printing Press. Controlled Distribution by Blue Truck Subscribe online at www.itp.com/subscriptions The publishers regret that they cannot accept liability for error or omissions contained in this publication, however caused. The opinions and views contained in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers. Readers are advised to seek specialist advice before acting on information contained in this publication, which is provided for general use and may not be appropriate for the readers’ particular circumstances. The ownership of trademarks is acknowledged. No part of this publication or any part of the contents thereof may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form without the permission of the publishers in writing. An exemption is hereby granted for extracts used for the purpose of fair review.

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INNOVATE

Telepresence to change travel Sabre teams up with Cisco to offer agencies a way to proﬁt from decline in business trips COMMUNICATIONS

SABRE TRAVEL NETWORK, a provider of

high performance solutions for the travel sector, is collaborating with Cisco on the development of the industry’s ﬁrst telepresence distribution and reservation platform. The landmark move will enable agencies and corporations to book services from any telepresence provider and any point of sale, according to the company, which serves the Middle East market from its regional headquarters in Bahrain. Using the telepresence distribution platform, users will be able to view room availability in real time, book meetings, and review applicable rates and restrictions, extending access to a broader set of collaboration capabilities available to corporations. Public telepresence providers and private corporations will have the ability to provide open or restricted access to their rooms through the platform. The new platform will leverage Sabre’s deep history and expertise in building highlyscalable reservation and distribution systems with Cisco’s established presence in the collaboration space, and its innovation with telepresence technology.

Sabre hopes its solution will help agencies soften the blow from the decline in business travel.

Sabre added it would offer enterprises and agencies a true “travel and collaboration management” solution. “Over the past few years, we’ve seen the demand for telepresence grow and become an important collaboration technology that, like travel, drives

business and economic growth for our customers,” said Greg Webb, president of Sabre Travel Network. “We believe our long history of technology and distribution leadership uniquely positions us to deliver the industry’s ﬁrst platform for virtual meetings.”

Over the past few years, we’ve seen the demand for telepresence grow and become an important collaboration technology that drives business.

Datacentre breakthrough to halve costs DATACENTRE

HP HAS INTRODUCED a new design for

building enterprise scale datacentres, claiming that it can help to cut capital requirements for build-out by half. The new HP Flexible Datacentre (HP Flexible DC) design relies on a standard, modular approach to design and build datacentres, which is more energy efficient. The HP Flexible DC uses a butterﬂyshaped design, with four prefabricated quadrants centred on an administrative core.

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Through the use of industrial components, building time and cost can be kept much lower than traditional datacentres, while sections have been designed for optimal power and cooling efficiency. The design includes different options for power and cooling, including air cooling systems, rather than water-cooled mechanical systems, which can drastically reduce the amount of water and power used. The new approach is being offered by HP’s Critical Facilties Services division.

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

HP’s new butterﬂy datacentre building design.

INNOVATE

MoH leads the way with the ‘Pulsator’

GLOBAL INNOVATION THE FUTURE OF IT

WALMART COMPLETES SAP TRIAL The world’s largest supermarket chain has completed its trial of SAP’s new ﬁnancial tools at its UK division Asda.

New datacentre facilitates launch of healthcare eServices RED HAT’S CLOUD STANDARD DATACENTRE

THE UAE MINISTRY of Health has imple-

mented what it calls a “one of a kind” datacentre dubbed the ‘Pulsator’, which will upgrade and enhance its infrastructure in order to enable the deployment of applications and introduce new healthcare eServices. The installation of the all-inclusive datacentre, which is also referred to as ‘Al-Nabed’, took place alongside the enhancement of the MoH’s networking environment, network security, systems and storage infrastructure, in addition to Microsoft technologies. The MoH claims that one major aspect of the datacentre is the highly secure IT environment implanted through the network security architecture, as opposed to the situation before where the lack of strong security measures made MoH’s data risk prone.

Red Hat has said that it is willing to

The implementation is a result of UAE eGovernment stipulations that emphasise the importance of introducing more public services and increasing process automation. “Ministry of Health has a concrete and set vision of providing world class health services to the UAE public,” said Mona Al Suwaidi, MoH’s deputy IT manager - projects management sector. “The state of the datacenter before implementing Al-Nabed somehow did not foster this vision, and it was crucial to completely overhaul and revamp it so the vision becomes a reality.” According to Al Suwaidi, the MoH’s new datacenter will provide it with an efficient and powerful IT base that will essentially upgrade the ﬂow of data across the Ministry from its inception, usage and its storage.

relinquish control of its cloud platform Deltacloud to the DMFT if it was to become the industry standard. HP TO LAUNCH TABLET WITH WEBOS HP has announced the ﬁrst tablet based on the Palm WebOS platform. TOSHIBA DEVELOPS NEW HDD Toshiba has developed a method capable of mass producing magnetic hard drives that employ a new, more efﬁcient way of storing information. AMAZON AND ORACLE OFFER LINUX Oracle and Amazon have both launched solutions aimed at enabling enterprises to run Linux distributions remotely.

The big decision Fujisoft goes live with Middle SAP releases Arabic verison East IP PBX solutions centre of its all-in-one ERP software COMMUNICATIONS

SOFTWARE

FUJISOFT TECHNOLOGY HAS developed

SAP HAS RELEASED an Arabic version of

a dedicated UAE ‘solutions centre’ that will serve as a technical training facility for customer standardising on Panasonic’s IP PBX unified communications solutions. The centre, which is understood to be the first of its kind in Dubai, will support Panasonic’s range of unified communications solutions in a number of ways. It will provide technical support to Panasonic unified communications customers, with eight call centre agents and 10 engineers available, and will provide proof of concept and technology demonstrations.

its all-in-one Enterprise Resource Planning software. The ERP solution will be made available to both its existing and new customers, and has been specially designed for the needs of the Arabic speaking mid-market sector in the Middle East and North Africa. “The strength and vibrancy of the midmarket sector in the MENA region comes as a result of companies continuously striving to innovate – region-relevant business solutions that cater for this strategically important market are crucial to its ongoing success,” said Sergio Maccotta, MD of SAP MENA.

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

Google killed Wave this month, in a move that didn’t necessarily surprise, but did sadden us. The fact is that it aimed a tool that was perfectly suited to enterprise collaboration at consumers. No wonder it failed. “One should never be surprised when Google terminates an initiative,” said Jonathan Yarmis, Ovum senior research fellow. “When you come right down to it, they’re a one-trick pony (search/advertising). Everything else is merely distraction, or survives in its ability to feed the advertising beast, which represents 98% of Google’s revenue. “Of course, fortunately for Google, that one trick is a really good trick.” ACN VIEW: Hopefully Google will see the light and bring it back as an enterprise product. It had amazing potential, but it suffered from poor implementation.

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INNOVATE

FIRST PAST THE POST REGIONAL INNOVATORS

UAE: Unique System FZE has launched a new system, which helps to monitor fuel consumption in relation to distance and speed for maritime customers. The Marorka technology is a manage-

Egyptian cultural past brought to life Epson projector models used to create interactive display

ment system that can help to track and improve a vessel’s fuel efﬁciency.

HARDWARE

THE EGYPTIAN CENTRE for DocumenJORDAN: Marketing and business solutions company, SADDA is implementing and supporting a revolutionary web-based reservation and inventory management system at all independently-owned hotels in the country. SADDA is the first hospitality firm in Jordan to operate the German-developed DIRS21 system. EGYPT: BNP Paribas has gained the distinction of being the first bank in Egypt to introduce the contactless card technology ‘PayPass’. The innovative and internationally-recognised contactless payment

tation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT) has teamed up with Epson to develop a state-of-the-art IT solution promoting Egypt’s long and rich cultural heritage, which streches back to 3150BC. The organisation is now using Epson-based technology to operate its interactive multimedia program, which offers audiences an opportunity to experience journeys through the different eras of Egyptian civilization. The Epson 1815 projectors, which are mounted on the ceiling in a semi-circular formation, are controlled by a single computer and feature a 180-degree interac-

tive computer screen, which consists of nine individual screens also arranged in a semi-circular shape, to create a unique and world-class immersive display system. The technology is ideal for displaying large scenes that are not served well by regular projection systems, such as panoramic images, due to the colour quality of the hardware and the difficulty in displaying huge images to a large number of people clearly. “We will build on our partnership with the Egyptian Centre for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage to support similar projects to achieve the desired result,” said Khalil El-Dalu, GM of Epson Middle East.

technology is a product of MasterCard and means cardholders only have to tap their card in front of a specially equipped POS machine to make payments of less than a specified value. SYRIA: The need to manage growing volume requirements and reduce risk through STP, automation and centralisation has led Syria-based Baraka Bank to become one of the first financial institutions in the country to deploy an Islamic finance software solution. The company claims the deployment of the iMAL solution is also designed to increase efficiencies and transparency

Epson is helping the Egyptian Centre for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage.

in its banking operations. JORDAN: Jordan has become one of the ﬁrst countries to adopt Microsoft’s

MENA oil and gas production Qatar Research Institute to giant vows to go ‘paperless’ “shake computer science”

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) in a move

BUSINESS PROCESS

that will facilitate the integration and col-

THE

PETROCHEMICALS

THE MIDDLE EAST enterprise IT market

laboration of various cross-government

Holding Company (ECHEM) is bidding to become the ﬁrst organisation in the region to adopt a completely “paperless” environment by taking a new approach to its IT systems. ECHEM has sanctioned the implementation of an Oracle ERP system that contains a range of modules, including ﬁnancial, inventory, procure-to-pay and HRMS in a bid to overhaul the way it manages its data.

could be set for some major developments in Arabic language technologies, internet computing and data mining in the years ahead following the launch of the Qatar Computing Research Institute. The institute, which is one of three hubs that will form the Qatar Research Institute (QRI), will be looking to “shake computer science” using research from Arab scientists.

eServices. The ESB will also enable national and local governmental institutions to share and exchange data, verify identiﬁcation numbers, ensure data security and execute payments in a quicker, more convenient, safe and costeffective manner.

www.itp.net

EGYPTIAN

RESEARCH

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

UPDATE

DSO implements Oracle eBusiness

STOCK WATCH FINANCIAL MARKETS

The share prices of the 10 largest enterprise vendors with operations in the Middle East took a battering this month, with every single company

Technology free zone looks to transform infrastructure

seeing at least 3% cut off their value.

SOFTWARE

to the news that its CEO Mark Hurd

DUBAI SILICON OASIS has successfully implemented Oracle’s eBusiness Suite, the free zone technology park has announced. The move is part of the authority’s strategy to fully integrate and streamline its IT operations, as well as improve the scalability of its business processes. The implementation includes Oracle’s customer relationship management, property manager, enterprise asset management, projects and Fusion software. According to the free zone, Oracle worked with Mahindra Satyam to roll out the system. “As a leading centre of advanced innovation, design and development, Dubai Silicon Oasis is keen to optimise the quality of its operation, processes and services, including eservices to create more opportunities for growth,” explained Shala Ahmed Razak, deputy chief executive at DSOA. “The Oracle eBusiness Suite products have matched our business requirements for an integrated IT application that provides an end-to-end view across diverse lines of business and facilities.”

had resigned over allegations of sexual

HP was the worst hit, largely down

Last chance to nominate at this year’s ACN Awards ARAB TECHNOLOGY AWARDS

harassment. IBM performed the best out of a bad bunch, as its share price suffered a drop of just over 3%.

All prices correct as of August 24th 2010

Dubai Silicon Oasis has integrated Oracle’s eBusiness Suite software at its free zone HQ.

Oracle hailed the implementation at Dubai Silicon Oasis as a sign of the ﬂexibility of its eBusiness Suite solution line. “We pride ourselves that DSOA has joined the long list of premium businesses in the region that rely on our IT management applications,” commented Husam Dajani, senior vice president at Oracle Middle East and Africa.

SHARE PRICE (US$) % CHANGE

Cisco

20.97

11.18%

Dell

11.46

16.59%

EMC

18.01

11.50%

Google

449.01

8.70%

38.09

18.21%

IBM

124.47

3.07%

Microsoft

24.00

7.73%

Nokia

8.76

7.10%

Oracle

22.22

9.82%

SAP

43.90

9.69%

Municipality to go green

THIS MONTH IS your last chance to nomi-

ENVIRONMENT & TECHNOLOGY

nate who you feel deserves a chance to win at the sixth ACN Arab Technology Awards, due to be held on Monday October 18th 2010. This year’s awards are set to be the biggest ever, with more than 300 of the industry’s leading businessmen and women set to celebrate the best implementations, CIO and IT departments of the year, as well as the best vendors, system integrators and service providers in the region at the exclusive Armani Hotel in the Burj Khalifa, Dubai. The awards, which will take place during this year’s GITEX Technology Week, are the social highlight of the regional IT calendar. Nomination forms are available to download from the official awards website. www.itp.com/acn-awards

DUBAI MUNICIPALITY HAS signed up with

COMPANY

HP and Dubai Municipality sign green deal.

way to recycle their used ink and laser printer toner cartridges. Dubai Municipality has a history of being amongst the first in implementing green initiatives. It was the first department in the UAE to bring in PC recycling in an effort to reduce the amount of ewaste it was sending to landfill, according to Hamdan Al Shaer, director of the Environmental Department the Municipality. “We are happy to have Dubai Municipality onboard in our most important environmental initiative aimed at saving the planet from huge amounts of technological waste,” commented Amin Mortazavi, general manager for HP’s Middle East Imaging and Printer Group. “We’re on our way to recyling over two billion pounds of products and materials that would otherwise have ended up in landfill.”

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

www.itp.net

HP to cut down on the amount of printer toners going to landﬁll sites around the UAE. The new initiative, dubbed “What goes around, comes around”, is part of HP’s global Planet Partners Programme and is intended to provide both public and private enterprises around the Middle East with an easy

UPDATE

DSO implements Oracle eBusiness

STOCK WATCH FINANCIAL MARKETS

The share prices of the 10 largest enterprise vendors with operations in the Middle East took a battering this month, with every single company

Technology free zone looks to transform infrastructure

seeing at least 3% cut off their value.

SOFTWARE

to the news that its CEO Mark Hurd

had resigned over allegations of sexual

HP was the worst hit, largely down

Last chance to nominate at this year’s ACN Awards ARAB TECHNOLOGY AWARDS

harassment. IBM performed the best out of a bad bunch, as its share price suffered a drop of just over 3%.

All prices correct as of August 24th 2010

Dubai Silicon Oasis has integrated Oracle’s eBusiness Suite software at its free zone HQ.

SHARE PRICE (US$) % CHANGE

Cisco

20.97

11.18%

Dell

11.46

16.59%

EMC

18.01

11.50%

Google

449.01

8.70%

38.09

18.21%

IBM

124.47

3.07%

Microsoft

24.00

7.73%

Nokia

8.76

7.10%

Oracle

22.22

9.82%

SAP

43.90

9.69%

Municipality to go green

THIS MONTH IS your last chance to nomi-

ENVIRONMENT & TECHNOLOGY

DUBAI MUNICIPALITY HAS signed up with

COMPANY

HP and Dubai Municipality sign green deal.

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

www.itp.net

UPDATE

El Araby in major IT systems refresh Servers and storage overhauled at Egyptian conglomerate HARDWARE

EGYPT’S EL ARABY Group has selected NEC

DATE FOR THE DIARY EVENTS & CEREMONIES

WHAT: Gartner CIO Academy WHERE: Yas Hotel, Abu Dhabi WHEN: 26-29 September AGENDA: An intensive, interactive and exclusive classroom learning experience designed speciﬁcally for CIOs and the most senior-level IT executives. Three days of discussions and strategy sessions with regional enterprise industry experts. REASON TO ATTEND: Dave Aron, VP for Gartner CIO Research, will be giving a session called ‘The Anatomy of the CIO Academy’, setting out the key responsibilities, capabilities and skills of the modern-day CIO. MORE DETAILS: www.gartner.com

to provide new hardware to meet its infrastructure needs across the whole group. The conglomerate, which has seven companies operating in areas including engineering, lighting, cooling industries, home appliances, and health care, along with a charitable nonproﬁt organisation, aimed to replace hardware from a range of vendors, with the aim of deploying a robust and secure IT infrastructure, with high availability and an improved TCO. El Araby also required infrastructure for its 150-seat group call centre, IT for its new office buildings and for its healthcare division’s El Araby Medical Centre Hospital. In order to meet the various requirements, El Araby went with four fully-loaded Flexpower blade solutions installed in various locations, and three separate ﬁle servers: one for each new location. The company said it selected blade servers for their high level of availability and lower time and implementation costs compared to traditional servers.

El Araby has undergone a major overhaul of its core IT infrastructure and moved to NEC.

To handle the group’s estimated 5TB of data, the company selected three NEC FC SAN storage units and three NEC tape libraries for backup; while the call centre was equipped with NEC thin clients, for durability, low maintenance and the high level of security that is built into the hardware. “We are excited about this investment and we look forward to the beneﬁts of using NEC solutions for our IT infrastructure,” said Walid Bakr, group IT Manager for El Araby Group.

APC releases new datacentre software SOFTWARE

DATACENTRE COOLING SPECIALIST APC has formed a new

business group that will focus on software systems designed to dynamically control existing cooling systems. The vendor, which has a background in cooling hardware, sees the new approach as a key tenant in its strategy to become a market leader in datacentre construction and management. The software will be developed in house according to the company, and the unit will have control over creation, sales, service, marketing and partner programmes.

www.itp.net

APC has vowed to make the software vendor-neutral in order to provide the industry’s ﬁrst solution aimed at integration with critical IT support systems, including power management, building management and enterprise management, enabling the monitoring, controlling and resolving of issues in a ‘user-friendly’ environment. “By establishing a new and dedicated software business with a clear strategy and focus, we are showing our true commitment to becoming the global leader in software for datacentres,” commented CEO Laurent Vernerey.

APC already has a strong presence in the cooling hardware market.

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

“This evolution within APC is well aligned with the Schneider Electric vision of growing as the world leader in energy management,” he added. The US-based company already supplies many of the world’s largest datacentres with the specialist hardware to cool their server equipment. It hopes that it can reproduce a similar level of commercial success with its new APC InfraStruxture software. The new software business unit will be lead by Soeren B. Jensen, vice president for datacentre software at the Schneider Electricowned technology vendor.

UPDATE

Larry Ellison believes HP has made a big mistake in losing Mark Hurd.

$2.4 .4 trillion THE TOTAL AMOUNT THAT WILL BE SPENT ON ENTERPRISE IT IN 2010 Source: Gartner

PERSON OF THE MONTH

Osman Sultan CEO of DU Du’s CEO faced the heat this month, holding a no-holds barred press conference to announce the launch of its Blackberry replacement packages, and take questions from the media on what Du thought of the decision by the TRA. Unlike rival Etisalat — which made its announcement via a press release — Du boss Sultan tried his best to help journalists get their heads around the complex issues involving the ban. He added that despite the TRA withholding any financial support for costs incurred by the decision, Du would be fine: “I believe customers are still there, customers have needs as far as their email is concerned, I don’t see a significant impact on the Osman Sultan faced the media to economical [aspect] as far discuss the Blackberry ban head on. as Du is concerned.”

“The HP board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago. That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn’t come back and saved them. HP had a long list of failed CEOs until they hired Mark who has spent the last five years doing a brilliant job reviving HP to its former greatness.” Oracle CEO LARRY ELLISON’s open letter to the New York

Times, commenting on the forced resignation of HP’s CEO Mark Hurd, a close friend of his.

“This is about the internet. Everything on the internet is encrypted. This is not a BlackBerry-only issue. If they can’t deal with the Internet, they should shut it off... We are going to continue to work with them to make sure they understand the reality of the internet. A lot of these people don’t have Ph.Ds, and they don’t have a degree in computer science.” Research In Motion co-CEO MICHAEL LAZARIDIS questions the decision of several countries to try and ban the company’s popular Blackberry smartphones in the region.

“In three to five years, we anticipate that around 10% of major companies will have virtually no IT infrastructure, instead they will be using services such as cloud computing to obtain their IT services.” IYAD HINDIYEH, COO of Smartworld – the co-venture between Etisalat and DubaiWorld – makes a bold prediction at the ofﬁcial launch of the company’s new cloud computing solution.

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

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KYOCERA HELPS DUBAI RTA GO GREEN

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BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

The online home of

EDITOR’S CHOICE

MOST POPULAR

IT BUSINESS

INTEL BUYS MCAFEE

BLACKBERRY CO-CEO SLAMS PLANS TO BLOCK SERVICES

Processor and motherboard vendor surprises the IT market by buying leading security software vendor for $7.6 billion.

Adds that if governments can’t deal with the internet, they should shut it off.

TECHNOLOGY

IT BUSINESS

BBC TRIALLING APPLE IPAD

HP CEO HURD RESIGNS AFTER SEXUAL HARASSMENT CLAIM

British broadcaster rolling out small scale trial of popular consumer tablet as part of wider IT strategy rethink.

Allegations by former contractor lead to him stepping down after four years in charge.

MOST READ 1 Iranian activist sues NSN 2 Has Intel changed the face of IT? 3 Aqarmap.com launches 4 Orascom in talks with VimpelCom 5 Fujitsu completes CEO search MOST READ ACN STORIES 1 Fujitsu completes CEO search 2 Global security spending up $16m 3 Disgraced Satyam founder on bail 4 HP quarterly revenue up 11% 5 Cisco sales shoot up nearly 30%

IN NUMBERS ITP.NET COMMENT OF THE MONTH

These comments by a supposed C-level executive of RIM telling foreign governments to shut down the internet is little more than arrogant. Reader ‘Mindsmith’ shows their contempt for the opinion of RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis. His commments split reader opinion, with some supporting his view and others disagreeing.

The rise in sales at Cisco during the fourth quarter Source: Cisco

$2.4tn

SPOT POLL

Should Etisalat and Du pay compensation to Blackberry users if the service is banned in the UAE?

82% 12% 6% Yes

30%

Don’t know

A clear result, with 82% of those who answered this month’s ACN spot poll saying they feel they should be compensated by the operators.

The estimated worldwide spend on IT by enterprises during 2010 Source: Gartner

The number of vulnerabilities Microsoft ﬁxed in its most recent security update Source: Microsoft

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

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INTELLIGENCE

Enterprise spending to rise GARTNER BUSINESS REPORT

With the shadow of the Great Recession 3% Education still refusing to disappear around the corner, 3% Wholesale trade it’s no surprise that the sectors expected to drive growth in the next year or two are core 4% Transport services, such as government, utilities, media 4% Healthcare and communications and healthcare. Manufacturing & natural resources While major hospital building projects 5% Utilities are being cut, it is likely the funding that 7% is left will be invested into the existing Local & regional infrastructure as private companies government look to make the most of their existing Banking & securities 7% facilities. Meanwhile, green utilities and Insurance a need to improve existing infrastructure 7% is driving investment in that market. Retail Communications, Emerging technologies such as the iPad, media & services and ever increasing reliance on high-speed broadband is one of the major forces behind continued high IT spend in the media. While national and international governIT SPEND 2009 - 2010 mental spending are likely to remain high for the next couple of years, cuts are already

18%

16%

impacting the spending power of local branches. Transportation is also expected to see IT spending growth below the worldwide average while global trade remains fragile and fuel costs high, restricting the ability of those sectors to invest. Education, wholesale trade, retail and banking are expected to do a little better, but are still below the global average. Major education rebuilding projects in places like the UK have for the past years sustained high levels of IT investment, but with recent cut backs, spending is likely to be restricted to growth markets, such as the Middle East. Retail and wholesale, which are closely linked, are both expected to invest in IT, but will be doing so at a lower rate as tight margins in the run up to the Great Recession strangled their margins. Weak consumer and business sales are expected to continue putting pressure on margins.

Corporate PC sales rebound IDC BUSINESS REPORT

The PC infrastructure market in Europe, Middle East and Africa appears to be returning to better health after new figures reveal it grew 21% year-on-year. Despite fears of a slowdown, more than 24 million PCs were shipped across the region during the second quarter, exceeding expectations across both commercial and consumer segments. In the Middle East and Africa specifically, the market saw strong double-digit growth led by continued demand for mobile PCs. “Growth in the Middle East and Africa performed in line with forecasts of 16.4%, with the African continent outperforming the Middle East by reporting annual growth of 34%,” said Stefania Lorenz, systems and infrastructure solutions research director at IDC. The overall EMEA PC market benefitted from a gradual uptake in the business space as companies started to re-engage on

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6% Toshiba

8% Asus

36%

10% Dell

Others

20% Acer

20% HP

EMEA PC SHARE BY VENDOR DURING Q2

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

refresh cycles in Western Europe, while also picking up across the CEE region. Although spending will remain cautious, IDC believes that better-than-expected commercial PC market growth is an encouraging sign and says accelerating demand will continue to support the market during the second half of the year. “The ﬁrst half of the year conﬁrmed a strong recovery in the EMEA PC market, and while global economic conditions will remain challenging, the outlook for 2H10 remains positive, and will be driven by the continued rebound in business and consumer renewals,” said Karine Paoli, associate VP for EMEA systems and infrastructure solutions at IDC. The biggest winner during the quarter was netbook specialist Asus. It almost doubled unit shipments and now sits just two percentage points behind third-placed Dell in the overall rankings for the EMEA PC market.

NEWS ANALYSIS

Shock tactics It might be the surprise technology acquisition of the year so far, but according to Intel there is some logic behind its decision to splash out US$7.68 billion on acquiring software maker McAfee. Now the industry is eagerly waiting to ﬁnd out just what it means for the enterprise sector.

hile microprocessors and antivirus software both fall under the IT domain, they rarely go hand in hand. However, chip giant Intel has attempted to change that in one fell swoop by announcing its intention to purchase all of McAfee’s common stock for US$48 per share in cash. The deal might have led to raised eyebrows among CIOs and analysts alike, but according

to Intel it reﬂects the fact that security is now a fundamental component of online computing — in other words it needs a stronger security offering to underpin the very products that are powered by its microchips. Intel’s view is that it can single-handedly supply the combination of security software and hardware that will better protect customers as billions of devices — and the server and cloud networks that manage them — go online.

They share our vision for security and they share our vision of a connected world. Working together we’ll be far stronger globally and able to make a much bigger difference in people’s lives.” 14

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

What the deal does illustrate is that Intel’s take on security is rapidly changing. The company admits that it has elevated its focus on security to the same level as energy-efficient performance and connectivity. “With the rapid expansion of growth across a vast array of internet-connected devices, more and more of the elements of our lives have moved online,” said Paul Otellini, Intel’s president and CEO. “In the past, energyefficient performance and connectivity have deﬁned computing requirements. Looking forward, security will join those as a third pillar of what people demand from all computing experiences.” That view is echoed by Dave DeWalt, president and CEO of McAfee, who claims

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NEWS ANALYSIS

MCAFEE FACT FILE Head ofﬁce: Santa Clara Founded: 1987 CEO: Dave DeWalt Revenues: US$2 billion Employees: 6,100 employees Focus: Consumer, midmarket, enterprise, government

Paul Otellini claims security is now as important as energy efﬁciency and connectivity.

the deal reﬂects what the company has been saying for some time: security is a fundamental component of modern computing and increasingly relevant in a completely connected world. “There is no better partner that we could have found than Intel,” claimed DeWalt. “They share our vision for security and they share our vision of a connected world. Working together we’ll be far stronger globally and able to make a much bigger difference in people’s lives.” Intel argues that today’s security approach does not fully address the billions of new internet-ready devices that are now utilised by organisations in sectors ranging from banking

and automotive to healthcare and media. It therefore insists the acquisition “augments” its mobile wireless strategy by helping to better assure customer and consumer security concerns as all of these devices connect. Whether CIOs and IT managers should start expecting joint sales calls from Intel and McAfee representatives is another question altogether. Intel has already confirmed that McAfee will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary, reporting into Intel’s Software and Services Group, which is managed by senior VP and group general manager, Renée James. At the moment it remains too early to say how things will play out in the Middle East, where both vendors run their regional operations from Dubai Internet City. McAfee Middle East, which employs around 20 people in the region, directed all questions to Intel, but Intel has not yet spoken out on the anticipated local implications of the tie-up. It is likely to be a while before that particular picture becomes clearer. For a start, at the time of going to press, the deal is still awaiting McAfee shareholder approval and other regulatory clearances, although both boards of directors have unanimously approved it. Despite taking the industry by surprise, McAfee does not represent the first software company that Intel has swooped for. It has previously made a number of softwarerelated purchases of companies that rely on silicon, including Wind River and Havok. On a financial note, Intel expects the combination to be slightly dilutive to earnings on a GAAP basis in the first year of operations and approximately flat in the second year.

THE ANALYST VIEW Graham Titterington, principal analyst for software at market research ﬁrm Ovum, says that Intel’s purchase of McAfee throws up some interesting questions. The active involvement of a company with the inﬂuence and resources of Intel in the information security arena will have a major impact on the future of computing. McAfee’s products extend beyond IT security into governance and aspects of systems management, and so this acquisition will increase Intel’s exposure to the CxO level executives in the

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world’s largest organisations. Many major

The situation brings echoes of what we

IT vendors have been buying IT security

saw in 2002 when Microsoft, in conjunction

vendors for several years, such as IBM, HP,

with Intel, proposed a secure computing

Microsoft, and EMC. The difference is that

platform under the auspices of the Trusted

Intel is thought of as a hardware vendor

Computing Platform Alliance, and Micro-

enjoying a near monopoly in its core mar-

soft’s Palladium project.

kets — although it is also a large software supplier as well. We can assume that Intel’s objective is to

Competitive concerns largely stiﬂed this vision, which got scaled back to some encryption features that we see today in

incorporate more security features into its

Windows 7. Effective security has to work at

chips. For users, and for businesses, this will

the platform, network and business levels,

be welcome, but clearly there is a risk of mo-

and a secure chip cannot address all of

nopolistic concerns damaging the market.

these by itself.

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

NEWS ANALYSIS

Constrained credit and a new frugal approach to IT spending are the forces currently shaping enterprise expenditure. Ben Furﬁe met with managed services provider Smartworld to ask if cloud services can take off in such a hostile climate.

yad Hindiyeh doesn’t shy away from making bold claims. As the chief operating officer of Smartworld — the joint venture between telecoms giant Etisalat and investment house Dubai World — he is eager to tell people about his, and his backers’, vision of the future. “In a couple of years time, as much as 20% of large companies will not have an IT infrastructure — at least as we recognise it today,” he told a room full of journalists at a press conference to launch the company’s latest cloud computing services for SMBs. In the space of one minute, he’d made a claim that others had only alluded to in the

past: that cloud computing will replace IT departments wholesale. What’s more, he didn’t just put a time frame on it — he also gave an estimate of the number of companies that would do so. Sitting down with Hindiyeh after the conference, it was clear that the bolshiness wasn’t just for show: his belief in the product is unquestionable. “I feel that cloud computing is the remedy for the economic situation we have today,” he told me, when questioned about whether or not companies can really afford to invest in cloud while they are still wrestling with ROIs on existing deployments and the credit markets are still strained.

“Even with the economic crisis, companies are still forced to spend a lot of money keeping up with the technological advancements of hardware and software. By moving into the cloud, [companies can] remove many of the headaches that they currently experience.” Coming back to his claim that one-in-ﬁve enterprises will have essentially done away with their IT infrastructures within the next couple of years, Hindiyeh added: “This is where things are moving. If you look today, it’s already happening at some large corporations in the US and Europe. This trend is being motivated by the idea that companies have to focus on what they do best, and that’s deliver-

Arabian Computer News | SEPTEMBER 2010

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KYOCERA HELPS MASDAR CITY GO GREEN

Masdar City, a highly innovative project in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, aims to be one of the world’s most sustainable urban developments powered by renewable energy. Masdar chose KYOCERA to equip its businesses with sustainable document imaging devices. Based on KYOCERA’s unique ECOSYS technology with long-life components, KYOCERA printers and MFPs minimize waste and help offices reduce their carbon footprint. KYOCERA and Masdar work together towards a sustainable future. Make sure the world continues to be a place we can all

live in. Count on KYOCERA. KYOCERA MITA MIDDLE EAST: Office 157, Bldg. 17, Dubai Internet City P.O. Box 500817 Dubai, United Arab Emirates Tel: +971 4 4330412 Fax: +971 4 4231944 www.kyoceramita.ae

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NEWS ANALYSIS

Customers can access Smartworld’s cloud services through a variety of mobile devices.

ing their product or service to the customer. It’s not expending energy and resources on an IT department, especially when a managed service provider can often do it more efficiently and cheaper.” When pushed for a reason why he felt IT departments weren’t up to the job, he explained: “It’s not that CIOs and their IT staff aren’t able to do the job well. It’s simply that cloud services mean that instead of having a sprawling IT infrastructure for just one company — one that probably isn’t being used efficiently — and having to expend the capital to purchase it and also fund its upkeep, several companies can use the same hardware more efficiently — and it has the benefit of being cheaper and greener too.” With benefits like that, it begs the question as to why more firms haven’t already embraced the cloud. “Before [they] will move towards a cloud computing service, they need to see the same offering that they experience from internally-based services — it has to be reliable, it has to be scalable and it has to be for the right price,” offered Hindiyeh, as a reason why it hasn’t happened yet. “[Now that Smartworld has launched its offering], we’ll start to see companies moving over straight away,” he proclaimed. When asked about the impact that a delay in IT refreshment by companies might have on that prediction, he said: “For some, it will

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already be time to refresh. For others, there will be a cost beneﬁt in moving away from expensive to maintain IT infrastructures, towards the lower costs of cloud computing. If you look at the costs of the cloud computing services that Smartworld is offering, the price is lower — sometimes substantially lower — than maintaining the existing IT infrastructure. In those cases, it simply doesn’t make sense to wait until the next hardware refresh before considering moving to cloud computing,” he commented. One of the big fears that will inevitably arise from his prediction that as many as 20% of enterprises could do away with their internal IT infrastructure within a couple of years, is that it will spell out widespread job losses. However, Hindiyeh downright dismisses the idea that cloud adoption automatically equals job losses. “If you look at the trends that are happening in markets where the move towards infrastructure-free enterprises has already begun, such as the UK, the US and Western Europe, IT jobs haven’t gone down — instead they’ve gone up. This is because once you start to introduce cloud services, the companies offering those services will begin to absorb those staff whose jobs no longer exist. There is also increased demand for IT staff at private companies that will still have a need for those services — such as those that need private clouds.”

IN NUMBERS

20%

The number of large enterprises that will have replaced their IT infrastructures with cloud services by 2012 Source: Smartworld

$68bn

The current worth of the cloud computing market on a worldwide basis

$148.8bn The estimated revenues derived from cloud services by 2014

$112bn

The amount enterprises are predicted to spend on SaaS, PaaS and IaaS over the next ﬁve years Source: Gartner

Iyad Hindiyeh (centre) predicts enterprises will rapidly turn to cloud services in the next two years.

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

COMMENT

Ramez Shehadi

Going green... for the sake of IT Minimising carbon footprint is the CIO’s responsibility

rivate corporations and the public sector are facing increasing pressures to reduce their carbon emissions and energy bills, driven by enforced legislation and regulation, increasing energy costs, and, perhaps as important, a constantly growing demand from customers for more sustainable operations and products, according to a study by Booz & Company. In focusing on carbon reduction related to IT departments, many companies respond by attempting relatively simple ﬁxes, such as reducing the number of PCs. However, this is not nearly enough to create a sustainable environmentally conscious programme. Instead, top corporate management working with CIOs should develop a robust, comprehensive, and holistic green IT model that leverages technology to minimise the carbon footprint of the entire organisation. Such a programme would view environmental sustainability as a business strategy, driving eco-friendly approaches throughout the organisation to improve business operations, better preserve the environment, enhance productivity, and cut costs at the same time. For most companies, going green is rapidly becoming an imperative, but as critical as green strategies are, many companies are unsure about how to begin.

What’s more, the number of PCs worldwide is projected to double between now and 2014, and mobile voice and data traffic is forecast to rise fourfold by 2012. As a result, total ICT emissions are on track for a 50% increase by 2020. Faced with these realities, many companies take a narrow view of the way IT can help reduce their carbon emissions. The approach they choose is what we call “greening IT” — carbon footprint reduction programmes focused solely on minimising energy usage and non-recyclable waste in corporate IT departments. A host of activities unrelated to IT operations within a company can yield carbon reduction when green applications are leveraged in areas such as process and building automation, logistics and teleconferencing. Although it has limited value alone, a greening IT programme can have tremendous impact on reducing carbon footprints when it is integrated with a vigorous campaign of going green through IT. Among the possible facets of a green IT programme are consolidating datacentres, adopting cloud computing, installing advanced cooling systems and power management software in datacentres, and deploying thin clients. Corporations, of course, are the largest users of ICT and hence are responsible for

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

a significant portion of its overall carbon footprint. CIOs can work with ICT vendors to participate in — or establish — an asset recovery programme that can extend the life of systems, using strategies such as refurbishing equipment and extracting useful components and materials from recyclable systems. For strategies of greening IT or going green through IT to be effective, IT governance has to reflect sustainability on an ongoing basis with clear steering mechanisms and key performance indicators (KPIs). Typical governance considerations when creating a successful green IT strategy are extremely challenging, but the effort is well worth it, particularly when the green IT programme delivers cost savings, an enhanced reputation and even new potential revenue streams. For most companies, going green the right way remains a mystery or a problem too daunting to tackle in a fully-fledged approach. But avoiding this issue in the hope that it will resolve itself via half measures is not acceptable anymore. As many organisations are learning, this can result in continuing inefficiencies, expensive energy costs, wasteful processes and less than stellar relationships with potential customers. Ramez Shehadi is a partner at Booz & Company

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COMMENT

Abhijit Pendse

Who said IT wasn’t a risky business? It pays to have a policy in place when your systems go down

ver the years, risk management has become paramount across all functions of a company and IT is no exception. Different regulations, standards, frameworks and overlapping concepts have evolved in this area. The traditional approach has been piecemeal, reactive and driven by speciﬁc events or contingencies. However, the time has now come to take a holistic view and develop a robust IT risk management framework to mitigate the known and unknown. Such a framework should encompass all technology assets and resources — applications, infrastructure and operations. The importance of IT among the support functions of an organisation has been on the rise since its birth. What started as a MIS function with some ﬁnance guys crunching data to get reports, has today become the nervous system of most businesses. With the growing criticality, the cost of IT failure has also proportionately increased. Today, a lot of business functions would literally come to a standstill in case of technology failures. It is no surprise that IT risk management is becoming a critical activity. Traditionally, risks in IT have always been looked upon as system access risks. The simplistic and most common of the control

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mechanisms has been access validation control by use of a password. However, with the passage of time, the realisation has dawned that IT risk management is not just password management and has to be looked at holistically, both from an internal and external threats perspective. People — employees and external — are regarded as the biggest threat to technology and applications. Common issues include one employee using another employee’s credentials to access classified information or employees sharing confidential data with outside sources. The technical resources in an organisation are also potential threats. Database administrators making unauthorised changes to data, or system administrators making changes to the system configurations that resulted in system behaviour change, have been common issues over the years. With the proliferation of internet and multiple external touch points, external threats and cyber attacks have grabbed much of the attention in the last decade. Cross site scripting and SQL injections are the two most common techniques used by hackers. People also tend to share a lot of confidential information inadvertently on social networking sites and blogs.

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

There have been cases where these forums have been methodically used to extract information under the guise of friendships or interviews, or against ﬁnancial favours. Inadequate IT infrastructure also poses serious risks from another very signiﬁcant perspective. Organisations without any backup strategy, disaster recovery sites or contingency plans face the risk of coming to a standstill if any of their production infrastructure stops functioning. Overloaded infrastructures, carelessness in maintenance of production systems, and hardware beyond the warranty period or without annual maintenance contracts are all common cases of vulnerabilities. Risk management programmes are ongoing and evolving. The success of such programmes in the industry today depends on the commitment of senior management, the effectiveness of the assessment and monitoring processes, and the periodic enhancement of the framework. While the success of such programmes goes unnoticed, the failures are disastrous. As a result, however unglamorous they are, they have to be successfully adopted. Abhijit Pendse is Senior Engagement Manager at Cedar Management Consulting International

CIO INTERVIEW

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

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CIO INTERVIEW

Controlling the beast How do you deal with a function like IT when the company you work for has eight separate divisions spread across a wide range of verticals from cars to computers? It’s a question that Saji Oommen, CIO of Al Batha Group, has to answer every day. By Ben Furﬁe

aji Oommen’s desk is covered in paper. “I don’t ever think we’ll see the day when paper is no longer needed,” he quietly jokes, leaning back in his chair. For someone who is in charge of the IT infrastructure for one of the largest independently-owned companies in the UAE, Oommen is surprisingly softly spoken. “We have a slightly diversiﬁed group,” he says when asked to describe the company he has worked for for most of his career. Slightly diversiﬁed might be being a bit modest. With eight divisions spread across varied industries, ranging from the FMCG to real estate, and pharmaceuticals to electronics retail, nobody can accuse the Sharjah-based company of being afraid to diversify. But while it might make the CEO’s job a little easier knowing that the company can fall back on other sectors should one see a decline in demand, the sheer range of challenges posed by wildly different verticals is conceivably a nightmare for a CIO, regardless of experience.

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“There’s a lot to think about,” admits Oommen. “But when you’ve been here as long as I have, you manage to get your head around most things.” The company, which is based on the top two floors of its gleaming 23-floor skyscraper next to Sharjah Corniche, has always looked forward when it comes to adopting new technology, explains Oommen. “We’ve never said we don’t want to implement that technology because it would be too much work. We’ve always evaluated its worth based on factors such as need, cost and ROI. Because of the size of the group, certain technologies are financially within reach for us, when for smaller companies they simply aren’t economical.” One example of this is the company’s implementation of business intelligence. Despite analysts and vendors proclaiming that 2010 is the year of business intelligence, Al Batha has been using it for the past eight years reveals Oommen. “We began rolling the technology out to our automotive division. The first impact it had was on the van sales teams. Before we introduced business intelligence, they would go out in the morning, visiting customers with stock, and then either at the end of the day, or when they ran out of stock. They’d come back to the office, deposit the cash they’d made and then head back out. “After we introduced business intelligence, it had the immediate impact of allowing the sales teams to see what was selling and what wasn’t at different times of the year far more effectively than their experience and memory allowed — because it was contrasting not just their own sales, but the sales of the all their colleagues. It also allowed

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

CIO INTERVIEW

Cloud computing is an enabler, not a solution. That’s where people go wrong with it. them to see who was buying what and how much they were spending; it meant that they could target people far more efficiently and increase the number of businesses they could see during any one day.” However, the automotive division is just one part of the overall company. So how does he ensure that any solution that is implemented isn’t just benefiting one department, but all. “The fact is you can’t. You can try, but there will always be one department that will need more assistance than another. There are synergies among the group’s companies, but for the most part IT solutions only come together when they’re providing an overview of the whole company for the benefit of the board and executives.” But are there benefits in having such a large company if each department has its own IT needs? Yes, says Oommen. “While each department may use a technology in a different way to another, the fact is that if we forced them to all use a solution in one way, it wouldn’t be effective. We do gain synergies from the size of the company when it comes to rolling out things like BI. For example, we were able to roll that technology out a long time ago when it was expensive because of the size of the group.”

SAJI’S TOP 3 PROJECTS Retail solution for eCity SAP POS roll-out for group retail portfolio, enabling promotions, pricing and reporting Mobile CRM solution SAP mobile CRM for its pharmaceutical sales team, enabling up-to-the minute stock and pricing information Virtualisation of infrastructure SAP N1AA Adaptive Computing implementation to reduce complexity of group-wide systems and improve availability of resources

Another area where technology is having a positive impact on the company’s overall operation is in market research. “It’s not something that we set out to achieve through adopting the technology, but by having all these sales people out — not just in the automotive division, but also in the pharmaceutical business for example — we can leverage that penetration with the customer to get feedback and conduct surveys on the fly.” BI isn’t the only area that the company is investing in. Oommen says it was around five years ago that Al Batha virtualised its IT infrastructure, when asked what his opinion is on the ongoing claims that virtualisation is going to revolutionise IT departments. “I wouldn’t say that it’s drastically changed the way that we operate, but what virtualising our IT infrastructure has done is provided us with peace of mind — both in terms of the reduction in complexity through removing compatibility issues, as well as confidence that routing maintenance and hardware failures won’t knock us out like they might have in the past. “If worst comes to worst and we need to replace a server, it’s not a huge problem for us. We have enough redundancy built into our IT infrastructure so that if we did lose such a vital piece of hardware, we can shift the load on to our other servers and replace it quickly. It means we minimise the downtime, and in turn, ensure that the employees using our IT systems don’t find themselves without services they rely on.” When it comes to cloud services, the company is still investigating the benefits and the negatives, but Oommen is positive about the technology. “It’s an enabler rather than a solution. That’s what people get wrong about it. I think it will bring with it a democratisation of IT infrastructure. Smaller companies will find they’re no longer at a disadvantage when it comes to the IT systems that they can afford to integrate into their operations. It’s going to create some very interesting challenges for larger companies like us, but I think it will also force us to be more creative with our resources.”

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

CIO CV SAJI OOMMEN 2005 – Present

General Manager (Group IT), Al Batha Group 2005 – 2007

President, Information Systems Audit and Control Association 1992–2005

Group IT Manager, Al Batha Group 1988–1992

Systems Manager, AGMC BMW, Al Batha QUALIFICATIONS - Post-Graduate Engineer, Computer Science - Certified Information Systems Auditor - Certified Information Security Manager - Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT

Oommen, however, is less enamoured with public cloud services, which in his words, he “doesn’t see the point of”, especially when it comes to enterprises. “It’s crucial for an enterprise to be able to control their data in house. Why a company that has vital data and a need to ensure that they’re adhering to good governance principles would think it’s a good idea to handle data outside of the company’s own IT infrastructure is confusing. It’s an enormous risk, regardless of the potential saving.” One constant, irrespective of what the future holds, is Oommen’s passion for SAP’s solutions: “We run our systems on SAP. We have a very close working relationship with the company. Our CRM system runs on SAP, our retail systems run on it and I’m a director of the SAP users group in the region.”

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COVER STORY

Bridging the Gulf Despite the recession and the impact of Dubai’s debt crisis, Cisco is adamant that the Middle East remains crucial to the company’s future. Wayne Fullerton, general manager for Cisco Saudi Arabia, and Wayne Hull, general manager for Cisco UAE, spoke exclusively to ACN about the company’s hopes for its enterprise business in the region. By Ben Furﬁe or a company that specialises in building infrastructure, there are few places on the planet that seem more appropriate, or offer the same commercial opportunities, as the Middle East. Even after the recession, investment in the region — both private and governmental — has remained strong, especially contrasted against the shrinking economies of the West. Much of this is being driven by a desire to build cities that will fuel the economies of the Middle East. “That desire to help secure the economic future of the region has driven an enormous programme of city building,” explains Wayne Fullerton, general manager for Saudi Arabia at Cisco. “Despite the recession, there has been a continued drive to carry on building, especially here in Riyadh. I remember arriving in the region 12 months ago, and when you drove from the airport to downtown Riyadh there was a huge expanse of open space. When you drive down that same road today, it’s a huge hive of activity with the building of colleges and other infrastructure.” Indeed, this keen focus in investment within education is one of the key areas that Cisco is seeing growth in. “The population of both the UAE and Saudi Arabia are both extremely young, with a large proportion of people living there currently under 15 years old,” says Wayne Hull, general manager of Cisco’s UAE operations.

Fullerton says that over the next couple of years, there will be one million kids entering the job market each year in Saudi Arabia alone. “The real question is where are the jobs going to come from? For a lot of them, they’re going to come from infrastructure projects — and in particular, IT infrastructure,” he says. The focus on this demographic is one of the main things driving the goals of Cisco in the Gulf, where it employs in excess of 350 people. “King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is one of the driving forces behind the prioritisation of education in the region,” explains Fullerton. “A good example of this is that the Saudi education budget for the next year will be 25% of the overall budget.” It’s no wonder, then, that the education market forms a major part of Cisco’s enterprise strategy in the Middle East, and a vertical segment where demand for its high-end networking equipment looks poised to increase in the coming years. Saudi Arabia isn’t alone in this huge investment in education either. The UAE, too, has been spending heavily on its educational infrastructure, with over 300 public schools in the country currently being linked together with one of the most advanced networking and software projects being undertaken anywhere in the world. “It’s more akin to what we’re used to seeing in the banking sector than the educational sector,” adds Hull. One of the major themes running through all of the countries that Cisco operates in within the Gulf region is their development from small trad-

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

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COVER STORY

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Arabian Computer News | September 2010

COVER STORY

Wayne Fullerton, speaking to ACN via Telepresence, said universities and Smart Cities were driving demand for Cisco’s products in Saudi Arabia.

TODAY’S CIO Just what is the difference between today’s CIO and the CIO of 18 months ago? A far higher focus on return on investment, according to Wayne Hull, GM UAE, and Wayne Fullerton, GM Saudi Arabia at Cisco Gulf. “There’s been a shift away from vanity projects,” says Hull. “CIOs are now only looking at projects that will enhance their current business position, rather than those that might be nice to have,” adds Fullerton. “What we’re ﬁnding is that those projects that remove complexity and risk are gaining the attention of

ing outposts to oil-fuelled economies and on to modern highly diversiﬁed global economies with interests as varied as construction through to communications. “Granted, we’ve seen a slowdown in the amount of building activity, but you could say that it was little more than a market correction,” says Hull. “The amount of construction that had been going on prior to the recession was stupendous. I think it has clouded people’s perception as to how much construction is still going on,” he adds. “There are still huge opportunities for IT companies like Cisco, especially in the hightech construction projects, for example the building of university cities in Saudi.” It isn’t just the rapid growth that has seen Cisco remain optimistic. “There really isn’t anywhere else on the planet that is positioned perfectly in between the economies driving global trade like the US, UK and Western Europe in the West, and China, India, Japan and Australia in the East,” continues Hull. “The Middle East is positioned right in the centre of the biggest shift in global commercial power since the formation of the British Empire.” However, one of the biggest challenges that Cisco admits it faces in the region is the

difference in adoption of fixed line broadband between the West and the adoption of mobile phones in the Middle East. “Saudi, for example, has a mobile phone adoption rate approaching 200%, well above most countries in the West,” says Fullerton. “On the other hand, adoption of what we would consider as traditional broadband services — that is those coming through a fixed line service, are well below those of Western economies. That presents new challenges for us,” he concedes. Hull puts the difference in adoption rates down to the high prices consumers and businesses have traditionally had to pay in the region for fixed line broadband access. “Things are improving in the UAE for example,” says Hull. “But we’re still some way off a cost/service balance like there is in Western nations. It’s crucial that this is addressed by the chief parties in the region, as its position between the East and the West presents a onetime chance to evolve the economies of the Middle East into a communications hub.” Even once problems with connection speeds and pricing are resolved, issues will still remain around the clash between the open nature of the internet and the more traditional, conservative cultures of the Middle

CIOs,” says Hull. “Ultimately, it has to deliver business value. If it isn’t doing that then nobody is going to invest in your product or service.”

There are still huge market opportunities for technology companies like Cisco, especially in the high-tech construction projects.” Arabian Computer News | September 2010

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COVER STORY

SPLASHING THE CASH Cisco’s last ﬁve acquisitions

$99m May 2010: CoreOptics

Digital signal processing solutions

Undisclosed May 2010: MOTO Development Group

Consumer design consulting ﬁrm

$45m Nov 2009: DVN set-top box arm HULL: The global recession has done little to dampen the growth ambitions of the Gulf markets.

Set-top boxes

“We’re still some way off a cost/service balance like there is in Western nations. It’s crucial that this is addressed by the chief parties in the region.

$183m Oct 2009: ScanSafe

Web security SaaS provider

East. It’s something that is to be expected, according to Hull. “It’s important to remember, it isn’t just the cities that have developed in 50 years, but also the cultures of these countries. 40 years ago, the UAE as it stands today didn’t exist. A lot of people forget that. Rapid change breeds fear. Once people have had a chance to adapt to the rapid pace of the development, we’ll see a move away from worries about the impact the internet will have on their culture, towards utilising it to promote and enhance their own culture.” But will the time the culture shift takes to happen have a negative impact on the economies of the Middle East? Not at all argue both Hull and Fullerton. “Few countries are going to undergo such a major upheaval in every aspect of their existence as those with predominately young populations in the Middle East will,” explains Fullerton. “They don’t have the same barriers to adoption as companies in the West do — an ingrained idea of how things are and should be done. It’s going to be up to the youth of today, and just like any youth from around the world, their minds are open to new possibilities and opportunities in ways that the older generation simply aren’t,” echoes Hull.

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As Cisco assesses its strategy for the Gulf, growth is still at the forefront of its thinking. “On a macro level, the UAE and Saudi Arabia’s plans haven’t been dulled. Sure, a couple of companies might not be able to do what they had planned before the recession, but overall there is still a huge ambition to make things happen,” says Fullerton.

$2.9bn Oct 2009: Starent Networks

IP-based mobile infrastructure solutions provider

MARKET CAP

CISCO’S SHARE PRICE OVER THE YEAR ($USD) PRICES CORRECT AS OF AUGUST 24TH 2010 28

27.57 High on 26/4/2010

23.96 Average

26 25 24 23 22 21 JAN

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BEST PRACTICE

Locking out intruders The Internet Services Unit (ISU) at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) is chartered to promote internet-based services for national academic sectors. So when the organisation looked at what it needed to do to support its increasing client base, it put web security and productivity at the top of its agenda.

he network infrastructure for your average university is one of the harshest environments to manage. Think about it – while a normal administrator might have to deal

with 200 or 300 users, a run-of-the-mill university will be looking at a nightmarish scenario of several thousand users logging in and out each and every day; not to mention, hundreds of guests workers with

their Wi-Fi connections as well. In a region where bandwidth isn’t cheap, this situation demands the utmost efficiency in managing data usage, while simultaneously ensuring that malware and other web-based threats

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

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BEST PRACTICE

PROJECT BRIEF Organisation: King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology Industry: Government & education Challenge: To build a scalable and ﬂexible security infrastructure Solution: Deployment of Blue Coat Proxy SG appliances Project length: One month

are kept at bay. Faced with such a challenge a decade ago, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) decided to opt for Blue Coat’s range of web appliances and has recently completed an upgrade which has brought IPv6 functionality into the mix. The recent explosion of Web 2.0 content and a growing number of daily users required a new solution that was ﬂexible, scalable and could provide on-demand

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security intelligence about unknown or unrated internet content. As Hesham Bin-Abbas, director of the Internet Services Unit at KACST explains, the university had very specific requirements when it first implemented the devices: “We needed to have both proxy filtering and caching for the website, but we specifically needed it as a hardware appliance, not as a software product. We always monitored the traffic and took care for the future, but the demand kept increasing. So we responded by upgrading the entire system, and we haven’t had any problem since,” he continues. Abbas has been with the university for the past 16 years, and when Blue Coat first entered the picture, he remembers why its products stood out from the crowd. “We chose it based on a range of technical evaluations. We had some demos performed and several evaluation criteria.

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

IN NUMBERS

50%

The improvement in ﬁltering out malware since the deployment.

35%

The drop in CPU utilisation following implementation of the new proxy appliances.

100%

The amount by which bandwidth has increased as a result of the project.

BEST PRACTICE

SEARCH AND SELECT MEET THE IT MANAGER

Upon embarking on the project to

Hesham Bin-Abbas has served as the direc-

shore up its web security systems,

tor of KACST’s Internet Services Unit (ISU)

one of King Abdulaziz City for Sci-

since 2006. He is PRINCE2 and ITIL v3

ence and Technology’s ﬁrst tasks

certiﬁed, and has led major projects that

was to conduct a rigorous survey

belong to the national plan for Science

of vendors in the market. The leading solutions were then

and Technology. Bin-Abbas graduated from the department of electrical en-

tested in an intensive technical

gineering at King Saud University with

evaluation to determine the solu-

ﬁrst-class honours, and has a Masters

tion that would best meet ISU’s

from the department of Electrical and

needs. Although ISU had been

Computer Engineering at the University

using Blue Coat ProxySG appli-

of Washington, as well as a PhD.

ances since its inception, it tested the new next-generation ProxySG appliances as part of the technical evaluation to determine if the new

After trying a range of different solutions, we decided that Blue Coat was the best. With the new upgrade, we didn’t look at any one else — we went straight to Blue Coat because we already had their boxes in our branches,” he recalls. With the latest round of upgrades, Abbas says that the existing SG8000 devices were unable to keep with the rapidly scaling needs of the university. Accordingly, they upgraded 15 boxes in two locations in Saudi Arabia — Riyadh and Jeddah — to the new

THE VENDOR VIEW “We are pleased to see the important role our solutions play in helping ISU at KACST bring safe and efﬁcient internet services to its users. Blue Coat appliances provide critical web security while also speeding content, decreasing bandwidth consumption and serving as a transparent gateway between IPv4 and

ProxySG and ProxyAV devices. After the new devices were received by the university, they took one month to implement with no issues to report. While the ProxyAV devices are tasked with filtering out spam, malware and viruses, the ProxySG boxes are tasked with a more difficult role — acting as a guardian to prevent viewing of undesirable web addresses, while simultaneously speeding up internet access through intelligent caching. With the new appliances, ISU can implement flexible policy control over content, users, applications and protocols to protect its users from malicious content. Interestingly, it also supports IPv6 — something which Abbas notes was no accident. In the anticipated transition from IPv4 to IPv6, ISU saw an opportunity to deliver new value-added services and needed to ensure that its network could capably support both IPv4 and IPv6 users and applications. “It’s not the main driver but one of the requirements. We need to have our machines supporting IPv6 because we migrated two years ago from IPv4. So we needed boxes that supported everything through to IPv6,” explains Bin-Abbas. The upgrades have already begun having significant effect at KACST. The ISU has successfully recorded a 50% improvement in the speed of filtering out malware, while

features would meet its needs. “We had worked with the Proxy SG appliances for years and were very familiar with their ability to enforce policy and protect against malicious content,” explains Hesham Bin-Abbas. “During the proof-of-concept stage though, the new Blue Coat appliances scored high on every front and were the undisputable choice,” he says.

the new proxy appliances have enabled a doubling in existing bandwidth. Abbas also reports an impressive 35% drop in CPU utilisation, coupled with a 50% smaller memory footprint. And with the advanced caching and compression technologies in the ProxySG appliances, web content now loads on average three times faster, improving the user experience for all ISU customers. For the future, Abbas plans to look at ways of combining the Blue Coat appliances with its newly-installed load-balancing system from Foundry Networks. “We are a non-proﬁt organisation but consider ourselves as part of this achievement because this is a new technology or solution. Many will beneﬁt from this combination of Blue Coat with Foundry products together,” he concludes.

IPv6 content and infrastructure.” Nidal

Taha, regional director for Middle East and Turkey, Blue Coat Systems.

“We needed to have proxy filtering and caching for the website, but we specifically needed it as a hardware appliance, not as a software product. Arabian Computer News | September 2010

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Public services The Ministry of Public Works has a tough job to do. It has been tasked with modernising the country’s roads, highways, hospitals and other state-of-the-art infrastructure to keep it at the forefront of international investment. But in order to do that, it needed to update its own infrastructure ﬁrst. Ben Furﬁe investigates.

ubai is a metropolis under construction. Even after the recent recession and the debt crisis that spawned it, the city is still creaking under the vast amount of construction work being done. From the road networks necessary to service the hundreds of new super-skyscrapers that are growing by the day, through to the multi-billion dirham Dubai-Fujairah highway, the government body responsible for overseeing these projects, the Ministry of Public Works (MoPW), has a lot on its plate. One of the big challenges facing the MoPW was that the overwhelming number of projects that were ongoing was simply too much for its existing IT system to deal with. “Authorised government officials and contractors needed to have real-time access to information relating to respective projects,” explains Zahra Al Aboodi, executive director for House and Urban Planning at the Ministry of Public Works. Unfortunately for the MoPW, the disjointed nature of its systems meant that much of the information that needed to be accessed regularly was on separate systems. This resulted in inefficient practices: not just for the senior government

officials, but also for other key partners, such as contractors. “Over the course of a project, users including senior government officials, contractors and clients need to access the system to make and check updates,” reveals Al Aboodi. The sheer amount of information that the department needs to access is staggering. Project planning, risk assessment, cost control, budget tracking and control, time control to project management and reporting — essentially everything related to the project is monitored and managed through the system with the help of real-time information. In order to do this, the Ministry looked at a number of solutions from a number of suppliers. It eventually settled on an Enterprise Project Management system from eHosting DataFort. “The Enterprise Project Management (EPM) system makes the project management process much easier, and importantly, more effective, allowing internal staff at the MoPW — as well as contractors and clients — to track budgets, oversee the planning and management of the project through an end-to-end technology system that processes information that is real time and consistent.

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

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BEST PRACTICE

“Not only does the system integrate information, but it also brings the rest of the team and IT staff closer together, enabling the Ministry to quickly respond to changes in real time. “The EPM software uniﬁed multiple systems that were in use across the federal government at the time, so that staff and contractors could authenticate and authorise access to the same system,” says Al Aboodi. “By providing a single sign-on service and all-in-one accessibility, the Ministry’s eproject portal allows a more convenient working mechanism for users, raising operational efficiency and enabling a quick response to IT service demands,” she adds. More importantly for the MoPW and the wider UAE government, it has transformed its eproject portal into a real-time business platform through integrating IT operations across all ministry departments. However, the sheer amount of information that needed to be handled by the new system was just one thing that the ministry had to worry about. As with any government department, the security of its data was paramount. “The sensitive nature of the information meant that the outcome of tender awards could be compromised due to information being leaked — either by accident or maliciously — due to it becoming compromised. The

result could be that a company is given access to the information surrounding a competitor’s bid. Therefore, it was crucial that the information was secured and was neither exposed, nor accessible, to those who were not privy to it. Contractors can now view the status of their bids online without the risk of their competitors seeing then,” she explains. This is enabled through the hosted security system, which is comprised of virtualised network ﬁrewalls, which protect the system from hackers, while an intrusion alert system provides an extra layer of security, should someone manage to breach the ﬁrewall. As with any major organisation, issues such as uptime and reliability were just as important as usability. The way the ministry dealt with this was to remove most of its IT infrastructure from its building, instead opting to use a managed services solution — including elements of cloud computing — from eHDF. “Not only does the system integrate information, but it also brings the rest of the team and the IT staff closer together, enabling the Ministry to quickly respond to changes in real time,” concludes Al Aboodi.

IN NUMBERS

$400m The cost of the ongoing Dubai-Fujairah highway project, which is one of the largest construction projects currently being undertaken by the MoPW in Dubai Emirate.

$215m The amount being spent on improving trafﬁc ﬂows on Emirates Road.

29 The number of initiatives that the MoPW is managing through its new system.

14 The number of federal servers managed by eHDF.

THE BRIEF Organisation: The Ministry of Public Works Industry: Government The challenge: To develop an online system capable of providing details of public works projects during the entire project life-cyle in real time and the subsequent management of the system, including the hosting of critical servers. Solution: A standardised and secure web infrastructure hosted and powered by managed services provider eHosting DataFort. Project length: The timeframe between the decision to move to a hosted model and actual implementation was 10 weeks. The Ministry of Public Works wanted a solution that met its strict access and security policies.

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INTELLIGENCE

Invaluable intelligence Half of business intelligence projects fail, but why? As it turns out, it’s a complex combination of a number of things. So just how can your enterprise avoid becoming another statistic when it comes to making your data work? By Ben Furﬁe usiness intelligence at its most basic is all about data. It’s about using an enterprise’s data to make sense of historical trends. It’s about using that same data to plan for times ahead. It’s about enabling enterprises to ﬁnd out exactly what the state of the business is. This very second. Yet despite the simplicity of the concept, half of all businesses implementing business intelligence fail to do so effectively. There are, of course, a huge number of factors governing why many business intelligence projects fail to take off. However, according to many analysts, the one common theme behind the high failure rate is a misunderstanding of what business intelligence actually is and who it is for.

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Recent research by the University of Cambridge on behalf of international auditors KPMG found that all too often business intelligence is viewed as ‘IT’s problem’ despite the fact that the technology side of the business process is only a small part of it. According to its ﬁndings, those companies that ﬁnd business intelligence failing to help them have more often than not thrust responsibility for the

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

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INTELLIGENCE

AUDAS: Businesses collect more data than ever.

Failure to implement a proper business intelligence strategy can cost you more than just money.

entire implementation process on to the CIO. KPMG’s findings make it clear that failing to recognise that business intelligence is part of a wider picture is a surefire way of ensuring it fails, more often than not costing the business a lot of money in the process. It says that business intelligence needs to be embedded within all of a company’s processes and not just those of the IT infrastructure if it is to be successful in its aims. Many of the processes that need to be addressed are simply beyond the remit or influence of the CIO. The business case behind the process is well understood. Take the data you already have and leverage it to make your company more efficient and to spot the opportunities in the market you’ve been missing. The problem appears to not rest with the IT department, but with the CIO’s fellow executives, many of whom refuse to accept their part, says KPMG.

IN NUMBERS

80%

The percentage of business intelligence implementations initiated by non-technology enterprise executives. “The need for business intelligence and reporting is being driven by the high importance of needing to know how your business is doing,” explains Ali Hosseini, director of professional services at GBM. “However, it is often initiated by other members of the business, and frequently falls to CIOs to implement it on behalf of the company.” According to Hosseini, the introduction of business intelligence is driven by forces outside of the IT department in 80% of cases.

Business intelligence is not just a jazzy thing that puts together colourful metres and tickers, charts and graphs – it is for everyone and for every walk of business.” 38

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

“Only rarely is it initiated by the IT team, as more often than not it won’t be them using the business intelligence.” He says that it is a dangerous precedent and one of the main reasons why business intelligence comes to be viewed as a technology project – which it isn’t – rather than a change in the business processes. One of the earliest signs that a business intelligence implementation is failing is poor uptake amongst those employees who can beneﬁt from the information provided. By then, often it’s too late. “The biggest problem with business intelligence software is that it doesn’t get adopted very well,” reveals Yassir Khokhar, business group lead at Microsoft Gulf’s Information Worker division. “Approximately only 17% of users actually use business intelligence software despite it being available to them.” That inability for CIOs to drive changes in staff procedures in other parts of the business is one of the reasons that business intelligence implementations fail, and a lack of uptake is a very obvious symptom of that. However, things are changing according to some. The lessons of the recent ﬁnancial crisis are driving a wholesale change in the role

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“Approximately only 17% of users actually use business intelligence software despite it being available to them. that the average IT manager has within the business. “Because of the transformation of business processes in the wake of the recent ﬁnancial crisis, enterprises are waking up to the reality that it isn’t enough to have these numbers available to them: they need to also use them,” explains Hosseini. One of the biggest changes that needs to happen argues KPMG, is a shift from being reactionary to proactive when it comes to using data. The auditor argues that the challenge is for companies to move away from an analytical mindset and begin to look at ways that the data can be used to create strategic insight and plan for the future. Another major issue faced by business intelligence in the modern workplace is antiquated hardware and procedures. While the hardware issue is easily resolved, either now or at the next major refresh, the issue of use is less easy to resolve. The main reason for this is because it requires a wholesale change to

how all IT users interact with the infrastructure, whether that is through using their PC to write a simple letter, through to how network managers back up information. According to KPMG, “companies struggle to make sense of the information drawn from multiple databases and models that are complex to integrate and difficult to align.” It also said that companies viewing IT as a solution, as opposed to an enabler, was one of the key reasons for not being able to make business intelligence work in the way anticipated. This desire to simplify the technology behind business intelligence as much as possible more often than not leads to underestimates in the requirements, explains Khokhar. “Business intelligence isn’t really a single layer of software that you plug in and need to keep updated like you would with traditional software. It’s got several components and several layers to it. There’s the data layer, then there’s the analytical layer, then there is the

HOSSEINI: BI is more than just an IT function.

Enterprises generate a huge amount of information, but knowing what it means is important. That’s where business intelligence comes in.

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Arabian Computer News | September 2010

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presentation layer.” He adds that attempting to simplify the technology to the concept that you plug it in and off you go was a receipe for ensuring business intelligence won’t work. Despite those challenges, some CIOs are looking outside the box for solutions to the problem. “It’s important to remember that business intelligence isn’t just about a speciﬁc tool, software product or database platform,” explains Hani Khalil at NBK, which has a BI strategy based on solutions from banking specialist iCreate. “It is a way of extracting insight into the various functions of the enterprise and how they have performed, moved with time and been used by it and its customers.” He argues that the traditional approach of trying to use an all-in-one solution to solve the problem created by a technology landscape shaped by buying individual hardware packages is akin to trying to ﬁt a square block through a triangular hole and then wondering why it doesn’t work. “Some tools may be better suited to a particular implementation than others. The other consideration is also that some tools may integrate well into the technology landscape of the enterprise and hence will be chosen over others.”

KHOKHAR: Enterprises need to make it easy to use business intelligence processes.

Some vendors are looking to take advantage of the issues surrounding complex IT infrastructures, and design solutions that ﬁt around the reality of the situation. One such example is IBM. “We offer a solution which can sit on top of any solution, or any application, within an organisation and start generating reports, KPIs or proﬁt reports immediately,” explains Hosseini at GBM. Another approach is one that Microsoft is taking. “Our framework for business intelligence is all about using tools that are familiar,” says Khokhar, referring to his earlier point on the need for accessibility with any business intelligence solution. “For example, we use Excel, which is one of the world’s most used products. Excel is a central part of our business intelligence strategy – it’s reached the point where we are now shipping it with business intelligence tools. Another example is with Microsoft SharePoint. Previously, you had to buy business intelligence tools as a separate product; now they are an integral part of the product.” One area that has changed in the past year or so, and has had an enourmous impact on the potential efficency of business intelligence

IN NUMBERS

75%

20%

36%

CIOs view achieving regulatory compliance as the main beneﬁt of BI adoption.

Integrating data from several sources

4 in 10

All of above

15% 26% Poor understanding of BI need by vendor

SURVEY

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR IMPLEMENTING BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE? 40

Source: ACN/iCreate Business Intelligence Survey.

3% Lack of trained staff

CIOs feel in-house knowledge of a BI system is more important than the vendor’s.

Lack of good BI reporting tools

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

39%

of banks currently manage BI through reports from core banking systems.

17%

of workers use available BI. www.itp.net

Sponsored By

INTELLIGENCE

IN NUMBERS

SURVEY

98%

WHERE CAN BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE DELIVER A MAXIMUM ROI?

of CIOs agree that data can be leveraged to improve the business and its competitiveness.

1% 13%

9 in 10

Operational Reporting

CIOs view anti-money laundering systems as a priority over the next 12 months.

18%

CIOs currently use some form of spreadsheet reporting for BI.

CIOs believe the user friendliness of BI is important.

is the way that enterprises now handle the majority of their data and the fact that for the most part, it is digital. “Once a business is in a position where the majority – if not all – of its data is being handled digitally, business intelligence can take on a personality of its own,” argues Thierry Audas, enterprise solution marketing, business intelligence and enterprise information management at SAP. “This trend of collecting large amounts of data digitally has been occurring every day for a long time now,” he adds. ‘The difference is that business intelligence is enabling the CIO to go to the CEO and show them the exact beneﬁts of the technology; how it can break down and show trends in a way that has never been possible before.” Another area which is seeing rapid change is the types of enterprises that are adopting business intelligence. “Traditionally, business intelligence software packages were priced highly,” explains Khokhar. “That meant that as a package, they generally gravitated towards the high-end of the enterprise market.” However, with the move away from the traditional approach of expensive licences

www.itp.net

Source: ACN/iCreate Business Intelligence Survey.

Risk and Compliance

1 in 3

Regulatory reporting

47% Customer Intelligence

21% Financial and probability reporting

We have clear evidence that that those companies that are investing in business intelligence – regardless of their size – are outperforming their peers in the marketplace. and hardware implementations towards modern managed service solutions many of the smaller businesses that had previously been excluded are now in a position to benefit from business intelligence. “Regardless of whether you’re a small company or whether you’re the largest of the large, everybody needs to know what’s going on in their business,” says Hosseini, referring to the way businesses have changed post-recession. “We have clear evidence that those companies that are investing in business intelligence – regardless of their size – are outperforming their peers in the marketplace: specifically those that haven’t invested or have failed to use the data they have effectively.” This change is bringing the benefits of business intelligence to sectors and enterprises that simply hadn’t been able to afford it previously and is perhaps the place where

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

the process is having the largest impact. One example that keeps creeping up is that of the small corner grocer. “A grocery store manager would be very interested in seeing how his shampoo products trend during the summer months; do people buy itchy scalp variants or do they go for more dry-scalp kinds of shampoo? They can then use that data to order stock more efficiently, as well as work out which variant would it be better to put on sale,” says Khokhar. “It doesn’t have to be an expensive solution to do that, plus the grocer will have all that data available already.” At the end of the day, business intelligence is about making data work for the company, and is not about being ﬂashy, adds Khalil. “It isn’t just a jazzy thing that puts together colourful metres and tickers, charts and graphs – business intelligence is for everyone and for every walk of business.”

IT GOVERNANCE

Good governance Unlike in the West, IT governance laws in the Middle East aren’t so strict. But does that mean that you can afford to ignore them and work outside of good governance frameworks? We speak to businesses from across the region to find out whether that is the case. By Piers Ford f you work in the international finance industry, you’ll already know that it’s impossible to move far in IT governance without running into compliance issues with Sarbanes-Oxley and Basel II, two vital pieces of legislation that enforce strict audit controls around data access and risk management. But as far as the wider corporate IT community goes, there is a host of constantly evolving local legislation that, if anything, is having a more powerful effect on the development of policies and frameworks at a local level in the Middle East. In many cases, precise compliance requirements will depend on the nature of the business and jurisdiction, according to David Yates, head of commercial IP and technology at Middle East law firm Al Tamimi & Company.

www.itp.net

Yates says the formation and continuing operation of effective IT legal and regulatory compliance involves assessing the requirements and impacts of a bewildering range of legislation: copyright law, the various laws and regulations which affect data protection, use and transfer, and personal privacy, the electronics transactions and e-commerce law, the printing and publications law, and other laws which regulate content that is put out into the public domain, the cyber crimes law; and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority’s (TRA) policies concerning unsolicited commercial messages and VoIP. “The IT function of an organisation cannot be considered on its own when assessing legal and regulatory compliance,” he says. “For instance, an internet service provider will be required to consider branding, copyright and

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

IT GOVERNANCE

IN NUMBERS

33%

The average difference in the stock price of companies that have IT governance procedures and those that don’t. Source: SAP GRC.

Compliance isn’t just an issue for the ﬁnancial sector. It has just as much relevance elsewhere.

moral rights in relation to the use of content, and liability for user-generated content, and will also be required to work with the legal team monitoring compliance with anti-money laundering legislation and central bank requirements,” adds Yates. “The IT function of an organisation with branches throughout the Middle East, and data storage and call centres offshore, will be required to consider the policies of the telecommunication regulators in each of the jurisdictions they operate in. “With an increasing range of enterprises evolving their business practices with the use of IT, the nature and scope of IT governance broadens. For instance, the use of e-health

FRAMEWORKS: THE KEY TO GOOD IT GOVERNANCE Frameworks are the key to good IT gov-

• Metrics: Measurements, usually Key

(Control Objectives for Information and

ernance because they deﬁne standards

Performance Indicators, assigned to

related Technology), ValIT and the ISO

and responsibilities and perhaps most

people, processes, technology and con-

series can be invaluable in providing

important of all, provide mechanisms for

trols to ensure they comply with what

frameworks for delivering good technol-

measuring compliance and objectives.

they are intended for.

ogy governance.

Ramez Shehadi, a partner at manage-

Mohamed Rizvi, head of information

“ValIT and COBIT provide businesses

ment consultancy Booz & Company, says

security and advisory services at eHost-

and IT decision makers with a compre-

a good, comprehensive IT governance

ing DataFort, says standards like COBIT

hensive framework that offers value from

framework will include ﬁve key aspects: • People: Resources required to support effective and efﬁcient IT service management, and their associated roles and responsibilities • Processes: Delineated activities to

the delivery of high quality IT based serRIZVI: VaIIT and COBIT can be invaluable when it comes to building frameworks.

produce an IT service for internal and

vices,” he says. “Best practices suggest that in following both frameworks along with others, a company can have excellent governance if these frameworks are implemented in an integrated manner.” Certiﬁcation alone should not be

external use

taken as proof of compliance, of course.

• Technology: IT systems and infrastruc-

Gartner recently warned, for example,

ture supporting optimal IT delivery

that Statement on Auditing Standards

• Controls: Expectation-setting Ser-

(SAS) 70 is being misused in the SaaS

vice Level Agreements assigned to IT

and cloud computing spaces as a

processes to ensure that IT services are

certiﬁcation “proving” security and

delivered efﬁciently and effectively, in

compliance when in fact it is an auditing

line with clients’ requirements

process to support compliance.

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

www.itp.net

IT GOVERNANCE

record keeping gives rise to a broad range of privacy and negligence exposures, which need to be carefully managed. Similarly, shifting to, or developing an e-commerce platform can mean that compliance with tax and other ﬁnancial regulatory conditions depends on effective IT governance.” To further complicate matters, every country in the region seems to have its own micro-compliance mechanism. Mohamed Rizvi, head of information security and advisory services at outsourcing specialist eHosting DataFort says that the UAE is exerting a useful inﬂuence on IT governance practices in the GCC countries, particularly when it comes to information security. But he would like to see much more commonality across the region. “To give you an example, the TRA recently announced that from October 2010, Blackberry services will no longer be available in this part of the world due to potential security threats,” he says. “There are laws and regulations in the UAE that are taken care of by both the federal and local governments. Free zones like Dubai In-

www.itp.net

YATES: IT cannot be considered in isolation when it comes to compliance issues.

ternet City and Dubai International Financial City (DIFC) have stringent controls over etransactions where policies are put in place to ensure that there is protection and processes

over what electronic data can be sent, shared and published. DIFC has data protection laws that were established in 2006, whereas federal laws in the UAE to combat cyber crimes in ecommerce were established in 2007.” Rizvi says there is continual improvement to laws and regulations impacting on IT governance in the region. However, he adds: “To improve the state of IT governance, we would need to see a more integrated single framework between decision makers. There is a need for a common framework for all Gulf countries, as there are in other regions, so that regulations regarding security and communication, for instance, are enforced and followed in a consistent manner.” Compliance with legislation aside, the wider beneﬁts of good IT governance in terms of improved operational efficiency could be better understood by CIOs in businesses of every kind. And that means forging an

To improve the state of IT governance, we would need to see a more integrated single framework between the region’s decision makers.

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

IT GOVERNANCE

IN NUMBERS

$29.9bn

The amount spent on IT governance in 2007 by enterprises around the world. Source: SAP GRC.

ever-closer strategic alliance between the IT function and the business itself. “Good IT governance allows the IT department to work optimally in enabling operations of the organisation for delivery of both internal and external services,” says Ramez Shehadi, a partner at management consultancy Booz & Company. “Through effective performance management, good IT governance allows IT departments to constantly improve their work in an environment of clear expectations and rational accountabilities. It also brings the proﬁle of the IT department to the forefront, positioning it as a partner to business rather than as merely a back-office support function.” The CIO or IT director who is serious about driving a good IT governance strategy across the organisation needs the co-operation of senior colleagues — particularly those in charge of the corporate ﬁnances.

“CIOs, CTOs and IT managers should consult their CFOs to discuss the potential for fraud, malicious damage, insider trading or terrorism within their organisation through the manipulation of access to IT resources,” suggests Stuart Hodkinson, general manager at compliance management vendor Courion. “In a lot of cases, CFOs are grappling with compliance audits that are often a symptom of underlying problems. Once they understand the risk of doing nothing, then funding is often secured where it wasn’t originally budgeted for.” Tony Lteif, CEO of Gulf IT security specialist Security Matterz — which represents policy and procedure management vendor NETconsent in the region — agrees that while the IT director is directly responsible for the implementation of IT policy, the board itself has a duty of overseeing the beneﬁts of good IT governance. “An effective IT governance framework requires everyone in the organisation to understand their IT responsibilities and be held accountable for their actions,” he says. “Technical controls are no longer, in isolation, enough to protect organisations. A combination of people, technology and process is required. “An efficient and cost-effective process for communicating policy changes and monitoring policy uptake ensures good IT governance is sustainable and provides irrefutable proof of the beneﬁts of compliance .”

AN IMPROVING PICTURE: PROGRESS IN THE GULF At best, CIOs who fail to implement strategies for good IT governance consign their operations to perennial bridesmaid status within the organisation. At worst, they compound the consequences of ignoring best practice: business disruption, loss of reputation and eroded brand value, poor efﬁciency, fraud and security risks, loss of revenue, expensive data breaches and, above all, severe legal implications. These can all, says Mahesh Vaidya, CEO at security specialist ISIT Middle East (above), ultimately lead to the closure of a business. “DIFC is doing a good job in spreading awareness of good governance,” he says. “Now, a number

Once CFOs understand the risk of not bringing in good IT governance, then funding is often secured where it wasn’t originally budgeted for.

of international training institutes in the UAE are doing excellent work towards corporate governance, of which IT governance is just one key component.” David Yates, head of commercial IP and technology at law giant Al Tamimi, says there are four areas of IT governance where he has noted real progress and interest in the region recently, particularly among the banks and ﬁnancial institutions: outsourcing, with companies insisting on rigorous performance analysis; software licence and maintenance services audits; complete project governance; and business continuity planning. “They are, in our view, the areas that should place improvements in IT corporate governance at the top of their agenda,” he says.

Businesses can’t place enough importance on cooperation between the CIO and the CFO.

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

www.itp.net

HEALTHCARE

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

www.itp.net

HEALTHCARE

Enterprise injection When seconds can mean the difference between life and death, and a poor IT infrastructure really can kill, it’s vital for physicians and doctors in the Middle East to know they can rely on technology to help, rather than hinder. By Aaron Greenwood he development of cutting-edge healthcare IT systems is not only saving lives, but changing the way healthcare workers – and their employers – go about their daily business. While the healthcare sector has been perceived as being conservative when it comes to the development and application of new technologies, this situation has evolved rapidly in recent years as healthcare organisations have recognised the beneﬁts networked IT systems provide in enhancing patient care while keeping costs in line. From networked communication tools to the latest IT security infrastructure, the medical IT sector is now big business, attracting an increasing number of specialised technology providers developing an ever-growing number of niche products. The latest IT systems can enable remote diagnosis, saving time and delivering a faster and better service to patients. They also enable the sharing of healthcare knowledge, instant diagnosis, the delivery of information to specialised consultants and the ability to look up a patient’s information in emergency situations using handheld devices. This latter capability represents one of the most important developments to impact the way healthcare workers go about their business, says Ali Ahmar, regional sales manager MENA at Brocade Communications.

www.itp.net

“Wireless technology, speciﬁcally the adoption of 802.11n has proven to be one of the most transformational technologies in healthcare,” he claims. “With the proliferation of medical monitoring devices as well as the broad adoption of PDAs, tablet PCs and smartphones, wireless technology is enabling healthcare providers to monitor and deliver care whenever and wherever needed.” The regional director of Fortinet Middle East, Bashar Bashaireh, argues the application of videoconferencing technologies and increasing collaboration between different medical institutions over the internet has made it necessary to establish secured, manageable and scalable networks. “In most medical facilities, thousands of patients’ medical records have been digitised and put on the network, making it more efficient to operate and collaborate amongst healthcare organisations,” he says. “In addition, networking and connectivity between medical equipment and devices and adoption of emerging applications, such as VoIP, RFID-enabled devices and video conferencing facilities such as Telemedicine, are becoming standard at most medical institutions, especially in this region. The use of Telemedicine and collaboration between different medical institutions over the internet has also made it necessary to establish secured, manageable and scalable networks,” adds Bashaireh.

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

HEALTHCARE

HAWTHORNE: The growth in remote diagnosis poses huge implications for data encyption and transfer of patient records.

Technology is increasingly ﬁnding its way into hospitals: even sterile environments like theatres.

While videoconferencing systems are changing the way medical practitioners collaborate and share patient information, Nigel Hawthorn, vice president marketing EMEA for Blue Coat, says they are also increasing the burden on legacy network infrastructure. “We are seeing a growth in remote diagnosis using video conferencing between health professionals and the patient,” he says. “The amount of data being transferred can be large (for example a complete set of MRI scan images) and needs to go across cities or countries between the patient and the expert. Therefore, WAN optimisation technologies can help ensure data transfers are fast without overburdening the wide area network.”

As most health data is encrypted when transferred, WAN technologies need to be able to optimise SSL-encrypted data, as well as growing video traffic, Hawthorn stresses. Bulent Teksoz, regional technology manager MENA at Symantec, says many regional

IN NUMBERS

$89bn

The total amount of money that will be spent on IT in the healthcare sector worldwide. Source: Gartner.

healthcare facilities are making the transition to electronic imaging systems for X-rays, MRIs, mammograms and other diagnostic images by implementing PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems) in their radiology and cardiology departments. “While Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), as well as these digital imaging systems, have been proven to save healthcare providers both time and money, the real challenge in the future lies in managing, storing and archiving the rapidly growing amounts of data for diagnostic images and electronic records,” he stresses. Bashaireh argues that these cutting-edge initiatives necessitate that CIOs consider the transition to or adoption of IPv6 networks instead of IPv4, if they have not already. “It also means that in compliance with regulations such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) and PCI (Payment Card Industry), these healthcare institutions need to implement the most stringent and comprehensive information technology security solutions to

TELEMEDICINE: TUNE IN, TURN ON The development of integrated healthcare

The GCC hospital project pipeline is

healthcare in the region. Applications

cities and medical hubs, coupled with con-

also signiﬁcant. Presuming announced

such as Polycom’s Telemedicine tele-

tinuous improvement in technology and

healthcare projects are delivered accord-

conferencing technology, along with its

infrastructure, has signiﬁcantly improved

ing to schedule, the UAE and Qatar have

arena partners like Global Media, allows

the availability and quality of healthcare

the most ambitious pipelines, as measured

doctors and consultants based in met-

services in the Middle East.

by the number of hospital beds per capita,

ropolitan areas such as Dubai, Riyadh

and are banking on medical tourism from

or Cairo to treat residents in remote

industry report from Alpen Capital, the

within and outside the GCC countries to

locations without any need for them to

regional healthcare industry’s expected

maintain adequate hospital occupancy

be physically present. The ability to con-

growth is accompanied by a fundamental

rates across the industry.

nect medical devices as well as transmit

According to a recent GCC Healthcare

shift in the industry structure, infrastructure

Videoconferencing solutions have a

quality, payer model and funding options.

massive role to play in the application of

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

sounds, images and video instantly helps physicians treat patients remotely.

www.itp.net

HEALTHCARE

IN NUMBERS

80%

of enterprises, including healthcare providers, are planning to trial the Apple iPad in the coming year. Source: Citrix.

HEALTH MATTERS

TEKSOZ: The real challenge for healthcare providers lies in data storing and archiving.

maintain the privacy and conﬁdentiality of patients’ medical records,” he explains. Hawthorn believes ensuring the security of databases containing conﬁdential patient information remains the fundamental challenge facing networked healthcare institutions. “The downside of available patient databases is security,” he says. “Healthcare institutions require the best authentication, security

and logging systems. Healthcare IT departments needs to ensure they are protecting conﬁdential patient information from inappropriate access, users sending data out of the organisation or malware infections to gather user data. Even names, addresses and dates of birth can be useful to cyber-criminals.” Hawthorn believes healthcare IT departments need to identify all possible sources of data loss – from laptops being stolen, to USB sticks used for data transfers, to emails and webmail that includes patient records. “Data leak prevention is a key component in monitoring user behaviour, and blocking and reporting on data breaches,” he says. While medical CIOs can do their best to ensure databases remain secure, there can be no accounting for personnel errors. As Teksoz notes, “the biggest challenge facing the medical IT sector is people.”

The UAE Ministry of Health (MoH) recently signed off the implementation of a datacentre, dubbed Pulsator, designed to enable the deployment of enterprise applications and introduce new healthcare eservices across the country. The datacentre was implemented by local systems integrator ITQAN Al-Bawardi Computers, which upgraded MoH’s infrastructure using Microsoft technologies while enhancing network security, systems and storage capabilities. “The UAE Ministry of Health has a vision for providing world-class health services. The state of the datacentre before implementing the Pulsator did not foster this vision, and it was crucial to completely overhaul and revamp it so

Wireless technology, specifically the adoption of 802.11n has proven one of the most transformational technologies in healthcare.”

the vision becomes a reality,” said Mona Al Suwaidi, MoH’s Deputy IT Manager – Projects Management. Al Suwaidi says the datacentre will provide an efficient and powerful IT base that will enhance the flow of data. “[Our aim was] to create more efficiency through higher automation of daily operations, whereby we utilise the [best] technologies [available].” The datacentre will also enable the deployment of an intranet portal for employees, an application that will automate processes for the purchasing department. Yunis Al Amiri, MoH’s Deputy IT Manager – Operations, reveals the MoH is also considering the installation of sophisticated Multiprotocol Label Switching technology that will connect the Ministry with all its districts and offices.

New technologies are changing the way practitioners in the regional healthcare sector operate.

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

www.itp.net

OFFICIAL SHOW CATALOGUE 18 - 22 October 2009 Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre Dubai, United Arab Emirates

POWER UP YOUR BUSINESS

OFFICIAL SHOW CATALOGUE 17-24 OCTOBER 2009 www.gitexshopperdubai.com

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RISING STOCK

Rising stock What they currently lack in regional presence, they more than make up for in potential. Welcome to ACN’s brand new ‘Rising Stock’ section: your guide to the emerging companies making their mark in the Middle East.

A little Intelligence As the man who represents telecoms services vendor Interactive Intelligence’s push into the Middle East, Shaheen Haque has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. However, he’s conﬁdent the company can take on established rivals such as Avaya and Cisco.

he offices of Interactive Intelligence stand on one of the upper ﬂoors of the Central Business Towers in Dubai Internet City. Out of the window stands the Palm Jumeirah and past it the Arabian Gulf. In the office, over 10 desks stand ready to push the company’s services, albeit standing empty for the time being. “We’re in the region for the long term,” remarks Shaheen Haque, Middle East Territory manager for the telecom software ﬁrm, gesturing at the empty desks. Nobody can accuse the company of being over enthusiastic; rather the pace of expansion has been a slow and deliberate one. The

company’s products also bear the marks of a deliberate expansion. “We’re developing almost everything ourselves. We try not to be reliant on third-party applications and hardware, because we feel that if it is developed by us, it can be more tightly integrated with our solution, and we can control everything about it. “The main differentiator between our competitors and us is that our solution is 100% software based,” adds Haque. Since being founded in 1994, the company has slowly continued reﬁning its approach to the market. As the company’s CEO Donald Brown wistfully recalls, its approach to the

SHAHEEN HAQUE CV EMPLOYMENT 2007 – Present

Middle East Territory Manager, Interactive Intelligence 2006 – 2007

IBM Tivoli Netcool Regional Sales Manager, IBM MEEP 2005 – 2006

Regional Sales Manager, Middle East, Micromuse 2001 – 2005

VAR Manager, Micromuse UK 2000 – 2001

Partner Development Manager EMEA, AppsMart Software UK 1998 – 2000

Reseller Sales Manager, Seagate Software UK 1996 – 1998

Govt, Health and Education Manager, SPSS UK 1994 – 1996

Business Development Manager, LBMS UK EDUCATION MSc Business Systems Analysis & Design City University, London BSc Computing Science University of Greenwich, London HAQUE: Our rivals’ solutions cost more as they have to deal with expensive legacy systems.

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

www.itp.net

RISING STOCK

On the radar

market was vocally derided by the competition, only for those same competitors to ﬁnd themselves “scrambling to stitch together multiple products…in an attempt to play catch up”. Haque points to the company’s softwarebased solution as the reason why it hasn’t just been able to keep up with its much larger competitors, but stay one-step ahead. “Unlike our rivals, who have to deal with expensive legacy systems, our product is far cheaper in relation. It means there is a far faster return on investment. Part of that is down to the fact that we’re not reliant on multiple servers, or boxes for each application area. What we tend to do in comparison to what Cisco or Avaya tend to have, is we have a lower number of servers required for implementation,” he claims. Despite the quality of the product and the solid business plan backing it up, he is keenly aware that success in the Middle East depends on gaining customers and building its traction in the region. “Our main strength in the region is in Turkey, however we have one or two customers interested in Saudi Arabia. We have a couple of options when it comes to expansion — either we can hire a datacentre and handle the rollout ourselves, or alternatively we can build up a network of partners and they can take the lead and build the datacentre for us. The key is ﬂexibility: we want to make the best business decision for the region rather than forcing something that might have worked in the US or Europe to work.”

www.itp.net

Company: Trust Port Specialist area: Enterprise security

Company: Quick Heal Specialist area: Security software

Security software ﬁrm TrustPort will be looking to increase its visibility with regional CIOs in the months ahead after formally launching its operations in the Middle East. The company has just opened up marketing, operations and 24/7 technical support services for the region in the UAE, from where it will target new business. TrustPort, which is a member of the Cleverlance Group and is based in the Czech Republic, has just released its 2010 PC Security Edition, which destroys viruses and spyware, and prevents hacker penetration. One key difference that makes TrustPort stand out from rivals in the security space is the fact that their products come with features such as data shredding using methods approved by the US government, data encryption both on a document and hard drive level, and electronic signatures.

Internet security software vendor Quick Heal is a company you can expect to hear more of in the future after recently expanding its sales operations in the Middle East. In order to reach out to CIOs and enterprises, the company has appointed a number of new distribution partners, whose job it will be to serve local IT providers. Quick Heal has signed Croma Trading in the UAE, while Nexgen Techno and The National Trading House have been brought on board in Kuwait and Bahrain respectively. Shobhit Mathur, regional director at Quick Heal — whose operations in the Middle East are a JV with eWall Technologies — says the company is keen to strengthen its business in the region. “We opened an office in Dubai in January and since then we have been establishing our distribution structure,” he explains.

MOVE OF THE MONTH IceWarp Fast-growing uniﬁed communications

is that e-mail is their primary delivery

specialist IceWarp is the ﬁrst recipient of

method,” explained Ladislav Goc, IceWarp’s

ACN’s ‘Move of the Month’ accolade after

director of international business develop-

striking a landmark deal with security

ment. “Kaspersky Lab’s long track record

ﬁrm Kaspersky Lab to bring enhanced

of reliability and expertise in this area is

security to its UC solutions.

practically unmatched.”

As part of the alliance, Kaspersky’s an-

US-based IceWarp’s servers target

tivirus technology will be integrated onto

SMBs, enterprises and datacentres alike,

IceWarp Uniﬁed Communications Server

and the company has steadily been build-

10, the company’s leading UC server.

ing its portfolio as the UC server market

“The threat that viruses and other

has grown. The ﬁrm was founded by Jakub

malicious content pose to business is

Klos, who continues to serve as both CTO

ever present and growing, and the fact

and lead systems architect.

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

RECRUITMENT

Recruitment Your monthly round-up of the latest executive appiontments, announcements and regional vacancies from the across the industry.

Back to the drawing board Hewlett-Packard forced to seek a new CEO after parting company with Mark Hurd

ith the summer season causing the usual slowdown in executive movement throughout the Middle East, all eyes have been trained on the global market instead. And it hasn’t failed to disappoint, following a change of personnel at the top of HEWLETT-PACKARD. The IT behemoth currently has an executive recruitment team searching day and night for a new CEO after the shock departure of Mark Hurd. His resignation came after claims of sexual harassment against Hurd and HP by a former contractor to the company. While there was found to be no violations of HP’s sexual harassment policy, it’s said that violations of HP’s Standards of Business Conduct were evident. CFO Cathie Lesjak has been appointed CEO on an interim basis until a new CEO and chairman can be found.

Staying with HP, the company’s plans to implement a new range of products based on technology from its recent acquisition of mobile specialist PALM could be in disarray, as reports of a senior exec exodus emerge. According to a leading technology blog, Peter Skillman, VP of design at the firm and designer of its much-touted Pre smartphone, has resigned, joining a slew of other recent senior-level defectors from the firm. Meanwhile, infrastructure hardware vendor FUJITSU TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS has named Rolf Schwirz as its new CEO. Schwirz joins the company from SAP, where he was heading the software firm’s ‘mature markets’ business in EMEA. His switch to a hardware-centric company comes after an extensive period of working in the software market. Prior to his time at SAP, Schwirz spent 12 years at Oracle.

Mark Hurd’s exit from HP has led the ﬁrm to appoint CFO Cathie Lesjak as interim CEO.

LG PLOUGHS US$15M INTO DUBAI TRAINING HUB LG Electronics has opened a new $15m

“The LG MEA Learning Centre is a

training centre in Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone.

major long term investment into elevat-

The 120,760 sq ft facility can train up to 175

ing the knowledge and skill sets of LG

people at full capacity and is projected to

employees and our partners across the

graduate 3,000 to 5,000 people a year.

Middle East and Africa,” said K.W. Kim,

It is the consumer electronics manu-

CEO of LG Electronics’ operations in the

facturer and retailer’s second operational opening this year, following that of its

Middle East and Africa region. LG Electronics’ ﬁrst ofﬁce in the region

regional ofﬁce in the UAE in May. The com-

opened way back in 1988. The company

pany said the new Dubai learning centre

now employs more than 1,900 people

was in “recognition of the importance LG

throughout the Middle East and Africa

places on the Middle East market.”

markets, according to Kim.

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

www.itp.net

RECRUITMENT

JOBS OF THE MONTH

Samer Alkharrat is now responsible for SAP’s MENA operations.

IT Supervisor Role: A local company based in Abu Dhabi is looking for an IT supervisor. The candidate will be responsible for configuring and supervising the office network, performing daily back-ups, researching better ways of improving internal processes and dealing with employees’ IT issues. Skills: Four years relevant experience and a degree in IT. Familiarity with all levels of technical support, as well as a knowledge of database and website management. Strong command of the English language is a must. Arabic fluency a bonus. www.clarendonparker.com

NOC Manager Role: A telecommunications and IT services provider is currently seeking to recruit a networks operation

New assignment Each month ACN hears from a Middle East IT executive or CIO who is just starting out on a new venture.

centre manager in Kuwait. The candidate will be responsible for

Name: Samer Alkharrat

ensuring the surveillance of all team

New role: Managing Director, MENA, SAP

members and effective implementa-

Previous role: Managing Director, Gulf &

tion of the end-to-end fault manage-

Pakistan, Cisco

ment process across the company,

Years in the industry: 16

and large enterprises and its now the fastest growing software company in the region. It’s an opportunity I’ve been waiting for for a long time and there’s no place I’d rather be. What can we expect from SAP this year?

Skills: Fluent in English, while

Role: A leading bank in Qatar seeks

How much of your time are you expect-

to hire a senior IT infrastructure

ing to spend travelling around the Gulf?

professional for their operations.

Well, I’m never in the office to be honest with you! Not many of us at SAP are. The MENA region is diverse, as you know. I’ll be spending a signiﬁcant amount of time in the ﬁeld with my local teams.

Nothing but the best. We’re continuing to focus on high quality deployment of our business software, applications and timely delivery of projects for those customers who’ve decided to invest with us. And for those still looking, we’re eager to earn their business. We’re at a tipping point when it comes to the maturity of the market. We’re beginning to see a shift from a focus on hardware towards software. The region has built the basic infrastructure such as cabling, and it is now ﬁnishing projects, such as datacentres. The next couple of years are going to be focused on developing the software platform in the region, and SAP will be focused on achieving that.

Skills: A minimum of 10–12 years

What made you choose SAP?

What is your message to CIOs?

related experience is required. Can-

From a personal perspective, SAP is the number one company in business software, and it’s no different in this region. It has grown ﬁvefold in the last ﬁve years. I honestly believe this is one of the best places to work and to develop my career in the industry. It has a proven track record globally, helping both small

SAP is here, it has the value you’re looking to put into your business. We’re robust, we have the strong presence and the commitment you’re looking for too. We’re one of the fastest growing software companies in the region and we have the competency to take your business to the next level.

Arabic is a plus. Minimum of 10-15

What does you new role involve?

years experience in the telecoms

My new role will be to continue the successful journey that my predecessor started and to continue to grow the business and deliver high performance value to small, medium and large enterprises throughout the Middle East and North Africa region.

sector and an understanding of the regulatory environment. www.clarendonparker.com

Senior IT Infrastructure Pro

The ideal candidate will have a university degree in Computer Science or Information Systems with a specialisation in System Analysts and Design or Network Engineering.

didates with professional certiﬁcations, such as CISSP, CISM, or ITIL, will stand a much stronger chance of being considered for the role. www.randstad.com

www.itp.net

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

AFTER HOURS

Zaki Sabbagh

After hours ACN delves below the corporate strategy to understand what really makes the region’s CIOs and IT leaders tick. This month: Zaki Sabbagh, CIO at Zamil Industrial Investment.

What was your ﬁrst role in the industry?

I started out as an engineering programmer at Zamil Steel back in 1994 and that role lasted up until the beginning of 1999. After that, I was relocated to the IT department in Egypt where we had just opened a new factory. I spent three years in Egypt heading the IT department there and worked on a lot of major IT projects, including a datacentre establishment, an ERP implementation and in-house application localisation.

concept of a shared services model was very challenging and at the time a lot of organisations failed to achieve it, with some even killing off their projects. I am really proud that we have achieved a lot of success from providing a proper shared services model. It is governed by the use of many good practices, including ITIL practices. We also achieved the IS0 20000 certiﬁcation — the only company in Saudi Arabia to do so. What is your fondest memory of work-

How many people do you manage and

ing in the industry?

what is your management philosophy?

Every single year of my career in IT has been the fondest. I really consider that to be the case and I would deﬁnitely apply it to the 1,000-plus technology projects that I have executed during my career.

I have almost 80 people. My philosophy is that I don’t believe in a structured organisation; I believe in a ﬂat organisation. Transparency is another one of my major philosophies. What was your ﬁrst PC you owned?

GETTING PERSONAL

The ﬁrst computer I owned was an X86 and that was back in 1986 or 1987. I also remember one of my relatives owning the ﬁrst Apple Mac and he started doing some analytics and programming. It was a very attractive system, with the concept of the hard disk — 1MB!

Nationality: Lebanese Years in the industry: 16 Favourite gadget: My PDA Car: Porsche 911 Book: None speciﬁc. Mainly history, politics and IT Food: Lebanese cuisine

What’s your greatest achievement?

Holiday destination: France or Spain

My greatest success was approving a successful shared IT services model at a time when a lot of international projects were failing. The

Song: Father and Son by Cat Stevens

Movie: Any of the James Bond ﬁlms

Which technology will have the biggest impact on the market in the next year?

Cloud computing, because it will help to bridge the gap between IT and the business. IT is looked at from a technical perspective because people are technical people. This is true to a certain extent because if you go to an IT department you will see a lot of attention paid to software, hardware, upgrades, networks and integration. When cloud computing arrives, all of this is overcome. You don’t need the server, you don’t need to upgrade, you don’t need licences. The focus will go directly on how to customise an application to suit a business’ needs. Cloud computing is going to change the culture of a business. What’s the best way to deal with stress?

In order to be a person that absorbs stress, you need to build yourself up to be a proactive person, not a reactive person. The moment you act on a reactive mode you will burn yourself out. I don’t think of work from the moment I leave my office unless I have something specific to work on. I also allocate a specific time for myself during the week or the weekend to catch up with paperwork and administrative tasks. Would you like to take part in ACN’s ‘After Hours’ section? If so, please contact: ben.furfie@itp.com

Arabian Computer News | September 2010

www.itp.net

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