CXO DX December 2023

EXPERT ADVICE

» EDITORIAL

THE SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGE While ChatGPT took the world by storm this year and Generative AI looks certain to have a larger impact in the next few years, sustainability too has gained significant traction this year as a priority at the forefront of corporate strategies.

No longer can sustainability be on the back burner as globally there is momentum gathering towards net zero carbon goals. However, companies may still be challenged by cost constraints when it comes to embracing more aspects of sustainability in their processes.

IT can play a significant enabling role in helping organizations gauge their carbon footprint and accordingly draw up strategies to fix easily achievable goals in the short term and more challenging ones in the longer term. AI and the cloud have a significant role to play in helping make rapid progress towards sustainability objectives. As these technologies get adopted more across various verticals such as utilities for instance or manufacturing, agriculture etc, there is a great possibility to drive down costs and inefficiencies including waste reduction, reducing carbon emissions, and leapfrogging towards realising ESG objectives.

IT leaders manage their organization’s IT infrastructure and so can have a crucial role in steering the drive towards ESG goals. From driving efficiency in IT infrastructure to managing digital transformation goals for the organization in line with ESG goals, there are various aspects that the CIO can contribute to. He is also a key stakeholder in ensuring that data gathering meets ESG guidelines and managing risk management leveraging technologies to ensure compliance with regulatory standards.

As we bid adieu to the year 2023, we can rest assured that 2024 will be yet another year of greater technology disruptions, bringing opportunities and challenges together.

The challenge for organizations and individuals alike would be to stay abreast of the changes and embrace the future unreservedly.

R. Narayan

Co-Founder & Editor in Chief

narayan@leapmediallc.com Mob: +971-55-7802403

SAUMYADEEP HALDER Co-Founder & MD

saumyadeep@leapmediallc.com Mob: +971-54-4458401

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RAMAN NARAYAN

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Editor in Chief, CXO DX

MALLIKA REGO Co-Founder & Director Client Solutions

mallika@leapmediallc.com Mob: +971-50-2489676

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Sunil Kumar Designer

Nihal Shetty Webmaster

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REGISTERED OFFICE: Office 10, Sharjah Media City | www.cxodx.com DECEMBER 2023 / CXO DX

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» CONTENTS

21 » SECURING CONTENT COLLABORATION Oren Maguid, Regional VP at Votiro discusses how the zero-trust content security company is helping secure customer interactions with files in the cloud.

22 » ENABLING A PROACTIVE CYBERSECURITY FOCUS

14 COVER STORY

14 » UNDERTAKING THE SUSTAINABILITY JOURNEY As more organizations embark on embracing sustainability goals, IT has a larger role to play as an enabler

NEWS INSIGHT 11 » CISCO APP ATTENTION INDEX REVEALS REVEALS ESCALATING CONSUMER EXPECTATIONS 12 » LEGACY TECHNOLOGY IS HINDERING THE EVOLUTION TO PASSWORDLESS AUTHENTICATION INTERVIEW

18 » EXPANDING THE OBSERVABILITY FRONTIERS Helmut Binder, CEO of Paessler AG, elaborates on how the company has broadened its scope to offer extensive IT and OT monitoring, along with observability services.

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SPOTLIGHT

28 » MTP DISTRIBUTION TRADING SHOWCASES NEW TECHNOLOGIES AT ABU DHABI ROADSHOW The event was attended by leading MCC-approved system integrators from the UAE including Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.

COLUMN

Jose Thomas Menacherry, Managing Director of Bulwark spoke to CXO DX about cybersecurity trends and the focus of the company amidst the evolving cyberthreat landscape.

30 » THREE WAYS TO ADVANCE YOUR CYBERSECURITY MATURITY

23 » FACILITATING SECURE STORAGE

Havier Haddad, Managing Director - Gulf, Dell Technologies discusses the need to reduce the attack surface and advance cybersecurity maturity

Asha Hanley, DigitalMarketing Strategist, iStorage discusses how its hardware-encrypted portable storage and cloud encryption solutions help securely store, share and manage data.

24 » ENHANCING REMOTE ACCESS FOR SECURE & EFFICIENT DIGITAL WORKSPACES Vijender Yadav, Co-founder, MD and CTO at Accops discusses how their solutions enhance security, simplify management and improve scalability.

26 » ENABLING BUSINESS EFFICIENCIES S Wong, CEO of SendQuick discusses the company’s focus on enterprise messaging solutions and business mobile messaging solutions.

CXO DX / DECEMBER 2023

32 » REDEFINING SUSTAINABILITY APPROACHES Joe Baguley, VP & CTO, EMEA, VMware writes Businesses have an opportunity to improve environmental performance through IT and they should seize it now.

34 » HOW BUSINESSES WILL RETHINK DATA IN 2024 Matt Watts, Chief Evangelist at NetApp says organizations need to ensure their underlying IT and business infrastructures can process and analyze all that data.

REGULARS

06 » NEWS 36 » TECHSHOW 38 » TRENDS & STATS

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» NEWS

ACRONIS UNVEILS MSP ACADEMY Acronis MSP Academy is a comprehensive training program designed for managed service providers, covering business operations, technology, sales, and marketing Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection, announced the launch of MSP Academy, an educational initiative aimed to provide managed service providers (MSPs) with business and technological knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to excel and grow. The MSP Academy launch represents a significant expansion of Acronis' educational offerings, delivering on the commitment of Acronis to support the development of the global MSP market.

Acronis has offered extensive technology and business training on Acronis products for service providers for over ten years through Acronis Academy. Acronis partners that went through training and certification through the Academy in 2022 saw a 60% increase in revenue from Acronis product sales and a reduction in support incidents by 40%. In response to partner requests to expand the training portfolio beyond product training, Acronis delivered MSP Academy.

MSP Academy is a learning platform created to address key challenges MSPs face. It covers various topics, from starting an MSP, running a successful MSP business, marketing an MSP business, and optimizing the efficiency and productivity of MSP technicians.

“MSP Academy offers a customized education experience, allowing learners to explore specific topics or follow a structured learning path,” said Jon McCarrick, Director of Evangelism at Acronis. “The

rapidly evolving technology and business landscape requires ongoing learning, and MSP Academy is designed to support the growing needs of MSPs.” MSP Academy's curriculum is crafted to offer training covering all aspects of managing an MSP business. With content structured to cater to the fast-paced changes of technology, bite-sized modules ranging from three to seven minutes are available to deliver impactful insights.

Participants can take an exam to receive a Credly badge to share with peers and customers, showing their qualifications and commitment to continuous learning by earning a degree from the MSP Academy.

MANAGEENGINE ENHANCES ITS SIEM SOCs Can Leverage the Dynamic Learning Capabilities of the Company's Reinforced TDIR Module, Vigil IQ The new feature, available in Log360's threat detection, investigation and response (TDIR) component, Vigil IQ, empowers security operations center (SOC) teams in organizations with improved accuracy and enhanced precision in threat detection.

Manikandan Thangaraj

Vice President, ManageEngine

ManageEngine, the enterprise IT management division of Zoho Corporation, unveiled the industry's first dual-layered threat detection system in its security information and event management (SIEM) solution, Log360.

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A quality SOC ensures people, processes, and cutting-edge technology function well.

However, enterprise security is made difficult by staffing shortages and solution orchestration complexities. Following recent upgrades to the security analytics module of Log360 designed to facilitate SOC optimization through key performance metric monitoring, the company has focused on addressing pressing challenges in security operations.

"In a recent ManageEngine study, a majority of respondents revealed that their SOCs are understaffed. These resource-constrained SOCs grapple with significant obstacles,

CXO DX / DECEMBER 2023

such as process silos and manual investigation of alerts, which are often non-threats, low-priority issues or false positives. These lead to extended detection and response times for actual threats. To overcome these challenges, we recognize the imperative adoption of AI & ML for contextual event enrichment and rewiring threat detection logic," said Manikandan Thangaraj, vice president at ManageEngine.

"We pioneered a dual-layered, ML approach to heighten the precision and consistency of threat detection. First, Vigil IQ ensures genuine threats are discerned from false positives. Second, the system facilitates targeted threat identification and response. This advanced system significantly improves the accuracy of identifying threats, streamlining the detection process and allowing SOC analysts to focus their valuable time on investigating real threats."

» NEWS

ZOHO AND TELR PARTNER TO HELP SMES IN MENA WITH DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION Zoho will provide Telr customers access to its diverse portfolio of 55+ applications at a special rate Zoho Corp., a leading global technology company and Telr, a leading payment gateway provider in the Middle East, today announced their partnership, which aims to promote the digital economy by providing small and medium enterprises in the MENA region access to enterprise-grade technology from both the companies.

As part of the recently signed MoU, Zoho will provide Telr customers access to its diverse portfolio of 55+ applications at a special rate. This will enable them to move all their business operations—from sales and marketing to finance and HR—to the cloud.

Zoho users can utilise Telr integration from Zoho Marketplace to process payments and scale their operations across various geographies. The integration will enable businesses in countries across the MENA region, including UAE, KSA Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Bahrain to accept payments in over 120 currencies.

This will, in turn, help the transition towards a digital economy in line with local governments' long-term vision to increase e-commerce's contribution to the economy.

"SMEs often operate on tight margins and can be vulnerable to cash flow disruptions. Our integration with Telr will enable a se-

cure and seamless payment collection that eliminates friction and reduces payment processing time and cost," said Hyther Nizam, President of Middle East and Africa (MEA) at Zoho. "Zoho's broad range of secure payment options helps merchants maintain a smooth customer experience, increase payment processing efficiency and boost revenue. At the same time, we will enable Telr's customers to leverage our unified solutions to grow their businesses online."

IGA BAHRAIN EMBRACES HYBRID CLOUD TO TRANSFORM GOVERNMENT SERVICES Bahrain’s digital backbone, iGA Bahrain, deploys VMware multi-cloud solutions to drive agility and innovation to a secure sovereign cloud solution, fully integrated with its public cloud workloads, meaning government agencies can scale up and innovate with modern applications while protecting data and improving security and resilience.

Information & eGovernment Authority, Bahrain (iGA), the umbrella organization that provides digital services to all Bahrain public sector entities, including hosting, operating, and managing the government’s systems, is powering a new wave of secure digital innovation after deploying VMware multi-cloud solutions. iGA, whose vast workload includes services covering large-scale infrastructure such as Bahrain central population registry system, national addresses system, border system, national passport system, in addition to healthcare, education and all types of services for businesses and individuals, had already migrated a significant proportion of its operations to the public cloud. However, about 30% of its workload remained on-premises and required resources to focus on operations instead of innovation.

Dr. Khalid Ahmed Almutawah

Deputy Chief Executive, Operations and Governance, iGA Bahrain

By deploying a full hybrid cloud solution from VMware, iGA was able to replace its on-premises workloads and recovery site

Dr. Khalid Ahmed Almutawah, deputy chief executive, Operations and Governance, iGA Bahrain, said: “These solutions enable iGA to focus on higher value-added activities while aligning with the government’s cloud-first strategy. By offering secure, flexible cloud solutions to government agencies and private sector organizations, we can ensure workloads are operating at maximum efficiency and availability. This will enable the government to fulfil its mission of helping Bahrain Ahmad to transform into the finest country in El Dandachi the GCC to visit, live, work Enterprise Channel Lead,and conduct business.”

Microsoft UAE

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» NEWS

MINDWARE AND XEBIA SIGN STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP TO ACCELERATE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN MEA Xebia’s cloud and AI capabilities and managed services will be part of Mindware’s portfolio for its partners vices, AI, and managed services. This collaboration is set to redefine the digital transformation landscape, offering a synergy of Xebia's technological finesse with Mindware's expansive market footprint to orchestrate comprehensive digital solutions.

Shedding light on the partnership Philippe Jarre, President, Mindware Group says: “Spurred by a visionary impulse to reshape the digital domain in the MEA region, this partnership stems from a mutual recognition of the increasing need for holistic cloud, AI, and managed services solutions. Mindware’s expansive distribution network and deep-rooted market acumen form a perfect complement to Xebia’s innovative technical expertise, crafting a symbiotic alliance that elevates both entities."

Mindware has recently announced the signing of a strategic partnership agreement with Xebia, a renowned global IT consultancy and software development company, to accelerate digital transformation initiatives for enterprises across MEA. This dynamic partnership marries Mindware's unparalleled distribution prowess with Xebia's trailblazing expertise in cloud ser-

“This alliance is a game-changer for Mindware’s channel ecosystem, infusing it with Xebia’s cutting-edge cloud and AI capabilities and sophisticated managed services portfolio. This transformative enhancement empowers channel partners to deliver a broader, more integrated suite of futuristic solutions to their clientele," Jarre continues.

SOPHOS ADVANCES ACTIVE ADVERSARY DEFENSES WITH NEW SECURITY SOLUTIONS New Sophos Report Exposes How Attackers are Executing Ransomware in Hours Sophos, a global leader in innovating and delivering cybersecurity as a service, introduced several new solutions that advance critical defenses against active adversaries. Sophos exposes how these active adversaries are now carrying out ransomware “fast” attacks in mere hours in “The 2023 Active Adversary Report for Security Practitioners”.

The Sophos X-Ops report showcases the forensics of fast smash-and-grab ransomware attacks and the precise tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) attackers are using to operate in this new high-speed attack mode – including preferred livingoff-the-land binaries (LOLBins) and other tools and behaviors that get them close to crucial resources that they want to exploit.

This evidence in the report and detailed explanations of how certain attacks unfold demonstrates the need for regularly adapted security solutions to protect, detect and

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disrupt intrusions as fast as possible on the attack chain.

Raja Patel, chief product officer at Sopho said, “Sophos is taking a proactive, protection-first approach to stopping threats at the front door before they escalate. We’re evolving products with industry-first security capabilities that are powered by Sophos X-Ops’ deep threat intelligence from more than half a million organizations globally to identify and counter threats at speed and scale.”

The new innovative capabilities include: • New Sophos Firewall v20 software with Active Threat Response: automatically shuts down attacks and blocks active adversaries from entering networks, all without having to add firewall rules.

• Sophos NDR is now available for Sophos XDR and Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR) customers to

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Raja Patel

Chief Product Officer, Sophos extend their threat detection capabilities to the network.

• Sophos XDR enhancements connects security data across multiple sources to detect threats faster and stop active adversaries sooner

» NEWS

SEWA DIGITALLY TRANSFORMS WITH SAP Sharjah Electricity, Water and Gas Authority and SAP embark on innovative roadmap and comprehensive digital transformation strategy

Sharjah Electricity, Water and Gas Authority (SEWA) has announced its successful digital transformation powered by global technology company SAP SE. By implementing a comprehensive portfolio of SAP solutions including enterprise resource planning (ERP), HR management and industry-specific applications, SEWA will automate business processes, increase

efficiencies and visibility over all areas of operations, and enhance services to employees, customers and partners.

Among the solutions that have been deployed are SAP S/4HANA, an ERP solution, industry specific modules such as IS Utilities, SAP Asset Manager, SAP Business Technology Platform, and for human

resource management, SAP SuccessFactors. As the first utilities organization in the UAE running live on SAP S/4HANA, the implementation was exceptionally accelerated and leveraged SAP Model Company for Utilities. The project also aligns SEWA with UAE government’s digitalization strategy and includes integration with government entities such as Digital Sharjah.

KASPERSKY HIGHLIGHTS CYBERSECURITY RISKS AMIDST RAPID DIGITISATION IN COMPANIES A digital skills shortage could also result in significant cybersecurity risks for an organisation According to a recent Kaspersky Business Digitisation survey, 86% of companies in the UAE, feature a high level of digitisation. This simplifies work processes and makes business more efficient. However, there are significant challenges that accompany this, including increased cybersecurity risks: more than half (63%) of the respondents from the UAE indicated their company has experienced a cybersecurity incident in the last 24 months.

Specifically, 72% of local respondents in the business digitisation survey indicated they could practice remote work in their organisations, 89% use digital means of communication with clients and 72% try to automate work processes. 80% stated that they had employee trainings on using digital devices and services over the last year. All of these factors contribute to increasing the level of business digitisation in a company.

The level of digitisation was calculated using Kaspersky Business Digitisation Index. The Index takes into account 12 components, including the use of digital document workflow by an organisation, provision of IT trainings for employees, automation of work processes, digital communication with clients, and others.

"As businesses continue to embrace digital transformation, the importance of integrated cybersecurity measures cannot be overstated. At Kaspersky, we remain committed to empowering companies with advanced security solutions and intelligence to navigate the complex cyber landscape effectively,” said Emad Haffar, Head of technical Experts, META at Kaspersky.

Emad Haffar Head of technical Experts, META at Kaspersky

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» NEWS

GOOGLE CLOUD AND HABOOB PARTNER TO STRENGTHEN SAUDI ARABIA’S NATIONWIDE CYBER DEFENSE Chronicle CyberShield will be offered in a managed services model in the Kingdom, aiming to bolster cybersecurity services for public sector organizations Haboob, a leading cybersecurity service provider owned by the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming, and Drones (SAFCSP), announced its partnership with Google Cloud to deliver Chronicle CyberShield to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This marks the first time Chronicle CyberShield will be offered in a managed services model in the Kingdom, aiming to bolster cybersecurity services for public sector organizations.

Chronicle CyberShield is a comprehensive solution that provides technology, processes, capabilities, and resources to deliver situational awareness of the cyber threat landscape. It is uniquely designed for government entities to share threat information, help accelerate investigations and initiate a united response against persistent and ever-evolving threats proactively and rapidly.

Running on Google Cloud’s infrastructure, Chronicle CyberShield is capable of ingesting large amounts of data and conducting analytics within seconds. This can be a crucial factor when protecting one of the top 20 global economies and

dealing with diverse data sources across various organisations and industries.

Haboob is spearheading the nationwide implementation of this solution, including the launch of a modernised Government Security Operations Centre in Saudi Arabia, with advanced threat intelligence capabilities, enabling proactive detection and response to threats and incidents.

NETAPP ANNOUNCES VMWARE SOVEREIGN CLOUD INTEGRATION NetApp StorageGRID adds VMware Sovereign Cloud integration to further support customers with complex data privacy and residency regulations NetApp’s new Object Storage plug-in for VMware Cloud Director enables Cloud Service Providers to seamlessly integrate StorageGRID as their go-to Object Storage solution to offer customers secure Object Storage for unstructured data. The integration delivers StorageGRID services within the familiar VMware Cloud Director user interface, minimizing training efforts and maximizing time to revenue for partners.

NetApp announced NetApp StorageGRID for VMware Sovereign Cloud.

The NetApp plugin for VMware Cloud Director Object Storage Extension enables sovereign cloud customers to more cost-effectively store, secure, protect, and preserve unstructured data while meeting global data privacy and residency regulations. NetApp also announced the latest release of NetApp ONTAP Tools for VMware vSphere (OTV 10.1) designed to simplify and centralize enterprise data management across multi-tenant vSphere environments.

The concept of sovereignty is emerging as a necessary component of cloud computing for many entities that process and maintain highly sensitive data, such as national and state governments, and highly regulated industries, such as finance and healthcare. National governments are also looking to expand digital economic capa-

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Phil Brotherton

Vice President, Solutions & Alliances, NetApp

bility and reduce reliance on multi-national firms for their cloud services.

CXO DX / DECEMBER 2023

“We know that data sovereignty is increasingly important to large organizations and that they are continually increasing the volume of highly sensitive data they need to manage and store,” said Phil Brotherton, Vice President, Solutions & Alliances at NetApp. “The integration of NetApp StorageGRID with VMware Sovereign Cloud is a significant achievement for NetApp and a real game changer for our customers with unstructured data in the cloud who must maintain sovereign control of that data at all times.”

» NEWS INSIGHT

CISCO APP ATTENTION INDEX REVEALS REVEALS ESCALATING CONSUMER EXPECTATIONS New Cohort of Application Users, Coined ‘The Application Generation’, Sets Bar for Seamless and Secure Digital Experiences.

Cisco launched the latest report in its App Attention Index research series, revealing escalating consumer expectations for digital experience and increased pressure on brand owners to optimize application performance and security. The global study, which examined the digital behaviors of more than 15,000 global consumers — including 1,005 in the UAE — also revealed the emergence of a new breed of application user that is more empowered, sophisticated, and demanding in its use of digital services.

As consumers enjoy ever more intuitive and personalized digital experiences, their demands on applications have reached an alltime high, with 71% in the UAE reporting that their expectations for digital experiences are far higher now than they were two years ago (the height of the pandemic), while 74% state they now expect brands to deliver an exceptional digital experience as standard.

But the needs of UAE consumers are not being met, with nearly all (97%) respondents experiencing performance issues when using applications over the past 12 months. Today application users in the Emirates have zero tolerance for poor digital performance and when things don’t work as they should, their reactions have become extreme.

Travers Nicholas Country General Manager for Qatar, Dell Technologies

• 65% indicate they feel disrespected by brands whose applications don’t meet their expectations.

• 71% are less forgiving of brands when problems occur.

• 80% have stopped using or deleted applications because of performance issues over the last 12 months.

Globally, Cisco’s study has found UAE consumers to be the most selective about the applications they use, and the most conscious about the time they spend engaging with digital services.

• 77% (compared to global average of 68%) are keen to get rid of application clutter (applications they don’t use enough or value anymore).

• 80% (a whole 18 percentage points higher than global average) are looking to control or limit the number of applications they are using or that they have on their device.

• 64% (globally 54%) have deleted more applications than they have installed over the last 12 months.

The Rise of The Application Generation

These shifts in behavior and attitudes towards application experience are even more prevalent in a new cohort of application users: ‘The Application Generation.’ Aged 18-34, this group has relied on applications like no generation before, having used them to navigate the pandemic and today, to live and thrive in a hybrid world.

In addition to being heavier users of applications across every area of their lives. The Application Generation are far more discerning about the quality of the applications they use, with 77% claiming to be more mindful about the applications they install on their devices and 64% stating that they only want to use the very best applications and digital services. They are constantly evaluating the relevance and value — or otherwise — of the brands they engage with and the digital services they provide.

A worrying trend for application owners, The Application Generation are voting with their thumbs — ditching applications that let them down and walking away from brands that don’t meet their digital experience expectations. 70% are more likely to tell others or warn people off applications that don’t perform than they were 12 months ago.

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» NEWS INSIGHT

Legacy Technology is Hindering the Evolution to Passwordless Authentication Delinea Survey data reveals that organizations are putting off implementing authentication methods such as biometrics and passkeys, as legacy technology and compliance requirements present challenges

Delinea, a leading provider of solutions that seamlessly extend Privileged Access Management (PAM), published a new report that examines the future of passwords to reveal insights about the evolution of authentication and access in the workplace. The report, titled, “The Future of Workplace Passwords: Not Dead, but Evolving,” found that the majority (68%) of 300 US IT decision makers say that passwords aren’t dead, with over half of that group (53%) stating they believe passwords are simply evolving into something new.

The survey, conducted by Censuswide on behalf of Delinea, specifically aimed to understand the future of passwords in the workplace in light of recent traction by other authentication options in consumer technology such as smartphones, personal email accounts, and mobile apps. The polling found that solutions users are already familiar with using in their personal lives are also the most likely to replace passwords in the workplace, such as biometrics (58%), other

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multi-factor authentication (MFA) technologies (46%), one-time passwords (37%), and Passkeys (35%).

The survey revealed that most organizations are still years away from a passwordless reality. While 30% stated their organization has already started this transition, 36% claimed they are still 1-2 years away while 21% admitted they are 3-4 years away. Standing in their way are several obstacles including legacy platforms and apps that require passwords and MFA (43%), the need for consistent authentication methods everywhere (37%), and employees who don’t understand or trust passwordless processes (28%). Furthermore, 95% of respondents stated that their companies must meet at least one set of compliance requirements, requiring organizations to demonstrate access controls which can become more complicated by adapting to new authentication methods.

Despite these impediments, it’s clear

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that the user experience must evolve with 35% expecting access to workplace systems to require MFA challenges at login, even as 19% expect a future where no username or password is required. Almost 60% of respondents also indicated that their organizations are using a Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution to manage workplace passwords. PAM solutions can help organizations move passwords into the background, as they continue using legacy technology, moving to the cloud, or beginning to leverage passwordless solutions. Combined with biometrics and other authentication technologies, PAM can both enforce a least privilege approach and federate access to resources without productivity-reducing requirements for passwords.

Finally, the report shines light on perspectives about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its role in cybersecurity. While 83% said that they see AI as a defender, half of those respondents also admitted that it could also be a threat.

» COVER STORY

UNDERTAKING THE SUSTAINABILITY JOURNEY As more organizations embark on embracing sustainability goals, IT has a larger role to play as an enabler

S

ustainability is a key priority for organizations worldwide with countries coming together to accelerate de-carbonisation objectives. It is however a significant challenge for organizations to work towards these objectives even as they drive their digital transformation journeys. Pursuing digital transformation and sustainability can be twin objectives that go together. IT has a significant role in enabling and streamlining sustainability.

“IT is undeniably an essential as a key enabler of our sustainability initiatives. The integration of IT into our company-level sustainability endeavours is pivotal, given its capacity to enhance efficiency, transparency, and innovation across departments. As we embrace digital transformation, particularly through the adoption of paperless processes and digitalization, we reinforce IT's crucial role in championing environmental, social, and economic sustainability. In essence, the strategic utilization of IT stands as an indispensable element in the realization and advancement of our sustainability objectives within the organization,” says Samit Jha, Group Head of Information Technology, Petrochem.

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CXO DX / DECEMBER 2023

» COVER STORY Aijaz Regoo, CTO at Saudi-based MIS Forward opines that there are several ways in which IT plays a crucial role in promoting and advancing sustainability.

“IT can contribute to sustainability by optimizing data centre operations, implementing energy-efficient technologies, and exploring renewable energy sources. Server virtualization, energy-efficient cooling systems, and intelligent power management are examples of strategies that can reduce the environmental impact of data centres. By leveraging cloud platforms, organizations can scale their IT infrastructure based on demand, reducing the need for maintaining extensive on-premises hardware. IT teams can adopt practices that reduce the environmental footprint of computing devices. This includes using energy-efficient hardware, implementing power management policies, and encouraging responsible disposal and recycling of electronic waste. The adoption of remote work practices, facilitated by IT tools and technologies, can contribute to sustainability by reducing the need for extensive commuting.”

He adds further, “Data analytics tools can help organizations measure their environmental impact, track progress toward sustainability goals, and make informed decisions based on data-driven insights. IT systems can be used to create transparency in the supply chain, allowing organizations to track and monitor the environmental and social impact of their suppliers. Digital transformation initiatives within organizations reduce the reliance on paper and physical resources. IT teams can implement responsible e-waste management practices. Finally, IT teams can drive innovation by developing and implementing technologies that directly contribute to sustainability goals. This might include the development of energy-efficient algorithms, the use of artificial intelligence for predictive maintenance to reduce resource consumption, and the creation of applications that promote sustainable practices. In summary, IT is integral to the success of sustainability initiatives within organizations.”

Energy efficiency in data centers and IT facilities can contribute to lowering energy consumption and making significant progress towards reducing carbon footprint.

Samit says, “In our organization with an in-house data center, prioritizing energy efficiency is paramount. This focus directly addresses the substantial energy consumption associated with data centers, impacting both operational costs and our commitment to environmental sustainability. The implementation of key practices, including server virtualization, hardware optimization, and advanced cooling systems, has played a crucial role in achieving significant cost savings. Our journey toward energy efficiency is continuous, reflecting our dedication to optimizing in-house data center operations. This commitment goes beyond mere cost savings; it is a meaningful contribution to environmental sustainability. By adopting these initiatives, we acknowledge the importance of responsible resource management and aligning our operations with the broader goals of corporate social responsibility. However, more work to be done for better tracking and monitoring.”

While cloud adoption has been accelerating considerably and that has led to scaling down their own datacentres, yet there is a significant investment still in datacentres.

The focus will be driving more energy efficiencies in the data centres such as renewable sources of energy for instance. The hyperscalers who run the public clouds have indeed invested significantly in such technologies.

According to Mustanshir Aziz, Head Of Information Technology, Automech Group, “Energy effectiveness in data centers and IT installations is pivotal for cost savings, environmental impact reduction, resource conservation, compliance with regulations, and capacity planning. It helps manage heat generated by optimizing cooling systems and benefits from technological advancements. enforcing energy-effective tackle, layout design, virtualization, and monitoring are essential for ongoing advancements and business durability.”

Making progress towards sustainability objectives wouldn’t be possible without proper metrics. Various metrics can be employed to measure and evaluate sustainability in IT operations such as Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) that measures the efficiency of a data center by dividing the total facility energy usage by the IT equipment energy usage or Data Center

Samit Jha

Group Head of Information Technology, Petrochem

Energy Productivity (DCeP) that evaluates the energy efficiency of a data center by assessing the amount of useful work performed per unit of energy consumed.

Then there are Carbon Footprint Metrics such as Carbon Emission Intensity which measures the amount of carbon dioxide emissions produced per unit of IT workload or data processed. Greenhouse Gas Emissions quantify the total emissions of greenhouse gases associated with IT operations, including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.

Gaurav Kole, Groud Head of IT, Leylaty Group says, “Metrics for studying the sustainability impact of IT operations may include energy consumption, carbon footprint, electronic waste generation, and the efficiency of resource utilization. Assessing these metrics is crucial to understand environmental implications and align IT practices with sustainability goals. Given the growing environmental concerns and the significant carbon footprint associated with IT operations, evaluating sustainability is an urgent priority for organizations aiming to minimize their environmental impact and enhance long-term resilience.”

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» COVER STORY tainability credentials not only safeguards against reputational risks but also fosters a responsible and ethical supply chain. This evaluation should encompass criteria such as energy efficiency, waste management, ethical sourcing, and adherence to relevant regulations. By prioritizing sustainability in technology partnerships, organizations contribute to a more environmentally conscious and socially responsible industry ecosystem.”

Mustanshir Aziz

Head Of Information Technology, Automech Group

Mustanshir opines that measuring the sustainability impact of IT operations is essential for understanding environmental and social consequences. crucial criteria include energy consumption, carbon emissions, resource utilization, e-waste, supply chain impact, renewable energy use, and water usage.

“It's critical due to the need for climate change mitigation, complying with the regulations, social responsibility, functional effectiveness, and long-term business viability. Enforcing these criteria helps companies align their IT strategies with environmental responsibility and ensures a more sustainable future.”

Organizations also need to start evaluating the sustainability practices of technology suppliers and partners so that this becomes a collective journey toward sustainability objectives.

Gaurav elaborates, “In today's increasingly eco-conscious business landscape, evaluating the sustainability practices of technology suppliers and partners is imperative for organizations committed to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles. Assessing suppliers' sus-

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According to Aijaz, “Evaluating the sustainability practices of technology suppliers and partners is a critical aspect of an organization's overall sustainability strategy. The impact of an organization's environmental and social footprint extends beyond its internal operations to include the entire supply chain.

There are several reasons why organizations should assess and consider the sustainability practices of their technology suppliers and partners. The sustainability impact of an organization is not limited to its direct operations but extends throughout its supply chain. Assessing suppliers and partners ensures a more comprehensive understanding of the overall environmental and social impact associated with the organization's products and services.

He adds that relying on suppliers with poor sustainability practices can expose an organization to various risks, including regulatory compliance issues, reputational damage, and supply chain disruptions.

Further, organizations may be held accountable for the practices of their suppliers, making it important to ensure that suppliers comply with relevant environmental and social standards.

As compliance towards ESG objectives becomes more stringent globally, it is wiser for organizations to safeguard their reputation by making sure that their partners in the ecosystem are also following socially responsible practises.

Mustanshir adds, “In today's times, assessing the sustainability practices of technology partners and suppliers is critical for companies. It helps in identifying and managing the risks, ensures regulatory compliance, enhances credibility, reduces costs, encourages innovation and effective coordination, builds a flexible supply chain, provides a competitive advantage, and contributes to long-term associations.

CXO DX / DECEMBER 2023

Aijaz Regoo

CTO, MIS Forward

This evaluation extends beyond an organization's operations to include its entire supply chain and business environment, reflecting a growing understanding of the significance of environmental, social, and governance( ESG) considerations in the business ecosystem.”

While the sustainability practices of suppliers and partners can significantly impact the overall brand image of an organization, suppliers with energy-efficient processes, responsible waste management, and ethical labor practices may contribute to a more sustainable and cost-effective supply chain. SO sooner than later, organizations will need to ensure that their suppliers are in sync with their commitment to sustainability objectives.

Samit says, “While our current approach does not actively assess the sustainability practices of technology suppliers, there is a recognition that this will be a crucial consideration in the near future. Our organization acknowledges the increasing significance of sustainability and is committed to integrating the evaluation of supplier practices into its strategic priorities. This shift is driven by the desire to manage risks, comply with emerging regulations, bolster

» COVER STORY the brand's reputation, and contribute to a more sustainable supply chain. The organization foresees a forthcoming adoption of these practices to ensure resilience, foster innovation, and align with evolving societal and environmental expectations.” With the onset of digitalization initiatives, Paperless goals over the past few years have seen great success. This has contributed to reducing carbon footprint.

Samit says, “The paperless initiatives prompted by the widespread adoption of digitalization over the past few years can be considered highly successful. The transition to digital alternatives has resulted in tangible benefits for both organizations and individuals. This shift aligns well with sustainability goals, positively impacting the environment by curbing the demand for paper and reducing associated ecological footprints. Our Dubai government is a biggest success story impacting across the entire country. Technological advancements, including e-signatures, cloud storage, and mobile devices, have played a pivotal role in making digital processes more accessible and user-friendly for everyone.”

He says that challenges persist, with data security concerns and the necessity for cultural change within organizations being key focal points.

“However, ongoing efforts are diligently addressing these issues, ensuring a more comprehensive and successful transition to paperless practices. The overall trajectory of paperless initiatives in this era of heightened digitalization is undeniably positive, delivering efficiency gains, cost-effectiveness, and promoting a more sustainable and environmentally conscious approach to both business and daily life.”

The degree to which the change toward paperless initiatives and enhanced digitalization is successful will depend on the industry, the particular implementations, and the context.

Mustanshir elaborates, “However, it has generally produced favourable results across a number of industries. Benefits include decreased environmental impact, increased efficiency, economic savings, and better teamwork. Obstacles include regulatory mandates and opposition to change must be overcome. Technological devel-

opments such as cloud computing have been key in enabling this shift. All things considered, the success of these projects rests on meticulous planning and taking industry-specific aspects into account.”

Data management is key to stay ahead in identifying risks and opportunities and adapting quickly to new regulations and market expectations.

Gaurav says “In the realm of sustainability, the emphasis on secure and sustainable data management is paramount. As organizations increasingly rely on digital platforms and technologies, safeguarding sensitive information not only aligns with ethical business practices but also contributes to the overall environmental and social dimensions of sustainability.

Robust data security measures not only protect against cyber threats but also instill trust among stakeholders. Sustainable data management involves optimizing data processes to minimize environmental impact, aligning with the broader goal of responsible resource utilization. In essence, the intersection of data management and sustainability underscores a holistic approach to responsible business practices in the modern era.”

be understood well by all in the organization and particularly by the IT department.

There is obviously an urgent need to drive awareness among IT teams about the need to look at sustainability practices. Samit says, “Certainly, there is a critical need to raise awareness among IT teams about the importance of integrating sustainability practices into their operations. This awareness is essential due to the significant environmental impact of IT operations, including energy consumption and resource utilization. IT teams need to understand the implications of their work on the environment, comply with different standards, and optimize resources for both cost savings and environmental side. By fostering awareness, organizations can empower IT teams to contribute to corporate social responsibility, tap into innovation opportunities, and meet stakeholder expectations. Ultimately, this awareness creates a culture of responsibility and engagement within the IT domain, aligning IT practices with broader sustainability goals.”

Gaurav opines, “Undoubtedly, there is a pressing need to drive awareness among IT teams regarding the importance of incorporating sustainability practices into their operations. As the digital landscape continues to expand, the environmental impact of IT activities becomes increasingly significant. By educating IT professionals about sustainable practices, organizations can empower them to make environmentally responsible decisions in areas such as energy consumption, electronic waste management, and resource efficiency. This proactive approach not only aligns with global sustainability goals but also positions companies as responsible corporate citizens, addressing the growing concern for environmental stewardship.

Ultimately, integrating sustainability into IT practices is a strategic imperative for fostering long-term resilience and minimizing the ecological footprint of the technology sector.”

Commitment to sustainability objectives needs to be on a collective basis and therefore awareness towards energy efficiency and reducing electronic waste for instance should

As organizations further accelerate their journey towards the next phase digitalization, they need to ensure that they are equally committed to sustainablity objectives.

Gaurav Kole

Groud Head of IT, Leylaty Group

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» INTERVIEW

EXPANDING THE OBSERVABILITY FRONTIERS Helmut Binder, CEO of Paessler AG, elaborates on how the company has broadened its scope to offer extensive IT and OT monitoring, along with observability services. He further explains the advantages for enterprises in fully leveraging both IT and OT monitoring aspects.

Discuss how essential it is for enterprises across various verticals to have an effective IT monitoring solution deployed that can respond proactively to incidents. Do you think enterprises have enough awareness regarding this?

In today's business landscape, where IT processes are crucial, having a comprehensive monitoring system is essential. Yet, many enterprises still lack a holistic monitoring tool, often relying on vendor-specific solutions and sensors. Typically, these companies seek software like ours only after experiencing an incident that disrupts their infrastructure.

There's a pressing need to increase awareness about the importance of professional monitoring solutions. We are leveraging various communication channels to emphasize the value of proactive monitoring systems.

Often, enterprises focus on partial monitoring aspects, such as applications or networks, which result in the neglect of critical areas like data center monitoring. Our goal is to address these gaps by offering a unified monitoring solution that encompasses all aspects of IT infrastructure, effectively serving as a single source for comprehensive oversight.

Globally, are enterprises yet to typically utilize more aspects of monitoring?

Over the past year, we have broadened the application of our products across various verticals, particularly in the Operational Technology (OT) space. We've noticed a gap in how companies utilize monitoring potential. While many focus on IT, infrastructure, and application monitoring, they often overlook areas like data center monitoring, building infrastructure, and physical security systems.

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This underutilization extends beyond large enterprises. Smaller companies frequently rely on vendor-specific tools and have not fully embraced the comprehensive capabilities of IT monitoring.

This presents a significant opportunity for us to fill these gaps and offer more holistic monitoring solutions.

How does your monitoring solution work vis-à-vis vendor-specific monitoring tools?

Paessler distinguishes itself from vendor-specific tools by integrating native sensors for various system components, enabling a unified monitoring experience through a single interface. This approach avoids the complexity of juggling separate windows for each deployed solution.

Our strategy focuses on monitoring via direct data acquisition from devices instead of depending on vendor-specific tools.

Additionally, Paessler's auto-discovery tool simplifies setup, enabling users to implement the monitoring solution efficiently, often within just a few hours.

How is observability different from traditional IT monitoring? What does the future likely hold for these solutions?

The concept of observability represents a modern approach to monitoring, characterized by a comprehensive understanding of a system through its metrics, logs, and traces. Metrics offer quantitative insights into system performance, logs deliver detailed event records for in-depth process analysis, and traces enable tracking transactions or workflows across system components.

Traditional monitoring primarily focuses on metrics, but PRTG has long incorporated more than just metrics. We delve into logs and traces alongside metrics to provide a multi-dimensional view of systems.

» INTERVIEW

Our development teams are increasing efforts to enhance log coverage and integration, which facilitates the segregation of logs for use in other systems such as SIEM and security systems. We are also adopting the open telemetry format to integrate logs and traces more effectively in the future.

With the acquisition of Qbilon, we're taking a significant leap forward. We're moving beyond mere observability of individual systems to achieve complete transparency across the entire IT infrastructure and environment. This advancement positions us to support diverse use cases, including architecture planning, security strategizing, and business continuity management, thereby extending the utility and applicability of our monitoring solutions.

Does Paessler provide end-to-end IT and OT monitoring/ observability for enterprises from across hardware, network to applications and containers across multi-cloud environments?

Over the years, PRTG has significantly evolved, expanding its monitoring capabilities beyond its initial focus on infrastructure.

It now encompasses server and application monitoring, both on-premises and in the cloud. Recently, we've extended PRTG's reach into various verticals, such as monitoring healthcare devices and systems in a healthcare environment. We've also integrated OT network monitoring, vital in sectors like manufacturing, and the direct monitoring of OT devices.

The OT domain presents unique challenges in security and visibility, and we're addressing these by integrating our monitoring data with OT environments and tools like SCADA and HMI systems. Recognizing that OT personnel often rely on specific tools and devices, we've tailored PRTG to enhance visibility within the OT infrastructure, while maintaining compatibility with existing tools.

Over 500,000 users continue to rely on PRTG's comprehensive monitoring scope for their monitoring needs. Cloud sensors have been a strategic part of our offering for years. Since beginning OT monitoring in 2020, we’ve continually enhanced our capabilities, learning from diverse use cases and customer needs across various industries. Our approach includes integrating standard OT interfaces as native sensors and collaborating with OT vendors like Siemens and ABB to develop vendor-specific sensors. Looking ahead, we plan to deploy PRTG directly on OT devices, leveraging advancements like container-capable PLCs, to provide a more integrated monitoring solution.

Which verticals in OT space can be an attractive opportunity for vendors such as Paessler?

Monitoring is crucial in any area involving power consumption, making data center infrastructure monitoring a key use case. This encompasses all standard power distribution systems and climate control mechanisms. Additionally, it's important to include building management systems in this monitoring scope (covering aspects like physical security) as well as shop floor elements such as switches and firewalls.

Helmut Binder CEO of Paessler AG

While there remains significant potential for growth in our core DECEMBER 2023 / CXO DX

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» INTERVIEW area of IT monitoring, we have already laid the groundwork for future expansion. PRTG has built-in capabilities that extend beyond IT monitoring. This positions us ideally for cross-selling opportunities, enabling us to inform customers about the potential to broaden their use of PRTG to meet additional monitoring needs.

How do your recent acquisitions expand your portfolio?

Our strategic goal is to broaden our reach within the enterprise sector. The acquisition of Qbilon significantly furthers this objective by providing enhanced access to enterprises. Qbilon empowers customers to reveal system dependencies and to utilize monitoring data from security systems and architectural data more effectively. It offers comprehensive, transparent visualization of data from hypervisors and cloud installations, targeting IT architects, security engineers, and even CIOs. We anticipate that this acquisition will solidify our foothold in the enterprise arena.

Additionally, our acquisition of ITPS, a long-standing Paessler Alliance Partner and Gold Partner, adds value through product extensions developed for PRTG. These extensions address additional use cases, enhancing our core product offering.

• PRTG SLA Reporter, for instance, simplifies the process of verifying compliance with SLA requirements for the customers of managed service providers. It generates detailed SLA reports, showing uptime/downtime and identifying root causes of outages.

• PRTG Data Exporter, a desktop application, optimizes the use of metric monitoring data from PRTG. It allows integration of data from multiple PRTG servers into a single database, accessible to external tools like Microsoft Power BI or Grafana, without needing an API. This extension supports MS SQL and MySQL.

"Qbilon empowers customers to reveal system dependencies and to utilize monitoring data from security systems and architectural data more effectively. It offers comprehensive, transparent visualization of data from hypervisors and cloud installations, targeting IT architects, security engineers, and even CIOs."

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• PRTG Database Observer broadens PRTG’s database monitoring capabilities to include additional database types like SAP HANA and IBM DB2. It offers detailed monitoring of these relational database systems and comes with predefined SQL queries from database experts.

These enhancements mean our customers no longer need to develop such extensions themselves, allowing us to cater to a wider range of standard use cases more effectively.

Discuss your Middle East focus and growth?

This market has rapidly become one of our fastest-growing segments, reaching a scale comparable to a mature European market.

Continued investment in this region is crucial, given our established infrastructure, including a dedicated local team, a channel-first approach, and over 100 service engineers. Our solution is being exceptionally well-received in the area.

Our focus is to refine our channel strategy, dedicating more support to our committed partners. We aim to enhance our engagement through channel training initiatives, viewing our partners as an integral extension of our presence in the market.

Discuss your alliance partnerships and how does this benefit your market reach?

Our alliance partners play a pivotal role in collaborating with vendors who offer products that complement our solutions. This collaboration broadens our market value proposition across various industry verticals.

How does monitoring help with sustainability?

Monitoring your installations provides critical insights into energy optimization and operational efficiency. By implementing an effective monitoring tool, you have the visibility to identify underutilization of device capacities or CPU overloads. This enables strategic resource reallocation and the potential to power down certain elements, like physical servers in a data center, thereby significantly reducing energy consumption. Additionally, monitoring data is vital in detecting and preventing costly outages.

Understanding the power of monitoring is key, and we are committed to educating our customers about its benefits. Even if a fraction of our 500,000+ users leverage PRTG more effectively for energy optimization, the impact could be substantial. We aim to enlighten our customers on how to reduce energy consumption through the use of our product, demonstrating our commitment to both efficiency and sustainability.

Discuss your focus on MSPs? The increasing trend towards leveraging Managed Service Providers (MSPs) is driven by the scarcity of IT expertise in the market. This makes it challenging to onboard such experts. Additionally, the IT landscape is becoming increasingly complex, highlighting the need for the specialized knowledge provided by MSPs. To meet this demand, we offer MSPs a flexible, on-premises licensing model, enabling them to serve an unlimited number of enterprise clients. We also provide a hosted model, facilitating access across various remote locations worldwide.

» INTERVIEW

SECURING CONTENT COLLABORATION Oren Maguid, Regional VP at Votiro discusses how the zero-trust content security company is helping secure customer interactions with files in the cloud content platforms and ensuring secure content collaboration How is Votiro redefining zero trust content security?

Votiro trusts no unknown, suspicious, or malformed elements of content, proactively removing them before passing on only the good elements of files. This signatureless and frictionless approach allows us to clean files in near real-time and stop known and unknown threats. Votiro helps organizations accept incoming content, data, and files without trust – and without slowing business productivity.

What is positive selection all about?

Votiro’s patented Positive Selection technology keeps only what belongs instead of searching for what doesn’t and prevents hidden threats inside of incoming documents at scale. Unlike detection-based file security solutions that scan for suspicious elements and block some malicious files, Positive Selection singles out only the safe elements of each file, ensuring every file that enters your organization is 100% safe.

Discuss how your proactive file security works with web browsers and secures users?

Votiro singles out only the elements of files known to be fully secure. We copy those elements to a new, clean, and functional file template. Now no matter what your employees download or where they download it from, Votiro ensures that every file is safe, and your business is free from harm.

Elaborate how Votiro ensures file transfers are safe from malware?

Votiro adopts a zero-trust approach to file security wherever the files come from. When it comes to file transfer, you need to be sure that the files you’re receiving are malware-free. Votiro’s patented Positive Selection technology sanitizes once they hit the FTP, FTPS, SFTP, SMB, and local folders. We clean the files of known and unknown threats before they reach their destination, and only allow known-good elements to reach the endpoint.

Discuss the focus on the Middle East market and your partnership with Bulwark?

Votiro, a leading cybersecurity firm, is eager to explore collaboration opportunities with Bulwark in the Middle East. Recognizing the increasing importance of robust cybersecurity measures in today’s digital landscape, Votiro sees Bulwark as a strategic partner in fortifying cyber defenses across the region. By joining forces, Votiro aims to leverage Bulwark’s expertise and regional presence to deliver cutting-edge Zero Trust Content Security tailored to the unique challenges faced by businesses and organizations in the Middle East. The collaboration seeks to enhance the overall

Oren Maguid Regional VP at Votiro

cybersecurity ecosystem, fostering a secure and resilient environment for businesses and individuals alike. Votiro is excited about the potential synergies that this partnership can bring to the rapidly evolving cybersecurity space in the Middle East.

What are the new or recent launches or updates on the solutions front?

Committed to making cybersecurity easier for organizations, Votiro now reduces the need for a larger tech stack with its builtin threat detection, which runs alongside its Positive Selection® engine. Votiro also continues to expand its file-borne threat prevention capabilities with the ability for IT and SOCs to deep dive into their threat analytics in real-time to inspect each file, the objects within, and how the Votiro platform sanitized and rebuilt the fully functional file. In addition to the already 180+ file types Votiro sanitizes, this list continues to grow to ensure the most complex file types can be secured for organizational use.

What was the focus at Black Hat? Votiro focused on providing more information about our technology to an informed audience and build awareness of our pioneering technology.

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» INTERVIEW

ENABLING A PROACTIVE

CYBERSECURITY FOCUS Jose Thomas Menacherry, Managing Director of Bulwark spoke to CXO DX about cybersecurity trends and the focus of the company amidst the evolving cyberthreat landscape there may not be enough cybersecurity experts available for hire who are trained in the new areas of focus. Cybersecurity is a very dynamic domain, and you can see some new breaches and new technologies come up very frequently. It requires people in the field to be good fast learners. That’s a continuous process. If you’re missing out on something, then catching up is difficult.

As a distributor, how do you manage these challenges?

We have regular meetings with customers to understand their challenges. Events like GITEX and GISEC help us a lot in terms of customer engagement. This helps us understand gaps if any in our offerings and address those gaps in our portfolio in terms of what additional solutions we need to bring in. Further, we also constantly scan and review the market trends internally which has helped us always have a comprehensive portfolio of cybersecurity solutions from leading vendors. These are continuous processes. We have pre-sales resources trained on every product that we offer and can assist our partners and their customers.

Jose Thomas Menacherry Managing Director, Bulwark

Are enterprise customers in general now more aware of the need to invest in the right cybersecurity solutions? Do they need to be more proactive?

There are always concerned people within an organization who are aware of cybersecurity requirements, but they may not necessarily have the right expertise in-house. So, a consultant approach is always needed for positioning products based on the real requirements of the customer.

Do you believe there is a shortage of cybersecurity experts or talents in the market?

The market in general faces a challenge to find the right resources or domain experts and this is felt by organizations, SIs, and distributors. One of the reasons is that requirements from the customer end have gone up. With the increase in digitalization, the need for cybersecurity solutions has also gone up. However,

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Discuss the focus on cloud offerings in your portfolio?

Most solutions we offer are cloud-based now. The number of pure on-premise solutions is reducing but there are hybrid solutions as well.

Discuss your new vendor tie-ups in the year?

We have onboarded some new vendors in the year. This includes a tie-up with Holm Security for network vulnerability assessment and OT security. We signed up with Appknox for mobile vulnerability assessment. We have partnered with Continuity Software which helps with finding out vulnerabilities associated with backup software.

How big is your partner network across GCC? We have around 500 plus corporate partners across the region and among them, 100 may be quite active across the GCC. We have an office in Saudi in addition to our UAE office to help enable our partners.

What were the solutions showcased at GITEX? We showcased solutions from several vendors including web application vulnerability assessment solutions from Invicti, email solutions from Mimecast, secure encrypted drives from iStorage, patch management solutions from Heimdal, PKI solutions from nexus.

» INTERVIEW

FACILITATING SECURE STORAGE Asha Hanley, DigitalMarketing Strategist, iStorage discusses how its hardware-encrypted portable storage and cloud encryption solutions help securely store, share and manage data Discuss the demand for encrypted flash drives in the enterprise/corporate segment among key verticals?

As the digital world is evolving, it is clear that protecting your data should be a priority. Having a strong password just isn’t enough, there needs to be extra steps in place to ensure that all areas of potential risk are covered. A combination of password protection, and encryption are the best way to do this. Your data can include your credit card information, phone number, passwords, and cryptocurrency. For businesses, there is also the severe threat of losing sensitive data, such as your intellectual property, confidential information on your employees and customers, customer databases etc. This can lead to adverse publicity, loss of trust, job losses, hefty fines, and the potential downfall of a business. iStorage products help you comply with data protection regulations such as GDPR, HIPPAA, as well as protect your data in the most secure way possible. Our drives are easy to use and require no software so they will work on any device with a USB port.

Elaborate on your range of encrypted USB solutions? What are the standout security and performance features of these drives and up to what storage capacities are they available?

Our encrypted USBs cover a wide variety of solutions. Each drive, no matter what, is password protected and hardware encrypted so you can rely on even the simplest drive to protect your most precious information. Our drives are designed and built with the customer in mind, so each drive fits a specific purpose.

These features include remote management, biometric unlock, lightning-fast speeds, government certified and more.

Discuss about some of your recent launches?

We recently launched our datAshur PRO+C, this drive is a hardware encrypted, PIN protected, USB Type-C (USB Type-C to Type-A Adapter included) flash drive. The datAshur PRO+C is the world’s first and only encrypted flash drive pending the new FIPS 140-3 Level 3 scheme and is available up to 512GB. Discuss the demand and the highlights of encrypted SSD drives iStorage takes pride in manufacturing and providing cutting-edge SSD drives. These drives are increasingly sought after due to the growing demand for high-speed performance, robust security features, and extensive storage capacity. iStorage’s encrypted SSD drives excel in delivering superior performance in these aspects, surpassing the capabilities of other competitors. Notably, iStorage’s diskAshur PRO2 SSD holds more government accreditations than any other company in our industry.

Asha Hanley DigitalMarketing Strategist, iStorage

Do you offer your entire range of products in the Middle East? Discuss your focus in the region. iStorage offers its entire range of products in the Middle East.

We are proud to take part in events such as Black Hat MEA, and we offer partnership opportunities globally including the middle east.

Discuss what the encrypted cloud module offers?

The cloudAshur is the perfect solution for anyone wanting to securely store, share and manage data in the cloud. cloudAshur can also be used to encrypt data stored on a network drive, on a local PC/MAC and to send encrypted email attachments or data via file-sharing software applications. The cloudAshur eliminates all the security vulnerabilities that exist with cloud platforms, such as lack of control, unauthorized access, and human error.

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» INTERVIEW

ENHANCING REMOTE ACCESS FOR SECURE & EFFICIENT DIGITAL WORKSPACES

Vijender Yadav, Co-founder, MD and CTO at Accops discusses how their solutions enhance security, simplify management and improve scalability

What are the solutions offered by Accops to secure remote/ hybrid workforce?

At Accops, we understand the unique challenges presented by today’s remote and hybrid workforce. Our Digital Workspace suite is designed to transform traditional work models, offering a comprehensive, integrated solution that ensures secure access to all applications and virtual desktops. This suite not only caters to various users, devices, and access profiles but also enables organizations to operate seamlessly across borders. Our Access Gateway stands out, offering secure, contextual access to network resources, with robust endpoint security and Data Loss Prevention. In parallel, our Identity and Access Management (IAM)

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solution fortifies defenses against security breaches with strong multi-factor authentication, ensuring both security and ease of access. Accops VDI plays a critical role in securely delivering business applications to any device, supporting both productivity and flexibility in remote work settings. In essence, Accops is not just about securing the remote workforce; we empower it, enabling businesses to adeptly handle the complexities of remote work without sacrificing security, compliance, or productivity.

Discuss the focus on zero trust security in your solutions suite?

Accops’ ZTNA-based remote access solution revolutionizes secure connectivity by offering contextual access with advanced

» INTERVIEW endpoint security and dynamic Data Loss Prevention. Since 2012, we’ve pioneered the shift from broad Layer-3 VPNs to precise Layer-4/7 application tunnel-based access, enhancing security in vendor access and BYOD scenarios. Our solution, known for its robust device binding and compliance checks, has led many organizations to migrate from traditional VPNs to our more efficient solution. Tailored to diverse users and devices, our technology supports borderless operations, leveraging a dynamic risk-based assessment engine that adjusts access controls in real-time according to varying risk levels. This approach not only bolsters security but also ensures a smooth user experience, exemplifying Accops’ commitment to leading the evolution in remote access technology for modern, secure work environments.

How do you help consolidate the distributed end-user application infrastructure?

Accops streamlines the distributed end-user application infrastructure by centralizing and virtualizing application access. Our end-user computing virtualization solution enables seamless delivery of applications and desktop environments to any device, effectively isolating business applications from endpoints. This approach not only enhances security but also simplifies management and improves scalability. By consolidating resources, we reduce the complexity and costs associated with managing multiple application delivery systems, providing a unified, efficient infrastructure that supports the diverse needs of modern enterprises.

What is Accops HySecure?

Accops HySecure is a sophisticated Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) gateway that facilitates secure, context-aware access to enterprise applications and network services. It integrates advanced endpoint security and on-the-go Data Loss Prevention features, ensuring secure access across various devices and locations. HySecure stands out for its ability to provide a seamless and secure user experience, enabling organizations to manage remote access efficiently while adhering to stringent compliance and security standards.

Discuss your focus in the Middle East and your partner strategy for the region?

Accops operates as a channel-centric company, with partners being integral to our go-to-market (GTM) approach globally, including in the Middle East (ME). We closely collaborate with local partners, utilizing their regional insights to effectively tailor our solutions as per the customers’ needs. This strategy ensures strong market penetration and improved customer service. Additionally, we bolster our partners’ expertise by offering comprehensive training and certification on Accops products, equipping resellers to excel in the increasingly remote work landscape. Our focus on partner training and certification is central to ensuring a high-quality customer experience and reinforces our commitment to both market growth and service excellence.

How do you view your partnership with Bulwark?

Our partnership with Bulwark has significantly contributed to Accops’ expansion in the Middle East. As a key Value-Added Distributor based in Dubai, Bulwark has been pivotal in marketing, selling, and supporting our entire product range. Impressively, a considerable number of our current clients in the region have been acquired through this collaboration. Leveraging Bulwark’s

Vijender Yadav

Co-founder, MD and CTO, Accops

deep regional expertise and operational excellence, we have significantly enhanced our channel footprint and market penetration.

Our collaborative efforts in partner outreach and customer campaigns have not only garnered new clients but also strengthened our position in strategic markets. Motivated by this success, we are now poised to replicate this growth model in more markets and accounts across the Middle East, aiming to meet the increasing demand for Secure Remote Work solutions, and to cater to a broader enterprise spectrum with our innovative solutions.

What were the highlights of your participation at Black Hat? Accops’ participation at Black Hat was marked by significant achievements in branding and market outreach. We focused on establishing our presence in a relatively new market, successfully connecting with potential partners and customers. A key aspect was spreading awareness about sustainability and technology advancements to the community. Engagements with end customers and potential partners provided valuable insights into the cybersecurity priorities of organizations in the region. We also gained a deeper understanding of local compliance requirements specific to various industries, such as SAMA for the BFSI segment and SARC, CCC for manufacturing. This experience was instrumental in understanding market trends and assessing the market’s maturity, setting the stage for Accops to tailor our solutions and strategies to meet the region’s specific needs and expectations.

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» INTERVIEW

ENABLING BUSINESS EFFICIENCIES J S Wong, CEO of SendQuick discusses the company’s focus on enterprise messaging solutions and business mobile messaging solutions

What are the different enterprise messaging solutions you offer?

Established since 2001, SendQuick (formerly TalariaX) develops innovative enterprise mobile messaging solutions and more, helping customers around the world to innovate and unlock business value for growth. Our enterprise messaging solutions include IT Alerts and Notifications, Secure Remote Access via Multi-Factor Authentication, Business Process Automation, Enterprise Messaging Broadcast and Automated Call Tree Systems. Our range of business mobile messaging solutions is geared towards providing security and confidentiality of company information and mitigating disruption during unplanned system downtime. Headquartered in Singapore, SendQuick’s enterprise mobile messaging solutions are used by many corporations including Fortune Global 500 companies, in over 40 countries across the banking, finance, insurance, manufacturing, retail, government, education, and healthcare sectors.

What are the messaging platforms that your solution integrates with?

SendQuick integrates with various communication omnichannels, including SMS, email, voice calls, and omnichannel social messengers such as WhatsApp Business API (WABA), Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Instagram, WeChat, Lark, LINE, Viber and Sqoope (SendQuick’s private messaging app), as well as collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams, Cisco WebEx, and Slack.

These popular social messaging channels and collaboration tools are pre-integrated into a centralised platform to optimise any organisation’s omnichannel communication process with both its internal and external customers to improve customer experience.

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Elaborate how your solution play a key role in enabling business automation?

Organisations prize efficiency. SendQuick’s business process automation solution reduces the manual effort required for sending routine messages, as workflows are standardised and improved.

Automated systems also reduce the likelihood of human errors in communication, ensuring that the right message is delivered to the right audience, at the right time. This frees up staff to focus on more strategic tasks and on delivering higher value to customers.

Some of the use cases include IT system alerts, customer sales enquiry and Tech Helpdesk hotline, subscription reminders or warranty checks, transaction confirmation, appointment reminders, job dispatch and delivery status notifications, marketing and promotional announcements, and inventory update. Delegating these routine processes to end-users as self-service functions helps increase the productivity of operations teams. SendQuick’s real-time, two-way messaging notification solutions can be deployed in many ways across business processes to help organisations improve efficiency, and ensure timely communication and responsiveness to its customers, thereby increasing its competitive advantage.

How important is it to automate alerts and notifications with an integrated SMS messaging service?

Automation of alerts and notifications through integrated SMS messaging services is essential for real-time communication in business operations. As SMS does not require any app or internet connection, critical messages are able to be sent and received promptly. Besides, SMS has a high open and response rate. As timeliness is key, integrated SMS messaging services enable or-

» INTERVIEW

ganizations to respond promptly to events, such as system failures, security breaches, emergency or crisis management and important updates. This is particularly crucial in industries where downtime or delays can have significant consequences. Automated alerts ensure that critical information reaches the intended recipients quickly. In the case of a data centre management solution that is integrated with SendQuick, which comes with email filters and duty rostering features, this enhances operational efficiency and reduces downtime as key IT personnel are alerted and can respond to important IT alerts promptly. This ensures the security and availability of critical IT systems that keep organisations going.

How do you ensure the messaging is secured?

Security is a critical concern in enterprise messaging, especially when dealing with sensitive information. SendQuick’s robust enterprise messaging solution is compliant with relevant industry data protection and privacy laws to protect user data and confidentiality eg. HIPAA, Cyber Trust Mark and ISO/IEC 27018:2019 and ISO/IEC 27017:2015 certifications, proving our dedication to maintaining the highest standards in cloud security and information security management. Additionally, SendQuick’s solution manages remote access from internal stakeholders and external customers with the use of authentication features and audit trails to enhance security. User authentication ensures that only authorised users can access and send messages.SendQuick’s integration with secure messaging channels and platforms helps maintain the integrity and confidentiality of messages. Data privacy and security are our top priorities.

Discuss your focus on the Middle East market Middle East is an important region for SendQuick. We see ourselves playing an important role in IT development and digital transformation for companies in the Middle East. Understanding and respecting the cultural norms, values, and business practices in the Middle East is crucial. We can customise solutions to address specific challenges or preferences in the Middle East market to meet any organisational needs. Therefore, understanding unique business needs in each country of the Middle East is essential. We are looking for local partners who share the same value as us, who can deliver our products to our customers in the Middle East. Providing support for local languages is essential for effective communication and user experience. This includes language support in user interfaces, documentation, and customer support. Being aware of and to be compliant with local regulations is paramount. Different countries in the Middle East may have specific regulations governing technology, data privacy, and communication services. With strong emphasis on security and privacy, ensuring that our enterprise messaging solutions comply with local data protection laws and providing robust security features is crucial.

J S Wong CEO of SendQuick

What was the focus of your showcase at Black Hat? The focus of our showcase at Black Hat was to highlight how IT alerts and notifications sent via various messaging omnichannels, as well as securing remote access with a choice of multi-factor authentication (MFA) features, can be managed all from a single platform — the SendQuick Conexa, an award-winning authentication solution! The all-in-one SendQuick Conexa simplifies security with MFA – Singpass or Yoti Digital ID Login, passwordless biometric authentication, FIDO2-capable YubiKey, One-Time Password (OTP) via SMS, Email, Soft Token and Push Authentication. This is especially beneficial for organisations seeking to provide secure remote access with strong authentication to onsite and remote staff, contractors or privileged users such as IT administrators and customers from multiple remote locations.

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» SPOTLIGHT COLUMN

MTP DISTRIBUTION TRADING SHOWCASES NEW TECHNOLOGIES AT ABU DHABI ROADSHOW The event was attended by leading MCC-approved system integrators from the UAE including Abu Dhabi and Al Ain

MTP Distribution Trading LLC, a leading distributor of security and storage solutions held a partner Roadshow at the Shangri-La hotel in Abu Dhabi on November 29th, 2023. This exclusive gathering was attended by leading MCC-approved system integrators from the UAE. During the event, four principal vendor partners of MTP Distribution Trading presented keynotes providing highlights of their new solutions to the attendees. The event also served as an occasion for extensive Business networking and for MTP Distribution to reaffirm its commitment to the market.

Reshma, Marketing Executive at MTP Distribution Trading LLC presented the opening note and this was followed by an elaborate address by Sonia Sebastian, General Manager of MTP Distribution Trading LLC. Sonia spoke about the company’s focus on pushing the boundaries of innovation in the realm of security solutions and equal commitment to both vendors and its channel.

The spotlight then turned to the manufacturers as they took the stage to present their latest technologies.

Engineer Mairaj Muhammad, the Regional Manager of Digifort, made a presentation on “Digifort World-Class VMS and Artificial Intelligence.” His expertise shed light on the advanced features and capabilities that make Digifort a frontrunner in the world of

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video management systems and artificial intelligence.

Sonia Sebastian, GM of MTP Distribution Trading LLC, took the floor once again, this time to provide a comprehensive overview of Infortrend’s products. Her presentation, titled “Infortrend Product Overview,” delved into the intricacies of Infortrend’s offerings, showcasing the company’s commitment to delivering high-quality and innovative storage solutions.

» SPOTLIGHT

George Garas, the Regional Sales Director of Atenco was next on stage and his presentation, titled “UPS Solution Overview,” provided a deep dive into the world of Uninterruptible Power Supply solutions. Attendees gained valuable insights into the critical role played by UPS in ensuring the continuity and reliability of power supply, especially in the context of security systems.

Basim Lu, the Regional Sales Director of Meritlilin presented the final presentation of the day as he shared insights into the cutting-edge “Lilin Edge AI Camera and Surveillance Solution.” His presentation unveiled the capabilities of Lilin’s advanced technologies, emphasizing the integration of artificial intelligence in surveillance for enhanced security measures.

Throughout the series of presentations, attendees were not only exposed to the latest technological advancements but also had

the opportunity to engage in Q&A sessions, fostering a collaborative atmosphere where knowledge and ideas were exchanged. The event served as a testament to the commitment of MT P Distribution Trading LLC and its partners to push the boundaries of innovation and collectively shape the future of security solutions.

LLC (BMTS) received an award presented by Engineer Mairaj Muhammed, the Regional Manager of Digifort.

Additionally, MT P Distribution Trading LLC took the opportunity to honor five exemplary partners with the prestigious Excellence Awards.

Vigil Technologies received an award from Sonia Sebastian, the General Manager of MTP Distribution Trading LLC

Excellence Awards Recognize Industry Leaders: AT the event MTP Distribution Trading LLC also presented Excellence Awards to five outstanding partners.

The awardees are: Bahri & Mazroei Technical Systems Co.

Burraq Integrated Solutions was honored with an award given by Rison Rappai, the Regional Sales Manager at MTP Distribution Trading LLC

Bold Information Technologies was recognized with an award presented by Basim Lu, the Regional Sales Director at Meritlilin.

The Transit Security Solution award was presented by George Garas, the Regional Sales Director at Atenco.

Sonia Sebastian, GM of MTP Distribution Trading LLC said, “The roadshow event at Abu Dhabi Shangri-La was an unparalleled success, as it brought together industry leaders, manufacturers, and system integrators for a collaborative exploration of the latest advancements in security technologies. The Excellence Awards provided an occasion to recognize and celebrate the outstanding contributions of partners.

As the industry evolves, events like these play a pivotal role in fostering innovation, collaboration, and the continual improvement of security solutions.”

The event concluded with a thank-you address delivered by Rison Rappai, Regional Sales Manager at MTP Distribution Trading LLC.

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» COLUMN

Three Ways to Advance Your Cybersecurity Maturity Havier Haddad, Managing Director - Gulf, Dell Technologies discusses the need to reduce the attack surface and advance cybersecurity maturity

Organizations rely more heavily on data than ever before, and web-based applications are mission critical. Yet IT leaders are challenged in how they protect their data from increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. In 2022, according to the Dell Global Data Protection Index (GDPI) survey, cyberattacks accounted for 48% of all disasters (up from 37% in 2021), leading all other causes of data disruption.

Due to these catastrophic shifts, organizations are quickly realizing the value of having an effective security strategy in place.

According to an IDC report, security software will have the largest share of spending in the Middle East & Africa region in 2023, accounting for 41.2 percent of total spending. Organizations need a security strategy that addresses three key areas:

1. Reducing the attack surface

The attack surface represents potential vulnerabilities and entry points that malicious actors can exploit. To enhance security, organizations must minimize the attack surface across all domains, including edge, core and cloud. This involves implementing preventative measures such as: • Zero Trust Framework: Zero Trust is a security model centered on the belief that organizations must verify everything trying to connect to its systems before granting access, whether inside or outside its perimeters. This can be achieved by incorporating solutions like microsegmentation, identity and access manage-

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ment (IAM), multifactor authentication (MFA) and security analytics.

• Data isolation: Segregating data into separate environments, containers or storage units can minimize the risk associated with unauthorized access, data breaches or other forms of cyberattacks.

• Strict access controls: Regulate who or what can view, use or manipulate resources within a computing environment. This serves as a first line of defense against unauthorized access and potential breaches.

• Patching systems and applications: Fix known vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit. Failing to apply patches in a timely manner leaves an organization exposed to risks.

• User education and awareness: Training employees and users to recognize and report potential security threats, phishing attempts and social engineering tactics helps minimize the risk of successful attacks that exploit human vulnerabilities.

Additionally, organizations should conduct thorough vulnerability assessments and penetration testing to identify and address potential weaknesses. Advanced threat detection technologies that include artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms are vital for proactive and timely responses to evolving threats. Reducing the attack surface allows organizations to mitigate potential avenues of cyberattacks.

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Havier Haddad MD - Gulf, Dell Technologies

2. Detecting and responding to cyber threats

To maintain a strong security posture, organizations should use advanced threat detection technologies and methodologies to identify and respond to known and unknown threats. This includes: • Intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS): Provide real-time monitoring of suspicious activities that could indicate a security breach. By identifying these anomalies early, IDS enables organizations to take immediate action, minimizing potential damage and enhancing their overall security posture.

• Anomaly detection: Identify unusual patterns that deviate from established norms, signaling potential malicious activity. Catching these anomalies quickly can prevent data breaches, unauthorized access and other security threats. The use of AI and ML algorithms can help speed the detection of threats.

• Real-time network traffic monitoring: Gain immediate visibility into network activity, allowing quick detection of unusual or malicious behavior. This enables organizations to respond to threats in a timely manner, reducing the risk of system compromises.

Partnering with professional services can provide expertise in threat intelligence through the management and detection of threats, incident response and security operations.

3. Recovering from an attack

resilience, and frequently test them to recover from a cyberattack.

Effective recovery requires a well-defined incident response plan.

Organizations should carry out: • Incident Response and Recovery (IRR) program: Establish incident response protocols that outline roles and responsibilities and activities in the event an attack happens.

• Data protection: Regular backups of critical data and systems, along with immutable, isolated and/or secure offsite storage solutions and data encryption can ensure a speedy recovery of your data.

Advancing cybersecurity maturity is essential to combat the evolving threat landscape. Reducing the attack surface allows organizations to minimize vulnerabilities and potential entry points for attackers. Proactive threat detection and response mechanisms enable organizations to identify and mitigate threats swiftly. Effective recovery strategies ensure that organizations can restore operations and minimize the impact of a cyberattack. Additionally, by collaborating with an experienced business partner, organizations can establish a comprehensive security posture that protects against evolving threats.

As technology continues to advance, so must our approach to cybersecurity to safeguard our digital infrastructure and maintain trust in the digital realm.

Organizations also must have capabilities in place that provide

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» COLUMN

REDEFINING SUSTAINABILITY APPROACHES

Joe Baguley, VP & CTO, EMEA, VMware writes Businesses have an opportunity to improve environmental performance through IT and they should seize it now.

Strong ESG (environmental, social, and governance) practice is good for business. Greater innovation, long-term talent retention, customer loyalty, enhanced revenues, increased resilience and reduced risk have all been ascribed to a greater focus on ESG. The argument has been made and, broadly speaking, won.

However, as organizations across industries, geographies and company sizes allocate more resources toward improving ESG, the ways in which it is practiced are rightfully coming under greater scrutiny.

Different approaches to sustainability

There has been no single approach to improving sustainability performance. Individual businesses have evaluated the carbon footprint of their own operations (often by considering Scope 1 emissions), as well as their impact through customers, partners and supply chain (which is where Scopes 2 and 3 come in). Then they made strategic decisions on where best to direct their sustainability efforts.

For example, rather than focusing on decarbonizing their own operations, many financial institutions are directing their efforts towards their investment portfolios and in meeting various ESG

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» COLUMN indices set by the capital markets. The financial industry is having a huge impact on sustainability in general, as it channels investments into the ‘green economy’ where eco-friendly companies create sustainable products. Banks are also influencing business customers to be more sustainable in order to have their loans approved.

The airline industry, one of the major sources of greenhouse gases, is also focusing efforts on where it can get the biggest impact — reducing the emissions created by aircraft. Airlines hope to achieve this by switching from traditional fossil-derived jet fuels to ones made from renewable sources. They are also looking to new materials to make their aircraft lighter and more aerodynamic, and hence less fuel hungry. But while lighter planes and sustainable fuels will undoubtedly have a major impact on decreasing emissions from aviation, they aren’t available yet and won’t be for many years.

The common thread here is return on investment, and it’s a logical strategy. But companies also need to go for the immediate wins and lower-hanging fruit, such as decarbonizing their IT operations. In parallel, R&D needs to continue and strategies should be developed for bigger and more substantive changes to come.

Moving IT up the ESG agenda

In my experience, many compute-intensive businesses have already turned their attention to the energy consumption of their digital infrastructure. Many of these enterprises have moved workloads to the cloud to reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint.

But less IT-dependent sectors have placed it much lower on the ESG agenda. Turning the spotlight back to the IT estate could be a good place to start for these companies. Afterall, we know that IT contributes between 2.1% and 3.9% of global greenhouse gas emissions today, largely from data centers.

Digital twins, IoT systems, edge computing, AI and machine learning can provide huge sustainability benefits. For example, many industries uses digital twins for infrastructure inspections rather than flying maintenance crews out to remote sites. AI can help understand exactly how physical resources are used, and how that use can be optimized to cut all possible waste.

But these technologies can have environmental impacts of their own. Training a single AI model can emit nearly five times the lifetime emissions of an average American car. Blockchain is also notoriously energy-intensive. Every element of the IT strategy from current hardware requirements to cloud-optimised deployments to digitalization strategies needs to be carefully viewed through an ESG lens.

A change of direction

Concurrently, we’re seeing a shift towards mandatory rather than voluntary sustainability, and regulations around corporate sustainability are getting tighter. For example, the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is about modernizing and strengthening rules regarding the environmental and social information that companies have to report. It will require around

Joe Baguley VP & CTO, EMEA, VMware

50,000 large companies and listed SMEs to report in line with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).

The EU is also expanding the scope and ambition of its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which creates a price for greenhouse gas emissions thereby encouraging companies to reduce fossil fuel consumption. It is also introducing the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which will ask producers to pay for any CO2 emissions imported through their supply chain.

As ever, it is prudent to start laying the groundwork before legislation comes into force: developing a broad strategic or even tactical response is much harder once the clock starts ticking and timetables are fixed.

Time to look again at IT

And so, with digital technology perhaps the biggest enabler in driving carbon footprint reductions, combined with the upcoming raft of sustainability legislation, we believe it is essential that IT leaders are engaged with ESG strategies across all industries.

They can and should play a key role in delivering the solutions that have a long-term positive impact – on the environment as well as the business.

The time is now. The window of opportunity is open. It won’t stay that way forever.

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» COLUMN

How Businesses will Rethink Data in 2024

Matt Watts, Chief Evangelist at NetApp says that steady data pipelines to power AI applications, unified data storage, adopting a more intelligent data infrastructure as well as ensuring and securing immutable data backups will be priorities for organizations

A

s businesses carve out competitive advantages and differentiation in their respective markets, they are collecting and analyzing massive amounts of data and metadata from every business application, customer touchpoint, and device they can to generate actionable insights. Continuing innovation in areas like AI and analytics has given these businesses new ways to apply their data, but they need to ensure their underlying IT and business infrastructures can process and analyze all that data, no matter where it’s stored or when it’s needed. Those that can make their data work for them will operate more efficiently and drive business value.

In fact, a study from the Boston Consulting Group shows that 30 percent of data-driven businesses are expected to increase revenue by more than 10 percent by the end of 2024 compared to only 13 percent of laggards. Below, I outline four ways I predict that

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organizations will reimagine their data-driven businesses in 2024 and transform their operations.

Models Will Give Way to Data in AI Innovation

Over the last year, we’ve seen organizations rush to find ways to use generative AI as it becomes more ubiquitous, with seemingly endless potential uses. Recent developments in large language models and multimodal AI have created new opportunities to process text and images and respond to prompts, allowing them to handle customer service interactions, create human-like avatars, and even generate code. As organizations start to use AI to help unlock new insights and automate certain parts of their business operations, they may realize their models are a good start, but not as adaptable as they want them to be. AI models by their nature are limited by their pre-set parameters. Instead, organizations will

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start to focus on creating steady data pipelines to power AI applications so that they can learn from the latest information and update accordingly. This will enable businesses to use AI to put their data to work and operate with greater agility.

Breaking Down Data Silos

Organizations are going to break down silos between different data types with unified data storage—which combines all of a company’s data types across on-premises and cloud environments—to fuel the new era of AI and analytics innovations. As companies dig deeper into analytics to generate business insights, they will find that their existing data storage architectures have separate streams for each type of data, such as customer, product, supplier, and employee data. They may feel limited by out-of-date analytics platforms, computing models, and data storage systems that don’t give them the flexibility to adapt beyond their original assumptions about data and insights. As a result, we are going to see more organizations rethink their data architectures to consolidate data streams and treat them as a single source. Unified data storage will help make enterprise data more easily accessible and unlock hidden connections between different types of data. As a result, organizations will be better equipped to use their data to respond to changes in their operating environment and develop new insights to grow their business.

Focus on IT that “Just Works”

Organizations who look to the cloud as a panacea for all of their IT infrastructure challenges will continue to be disappointed. As these companies find their cloud migrations stretch both timelines and budgets, they will increasingly look for ways to optimize IT operations in hybrid and multicloud IT architectures—not just during the transition to the cloud but on an ongoing basis. About three out of every four global tech executives that are migrating to the cloud report that they still have a considerable amount of their workloads stored on-premises—between 30 and 80 percent— according to NetApp's 2023 Data Complexity Report. For most companies, IT infrastructure maintenance will remain a challenge with ongoing cost pressures and demands for ever-greater innovation. Achieving innovation goals requires a strong IT infrastructure to unlock insights, ensure efficient operations, and automate more mundane tasks. Businesses will shift their focus from finding the perfect cloud environment to finding an underlying intelligent data infrastructure. This infrastructure combines unified data storage with integrated data management capabilities for security and observability within a single platform to help store, control, and use data more easily no matter what cloud services, applications, and databases are in use. As companies adopt a more intelligent data infrastructure, they’ll find they have increased agility to adapt to changing market conditions quickly.

With this environment, IT can empower the business to focus on learning, building, and innovating without worrying about their cloud infrastructure.

Matt Watts Chief Evangelist at NetApp

Assume Your Data was Already Hacked

In the face of persistent cybersecurity threats from bad actors that run the gamut from insiders to cybercriminal gangs and nation-states, organizations need a renewed focus on how they recover from cyberattacks as preventing them becomes rarer. It is an ongoing challenge to prevent bad actors from accessing, stealing, or tampering with IT environments and critical assets like customer data and intellectual property. In fact, experts predict that by 2031 there will be a ransomware attack every 2 seconds, costing victims $265 billion annually. Because of this, 87 percent of C-suite and board-level executives view ransomware protection as a high, or top, priority in their organization according to NetApp's 2023 Data Complexity Report. The biggest threat to a business in the wake of a cyberattack is not the theft of data, but the time and resources spent repairing systems and restoring data to resume normal operations. To protect their most critical assets and ensure business continuity, we’ll see increased investment in IT security to ensure IT systems are secure by design and reduce business disruption in the face of a cyberattack. IT systems that have features like immutable data backups will help mitigate disruption while cyber incidents are investigated.

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» TECHSHOW

YEALINK MVC S90 MICROSOFT TEAMS ROOMS SYSTEM Designed for extra-large rooms, the MVC S90 Microsoft Teams Rooms system features UVC86 intelligent multi-camera system, MCore Pro mini-PC, MTouch Plus touch panel, AVHub, BYOD-Extender, RoomSensor, and WPP30 4K wireless presentation pod, delivering a fully immersive meeting experience that caters to both remote and on-site participants. The MVC S90 eliminates unnecessary camera tracking processes, allowing you to stay focused on what truly matters. With its fast and accurate Multi-Camera IntelliFrame feature, whether you’re attending a remote board meeting or a panel discussion, communication flows naturally and effortlessly.

Highlights: •

During training, speeches, or lessons, UVC86’s Presenter Tracking feature ensures that speakers are always in the center of the view, allowing you to follow their presentation effortlessly. With various modes available, you can preset an accurately tracked area, ensuring remote attendees

seamlessly engage in communication.

•

This solution caters to rectangular and curved conference tables for the Microsoft Front Row solution.

Moreover, it effortlessly addresses the need for dividing or merging two meeting rooms, adapting to your varying space requirements. Whatever your specific needs may entail, this solution is poised to fulfill them.

•

In addition to the advanced video conference camera, the Yealink MVC S90 system offers flexible audio options. Choose from a range of voice pickup devices, including the Yealink VCM35 wired microphone, and the VCM38 ceiling microphone, combined with the MSpeaker II soundbar, to meet your specific audio needs.

DELL PRECISION 7875 TOWER Designed for engineers, architects, creatives and product designers, the Precision 7875 Tower from Dell Technologies is a multithreaded computing workstation for demanding professional applications. Users can power it all. It supports AI initiatives with massive datasets, to graphical design and virtual reality. With up to 96 cores, the Precision 7875 Tower has the most cores of any single socket Dell Precision workstation.3 The Precision 7875 Tower is a performance powerhouse.

With its high CPU core count, users can scale the device to handle large changes in workloads or demands. The workstation can support a variety of AI functions, such as model

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training, GenAI, machine learning and more. It is also a flexible option for a variety of high-end creative applications, including rendering, film production, design analysis, simulation and architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) visualization.

Customers across industries are using Precision workstations to power creative projects. Whether you’re an architect designing an apartment complex or an animator creating for the next feature film, Dell Precision workstations provide powerful and reliable options for all types of intensive workloads.

» TECHSHOW

EPSON WORKFORCE ENTERPRISE AM-C4000 With a simpler, shorter paper path, paper jams can be removed more easily, and the finisher connectivity is improved.

This means that service downtimes can be reduced. Through fewer consumables and supplies, it also produces less waste.

With low power consumption, the overall environmental impact of printing is cut dramatically.

Epson Heat-Free Precision Core Technology requires no heat to warm up when it is switched on or awoken from sleep, which significantly reduces energy consumption.

This allows Epson's Heat-Free inkjets to deliver an exceptional fast FPOT compared to laser technology.

A variety of software solutions can be integrated into existing IT infrastructure to improve efficiency. This includes Epson Remote Services (ERS), which offers cloud-based device monitoring and management system that delivers advanced remote diagnostics for Epson business products. Fewer replacement parts keep user intervention to a minimum, making day-to-day maintenance fast and efficient.

•

Highlights: Simple mechanism for environments where downtime is not an option Lower power consumption saves energy thanks to Heat-Free technology Amongst the lowest footprint in its class Reduced downtime Simpler, shorter paper path for easier paper jam removal A wide variety of integrated software solutions

Highlights: •

The Precision 7875 Tower introduces a taller and deeper chassis than the previous generation. The purposeful build allows for more air space to cool the processor and now a sixth PCIe slot for increased expandability options.

•

With a choice of professional graphics options (up to two 48GB AMD Radeon PRO W7900 or up to two 48GB NVIDIA RTX™ 6000 Ada Generation GPUs), up to 56TB of storage and 2TB of DDR5 memory, and support for NVIDIA AI Enterprise, the Precision 7875 Tower features top capabilities for intensive workloads.

•

The Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0, self-encrypting drives and lockable chassis design with intrusion detection provide the tools to keep customer projects secure.

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» TRENDS & STATS

Worldwide Public Cloud End-User Spending to Reach $679 Billion in 2024 Business Needs and Emerging Technologies Including GenAI Drive Cloud Model Innovation Worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is forecast to grow 20.4% to total $678.8 billion in 2024, up from $563.6 billion in 2023, according to the latest forecast from Gartner.

“Cloud has become essentially indispensable,” said Sid Nag, Vice President Analyst at Gartner. “However, that doesn’t mean cloud innovation can stop or even slow. The tables are turning for cloud providers as cloud models no longer drive business outcomes, but rather, business outcomes shape cloud models.”

“For example, organizations deploying generative AI (GenAI) services will look to the public cloud, given the scale of the infrastructure required,” said Nag. “However, to deploy GenAI effectively, these organizations will require cloud

providers to address nontechnical issues related to cost, economics, sovereignty, privacy and sustainability. Hyperscalers that support these needs will be able to capture a brand-new revenue opportunity as GenAI adoption grows.”

All segments of the cloud market are expected see growth in 2024. Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) is forecast to experience the highest end-user spending growth in 2024 at 26.6%, followed by platform-as-a-service (PaaS) at 21.5% (see Table 1).

Another key trend driving cloud spending is the continued rise of industry cloud platforms. Industry cloud platforms address industry-relevant business outcomes by combining underlying software-as-a-service (SaaS), PaaS

and IaaS services into a whole-product offering with composable capabilities.

Gartner predicts that by 2027, more than 70% of enterprises will use industry cloud platforms to accelerate their business initiatives, up from less than 15% in 2023.

“GenAI adoption will also support the growth in industry cloud platforms,” said Nag. “GenAI models that are applicable across diverse industry verticals might require significant customization, affecting scalability and cost-effectiveness. Public cloud providers can position themselves as partners in the responsible and tailored adoption of GenAI by building on the same approaches applied to industry clouds, sovereign clouds and distributed clouds.”

Table 1. Worldwide Public Cloud Services End-User Spending Forecast (Millions of U.S. Dollars) 2022

2023

2024

Cloud Application Infrastructure Services (PaaS)

1,19,579

1,45,320

1,76,493

Cloud Application Services (SaaS)

1,74,416

2,05,221

2,43,991

Cloud Business Process Services (BPaaS)

61,557

66,339

72,923

Cloud Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS)

2,430

2,784

3,161

Cloud System Infrastructure Services (IaaS)

1,20,333

1,43,927

1,82,222

Total Market

4,78,315

5,63,592

6,78,790

BPaaS = business process as a service; IaaS = infrastructure as a service; PaaS = platform as a service; SaaS = software as a service Source: Gartner (November 2023) Note: Totals may not add up due to rounding.

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Vibin Shaju General Manager – UAE, Trellix

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