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» EDITORIAL
THE WORLD IN REMOTE MODE It has been a year since the world at large was forced to change and adopt a remote workstyle. A few months into the new arrangement, it was beginning to dawn upon us that this wasn’t probably just makeshift but possibly going to redefine the future of work. Indeed, that is how it has been turning out, with flexible working arrangements getting entrenched and people now beginning to show a preference for employment that offers them flexibility perks. Likewise, employers too are looking at a certain percentage of its workforce working on remote basis hereon. This may be a win-win for all but an arrangement that could vary on the basis of the kind of industry and the job role. Perhaps in the next few months, we could be having more in person gatherings and events on a regular basis, but prudence needs to be the watchword as the covid-19 virus has been quite vicious with its mutations. Social distancing and wearing masks will need to continue for the foreseeable future until the pandemic is well and truly tamed. On the technology front, as more people work from home or from anywhere, the security vulnerabilities will be constantly be exposed to potential breaches. The massive breaches like that with Solarwinds late last year or Microsoft recently shows how potent the threat landscape is. Against zero-day attacks, traditional cybersecurity methods don’t work as well, which is why today the focus is on SASE and Zero trust approaches to authenticate users on a network and prevent breaches. With technologies such as AI, RPA, Edge computing etc, companies can unlock greater digital innovations to simplify the complexities and accelerate their Businesses, meet customer expectations and scale as the future demands. Together, digitally savvy companies with employees that thrive in a flexible work culture, seem a good fit for the new future.
R. Narayan
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Co-Founder & MD
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SAUMYADEEP HALDER
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MALLIKA REGO Co-Founder & Director Client Solutions
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RAMAN NARAYAN
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REGISTERED OFFICE: Office 10, Sharjah Media City | www.cxodx.com APRIL 2021 / CXO DX
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» CONTENTS INTERVIEW
14 » UNIFIED SECURITY Ram Narayanan, Country Manager, Check Point Software Technologies discusses Check Point’s approach to protect enterprisesin their cloud journey
23 » STEPS TO DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION SUCCESS
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Phil Lewis, VP Solution Consulting EMEA, Infor, offers key insights on how manufacturers can successfully digitally transform
COVER FEATURE
16 » WORK FROM ANYWHERE-A CHANGE FOREVER? A year after our work lives were changed dramatically with work from home measures deployed in light of the pandemic, the work from anywhere flexibility seems to be here to stay.
FEATURE
20 » BLENDING INTO THE FUTURE?
A year into remote working arrangements has changed the organizational focus and priorities in more ways than one.
24 » ENHANCING THE DIGITAL EXPERIENCE Vishal Manchanda, Regional Manager, Proven Consult discusses the company’s expertise around digital transformation
INSIGHT
26 » OUR NEW NORMAL CALLS FOR A NEW TYPE OF LEADERSHIP James Petter, VP International, Pure Storage says in the new normal, leaders must still apply their soft skills in operations
NEWS INSIGHT
12 » ZOHO ANNOUNCES PLANS TO EXPAND IN MEA 13 » D-LINK SEEKS TO ENABLE SMB SEGMENT WITH PERFORMANCE, SECURITY AND RELIABILITY 4
CXO DX / APRIL 2021
28 » THE EDGE IS SET TO RESHAPE THE WORLD OF HEALTHCARE Jacob Chacko Regional Business Head, MESA at HPE ARUBA says Edge technologies can drive new revenue models in healthcare
30 » DEMOCRATIZING IT Dinesh Varadharajan, Vice President - Kissflow writes that the rise of Low-code and no- code platforms offers Middle East organizations an efficient and effective path to digital transformation
32 » SECURING DIGITAL INNOVATION AS CYBER THREATS GROW Renee Tarun - Deputy CISO and Vice President Information Security at Fortinet highlights that CISOs must create security strategies and deploy solutions capable of providing scalable, integrated security
34 » A PANDEMIC OF CYBER ATTACKS Babur Khan, Technical Marketing Engineer - Enterprise Security at A10 Networks writes that while opportunities for newer attacks or variants/branches of the existing ones increase, so will also they drive cybersecurity innovation in 2021
REGULARS
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» NEWS
VMWARE EXPANDS REGIONAL HQ IN DUBAI
The expanded facilities will help increase its support for public and private sector customers on their cloud and app modernization journeys “Moro Hub, a subsidiary of Digital DEWA, the digital arm of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), works to achieve the vision and the directives of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, aiming at strengthening the leading position of the UAE and Dubai in the digital and smart solutions sector in the world. As a leading data hub, our key goal is to build strategic partnerships with multinational technology providers like VMware,” said HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer.
HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), has inaugurated the newly expanded regional HQ of VMware Middle East, highlighting the role of digital technologies in developing innovative services in the UAE and the entire region. VMware Middle East has expanded its regional HQ in Dubai Internet City to support growth in the Middle East, Turkey, and North Africa and further increase its support for public and private sector customers on their cloud and app modernization journeys.
Since opening its first regional office in Dubai in 2012, VMware has developed its Middle East operation from an entity with 26 employees to a regional hub with 480 staff committed to helping organizations in the UAE and beyond achieve their transformation goals by enabling unprecedented flexibility in how they build and evolve their digital environments and serve customers. “With our new office expansion, VMware Middle East is better positioned to collaborate even more closely with a growing number of customers on ambitious transformation projects in the UAE and across the region,” said Ahmed Auda, Managing Director, VMware Middle East, Turkey, and North Africa.
HUAWEI CLOUD LAUNCHES AN OPEN CLOUD STRATEGY The event saw the launch of Huwaei’s new Cloud Partner Network Program Huawei, a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices, through its Cloud and AI division, held its first training conference in Dubai on March 8-11, 2021. The conference highlighted and introduced Huawei’s new Cloud Partner Network Program with the participation of 300 partners, introducing new capabilities that help bring them a better digital life. Through this conference, Huawei Cloud raised awareness on the key role in which Cloud plays, as well as sharing Huawei’s global knowledge and expertise with Huawei’s partners. As part of the company’s commitment to collaboration and openness with its partners and customers, Huawei introduced the Huawei Cloud Partner Network Program in which it aims to welcome all partners to join and create service experiences by utilising Huawei’s global capabilities. The program also aims to ultimately contribute towards achieving a digital economy and smart society of countries across the Middle East. Omar Akar, Managing Director and VP of Cloud and AI Business Group, Huawei Middle East, said, “Building stronger computing power in the Middle East will require that the ICT industry deliver ubiquitous cloud and pervasive intelligence in the years ahead. At Huawei Cloud and AI, we are continuously working on pro-
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CXO DX / APRIL 2021
viding our local customers and partners with various technologies and the necessary tools and skills to benefit from our extensive knowledge and expertise in order to grow together.” Akar added, “Our ultimate objective is to provide our technologies, preferential policies, and use Huawei’s Cloud proven global practices to train and empower our local partners to innovate through this new program. In the future, Huawei Cloud will work effortlessly with partners to open the market and go global to strengthen their influence and success.”
» NEWS
FAKEEH UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL IN DUBAI EXECUTES DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION WITH SAP The hospital now has full visibility and real-time insights on patient and doctor care and history, asset management, medical billing and insurance processes Fakeeh University Hospital, a state-ofthe-art healthcare facility in Dubai Silicon Oasis announced that its digital transformation with SAP is set to enhance experiences for more than 700,000 patients per year. Serving communities in the heart of the UAE and the wider region, the 350-bed hospital with medical practitioners across 55 specialties provides primary, secondary, and tertiary care, with an estimated 40,000 admissions and 20,000 surgical operations. Through its integrated healthcare model using smart technologies, Fakeeh University Hospital is positioned to make a positive impact on the development of the healthcare sector in the UAE. With an academic and research facility affiliation, Fakeeh University Hospital
functions as one of the most advanced smart hospitals in the region, using robust technological systems to facilitate patients’ care and doctors’ efficiency. Through its highly innovative, automated supply chain, the hospital is setting a benchmark in the region by revolutionizing ways in which internal and external hospital systems can be managed. “Committed to excellence through research, education, and clinical care, precise diagnoses and data-assisted decision making is embedded in our culture for better patient outcomes and faster recoveries,” said Dr. Fatih Mehmat Gul, Chief Executive Officer of Fakeeh University Hospital. “Our digital transformation with SAP is delivering accountable, compassionate, and innovative healthcare services to enhance the well-being of the
MIMECAST UNVEILS ‘THE YEAR OF SOCIAL DISTANCING’ REPORT The report details threat actor attacks on remote workers Mimecast announced the publication of its new “The Year of Social Distancing” global report. Drawing on data from the Mimecast threat intelligence team, the report details how threat actors targeted remote workers during the first year of the pandemic, March 2020 – February 2021. The report describes how attack volume surged by 48% during the first year of the pandemic, with sudden increases in volume corresponding to spikes in COVID-19 infection rates in April and October 2020. The report also examines the cyber habits of at-home workers, which revealed some alarming facts, including: A 3x rise in unsafe clicks in March 2020, right when the work-from-home trend began. In the UAE, 61 % of the respondents admitted to opening suspicious emails, while 50% do not report suspicious emails to their IT or security teams.
Josh Douglas
VP, Product Management, Mimecast
87% of UAE respondents extensively use their company-issued device for personal matters, with two-thirds (66%) admitting to an increase in frequency since starting to work remote.
Dr. Fatih Mehmat Gul
CEO, Fakeeh University Hospital community.” The hospital now has full visibility and real-time insights on patient and doctor care and history, asset management, medical billing and insurance processes.
Even though vaccine rollouts have begun and organizations may soon start making plans for people to return to offices in the months ahead, the Mimecast threat intelligence team has assessed the likelihood of threat actors continuing to exploit the unsettled work situation as very likely (95%). These exploitation efforts will likely focus both on remote workers and those returning to the office – which creates the possibility of a new “unsettled” situation that opens the door for the possibility of new waves social engineering campaigns. Josh Douglas, vice president, product management at Mimecast said, “We’re now seeing sophisticated digital-deception campaigns where threat actors combine COVID-19-related social engineering with multi-channel campaigns – including email, social media and even phone – to gain credibility with their targets so they can then be tricked into giving away valuable information or credentials,” said Douglas. “We expect this challenging threat environment to continue for the foreseeable future as employees transition to the new normal – which in many cases will be a hybrid in-office/at-home work mix. APRIL 2021 / CXO DX
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» NEWS
VEEAM ENHANCES PROPARTNER PROGRAM The enhancements will reward partners that demonstrate core competencies Veeam Software has enhanced its ProPartner Program for Value-Added Resellers (VARs) across EMEA with an additional multi-million dollar investment. Aligned to Veeam’s 2021 channel strategy, the enhancements will reward partners that demonstrate core competencies and see Veeam strengthen its joint network of VARs, Veeam Cloud & Service Providers (VCSPs) and System Integrators; enable partners to leverage the growing market adoption of subscription licensing; and offer solutions that extend partners’ value proposition to customers. Key enhancements to the Veeam ProPartner Program for VARs include: • Veeam is extending the benefits range for VARs, VCSPs and System Integrators on its ProPartner Programs. This will include additional measures designed to help Gold and Platinum partners increase profit margins when selling Veeam, as well as stronger deal registration incentives. • Veeam is supporting its partners by en-
Claude Schuck
Regional Director, ME, Veeam abling them to generate higher margins when selling subscription-based services. • Veeam is providing additional support for VARs looking to adopt a hybrid reselling model by partnering with VCSPs — adding some of our VCSP cloud services in their portfolio to better meet their customer’s cloud services requests and generate an additional revenue stream.
• Veeam has introduced two new competencies to its ProPartner Program for VARs: rewarding partners leveraging tools provided through Veeam’s Marketing Centre and those driving deals for specific products within Veeam’s portfolio. • Veeam is also investing in its VARs and distributors via a Management by Objectives (MBOs), rewarding top-performing partners based on a variety of performance-related metrics. • Veeam is introducing a tiering of enterprise partners who will be rewarded among others for their contribution to developing new deals through an influencer fee program. “Veeam is a 100 per cent channel business and we take great pride in always ensuring that the ProPartner Network is concurrent with today’s market demands. Our program helps to position simple, flexible, and reliable solutions that facilitate the modernization of IT strategies and architectures alike," said Claude Schuck, Regional Director, Middle East at Veeam.
KISSFLOW TO DRIVE LOW-CODE NO-CODE ADOPTION IN MEA New Regional Sales Director takes on the responsibility for expanding Kissflow’s presence in the region Kissflow, one of India’s Top 5 SaaS Software companies, has set its sights on an aggressive expansion in the region, as it looks to empower employees at all organizational levels. Tasked with leading this strategy in the region is the company’s newly hired Regional Sales Director, Vaidy Panchabikesan who takes on the responsibility for expanding Kissflow’s presence in the region, extending its partner network, and ultimately driving enterprise sales for the industry-leading no-code, low-code work management platform. The company’s regional ambitions mirror its broader global expansion which saw it scale its workforce by 50% through the height of the pandemic as a result of businesses turning to low code and no code solutions to increase agility and productivity while reducing costs. “Currently, 40% of companies have mod-
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CXO DX / APRIL 2021
erate to major skills gaps. The resulting digital inefficiency can be profound, costing as much as 20% in lost productivity,” explained Vaidy. “While organizations across the Middle East have been early adopters of digital transformation, it is imperative that they have the technology infrastructure and in-house skill sets to ensure the success of these initiatives. Guided by our ‘Power of Simple’ philosophy, Kissflow addresses this pressing need by democratising IT, empowering business users to build applications, and enabling developers with pluggable low coding extensions helping them to further expand the application needs for customization. Vaidy brings with him 12+ years of sales and leadership experience and a proven track record in technical sales. A key focus for Vaidy will be the strengthening of the company’s channel partner network across the MEA region.
Vaidy Panchabikesan
Regional Sales Director, Kissflow
» NEWS
ASRY OPTS FOR INFOR CLOUD-BASED DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION PLATFORM
The deployment of the first phase of Infor CloudSuite Industrial Enterprise will complete within 11 months ASRY, the Arabian Gulf’s leading maritime repair and fabrication facility based in Bahrain, has signed a contract with Infor to implement a new state-of-the-art facility-wide Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, Infor CloudSuite Industrial Enterprise, to spearhead its digital transformation. ASRY’s directors were keen to streamline and automate processes across every department in the company and upgrade ASRY’s digital integration to industry best practice. The company selected Infor CloudSuite Industrial Enterprise which will run on Amazon Web Services, delivering high performance, scalability and security to replace the existing ERP system. ASRY also opted to deploy Infor Birst, allowing it to gather, analyse and extract value from data generated across all areas of its business and operations. This will provide powerful insights from the boardroom to the shop floor, supporting sound decision making, particularly in terms of understanding which areas of the business may require improvement and where to best allocate resources.
mented ASRY MD Mazen Matar. “It is the most wide-reaching administrative transformation in the facility’s 44-year history, and after an extensive feasibility investigation we have chosen Infor CloudSuite Industrial Enterprise. Once this cloud-based system is deployed, these operations will be simplified and digitised, bringing agility to the business, and ultimately streamlining our ability to serve customers; maximise ASRY’s contribution to the Bahrain’s Economic Vision 2030 and boost the region’s maritime sector.
“As part of ASRY’s modernisation, this project is a digital overhaul of the entire company’s processes and procedures,” com-
ASRY and Infor aim to complete the deployment of the first phase of Infor CloudSuite Industrial Enterprise within 11 months.
OVER 102 MILLION HEALTHCARE RECORDS EXPOSED BY CYBERATTACKS IN 2020
Third-party breaches account for over a quarter of the breaches tracked and nearly 12 million exposed records SRTs analysis revealed that third-party breaches accounted for over a quarter of the breaches tracked and nearly 12 million exposed records. Other leading causes of data breaches included email compromise/phishing (21.16%), insider threat (7.17%) and unsecured databases (3.75%). Analysis by Tenable’s Security Response Team (SRT) has determined that over 102 million healthcare records were exposed in 2020 as a result of data breaches. Almost three million health records have already been exposed in the first two months of 2021. The threat to healthcare should come as no surprise, given the growing demand for telehealth appointments, medical supplies and a race for vaccine develop-
ment and distribution. When looking at the root cause of these attacks, ransomware was by far the most prominent, accounting for a whopping 54.95% of breaches. Ryuk stood out above the rest, repeatedly appearing in breach disclosures and accounting for 8.64% of ransomware-related breaches, followed by Maze (6.17%), Conti (3.7%) and REvil/Sodinokibi (3.09%).
In order to reduce the risk of compromise, healthcare organizations should: Prioritize vulnerabilities: identify and remediate the most business-impacting vulnerabilities. Address the root cause: once the vulnerabilities most likely to introduce business risk are identified and prioritized, remediate them and continue regular maintenance check-ups. APRIL 2021 / CXO DX
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» NEWS
IFS UNVEILS IFS CLOUD IFS Cloud delivers single technology platform with one common user experience choose to deploy best-of-breed or leverage the power of connecting their value chains across capabilities such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), human capital management (HCM), asset management (EAM) and field service (FSM).
Darren Roos IFS, CEO
IFS has launches IFS Cloud, a single platform that innately connects all its products to deliver the end-to-end capabilities a company needs to orchestrate its customers, people and assets and deliver amazing Moments of Service. Customers can
With IFS Cloud, IFS offers a unique and single technology platform with one common user experience, one data model and one consistent support offering. IFS Cloud brings simplicity, choice and innovation to organizations that need to evolve to new business models, control costs, expand faster and serve their customers better. By implementing IFS Cloud, companies can easily scale and simply switch on new functionality (such as additional modules or new innovative capabilities) when the time is right for their business. Likewise, customers can choose how and where they deploy IFS Cloud, which has
SOFTWARE AG APPOINTS REDINGTON VALUE AS DISTRIBUTOR FOR MIDDLE EAST Solutions across integration & API management, IoT & analytics and business transformation will be available via Redington’s local channel network Software AG has appointed Redington Value, a leading value-added distributor in the Middle East and Africa as its strategic distribution partner in the Middle East to distribute its integrated product portfolio and accelerate digital transformation efforts in the region. The partnership will provide end customers with a comprehensive suite of Software AG’s solutions across integration & API management, IoT & analytics and business transformation via its local channel partner network. The agreement was signed by Rami Kichli, Vice President, Levant and Gulf Region, Software AG, and Sayantan Dev– President, Redington Value. Under the agreement, Redington Value will gain official distribution rights to Software AG’s portfolio of software solutions that cater to enterprises. In addition, Redington’s resellers will gain access to
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CXO DX / APRIL 2021
Sayantan Dev
President, Redington Value
resources and tools within Software AG’s partner network. Commenting on the partnership, Sayantan Dev, President, Redington Value said:
been engineered for the cloud but can be deployed on-premises with a choice of residency. Unlike many offerings, IFS customers will benefit from the same solution functionality and delightful user experiences, regardless of their deployment choice, without compromise. As a departure from competing, legacy suites and software portfolios that rely on complex and costly integrations, IFS Cloud is designed to make it easier and more cost-effective for customers to buy, deploy, run, and update their enterprise software. IFS Cloud marks the start of twice-yearly feature releases, giving customers the choice to move to the latest version as and when their business is ready. Darren Roos, IFS CEO, commented, “The path to digital transformation is not a simple one. Most businesses are complex and have intricate value chains, which is why few organizations succeed and even fewer vendors provide the tools to truly enable it. At IFS, our single most important goal is to deliver value to our customers, and we want to provide a clear path for them to evolve to new business models, compete and win.
“With more and more companies relying on data to capitalize on opportunities, we’re excited to work closely with Software AG as an entity that helps numerous businesses turn their data into value and connect customer journeys to core data. We’ve chosen to work with Software AG given its diverse portfolio of market leading data integration solutions for enterprises that continue to empower customers by unlocking the power of digital technologies and create ecosystems of tomorrow.” Vlad Postelnicu, Director Alliances & Strategic Partnerships, Software AG added: “Symbiotic partnerships have been at the forefront to foster growth in a systematic manner by leveraging collective strengths and business knowledge. Together with Redington, we onboard this journey of shared beliefs and a long-term vision to cater to increased demand created by changing business scenarios. As a joint force, we aim to accelerate digital transformation efforts in the country, staying competitive and result oriented.”
» NEWS
MINDWARE PARTNERS WITH CIRCULARO Partnership will address demand for Digital Signature solutions in GCC Mindware, a regional leader in Value Added Distribution, announced that it has signed a partnership in the GCC region with Circularo, a provider of a truly unique, award-winning, next generation Digital Transformation Platform. The solution is hosted in Microsoft Azure Cloud and comes in different flavours to meet the particular needs of small to medium and large enterprise clients alike. Commenting on the partnership, Silmi Khanfir, Director of Cloud & XaaS at Mindware said, “The eSignature market is one of the fastest-growing across the world. It is a major element in the overall global digital evolution and is a part of business-critical infrastructure. The GCC is following this trend.” “By adding Circularo to our portfolio, Mindware offers enterprises a truly arabised and internationally recognized eSigning solution hosted locally in the
region. It also allows our partners to increase their business around Microsoft 365 with a minimum of investment,” he added. According to a recent report by research firm MarketsandMarkets, the global digital signature market is projected to grow from US$ 2.8 billion in 2020 to US$ 14.1 billion by 2026, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 31.0% during the forecast period. Circularo eSigning & Agreement Management Platform is quickly becoming a critical part of business continuity and remote work initiatives as many companies recognize the importance of signing contracts and other business documents securely online, both within and outside their organization network. Circularo Digital Signatures are compliant with world-class standards of security, privacy, data-protection and electronic signature
SITECORE ACQUIRES BOXEVER AND FOUR51
The acquisitions will enable Sitecore to deliver an integrated content-to-commerce, SaaS-based DXP Sitecore, a global leader in digital experience management software, has entered into definitive agreements to acquire Boxever Ltd., a SaaS-based customer data platform (CDP) providing decisioning and experimentation and Four51, Inc., a company delivering modern B2B and B2C experiences for enterprise brands. These acquisitions arrive following Sitecore’s unveiling of a USD 1.2 billion investment plan to fund aggressive growth plans and product innovation earlier this year. Integrating Boxever’s and Four51’s innovative technologies with Sitecore’s digital marketing solutions will disrupt the industry by offering the first modern, integrated content-to-commerce, SaaS-based DXP. This solution will enable businesses to deliver real-time, personalized digital experiences across every aspect of the buying cycle.
Steve Tzikakis CEO, Sitecore
Steve Tzikakis, CEO, Sitecore said, “Our mission is to disrupt the digital experience
Silmi Khanfir
Director of Cloud & XaaS, Mindware
industry regulations. It is one of very few international vendors being both certified by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) in the UAE, and also, meeting the local data residency laws.
market and these acquisitions will extend our leadership position. .We’re thrilled to welcome the Boxever and Four51 teams to Sitecore and together, we’ll shape the future of digital engagement.” Boxever’s CDP provides a 360-degree view of customers, advanced segmentation, real-time decisioning and experimentation that acts as the brain within an organization’s marketing stack to make every customer interaction more relevant and engaging. The new capabilities expand and enhance Sitecore’s customer intelligence and AI-driven personalization tools making it easy to capture, unify and activate customer data and deliver personalized experiences at scale. With Four51’s API-first, headless eCommerce solution, enterprises can quickly and easily deliver engaging shopping experiences helping improve customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy. The platform complements Sitecore’s existing B2C commerce capabilities and will enable Sitecore to define the digital experience market moving forward. APRIL 2021 / CXO DX
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» NEWS INSIGHT
ZOHO ANNOUNCES PLANS TO EXPAND IN MEA Announces plans for more offices, new local hires and local data centres On the occasion of its annual user conference, Zoholics Dubai, Zoho announced its plans to implement transnational localism in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. Transnational localism is about being locally rooted, while staying globally connected. As part of its efforts, Zoho will open offices in the region, hire locally, forge partnerships, invest in local business communities, adopt the local culture in its business operations, and support initiatives focused on creating self-reliant regional economies. Zoho also announced that it will open data centres in the region, including in UAE. Zoho Corp, which was incorporated in 1996, is celebrating 25 years of being a global technology provider in 2021. “Zoho has been built on values and convictions. We do not measure our success in numbers, but the impact we have had on our employees, their families, customers, industry, ecosystem and the local communities,” said Sridhar Vembu, CEO and Co-Founder, Zoho Corp. “Our purpose has been to create opportunities for those who don’t have them, build compelling products for our customers, and serve geographical locations that have not been served before. We want to continue being a catalyst for change, inspiring others and emerging as a top technology leader, all the while serving those whom we impact more broadly and deeply.” “Zoho follows a long-term approach, and therefore, our growth will be rooted in closely working with and serving the local communities, while staying connected through shared knowledge and culture,” said Hyther Nizam, President MEA, Zoho Corp. “We have already taken steps in this direction by increasing our local hirings, and bolstering our partner network. A strong local presence will help us in effectively addressing the needs of local businesses and add a personal touch to our services. We are also actively partnering with organizations and local business networks to lower the access barriers to enterprise
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technology, and serve customers of all sizes. We have already created strong footprints in the UAE, and want to replicate it in other countries in the region.” Zoho’s plans for MEA includes opening new offices in KSA, Egypt, South Africa, Israel, Nigeria, Kenya and other countries in the region. Zoho will adopt a hub-and-spoke office model in the region, with Dubai acting as the hub for offices in the GCC countries. The company will hire locally in each office for customer-facing teams, and increase the local partner network to ensure seamless experiences for customers. It will look to partner with local organizations and communities to ensure sustainable long-term impact across the region. Zoho will further localise products, including improved Arabic and Hebrew support, integrating with local payment gateways for smoother transactions, local pricing, and adapting other offerings to support local laws. The vendor will also seek to invest in and undertake skill-building initiatives. In 2020, despite the pandemic, Zoho has grown more than 30% in the MEA region, and reported a 37% growth in customers in the UAE. It also relocated to a bigger office at Dubai Internet City before the pandemic to accommodate its growing team. Over the last year, Zoho has announced initiatives like ESAP and Vertical Relief Program, launched new products such as Bigin and BackToWork, and added updates to Workplace (its enterprise collaboration suite) to help businesses pivot and adapt to the remote and hybrid work models. Zoho also partnered with Dubai Economy in October 2020 to help local businesses gain access to enterprise-grade technology through subsidies and exclusive support. Around 1000 Dubai businesses have benefited from it. Apart from adopting transnational localism as its global strategy, Zoho will take steps towards the following direction: Knitting a distributed workforce with remote work tools and strong culture: Zoho will follow a hub-and-spoke office
Sridhar Vembu
CEO and Co-Founder, Zoho Corp.
model, moving towards a decentralised and globally-distributed workforce. In such a remote and hybrid work model, every business app becomes a collaboration app. The company will, therefore, invest in messaging and A/V technologies. Zoho will also focus on maintaining the company culture, bringing employees together through a sense of shared value and purpose. De-layering the tech stack: Zoho will continue to invest heavily in R&D initiatives with a focus on creating a vertically integrated tech stack. In the coming years, Zoho expects the value of tighter vertical, horizontal and contextual integrations to grow. Vertical layers, historically, have been separate with vendors focusing on individual layers. Zoho expects these separated layers to shrink (or de-layered) leading to better efficiencies and customer experience. This can only be achieved through significant R&D efforts, which Zoho will continue to put in.
» NEWS INSIGHT
ENABLING THE SMB SEGMENT D-Link focuses on enabling them digitally with enterprise grade networking solutions Technology has proved to be a huge boon during the pandemic times. By embracing digital solutions and online platforms for remote work and learning, organizations have been able to ensure business continuity. Organizations must modernize their IT infrastructures to create efficient business processes for today’s digital-led and remote work environments. Small and medium businesses (SMBs) are increasingly realizing that they can benefit enormously from the advantages of enterprise-grade networking solutions. Sakkeer Hussain, Director, Sales and Marketing, D-Link Middle East, siad, “Today, these solutions are no longer beyond their reach, in terms of cost or accessibility, thanks to consumption-based pricing structures. Also, as work-from-home and remote work models become the norm, SMBs have to manage distributed workers, remote employees and virtual teams. With these models in place, they are also increasingly aware of how vulnerable their operations can be to potential security risks and attacks, driving them to invest in robust security solutions. At D-Link, the SMB segment is a high-priority, and we have the complete range of innovative networking offerings specifically for small and medium sized businesses. More than ever now, businesses in the SMB segment are looking to achieve performance, security and reliability. To meet this goal, they need strong, stable and fast Wi-Fi connections to support the demands of connectivity and networking technologies. They are seeking to enhance business efficiencies by investing in automation and smart solutions. SMBs often find selecting enterprise-level networking solutions a daunting task. However, as SMBs scale their operations, networking offerings like high-level access points can offer reliability even when supporting a large number of wireless devices. They present the capability to have more powerful and flexible deployments. Advance access points allow an SMB customer to support more than one wireless network, built in with its own detailed security features. It also makes it easier to manage and support guest users without granting them complete access to the company’s networks. Mesh Networks also offer affordable and uncomplicated ways for SMBs to ensure seamless and secure connections. With easy network setup and management, relying on mesh networks can effortlessly eradicate dead zones across workspaces and ensure employees are productive and focused on core business. To effectively take advantage of the latest connectivity innovations, SMBs need to find solutions that best suit their business’ current and future networking and digital requirements. This is where D-Link’s channel partners can play a distinguishing role. With the help of the right partners, SMBs can zero in on ideal
Sakkeer Hussain
Director, Sales and Marketing, D-Link Middle East
networking device solutions like mesh networking, access points, switches and routers, and that can enable them to stay ahead of the curve Hussain added, “Together with D-Link’s pioneering solutions coupled with partners’ market expertise, services offering and technical proficiency, our channel ecosystem is in the best possible position to assist SMB customers deploy optimized networks and be their trusted advisors for the digital era.”
D-Link enhances product range with SMB focus
D-Link has in the past year expanded its product range that enable remote work as well as connectivity for Businesses. · D-Link’s networking products range from Thermal Solution Fever Screening Kit and Temperature Measurement Face Recognition Terminal suite of products to remote work management solutions such as the Nuclias Managed Wireless Networking Solution portfolio. · The company has recently announced ground-breaking Wi-Fi 6 routers, including two flagship products - DIR-X5460 EXO AX AX5400 and DIR-X1860 EXO AX AX1800. · Last year, DWR-925W 4G LTE M2M Router was also introduced to the region to offer seamless connections to businesses. · Additionally, D-Link’s flagship Exo Smart Mesh Wi-Fi Router series come embedded with in-built security. The next-generation routers offer high-performance Wi-Fi connectivity combined with McAfee protection, providing a faster and more secure home network. · D-Link’s latest COVR-X1870 Series Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi 6 Systems includes multi-pack options that are all equipped with Wi-Fi 6 and mesh technology. The systems provide faster speeds, greater capacity, and less network congestion for the modern device-dense smart offices and homes. APRIL 2021 / CXO DX
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» INTERVIEW
UNIFIED
SECURITY Discuss how network security has transformed in the cloud led transformation of IT networks? How has Checkpoint likewise kept pace with the changes to extend its portfolio? Cloud-led transformation is a huge opportunity but not without risks. Moving to the cloud is more than a technical transition to a new platform. It is a core part of an enterprise’s growth strategy and while strategically important, it can also be potentially disruptive. Modern cloud deployments are tremendously complex and typically span multiple clouds. While public cloud providers dedicate extensive efforts to security, customers retain responsibility for how they use those services, including the data that is stored in them, and how it is shared and accessed. In order to secure this environment, enterprises need to take a unified cloud native security approach for all your assets and workload. For security experts and security architects, the most critical challenge in cloud adoption is handling complex technical scenarios where the mix of traditional and cloud-driven infrastructures must be integrated and aligned with the security needs of the organization. To address all these challenges, Check Point offers broad and deep multi-layer security to protect enterprises at all stages of their cloud journey. Through a unified platform – CloudGuard – we offer a broad range of different cloud security capabilities, so that organizations can minimize inefficiencies and maximize TCO when using different cloud providers. Elaborate on your appliance strategy for firewalls and other security solutions? Are there virtualized firewalls in your offerings? The firewall has undergone a series of transformations as the evolution of enterprise networks and the cyber threat landscape have caused organizations’ security requirements to change. The latest of these changes is of course the increased adoption of cloud computing and remote work. Cloud firewalls are a step in the right direction toward meeting enterprise cloud security
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CXO DX / APRIL 2021
Ram Narayanan, Country Manager, Check Point Software Technologies Middle East discusses the changing trends of network security with cloud led transformation and Check Point’s approach to protect enterprises at all stages of their cloud journey
needs. However, as enterprise networks continue to evolve, organizations will continue to move to deploy a next-generation firewall as part of an integrated Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution. Check Point Quantum Smart-1 Cloud is the answer for enterprises looking for an all-inclusive security management architecture. Smart-1 Cloud delivers effective security management from the Cloud and is designed to manage security across on-premise Firewalls, Networks, Cloud, Mobile and IoT. We are also continuing to accelerate data center firewall innovation with the introduction of a super-fast firewall gateway with 200 Gbps firewall throughput and sub-3 microseconds latency. While the move to remote working expanded the total attack surface, how has it impacted in terms of volume and intensity of cyber-attacks? The move to a remote working environment has not only broadened an organizations’ attack surface, but also intensified the nature of cyber-attacks. With remote work as the new standard, remote employees are more prone to careless behaviour and non-compliance to corporate policies. Organizations are being hit by increased cyber-attacks, while having to manage the massive and rapid changes to their networks and employee working practices during the pandemic. We’ve seen a significant increase in social engineered attacks that exploit targets based on fear, uncertainty and doubt. According to a Check Point Research survey, 71% of security professionals reported an increase in security threats or attacks since the beginning of the Coronavirus outbreak. The leading threat cited was phishing attempts (55%), followed by malicious websites claiming to offer information or advice about the pandemic (32%), followed by increases in malware (28%) and ransomware (19%). In addition to the increase in threats, 95% of respondents said they are facing added IT security challenges due to the spread of the Coronavirus. The three leading challenges were provision of secure remote access for employees (cited by 56%), the need for remote access scalable solutions
» INTERVIEW (55%) and employees working from home were using shadow IT solutions – untested software, tools and services (47%). What are the security vulnerabilities in terms of IoT deployments and how does your solution take care? IoT devices also pose a significant threat to enterprise cybersecurity due to the popularity of these devices being deployed on business networks, especially now with a hybrid working environment. IoT devices often contain vulnerabilities that expose them to exploitation. Cybercriminals are taking advantage of these vulnerabilities and carry out common attacks on these IoT devices such as direct exploitation of devices such as printers to gain initial access to a network via the printer, then expanding their access through the enterprise network. IoT devices are also suited to perform automated attacks such as DDoS, attempt to gain unauthorized access to user accounts via credential stuffing, spread ransomware or other malware, or take other malicious actions against an organization’s systems. The healthcare industry in particular that has moved towards the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) in a big way. The risk of a cyber attack on healthcare organizations is huge. Such attacks could lead to loss and sharing of personal data, altering a patient’s medical information regarding medicine, dosages, etc and hacking of MRI, ultrasound and x-ray machines in hospitals. Check Point’s Quantum IoT Protect offers the industry’s most comprehensive security solutions for both IoT networks and IoT and OT devices. These solutions are tailored for different environments including Enterprise Smart Office, Smart Building, Industrial, and Healthcare. Whether businesses develop Internet of Things (IoT) devices or deploy them in organizations, our solutions minimize the exposure to the IoT cyber-risk and prevent the next cyberattack. Discuss your solutions for edge environments? Check Point’s Quantum Edge is our solution that protects branch offices on-premise with top-rated Threat Prevention, that can be deployed in minutes, and be managed by a unified threat prevention and access platform. Quantum Edge can run as a virtual machine (VM) on SD-WAN or universal Customer Premise Equipment (uCPE) devices for enterprises that require on-premise branch office security for data privacy, compliance, or location requirements. Is SASE the latest security paradigm? discuss your SASE enabled devices/solutions. What are the SASE enabled features? We live in an era of edge computing and cloud. The COVID-19 pandemic has established a modern and hybrid working environment which has led to a widely distributed workforce with users connecting to data-centers, public and private clouds, and accessing SaaS applications. Having a distributed workforce attracts an increase in cyberattacks. SASE or Secure Access Service Edge security answers the security needs of a distributed workforce, converges network and security functions, and is scalable.
Ram Narayanan
Country Manager, Check Point Software Technologies ME.
Check Point Harmony Connect is the industry’s first unified security solution for users, devices and access. Harmony Connect, a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Solution, unifies 11 different cloud security services, and is built to prevent sophisticated cyber attacks, and improves the user experience through high performance security services. The solution protects devices and internet connections from the most sophisticated attacks while ensuring Zero-Trust Access to corporate applications. What were the highlights of your recently concluded Annual virtual expo? CPX360 is our three-day annual event dedicated to addressing today’s – and tomorrow’s – most pressing cybersecurity challenges. Our sessions this year were aimed at helping organizations of all sizes develop strategies to prevent cyber threats and sophisticated hackers impacting their business – especially as we adapt to a new working environment. Gil Shwed, Check Point’s founder and CEO laid out his out his vision for the next generation of network security solutions. As this year’s event was held virtually, we were pleased to see an even greater attendance of partners and customers from across the globe who engaged with our product specialists and participated in our breakout sessions. Following the success of CPX360, we are looking forward to building stronger relationships especially with partners and enterprises in the UAE. APRIL 2021 / CXO DX
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» COVER FEATURE
WORK FROM ANYWHERE
A CHANGE FOREVER? A year after our work lives were disrupted dramatically with work from home measures deployed in light of the pandemic, the work from anywhere flexibility seems to be here to stay
T
he cataclysmic effects of the pandemic enforced several changes upon the world, and nothing stood out more than the adoption of remote work the world over to cope with the challenge. Thankfully, the technologies were ready to support this possibility and companies accelerated their digital adoption to keep pace and it was easier for the Technology vendors since they did already have many of the options in place. Since then, organizations in the region have gone from strength to strength ensuring productivity and efficiency was least affected on the back of digital transformation. Haidi Nossair, Senior Director- Client Solutions Group, Middle East, Russia, Africa and Turkey (MERAT) at Dell Technologies “2020 was an unprecedented year no doubt, with companies having to quickly adapt to the ‘new normal’ and overnight shift to remote workplace, they needed to accelerate the transformation of their digital infrastructure to adapt to the new business models that support remote working. Technology became the cornerstone of every business’ operations. According to the Dell Technologies Index released earlier this year, 90 percent of organizations in UAE and Saudi Arabia have fast-tracked, at least, some of their digital transformation programs in 2020 – accomplishing in a few months, what would normally have taken years. This is compared to the global benchmark of 80 percent, suggesting that organizations across the region have shifted their digital transformation programs into high gear.” Technologies have been enabling remote work admirably and haven’t let down Businesses though the challenges at the beginning, the transition may have seemed intimidating, because for many companies, taking their workforce through the transition to digital work processes had to be achieve. Ahmed Auda, Managing Director, Middle East, Turkey and North Africa, VMware says, “In the big shift to remote working, many businesses may have feared IT teams and systems wouldn’t cope with the rapid change. However, in many cases, technology has proven to be the saviour in keeping businesses running. Throughout the country wise lockdowns, we saw businesses quickly adapt to adopt virtual meetings, replace team drinks with online quizzes and implement regular catch ups over video calls. The digital ‘inclusion’ shift even saw employee confidence grow, with nearly three quarters (73%) of employees citing improvements in personal connections with colleagues and 61% feeling more empowered to speak up in video meetings. Although humans still crave and require in-person collaboration and, admittedly, ‘Zoom fatigue’ has
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» COVER FEATURE started to plague some of us, this global experiment has revealed that technology is here to help and we will increasingly see new and innovative tech being used to support businesses in keeping culture alive, despite distance.” Dell Technologies built on their success within the organization of a connected workplace and ensuring their customers as well benefitted from that learning in enabling remote working for their employees. Haidi says, “At Dell Technologies, we had already been leaning into flexible work as part of our Connected Workplace policy and program. As such, our connected workplace infrastructure set us up well for the unexpected and has proven to be business critical. Before March 15th 2020, when we announced a global work-fromhome policy, 65% of team members were leveraging our flexible work policies, and we had approximately 30% of team members working remotely on any given day. At the onset of the pandemic, our COVID-19 response team enabled 90% of our globally diverse workforce to effectively work remotely in under two weeks.” During the pandemic Dell Technologies focused on supporting organizations across the region to transform their legacy infrastructure to a digital infrastructure that employs and supports emerging technologies.
Haidi Nossair
“We also shared our experience in building a connected workplace and helped organizations shift their workforce to work remotely. More than ever before during the past year, technology has been vital to helping businesses tackle new challenges in innovative ways and driving them forward especially in the public sector, healthcare and education,” adds Haidi.
Senior Director, Client Solutions Group MERAT, Dell Technologies
At Sophos, the company was already ready in terms of work resource to transition to a remote working model.
ually improved as needed.”
Harish Chib, Vice President, Middle East & Africa, Sophos says, “A vast majority of our employees were already set up to work remotely, as this was a practice that we used previous to COVID-19. Being a technology company with a geographically diverse workforce, we were already a digitally enabled. Sophos also has in place a robust set of technologies that enables the majority of our global employees to work from home. We are fully enabled to continue day-to-day business, including product development and other important efforts, remotely.”
Cybersecurity challenges seem to have grown as more people and Businesses got more digitally engaged in their work processes. Haidi says, “Organizations in EMEA are managing 16.40 petabytes of data on average, a staggering 975 per cent increase since 2016, according to Dell Technologies Global Data Protection Index 2020 Snapshot. The report found that 80% of regional organizations have suffered a disruptive event in the last 12 months – up from 77 per cent in 2018. Basically, amid COVID-19 there has been a 148% spike in ransomware attacks on global organizations. IT leaders reported that data loss prevention is more challenging with a remote workforce especially as employees say that they are less likely to follow safe data practices when working from home.”
As a leading security solutions provider, Sophos worked towards ensuring all its customers and partners were reassured of their support at all times in keeping out any cyberthreats. Harish adds, “Following the continued spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) across the globe, we have reassured our customers and partners that our ability to protect them is uncompromised. All departments, including threat intelligence, protection, and response from SophosLabs, Managed Threat Response, and Global Support Services are operating as normal to provide 24×7 detection, protection, and technical support. These business units already use a global follow-the-sun delivery strategy that allows Sophos to maintain continuity during the regular course of business and is contin-
Cybersecurity challenges to the fore
It has been key for organizations to step up on the cybersecurity front investments along with the focus on remote work enabling technologies. Haidi adds, “The key challenge in the shift to remote working has been ensuring that employees who work outside the office do not fail the numerous security requirements. That’s why we have been working with organization with comprehensive consultancy to provide them with built-in security on the hardware as well as intelligent solutions to prevent, detect and remediate attacks, encrypt APRIL 2021 / CXO DX
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» COVER FEATURE • Everyday threats such as commodity malware, including loaders and botnets, or human-operated Initial Access Brokers, will demand serious security attention • All ranks of adversaries will increasingly abuse legitimate tools, well known utilities and common network destinations to evade detection and security measures and thwart analysis and attribution
Supporting the ecosystem
During the early months of the pandemic, companies also had the challenge to devise the best ways to keep supporting their customers and partners. Going virtual in most customer facing and partner focused interactions seems to have paid good dividends in the time of the crisis.
Ahmed Auda
Managing Director Middle East, Turkey & North Africa, VMware
sensitive information and protect data, while ensuring access to devices from anywhere, without disruption of employees’ workflow.” Cybersecurity has been redefined in the context of the pervasive threats in recent past as the traditional way of cybersecurity was no longer going to be enough in the new are of edge networks. Harish says, “The threat landscape has increased as more people are working from anywhere and away from the secured network .The future of cybersecurity, in the context of the rapid digitalization that the world is going through, is well defined by two concepts: SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) by Gartner and Zero Trust by Forrester. SASE emphasizes a broadening and shifting focus on the identity of users and/or devices instead of a focus on data centers, highlighting the need for converged cloud-delivered SASE. A Zero Trust (ZT) architecture abolishes the idea of a trusted network inside a defined corporate perimeter. Sophos has both the next-generation cybersecurity solutions and services that support the future of Zero Trust and SASE and innovation roadmap to embrace them further.” Detailing the evolving threat landscape, the Sophos 2021 Threat Report flags how ransomware and attacker behaviors, from advanced to entry level, will shape the threat landscape and IT security in 2021. Sophos 2021 Threat Report had highlighted three key trends: • The gap between ransomware operators at different ends of the skills and resource spectrum will increase
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“Sophos is committed to making it easier for partners to support their customers through the crisis by encouraging the wider cybersecurity community to share threat intelligence through what is now the COVID-19 Cyber Threat Coalition. In addition, we have shifted all our partner and customer engagements to virtual platforms. Very soon we are going to host our partner conferences virtually. Our major customer and partner engagements like round tables, customer focused events, Sync with Sophos series, SOS Week and Marketing classes are currently happening over virtual platforms. We have also noticed the increase in engagement from our partners and customers,” says Harish. For Dell Technologies, the focus in 2020 was on supporting its employees, customers and partners as they adapt to the challenging times. Haidi elaborates, “From day one of the pandemic, we were able to keep our supply chain operational and customers up and running. Our broad portfolio of solutions and its capabilities, including a flexible global supply chain, has enabled us to work through the crisis and deliver differentiated results. We quickly pivoted to thousands of virtual customer interactions and our global sales force, strong commitment to customers and partners, flexible consumption models and technology leadership is what differentiated Dell during the pandemic. In 2020 everyone focused on ensuring that employees are equipped with mobile and secure devices to maintain business continuity which is the “Do it light” approach. now everyone is thinking of how to “Do It right”, ensuring employees have the right mix of technology, from system to end to end ecosystem including displays and peripherals to have the best remote work experience for the long-term and to continue to improve productivity as well as employee satisfaction. It also about ensuring that organizations have the right IT & virtual DT infrastructure to support the work from anywhere environment.”
Work from anywhere - a change forever!
The work from anywhere trend has caught on enabled by collaboration suites that enable this, working out of any device that is connected via internet. The upside was that there was flexibility in terms of where you work from, but the challenge is also the fact that as your office is now equivalent to your device, the work-life balance needs to be achieved from an organizational and individual point of view. However, the fact that with flexibility, people are being seen to be more productive at their work.
» COVER FEATURE Haidi says, “Work stopped being a place to go to and has become a set of tasks and responsibilities that we can do from anywhere and at anytime. That’s why many people are working after “normal” business hours and are focused on project-based work. This flexibility is a mindshift from logging in from 8-5 to logging in to finish a project. This allowed employees to become more productive through the flexibility to manage their work-life balance and convert the experience to Life-Work inclusion.” As the workplace continues to evolve in support of a more fluid and permanent remote workforce, Dell technologies is helping organizations with the Unified Workspace solution which enables all endpoints, regardless of OS, to be managed from one console. “This doesn’t only solve IT’s struggle of remote manageability of devices, it also ensures that the experience for end-users is seamless and intuitive. When it comes to endpoint security solutions, we consider all aspects of the endpoint attack surface. We also think about securing both above and below the OS, safeguarding the endpoint, layering with additional options and ultimately protecting the entire organization, “ adds Haidi. The transition to the new normal means that a flexible work model will be here to stay, although this will vary from company to company once the pandemic is effectively tamed through vaccinations. So a lot of the learning that has come from our way during the transition will be useful to make sure the best practices are in place for a longer term adoption of new work models. The onus will be on solution providers to provide consulting and the right fit solutions to help Businesses move ahead. “The working environment has changed beyond recognition and organizations everywhere are supporting a newly remote workforce while remaining operational, productive and secure. For channel businesses, customer service and support are being redefined as they look to help their clients navigate this new landscape,” says Harish. There has been a seismic change in employee expectations this year, with a 41% increase in the proportion of employees across EMEA who now see remote working as a prerequisite rather than a perk. In the Middle East, the figure is even higher, with 45% of employees in KSA, and 47% in the UAE viewing remote working as a prerequisite. According to the ESG Remote Work Report, 2020 78% of employees are more productive working remotely. Haidi says, “The flexibility for the workforce is the catalyst for the engagement and productivity of the employees. This is why some organization will shift some employees to remote work permanently. To do this they need personalized user experiences and intelligent collaboration for seamless productivity. Our own Connected Workplace program was initiated in 2009 and since then, we have come to see that flexible work can have mutual benefits to the team member and the company, as well as have a positive impact on the environment through increased energy savings and reduced carbon emissions. Our decade-long experience in remote working is proof that productivity can still be achieved if employees are provided the right technologies and resources to execute their work.” The future of work has fundamentally changed, with an increas-
Harish Chib
Vice President, Middle East & Africa, Sophos ing realisation that a distributed workforce works, opines Ahmed. He adds, "But employers have a responsibility to ensure this works for the business and employees. Employers that prioritise wellbeing and embed it into their policies to will see improved results from teams. Employees that achieve a good work-life balance, feel trusted by employers, and connected with colleagues will be best equipped to perform. If businesses want to make the most of distributed working and get the best out of teams, employee wellbeing must come first.” With technologies including artificial intelligence, machine learning, 5G, storage and cloud, the transition to the fairly distributed and connected workforces for most companies is a reality that is gaining by the day. All of this is expected to support the continued growth of the blended model in the foreseeable future. Haidi adds, “The remote workplace is here to stay. The last year has shown many companies that the physical working space is not essential, and with the right technologies, remote working can be successful too. As such, the blended/hybrid model is the way forward and we are continuing to see organizations invest in the digital workplace that’s ready for anything; one that ensures seamless productivity from anywhere with a secure and agile infrastructure to enable it all.” As Mankind battles covid-19, digital acceleration has heralded the future of work. There is no going back on the flexible work model with a distributed workforce. APRIL 2021 / CXO DX
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» CIO OUTLOOK
BLENDING INTO THE FUTURE A year into remote working arrangements in 2021 has changed the organizational focus and priorities in more ways than one. The perspectives across different verticals consent with the view that the transformation is here to stay.
T
he pandemic played a huge role in forcing industry worldwide and people to do a reset last year. Almost the entire world adopted remote ways of getting work done, enabled by IT. While that was a forced hand, yet the world admirably took it as an opportunity to accelerate digital transformation. A year down the line, while the pandemic still seems to be a potent threat globally with its mutant strains, it seems the new normal will see the industries adopt the blended work model for good. Mubarik Hussain, CIO and Director of IT at Bloom Holding says, “Yes originally by necessity organizations moved towards remote working and now by choice and also as we are still in the midst of the pandemic a more blended workforce is in place. The importance of enabling businesses to continue to operate and function has enabled and normalized this situation and business
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focus and priorities have changed to enable this structure and focused on putting the supporting technology platforms in place to enable this.” Shamim Iqbal, Head of IT Operations, Xtramix Group of Companies concurs with the view that the pandemic’s sudden onset didn’t leave much choice for everyone other than to choose the remote model. He elaborates, “In the early days of the pandemic, there was hardly any time to think of various workforce models. An almost overnight transition to remote working was needed to keep companies up and running during the lockdown days. But soon organizations realized that employees were keeping productive in the new remote model. In days ahead, the key will still be to retain the flexibility to adopt measures that would be the needs of the hour. What worked before may not necessarily work
now and the key is adaptability.” During the major part of 2020, when work from home and remote learning was the only option, it did familiarize us all with the various advantages on offer. For instance, commuting to work or to study was saving a lot of time and fuel in addition to greater flexibility. Sunil Nair IT Head at Al Falah University says, “In the field of Education, Remote working is a boon which allows various members including Admin and Teaching staff to work outside of a traditional office environment. Instead of commuting to an office each day to work from a designated desk, University employees can execute their administrative work and deliver lectures remotely from anywhere, moreover they can also have the flexibility to plan their days so that their professional and personal lives can be experienced to their
» CIO OUTLOOK fullest potential with safety and health in mind during this pandemic.” Remote learning by a large number of students has ensured that each of these networks of educational institutions faces vulnerabilities with so many remote endpoints being used to access it and hence must have robust security. “The pandemic has sent employees and students home, canceled social events like graduations and weddings, and put mass populations — especially the elderly and immunocompromised — at risk. Considering the restrictions around COVID-19, many educational institutes are asking their employees to work from home. If you are fortunate enough to have this option, it is important to make sure you are not putting you and your workplace at greater risk of digital harm. Phishing and ransomware attacks have increased as more and more people choose remote working option over traditional office setup,” says Sunil. All verticals without exception have made the adjustments in a gradual transition to a redefined normal. While education in the UAE and across the region have returned to a semblance of regular routine, it is on the back of flexibility with many opting for remote learning while some return to onsite learning. Shamim adds that the blended workforce model seems to address a lot of our concerns and could be here to stay.
While many companies were already utilizing several cloud services, the pace picked up with new investments primarily focused on enabling migration of more workloads to cloud. “Cloud adoption has certainly gone up. While IT Leaders have always valued flexibility and agility in their collaboration and productivity tools, the pandemic brought additional focus and urgency to the resiliency of these systems. As Work from home or hybrid model continues in many regions, IT has enabled many of the existing/new solutions over the cloud to address new requirement from departments,” opines Sunil. Shamim says that organizations who had delayed their transformation and not encouraged remote working before had no choice but to pick speed in the transition. And cloud adoption set up remote working quite seamlessly. He says, “COVID-19 caused organizations everywhere to quickly shift to remote work, regardless of their opinion before. Many companies that used to be against working from home realized that employees can be just as productive working remotely. Cloud delivered IT services have been enabling remote working, giving companies greater flexibility during the challenging times from reduced costs to faster output and scalability. According to data, 94% of enterprises already use a cloud service and over 30% of all IT budgets are being allocated to cloud computing. The cloud is only going to keep growing for any foreseeable future.”
Mubarik Hussain CIO and Director of IT, Bloom Holding
occurred. The key is finding the right balance of the two given an organization’s risk profile.” With budget constraints always a concern, the need is to ensure the investment is well considered and within cybersecurity, having a sprawl of point solutions wouldn’t serve the purpose. The requirement would be to have a set of solutions that talk to each other and deliver the balance between detection and prevention.
Emphasis on cybersecurity investments
Cloud adoption rates
With more people working out of their homes, it was most likely to trigger more malware activity from cybercriminals. So along with adoption of cloud, enhancing cybersecurity has become a key focus for organizations.
Shamim says, “Enterprises are increasingly aware of the growing need to invest in sound security measures capable of securing valuable company data in the ever-evolving threat landscape. But in the face of budget constraints, some companies find themselves weighing the pros and cons of investing in threat detection versus prevention. One of the most pressing questions facing enterprises today as companies seek to cut wasteful spending and reduce IT costs while improving their security posture. “
As Mubarik says, “As there have been challenges with physical equipment and logistics, cloud based solutions and cloud adoption rates have increased.”
Sunil says, “Certainly, cybersecurity is an essential investment for organizations towards ensuring a secured infrastructure to employees and customers. it is necessary to have both preventative mechanisms as well as ways to detect and address breaches after they have already
The massive scale of online migration of Businesses has been unprecedented and therefore has increased the total threat surface area that cybercriminals could choose to attack. Any vulnerabilities are very likely to be easily breached which therefore makes a holistic cybersecurity strategy essential.
“Companies need to adopt a flexible mindset and the blended office model that allows a flexible approach to in-office vs. remote meets that requirement. This model lets businesses support employee safety and well-being while also getting the benefits that come along with having a central, physical workspace. For many companies, this middle-ground approach may be here to stay.”
The pandemic and the shift to work from home arrangements necessitated a quick acceleration to adoption of cloud services.
APRIL 2021 / CXO DX
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» CIO OUTLOOK shopping or to access any other services, has been quite overwhelmingly significant, people have also become comfortable with this change. The transition looks to be a permanent transformation. Mubarik says, “This was a trend that has accelerated in the past year as now more business activity has moved to online channels. With the behavioral changes of people adopting online models and being comfortable using them, the role of IT as an enabler of business has become more profound as businesses digitally transform rapidly.”
Shamim Iqbal Head of IT Operations, Xtramix Group of Companies
Mubarik agrees, “Yes, as the large switch in businesses to online has occurred the importance of cyber security investments to enhance identity management, access management and security has increased as there has also been a substantial increase in threat landscape as well.”
IT as an enabler of Business
From a cost centre to an enabler of Businesses, IT has traversed in the matter of a decade or so. Going digital is enabling companies to widen their go to market reach and revenue streams. Today IT has answers to help address most Business challenges. Sunil says, “It is high time we remove the tag of IT to be a “Cost Center”, IT Leaders today choose solutions that provides simple, flexible, and secured infrastructure while providing a great cost-effectiveness. IT Center/Departments when approached with exact pain points can deliver the right solution to address the business requirement. While there are many solutions available in the market, I generally choose a solution which address the requirement and will be cost effective in the long run. Till today during the pandemic situation, IT has been the most demanded and the busiest department in an organization.” While the magnitude at which people have shifted to digital channels, whether for
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From decision making in Businesses that hinges on data insights delivered via analytics to engagements like customer service via a bot, IT now transcends across all aspects of the Business and is well in the forefront. Shamim says, “Undoubtedly, Technology is a key enabler of business productivity and growth. Delivering an IT service to a business is difficult as it needs to ensure support and enable the success of the business. With digital transformation, most Business processes are IT enabled, expanding the possibilities of Business growth.”
Road ahead with digital transformation
Digital transformation continues to be an ongoing process for most Businesses irrespective of whether they have already completed a phase or whether they are just starting out. There have been some failures and so Businesses need to map out requirements more accurately before setting out. More importantly, people need to be taken into confidence. Sunil says, “The major challenges in a transformation are about people. The technology may be straightforward, but people are not. Further, without a proper understanding of the business requirement that deliver customer value, no enterprise would be able to effectively execute its digital transformation journey. Finally, to navigate digital transformation journey of an enterprise to success, AI powered predictive insights and enabling the data-driven decision making is mandatory.” While digital transformation journeys need to necessarily have a fair understanding of what objectives they look to achieve, the pandemic has had companies
Sunil Nair IT Head, Al Falah University
hurrying through the cycle. Shamim says, “A reported 84% of companies fail at digital transformation. Before a business can follow a digital transformation roadmap, business leaders must first determine an end goal for their transformation, creating a clearer path to action and implementation. Having said that, the pandemic forced organizations to boost IT investment and prioritize their digital transformation initiatives.” With more rapid advances in all associated emerging technologies like AI, ML, IoT and more, the possibilities of further rapid digital advances is quite the possibility. Mubarik says, “Businesses are transforming digitally to enhance their offerings for customers, improve their customer experience and customer journeys. The digital world offers many ways in which businesses can use digital solutions to achieve this, with the rapid advances in AI, IoT, analytics and solutions being offered by new tech startups there are endless possibilities.” In summary, the pandemic led acceleration of digital transformation and a blended workforce model are bringing on the future swiftly. These changes are defining the new normal for the world we inhabit.
» INTERVIEW
STEPS TO DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION SUCCESS
Phil Lewis
VP Solution Consulting EMEA, Infor
Are we organizationally ready for significant change? Organizations are only as good as their people, and manufacturers must look carefully at whether they have the right people and culture to support a different way of doing things. It is the people within the organization who will be responsible for implementing change, and they should be ready, committed, and onboard with any type of transformation plan. An organization’s culture can make or break a digital transformation project and “Organizational Change Management” is one of the key components of such a project. Organizations should aim for an inclusive culture where people feel like they are key contributors to the company’s future success. To achieve this, management teams should encourage a culture of openness to help encourage employees to step forward with their ideas. All change, and all transformation, starts with an idea – so it’s important for people to feel empowered to put their ideas out in the open. What are we hoping to achieve and what is the outcome? Delivering successful digital transforma-
Phil Lewis, VP Solution Consulting EMEA, Infor, offers key insights on how manufacturers can successfully digitally transform, and help propel the sector to new heights in the UAE and the wider region. Before starting out on a potentially complicated digital transformation journey, organizations should take a step back and ask themselves three questions, according to Lewis. tion projects is difficult, and if an organization does not understand the destination, the chances of success are minimal. It is important that they invest time and effort upfront to understand exactly what they want to achieve from their digital transformation. It is wise to ask the following questions: “What do we need the change? Why do we need to change it, and what is the anticipated impact?” Infor helps customers around the world and across various industries to successfully ideate, design and deliver digital change, and understanding the outcome of a project is an important early step. No matter how many ideas an organization has, they will fall into one of four categories: customer alignment, employee productivity, supply chain visibility, or operational efficiency. Customers. Organizations should ask whether they are transforming the way they connect and relate to customers and whether they want to offer a new product, increase their level of service, or use data to create a new revenue stream. Employees. Organizations should ask
whether they are providing capabilities that help to engage the workforce and how digital solutions will help improve workforce productivity, empower decision-making, and remove bottlenecks in processes. Supply Chains. Organizations should examine if they are simplifying complex supply chains and increasing visibility to anticipate issues and take steps to proactively resolve potential problems. Operations. When looking at operational efficiency, companies will benefit from asking whether they can streamline the way they operate as a business and if they are using technology to bring efficiency to their processes, to predict issues, and prescribe the next best action. Is our systems landscape digitally compliant and ready? Before starting a digital transformation project, an organization’s systems should be digitally compliant and highly flexible. Ideally, the organization has a systems ecosystem where people can access their work, their data, and their processes without barriers, at any time, and from any location. Often having their solutions available in the cloud is the best way forward. Also, organizations will benefit from solutions built for their specific industry with sector-specific capabilities built-in, not bolted on. Heavily modified applications will almost certainly impede upgrades and modernization, introduce risk, and hinder adoption of advanced digital solutions. Ideally, the organization’s end-to-end systems and applications should be running on a common digital platform that provides integrated modern capabilities such as Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), big data, mobility, and predictive analytics. In today’s world, an organization’s IT landscape must support the concept of hyper-connectivity – not just connecting applications and digital capability, but connecting everything: Their people, applications, devices, data, customers, and suppliers. APRIL 2021 / CXO DX
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ENHANCING THE DIGITAL EXPERIENCE Vishal Manchanda, Regional Manager, Proven Consult discusses digital transformation and the company’s expertise around enabling it Discuss the key services of Proven Consult around the major focus areas of digital transformation. At Proven Consult, we visualize Digital Transformation as the integration of technology with different areas of business, fundamentally to improvise the operations and deliver value to our clients. The key focus services under our digital transformation umbrella are Business Process, AI Transformation and Data and Analytics Transformation Under Business Process Transformation, we include Robotics Process Automation, looking to provide Robust technology to automate repetitive tasks and operations and Intelligent Process Automation that Incorporates machine learning and computer vision in our Robotic Process Automation Solutions. Under AI Transformation, we enable Virtual Assistants that are AI Enabled solutions to conduct on-line chats/voice-based conversations with the customers and Intelligent Document Processing which are Machine learning based solutions for smart document classification and extraction. Data and Analytics Transformation includes Data Visualization for maximizing data insights by combining data analytics and visualization to provide data to its full potential as well as Big Data Analytics to maximize the potential of big data, gain actual results, and achieve growth Elaborate on your operations in the region and elsewhere? Proven Consult is headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with regional offices in Dubai and Egypt, and our core technical competency center is based in Bengaluru, India. Our customers are big named groups ranging from different industries such as – Retail, Telecom, Oil & Gas, Automotive and Large Conglomerates. Most of our clientele is spread across different countries in Middle East such as - Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, etc.
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We intend to now spread our wings to other countries outside the Middle East and have already delivered few key solutions for select international clients with their operations spread globally. How has the covid year been one of challenges as well as opportunities given the fact that many companies may have accelerated their transformation initiatives? The year of 2020 has been one of the challenging ones for everyone globally. In the initial part of the year, most of the businesses were visualizing the impact of COVID-19 and how things may pan out but by the later part of the year businesses knew that digital transformation was inevitable and hence we had a good closure to the year. The businesses have definitely accelerated the inclusion of digital transformation initiatives in alignment with their growth plans. New opportunities either from automation, remote collaboration or augmented and virtual reality are quickly coming our way and we at Proven Consult are geared up to provide these value-added solutions to our clients. Customers are focused and keen to see the concrete business benefits they will achieve by investing in emerging technologies. What are the regular pitfalls on the digital transformation path? How best to overcome those challenges - what best practices to follow? Some of the key mistakes that one does in the inclusion of digital transformation are as follows: 1. Adopting for the sake of technology Many Companies just adopt the technology because it is trending. Without knowing the technology and how it will benefit, one would not go the distance. Thinking that it worked for
» INTERVIEW someone, so it will work for us too, is a mistake. 2. Considering that transformation is a One-Time Affair Digital transformation is not something one can do in a month or a year. It is a continuous process of evolving your organization through changing processes, products, and services to meet the varying requirements of customers. 3. Implementing in Silos Many organizations tend to work on in silos. The pain of working in silos with different approaches, different products, and different vendors does not benefit the organization as a whole. Digital transformation has to be everyone’s business. The best way to overcome these challenges would be to get educated and strategize on how this will help the business. It must be driven from the top; however, everyone’s inclusion is extremely crucial for the success of any engagement. How important is enhanced customer engagement as a key objective of digital transformation? How can AI take care of this? Digital transformation is no longer just a promise for the future but has been already delivering such as reinstating enhanced customer experience and engagement. With the advent of digital, the customer habits have changed; they get everything done instantly on their mobile phones.
Vishal Manchanda Regional Manager, Proven Consult
Digital Transformation and tools such as AI can be used to provide the information to the customers specifically customized for them on the choice of their device. More than that, reducing customer wait time either over the counters or through customer service has given a whole new dimension to customer experience. Additionally, with the inclusion of Chatbots and Voicebots, the customer has the power to interact and get solutions at anytime, anywhere. What are the various aspects of Data transformation that you look at during a project? Data is now considered to be the most important currency. There are ‘n’ number of possibilities and analytics one can derive from the humongous amount of data that is available. Knowing how to use data to get meaningful information for your business, insights around it, and how one represents this data is extremely important. We tend to utilize machine learning to analyze the data and provide predictive analysis such as – sales forecast for the upcoming year or using the latest visualization tools to create business dashboards, showcasing the impact of automations on the business, or displaying the return on investments of the digital transformation. How challenging is application integration during a transformation project in an enterprise, in the scenario of legacy
to cloud migrations? With the introduction of technologies such as RPA and user interface automations, application integrations have become quick and easy. These emerging technologies gives us the flexibility to integrate with various kinds of applications – legacy, web-based, desktop-based or hosted on Citrix, seamlessly. It also provides the flexibility to deploy solutions without much hassle in the environment of choice of the customer (Cloud or On-Premises). Mention very briefly some key deployments of RPA, AI etc your company has achieved over the past year? Over the past year, we have delivered many RPA deployments for a variety of customers. Our key implementations have been automating the tedious tasks for several finance and procurement departments, wherein our solutions have automated the manual tasks, hence, improvising customer operations. To add on, Proven Consult worked on an Intelligent document processing solution which was integrated with RPA to perform the work visa status request for a semi-government organization in the region. APRIL 2021 / CXO DX
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OUR NEW NORMAL CALLS FOR A NEW TYPE OF LEADERSHIP
James Petter, VP International, Pure Storage says in the new normal, Proper infrastructure capable of shouldering large workloads will ensure that teams stay connected, but leaders must still apply their soft skills when trying to maintain effective operational levels
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n normal times, leaders inspire faceto-face. They marshal innovation at close quarters. They advise; they encourage; they mediate. But we do not live in normal times. We live in new-normal times. COVID-19 was not a predictable shock. The UAE government and businesses across the Emirates were quick to take decisive action and social distancing quickly emerged as the best way forward which meant little or no face-to-face contact. Now just over a year on, with vaccines being rolled out, at pace, across the UAE, there is optimism we may be on the road back to normality. However, the current crisis has cemented remote working as a necessity, whereas it used to be a perk or luxury. As of June last year, regional recruitment portal Bayt. com found that almost three quarters (74%) of MENA-based workers preferred
jobs that permitted remote working. A similar survey in the UAE by Robert Half, found that 80% of UAE employees said they would prefer to work from home, post COVID-19, citing savings in time and money, and productivity gains. And while it now seems that remote working is here to stay, data from Aetna International suggests that it can be a unique selling proposition for employers seeking to attract the best talent — 47% of UAE employees stated that ‘flexible working for all’ is one area employers would need to improve to be attractive to candidates.
The remote leader emerges
But where does this leave our leaders? If employees are selected, onboarded, supervised, and guided from a distance, what are the implications for effective leadership? How do we balance the desire for
» INSIGHT real life human interaction with employee requests for flexibility? Research has told us that remote workers are happier workers, but that still leaves us with the challenges of productivity and connectivity — for therein lie continuity and long term-commercial viability. Of course, the right IT infrastructure will be critical. Workforces must be able to join conference calls, download tools and access resources. Security will be central to delivery of these capabilities, as will the age-old lynchpin of IT management — regular, accurate back-ups. But technology is merely the apparatus of business continuity. Good leadership has never been more important. The skills to reassure, to encourage, to nurture, to survey with subtlety and to steer with confidence will — as they have always done — keep projects on track, teams motivated, and stakeholders informed. This is true of both physical and virtual interactions and all being well, we will soon return to seeing our colleagues, not just on a screen.
James Petter
VP International, Pure Storage
The right technology
The region has never lacked effective leadership, as can be seen in the broad economic recoveries from previous crises. The current malaise may be the worst we have seen, but Middle East innovation will yet see us through. The region’s previous experiments with remote working have meant a smoother adoption than may have otherwise been seen. Many workers have used similar tools when travelling for business or when keeping in touch with friends and family. COVID-19 may have put the region on a fast track, but leaders were not altogether unprepared. However, challenges lurk on the road ahead, no matter the scale of enterprise. Technology leaders will have to consider how a collaborative platform fits into the corporate landscape. Can the current IT infrastructure support roundthe-clock access and effective back-up, all while maintaining an adequate standard of security? If not, are there any local service providers that can enable scale-up quickly and diligently?
The ‘softly, softly’ approach
Proper infrastructure capable of shouldering large workloads will ensure that
teams stay connected, but leaders must still apply their soft skills when trying to maintain effective operational levels. Remote working will undoubtedly have a profound effect on morale. In my own role as VP International, I have been frequently separated from colleagues with whom I need to collaborate. Personally, I am looking forward to seeing colleagues again in real life. But in the mean-time, I have learned a few things along the way that have helped to overcome the challenges of remote leadership. First, leaders need to adapt to the circumstances of each individual employee. While this was true in a shared office space, the opportunity to leave behind domestic issues has now evaporated. The remote leader will likely find a much more diverse psychology within the remote group. Some may enjoy the isolation; some may not. In a region replete with different cultures, this will become an even greater challenge. Second, remote leaders need to be adept at contingency planning — it’s a vital tool in normal times, but COVID-19 has further
underscored the need for today’s leaders to have a plan A, B and even C. Knowing that their leaders are prepared (or have at least thought about) a myriad of scenarios gives employees the much needed confidence they need to operate in these challenging times. It is also vital that teams are well-equipped and informed. Comprehensive briefings are vital because remote check-ins aren’t as fast as popping into the manager’s office for some quick clarification on a question. Following on from this, leaders need to keep in touch with team members at regular, scheduled intervals to ensure the wellbeing of everyone. Wherever possible, these should be video chats, for as any good leader knows, facetime is a vital component of clear communication. The best leaders are those who understand that a community is made up of individuals, each with their own concerns, ambitions, problems, and needs. People-centric approaches must take precedence in our new normal, and effective remote leaders will understand that the workforce will succeed or fail based on the empathy they show and example they set. APRIL 2021 / CXO DX
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THE EDGE IS SET TO RESHAPE THE WORLD OF HEALTHCARE Jacob Chacko Regional Business Head - Middle East, Saudi & South Africa (MESA) HPE ARUBA writes that as well as improving and extending current practices, Edge technologies also have the potential to streamline existing operations and drive new revenue models within the healthcare industry
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he healthcare industry has reached a crisis point. According to a recent Deloitte report, global healthcare expenditure is expected to increase from $7 trillion to $10 trillion by 2022, as the cost of providing services in every country across the world rises steeply. Combine this with our ever-expanding (and aging) global population, and the steady increase in average life expectancy (rising by 5.5 years between 2000 and 2016) and it is perhaps no wonder that current healthcare infrastructures are struggling to cope under the sheer volume of what they are expected to support. From 5G-enabled remote operations to patient apps, digital innovations are being deployed to try and mitigate these challenges. However, there is one missing piece of the technology puzzle required to bring these key developments together and ensure the healthcare sector can keep scaling up – and that can be found at the Edge. We developed a book with Fast Future which aimed to uncover the wealth of possibilities set to be unlocked by Edge technologies over the next 3-5 years. Defined as technologies that allow the
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processing of data by devices at the Edge of networks, HPE Aruba has identified this as the next frontier. Moving processes and applications to the edge of the network will be imperative to enable the ongoing digital transformation of industries across the world, supporting everything from mainstream personalisation, to enhanced real-time insight, and faster product and service innovation. And the healthcare industry is no exception, with a number of current developments already hinting at the opportunities at the Edge. So, here are three ways in which the Edge is set to reshape the world of healthcare.
Patient-Generated Health Data
IoT medical devices such as wearable sensors, blood glucose monitors, and healthcare apps are becoming increasingly common. In fact, US hospitals are already estimated to have as many as 10 to 15 IoT devices per bed. All of these devices are collecting huge amounts of Patient Generated Health Data, allowing medical professionals to better diagnose problems and monitor health
» INSIGHT over long periods of time. However, there is no point collecting all this data is you can’t immediately use it, which is where the Edge comes into its own. When using connected devices, clinicians need to access information as quickly as possible in order to make well-informed medical decisions – for an industry where a few seconds can literally be the difference between life or death any lag in delivery could be absolutely critical to the patient. By processing data at the edge of the network rather than transporting it back to the centre, Edge technologies are able to eliminate unnecessary latency and deliver far speedier results than traditional architectures. This means that healthcare IT architectures can still gain the benefit of gathering health-related data while also getting the immediate, real-time analytics that can predict and respond to health emergencies. IoT medical devices can analyse a person’s current condition and send alerts the moment anomalies are detected, allowing for rapid response times that may well save their life. One example of the way in which the real-time analytics and rapid responses enabled by Edge technologies are already being used to improve care for patients can been seen in the treatment of diabetes in some countries. In this case, a sensor is embedded inside a patient to measure levels of insulin and automatically controls an insulin pump within their body. This innovation effectively regulates care and can help to prevent incidents which might result in hospitalistion or additional costs.
Jacob Chacko
Regional Business Head, MESA, HPE ARUBA
Remote healthcare
Conducting data processing close to the patient is particularly important for those in remote areas. And without Edge technologies, the healthcare industry is less poised to support these places. For example, lacking an internet connection prevents medical providers from being able to access centralised databases of patient data. Portable IoT healthcare equipment developed by edge computing companies has the ability to gather, store, generate, and analyze critical patient data without needing to be in constant contact with a network infrastructure. Patients with wearable IoT medical devices can be diagnosed quickly and effectively on-site, and the information gathered from them can be fed back into the central servers whenever connections are re-established. By interfacing with an edge data centre, IoT healthcare devices can extend the reach of existing networks, enabling medical personnel to access critical patient data even in areas with poor connectivity. Not only will Edge technologies’ remote capabilities help rural areas, but they also have huge implications for emergency services. Edge solutions will allow for on-demand provisioning and continuous tracking of mobile healthcare units and accelerated diagnosis at accident scenes to improve stability treatment before transfer to hospital.
Driving new revenue models and cost savings
As well as improving and extending current practices, Edge technologies also have the potential to streamline existing operations and drive new revenue models within the healthcare industry. With artificial intelligence and machine learning offering far
greater analysis of patient data than ever before, healthcare organizations have a real opportunity to better understand the efficacy of treatments and medications, allowing better targeting and less waste. With the right analytics in place, the data could also be used to provide personalized guidance on lifestyle management, which could drive down practitioner and hospital visits and reduce treatment burden. That data will become more valuable over time and could be sold to pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies to help them improve their products. From an operational perspective, interconnectivity is another potential source of cost savings. Medical providers have long been plagued by incompatible systems and burdensome recordkeeping that could be all but eliminated by networks of IoT medical devices and Edge technology applications that communicate quickly and easily across organizational boundaries.
Conclusion
The ability to monitor patient data at the point of care and improve remote services through Edge technologies, can transform patient outcomes, while also enhancing the ability of health professionals to deliver efficient care. In short, the healthcare industry stands to benefit immensely from Edge technologies. And with rising costs posing an ongoing threat to people’s access to healthcare services – these innovations, and their ability to boost efficiencies and deliver better value, should be embraced quickly. APRIL 2021 / CXO DX
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DEMOCRATIZING
Dinesh Varadharajan, Vice President Kissflow writes that the rise of Lowcode and no-code platforms offers Middle East organizations an efficient and effective path to digital transformation
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he era of accelerated digital transformation is here as organizations across the Middle East have embraced a host of digital tools, technologies, and processes to empower hybrid workforces. This phase of the digital revolution is being driven not only by IT, but rather by top management, and line-of-business managers who are eager to ensure employees remain productive and able to adapt to new ways of customer engagement. It is compelling businesses to fundamentally transform the workplace, with no-code and low-code platforms set to play a central role in digital transformation initiatives across the region.
The benefits of low-code and no-code platforms
During 2020, organizations were under pressure to adopt innovative new technologies and digital services to maintain business
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continuity and remain competitive through the pandemic. This was despite IT spending in the Middle East having contracted 4.9% that year. It follows then that most organizations’ decisions to move towards a digital workplace would have been constrained by the costs involved in creating a solution and hiring experts to build those platforms. Fortunately, this is no longer the case as there are a multitude of plugand-play work management tools available today that you can purchase to accelerate your digital transformation journey. These platforms offer no-code and low-code environments that help you operate, manage work, and even customize tools according to your preferences with zero to minimal technical expertise required. Many organizations do not have the capability, or the technological assets required to build, manage and host all the work management applications by themselves. This could be because most organizations have to grapple with the budgetary constraints and the complications of building a bespoke work platform with inhouse or third-party developers.
Aspiring digital organizations need no-code platforms
If you’re a CIO heading the digital transformation of an organization that largely works with legacy technology and tools, the switch to digital work is best done with a powerful no-code platform. With the automation that these platforms offer, you get tools that teams can quickly adapt to with a ready suite of features that you do not have to build or customize for optimal use. A no-
» INSIGHT code platform will get your business working on the cloud with the lowest investment possible, in terms of both cost and effort. Many organizations go wrong at exactly this stage by picking the wrong kind of platform. The most common mistake is picking a solution that may either be too elaborate, expensive and complex or cost-effective but lacking in essential features. The overlap is very minimal in this category. Finding the right no-code digital workplace platform is essential for organizations undertaking a digital transformation from scratch. Revisiting this choice will be prohibitively expensive later in the transformation cycle. Automation is the buzzword of no-code and low-code platforms When a platform offers the kind of simplicity and ease-of-use that low-code and no-code platforms have come to define, it is because they come with high levels of automation built into them. In the current scenario where most businesses have had to move to the cloud in a very short time, Low-code platforms with high automation features have led the charge in keeping businesses going. Digital work platforms have solved the trickiest part of digital transformations by bridging the technological divide and bringing the benefits of automation to organizations where coding expertise is low to none. Traditional automation tools like Java and Python are highly efficient, but most organizations do not have the resources or the will to hire the expertise required to drive them. This is where no-code and low-code platforms step in and bridge the gap.
No-code or low-code? Which one do you need?
This is the number one question organizations need to ask themselves before they take the plunge into digital transformation. No-code offers ease-of-use, universality, flexibility and a shorter learning curve while low-code brings you more of the same with the added option of customization and development. While the ultimate goal with both is to automate work and business processes, both types of platforms fall into distinct categories of use cases. Let’s explore them. No-code platforms are ideal for organizations that are automating their digital operations. These operations are mostly employee-facing or partner-facing in some cases. These organizations also prefer Greenfield Automation for all their dynamic processes which involve spreadsheets, emails, unstructured work and longtail processes where they do not want to keep going back to the developer for customization. Further, the dynamic nature of operations in these organizations make it difficult for those who don’t own these processes to drive their automation. The second scenario in which no-code platforms are ideal is when organizations embark on digital modernization. Here, they seek to modernize legacy systems like Lotus Notes, Oracle Forms, Microsoft Access, Visual Basic, PHP, Technical Debts, etc. The idea behind these organizations picking no-code platforms is to let people closest to the problems address them on their own without having to go back to the developers. no-code platforms offer an easy, cost-effective and powerful route to digital transformations for aspiring digital organizations. The major benefits of no-code platforms are time and cost savings. no-code platforms can be up and running in as little as 3
Dinesh Varadharajan Vice President – Kissflow
days to 3 months from purchase depending on scale and volume. They are also exceptionally low-cost and offer the advantage of continuous change management. Low-code platforms on the other hand offer organizations the flexibility they need to develop their own unique customization. This comes in handy for organizations that require Digital Experience Management. These are typically customer facing businesses like banking and insurance claims processing that require a lot more customization, but also need them at the fraction of the cost of a bespoke digital workplace. low-code platforms are great to have, except that they cost as much as Java or Python based development during the transformation cycle. The good news is that costs tend to go down by up to 50-70% within a year of development as compared to the first 3 months when most customization happens. If you’re a CIO or a manager looking out for a workflow software platform that will fit the needs of your organization, it is a very good idea to check out all the no-code options available out there. These platforms offer the performance of custom-built digital workplaces by bringing you ready-made automation while also being low-cost enough to not burn a hole in your budgets. With the kind of technological advancement and innovation happening in the field, no-code and low-code platforms are no longer merely the trade-offs they used to be for organizations testing the waters of digital transformation. Today, they’re powerful solutions that have democratized the landscape of the digital workplace and offered businesses of all types and sizes the technology required to move to the cloud in record numbers. Are you there yet? APRIL 2021 / CXO DX
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Securing Digital Innovation as Cyber Threats Grow Renee Tarun - Deputy CISO and Vice President Information Security at Fortinet highlights that CISOs must create security strategies and deploy solutions capable of providing scalable, integrated security that provides broad visibility and enables automated threat detection and response
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he demand for digital innovation (DI), driven by shifting markets, evolving consumer expectations, and digital competition, has done far more than just transform networks. It has completely changed the organization, including how lines of business are structured, how teams and individuals collaborate, where and how employees work, how success is measured, and how leaders execute against business objectives.
ploying point security products inside the growing digital attack surface. However, the additional complexity associated with monitoring and managing these point solutions, exacerbated by new data protection regulations, actually fragments visibility and reduces control, leaving security teams less prepared to protect the organization against new cyber threats, especially those that utilize a multi-vector approach.
One of the most profound changes has been the increased reliance on applications to support every aspect of the business. This has led to a number of critical structural changes, such as the adoption of cloudbased infrastructures, the adoption of SaaS applications and services, and the need to provide fast, flexible and secure connections to these resources to any user on any device in any location. The COVID pandemic accelerated the adoption of innovative work-from-home solutions to accommodate the need for social distancing while maintaining business operations. Others, such as implementing network upgrades or expanding network edges, are designed to improve a company’s efficiency and customer experience.
New Devices Create New Threats
However, this need to compete in today’s digital world also means that many of these business-critical initiatives can only be realized by deploying new systems and solutions. But deploying new devices as part of a DI initiative also increases the complexity of network environments and creates new security and operational complexities that open up an organization to new cyber risks. Part of the problem occurs when a security team attempts to address new risks, especially in a new edge environment, by de-
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When DI initiatives add new devices and work locations to the distributed network, they not only expand the organization’s attack surface but they can also introduce new holes in the security framework. These new systems and solutions typically include Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, mobile devices, distributed cloud computing, new branch locations, and home offices. Each one of these introduces new threats that have to be monitored and responded to by security teams. IoT devices often use insecure protocols that can’t be patched and default passwords that are targeted by malware. Mobile devices commonly hop between being on- and off-network, potentially dragging malware with them behind the corporate firewall. And home offices often include older, unpatched devices that can be easily exploited and used as conduits back into the corporate network. When these solutions are protected with different, isolated point security products, it can be impossible to deploy, manage, and ensure consistent policy enforcement or to correlate threat events across the network. Cloud computing, for many organizations, is especially challeng-
» INSIGHT ing, as nearly three-quarters of cybersecurity professionals have trouble understanding the foundational cloud shared responsibility model. Next-gen branch networks expand security requirements as each new location has devices that must be secured. And for organizations increasingly relying upon latency-sensitive Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, relying on traditional connections to apply corporate security solutions also means routing all traffic through the headquarters network, impacting user experience, and the bandwidth required to scan these applications for malware simply exacerbates the problem. Similarly, telework introduces new challenges, such as relying solely on VPN connections to provide security. VPNs do not inspect traffic. A compromised home network simply means that a VPN provides a secure tunnel through which bad actors can inject malware into the corporate network. Monitoring and securing these new devices and environments often requires specialized security tools, increasing the workload overhead on security teams.
Growing Cyber Threats Versus the Cybersecurity Skills Gap
At the same time that networks are being transformed, the cybercrime industry continues to grow. Overburdened security teams, stretched thin across the expanding attack surface and suffering from the cybersecurity skills gap, are often unable to keep up. Deploying “best-of-breed” standalone cybersecurity solutions to address each potential attack vector as it is discovered simply makes the problem worse. Recent research shows that IT teams now have an average of 45 security solutions deployed across their networks. Rather than enhancing security, this level of vendor and solution sprawl actually diminishes their ability to not only detect, but also defend against active attacks. Complicating this problem further is the lack of integration between these tools. This means security teams must manually collect, aggregate, and analyze data from multiple platforms to gain the context required to detect and remediate threats on their networks. Leveraging expert security analysts might save time by collecting only a subset of significant data. But such experts are hard to find with a cybersecurity skills gap of over 3 million unfilled positions has left organizations understaffed and existing teams overworked. The addition of new devices and solutions that require manual security processes absorb essential time from security teams. And this is made worse because these manual correlation processes do not scale with the frequency and complexity of cyberattacks.
Solutions for Securing Digital Innovation Initiatives
To address these challenges, CISOs must create security strategies and deploy solutions capable of providing scalable, integrated security that provides broad visibility and enables automated threat detection and response across their organization’s security architecture. This starts by deploying an expansive security platform designed to function seamlessly within and across different environments. This platform should serve as a central point of control for seeing, manag-
Renee Tarun Deputy CISO and Vice President Information Security, Fortinet
ing, and orchestrating a suite of fully integrated solutions deployed at every edge. And it should support common standards and APIs to connect existing solutions into a single security framework. By converging networking and security, CISOs can ensure that dynamic changes to the network are automatically protected without impacting performance or productivity, ensuring the best user experience for employees and customers alike. A zero-trust access strategy helps ensure secure access to protected resources, identify unmanaged devices, and monitor for unusual behaviors across a highly distributed workforce. An adaptive cloud security protects applications and infrastructure in and across cloud environments, as well as extends security to users both on and off the network. When all of these systems are working together and sharing a common threat intelligence framework, real automation can be put into place to detect events, conduct an investigation, and coordinate a system-wide response without requiring human intervention. Which means your security team can focus on strategic solutions for DI initiatives. Digital innovation and rapidly adopted realities like remote work have led to a complex and expansive digital attack surface that threat actors are taking full advantage of. By integrating security into every facet of the network, CISOs can ensure that their team dynamically adapts to challenges and remains agile in the face of adversity. Breaking down the traditional walls between network and security and creating a more integrated and automated fabric ecosystem should be top of mind for CISOs who need to be prepared for any eventuality in order to thrive in the new digital marketplace. APRIL 2021 / CXO DX
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A PANDEMIC OF CYBER ATTACKS Babur Khan, Technical Marketing Engineer - Enterprise Security at A10 Networks writes that while opportunities for newer attacks or variants/branches of the existing ones increase, so will also they drive cybersecurity innovation in 2021 In the first quarter of 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic is still wreaking havoc around the globe. The coronavirus is continuously evolving and presenting new challenges. In addition to the direct effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we also saw a sharp rise in cybercriminal activity. From simple phishing attacks to one of the largest DDoS attacks ever recorded, we saw the cyber threat landscape evolve and grow. At the same time, we also saw a rapid growth in the tech and cyber security industry. From the roll out of 5G in many parts of the world to exponential growth in the SaaS industry, we saw the pandemic put many positive changes into full gear as well. We believe that these challenges, and the changes that they brought about, will not stop. The effects of this pandemic on the tech industry will be long lasting. Moreover, some of the challenges introduced in 2020 will affect cybersecurity well into 2021, and even beyond. As we move deeper into 2021, here are some of the cyber security trends that we see:
Cybercrimes will experience a surge
Last year was a busy year for both attackers and hackers as well as cybersecurity personnel defending against the plethora of attacks to which they were subjected. With an election year in the United States in 2020, we saw a rise in anti-government cyber activities, a prominent example of which was the attack on FireEye, allegedly by a foreign nation state sponsored entity, where multiple tools were stolen for use in attacks later on.
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In 2021, such attacks will not just be more frequent, but they will also be very specific regarding who they target. International cyber espionage will be one of the main motivators for cyber attacks and we will see security vendors being attacked and compromised at an even greater pace. Even the attacks that happened in 2020, like the FireEye attack or the Sunburst attack, that targeted the SolarWinds supply chain, will have long lasting effects. We have only seen the beginning of these attacks. Investigators suspect, for example, that up to 250 organizations may have been compromised in the SolarWinds attack. Actual results are yet to come. Such attacks will not only create opportunities for newer attacks, or variants/branches of the existing ones, but will also drive cybersecurity innovation in 2021.
The Intelligent Edge will be weaponized
One of the major innovations driven by 5G is the implementation of multi-access edge computing (MEC). Building intelligence into the edge will boost the availability and efficiency of 5G networks. However, keeping the global cybersecurity trends in mind, we can see that the intelligent edge might be hijacked by attackers for launching different kinds of attacks, both on the mobile core networks as well as on victims outside of the realm of the service provider that has been compromised. If nothing else, MEC can be used for propagating malware into different networks for drone recruitment in IoT botnets.
Low-volume DDoS Attacks will be more frequent
In 2020, even though we saw one of the largest DDoS attacks ever recorded target one of the biggest names in the tech industry, we also saw that a large number of DDoS attacks went unnoticed because, even though the frequency of these attacks was very high, their size was not. These high-frequency, low-volume attacks will keep the security industry busy in 2021 and may be instrumental to disabling security infrastructures or just acting as smokescreens for larger malware attacks such as the recent Sunburst attack.
Five Million DDoS Weapons will be Added to the Global DDoS Arsenal
The A10 Networks security research team observed that the number of DDoS weapons doubled from around six million at the end
» INSIGHT of 2019 to 12.5 million in 2020. This trend will remain the same in 2021 as more IoT devices come online with each passing day, with an expected addition of at least five million weapons. The large number of DDoS weapons will also enable attackers to launch another record-breaking DDoS attack in 2021.We will have to wait and see whether it will be made public by the victims or not.
2021 will be the year of Zero Trust Implementation
2020 was the year of understanding what the Zero Trust model is in a practical sense. Throughout the year, we saw security vendors align their solutions with the Zero Trust model, adjust the model as we got more clarity on what it means to be a Zero Trust user, device, or network, and explore the policy changes necessary to a successful implementation of the Zero Trust model. As the COVID-19 pandemic fast-tracked the move to SaaS and made the “work from home” model mainstream, the importance of Zero Trust security has gained critical importance. Organizations now understand that Zero Trust is not a specific device or vendor, but rather a series of strategic policy and practical changes that help enable better security. A successful implementation requires good understanding of what the Zero Trust model is as well as the many diverse solutions that have to work in unison to enable its implementation. We believe that the concept of Zero Trust has reached a level of maturity and clarity where it will be effectively adopted and implemented by many organizations in 2021, and that it will become the go-to security model for all types and sizes of organizations. Sophisticated attacks like Sunburst will also drive the need for effective Zero Trust implementation.
SASE Adoption will accelerate
Since 2020 forced most of the workforce to work remotely, attackers have been experimenting with new ways of exploiting security loopholes or shortcomings exposed by these rapid changes. This accelerated and will continue to accelerate the development and adoption of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solutions. However, since the move to the cloud does not happen overnight, many organizations still have most of their resources hosted on-premises. They will keep on struggling with maintaining the remote work model and will revert back to business as it was once a vaccine for COVID-19 becomes readily available and things go back to normal. This, however, might be temporary as the world has now experienced a pandemic and many organizations have already started moving their businesses from on-premises to the SaaS-based model, with the trend only being accelerated by COVID-19. In summary, SASE will be an essential part of the enterprise security infrastructure in 2021 and beyond.
Babur Khan
Technical Marketing Engineer - Enterprise Security, A10 Networks
" International cyber espionage will be one of the main motivators for cyber attacks and we will see security vendors being attacked and compromised at an even greater pace." 2021 will the year TLS 1.3 shines
TLS 1.3 will finally start seeing widespread adoption, in part, driven by the adoption of QUIC/HTTP3 given that TLS 1.3 is built into it. Many vendors support TLS 1.3 already and that will help drive the protocol into mainstream use. Changes will also be made to the TLS 1.3 standard as the demand for encrypted SNIs rise. That said, TLS 1.2 will still remain the more widely used choice as an encryption protocol over the internet since moving to the newer version may prove to be expensive for many organizations. But as QUIC/HTTP3 becomes more widely used by the end of the year, we may see this change. In conclusion, we are facing new, persistent threats of all shapes and sizes, and we have to make sure that, going forward, we face these threats with the best of our collective abilities. 2021 will be the year of cybercriminal activities, but it will also drive innovations in cybersecurity like never before. APRIL 2021 / CXO DX
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» TECHSHOW
DELL EMC POWEREDGE XE8545 PowerEdge XE8545, a powerhouse for AI workloads, powers the latest HPC Ready Solution for AI and Data Analytics, making it easier to run AI, analytics and advanced computing
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workloads on one system. The PowerEdge XE8545 combines up to 128 cores of 3rd Generation AMD EPYC processors, four NVIDIA A100 GPUs, and optimized performance of NVIDIA’s vGPU software. It helps to supercharge your compute performance with its 2 socket, 4U system designed to optimize the latest industry technologies. You can develop, train, and deploy cutting edge machine learning models, accelerate complex high-performance computing workloads or host accelerated virtualization services.
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D-LINK DCS-8635LH DCS-8635LH is an IP65 weather-resistant camera with
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CXO DX / APRIL 2021
•
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» TECHSHOW
SONICWALL NSA 3700
SonicWall NSa 3700 is a multi-gigabit security appliance designed to thwart attacks targeting government agencies, retail, K-12, higher education and enterprises. The company also introduced several product updates, including closed-network threat protection, next-generation analytics, enhanced cloud-native security management and a rebranded Wireless Network Manager. Powered by SonicOS 7.0, the new SonicWall NSa 3700 firewall delivers a modern UX/UI, advanced security controls, plus critical networking and management capabilities to increase visibility and help defend against today’s increasingly targeted attacks. With the new NSa 3700, organizations gain much needed multi-gigabit protection and enterprise-grade threat performance with one of the lowest total costs of ownership in its class. Offering 22,500 connections per second, supporting up to 750,000 concurrent DPI connections and up to 3,000 site-to-site VPN tunnels, the NSa 3700 ensures security is scalable across the largest environments.
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SonicWall NetExtender provides an intuitive SSL-VPN connection client that’s easy to deploy and configure. Easily provide your remote workers with secure access to your corporate network from Linux, Mac and Windows devices
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Access and control from anywhere with mydlink app
APRIL 2021 / CXO DX
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» TRENDS & STATS
UAE AND KSA ORGANIZATIONS LEAD IN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION INITIATIVES 90 % of organizations in UAE and Saudi Arabia have fast-tracked some digital transformation programs this year according to Dell Technologies’ latest Digital Transformation Index Results from Dell Technologies’ ‘Digital Transformation Index 2020’, reveal that organizations in UAE and Saudi Arabia are two steps ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to digital transformation. According to the study, 90 percent of organizations in UAE and Saudi Arabia have fast-tracked, at least, some of their digital transformation programs this year – accomplishing in a few months, what would normally have taken years. This is compared to the global benchmark of 80 percent, suggesting that organizations across the region have shifted their digital transformation programs into high gear. In fact, 85 percent of organizations in UAE and Saudi Arabia admitted to re-inventing their business model as a result of disruption – which is 6 percent ahead of organizations globally (79 percent). The Dell Technologies Digital Transformation Index is a global study that analyses and maps digital transformation progress of mid-to large-sized companies across the world. With 5300 C-Suite respondents surveyed globally from 23 countries from a variety of industries and functions, the Dell Technologies Digital Transformation Index 2020 compares respondents from UAE and Saudi Arabia with global peers.
digitally mature group) grew from 27 percent in 2018 to 31 percent in 2020. This can be attributed to the level of digital transformation acceleration happening in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and hence, it is no surprise that the 2020 Digital Transformation Index also recorded a fall in the number of least digitally mature groups – namely, the Digital Laggards and Digital Followers – since 2018. These organizations are moving up, into the Digital Adopter and Digital Evaluator groups, which have expanded in tandem.
Innovation and investments in ICT to drive digital economy agendas
The study also shows that organizations in UAE and Saudi Arabia are keeping pace with global investment levels in the newer technologies including Edge and AI. In addition, organizations in UAE and Saudi Arabia are a solid 6 percent ahead of their global competitors when it comes to investing in 5G infrastructure demonstrating their clear commitment to develop state-of-theart connectivity infrastructure. Looking beyond 2021, it appears that organizations in UAE and Saudi Arabia also have high confidence in Edge computing’s capabilities. As such, Edge application investment is expected to be higher (51
percent) among organizations in UAE and Saudi Arabia compared to the global average (28 percent). According to the 2020 Digital Transformation Index, organizations across the region are particularly confident that the Edge strategies being rolled out will future-proof their business. The 2020 Digital Transformation Index lists the top technology investments in UAE and Saudi Arabia over the next one to three years as follows: 1. Real-time applications at the Edge 2. Artificial Intelligence algorithms 3. Cybersecurity solutions 4. Data management tools 5. 5G infrastructure
Barriers to transformation
The pandemic may have catalyzed digital transformation across the globe, but continuous transformation is challenging. According to the latest Digital Transformation Index, organizations are facing several barriers to transformation. The top three barriers to digital success cited by respondents in the UAE and Saudi Arabia include: 1. Unable to extract insights from data and/ or information overload (a jump of eleven places since 2016) 2. Lack of economic growth due to pandemic related disruption (a new entrant for 2020) 3. Data privacy and cybersecurity concerns (down one place since 2018)
A new digital transformation curve
When comparing the results from the last Digital Transformation Index in 2018 to this year, UAE and Saudi Arabia saw a 6 percent rise in the number of Digital Leaders (the most digitally mature organization) last year. Digital Adopters (the second most
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CXO DX / APRIL 2021
Using a curve visual, the DT Index plots global digital transformation progress vs digital transformation progress in UAE/KSA from 2016 till 2020.
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