CXO DX Feb 2024

NAVIGATING THE BUMPY ROAD AHEAD

The rising use of deepfake technologies to target celebrities and spread misinformation has become a menace symbolic of the threat that advancing technologies pose even while presenting immense opportunities to progress rapidly. The advances in Gen AI technologies are helping create high-quality output across domains such as images, text, audio in no time which also poses existential threats to several professions.

Navigating these challenges and risks will need to be done with circumspection. Effective cybersecurity measures and solutions, stronger collaboration between legal and government authorities globally, and responsible action from social media companies will be always required to ensure that the menace is tackled effectively and consistently. Recently, Meta announced that it is going to label AI-generated content, including misinformation and deepfakes, on its Facebook, Instagram, and Threads social platforms. It remains to be seen how far it would be effective in detecting such fake content.

Over the past few years, we have seen a lot of fake content that keeps getting forwarded in WhatsApp as well as influencing or appearing convincing to not just the gullible but sometimes even catching the more alert or astute among us unaware. Such content has played a significant role in polarising societies across the world but significantly more so in larger countries with diversity. While the onus is largely on individuals to be responsible in consuming or forwarding debatable and dubious content, perhaps Technology vendors across the spectrum can evolve approaches to help reduce the menace of fake content in circulation across social media platforms to the greatest extent they can.

On a related note, the cover story in this issue delves into how hyperautomation has a pivotal role in preparing organizations for rapid growth and yet how it needs to be pursued with a holistic approach, ensuring the human element is addressed responsibly along with addressing Business objectives. Embracing new technologies and approaches is inevitable but needs to done responsibly.

R. Narayan

Editor in Chief, CXO DX

COVER STORY

14

14 » THE ROAD TO HYPERAUTOMATION

Enterprises can step up their growth with hyperautomation strategies

NEWS INSIGHT

12 » DELL AND AMD TO UNVEIL AN EXPANSION TO THE DELL GENERATIVE AI SOLUTIONS PORTFOLIO

INTERVIEW

18 » ACCELERATING SUSTAINABILITY

Harpreet Gulati, Senior Vice President, Head of PI System Business at AVEVA spoke about several aspects of driving sustainability outcomes.

20 » EMPOWERING CUSTOMERS

Andrew Elvish, Vice President of Marketing, Genetec discusses the continuous software delivery model and other product enhancements that Genetec is offering.

COLUMN COLUMN

24 » FIVE KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL AI STRATEGIES

Fred Lherault, CTO Emerging, Pure Storage discusses five areas to focus on to get maximum value from AI initiatives.

30 » THE EVOLUTION OF ZERO TRUST

Dave Russell, Vice President, Enterprise Strategy at Veeam discusses how the concept of Zero Trust Data Resilience’ is an evolution of Zero Trust

32 » DISPELLING 8 COMMON MYTHS ABOUT NETWORKING

Prashil Gareeb, VP of Managed Networks from Dimension Data, dispels eight networking myths.

34 » LEVERAGING AI WITH INTELLIGENT DATA INFRASTRUCTURE

An Intelligent data infrastructure, more dynamic, more seamless, and with higher performance than ever before, is key for enterprise businesses says Elena Viniegra. Cloud Director EEMI región, NetApp.

22 » EMPOWERING INNOVATION WITH LOW-CODE

26

» THREE TRENDS REDEFINING DIGITAL EXPERIENCE APPROACHES

Gregg Ostrowski, CTO Advisor, Cisco Observability discusses unified visibility.

13 » ACRONIS ANNOUNCES NATIVE INTEGRATION OF ADVANCED SECURITY AND EDR TECHNOLOGIES 06

35 » THE NEW CYBERCRIME ATLAS: A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH TO FIGHTING DIGITAL CRIME

Derek Manky, Chief Security Strategist at FortiGuard Labs says this open-source research tool will enable and accelerate the disruption of cybercrime.

CIO OUTLOOK REGULARS

Anish Varughese, Director of Information Technology at Skelmore Group discusses his viesws on low-code solutions.

28 » WHY PROCESS MINING IS NECESSARY BEFORE AUTOMATION

Walid Gomaa, CEO at Omnix International writes about the transition to automation.

ZOHO RECORDS 43% REVENUE GROWTH IN UAE

UAE is Zoho’s fastest-growing market globally

Zoho announced a revenue growth of 43% and 29% increase in partner network in the UAE in 2023. This growth has been marked by a significant upmarket shift, with an increasing number of mid-and-large enterprises shifting to Zoho's comprehensive and value-driven solutions.

Zoho has seen a growing demand in adoption among prominent UAE-based organisations, including Al Rostmani Group, Al Shirawi, IFFCO, CAFU, Masafi, Consulate General of India- Dubai, Sharaf DG, MAF Carrefour, and Jashanmal.

Last year, Zoho recorded a 24% increase in migration by large corporations. The upmarket momentum has been led by adoption of Zoho One, Zoho Books, Zoho CRM Plus, Zoho Creator (lowcode platform), Zoho Workplace, and Zoho. This shift signifies Zoho's growing influence and its ability to cater to the diverse needs of businesses of various sizes. In 2023, UAE became Zoho’s fastest-growing market globally.

"The UAE's vibrant business scene and its pioneering approach to digital transformation perfectly align with Zoho's mission to empower enterprises," said Hyther Nizam, President of Zoho MEA.

"We are thrilled to see more leading homegrown companies across diverse sectors leverage our comprehensive solutions to streamline operations, optimise costs, and achieve sustained growth. This fertile ground has allowed Zoho to thrive and contribute to the UAE's continued digital evolution."

The expansion towards the enterprise segment has been further bolstered by Zoho's ongoing strategic partnerships in the UAE as part of its 'transnational localism' strategy. Over the years, the company has partnered with leading government entities including Department of Economy and Tourism (DET), International Free Zone Authority (IFZA), and Dubai Culture among others to support the national digitalisation agenda. With a total value of AED 43-million, Zoho's strategic partnerships have digitally-enabled close to 5000 UAE small, medium and large corporations.

JUNIPER NETWORKS UNVEILS AI-NATIVE NETWORKING PLATFORM

AIOps and virtual network assistant expanded with first integrated digital experience twinning and end-to-end insight across campus, branch and data center infrastructures

Juniper Networks announced an AI-Native Networking Platform, purpose-built to leverage AI to assure the best end-to-end operator and end-user experiences. Trained on seven years of insights and data science development, Juniper’s AI-Native Networking Platform was designed from the ground up to assure that every connection is reliable, measurable and secure for every device, user, application and asset.

Unique to the industry, Juniper’s AI-Native Networking Platform unifies all campus, branch and data center networking solutions with a common AI engine and Marvis Virtual Network Assistant (VNA). This enables end-to-end AI for IT Operations (AIOps) to be used for deep insight, automated troubleshooting and seamless end-to-end networking assurance, which elevates IT teams’ focus from maintaining basic network connectivity to delivering exceptional and secure end-to-end experiences for students, staff, patients, guests, customers and employees.

“AI is the biggest technology inflection point since the internet itself, and its ongoing impact on networking cannot be understated. At Juniper, we have seen first-hand how our game changing

AIOps has saved thousands of global enterprises significant time and money while delighting the end user with a superior experience. Our AI-Native Networking Platform represents a bold new direction for Juniper, and for our industry. By extending AIOps from the end user all the way to the application, and across every network domain in between, we are taking a big step toward making network outages, trouble tickets and application downtime things of the past, “ said Rami Rahim, CEO, Juniper Networks.

Hyther Nizam President of Zoho MEA

VEEAM ENHANCES GLOBAL PROPARTNER NETWORK

New changes to the Veeam ProPartner Network ensure partners have access ztoimproved deal registration and stronger incumbency protection

VeeamSoftware, announced several updates and enhancements of its Veeam ProPartner Network program aimed at helping partners around the world to benefit from the growing adoption of Veeam technology to help companies become radically resilient in the face of growing cyber threats and other outages. The program updates are focused on supporting partner profitability in a more predictable way while ensuring the partner’s business with Veeam is safeguarded. There are a range of new changes to the Veeam ProPartner Network, which includes a solid network of 35,000 technology partners operating in more than 150 countries.

“Veeam is a partner-first company. Partners have been a critical element in Veeam’s success and will continue to be at the center of our continued growth,” said Larissa Crandall, VP of Global Channel and Alliances at Veeam. “We invest significant time listening to our partners and explor-

ing how we can work better together, and of course help them deliver the Veeam Data Platform to secure the best possible outcomes for our joint customers.”

Highlights:

∙Deliver greater profit for partners through improvements in partner margin on the front-end

∙Expanded deal registration eligibility and included non-standard pricing scenarios to enable partners to further grow their customer base

∙Protect Partner margins with new price protection for incumbent partners along with select discounts on maintenance and renewals

∙Enhanced sales and technical training aligned to Competencies enable partners to differentiate through expertise in Cybersecurity and Disaster Recovery, SaaS, Kubernetes data protection and Public Cloud solutions

∙Increased joint customer wins resulting

Larissa Crandall VP of Global Channel and Alliances, Veeam

from Veeam support throughout the entire sales process

∙Increased Marketing support delivering more programs, campaigns and resources through the Veeam Marketing Center.

GENETEC OPENS NEW OFFICE AND EXPERIENCE CENTER IN THE UAE

New Experience Center located in Dubai to support the company’s expanding footprint in the META region.

Genetec, a leading technology provider of unified security, public safety, operations, and business intelligence solutions, today announced the opening of a state-of-the-art experience center in the UAE and the relocation of its Dubai office to accommodate continuous growth in the region.

Named DBXC, the new experience center and office is strategi-

cally located at One Central in the Dubai World Trade Centre and features innovative solutions from Genetec and its large ecosystem of industry-leading technology partners. The new facility will serve as a hub for Genetec partners and customers from Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META).

Featuring an on-site Technology Center that operates as a fully functioning Security Operation Center (SOC) which will enable customers and partners from across the META region to see how Genetec solutions can directly enhance their security and operations. Other features include a training center, a modern workspace to accommodate the fast-growing Genetec META team, and partner meeting areas to serve as a hub for collaboration, education, and innovation.

“In an era where threats continue to evolve in sophistication, our commitment to supporting our customers and partners in the region is steadfast," said Firas Jadalla, Regional Director – Middle East, Turkey & Africa, Genetec Inc. "Our UAE office expansion and new experience center exemplify our dedication to empowering our channel partners and customers with the tools and knowledge needed to navigate the complex security landscape."

OPSWAT REITERATES COMMITMENT TO SECURING

REGIONAL CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

OPSWAT opened its Dubai offices in October last year to address the increasing demand

OPSWAT, a global leader in Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) cybersecurity solutions, reiterated its commitment to helping critical infrastructure organiza-

tions in the region shore up their perimeter defenses against a threat landscape that shows an increasing interest in OT/ICS. OPSWAT’s commitment to the region comes on the back of significant growth in 2023.

OPSWAT saw a 100% year-on-year increase, 70% of which is attributed to new business. The company’s workforce has tripled in size from 2022. Its strategic focus on the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar has expanded its market presence. Its regional customers range from manufacturing and energy to defense and oil and gas. More than 50 GCC ministries selected OPSWAT in 2023 and it now collaborates with 80% of ministries in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. It works with almost all the region’s oil and gas companies. In finance, OPSWAT has provided solutions

to 43 regional banks, including eight central banks, since March 2022, and is in the POC stage with approximately 50 other FSI entities.

Its leaders attribute OPSWAT’s success to its “unique technology”, which includes Multiscanning and Deep Content Disarm and Reconstruction (CDR) — an approach that dismantles otherwise useful files to remove harmful content before reassembling them with their functionality intact.

“The expansion of IoT use cases has led to a rapid union between digital IT and industrial operational technology [OT], which represents a ballooning attack surface and a surge in the number of challenges faced by OT-reliant organizations,” said Sertan Selcuk, VP, METAP and CIS at OPSWAT.

HUAWEI CLOUD ADVANCES CLOUD OPERATIONS IN THE KINGDOM

Receives a Class C License from the Communications, Space, and Technology Commission (CST) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Huawei Cloud has recently received a Class C License from the Communications, Space, and Technology Commission (CST) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, marking the commission's highest certification for Cloud Service Providers (CSPs). The recognition follows a thorough evaluation by the National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA), assessing Huawei Cloud against the Essential Cybersecurity Controls (ECC) and the Cloud Cybersecurity Controls (CCC).

Alan Qi, Chief Executive Officer, Sparkoo Saudi Arabia (Huawei Cloud), said, "Huawei Cloud is honored to receive the prestigious Class C License from the CST, signifying a major milestone in our commitment to advancing cloud services in the Kingdom. This certification underscores our unwavering dedication to upholding the highest cybersecurity stan-

dards and facilitating the nation's digital transformation journey.”

This pivotal license empowers Huawei Cloud to deliver cutting-edge Cloud Services to both public and private sectors across the Kingdom and the wider region. The rigorous criteria for obtaining a Class C License include adherence to the Cloud Cybersecurity Controls (CCC) for the Government Sector, aligning with Class A and Class B standards and requirements, and obtaining necessary approvals in compliance with prevailing laws, regulations, policies, and governance models. Under this license, Huawei Cloud is now authorized to handle government data classifications, encompassing public data, restricted data, secret data, and top-secret data.

This licensing achievement follows the recent launch of the Huawei Cloud Ri-

yadh Region. This pivotal step is part of Huawei Cloud's broader strategy, rooted in Saudi Arabia, aligned with the nation's 2030 vision.

Alan Qi

Chief Executive Officer, Sparkoo Saudi Arabia (Huawei Cloud)

Sertan Selcuk VP, METAP and CIS at OPSWAT

DELINEA ACQUIRES AUTHOMIZE

This accelerates CIEM and ITDR capabilities on the Delinea Platform

Delinea, a leading provider of solutions that seamlessly extend Privileged Access Management (PAM), announced it has acquired Authomize, an innovator in the detection and elimination of identity-based threats across the cloud. The continuous discovery and visibility capabilities of Authomize, married with Delinea’s industry-leading SaaS solutions for PAM, will extend the Delinea Platform’s reach for comprehensive privileged controls in the cloud while expanding its role to provide a strong defense against identity-based attacks such as account takeovers, insider threats, and lateral movement. CIEM and ITDR capabilities will be delivered through the cloud-native Delinea Platform, adding depth to its execution of the company’s vision to extend PAM across the modern enterprise.

“The combination of Delinea and Authomize gives customers the power to detect and mitigate active identity threats across SaaS

applications, cloud, and hybrid infrastructure,” said Art Gilliland, CEO at Delinea. “The extension of human and non-human identities beyond the traditional firewall requires continuous visibility into all SaaS applications, their connections to each other, and across hybrid environments. I'm very excited to bring the Authomize team into Delinea, which greatly extends the reach and expands the role of the Delinea Platform to help organizations of all sizes reduce identity-related risk.“

Authomize CIEM empowers enterprises to extend least privilege controls into their cloud environments by continuously monitoring access privileges, usage changes, and connections between cloud services, SaaS applications, and IAM solutions. Adding Authomize ITDR will increase protection against threats across all identities by detecting abuse and responding to attacks. On the Delinea Platform, the enhanced capabilities will identify and

ADVANSYS ACQUIRES FORTE CLOUD

address issues such as stale accounts, over-privileged identities, and privilege escalation paths, significantly bolstering cloud security by proactively detecting and mitigating threats while maintaining operational continuity.

Acquisition of FORTE CLOUD will position Advansys as one of the technology leaders delivering a worldclass portfolio of digital services globally

Advansys announced its acquisition of FORTE CLOUD – a Cloud Service Provider and Consulting Partner. The acquisition is one of the main milestones in achieving Advansys aggressive expansion plan. This acquisition is not just a merger of two entities, but a fusion of expertise and innovation. Advansys will incorporate FORTE CLOUD's expansive range of cloud services, including advanced cloud architecture and migration solutions. This integration is set to revolutionize Ad-

vansys’s portfolio driving unprecedented value for customers and partners alike.

“FORTE CLOUD is a strong, strategic fit for Advansys and the combination of our two companies will drive significant value for both our partners and customers” said Advansys Chairman and CEO, Ahmed ElMoghazy. “FORTE CLOUD's leading services in the MEA region will add to Advansys, creating a world-class portfolio of offerings. Also, the addition of exceptional talent to our team brings in new expertise and proficiency.”

As the two companies join forces, Ahmed ElMoghazy has been appointed as the Chairman and CEO of FORTE CLOUD, Abdelrahman Elposhi has been appointed as the Chief Technology Officer, Yasser Mamdouh has been appointed as the Chief Financial Officer, and Moheeb Darwish as the Chief Commercial Officer.

Abelrahman Elposhi, founder of FORTE CLOUD, said, “This announcement is a testament to our shared vision of innovation and excellence. The synergistic potential between Advansys and FORTE CLOUD promises to elevate our service capabilities and create a transformative impact in the technology sector.”

Art Gilliland CEO at Delinea

MINDWARE UNVEILS NEW AI UNIT

The AI unit is poised to integrate advanced AI capabilities into Mindware's diverse portfolio.

Mindware, a leading value-added distributor (VAD) in the Middle East and Africa, has announced the launch of its new business unit dedicated to Artificial Intelligence (AI). This strategic move

solidifies Mindware's commitment to being the distributor of choice for all things AI - delivering innovative solutions and comprehensive support to its expansive partner ecosystem. The AI unit is poised to revolutionize the landscape of technological services, by integrating advanced AI capabilities into Mindware's diverse portfolio.

Philippe Jarre, President, Mindware Group said, "Artificial Intelligence is poised to transform industries, and at Mindware, we are excited to be at the forefront of this revolution. With the unveiling of our dedicated AI unit and the recent integration of NVIDIA and its ecosystem into our portfolio, we have significantly strengthened our range of offerings. Our newly formed AI unit, led by Alexandre Boutin as the Director, not only brings cutting-edge solu -

tions but also leverages the power of its vendors' ecosystem. This enables us to deliver comprehensive and innovative AI solutions that empower our partners to thrive in the digital era. Alexandre brings extensive experience and a deep understanding of the AI landscape.”

This development comes in response to the growing demand for AI-driven solutions in various industries, where businesses are seeking intelligent and automated systems to enhance efficiency and drive innovation.

Mindware’s AI unit will provide the following benefits:

• Access to top-tier AI products and solutions

• Dedicated support and resource

• Exclusive training

• Tailored AI solutions

BARRACUDA’S NEW REPORT UNCOVERS THE FINANCIAL FORCES DRIVING CYBERATTACKS

50% of respondents believe AI will enable hackers to launch more attacks

Barracuda Networks published its Cybernomics 101 report, which examines the financial forces and profit motives behind cyberattacks. The new report reveals the average annual cost of responding to compromises exceeded US$5 million. The report also raises the alarm over hackers exploring how they can use generative AI (GenAI) technology to increase the volume, sophistication, and effectiveness of their attacks. 50% of respondents believe AI will enable hackers to launch more attacks. The survey also identified that 71% of respondents had experienced a ransomware attack over the last year, and 61% paid the ransom.

Barracuda commissioned independent research firm Ponemon Institute to poll 1,917 IT security practitioners who manage their organization’s IT security functions or activities. The report offers insight from survey respondents who identified

as ethical hackers on the most widely used attack vectors and which of these might offer the greatest return for attackers.

The research identifies the behaviors and proven security measures implemented by ‘High Performers’ that can serve as models for success. The report presents best practices that will help any organization become more effective in identifying, containing, and recovering from attacks. They include adopting a platform approach to security rather than relying on a collection of disparate individual security tools.

“While the Cybernomics 101 research underscores the harsh reality of suffering a data breach, it also underscores that organizations are not powerless," said Fleming Shi, CTO, Barracuda. "Proactive monitoring and attack detection to prevent progression to more severe stages like data exfiltration or ransomware is key. By preparing for these scenarios today, organizations can significantly reduce the impact and cost of these incidents.”

Philippe Jarre President, Mindware Group

Fleming Shi CTO, Barracuda

REPORT HIGHLIGHTS LACK OF UNDERSTANDING AMONG IT

PROFESSIONALS OF HOW AI TOOLS

WORK

The majority of IT professionals believe AI would make their lives easier, but most are not using it yet

Despite AI hitting new heights in 2023, only two-fifths (22%) of surveyed IT professionals can say they fully understand how AI tools work — according to new research from SolarWinds.

The research, based on a survey of 267 IT professionals, highlights this lack of understanding could be fuelling a disconnect between the perceptions and the reality of AI tool usage. While over half (55%) of IT professionals surveyed believe that AI tools will make their jobs easier, and most (90%) believe their colleagues would embrace such tools, the majority (62%) are not currently using AI day to day.

Of those who are already taking advantage of AI tools, the findings show that their usage is limited to more basic functions than might be expected. Information gathering and research is the most common use — with over a quarter (28%) using it for

this purpose. In a similar vein, 18% use AI tools to help explain complex topics to non-technical colleagues. A further 14% use AI tools to create documents for internal use, but that number falls to less than one in 10 (9%) when creating documents for external use.

When it comes to more technical capabilities, however, just 16% of those who use AI tools do so to write code. While a tiny 6% use AI to identify flaws and security vulnerabilities in code, this signals it might not all be down to limited understanding — lack of confidence in AI tools, or company guidelines, may also be limiting the use of AI for more complex tasks.

SolarWinds Tech Evangelist Sascha Giese, said, “Clearly, there is still a general sense of mystery surrounding AI tools, even from those in more technical roles. Therefore, if businesses want to reap the

Sascha Giese Tech Evangelist, SolarWinds

efficiency rewards AI has to offer and channel savings into innovation, they must invest in education and training.

CISCO UNVEILS SMART AGENT FOR CISCO APPDYNAMICS

New Smart Agent for Cisco AppDynamics simplifies installation, configuration and upgrade of Application and Infrastructure Agents

Cisco has launched Smart Agent for Cisco AppDynamics, enabling agent lifecycle management, dramatically simplifying application instrumentation for full-stack observability through intelligent agent automation and management, and helping customers onboard new applications faster.

Due to the sheer volume of agents — and the time-consuming and complex nature of updating them — many organizations fail to upgrade to the latest versions in a timely fashion. With Smart Agent for Cisco AppDynamics, customers can:

• Simplify the process of installing and upgrading agents: New UI-driven process intelligently automates the installation and upgrade of agents, simplifying the process to just a few clicks. This allows customers to upgrade multiple agents at one time, freeing up resources and talent to focus

Ronak Desai SVP and GM, Cisco AppDynamics

on the management of application performance.

• Access new capabilities faster with push-button upgrades: Smart Agent makes it easy to maintain compliance and

upgrade agents on a regular basis, ensuring customers have the latest versions and access to new functionality, while minimizing risk of security vulnerabilities.

• Gain valuable application performance and business insights at speed: Smart Agent automates the new application instrumentation process with a single agent install that discovers all the processes running on the host, and automatically instruments the full-stack with the agents needed, as governed by a company’s own policies.

“Cisco is committed to using automation and intelligence to give time back to our customers, helping them to reduce the stresses and inefficiencies caused by ever-increasingly complex technology environments,” said Ronak Desai, SVP and GM, Cisco AppDynamics and Full-Stack Observability.

DELL AND AMD TO UNVEIL AN EXPANSION TO THE DELL GENERATIVE AI SOLUTIONS PORTFOLIO

Together with AMD, Dell will offer customers more choice to power their AI and GenAI workloads than before

Dell and AMD are coming together to unveil an expansion to the Dell Generative AI Solutions portfolio, continuing the work of accelerating advanced workloads and offering businesses more choice to continue their unique GenAI journeys. This new technology highlights a pivotal role played by open ecosystems and silicon diversity in empowering customers with simple, trusted and tailored solutions to bring AI to their data.

Generative AI (GenAI) is the decade’s most promising accelerator for innovation with 78% of IT decision makers reporting they’re largely excited for the potential GenAI can have on their organizations. Most see GenAI as a means to provide productivity gains, streamline processes and achieve cost savings. Harnessing this technology is critical to ensure organizations can compete in this new digital era.

The surging growth of data and the question of what to make of it is central in today’s AI landscape. AI is the latest wave of innovation, and working to help ensure organizations have access to the compute power needed to fuel their innovation engine is critical. Together with AMD, Dell will offer customers more choice to power their AI and GenAI workloads than before.

“Technology is at an inflection point as powerful IT systems are making it possible for AI to transform how enterprises and industries operate. Today’s computing makes this possible in ways the world’s not seen before. Through our longstanding AMD relationship, we are empowering customers with greater flexibility in trusted and tailored solutions to power their AI and generative AI workloads,” said Arthur Lewis, president, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Dell Technologies.

Dell PowerEdge XE9680 will support the upcoming AMD Instinct MI300X accelerator, offering customers more choice when it comes to AI performance. The PowerEdge XE9680 with AMD Instinct MI300X offers high-performance capabilities for enterprises seeking to unlock the value of their data and differentiate their business with customized large language models (LLMs). With eight MI300X GPUs, 192GB of 5.3 TB/s High Bandwidth Memory (HBM3) per GPU for a total coherent HBM3 capacity of 1.5 TB per server and over 21 petaflops of FP16 performance, the PowerEdge XE9680 with MI300X is poised to further democratize access to GenAI for enterprises eager to train larger models, reduce data center footprints, lower TCO and gain a competitive edge.

Along with the support for the AMD MI300X Instinct Accelerator, Dell is also announcing the next step of Dell Generative AI Solutions, making it easier for organizations to deploy trustworthy GenAI with the new Dell Validated Design for Generative AI with AMD.

This new Dell Validated Design for Generative AI with AMD ROCm powered AI frameworks, available next year, extends the Dell Generative AI Solutions ecosystem and will include opensource LLMs. AMD ROCm is an open-source stack of drivers, dev toolkits and APIs for AMD Instinct accelerators. Dell Validated Designs for Generative AI make it simple for Dell customers to build trusted GenAI platforms tailored to their needs by taking the guesswork out of integration, performance and sizing considerations.

Dell’s latest eBook and infographic demonstrate how ROCm-optimized open-source AI and ML frameworks like PyTorch, TensorFlow, ONNX-RT, JAX and Triton have native support for the PowerEdge XE9680 with MI300X, enabling simple drop-in support for LLMs based on these popular frameworks.

The PowerEdge XE9680 is a powerhouse in performance and a champion of security and simplicity. Dell Open Manage Enterprise software simplifies and accelerates GenAI infrastructure deployment, while CloudIQ software provides intelligent automation from anywhere. The PowerEdge XE9680 is backed by integrated cyber recovery and a broad Zero Trust approach for greater security. The PowerEdge XE9680 leverages the AMD Instinct Platform powered by eight AMD Instinct MI300X accelerators, enabling near-linear scaling and low latency distributed GenAI training and inferencing with Global Memory Interconnect (xGMI) spanning a cluster of PowerEdge servers interconnecting MI300X GPUs over an Ethernet-based AI fabric using a Dell validated GPU fabric with Dell PowerSwitch Z9664F-ON.

ACRONIS ANNOUNCES NATIVE INTEGRATION OF ADVANCED SECURITY AND EDR TECHNOLOGIES

Users gain access to mission-critical EDR capabilities at no additional cost

Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection, announced a groundbreaking advancement with the native integration of its Advanced Security and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions. This industry-first move not only reinforces Acronis' position at the forefront of cyber protection but also aligns seamlessly with the recognition that traditional security is insufficient against the surge of AI-driven cyber-attacks. In response to this growing need, Acronis ensures that its users gain access to mission-critical EDR capabilities at no additional cost. Prompted by rapidly increasing AI-driven cyber-attacks, this combination of cybersecurity capabilities will help partners solidify their defense strategy against evolving threats in a way that is efficient and cost-effective.

In this rapidly changing cybersecurity landscape, EDR is no longer just a preference – it is a necessity to fortify MSPs against the daily onslaught of sophisticated cyber threats. MSPs have historically struggled with the challenges of operating a disparate set of security tools, resulting in elevated administrative overhead, increased possibilities for human error, and a more vulnerable environment overall. Acronis addresses these critical pain points by integrating endpoint detection and response (EDR) seamlessly with endpoint management, and backup and recovery solutions. “MSPs and their customers are constantly under attack, facing increasingly more sophisticated threats. Traditional antimalware offerings have become obsolescent. MSPs need EDR,” said Ezequiel Steiner, CEO at Acronis. “Understanding the challenges of widespread EDR adoption, particularly in terms of cost and complexity for MSPs, we have added it at no additional price – disrupting the security market and allowing them to deploy Acronis security to ALL endpoints. Notably, Acronis EDR stands out with its MSP-centric design, enhancing technician efficiency through automation and substantially reducing false positives."

Key features and benefits of Acronis’ integrated Advanced Security + EDR solution for MSPs include:

 Complete Security Solution: MSPs can easily launch and implement a comprehensive security framework that includes rapid recovery capabilities in the event of a successful attack. This integrated approach streamlines security measures, providing a unified front against modern threats.

 Compliance and Protection: The solution enables MSPs to protect against modern threats and readily comply with cyber insurance requirements. With Acronis' integrated technologies, partners can strengthen their security posture, ensuring the highest standards of protection and compliance.

 Greater Efficiency: By minimizing administrative overhead through a single security platform, Acronis empowers MSPs to

Ezequiel Steiner CEO at Acronis

Qatar, Dell Technologies

maximize efficiency. The streamlined approach simplifies management tasks, reducing the risk of errors and enhancing overall operational effectiveness.

The advancement of AI (Artificial Intelligence) tools has allowed threat actors to enhance attack sophistication, volume, and speed. This escalation in attacks poses a greater threat to MSPs and their clients, highlighting the need for a more comprehensive and simplified security framework. Acronis responds to these challenges, meeting the evolving needs of its partners and driving innovation in cyber protection. To address the industry shifts, Acronis takes a forward-thinking approach, leading the future of the security space by providing a comprehensive all-in-one solution

Recognizing the critical importance of securing all endpoints, Acronis recommends that MSPs deploy security to every endpoint. While MSPs often focus on protecting only critical endpoints, it's essential to acknowledge that any endpoint can serve as an entry point for network penetration. Security must extend to all endpoints to ensure a complete cyber-protection solution. Acronis' integration of Advanced Security and EDR solutions reaffirms its commitment to leading the security sector by offering solutions that address these emerging challenges completely.

THE ROAD TO HYPERAUTOMATION

Enterprises can step up their growth with hyperautomation strategies

Hyperautomation is an essential way forward for organizations to boost efficiencies. A framework of technologies including RPA, AI and ML as well as several others including BPM, iPaaS, Low code-no code, etc., it seeks to automate processes systematically within the organization.

Umesh Moolchandani, CIO at Bin Dasmal Group says, “Enterprises are progressively required to implement hyper-automation strategies as a result of the ever-changing digital environment and the ongoing pursuit of operational excellence. Utilizing advanced technologies such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and other types of decision management systems, hyperautomation automates processes in a manner that is considerably more comprehensive than that of conventional automation capabilities.”

Aiman Al Jabr, Head of IT at Havelock One Interiors says, “Enterprises can greatly benefit from having a hyperautomation strategy. It helps streamline processes, improve efficiency, and reduce manual tasks. Hyper-automation, combining AI, ML, and RPA, is indeed becoming more prevalent in our industry sector. It brings significant advantages to businesses by enhancing productivity, accuracy, and decision-making.

Adopting a hyper-automation strategy isn't just about optimizing operations; it's about future-proofing the organization and ensuring its relevance and competitiveness in a rapidly transforming digital ecosystem.

Bejesh Pereira, Group Director of IT at Lakhraim Business Group says, “As an IT leader, I firmly believe that enterprises must have a hyper-automation strategy in today's rapidly evolving digital landscape. Hyper-automation, which combines AI, ML, and RPA technologies, offers unprecedented opportunities for streamlining operations, enhancing efficiency, and driving innovation across various business functions. In the highly competitive landscape of the UAE real estate industry, companies that embrace hyper-automation gain a significant advantage over their competitors.”

He adds, “By automating processes, leveraging AI and ML for predictive insights, and implementing RPA for repetitive tasks, organizations can operate more efficiently, respond to market changes more effectively, and deliver superior customer experiences. In an environment where agility and innovation are paramount, having a robust hyper-automation strategy is not just beneficial but necessary to outpace competitors and maintain market leadership.”

According to Umesh, there are multiple justifications for why an organization might require a hyper-automation strategy.

He elaborates, “A significant competitive advantage can be gained by businesses through the implementation of hyper-automation, which streamlines operations, reduces costs, and increases efficiency. It empowers organizations to streamline intricate procedures that were otherwise impracticable to au-

tomate, thereby affording them a competitive edge over rivals who are lagging in their adoption of these technologies. Businesses can substantially increase efficiency and productivity by automating a wide range of processes. By doing so, organizations not only decrease the amount of time and resources needed to accomplish duties, but also enable their personnel to allocate their efforts towards more strategic endeavors that add value.”

“Hyperautomation tools, especially those that utilize AI and ML, are capable of processing data with exceptional levels of precision and consistency. Compared to manual processes, this reduces the likelihood of errors and can enhance the overall quality of the work. Hyper-automation also facilitates the efficient scalability of business operations. Frequently, automated processes can be increased or decreased with minimal effort, enabling organizations to react to fluctuations in demand more promptly,” he adds further.

Eeventual cost reduction is also an important consideration in developing a hyperautomation strategy, although there may be a substantial initial investment required for hyperautomation technologies. Hyperautomation can also foster an innovative culture within an organization and is seen as a key driver of digital transformation.

Finally, hyperautomation can assist organizations in meeting regulatory requirements more effectively and efficiently. By precisely adhering to regulatory guidelines, automated systems

Umesh Moolchandani CIO, Bin Dasmal Group

Aiman Al Jabr Head of IT, Havelock One Interiors

can be programmed to reduce the likelihood of non-compliance. They can also enhance risk management through the provision of enhanced monitoring and data analysis capabilities.

Hyperautomation best suits certain contexts that can benefit most from it because of the repetitive and routine nature of those tasks.

“Various business processes and areas can benefit significantly from hyperautomation. These include repetitive tasks, data entry, customer service, and back-office operations,” says Aiman.

According to Bejesh, efficient property management and enhanced Customer Service are key areas where it can make a difference.

“Hyperautomation streamlines tasks like data entry, invoicing, and inventory management, reducing manual effort and errors. This efficiency extends to finance-related processes such as rent collection and expense tracking, improving cash flow management and profitability. AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants provide round-the-clock support for inquiries, appointment scheduling, and personalized recommendations. This enhances customer satisfaction and retention, increasing occupancy rates and property valuations.”

Further, hyperautomation helps optimize transaction processes and enables seamless Integration and Collaboration.

“RPA automates document verification, contract management, and payment processing, accelerating deal closures and reducing administrative overhead. AI-powered analytics facilitate smart contract management, ensuring compliance and minimizing financial risks. Hyper-automation bridges the gap between different systems and stakeholders, enabling seamless data synchronization, workflow automation, and real-time collaboration. This enhances visibility, efficiency, and transparency across the entire real estate value chain, facilitating better decision-making and resource optimization,” Bejesh adds.

According to Umesh, “By reducing expenses, increasing productivity, and facilitating better judgment, hyper-automation can have a profound effect on a wide range of business processes and domains. Hyper-automation can provide the greatest benefits to several business processes and domains including Customer Service and Support, Accounting and Finance, HR, Supply Chain and Logistics, Manufacturing, Sales and Marketing, IT, R &D etc.”

The impact of hyperautomation can be across business functions and industries, delivering significant outcomes when properly implemented..

For instance, the utilization of AI chatbots and virtual assistants in customer service and support enables the efficient management of a substantial influx of inquiries while delivering prompt resolutions. Similarly, data entry, invoice processing, and reconciliation are a few of the repetitive duties that RPA can automate. Through the analysis of patterns in financial data, AI and ML can improve financial forecasting, fraud detection, and risk management.

Hyperautomation has the potential to optimize various human resources (HR) procedures, such as payroll processing, employee data management, recruitment and induction. The utilization of AI and ML in supply chain and logistics can deliver time and cost savings through the optimization of demand forecasting, route planning, inventory management, and demand prediction.

Production planning, maintenance (via predictive analytics), quality control (by means of AI-powered visual inspection systems), and product design (by means of generative design algorithms) can all be enhanced through the implementation of hyperautomation in the manufacturing sector, in addition to production line automation.

“Significant advancements in innovation, consumer experience, and operational efficiency may result from the considerable effects of hyper-automation. Successful implementation, nevertheless, necessitates meticulous preparation, a comprehensive comprehension of operational procedures, and congruence with the objectives and capacities of the organization,” adds Umesh.

The journey towards hyperautomation would need to be in line with Business objectives and identification of key processes that can benefit from it most via process mining.

Aiman says, “Aligning existing technologies and infrastructure

with hyper-automation involves evaluating current systems and identifying areas where automation can be integrated seamlessly. It may require updating software, training staff, and ensuring compatibility between systems.”

Successful implementation requires thorough preparation, an extensive understanding of operational procedures, and executing the implementation in line with the objectives of the organization.

“Developing and executing a hyper-automation strategy, necessitates substantial investment, meticulous planning, and a readiness to accommodate modifications. Additionally, businesses must consider the effects on their personnel and ensure that staff members are adequately trained to operate in tandem with automated systems. The adoption of hyper-automation should ultimately be determined in accordance with the overarching strategic objectives and capabilities of the enterprise,” says Umesh.

Organizations need to adopt a strategic approach that includes an evaluation of the areas that can benefit most and the best approaches to implementing automation that can maximize the benefits.

Bejesh says, “. Organizations must conduct a comprehensive audit of their current IT systems and processes to identify areas that are ready for automation, and leverage APIs and integration platforms to connect disparate systems and data sources. By taking a modular and phased approach, organizations can incrementally adopt hyperautomation solutions while maximizing the value of their existing investments. potential integration points and areas for enhancement. Furthermore, they should prioritize interoperability and compatibility when selecting hyperautomation solutions, ensuring seamless integration with existing platforms and minimizing disruption to ongoing operations.” There are challenges when it comes to deploying hyper-automation. These range from managing organizational resistance to managing scalability of automation strategies in line with the evolving technology landscape.

Aiman says, “Challenges in deploying hyper-automation include managing change within the organization, ensuring data accuracy and security, and addressing potential resistance from employees.” Bejesh says, “Some of the challenges in deploying hyper-automation include cultural resistance to change, skill gaps in AI and automation technologies, legacy systems integration, data quality issues, and ensuring regulatory compliance. Overcoming these challenges requires strong leadership, effective change management strategies, ongoing training and upskilling initiatives, and collaboration across business units and IT teams. Moreover, ensuring the scalability and sustainability of hyper-automation initiatives poses a significant challenge, as the technology landscape continues to evolve rapidly. Therefore, organizations must continually reassess their automation strategies and adapt to emerging trends and technologies to stay ahead of the curve.”

Significant cybersecurity and data security concerns arise in

the context of hyper-automation, encompassing every stage from data collection to utilization.

Umesah says, “Effective operation of hyper-automation technologies, such as AI, ML, and RPA, is highly dependent on data. Large volumes of sensitive data that are processed and stored by these technologies generate potential vulnerabilities and targets for cyber threats. By implementing comprehensive security measures and adhering to best practices, organizations can effectively safeguard sensitive data throughout their lifecycle and substantially reduce the risks associated with hyper-automation.”

Indeed the road to adopting hyperautomation needs to go hand in hand with cybersecurity and approaches like Zeo Trust and access to real-time threat intelligence is crucial.

Aiman says, “cybersecurity and data security concerns are important considerations with hyper-automation. Measures such as encryption, access controls, regular audits, and compliance with data protection regulations help address these concerns and ensure data security throughout the automation process.”

While the road to embracing hyperautomation presents exciting prospects of enhancing Business growth through streamlining inefficiencies in processes, organizations must also tread the path with responsibility and caution and seek to apply it to only processes that allow employees to focus on higher-value tasks.

Bejesh Pereira Group Director of IT, Lakhraim Business Group

ACCELERATING SUSTAINABILITY

Harpreet Gulati, Senior Vice President, Head of PI System Business at AVEVA spoke about several aspects of driving sustainability outcomes with digital transformation and the road ahead to enabling the hydrogen economy

Discuss AVEVA’s focus on advancing energy transition

At AVEVA we believe in accelerating collaboration across the industry to enable the energy transition. The fact is also that we need to have an open, collaborative, and connected industrial economy, which is essential for speeding up and scaling up the decarbonization effort.

Digital is the key foundation of how decarbonization is going to happen. If you can't measure it, how can you improve? So, we enable the measurement digitalization of all these efforts. But then we can go all the way from a sustainable design to sustainable operation and a sustainable value chain. The focus area for us is to create solutions that address the challenges of climate change and advance the energy transition.

How are you accelerating the hydrogen economy?

Hydrogen is hugely one of the key pillars of the future of decarbonization with analysts predicting that green hydrogen has the potential to expand to almost $11 trillion addressable market space globally and supply up to 25% of the world's energy needs by 2050. There are many challenges, right from how to be able to produce green hydrogen in a commercially viable space, to the need to be close to other ways of energy production such as blue hydrogen, and be viable as required by the energy trilemma. Affordability is one of the key central points. For green hydrogen to be viable, it must be affordable as well. That is sort of the first part, as to how you make it affordable from a production point of view and in addition everything from the transportation of hydrogen to distribution, getting it to the consumers, meeting the regulatory requirements, and other challenges. There are challenges across the value chain of hydrogen production, transportation, and distribution and they'll need to be addressed.

The results are tremendous as we could achieve 20% of the total abatement that is required towards net zero goals with green hydrogen. So, we're working with leaders across this value chain of green hydrogen. There's a lot that can be done. Green Hydrogen is a critical component of the energy of the future.

Where does the sustainability vision originate from at AVEVA?

If you were to look at it, sustainability is the new name for energy saving in some ways. And sustainability is another side of the coin for going digital. People have wanted to go digital because they needed to do something better like improving the throughput, optimizing energy utilization etc, all of which resulted in savings in energy. We've been focused on sustainability from inception and our priorities have been about creating best designs, enabling better operations, and so on. We've been doing this across multiple sectors and not just the energy sectors.

There's a lot of innovation happening now around sustainability and people are looking for new ways to get green hydrogen, carbon capture etc. We're looking at small modular reactors, Fusion etc. There are so many possibilities right now and while some of these are ideas, some are in the early stages. This is where we will come in because we enable these possibilities from design to operation to optimization. The profile of AVEVA in sustainability has mirrored the importance of sustainability in the industry.

How do companies need to look at their sustainability journey?

Different industries and companies are at different levels of maturity in terms of their sustainability journey. Yet we estimate

that up to 20% of effort can be done by digital alone, which is just the average. We have seen many success stories where people have seen much more savings. It all depends on where the baseline is, on where you start. The lower or earlier your starting point is lower, the ending point can be higher. But even for companies that have a plan running as of today, which would be a brownfield project and the company wants to start on a sustainable journey, there is a goal and certain targets and the first place to start is by looking at where the baseline currently is. We can help them with 20 to 25% abatement, purely by looking at their data. You can go backward and when you start doing sustainable design, there can be about 40-40% savings on CAPEX, if sustainability is included at the conceptual stage because of more options that would be available.

What is asset-oriented digital transformation and how do you enable companies to achieve this?

How do you look at and define the assets for a company which could be the plant as an asset or a unit operation, or even going down to one level down a machinery, a compressor, or a heat exchanger, bottling line, etc. The goal is to create this concept of an asset design and you can view information about it. You can then start adding context to it. The journey for the Greenfield project could be different from a Brownfield but with similar outcomes. The outcome is that you have information about the asset such as spatial information, data sheets, information manuals, operating data, commercial information etc. How do how do you contextualize this information? How do you sort of bring information from disparate sources and bring together and provide at the end of the day, to the other asset which is human, all this information as quickly as possible? On an average process, engineers in a plant spent almost 30 to 40% of their time just looking for information. We want to enable this huge transformation and provide a 360-degree view of that asset with as much enriched contextualized information as possible.

That solution is a digital twin, a digital twin that has connections to all of this, which is born digital, or is created digital at a later stage. And underneath the foundation of this is all the engineering and operational data. When you connect the engineering information and operational information, there's a huge amount of information that can be gotten out of the operation. People don't realize that they have such a rich amount of information stored in their past data.

What is connected insights about?

Inside an organization, you can connect data, driving new insights. But there's another portion of connection that happens outside the boundaries of an organization. And that's where we discuss the connected industrial economy and how we look at a value chain. The challenge is to share, safely, securely share information across the value chain. Being able to share data safely securely across the value chain upstream and downstream providers is an emerging area. Today, we share information outside our company, mostly by email, sending

Harpreet Gulati Senior Vice President, Head of PI System Business, AVEVA

spreadsheets and so on, and that's an inefficient way to do it. We need to have systems that help securely share just the right amount of information across multiple players who have access to it. When trusted, high-fidelity operations data streams are aggregated and analyzed across assets, companies, and geographies, businesses can realize competitive advantages, unlocking growth and sustainability across the industrial ecosystem. We are enabling that as well.

"For green hydrogen to be viable, it must be affordable as well. That is sort of the first part, as to how you make it affordable from a production point of view and in addition everything from the transportation of hydrogen to distribution, getting it to the consumers, meeting the regulatory requirements, and other challenges."

EMPOWERING CUSTOMERS

Andrew Elvish, Vice President of Marketing, Genetec discusses the continuous software delivery model and other enhancements that Genetec is offering its customers through its solutions

How was Intersec this year?

Not only was it back to pre-pandemic levels, but it was even higher. And we've had a very busy show this year, with lots and lots of visitors coming by. But what we've noticed as a difference is that our channel partners brought more of their customers to Genetec stand. And not just because Genetec is the market leader, but because we're seeing that the end users are demanding much more sophisticated requirements from channel partners and these partners rely on us as the software manufacturer, to help them address the needs of the end user.

Discuss the focus on the hybrid cloud at Genetec? Are you seeing significant traction in the market?

In the Middle East, there has been sort of a little bit more resistance towards moving to the cloud in the Middle East, because some of the major cloud platforms don't have data centers in the region yet. There are still questions about data sovereignty. That said, when we look at what Genetec does, in terms of a hybrid approach, we can take advantage of the cloud in the Middle East to deliver firmware updates, cybersecurity patches, and updates to the product without having to move sensitive data offsite. A lot of end users and channel partners are designing systems that take advantage of on-premises storage using our Streamvault systems.

But because we have this hybrid and edge strategy, you probably can do a lot more with the product by leveraging different parts of the system availability, Genetec updates, or continuous improvements in this product. And that's where we're seeing it's starting to gain traction here. Pure play video surveillance as a service is unlikely to go very far in the Middle East. But what Genetec offers is making a big difference, because our channel partners see this continuous delivery model as a way of making it a more seamless way to deal with their customers. Because they come to rely on a continuous update service that delivers value to the Security Center. This has moved towards sort of like what happens on your cell phone when your apps update themselves based on schedules.

You have recently opened a new office and Experience centre in the region. Please elaborate.

When we looked at our business, 18 months ago, our business was growing very quickly in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa, and it continues to grow strongly. So, we wanted to have a place where our channel partners to bring their customers to experience our solutions. And we set out to do that, at the same time, realizing that we had expanded the number of employees who were working at our company. So, we had to have more space for our diverse service, commercial teams, and marketing teams.

And we wanted to have our Experience Center to empower our partners. We have a fully operational SOC security operations center Dubai Experience Center. It’s a place where our channel partners can show the art of the possible and we've also brought solutions from all our technology partners together as well. So, you can see the latest camera from Axis, or the latest door controllers from HID for instance at the center. There's an enormous IoT wall as well as part of the experience center.

Genetec will be working very closely with vendors and partners to ensure that when they customize, customers get the real experience that they get to see. We'll also put more emphasis on the features that are appropriate for different verticals including utilities and critical infrastructure. If It's for a retail customer, the focus will be on adding more retail specific functionalities and so on.

Discuss Saudi Arabia as a focus?

The Saudi market is seeing a lot of growth. There's so much development going on right now across critical infrastructure from resorts to public transportation. We've seen business growing through our partners. We have just opened our UAE office, and this will help us enhance our focus in the region.

What enhancements does your new product release Security Center 5.12 have to offer?

As I mentioned earlier, this offers the idea of continuous delivery. We've spent a lot of time containerizing the architecture of the security center. We can therefore always deliver updates to customers over time. In the traditional way of delivering updates, when it comes time to install a new version, it could get complicated and time-consuming, and potentially require a lot of manpower downtime, so customers may not upgrade. And that's a problem because the old software can become vulnerable, and you can only patch it so much. You can't take advantage of the latest features. With continuous delivery in 5.12, it allows the users of our

Andrew Elvish Vice President of Marketing, Genetec

software to have small upgrades and new features delivered all the time. That makes a huge difference to the ability to keep your system up to date and to also be able to take advantage of new features.

Further, not everybody needs access to the full feature set. A lot of people just need access control and videos. They can do that through the web app. It's lightweight. You can run it in Chrome, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge Safari, on a Mac, PC, or a Linux box. You can take advantage of a robust security center system without having to install it on a powerful workstation. And finally, customers want insight into their business. They want to get insights into what's happening in their business. Of course, they want security, but they also want business intelligence as to how their retail facilities are being used, how the real estate is being used, whether people are taking advantage of common spaces, etc. So reporting, and that ability to see the data in real-time is a massive need and that's really what we're bringing to market with Security Center 5.12.

Discuss your channel focus

We have a good channel base but we've emphasized quality and protection of territories. Further, when you're dealing with something like Genentec, you have to be trained. You have to have technicians; you have to have expertise in-house. And that's expensive. So we only want people who will commit to the training, who will commit to the technicians to deliver superior experience. We have a very competent channel. And we have a mix of global and local partners.

EMPOWERING INNOVATION WITH LOW-CODE

Anish Varughese, Director of Information Technology at Skelmore Group discusses his views on low-code solutions

Anish Varughese Director of Information Technology, Skelmore Group

How do you see the relevance and use of low-code platforms in the enterprise? Are no code platforms also relevant to some use contexts?

In today’s world where digital transformation is crucial for any organization’s success, accelerating development and agility is key. Low code and no code does exactly that by drastically reducing development time. Our strategic vision is not just to equip our IT team but also to empower all our departments and thereby democratize. By providing them with no code platforms, we are fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration. Such a holistic approach helps our organization to remain agile and

forward-thinking to proactively address emerging challenges. Speaking from a strategic standpoint, understanding when to employ low-code/ no-code is essential to maximize efficiency.

Can you build enterprise-grade robust applications with such platforms?

Yes, building enterprise-grade robust applications with low-code/ no-code platforms is indeed possible. However, it depends on the specific requirements. If it’s a complex application, there are limitations with current platforms. With ongoing advancements in AI and technology rapidly evolving, we can expect these platforms to offer more customization capabilities in the near future.

Can there be cybersecurity challenges?

Yes, cybersecurity challenges are there, and this is why it’s important to evaluate the platform thoroughly. A platform may be great in terms of providing all the development features and very user-friendly, however, it’s imperative to meet the security standards as well. This would instil confidence among IT leaders. A potential risk lies with business users who are not trained in security, as they may neglect security measures and render the application vulnerable.

Can these be built by non-IT staff such as people in Business teams with ready-made scripts? Would this need supervision or collaboration with the IT team to ensure there are no hiccups?

Absolutely, and this is exactly why such platforms are gaining traction nowadays. These platforms give the power to anyone (even those without programming knowledge) to transform their visions into reality. For instance, marketing teams can envision, develop, and launch websites themselves, significantly accelerating the development process. The first few engagements may require the IT team’s support to ensure adherence to best practices. Aspiring entrepreneurs looking at building technology applications can benefit from low-code/no-code platforms. They can accelerate prototype development and allow for quick validation of business ideas without heavily investing in custom development.

Are these best suited to only some verticals and functions?

Low code/no code can cater to a wide range of verticals. However, the specific suitability is dependent on the requirements and complexities of the project. A drawback with many of these platforms is the limitation on customization.

FIVE KEY CONSIDERATIONS TO CREATE SUCCESSFUL AI STRATEGIES

Fred Lherault, CTO Emerging, Pure Storage discusses five areas to focus on to get maximum value from AI initiatives

With the amount of hype that’s surrounded AI and generative AI over the last year, people would be forgiven for rushing to adopt the first AI solution they looked at. AI projects have to involve data, and massive amounts of it. This data goes on a complex journey before it reaches AI usability and organisations need to ensure they have the tools and processes in place to make it successful. In addition, there are many other things to consider: usability; getting value; proving ROI; managing sustainability.

This guide examines five areas to focus on to get maximum value from AI initiatives.

Design for flexibility — don’t get tied down

In a fast paced industry, technology professionals are no stranger to moving quickly. While this pace is exciting, in the world of AI,

the tools, models and methods used are different today than they were even a year ago. Anticipating this and building flexibility into planning cycles, systems and processes is essential to getting value from any AI project.

Don’t try to build a solution that fits strictly the requirements of today, because this solution could quickly become obsolete and potentially fail if it can’t adapt to the constant changes in the AI space. If an investment was made two years ago — what’s happening with it now — is it still usable and driving business value? Build with the most flexibility possible, for the unknown and unexpected situations, so that the organisation can adapt as needed.

Incorporate flexible consumption models

The fast pace of change mentioned makes planning large scale investments a potentially risky expense. The market is moving

much faster than the traditional purchasing cycle for many companies and so how technology is consumed is another factor that needs to be flexible.

Whenever possible, avoid being tied down by CapEx investments, which can be more risky when it comes to AI. The resources may sit unused for many months, and may need to cater to different requirements as the project, use cases and ecosystem evolves.

A flexible consumption model will enable organisations to flex up and down as required, and change requirements as projects evolve. Not only that but they will be backed up by Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to provide customers with more reassurance that vendors are there to support them.

Incorporate sustainability into preparation

There used to be three dimensions infrastructure managers would care about: capacity, performance and cost. Now power efficiency is the four dimension and it’s as important as the other three in storage decision making, especially when it comes to power hungry AI.

The demands on power and cooling from AI projects are at ridiculously high levels. We hear about it from every customer — they need to drive efficiency in every area they can while using AI. The data centre designs from ten years ago aren’t fit for purpose in this regard — they were never designed to be used in this way and organisations need many times the KW per rack capacity than they did years, or even months ago. Every KW that can be saved on storage and networking is a KW that can be used for compute resources to run AI.

Add to this the rising electricity costs to power and cool data centres, as well as the increasing limitations on building new data centres, and organisations should be looking for the most power efficient technology available which fits into the smallest footprint.

Build the right tools and platforms to improve how data scientists spend their time

Training AI is resource intensive and generally requires expensive GPUs. Organisations are therefore well aware of the need to optimise GPU resource utilisation. There is however another resource that is as important to optimise: data scientists’ time, since they spend more time loading, cleaning and experimenting with data than they spend training and scoring AI models.

In order to make the data preparation part of the process smooth and efficient, the AI platform team will need to build the necessary tools and platforms. Like developers, data scientists would rather have instant access to resources; instant results; and self service to perform their work quickly and efficiently. AI platform engineers will need to build an as-a-Service AI tooling platform that does this, further bolstering the earlier argument in favour of a flexible consumption model.

Another consideration is where the data sits: on-prem or cloud. Using GPUs in the public cloud is an extremely expensive resource. It would be useful for an experiment, but for intensive or

long term work, it’s not the right workload for cloud use.

Build ROI models

This should go without saying — but no-one should rush into an AI project without building a solid business case with metrics and ROI. Those who hurry to adopt because of the hype, risk their efforts being wasted. As ever, this comes back to business strategy: what is important for the business, internally and for customers. What is physically possible with the resources available. This includes both computing and skilled people.

Organisations need to put metrics together before they start experimenting: define the parameters and success factors, the same as any other business issue.

Planning for an unknown future

Of course every organisation is planning without knowing the future. No-where is this more true than in AI. The pace of change, the skills shortage, the complex landscape mean that what works now, is likely to change in the future and organisations need to ensure they have planned, prepared and built in flexibility to meet the changing needs. There are certain elements that organisations want, which will never go away, including ease of use, sustainability and proving ROI. If AI managers can plan and incorporate technology which ticks these boxes, they’re well on the way to successful AI implementation.

Fred Lherault

CTO Emerging, Pure Storage

THREE TRENDS REDEFINING DIGITAL EXPERIENCE APPROACHES

Gregg Ostrowski, CTO Advisor, Cisco Observability discusses the reasons that make unified visibility across hybrid environments crucial so they can detect issues and rapidly understand root causes and dependencies.

Throughout the pandemic, organizations in all industries saw a massive increase in the number of people using their applications and digital services.

With restrictions on face-to-face interactions and travel, people all over the world had no option but to rely on digital services to stay connected to friends and family, to carry on with their jobs, and to access groceries, entertainment and healthcare services. Consumers largely felt grateful to brands whose applications helped them through those difficult months and years.

But now, with the pandemic now thankfully behind us, things are different. People are still using applications and digital services in almost every aspect of their lives — valuing the accessibility and convenience these services bring. However, consumers are once again feeling in control of their lives and this is reflected in the way they think about applications and the brands behind them. That sense of appreciation towards brands has been replaced by one of high expectation and sometimes frustration.

The latest research from Cisco, The App Attention Index 2023: Beware the Application Generation, explores how consumers’ attitudes and behaviors towards digital services are evolving and what this means for brands and the IT teams responsible for managing application performance and security.

In particular, the study of 15,000 consumers worldwide — including 1000 in the UAE — reveals three key trends in consumer behavior and thinking that every application owner needs to understand and act on:

Consumers are removing ‘application clutter’ and being more mindful about their use of digital services

People of all ages, and particularly younger consumers, are becoming more mindful about their use of digital services. They’re weighing the value of each application and thinking longer and harder before they download and install new applications on their devices. Most people have very different needs and lifestyles now compared with two years ago and therefore many of the digital services they used during the pandemic are simply no longer relevant to their lives. In fact, on average, consumers feel that they could live without 40% of the applications that they have downloaded on their devices.

And in response, people are taking action, ruthlessly deleting applications that no longer meet their needs. 77% of UAE consumers state that they are getting rid of ‘application clutter’, and 80% (18 percentage points higher than the global average) are now looking to limit the number of apps they use or have on their device.

Consumers are actively looking for the very best digital experiences available

People have become more sophisticated and discerning in their use of applications. They have seen first-hand the types of digital experiences that the most innovative brands are offering and they now want this every time they use an application. Similarly, all three-quarters of consumers across the Emirates (74%) state that they now only want to use the very best applications and digital services.

Growing numbers of regional consumers are starting to pride themselves on only using the most innovative and intuitive digital services, and 71% report that their expectations for digital experiences are far higher now than they were two years ago. People today want every moment they’re using an application to enhance their lives, and they don’t want to feel like they’re wasting time using a digital service.

Consumers are getting fed up with poorly performing applications and feel empowered to find alternatives

71% of UAE consumers admit they are less forgiving of poor digital services than they were 12 months ago. People are reacting more strongly when they encounter a bad digital experience — they’re becoming frustrated and angry, and they’re sharing their negative experiences with anybody who will listen.

Crucially, unlike during the pandemic when consumers felt they had no option but to put up with poorly performing applications, they now feel empowered to take action against brands whose applications let them down. They’re deleting applications without a second thought and finding alternatives. And where they are tied to brands (such as banks and mobile phone companies), people are ditching applications and reverting back to traditional channels, such as call centers, branches and stores.

On average, consumers have deleted five different applications over the past year as a result of a bad digital experience and this figure rises to an astonishing seven applications for younger consumers.

Application observability to get ahead of consumer demands

These three trends in consumer behavior should make every application owner sit up and take notice. The bar for digital experience has been raised significantly and any brand who falls below the required level will be severely punished. Even the smallest slip up in application availability, performance or security will result in a loss of customers, revenue and reputation.

However, as many technologists can verify, delivering seamless and secure digital experiences is becoming a huge challenge. Thanks to the widespread adoption of cloud native technologies, IT teams find themselves managing extraordinarily complex and dispersed application landscapes. And unfortunately, many teams are unable to get full visibility into Kubernetes environments or get a clear line of sight into applications running across on-premises and cloud native technologies. As a result, identifying and resolving issues before they affect the user experience is impossible.

This is why application observability is so crucial. It provides technologists with unified visibility across hybrid environments so they can detect issues and rapidly understand root causes and

dependencies. Additionally, by correlating application performance and security data with key business metrics, application observability enables IT teams to assess issues based on potential customer and business impact, so they can prioritize those issues which could do most damage to end user experience.

In the UAE, as is true across the world, the application user is back in control. Consumers are demanding the very best, seamless and secure digital experiences and they’re determined to punish brands who don’t give them what they want. Application owners have been warned: deliver the very best digital experiences or pay the price.

" Most people have very different needs and lifestyles now compared with two years ago and therefore many of the digital services they used during the pandemic are simply no longer relevant to their lives. In fact, on average, consumers feel that they could live without 40% of the applications that they have downloaded on their devices."

Gregg Ostrowski CTO Advisor, Cisco Observability

WHY PROCESS MINING IS NECESSARY BEFORE STARTING THE AUTOMATION JOURNEY

Understanding where the processes of an enterprise are today and where they should be tomorrow helps build the transition to automation explains Walid

Gomaa,

CEO at Omnix International.

Assembly line manufacturers, competing in the global marketplace, with millions of components to be fitted into a final product, understand the importance of conforming to a process. The closer the conformance to an ideal process, the better is profitability and return on investment.

This approach changes wildly inside an enterprise where millions of components are replaced by hundreds and thousands of human workers. Humans are not machines and do not like to conform. They enjoy flexibility, innovativeness, and originality. This tends to affect how a workflow or business process progresses inside an enterprise.

As regional enterprises adopt automation an important starting point for them is identifying which processes to automate. Processes that are repetitive, that can be described precisely, that can be replaced easily by software robots are a good starting point.

But the key inhibitor usually is to identify those processes and complete the description of those processes accurately so that the starting point, ending point, and all the other intermediate points are identified. Team members involved in those processes will describe all the variations of the processes that they have been following and process improvement managers at this stage are usually stumped as to how to progress.

This fundamental challenge has led to the emergence of process mining solutions that can help capture how business processes are being actually followed, rather than how they should be followed. This helps to quantify the time taken, resources involved, the exact path followed, and most importantly where deviations and bottlenecks occur.

According to Gartner, process mining is a technique designed to discover, monitor and improve real processes, by extracting readily available knowledge from the event logs of information systems.

A Forrester report indicates that 37% decision-makers report delays to their digital transformation initiatives due to misunderstood processes, and it is normal for people to approach the same task in different ways.

While in itself human ingenuity is not a negative for business fundamentals, over a period of time this leads to increasing variations and deviations to the process, which finally impact the quality or specifications of the final outcome.

Today’s ERP and CRM enterprise applications provide an audit trail of their transaction processes, and their log data is accessible. Process mining solutions extract this data from enterprise applications and recreate the process as it is followed inside the enterprise. This represents the most accurate picture of the process as-is.

Algorithms built into process mining can now reduce the time taken to analyze these data logs and identify the root cause of deviations from the ideal planned workflow path.

Once initiated inside an enterprise, there are three fundamental stages in process mining.

Discovery

In this stage, data logs from enterprise applications are used to recreate all the processes that exist in the enterprise. No other influence is used to rebuild these processes and it is assumed that no other processes exist other than those for which there are data logs.

Conformance

At this stage, the description of the process being followed by team members is compared to the process that is being followed according to the data logs. From this comparison it is easy to identify the deviations that are happening in real-life with team members inside the enterprise.

Enhancement

In this stage, additional inputs are brought into the process to accelerate decision making and remove bottlenecks and to take the final outcome of the process much closer to what is anticipated and desired. These additional inputs can help to optimize the pro-

cess at various stages for team members, which may not have been happening previously.

Process mining benefits the enterprises in multiple ways:

• By identifying bottlenecks in the workflow, it helps to improve the quality of the final outcome.

• It can reduce the cost of time and people that are involved the bottlenecks.

• It can help to redefine outdated job roles and responsibilities thereby optimizing human resource costs.

• By uncovering better variations to the process, this actually boosts innovation.

To efficiently automate the enterprise, decision makers must have complete and authentic visibility into their processes. Process mining is a necessary stage to reach this level of confidence. In other words, they must know where their processes are today, where they want their processes to be in the future, and the transition path from one stage to the other.

Once these conditions have been established inside the enterprise, implementing robotic process automation and hyper automation are the next levels of progression.

Walid Gomaa CEO, Omnix International

THE EVOLUTION OF ZERO TRUST

Dave Russell, Vice President, Enterprise Strategy at Veeam discusses how the concept of Zero Trust Data Resilience’ is an evolution of Zero Trust

Around 18 months ago, I was writing about the “endless journey” to Zero Trust. I used the word “endless” because Zero Trust is a mindset rather than a product or a destination - it’s a target to aim towards. Like many things in cyber, it’s a matter of constant evolution. You have to adapt to survive and thrive in your environment. Even the idea of Zero Trust has had to evolve with the times.

Changing with the times

A cat and mouse game, an arms race - call it what you want - security has always been about adapting and evolving to stay ahead of threats. Bad actors constantly experiment and move the needle to get ahead of their targets. This is exactly what has driven so much innovation across the industry since the first-ever cyber-at-

tack took place. It almost goes without saying that the security tools considered the benchmark when I started my career 35 years ago would be a paper shield against a modern cyber gang. It’s not just the tools that have had to evolve, but also the mindset - how we think about security and use the tools at our disposal has had to change.

Zero Trust is a prime example of this. Once, security was just around the perimeter, it was a moat around the castle, but once you were in, you were in. As more and more enterprises worldwide have adopted Zero Trust as best practice, this has shifted. Security measures now need to be inside and outside - doors are locked, proof of identity is required, and people aren’t allowed access to parts of the castle if they don’t need to be there.

But the thing about evolution is that it never really stops.

Introducing Zero Trust Data Resilience

Even the most broadly used Zero Trust models have a few fatal flaws in the modern environment. Namely, they lack any kind of guidance in pivotal areas like data backup and recovery. This gap is significant as recent attacks often attempt to target backup repositories. For example, according to the Veeam Ransomware Trends 2023 Report, ransomware attacks targeted backup repositories in at least 93% of attacks in 2022.

Data backup and recovery systems are critical parts of enterprise IT and must be considered as part of the security picture. They have read access to everything, they can write data into the production environment and contain full copies of the business's mission-critical data. Simply put, following modern Zero Trust principles to the letter makes you fairly water-tight when it comes to ‘traditional’ security, but leaves a huge gap in the armour regarding backup and recovery.

But this is where we are. Zero Trust has become too limited in scope as threats have evolved, which is why the concept of ‘Zero Trust Data Resilience’ has been born. An evolution of Zero Trust, which essentially broadens the scope to ensure backup and recovery follow the same principles.

Bringing backup and recovery into the fold

The core concepts are the same. The principle of least privilege and assume breach mentality are still key. For example, backup management systems must be isolated on the network so that no unauthenticated users can access it. Likewise, the backup storage system itself must be isolated. Immutability is also key. Having backup data that cannot be changed or tampered with means if repositories are reached by attacks like ransomware, they cannot be affected by its malware.

Assuming a breach also means businesses shouldn’t implicitly ‘trust’ their backups after an attack. Having processes to properly validate the backup or ‘clean’ it before attempting system recovery is vital to ensure you aren’t simply restoring a still-compromised environment. The final layer of distrust is to have multiple copies of your backups - fail-safes in case one (or more) are compromised. The best practice is to have three copies of your backup, two stored on different media types, one stored onsite, and one kept offline. With these layers of resilience, you can start to consider your backup as Zero Trust.

Taking the first steps

With Zero Trust Data Resilience, just like Zero Trust, it’s a journey. You can’t implement it all at once. Instead, follow a maturity model where you gradually implement new practices and refine

Dave Russell Vice President, Enterprise Strategy, Veeam

and evolve these over time. For example, if you don’t currently validate your backup data, start doing so manually and over time implement technology to automate and schedule routine validation processes.

The other key thing you need is buy-in - everyone in the organization must be on the journey together. Senior leadership is key to implementing any broad changes across an organisation, but so is educating across the business on new processes and their need. Finally, for Zero Trust Data Resilience especially, the security and wider IT operations teams must be aligned. Backup often falls under the responsibility of the latter, but as this becomes more and more crucial for security posture, the two need to work together to prevent security siloes or gaps.

The journey to Zero Trust is endless. So much so that the exact destination evolves over time. My advice to businesses is that while Rome wasn’t built in a day, it is better to start taking steps today, no matter how small, instead of postponing and being left behind.

DISPELLING 8 COMMON MYTHS ABOUT NETWORKING IN THE DIGITAL ERA

Prashil Gareeb, Vice President of Managed Networks from Dimension Data, dispels eight networking myths and provides insight into use case scenarios based off industry research gathered from hundreds of clients.

While it’s true that organisations who wish to thrive in the digital era must effectively modernise their networks by planning a transformation map that navigates network complexity, there are some myths around this journey that are misleading, and counterproductive to organisational progress.

Myth

1: The ratio of infrastructure hardware and software will remain the same.

Myth dispelled: Software is gaining focus and importance.

Software-defined networking is on the rise. While hardware remains a critical platform on which software runs, key features in areas such as networks, security, operations, automation and artificial intelligence (AI) can now be enabled by software. Software-defined networking should be a top priority for organisations over the next two years as it can:

• Support transformation and increase agility by enabling frequent updates and rapid provisioning.

• Supporting almost instantaneous rollouts, at scale, to hundreds or thousands of users.

It’s important to remember that Enterprise Agreements must be put in place when separating hardware from software as new financial models such as subscription services may emerge. It’s crucial to understand and mitigate the challenges that come with these models.

Myth 2: The network is a less important element of modern IT infrastructure.

The myth dispelled: The network remains a critical component.

Networks are the foundations on which modern businesses run which is why it’s one of the reasons it’s seen as the most critical element of any IT infrastructure. Without a network there can be no collaboration or globalisation, and in turn, no business success.

Network transformation is crucial in three key areas:

1. Technology: to upgrade technology to keep pace with advancements and deliver better performance.

2. Operational: to improve capabilities through automation, machine learning and applied AI.

3. Financial: to procure and manage infrastructure in a way that cuts costs.

Myth 3: All security is moving to the cloud.

The myth dispelled: Security is needed on-premises, in the cloud and in-between.

Not all critical intellectual property (IP) and business data is hosted in the cloud, which is why it must still be protected. Hybrid and remote ways of working must allow for protection of off-site devices and locations. In an agile world, there are also complexities around potential attack services so security must be integrated across many layers: on-premises, remote, endpoint devices and cloud.

A zero-trust approach builds an end-to-end security methodology by reducing the attack surface and limiting access to only those who need it.

Myth 4: AIOps will take over the operations of your infrastructure.

The myth dispelled: AIOps plays a role in supporting IT teams, not replacing them

AI, although opening up vast infrastructure improvement potential, doesn’t have the ability to self-drive infrastructure and should not have complete control over the network and security environments. While there is a role for AI in network operations support, the need for human involvement by those who have an understanding of relevant processes and who can apply their specific skills and logic to any situation cannot be understated.

Myth 5: Networks aren’t important to hybrid work models.

The myth dispelled: Networks are the key to providing consistent, high-quality experiences across locations.

As more and more organisations move to remote or hybrid work forces, network performance is pivotal to delivering the highest experience for employees and customers.

Network features that enhance ways of working include:

• Wayfinding

• Location services

• Robust high-definition video

• Sophisticated collaboration tools

• Environmental monitoring

• Capacity management

To provide the same high quality employee and customer experience, no matter where the employee sits, requires seamless collaboration across locations and can only be achieved with a superbly architected network.

Myth 6: IT infrastructure is part of the sustainability problem, not the solution.

The myth dispelled: Infrastructure plays a huge role in supporting sustainability initiatives.

Networks are increasingly being used in new and innovative ways to support sustainability, particularly in smart buildings. Some of these include, among others:

• LED lights and other low-voltage components powered by the network to reduce cabling and enable more efficient power usage.

• Cameras and sensors to monitor temperature and occupancy, adjusting conditions to save resources.

• Intelligent devices to detect water levels under roads, spot wildfires when they start and register tsunami threats.

In these, and many other cases, the network plays a critical role in connecting the IoT devices and sensors to enable systems to take the appropriate actions.

Myth 7: Wi-Fi is dead, and 5G will be used for all connectivity use cases.

The myth dispelled: Wi-Fi and 5G each play an important role in connectivity.

Wi-Fi has been used for decades and 5G should not be seen as a Wi-Fi replacement. Instead, network designers should consider how Wi-Fi and 5G can work alongside each other to allow for seamless service within the network. To determine the best option, organisations should consider use cases along with connectivity requirements and as complexity increases it could even become a case of managing multiple networks to drive performance.

Myth 8: Technology skills are abundantly available.

The myth dispelled: Technology skill gaps continue to grow and affect organisations. It’s predicted that IT skills shortages will affect 90% of organisations by 2025, resulting in USD 6.5 trillion in lost business. It’s crucial that IT teams understand that that there are different levels of technology skills and that gaps in fundamentals are severely impacting the industry. The technology industry needs to focus on talent, from developing the skills of internal staff to assisting with training programs for students. This is especially pertinent with the rise of AI, machine learning, automation and programmable infrastructure.

Prashil Gareeb Vice President of Managed Networks, Dimension Data

LEVERAGING AI WITH INTELLIGENT DATA INFRASTRUCTURE

An Intelligent data infrastructure, more dynamic, more seamless, and with higher performance than ever before, is key for enterprise businesses says Elena Viniegra. Cloud Director EEMI región, NetApp.

Companies must innovate and one of their objectives is to enhance competitiveness and efficiency by utilizing AI. In today's world, it is vital to provide storage models for hybrid cloud environments and intelligent data management solutions for Artificial Intelligence.

To offer better digital experiences, customers must adapt to the current pace of innovation and utilize high-capacity data processing and intelligent storage that can grow in size and time.

The demand for more product innovation, productivity, and AI application development that offers better experiences to consumers is driving business creativity. For this, it is crucial to have AI with a robust infrastructure capable of storing data, both locally and in the cloud, at the edge, in hybrid or multicloud environments. Customers are looking for technological partners that guarantee unique and unified data governance and management, as well as intelligent storage solutions that allow seamless and guaranteed data movement across all customer environments because of the risk of losing information or encountering security breaches when switching data.

Today, generative AI already allows users to make requests using natural language, and AI interprets and generates information, whether it can be text, articles, code, music, video, voice, visual effects, 3D designs, engineering analysis... an endless array of possibilities that utilize machine learning models (ML).

Large Language Models (LLMs) could be an example of generative AI solutions, which are highly efficient natural language processing models for tasks related to language, from text generation to language comprehension and translation. The process of reading and processing data countless times, from where it is stored to memory, is necessary for these models to foster and promote intelligence. In the coming years, the need to manage massive volumes of data will continue to grow, and that is where the technology of a good technology partner becomes crucial. It is important that they provide solutions with high storage capacity and AI management to facilitate deep learning from data, as well as the ability to transport data smoothly and efficiently between different storage environments, even in real-time.

The technology from leading storage vendors makes it easier for AI to access a large amount of diverse data, which is allocated in various repository locations, using high-performance workloads.

Thanks to this technology, customers will be able to generate immense data repositories, both in all-flash or public cloud environments, as well as hybrid or edge locations. We are talking about enabling simultaneous access to multiple AI models, even in production environments, which can represent a substantial change for the business model of many companies. Research analyst firms like McKinsey state that "The impact of generative AI on productivity could mean trillions of dollars for the global economy."

Therefore, customers embracing AI developments for their business must have storage technology that not only guarantees workload execution in secure and high-performance infrastructures, but also offers scalable and diverse environments, allowing customers to work with any public cloud provider, access any data repository wherever it is, and manage these hybrid and multicloud environments in a simple, easy, and secure manner. This flexibility and scalability make NetApp's offering the best choice for Artificial Intelligence developments.

Elena Viniegra

Cloud Director EEMI región, NetApp

A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH TO FIGHTING DIGITAL CRIME

Derek Manky, Chief Security Strategist & Global VP of Threat Intelligence at FortiGuard Labs says the Cybercrime Atlas is creating new insights into the cybercriminal ecosystem and will enable and accelerate the disruption of cybercrime.

The global transition to the digital economy means that the operations of governments, critical infrastructures, businesses, and individuals are now a tightly integrated system of interconnected resources. Everything from commerce and banking to delivering critical services to managing international transportation and energy grids are now online, and many of their underlying resources, such as supply chains, are interdependent. Because of this, digital disruptions can have far-reaching implications, impacting the lives and well-being of virtually everyone.

Cybercrime presents a significant risk to this new digital world, impacting everyone from individuals and companies to critical infrastructure and governments. In its Global Risks Report for 2024, the World Economic Forum has identified AI-generated misinformation/disinformation and cyber insecurity as among the top risks facing the global community. The forum has also pointed out that cybercrime is now the world's third-largest economy after the United States and China. But its potential impact goes well beyond financial loss. In addition to direct damages, cybercrime creates an enormous barrier to digital trust, undermines the benefits of cyberspace, increases global inequality, and hinders international cyber-stability efforts.

The challenge is how to raise the bar for everyone—businesses, governments, academic institutions, law enforcement, and individual citizens alike.

A Global Challenge Requires a Global Response

Despite the seriousness of the cybercrime challenge, efforts to fight cybercriminal activities to date have largely been uncoordinated and fragmented. While there are

Derek Manky Chief Security Strategist & Global VP of Threat Intelligence, FortiGuard Labs

certainly organizations and vendors committed to battling cybercriminals, isolated efforts struggle to make a dent in the concerted efforts of today’s highly organized cybercriminals. To address this challenge, the World Economic Forum established the Centre for Cybersecurity in January 2018, a coalition of public and private organizations working to build a safe and secure global cyberspace.

However, since its founding, the need for a coordinated response to cybercrime has become even more urgent. In response, the Centre for Cybersecurity established its Partnership against Cybercrime community. And its first initiative, announced in January 2023 and led by World Economic Forum partners Fortinet, Microsoft, PayPal, and Santander, was to build the Cybercrime Atlas, a collaborative research platform designed to gather and

collate information about the cybercriminal ecosystem and major threat actors operating today. Now launched, this powerful open-source research tool is creating new insights into the cybercriminal ecosystem and will enable and accelerate the disruption of cybercrime.

The Cybercrime Atlas

The Cybercrime Atlas represents a significant paradigm shift in how we collectively address the cybercrime challenge. This collaborative platform enables global businesses, national and international law enforcement agencies, cybercrime investigators, and threat intelligence researchers to proactively share knowledge and collate data about cybercriminal activities, the cybercriminal ecosystem, and major threat actors. It also maps criminal activity worldwide and uses open-source research to help organizations understand and disrupt the cybercriminal ecosystem.

The Cybercrime Atlas builds a comprehensive picture of the cybercrime landscape, including criminal operations, shared infrastructures, and networks. By mapping and documenting the cybercrime landscape, organizations can more efficiently and accurately track and trace cybercriminal activity, quickly identify threats and threat actors, and identify opportunities for coordinated action to fight cyberthreats. It will enable the cybersecurity industry to more efficiently allocate resources in the fight against them. And as this database grows, organizations will be better able to identify, attribute, and thwart attacks in midstream, build proactive playbooks to protect against known and unknown threats, and generate policy recommendations—all of which will serve to make the unlawful efforts of the cybercriminal community increasingly cost-prohibitive.

QUANTUM SPARK 1900 AND 2000 NGFWS

Quantum Spark 1900 and 2000 NGFWs are fast, high port density firewalls with integrated AI ML security to prevent new and novel threats. Integrated capabilities like SD-WAN and IoT security provides faster Internet connectivity, application performance, proven security, and maximum uptime with management made easy via an intuitive web interface.

The Check Point Quantum Spark 1900 and 2000 security gateways deliver enterprise-grade security in simple, affordable, all-in-one security solutions in a 1 Rack Unit (RU) form factor to protect small to mid-size business employees, networks, and data from cyber-theft. High threat prevention throughput and high port capacity with 16x1GbE, 2x2.5GbE and 4x10GbE network interfaces make these NGFWs ideal for larger branch and SMB networks. The 1900 and 2000 have a 16 1GbE coppper LAN switch, ideal for segmenting multiple networks by department or function. Two copper 2.5GbE ports and four fiber 10GbE SFP+ LAN ports are also available. In addition, the 1GbE copper or fiber WAN and DMZ ports offer

connection flexibility. The DMZ can also be used as a second WAN port.

Highlights:

These AI/ML powered security gateways offer heightened defense against cyber threats, significantly boosting threat prevention by over 2x and displaying an impressive 99.8% block rate against phishing, malware, DNS, and IoT (Internet of Things) attacks. Enhance network resilience, efficiency and flexibility with integrated switches and a dual power supply that eliminates the need for external switches and maximizes operations with minimal downtime.

• Next Generation Firewall

• Site-to-Site, Remote Access VPN

• Application Control and Web Filtering

• Intrusion Prevention

• Antivirus and Anti-Bot

• Anti-Spam Email Security

• SandBlast Threat Emulation (sandboxing)

• Integrated SD-WAN network optimization

D-LINK DWR - 900 V MOBILE ROUTER

The DWR - 900 V Mobile Router is a 5G/LTE high speed broadband wireless WAN (WWAN) to Wi- Fi mobile hotspot. The DWR - 900V uses a 5G Internet connection to give you an easy-to-deploy Wi-Fi network anywhere you need one. Instead of limiting your mobile Internet connection to a single device through a USB dongle, the DWR - 900V allows you to create a Wi-Fi hotspot to share your connection. The convenient size means you can share your connection anywhere; use it in a cafe to send e-mail while your friend reads the news, or at the airport so you and your coworkers can work while waiting for your plane.

DWR - 90 0 V is perfect for when you need to quickly set up an impromptu network. It’s ideal for business trips when you need to share an Internet connection with everybody during a meeting, or use it for travel, allowing you to provide all your travel companions with Internet access.

Highlights:

• Simply insert your data-enabled SIM card to set up your very own mobile Wi-Fi network.

AXIS Q1961-TE

Ideal for improving operational efficiency, this halogen-free, thermometric camera lets you remotely monitor temperatures and trigger temperature-based events. Robust and impact-resistant, it offers early fire detection analytics and built-in cybersecurity features.

AXIS Q1961-TE lets you remotely monitor temperatures from -40 °C to 350 °C (-40 °F to 660 °F)*. So, you don’t need to be onsite to know if your equipment is getting close to overheating - you’ll receive a notification if the temperature passes a set threshold, or if it increases or decreases too rapidly. This allows you time to act to avoid unwanted downtime and it enables predictive maintenance planning. AXIS Q1961-TE supports up to 10 configurable polygonal detection areas, making it possible to monitor areas for specific temperature levels. With spot temperature reading, you can click on the image and see the exact temperature in the specific area. Furthermore, through meta-

data, you’ll have access to temperature statistics.

In addition to offering powerful analytics capabilities, AXIS Q1961TE comes with early fire detection preinstalled making it possible to set triggers and get warnings about early signs of fire or potential overheating. With smart filtering, it can disregard uninteresting hot objects such as the warm exhausts of passing work vehicles, so you’ll receive fewer false notifications.

140-2 level 2 certified. Electronic image stabilization (EIS) provides smooth video even in scenes with vibrations. Furthermore, thanks to edge-to-edge technology it’s possible to connect a network speaker to enable audio alarms.

Ideal for installation in harsh environments, this robust temperature measuring camera is highly resistant to corrosion. It offers great reliability and includes builtin cybersecurity features to help prevent unauthorized access and safeguard your system. For instance, Axis Edge Vault protects your Axis device ID and simplifies authorization of Axis products on your network. Plus, it includes a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) that is FIPS

Highlights:

• Polygonal temperature monitoring areas

• Early fire detection analytics

• Spot temperature reading

• Built-in cybersecurity features

• IP66-, IP67-, IK10- and NEMA 4X -rated

• Sharing your Internet connection doesn’t have to be a complicated process - just open a web browser to access D-Link’s GUI, user-friendly graphical web interface. The setup wizard’s easy to use step-by-step instructions will have your network up and running in minutes.

• Implement WPA/WPA2/WPA3 wireless encryption in minutes with the wireless network setup wizard, or use Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS), which establishes a connection to new devices with the touch of a button.

• The DWR - 900V 5G/LTE Mobile Router gives you instant connectivity, all in a powerful yet portable device, that fits easily into your pocket.

• The rechargeable 10000 mAh Li-ion battery allows you to stay connected for long periods of time, and it’s plug-andplay with no complicated software to install.

WORLDWIDE IT SPENDING EXPECTED TO GROW 6.8% IN 2024

Worldwide IT spending is expected to total $5 trillion in 2024, an increase of 6.8% from 2023, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. This is down from the previous quarter’s forecast of 8% growth. While generative AI (GenAI) had significant hype in 2023, it will not significantly change the growth of IT spending in the near-term.

“While GenAI will change everything, it won’t impact IT spending significantly, similar to IoT, blockchain and other big trends we have experienced,” said John-David Lovelock, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. “2024 will be the year when organizations actually invest in planning for how to use GenAI, however IT spending will be driven by more traditional forces, such as profitability, labor, and dragged down by a continued wave of change fatigue.”

IT Services Becomes Largest Segment of IT Spending in 2024

IT services will continue to see an increase in growth in 2024, becoming the largest segment of IT spending for the first time. Spending on IT services is expected to grow 8.7% in 2024, reaching $1.5 trillion (see Table ). This is largely due to enterprises investing in organizational efficiency and optimization projects. These investments will be crucial during this period of economic uncertainty.

“Adoption rates among consumers for devices and communications services plateaued over a decade ago. Consumer spending levels are primarily driven by price changes and replacement cycles, leaving room for only incremental growths, so being surpassed by software and services was inevitable,” said Lovelock. “Enterprises continue to find more uses for technology – IT has moved out of the back office, through the front office and is now revenue producing, until there is a plateau for how and where technology can be used in an enterprise, there cannot be a plateau in enterprise IT spending.”

CIOs’ Change Fatigue Continues to Impact IT Spending

The overall IT spending growth rate for 2023 was 3.3%, only a 0.3% increase from 2022. This was largely due to change fatigue among CIOs. Momentum will regain in 2024, with overall IT spending increasing 6.8%.

Even with the expected regained momentum in 2024, the broader IT spending environment remains slightly constrained by change fatigue. Change fatigue could manifest as change resistance — with CIOs hesitating to sign new contracts, commit to long-term initiatives or take on new technology partners. For the new initiatives that do get launched, CIOs require higher levels of risk mitigation and greater certainty of outcomes.