TOWARDS AN LLM STRATEGY FOR THE ENTERPISE
While we negotiate the rising era of LLMs, we will face numerous unique challenges across possible use cases and industries. For instance, the emergent capabilities of LLMs which I had mentioned in an earlier writeup could be a concern and call for closer governance to monitor deviant outcomes. Choosing different versions of LLMs from technology providers would need greater circumspection in understanding the capabilities and the gaps of those solutions. This will require a greater understanding from IT decision-makers of the advantages as well as likely pitfalls. Privacy issues, deepfakes, and bias could be some of the prominent challenges on this road.
With their capabilities to process vast data, LLMs have relevance across use cases such as customer interactions and marketing for all industries. In an industry such as healthcare, LLMs can enhance diagnostic processes by analysing patient data and medical literature and improving record keeping of patient data. In Finance, for instance, LLMs can help detect and prevent fraudulent activities through their ability to process large volumes of data. In the travel and hospitality sector, LLMs are enhancing the way we plan, schedule, and book holiday travels. Therefore, across verticals, the deployment of LLMs promises exciting possibilities. Alongside there are challenges to navigate.
Like we have moved towards a largely multi-cloud era, in LLM deployment as well, enterprises will seek the best approach. While a single LLM model deployment offers its advantages, looking at task-specific LLMs also has its benefits. A single LLM deployment will offer consistency of responses based on the data it has been pre trained on but may not offer the accuracy that a more task focused LLM may offer. A lot more of factors will come into consideration as enterprises decide what strategy suits them best. Indeed, these are interesting times ahead.
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14 » THE DATA CENTER EVOLUTION
While on-prem data centers continue to hold relevance in critical sectors, investments in them continue to shrink as organizations accelerate cloud investments.
26 » CATALYZING TRANSFORMATION
Walid Gomaa, CEO of Omnix International, a leading regional provider of digital transformation solutions discusses the focus areas for the company and shares his views on several technology trends
28 » THE QUEST TO EXCEL
Akashdeep Singh, Chief Strategy Officer at Tech First Gulf FZ LLC discusses the company's focus on growth and innovation in their quest to become a preferred one-stop destination for channel partners looking to offer innovative solutions in market
32 » DIGITAL CAPABILITIES: A STRATEGIC IMPERATIVE IN MANUFACTURING
11 » 76% OF COMPANIES IMPROVED THEIR CYBER DEFENSES
14 »
SAUDI ARABIA SHOWS HIGH ADOPTION OF HYBRID MULTICLOUD
12
»
PARADIGM SHIFTS IN THE DIGITAL WORKSPACE
The 2024 Future Workspace Summit in KSA saw informative sessions that delved into discussion around technologies that are helping optimize work processes as well as enhancing collaboration.
25 » TOMORROW’S TRANSPORTATION WILL RELY ON AI-DRIVEN CYBERSECURITY
Morgan Wright, Chief Security Advisor at SentinelOne writes that as we navigate this digital frontier, the automotive industry must prioritise cybersecurity
30 » LEAPING TO THE EDGE: AI DRIVEN TRANSFORMATION IN TELECOMS
Walid Yehia, Managing DirectorUAE, at Dell Technologies delves into the transformative benefits telecom providers can harness by seamlessly integrating Artificial Intelligence and GenAI into their edge infrastructure.
Ahmad Saad, Regional Sales Manager, Liferay Middle East discusses how the Middle East manufacturing sector needs to look at establishing digital capabilities as a strategic imperative
34 »
BUSTING THREE DATA PROTECTION MYTHS
Mohamad Rizk, Senior Regional Director - Middle East & CIS at Veeam Software discusses misconceptions about data protection in the cloud and ransomware attacks
GBM ANNOUNCES ENHANCEMENTS TO MDR PLATFORM COR.
Cor. is AI enabled and highly scalable
Gulf Business Machines (GBM) launched significant enhancements to the flagship cybersecurity platform, Cor., as part of its GBM Shield cyber defense program. Cor.,
a first-of-its-kind Managed Detection and Response (MDR) platform in the region, is vendor agnostic, AI-powered and highly scalable. Its automation feature further enhances and fortifies digital defenses of regional organizations.
The latest upgrades introduce a trio of advanced features:
1. Holistic Security Dashboard: The new holistic security dashboard provides users with in-depth insights into their digital security. It offers a centralized view of threats and vulnerabilities across all systems and networks, seamlessly integrating threat events into a single narrative.
2. Streamlined Signal Chaining Storyline Detection: With advanced algorithms, the platform effortlessly connects signals and identifies storylines in extensive data sets, allowing rapid responses to changing cyber threats. The platform helps achieve a 71%+ signal chaining ratio, thus offering
real-time threat visibility and dramatically mitigating incident fatigue.
3. Enhanced Threat Analysis: The iterative correlation signals feature revolutionizes threat detection by continually refining correlation algorithms with real-time data feedback. It works alongside data from numerous third-party platforms and event sources in the automation layer to reduce false alerts, and improve accuracy and efficiency.
Mike Weston, CEO at GBM, said, “As GBM continues to grow and expand its footprint across the region, we remain committed to delivering innovative cybersecurity solutions that meet the evolving needs of businesses. These enhancements to Cor. underscore GBM's dedication to staying at the forefront of the cybersecurity landscape, providing robust protection and proactive threat detection to customers, to safeguard their digital assets.
FRESHWORKS UNVEILS NEW DATA CENTER IN UAE
The data centre will serve customers across Middle East and Africa
Freshworks announced the launch of its new data center, powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), in the UAE. This underscores Freshworks’ commitment to driving innovation across the Middle East and Africa (MEA) by making it easier for businesses to harness the full power of its modern, AI-powered customer and employee service solutions.
“We are thrilled to further strengthen our presence in MEA with the new data center in UAE,” said Abe Smith, Chief of Global Field Operations at Freshworks. “This investment demonstrates our dedication to supporting the growth and digital transformation of businesses in the region.
With our data center, companies requiring regional data compliance within the UAE can depend on us for business software in Customer Service, IT, and Sales and Marketing. Freshworks will be part-
nering with AWS in joint go-to-market efforts to serve our mutual customers in the region.”
The data center will serve customers from 72 countries across the region, making UAE the center of Freshworks’ MEA operations. The data center, powered by AWS, not only hosts all of Freshworks’ products for the customers in the region, but will also leverage AWS, the world’s
most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud.
The UAE data center represents a critical milestone in Freshworks’ expansion strategy in MEA, reinforcing the dedication to make it easy for companies to delight their customers and their employees. Some of Freshworks’ largest customers in the region include: Aramex, Landmark Group and Magrabi.
Mike Weston CE0, GBM
DELL TECHNOLOGIES AND ARAMCO TO EXPLORE COLLABORATION OPPORTUNITIES IN EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
The MoU underscores Aramco’s aim to drive innovation in the global energy sector
Dell Technologies and Aramco have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore opportunities in quantum computing, artificial intelligence (AI), edge computing solutions, and advanced computing architectures.
The role of technologies such as AI-enabled edge and quantum computing can help address complex problems in areas such as energy optimization, predictive maintenance, weather modeling, and materials science. The combination of AI and edge computing, along with a robust and scalable enterprise IT infrastructure, is expected to allow businesses to optimize operations, foster real-time data processing, and enhance computational efficiencies.
The MoU underscores Aramco’s aim to drive innovation in the global energy sector and paves the way for potential collaborations that could lead to future technological advancements.
Nabil Al Nuaim, Senior Vice President of Digital & Information Technology, Aramco, said: “Technologies such as AI and quantum computing offer unparalleled processing capabilities and could be gamechangers in the energy sector. The potential is limitless, and we are excited to explore new opportunities with Dell. These opportunities could enable us to further align with our sustainability goals and help contribute to the Kingdom's position as a technological frontrunner in the energy domain."
Mohammed Amin, Senior Vice President, CEEMETA, Dell Technologies, said:
"From optimizing energy operations to finding solutions to complex challenges, we seek to drive transformative change within the energy vertical by helping companies like Aramco adopt the latest technological advancements to stay ahead of the innovation curve.”
Mohammed Amin President, CEEMETA, Dell Technologies
AMIVIZ PARTNERS WITH BITSIGHT TO OFFER CYBER RISK MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS
Bitsight's solutions can proactively assess and manage their cyber risk exposure and provide organizations with actionable intelligence
AmiViz, the B2B enterprise marketplace for the cybersecurity industry in the Middle East, announced its partnership with Bitsight, the leader in cyber risk management. This collaboration marks a significant step forward in bolstering cybersecurity capabilities across the region and facilitating Bitsight's expansion efforts in the Middle East.
The partnership between AmiViz and Bitsight will enhance the cybersecurity landscape in the Middle East by introducing state-of-the-art solutions designed to tackle the evolving cyber threats confronting regional organizations. With both companies committed to improving cybersecurity awareness and resilience, they are set to pave the way for a safer and more secure digital environment in the region.
Ilyas Mohammed, COO at AmiViz said “Our decision to onboard Bitsight demonstrates our commitment towards the evolution of the cybersecurity landscape in the Middle East. As organizations grapple with increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, the partnership between these two industry leaders promises to deliver enhanced value by equipping organizations with the tools and insights needed to effectively manage cyber risks and safeguard their digital assets in an ever-evolving threat landscape.”
Bitsight's solutions can proactively assess and manage their cyber risk exposure and provide organizations with actionable intelligence to optimize their security investments, streamline vendor risk management processes, and enhance cyber resilience.
Ilyas Mohammed COO, AmiViz
EPICOR COLLABORATES WITH CLIMATIQ TO HELP SUPPLY CHAIN BUSINESSES ADDRESS SUSTAINABILITY GOALS
Through this alliance, Epicor will introduce carbon calculations into its industry-focused ERP platforms
Kerrie Jordan Group VP, Product Management, Epicor
Epicor, a global leader of industry-specific enterprise software to promote business growth, announced at Epicor Insights Europe 2024 its collaboration with Climatiq Technologies GmbH to introduce advanced carbon intelligence calculations and reporting into Epicor’s suite of Sustainability Management solutions.
Through this alliance, Epicor will introduce carbon calculations into its industry-focused ERP platforms, enabling customers to access accurate, real-time carbon calculations, track emissions, and identify key opportunities to reduce their carbon footprint.
“We’re excited to work with Climatiq to assist our customers in reaching their sustainability goals, and boosting profitability while reducing emissions,” said Kerrie Jordan, Group Vice President of Product
Management at Epicor. “I’m incredibly proud of our team’s achievements in making this vision a reality.”
“Our collaboration with Epicor highlights our dedication to helping organisations integrate sustainability into their daily operations,” said Hessam Lavi, Co-founder and CEO at Climatiq. “This alliance is a major step forward towards removing the barriers that have historically kept sustainability data separate from business processes. Now, Epicor users can seamlessly align their economic, service, and environmental objectives.”
The integration of Climatiq’s carbon footprint calculation API across the Epicor portfolio will help businesses work toward sustainability goals without compromising profitability.
SERVICENOW ANNOUNCES PLANS TO LAUNCH UAE CLOUD
With targeted delivery in the first half of 2025, ServiceNow’s UAE Cloud will offer a new path to the Now Platform and industry-leading Now Assist generative AI capabilities
ServiceNow, the AI platform for business transformation, has announced plans for a ServiceNow UAE Cloud, hosted on Microsoft Azure. The company confirmed that the active build of the cloud region is underway, with a targeted delivery window in the first half of 2025.
The cloud offering is in line with ServiceNow’s commitment to meeting the business transformation requirements of all business entities in the UAE, both public and private sector. ServiceNow will host its UAE cloud on Azure as part of the company’s ongoing expansion of its global strategic alliance with Microsoft, which began in 2019.
“ServiceNow’s UAE Cloud will accelerate the delivery and adoption of ServiceNow’s intelligent platform for end-to-end business transformation for the UAE; particularly across government, financial services, energy, and telecom sectors. Upon launch of the UAE Cloud, our customers will be able to transform their operations and empower their employees like never before,” said Mark Ackerman, Area Vice President, Middle East and Africa at ServiceNow.
“ServiceNow’s hosting of its cloud on Azure in the UAE is a
valuable step in supporting the nation’s digital innovators and the business transformation goals of our customers,” said Ahmed Hamzawy, Global Partner Solutions Lead for Microsoft UAE. “Our timely partnership with ServiceNow enables UAE entities to embrace digital transformation with a focus on compliance, security and agility, and we believe there has never been a more important time to optimize the strength of this integration.”
CISCO AND SPLUNK ANNOUNCE INTEGRATED OBSERVABILITY STACK EXPERIENCE FOR THE ENTERPRISE
Cisco and Splunk Enable Unparalleled Visibility and Real-Time Insights to Standardize Observability in
One Solution
Cisco has unveiled the first of its innovative integrations with Splunk, a Cisco company, as the organizations combine their market-leading observability technologies to accelerate full-stack observability for the entire enterprise, helping customers deliver more performant and secure digital experiences. Through the full-stack observability journey, organizations can unlock unified visibility across any environment (on-premises, hybrid and multi cloud) and any stack while harnessing powerful real-time analytics for faster, more accurate detection, investigation and response.
Building on the recent landmark acquisition, Cisco and Splunk announced new integrations including a unified observability experience for joint customers, and the introduction of Splunk Log Observer Connect for Cisco AppDynamics and Cis-
co AppDynamics integration with Splunk IT Service Intelligence (ITSI).
New full-stack observability innovations were also announced, including a new AI Assistant for AppDynamics which delivers meaningful guidance and insights, and empowers users to make informed decisions faster and more accurately than ever before, as well as expanded AppDynamics Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) hosting on Microsoft Azure. In addition, new Advanced AI in Splunk IT Service Intelligence (ITSI) was unveiled, which leverages advanced AI and machine learning capabilities to provide IT teams more precise alerting and a more accurate view into IT health.
“By bringing together Splunk and Cisco observability solutions, customers now have unified visibility across their entire
Tom Casey SVP and GM, Products & Technology, Splunk
digital footprint so they can detect, investigate and resolve problems faster to create a reliable, resilient experience for their users,” said Tom Casey, SVP and GM, Products & Technology, Splunk.
ZOHO UNVEILS "CRM FOR EVERYONE" AND ADVANCED DEVELOPER TOOLKIT OFFERINGS
The new offerings empower all teams engaged in customer-centric operations
Zoho announced early access to its reimagined CRM solution, CRM for Everyone. This innovative offering introduces a novel suite of capabilities designed to democratise CRM for MENA businesses by empowering all teams engaged in customer-centric operations.
The company also revealed a new addition to its developer offerings with early access to the company's pro-code fullstack development platform, Catalyst, and a suite of new development tools like Signals and Slate. Additionally, Zoho unveiled Apptics, a comprehensive analytics platform offering real-time user insights and multi-platform support, that aims to empower both seasoned coders and development teams to streamline workflows and accelerate high-quality app delivery.
Hyther Nizam, President, MEA, Zoho
Hyther Nizam President, MEA, Zoho Corp
Corp said, "At Zoho, we're focused on continuously deepening our current offerings and expanding others to serve business needs. Zoho CRM for
Everyone, for instance, is the first true democratisation of the CRM paradigm and helps unify all customer operations teams onto the CRM to deliver better customer experiences. Likewise, the upgraded Catalyst and the privacy-focused Apptics solution work hand-inhand to deliver an unmatched developer experience from concept to code, and deployment to analytics.”
Zoho CRM for Everyone allows sales teams, the primary custodian of customer relationships, to communicate and coordinate with other customer-facing teams from a single place—the CRM application—instead of holding fragmented discussions. They may all use different core applications for deep work but can now converge on the CRM for managing shared responsibilities towards the customer.
ACRONIS EXPANDS SECURITY OFFERING WITH NEW XDR SOLUTION
Acronis XDR delivers complete, natively integrated, and highly efficient cybersecurity built for MSPs
Acronis, a global leader in cybersecurity and data protection, is pleased to introduce Acronis XDR the newest addition to the company’s security solution portfolio. Easy to deploy, manage, and maintain, Acronis XDR expands on the current endpoint detection and response (EDR) offering and delivers complete natively integrated, highly efficient cybersecurity with data protection, endpoint management, and automated recovery specifically built for managed service providers (MSPs).
Key features and benefits of Acronis XDR include:
• Native integration across cybersecurity, data protection, and endpoint management. The product is designed to protect vulnerable attack surfaces enabling unmatched business continuity.
• High efficiency, with the ability to easily launch, manage, scale, and deliver securi-
ty services. It also includes AI-based incident analysis and single-click response for swift investigation and response.
• Built for MSPs, including a single agent and console for all services, and a customizable platform to integrate additional tools into a unified technology stack.
“It is imperative that MSPs provide reliable cybersecurity to customers with diverse IT environments and constrained budgets,” said Gaidar Magdanurov, President at Acronis. “Acronis XDR enables MSPs to offer top-notch security without the complexity and significant overhead of traditional non-integrated tools. This is achieved in several ways, including AI-assisted capabilities within the Acronis solution that helps MSPs provide the utmost cybersecurity - even if an MSP only has limited cybersecurity expertise.”
Acronis
REDINGTON AND DIGIGLASS SHOWCASE NEW SOLUTIONS AT COMEX 2024
Redington and DigiGlass joined forces with leading technology giants Huawei and Fortinet for the showcase at COMEX
Redington, a leading technology integrator and innovation powerhouse, and DigiGlass by Redington, the distributor’s Managed Security Services Distributor (MSSD) brand, had a successful participation at COMEX 2024.
The event, with the theme, ‘Connecting Minds, Shaping the Future’, took place
from 27th to 30th May, 2024 at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre, in Muscat. The show saw Redington and DigiGlass join forces with leading technology giants Huawei and Fortinet to showcase a comprehensive portfolio of cutting-edge solutions.
Redington’s theme at the show was ‘Syner-
gizing the Tech Ecosystem’, where the company is working together with its stakeholders to collaborate for the digital future.
As part of Redington’s synergy, Huawei and Fortinet demonstrated the latest advancements in various technological domains. Visitors to the booth explored next-generation networking solutions from Huawei, designed to empower businesses with unparalleled connectivity and scalability. They had the opportunity to learn about industry-leading cybersecurity offerings from Fortinet, ensuring comprehensive protection against evolving cyber threats. The DigiGlass team highlighted the importance of cybersecurity in digital transformation. Showcasing holistic cutting-edge solutions, visitors learned about DigiGlass’s recently launched Industrial Control System/Operational Technology Security Operations Center (SOC).
Gaidar Magdanurov President,
COMPANIES IMPROVE THEIR CYBER DEFENSES TO QUALIFY FOR CYBER INSURANCE
Sophos Survey finds recovery costs from cyberattacks outpace insurance coverage
Sophos released findings from its survey, “Cyber Insurance and Cyber Defenses 2024: Lessons from IT and Cybersecurity Leaders.” According to the report, 97% of those with a cyber policy invested in improving their defenses to help with insurance, with 76% saying it enabled them to qualify for coverage, 67% to get better pricing and 30% to secure improved policy terms.
The survey also revealed that recovery costs from cyberattacks are outpacing insurance coverage. Only one percent of those that made a claim said that their carrier funded 100% of the costs incurred while remediating the incident. The most common reason for the policy not paying for the costs in full was because the total bill exceeded the policy limit. According to The State of Ransomware 2024 survey, recovery costs following a ransomware incident increased by 50% over the last year, reaching $2.73 million on average.
“The Sophos Active Adversary report has repeatedly shown that many of the cyber incidents companies face are the result of a failure to implement basic cybersecurity best practices, such as patching in a timely manner. In our most recent report, for example, compromised credentials were the number one root cause of attacks, yet 43% of companies didn’t have multi-factor authentication enabled,” said Chester Wisniewski, director, global Field CTO.
“The fact that 76% of companies invested in cyber defenses to qualify for cyber insurance shows that insurance is forcing organizations to implement some of these essential security measures. It’s making a difference, and it’s having a broader, more positive impact on companies overall. However, while cyber insurance is beneficial for companies, it is just one part of an effective risk mitigation strategy. Companies still need to work on hardening their defenses. A cyberattack can have profound impacts for a company from both an operational and a reputational standpoint, and having cyber insurance doesn’t change that.”
Across the 5,000 IT and cybersecurity leaders surveyed, 99% of companies that improved their defenses for insurance purposes said they had also gained broader security benefits beyond insurance coverage due to their investments, including improved protection, freed IT resources and fewer alerts.
Chester Wisniewski Director, Global Field CTO
“Investments in cyber defenses appear to have a ripple effect in terms of benefits, unlocking insurance savings that organizations can be diverted into other defenses to more broadly improve their security posture. As cyber insurance adoption continues, hopefully, companies’ security will continue to improve. Cyber insurance won’t make ransomware attacks disappear, but it could very well be part of the solution,” said Wisniewski.
Data for the Cyber Insurance and Cyber Defenses 2024: Lessons from IT and Cybersecurity Leaders report comes from a vendor-agnostic survey of 5,000 cybersecurity/IT leaders conducted between January and February 2024. Respondents were based in 14 countries across the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific. Organizations surveyed had between 100 and 5,000 employees, and revenue ranged from less than $10 million to more than $5 billion.
SAUDI ARABIA SHOWS HIGH ADOPTION OF HYBRID MULTICLOUD
CIOs increasingly prioritizing hybrid IT strategies to manage complexity of running applications and data across clouds
Nutanix announced the findings of its sixth global Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) survey and research report, which measures enterprise progress with cloud adoption. The majority of Saudi Arabia respondents in this year’s ECI study (70%) say their organization takes a cloud-smart approach to IT infrastructure strategy, which involves leveraging the best IT environment for each of their applications. Furthermore, 81% of Saudi Arabia respondents say their organizations would benefit most from a hybrid environment encompassing both public and private clouds. This high preference for deploying applications across a mix of IT environments will have an important influence on IT solution and services implementation in Saudi Arabia over the next few years.
“Due to imperatives such as AI, sustainability, and security, organizations are increasingly under pressure to rapidly modernize their IT infrastructure,” said Talal Alsaif, Sales Director, Central Gulf & Egypt at Nutanix. “This year's ECI findings highlight the importance for Saudi organizations to future-proof their IT infrastructure today in order to accommodate tomorrow's technologies. Hybrid multicloud is steadily becoming the preferred infrastructure standard due to its flexibility in supporting both traditional VM and modern containerized applications, as well as enabling seamless movement between clouds and on-premises setups.”
In regard to investment priorities, 78% of Saudia Arabia respondents say they plan to increase investment in IT and
cloud staff. This is indicative of continued adoption of cloud infrastructure solutions, as well as the need to modernize and optimize IT solutions.
Key findings from Saudi Arabia include:
• Hybrid multicloud IT deployments are set to expand significantly over the next one to three years among Saudi Arabia organizations. Hybrid cloud and hybrid multicloud IT deployments are the dominant models among Saudi Arabia organizations today, at 36% and 37%, respectively. However, the proportion of “hybrid cloud” deployments is set to decline significantly over the forecast period, from 36% today, to just 5% over the next 1-3 years. Meanwhile, hybrid multicloud infrastructure deployments are forecast to expand significantly in Saudi Arabia, expanding from 37% today to 66% over the next 1-3 years.
• Saudi Arabia ranks flexibility and performance as primary drivers of infrastructure choice. Similar to the global averages, Saudi Arabia ranked “flexibility to run across clouds and on-prem” (45%) and “performance” (43%) as its top two drivers of infrastructure choice. Interestingly, Saudi Arabia ranked “data sovereignty and privacy” lower, on average, than the EMEA region as a whole.
• 100% of Saudi Arabia respondents moved an application(s) to a different IT environment in the last 12 months. Over 60% of Saudi Arabia respondents say that workload and app migration is a “moderate to significant challenge” given their current IT infrastructure. Helping address this challenge is a key opportunity area for IT and Infrastructure solutions providers. The top reasons for application migration cited were “to improve security posture and/or meet regulatory requirements,” and “to integrate with cloud-native services”. Application and data control is also highly ranked by Saudi Arabia organizations surveyed this year. 71% of Saudi Arabia respondents agree having a single platform to run and manage all applications and data across clouds is ideal for their organization.
• 100% of Saudi Arabia respondents say their organizations pursued sustainability initiatives in 2023. Their top sustainability initiative in 2023 was promoting remote working facilitated by technologies in order to reduce pollution associated with employee travel. 72% of Saudi Arabia respondents agree that sustainability is a priority for their organizations, but this is well below the EMEA average of 86%.
• More than half of Saudi Arabia respondent organizations took days/weeks or longer to fully recover from a ransomware attack. Over 90% of Saudi Arabia respondents admitted that their organization experienced a ransomware attack sometime in the past three years, with 54% of Saudi Arabia organizations indicating that they were able to recover within hours or days. 71% of respondents from Saudi Arabia agreed that their organization could make improvements to its ransomware protection stance, and 73% say they plan to increase investments in ransomware protection in 2024.
• 100% respondents from Saudi Arabia say their organization faces various challenges when managing its data. Saudi Arabia
Talal Alsaif Sales Director, Central Gulf & Egypt, Nutanix
clearly ranked “linking data from multiple environments” as its biggest data management challenge. 65% of Saudi Arabia respondents say operational silos between teams managing different environments remains a “moderate to significant challenge” given their current IT infrastructure. These siloed teams may be one of the leading reasons why Saudi Arabia organizations are challenged to link data from multiple environments.
• Implementing AI strategies is the #1 C-level priority for Saudi Arabia organizations surveyed. Unlike global and EMEA results, where data security and ransomware protection is the #1 priority, Saudi Arabia ranked Implementation of AI strategies their top C-level IT priority for 2024. 78% of respondents from Saudi Arabia said their organization will increase investments in AI strategy over the next 12 months. Additionally, 79% of Saudi Arabia respondents say their organization’s investment in data analytics will increase in 2024. this process will also create challenges. Over 60% of Saudi Arabia respondents agree data privacy is a concern to their organization due to AI, and 63% say running AI applications is a “moderate to significant challenge” given their current IT infrastructure.
For the sixth consecutive year, Vanson Bourne conducted research on behalf of Nutanix, surveying 1,500 IT and DevOps/ Platform Engineering decision-makers around the world including EMEA in December 2023.
THE DATA CENTER EVOLUTION
While on-prem data centers continue to hold relevance in critical sectors for reasons inclusive of security and regulatory requirements, investments in on- prem datacenters continue to shrink worldwide as organizations accelerate cloud investments
The significance of data centers continues to escalate in the era of digital disruption and increased cloud investments. The hyperscale public cloud providers will continue to increase their investments in data centers globally while on premise data centers of enterprises globally continue to see a shrinkage. With the advent of Gen AI-led solutions, the need for AI services will be one of the key drivers of this growing investment. What does this surge in data center investments by hperscalers and cloud data center providers imply for enterprises that are proactively adopting cloud services? How do they balance investments in their on-premises data centers vis-a-vis consumption of cloud services from the hyperscalers and other cloud providers?
According to Walid Salem, IT Lead- ME, Zurich International Life Limited, “The year 2020 was the year of reckoning when all enterprises were pushed to work remotely and employees were mandated to run the show from homes. This created extreme pressure on enterprises generally and IT Leads specifically and the same was considered as a test for organizations' Risk Management capabilities, Business Continuity plans, and resource Management methodologies. Enterprises that outsourced their data centers by migrating their assets to different cloud providers were the winners at this stage. These were the enterprises taking the advantage of focusing on the higher value part of their deliveries rather than the day-to-day operational part of overseeing on-premises data centers.”
Adam Lalani, IT Director at GCC Services seems to believe this is a transition phase as companies move more and more workloads to the cloud. He says, “As companies start their move to more cloud services they tend to adopt a hybrid approach – leveraging existing investments, and then using cloud to scaffold build around what they have. As contracts for hardware, support, data centers etc expire the investment will move to a cloud services opex model.”
» COVER STORY
On the other hand, a balance between investments in the cloud and on-premise infrastructure could be seen as a wiser strategy for some industry scenarios, especially in cases of remote areas where connectivity to the cloud may not be reliable or where the need for local data residency is a key concern.
“Cloud technology, introduced in the early 2000s, was a disruptive force that revolutionized IT by increasing scalability and flexibility. However, while cloud solutions are excellent for many scenarios, they are not a one-size-fits-all answer. In cases where long-term data retention is required, the capital expenditure (Capex) of maintaining on-premise data centers can be more cost-effective than the recurring operational expenditure (Opex) of cloud services. Additionally, concerns around data residency, integrity, unpredictable spending, and latency especially for industries like construction that often operate in remote locations with unreliable connectivity. Therefore, enterprises must stra-
tegically invest in data centers, balancing cloud adoption with on-premise infrastructure to meet specific business needs and operational challenge,” says Ali Katkhada, Group Chief Information Officer at Depa Group.
So how does an enterprise decide on the balance between utilizing cloud services and maintaining on-premises data center investments? What factors influence the decision to retain certain workloads or applications in their own data centers versus migrating them to the cloud?
Adam says, “There are quite a few decisions to make in such a situation. Workloads and applications are highly dependent on performance and latency. Like-for-like cloud specifications tend to not provide the same performance, narrowing the cost-benefit between on-prem and cloud in many cases. Beyond that, there are other factors other than cost and performance – control, security, compliance, and business continuity requirements.”
Cloud security, data security, and availability remain points of some concern although by and large confidence has grown in public cloud services.
According to Walid, “It is obvious that some enterprises have found their feet in today's era by reviewing their processes, structure, recruiting the right people and building their vision that can drive the decisions of migrating their assets to the cloud. There are pros and cons and many enterprises now can realize the value behind their calls. In my view, security is still a key concern for
Walid Salem IT Lead- ME, Zurich International Life Limited
enterprises to go to the cloud despite the efforts done by the cloud providers to maintain security, addressing privacy concerns, and ensuring that the components are in safe hands. Confidentiality is another concern and enterprises’ leads would like to see how cloud providers can help them address this demand. Data is the fuel of enterprises and any flaw in the privacy procedures may cause a high-cost implication. As enterprises strive to maintain their customer's confidence and highly confidential data in a proper way, availability of the data becomes another key requirement.”
He further adds, “Data Integrity is another demand too. Ensuring that the logical structure of the data is maintained and the right relationships between the data elements are enforced are crucial actions for Data Integrity. Correctness of the relationship between the different data elements is key while building the Management Information Reports and common dashboards. The above is not enough if the data becomes unavailable. Enterprises need to meet their customers’ commitments and the Service Level promised by sticking with the platforms that ensure the availability of the data as and when they are needed.”
According to Ali, enterprises decide on the balance between utilizing cloud services and maintaining on-premises data centers by evaluating several key factors.
“These include the specific business requirements for scalability, data residency, compliance with regulatory standards, and data sovereignty. Cost considerations are crucial, as the long-term
Capex of on-premises solutions may be more predictable and cost-effective for certain workloads compared to the potentially unpredictable Opex of cloud services. Additionally, the nature of the workloads plays a significant role; mission-critical applications with stringent latency, data integrity, and sovereignty needs may be better suited for on-premises environments. Security concerns, data sensitivity, and the availability of reliable internet connectivity also influence the decision. Ultimately, enterprises must conduct thorough cost-benefit analyses and risk assessments to determine the optimal mix of cloud and on-premises investments that align with their operational goals and IT strategy.”
Regulatory requirements or internal policies that necessitate maintaining certain data and applications within their own data centers also imply that on-premise data centers will continue to as well in the foreseeable future.
According to Adam, “Depending on the organisation– regulatory requirements around data sovereignty, privacy/data protection laws, or industry specific regulations all have an impact on the decisions to be made about what data remains on prem and what can go to the cloud.”
This could be a deciding factor for critical sectors like Finance, healthcare, government etc where data sovereignty is a priority.
Ali adds, “There are many factors based on which jurisdiction the corporation operates and the specific industry regulations it must adhere to. Regulatory requirements and internal policies often necessitate maintaining certain data and applications within their own data centers. For example, in the financial sector, data sovereignty laws may require that sensitive customer information remains within the country’s borders. Healthcare organizations must comply with stringent data protection regulations such as HIPAA in the United States or GDPR in Europe, which mandate strict controls over patient data. Similarly, in defense and government sectors, security and confidentiality requirements often dictate that certain workloads be kept on-premises to ensure compliance and control. Additionally, if a corporation operates across multiple jurisdictions or serves customers and suppliers across borders, they must consider the regulations of each jurisdiction, ensuring compliance with a diverse set of legal requirements. These regulations and policies play a crucial role in shaping an enterprise's decision to retain specific data and applications within their own data centers.”
From a performance point of view, for applications that require low latency or high performance, organizations would need to find the best balance or approach between cloud and running them from own data centre.
Ali says, “For applications that require low latency or high performance, the best approach often involves a balance between cloud and edge computing, supplemented by on-premises data centers where feasible. Edge computing can be a critical solution in such scenarios, as it allows data processing closer to the user, reducing latency and improving performance. However, it is not always possible to have data centers or edge nodes near every user, especially if users are widely dispersed. In these cases, a
Adam Lalani IT Director, GCC Services
hybrid approach that leverages the scalability and flexibility of the cloud while strategically placing edge computing resources in key locations can be effective. On-premises data centers can be utilized for mission-critical applications that demand the highest performance and control. By distributing workloads across cloud, edge, and on-premises infrastructure, enterprises can optimize performance, ensure low latency, and meet the diverse needs of their users, even those scattered across different regions.”
Adam says, “Depending on the situation, an edge computing/hybrid model is the usual best-balanced approach – fast processing on premise, and less intensive/sensitive workloads in the cloud. That being said, if the end users are in specific geographies you can make it work well in cloud – like we do with our African users. We leverage Azure in Johannesburg.”
There could also be cost efficiencies or financial advantages to consider in deciding over maintaining certain workloads in own data centers rather than migrating them to the cloud.
Ali says, “There are cost efficiencies and financial advantages to maintaining certain workloads in own data centers rather than migrating them to the cloud. For instance, while Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) offer flexibility and scalability, they can sometimes result in higher operational expenditures (Opex) due to ongoing subscription costs. On the other hand, on-premises data centers can provide more predictable capital expenditures (Capex), especially for workloads with long-term data retention requirements. Regulatory requirements for data residency and performance considerations also influence this decision. For industries with stringent data residency laws or those needing high-performance computing, retaining data on-premises ensures compliance and optimal performance. Additionally, short-term data retention needs can be more cost-effectively managed on the cloud, avoiding the potentially higher costs associated with on-premises setup. The cost and availability of talent to manage these data centers is also a critical factor; having skilled personnel can mitigate operational risks and enhance efficiency. By carefully evaluating these factors, enterprises can achieve a balanced approach that maximizes cost efficiencies while meeting regulatory and performance requirements.”
A key point to consider is the level of control and security that enterprises get to maintain over their data and infrastructure by operating their own data centers compared to security measures and assurances provided by cloud service providers, especially for sensitive or critical business data.
Walid says, “While Cloud Service Providers assure their customers that they will do their best endeavor to protect their data, there is no assurance that the data will always be in a safe basket and would not be targeted or compromised by intruders. I think the classical way of maintaining the data in the on-premises Data Center room of the enterprises may be an option that some of the IT Leads may consider as a response to the recent Microsoft outage and it is a matter of time to see how they will take it forward.”
Adam adds, “ I don’t believe that the level of control or security differs between a properly configured cloud setup and self-operated on premise data centers. Often the engineers do not either have
Ali Katkhada Group Chief Information Officer, Depa Group
the knowledge or experience of cloud to be able to effectively setup properly.”
The significance of having own data center investments would need to be factored as part of an overall disaster recovery and business continuity strategy as they provide some advantages.
Adam says, “With on-premise data centers potentially there is significant benefit is having a self-controlled environment for backup and recovery operations, as well as engineers having tried and trusted runbooks on how to bring systems back after a continuity incident. With time, and better-skilled engineers becoming available the gap between on-premise and cloud BCP will disappear. The gulf region has been way behind the curve when it comes to cloud adoption – and this is reflected once more in the BCP area.”
However, he adds, “Unless you are running an operation in an area of very poor connectivity there is no reason to continue to build on-premises data centers and all the hassle that entails with hardware management. Anywhere I would work I would be saying to my management lets focus on our business and benefit our stakeholders, and not unnecessarily waste time, money, and effort on continuing with on-premises setups.”
In summary, while on-premises data centers won't go away in the foreseeable future, the percentage of investments on that front is diminishing because of the need for enterprises to forge a balance even as they shift to increased cloud investments.
HIGHLIGHTING PARADIGM SHIFTS IN THE DIGITAL WORKSPACE
The 2024 Future Workspace Summit in Saudi Arabia witnessed informative sessions that delved into discussion around various technologies that are helping optimize work processes as well as enhancing collaboration and security.
The 4th Saudi edition of the Future Workspace Summit & Awards was held on May 16th at the Hyatt Regency in Riyadh. The event organized by CXO DX and Leap Media has developed over the past few editions as a leading regional forum for Technology leaders discussing the
transformation of modern workspaces led by emerging collaboration technologies as well as cloud, AI, cybersecurity etc.
The keynotes of the day addressed various aspects of technologies that are playing a key transformational role in the workplace.
The panel discussions of the day helped panelists share their insights on how the transformation continues to play out as hybrid and work from anywhere become more commonly accepted.
Saran Babu Regional Director, MEA, Zoho, the first speaker of the day presented on ‘The role of data centers in ensuring data sovereignty. Following him, Salah Farhan, Territory Sales Manager, KSA, Kuwait, Bahrain, LEVANT, Africa, Barco spoke on the topic “Working in a phygital world: Why CIO's need to rethink their workspace experiences now!
Shyam Sundar Chelnat, Regional Sales Manager from Accops MEA, the next
keynote speaker presented on ‘Uncomplicate Your Remote Access’.
Rejeesh Kumar, CTO of Mindfire Technologies discussed the topic ‘Converging Frontlines: Cybersecurity is Data security’ in his keynote address. Presenting the final keynote of the day, Mohammed sharif Regional Sales Manager-Video Collaboration, Logitech spoke on New Logic of Work - Hybrid Workspace and Meeting Equity’.
Apart from the keynotes, the panel discussions helped explore different facets of technology-driven transformation of the modern enterprise and the workplace. The first panel on the topic Democratization and scaling AI in the enterprise explored how enterprises can be more successful in their path toward AI democratization.
Ayub ALDakael, Board's Risk Committee member, (Confidential - Government sector) moderated the session. The panelists included
1. Shihab Aldin Rabee, Digital Transformation Strategic Advisor, Saudi Foods and Drug Authority
2. Dr. Amani AlBraikan, AI and Digital Transformation consultant
3. Mohsen AlShammari, Director of Business Continuity, Disaster & Crisis Center, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development
4. Ahmad Almutawa, Director - Product Analytics & Reporting, Tawuniya
5. Rakeeb Rafeeque, Product Marketing Manager, Zoho
The second panel discussed ‘Balancing Cloud Investment Costs’ an essential
component in ensuring an organization’s cloud strategy is heading on the right path. Imran Hashim - Director IT Infrastructure – Medgulf moderated this interesting session. The panelists included:
1. Ramyan Alramyan, Saudi Entertainment Ventures
2. Shahid Parwaiz, CIO, Dr s' Lounge
3. Sivakumar, IT Manager, Arabian Shield Cooperative
‘Sustainability on the CIO Agenda’, the third panel discussion of the day brought out significant viewpoints of the growing importance of sustainability on the IT strategy roadmap.
Ali Saif, Head of IT at Tanmiah Food Company was the moderator of the session. The panelists included:
1. Naveed Ahmed Rathor, Head of In-
formation Technology, Dr. Soliman Fakeeh Hospital
2. Asim Badhuralam, IT Directors, Sanabel Al Salam Food Manufacturing Company
3. Abdullah alfahaid, CIO, Ajlan & Bros Holding
The final panel discussion of the day facilitated a lively discussion on the topic Stepping up cyber security in the era of AI-powered threats.’
Aatif Khan, Advisor CISO, at a Government Entity moderated the session. The panelists included
1. Kamal Farag, Digital Services Director, Human Resources Development Fund KSA
2. Dr. Nasser Alamri, CISO, Institute of Public Administration
3. Abdullah Biary, Chief Information Security Officer, United Cooperative Assurance
4. Zohir Kadamani, Business Development Senior Manager, Territory Manager, Veeam Software
5. Rajeesh Kumar, CTO, Mindfire Technologies
Apart from the informative sessions, the event also included awards across two sessions that recognized outstanding technology leaders and companies.
The first awards session in the morning included recognitions for IT Accelerators of the Year and IT Transformers of the Year,
covering non-CIO/CISO IT leadership roles. The Awards segment in the evening included recognitions for CIOS, CISOs as well as IT vendors, SIs and distributors.
In addition, the event had an exhibitor zone that saw some busy interactions between exhibitors and the attendees through the day.
The event’s sponsors included Veeam, Zoho, Logitech along with Alpha Data, Barco, Accops with Bulwark Technologies as well as Mindfire Technologies. The silver sponsors of the day included Paessler with Digital Track, Finesse, ManageEngine and Trigon.
Muneer V Abdurahman
'CIO of the Year' WINNERS
Al Sadhan Group & SPAR Retail KSA
Eng. Syed Kareemuddin
The Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Saudi Arabia
Hilal Ud Din
Alodood Contracting Company
Mubarak Al Shahrani
King Saud University Medical City
Gaurav Kole
Leylaty Group
Krish Jangal ARASCO
Ali Saif
Tanmiah Food Company
Carlos Soto
Dar Al Riyadh Group
Abdullah Alfahaid Ajlan & Bors Holding
Aijaz Regoo MIS Pay
Asim Badhuralam
Sanabel Al Salam Food Manufacturing Company
Sayyed Jameer Al Atkaal Company ltd.
Naveed Ahmed Rathor
Dr.Soliman Fakeeh Hospital
Qasim Nadeem ABANA Enterprises Group
Dr. Eyad Buhulaiga
Saudi Electricity Company (SEC)
Samer Marouf Rakaa Holding
Syed Fakruddin Albeez
King Abdullah Economic City
Fouad Mohamed Alshaya Group
Kamal Farag
HRDF
Osama Mallah Sumou Holding
Alaa Gharbawi Forus
Imran Hashim
MEDGULF Saudi Arabia
Yousef AbdulRaqeeb AlRajhi Awqaf
Awais Ahmad e& enterprise
Zakauddin Akhtar Rajhi Investment
Najmus saqib Maestro Group
Dr. Mustafa Hasan Qurban
King Fahd Military Medical Complex
Hazem Awni Jarrar
King Faisal Foundation
Irfan Ul Haq
LSC Logistics
Dr.Faisal Al-Nasser Almarai
Nezar Al Turki
Ministry of National Guard
Khaled Harbah
Prince Mohammed Bin Salman College
Shahid Parwaiz Dr.s'Lounge
Mohammad Hazazi Government Sector
Mohammad Mazhar Khan Ledar Investment Group
Adeem AlMurayi
Saudi Electricity
Dr. Yosef Asfour
Saudia Auctions Co. Ltd.
Sivakumar Seshadri
General Organization for Social Insurance
'CISO of the Year' WINNERS
Mohammed Alshehri Alamthal Financing Company
Aatif Khan Government Entity
Muhammad Kashif Siddiqui NADEC
Adeel Agha
Al Ittefaq Steel Products Company
Dr. Nasser Alamri Institute of Public Administration
Abdelmajed Saeed Confidential
Abdul Rahim shaikh Wataniya Finance
Mubarak Aldawsari MIS Pay
Suhail Akhtar ESEC
Musthafa Shafeeque Rahman Gulf Mountain Company Ltd.
Suhail Faris
Establish and finishing LTD
Abdullah Biary
United Cooperative Assurance
Waqas Butt
Yelo - Alwefaq Transportation Solutions
Fahad Alhamdan
Sports Boulevard Foundation
'IT Transformer of the Year' — WINNERS
Amani Albraikan AI Consultant
Shihab Aldin Rabee Saudi Food and Drug Authority
Mirza R Baig Finzey Finance Company
Michael Angelo M. Estallo Saudi Arabian Oil Company
Tanekar Javeed Ministry Of Finance
Eng. Abdulmohsen Alyousef Saline Water Conversion Corporation
Leelakrishna Ananthan MEPSAN
Sivakumar Ganesan Arabian Shield Insurance
Ashak Ali Khan Ministry Of Finance
Mervat Alrassan King Saud University Medical City
Adeel Anwar Jumeirah Hotels & resorts
Ayub ALDakael Government sector
Ahmad Almutawa Tawuniya
Mohsen AlShammari Government sector
Azwar Shah noon
Eslam Taha Riyadh Airports Company
Ahmed Ali Larik EMKAN
Shaik Mushtaq NUPCO
Muhammad Dabbour Riyadh Airports Company
Ramyan Alramyan Saudi Entertainment Ventures
'IT Accelerator of the Year' — WINNERS
Sulaiman alkharashi SME Bank
Shahbaz Ahmad AL Mubarrad
Saud Alabdulaziz The financial academy
Faisal Khan MedGulf Saudi Arabia
Tamer Naghawi Intercontinantal Hotel
Mansoor Ali Baig King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center
Nugod Salem Alqarzai Ministry of Tourism
Salman Khalid King Saud University Medical City
Wael Mohammed Abdelaal Al Rajhi Endowments
Akhdar Akthar Amsa Hospitality
Mohammad Siddique Alsahli Holding Company
Saudi Jone Gilbolinga Global Health Care
Mohammed Afzal The Coca-Coca Bottling Company of Saudi Arabia
Ashique Bin Kassim Almosafer
Waseem Ahmed Council of Health Insurance
Ismath Mohamed Rozmi SASAT Logistics Company
Ahmed Al-Marhoon Al Saedan Real Estate Co.
Mohammed Nizamuddin Dal al Riyadh
Mehmood Iqbal Rollc Factory For Metal Industries
Nadeem Aslam Karan Hotel
Zeeshan M. Syed Al-Dawaa Medical services Company Ltd.
Mohamed Siddique Engineer holding Group
Ramiz Moideen KP Trolley Convenience Store
'Workspace Transformation of the Year'
WINNERS
LSC Logistics
Almarai ESC
Noon
King Saud University Medical City
'Distributor & SI Awards' WINNERS
Bulwark Technologies Cybersecurity VAD of the Year
Trigon AV Solutions VAD of the Year
Alpha Data
Collaboration Solutions Integrator of the Year
Finesse
Digital Transformation SI of the Year
Mindfire Technologies MSSP of the Year
'Vendor Awards' — WINNERS
Veeam
Data Management Solutions Vendor of the Year
Zoho
Business Productivity Solutions Vendor of the Year
Accops
Hybrid Workspace Security Vendor of the Year
Barco
Hybrid Collaboration Solutions Vendor of the Year
Logitech
Collaboration Hardware Vendor of the Year
Paessler
Enterprise Monitoring Vendor of the Year
ManageEngine
IT Management Solutions Vendor of the Year
TOMORROW’S TRANSPORTATION WILL RELY ON AI-DRIVEN CYBERSECURITY
Morgan Wright, Chief Security Advisor at SentinelOne writes that as we navigate this digital frontier, the automotive industry must prioritise cybersecurity as a foundational element of vehicle design and functionality
In an era where technology seamlessly integrates into every facet of our lives, the vision of the future of transportation, once dreamt in the mid-20th century, is becoming a reality. Landscapes are evolving, with the promise of enhanced connectivity, ease of travel, and the development of sprawling metropolises aimed at fostering a more harmonised society. This transformative period in transportation is not just about sleek designs, improved fuel efficiency, or advanced safety systems; it is about the underlying digital revolution that has turned vehicles from mechanical wonders into sophisticated, software-driven entities.
Today, vehicles are commonly referred to as data centres on wheels, equipped with digital interfaces that constantly communicate with manufacturers, receive over-theair (OTA) software updates, and integrate advanced safety features, like LIDAR systems, to navigate complex environments. The once direct mechanical connection between the accelerator and the engine has been replaced by a digital command centre, where a simple press of a pedal is translated into a series of computations that ensure optimal performance and safety.
The very systems that make modern vehicles a marvel of technology also exposes them to a myriad of cybersecurity threats. In recent years, the automotive industry has witnessed a concerning trend: an increase in cyber-attacks targeting not just the vehicles but the entire ecosystem surrounding their development, production, and maintenance. The 2021 attack on KIA Motors by the DopplePaymer group is a stark reminder of the potential consequences of inadequate cybersecurity measures. While no direct harm to drivers was reported, the incident underscored the risks of operational downtime, revenue loss, and eroding customer trust.
The question then becomes, what lies ahead? The potential targets for cyber-attacks are not limited to consumer vehicles but extend to government and municipal mass transit systems. The stakes are exponentially higher, with the threat landscape encompassing espionage, state-sponsored activities, and the emerging menace of AI-driven cyber threats. The complexity of modern vehicles, often containing upwards of 100 endpoints including infotainment systems that store personal data, demands a cybersecurity strategy that transcends traditional approaches and international borders.
Aston Martin's F1 team provides a great example of the intricate cybersecurity needs of ultra-modern, high-tech vehicles and their creators. These highly complex vehicles illuminate the imperative for a holistic cybersecurity framework that addresses the challenges faced across the entire product lifecycle, from pre-production to post-production. The Aston Martin F1 team, known for their cutting-edge technology and pursuit of perfection, exemplifies the critical need for advanced cy-
bersecurity measures capable of thwarting AI-driven threats and protecting the intricate network of systems and applications that underpin the performance of these high-speed machines.
While protecting an F1 vehicle can be accepted as an extreme example of a connected vehicle with each endpoint generating large sets of data, many of these technologies are likely to find their way into consumer, municipality, government, and even mass-transit vehicles down the road.
The cybersecurity of modern vehicles is indeed a data problem.
Protecting this data requires a proactive approach, one that involves hunting for threats, deceiving potential attackers, and adopting a mindset that places vehicle cybersecurity on par with data security across the rest of the organisation. It's about creating a resilient shield around the digital and physical aspects of transportation, ensuring that innovation continues to drive us forward, not backward into an age of vulnerability.
As we navigate this digital frontier, the automotive industry must prioritise cybersecurity as a foundational element of vehicle design and functionality. The collaboration between cybersecurity experts like and automotive giants is a step in the right direction, but it is only the beginning. The path forward requires a concerted effort from manufacturers, suppliers, cybersecurity professionals, and regulatory bodies to establish robust standards and practices that safeguard our vehicles and, by extension, our society. The future of transportation depends not just on technological advancements but on our ability to protect and secure these innovations against the ever-evolving threats of the digital age.
Morgan Wright Chief Security Advisor, SentinelOne
CATALYZING TRANSFORMATION
Walid Gomaa, CEO of Omnix International, a leading regional provider of digital transformation solutions discusses the focus areas for the company and shares his views on several technology trends
Walid Gomaa CEO, Omnix International
Tell us about the two divisions of the company Omnix has two main divisions, one is related to engineering and engineering programs, and the other is related to much of the digital transformation, digital innovation solutions, and infrastructure.
As we progress in the market, we are trying to link the two units together and provide unique value propositions and solution offerings. As an example, engineering is primarily focused on providing services around CAD design solutions. As we are the distributor of Autodesk in the UAE, we help resellers in this domain to position the Autodesk solution and the add-ons for the Autodesk solutions. To complete the offerings around the engineering we added several other propositions. We provide drafting services, which are like managed services and outsourcing services for customers who want to use the CAD solution but can't operate themselves. We provide managed services and outsourcing solutions. We also provide BIM modelling and services to help customers build models around the different solution areas. We extend that by adding solutions around how consultants and designers can do visualization of the model. We do that via different rendering solutions. We add multimedia to that offering as well. We go into helping in the AEC industry specifically around product management and product delivery. We add offerings that are coming to the market, such as AR and VR for visualization, and help build an actual metaverse platform that can help customers do that. This sums up what we do in the engineering domain.
On the digital front, it's all about digital transformation in verticals like manufacturing, government sector, banking etc. We look at three main pillars of solutions. One is what we call a digital innovation solution, which is all about organizing applications. So, we do help customers to build and modernize applications, whether low-code no-code, or dot net and container-based environments. We help them to manage their data management solution. We help customers manage the data life cycle, all the way from data catalog, data management, data gathering into ETL tools, into the data lake, data warehouse, and then the analytics. We do the automation part which is all related to things like ro-
botic process automation, process mining, and process discovery to ensure that they have the best process management solutions. And you can extend that now with the customer experience part because it is becoming an important aspect related to automation. This includes Conversational AI and the best of process automation to help deliver the best customer experience.
What are the other areas of focus?
Smart infrastructure is an area where we are very well known because we've been doing this for almost now more than 25 30 years, which is all about AV components and setting up an auditorium, meeting rooms, executive rooms, and helping customers with indoor and outdoor signage boards. It's anything that's related to the audio-visual and acoustics system. We do help customers in their data center domain where we help deploy structured cabling, networking, and ICT equipment. Finally, we also focus on certain areas of cybersecurity related to DRC, IAM, PAM, in the context of the cybersecurity threats and in helping negotiate the complexities of digital transformation. And of course, we do consult and offer services like penetration testing.
We have a unique value proposition because of the two divisions, and we bring the two together in multiple ways. As an example, when we talk about AR and VR, this automatically will trigger the integration of back-end systems building an application, and so on. So, we bring the two together when we do 3D scanning solutions. We take the 3D scanning solutions and create something like an asset utilization solution and bring this to the customer as an added value.
Elaborate about your focus on automation.
In the automation domain, we help customers with their robotic process automation, and it starts with process identification. That's why we use the concept of process mining, which is one of the key things that we add. In many of the cases, process discovery or process mining, helps the customer to identify which process to start with. We take it to the next level which is now automating the process or applying the rules of process automation to make sure that you have the best processes implemented and automated. Another interesting area is AI Ops, which is the automation of AI operations. Some people will consider it under smart infrastructure while some slot it under automation. We are now helping the customers within this area of AI Ops, which is how they can automate IT operations by using artificial intelligence and machine learning, detecting what's happening, and predicting what's going to happen in the operation of IT.
What is the focus on using GEN AI in your solutions?
We have done POCs and POVs for customers because we wanted to make sure that customers understand the difference between the generic GEN AI and the enterprise version. We are implementing that at our internal site now. We're going to launch that very soon to show people how can you make use of the conversational AI integrated with GEN AI because I think blending the two is the best way for customers. If you do GEN AI, then all that you are asking for is to bring data and do data context analysis and data categorization. And then you can ask the question about the data. But if you want to extend that by now making use of the data to do certain transactions, this is where you integrate that with conversational AI. So, our approach is, towards Generative
Conversational AI to enable transactions. The platform or the interface should be a multi-channel interface, and this is what we are trying to promote in the market. And this is what conversational AI will bring to Generative AI.
What is your view on hyper-automation? Is that a focus for Omnix?
Hyper-automation is an extension of automating the automation. So sometimes people say hyper-automation is automation plus process discovery plus process documentation. So, it's the higher level of RPA. For us, hyper-automation is the use of automation technology, in different ways, not only to automate the process but also to discover the process, to document the process, to mine the process, etc. And this is about offering hyper-automation as a platform, rather than only as RPA technology. Most of the RPA vendors are branding themselves as hyper-automation vendors and they do that by only adding process discovery or process mining. We've been doing an extensive study about the different tools also for process mining because we do believe that process mining by itself should be positioned as a separate service offering. This is because it is independent of what processes you're going to automate, for which you first need to discover and mine the process and know the number of processes.
We are going to the customer with the approach to first take a call on what processes to start with for automation. It is best to understand this from the Business function or department within an organization rather than from the IT side as to which processes when automated will yield the most ROI. We go to the Business functionary and offer them our process mining and discovery tools to help them understand which processes when automated give them maximum ROI. Once these processes are identified, they can report to the IT department and recommend to them to deploy RPA for these processes for automation. The Process mining and discovery tools can help an enterprise with many processes identify the top three to five processes immediately in a span of two weeks, three weeks, or maybe a month to start the automation process.
“We are now helping customers within the area of AI Ops, which is how they can automate IT operations by using artificial intelligence and machine learning, detecting what's happening, and predicting what's going to happen in the operation of IT.”
THE QUEST TO EXCEL
Akashdeep Singh, Chief Strategy Officer at Tech First Gulf FZ LLC discusses the company's focus on growth and innovation in their quest to become a preferred one-stop destination for channel partners looking to offer innovative solutions in market
Discuss some of the key focus areas at Tech First Gulf in terms of solutions Tech First Gulf entered in the IT distribution domain in 2019 with a clear vision – to "create value generation through differentiation." Our strategy has revolved around partnering with advanced technology vendors across AV, Infrastructure, UCC, ELV, Cybersecurity, Volume Business, and Services. By integrating these complementary sectors, we aim to become a comprehensive one-stop-shop distributor.
We have invested advanced solutions and have focused on laying the groundwork for our vendors success. This involves building a network of capable partners, SIs and ISPs across the region, ensuring they possess the sales, pre-sales, and technical expertise to support customers and projects effectively. Through this approach, we have successfully grown our team with new talent.
Though this approach requires dedication and time, our unwavering commitment consistently leads to successful results, making us the preferred distributor for many vendors.
Akashdeep Singh Chief Strategy Officer, Tech First Gulf FZ
Discuss some of the growth highlights of the company over the past year?
Over the years, our solutions have grown rapidly due to a salesbased marketing approach driven by high demand and strategic partnerships. We have expanded into new markets across the MEA region, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman among others and, strengthened our presence. “We regularly participate in industry tradeshows like GITEX, GISEC, Intersec, Black Hat to showcase the technologies that we work with”. Our focus on continuous development and innovation has earned us recognition for our industry leadership with choice awards from our Vendors and the IT media.
These achievements show our commitment to innovation, expanding our market reach, and delivering exceptional value to our partners and customers.
How are you focusing on enabling your partners and onboarding more partners? What would be the skillsets you would look for?
Tech First Gulf prioritizes empowering partners to become experts in delivering the most advanced solutions, aligning with our strategic vision of becoming the preferred distributor in the region. Our technology solutions support enterprises in sectors such as BFSI, Education, Oil & Gas, and Defence, Infrastructure. Our strong relationships in these industries play a pivotal role in delivering tailored and effective solutions. We achieve this through comprehensive training programs, ongoing technical support, hand on training, certification and collaborative marketing & sales initiatives. When onboarding new partners, we seek those who share our vision for seamless collaboration, possess a strong sales network in the IT/ communication technology sectors, demonstrate technical expertise and prioritize excellent customer service. By cultivating a network of highly skilled and dedicated partners, we empower businesses across the Middle East and Africa to achieve productive collaboration environments.
How is the demand for meeting room solutions evolving? Is this a key growth area for Tech First?
The demand for meeting room solutions is soaring, driven by the evolving needs of the enterprises and SMEs. These businesses require streamlined collaboration and powerful communication tools to thrive. At Tech First Gulf, we see this as a strategic launchpad for growth. We forge partnerships with industry leaders at the forefront of meeting-room technology, supported by comprehensive pre-sales training, certification, and POC devices. To further solidify our commitment to the region, we have established a state-of-the-art Experience Centre in Abu Dhabi, with two more coming up in Riyadh-Saudi Arabia, and Nairobi-Kenya. This centre demonstrates the most advanced solutions
in meeting-room technology and displays, showcasing enhancements in productivity and collaboration. These strategic moves enable us to offer a comprehensive suite of solutions – scheduling platforms, and integrated communication tools – that cater to the diverse needs of our partners. By staying ahead of the curve and partnering with industry leaders, we are well-positioned to become the leading provider of meeting - room solutions, empowering businesses across the MEA to achieve seamless and productive collaboration.
Discuss how you have been strengthening your cybersecurity line of business? who are your key vendors in the cybersecurity portfolio?
Our cybersecurity portfolio, we strategically work with vendors like Arcon, Invicti, Group-IB, Seceon, Seclore, Kaspersky, and Radware, offers a robust foundation. These vendors specialize in key areas such as endpoint protection, privileged access management, identity access management, web application security testing, threat intelligence, AI-driven analytics, data-centric security, DDOS, application delivery services and antivirus. By leveraging this comprehensive lineup, we contribute to national cybersecurity efforts by deploying advanced technologies, implementing rigorous access controls, conducting thorough security testing, and utilizing intelligence-driven analytics. This approach strengthens resilience against cyber threats across critical infrastructure and supports proactive defence strategies to safeguard the nation's digital assets.
“Our technology solutions support enterprises in sectors such as BFSI, Education, Oil & Gas, and Defence, Infrastructure. Our strong relationships in these industries play a pivotal role in delivering tailored and effective solutions.”
LEAPING TO THE EDGE:
AI DRIVEN TRANSFORMATION IN TELECOMS
Walid Yehia, Managing Director - UAE, at Dell Technologies delves into the transformative benefits telecom providers can harness by seamlessly integrating Artificial Intelligence and GenAI into their edge infrastructure
Walid Yehia Managing Director - UAE, Dell Technologies
Edge computing has emerged as a strategic shift in the world of data processing. Unlike traditional centralized cloud computing, edge computing brings computation closer to the data source—whether it’s fleet management, automated industrial machines, or autonomous vehicles, it’s like having a mini data center right where the action happens. IDC reports worldwide spending on edge computing is expected to reach $232 billion in 2024, an increase of 15.4% over 2023; and by 2027 62% of enterprises data will be processed at the edge.
As organizations increasingly adopt edge computing for real-time processing and decision-making, the ability to run artificial intelligence (AI) at the edge is becoming imperative, reshaping how enterprises harness the potential of AI. AI, including Generative AI (GenAI), is revolutionizing how machines learn, create, and adapt. IDC forecast shows that enterprise spending (which includes GenAI software, as well as related infrastructure hardware and IT/business services), is expected to more than double in 2024 and reach $151.1 billion in 2027 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 86.1% over the 2023-2027 forecast period. AI at the edge is a transformative leap for industries, with the ability to offer unparalleled benefits such as real-time responsiveness, privacy compliance, cost efficiency, and edge autonomy. By harnessing AI capabilities directly at the edge of the network, enterprises can ensure timely decision-making, safeguard data, optimize infrastructure usage, and maintain continuous functionality even in the most dynamic environments.
The telecommunications sector stands out as a prime beneficiary of this technological revolution. The Middle East’s telecommunications market is projected to witness a growth of USD 20.57 billion between 2021 and 2026, with a projected CAGR of 3.25%. There is growing interest in the telecom industry on how best to leverage AI’s superpowers to generate business growth. With the proliferation of IoT devices and applications, and with the intricate network architecture and constant demand for swift data processing, AI at the edge presents a golden opportunity for telecom operators to enhance their service delivery, improve network management, and elevate customer experiences.
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Here are some of the benefits telecom providers can unlock by seamlessly integrating AI into their edge infrastructure:
• Latency Reduction: By bringing data processing closer to its source, AI algorithms deployed at the edge can prioritize essential tasks, like real-time video streaming or gaming. This localized processing effectively slashes latency, ensuring a smoother and more responsive user experience.
• Network Optimization: AI algorithms deployed at the edge can help enhance network optimization, by efficiently analyzing network traffic patterns, predicting congestion points, and dynamically rerouting traffic. This approach not only enhances network performance but also ensures optimal utilization of resources, resulting in improved reliability and seamless connectivity for users.
• Enhanced Security: Through the integration of edge AI, telecom networks can further use algorithms to protect their security infrastructure by swiftly detecting anomalies and neutralizing potential threats at the source. By embracing enhanced zero-trust principles and processing data locally at the edge, telecom providers can significantly enhance data privacy and security, ensuring robust protection for users.
• Energy Efficiency: Sustainability and lowering energy costs are top of mind for almost all telecom operators. With this, AI stands to play a pivotal role in network energy efficiency—especially at the edge in usually unstaffed locations. By leveraging AI and machine learning to gain insights into equipment usage patterns, operators can automate energy management processes and optimize energy consumption at edge locations.
• Predictive Maintenance: By harnessing the natural language processing (NLP) powers of generative AI (GenAI), telecom operators can greatly improve network troubleshooting. AI can swiftly identify irregularities, slashing troubleshooting durations from days or hours down to mere minutes. This accelerated response not only minimizes downtime but also results in substantial cost savings for operators, enabling them to allocate resources more efficiently and maintain optimal network performance for users.
• Diversified Services and Revenue Opportunities: With AIready infrastructure at the edge, telecom operators are also able to introduce novel and innovative services, that address specific customer needs and preferences. By capitalizing on their strategic positioning to deliver inferencing services at the edge, telecom operators can offer rapid, personalized, and contextually aware solutions to customers. This not only enhances user experiences but also opens avenues for additional monetization, driving sustained growth and competitiveness in the telecommunications market.
As telecom operators continue to embrace the edge ecosystem, the transformative potential of AI at the edge will not only be advantageous but imperative in navigating the future of modern networks. AI is anticipated to redefine the telecom landscape, and permeate through the entire network stack, presenting unique opportunities for telecom operators to unlock new possibilities. From intelligent automation to predictive analytics and personalized experiences, edge AI ushers in a new era of innovation, enabling operators to chart a course towards unparalleled growth in the digital age.
DIGITAL CAPABILITIES: A STRATEGIC IMPERATIVE IN MANUFACTURING
Ahmad Saad, Regional Sales Manager, Liferay Middle East discusses how the Middle East manufacturing sector needs to look at establishing digital capabilities as a strategic imperative
As the Middle East continues rapid economic diversification away from oil dependency, the region’s manufacturing sector stands at the forefront of this transformative journey. It is no longer about innovation being beneficial, it is essential to stay competitive in the global market. Let’s explore how establishing a digital foundation from the outset is emerging as a strategic imperative in the Middle East’s manufacturing landscape, driven by ambitious national visions in countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
The UAE’s & Saudi Arabia’s Bold Industrial & Manufacturing Vision
In the UAE, the manufacturing sector’s contribution to the GDP soared to AED 197 billion (USD 53.64 billion) in 2023, achieving 30% of the goals set by Operation 300bn, the UAE’s industrial strategy, since its launch in 2021. The National In-Country Value (ICV) scheme and the ‘Make it the Emirates’ campaign have both spurred growth by fostering an environment conducive to both local and international investments. The focus on expanding the industrial base is coupled with significant investments in aerospace, defense, and technology, aligning with broader economic visions.
Similarly, Saudi Arabia has experienced remarkable growth in its industrial capabilities. The number of factories in the country increased by 10% in 2023 operating 11,549 factories by the end of the year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources.
Such ambitious targets of nations in the region underscore the critical role of advanced manufacturing technologies in realizing these goals.
Ahmad Saad HRegional Sales Manager, Liferay Middle East
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The Need for Digital Innovation
This regional focus on industrial growth underscores the urgent need for foundational digital strategies. For Middle East manufacturers, adopting technologies like AI, big data analytics, and IoT, is no longer optional but a necessity to enhance production efficiency, manage supply chains more effectively, and meet evolving consumer expectations.
No one feels the weight of changing customer expectations more deeply than the manufacturing industry. As the beating heart of the supply chain, manufacturers must find ways to keep up with a world that seems determined to change every second.
Luckily, manufacturing companies don’t have to navigate this landscape with only hope and guesswork to guide their way. There’s a much better path through the modern world: to lay the groundwork for future loyalty to better connect with customer needs.
Digital transformation and the manufacturing industry are well-suited for one another. Because so much of their work relies on big data, analytics, and digital technology, manufacturers naturally need a way to bring all these tools together; meanwhile, digital transformation takes on new shape and meaning when informed by unique manufacturing challenges.
Here are a few real-world examples of digital transformation in the manufacturing industry.
Digital Transformation in Modern Manufacturing
Transforming the manufacturing industry isn’t just a best practice — it’s a necessity.
That’s because manufacturers, in many ways, play a vital role in shaping the future — not just via the supply chain, but also through:
• Meeting consumer expectations concerning industrial products.
• Using new technology or pioneering novel applications of smart technology, including artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, and 3D printing.
• Finding better ways to use big data.
• Spearheading evolutions in the customer experience space through self-service and more.
Simply put, manufacturing and production are the framework for much of what happens in our world; it makes sense that digitization is especially important in this sector.
While manufacturing companies no doubt appreciate the significance of their role in global commerce, helping shape the future is often incidental. Far more important is any digital transformation initiative impacting day-to-day production and factory floor operations, which include:
• Capturing data: Machines and plant workers create data every minute of every day. Manufacturers must be able to capture this data accurately, efficiently, and in real time to inform their choice of digital technology, production changes, and other digital transformation elements.
• Managing data: The manufacturing industry is perhaps one of the most significant creators of big data, leaving manufacturers and their customers scrambling to perform data analytics and extract necessary insights. As such, any digital transformation strategy in this space must include substantial solutions to manage big data.
• Preventing downtime: When machines break down, workflows are interrupted and the entire supply chain can suffer. Manufacturers need digital technology and data analytics tools that enable predictive maintenance, helping foresee and address issues that could cause breakdowns.
• Navigating the supply chain: Supply chain interruptions often fall outside a manufacturing company’s control. However, when planned appropriately, digital transformation can help manufacturers navigate these uncertainties. It can also act as a cushion or safety net, creating solutions that pick up the slack or otherwise soften the blow of supply chain interruptions.
• Offering self-service options: In the interest of saving time, streamlining the production process, and avoiding supply chain disruption, manufacturing companies often need software that enables self-service capabilities for users. Self-service options help simplify the ordering process, streamline production, make big data more accessible, and create value for stakeholders at all levels.
In short, manufacturers have needs that are uniquely addressed by digital transformation — and that’s why digital experiences are the future of manufacturing. It’s the next industrial revolution, and it’s all about digitized manufacturing operations.
Conclusion: Embracing Digital is the way to revolutionize Manufacturing
Manufacturers tend to have complicated requirements, from predictive maintenance and data analytics to preventing machine downtime and navigating the supply chain. Increasingly, challenges like automating complex business processes and personalizing the customer experience are becoming important factors of success and hence the need to implement highly customizable platforms that enable manufacturing companies to build their digital transformation around concrete goals and accessible metrics.
With the Middle East set to position as a global manufacturing hub, digital technologies and processes become foundational to it growth to remain competitive and lead in the global arena.
HARMONIZING THE POWER OF AI WITH THE FUTURE WE WANT TO BUILD
César Cernuda, Global President of NetApp, in this insightful byline titled-Harmonizing the Power of AI with the Future We Want to Build,-delves into the transformative potential of AI, its critical dependence on data, and the ethical considerations we must navigate.
César Cernuda Global President, NetApp
Today, artificial intelligence is perceived as a revolutionary force that will change the rules of the game or as a Leviathan overvalued by some and undervalued by others. Personally, I consider it another milestone of the innovations that have driven the advancement of humanity, similar to the industrial or scientific revolution and, like them, capable of being used for good or to unleash chaos.
The potential of AI for business is unquestionable. Predictive AI is already being used to recognize patterns, achieve dramatic efficiency improvements, or solve business and social problems more quickly and effectively. For example, it allows us to predict how proteins fold in medical research or protect users and companies with the detection of financial fraud, and its power to process enormous amounts of data helps in decision making and is transforming the way we face change. climate, the greatest threat to humanity.
Even better, generative AI not only recognizes but generates new patterns, making software developers more productive, content creators delivering even more immersive experiences to their audiences, and customers, employees, citizens, and students finding the information they need in a much easier way. And all this mountain of possibilities is made of a single material: data.
Yes, Artificial Intelligence is nourished by data and, therefore, its storage, security and accessibility are crucial for the analyzes provided by AI. Eminent computer scientist Peter Norvig summed it up elegantly: " More data beats smart algorithms, but better data beats more data ." In this way, generative AI deployment projects will only reach as far as the quality of the data that feeds them reaches. And, as AI evolves and becomes an integral part of businesses, the importance of an intelligent data infrastructure becomes paramount.
Data Integration, Performance, and Trust Needs
To put their data “to work,” companies must manage multiple versions of their models and keep them up to date with the most recent data sets. This requires a free flow of data, regardless of whether it is the organization's own data or other relevant sets used to improve AI systems. And this is not as easy as turning on a tap, since we are talking about a considerable and incessant volume of data, with data dispersed, unstructured and requiring protection.
Complex technologies and organizational silos are the main obstacles to launching AI projects. Therefore, if they want to advance in this area, organizations must equip themselves with a modern, intelligent and integrated cloud data infrastructure that provides them with the most complete, powerful and sustainable solutions, without information silos.
Any company, large or small, looking to optimize its data engine to reap the benefits of generative AI must address four key issues. First, ensure alignment between your data and your AI organization. Many companies today have data analysts and engineers with a deep understanding of data, data scientists who can apply modern analytics tools, and business analysts who understand how to use data and AI recommendations to drive business results. But these different functions in each organization must collaborate as one team to accelerate the impact of AI.
The second fundamental aspect would be the analysis and consolidation of unstructured data . For years, companies have invested in tools to extract value from structured data. Generative AI, however, provides a powerful engine to extract value from the fastest growing part of data today, which is unstructured data. Therefore,
each organization needs an updated view of its unstructured data landscape and its relevant applications, to be ready to use it with AI applications.
To prepare for AI, businesses also can't forget to integrate their workloads and data with an intelligent multi-cloud hybrid infrastructure . The volume, types and velocity of data are growing inexorably, and with massive amounts of data to process, simplicity and integration are crucial.
The last thing, and not least, is to strengthen data security and governance. With every great power comes great responsibility and this is especially relevant in the case of AI, where private data is much more valuable, but can also be a source of errors, biases or inaccuracies in the models, which is why They must protect and govern.
Ultimately, when an organization invests in optimizing its data engine, it is building a solid foundation to unleash the full potential of artificial intelligence in a responsible, secure and accessible way. Over the past year, AI has kept many of us IT market leaders awake at night, not out of concern, but because it has transformed our reality with its potential to reshape industries and redefine human experiences.
Despite the enthusiasm for technology, we must face real challenges in this area, such as bias, transparency and control. And our focus, going forward, must go beyond pushing technical limits, harmonizing the transformative capabilities of AI with human ingenuity, ethical considerations, and a clear vision of the future we want to build.
“The potential of AI for business is unquestionable. Predictive AI is already being used to recognize patterns, achieve dramatic efficiency improvments, or solve business and social problems more quickly and effectively.”
SYNOLOGY ACTIVEPROTECT APPLIANCES
Synology ActiveProtect appliances, a purpose-built data protection lineup that combines centralized management with a highly scalable architecture for best-inclass ease of use.
ActiveProtect centralizes organization-wide data protection policies, tasks, and appliances to offer a unified management and control plane. Comprehensive coverage for endpoints, servers, hypervisors, storage systems, databases, and Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace services dramatically reduce IT blind spots
and the necessity of operating multiple data protection solutions.
IT teams can quickly deploy ActiveProtect appliances in minutes and create comprehensive data protection plans via global policies using a centralized console. From implementing immutability and air gapping policies to performing recovery procedures, ActiveProtect is designed to be intuitive, significantly reducing operational overhead.
Each ActiveProtect appliance can operate in standalone or cluster-managed modes.
DELL XPS 13
XPS 13 is the first XPS to feature Copilot+ powered by Snapdragon X Elite. The already iconic laptop now has powerful on-device AI that delivers cutting-edge responsiveness and impressive speed for navigating demanding workloads and freeing up time to be more creative, all the while extending time away from the outlet. XPS 13 is our thinnest and lightest2 XPS and now has multi-day battery life with up to 27 hours,3 suitable for everyday productivity and content creation.
AI processing executed locally on the device across the custom-integrated Qualcomm Oryon CPU, premium GPU and neural processing unit (NPU),
Storage capacity can be tiered with Synology NAS/SAN storage solutions, C2 Object Storage, and other ActiveProtect appliances in the cluster. Additionally, existing Synology Active Backup for Business deployments are manageable from the unified interface, providing high deployment flexibility.
Purpose-built ActiveProtect appliances leverage incremental backups with source-side, global, and cross-site deduplication to ensure fast backups and replication with minimal bandwidth usage. ActiveProtect is up to 7 times faster at backing up with a typical deduplication ratio of over 2:1, significantly reducing operating costs.
ActiveProtect will be available through Synology distributors and partners later in 2024.
Highlights:
• Easy to deploy and manage
• Designed to be intuitive
• Scalable for any organization
• Fast and efficient
offers several performance enhancements. These include more battery life, so you can search, create and communicate without a worry and offers 45 trillion operations per second (TOPS) of performance on the NPU, so you can run AI tasks more efficiently. It gives instantaneous results when searching your own content using on-device Copilot. This means you don’t need to worry about an internet connection or the cloud, making tasks more seamless, accessible and secure wherever you work or play on your Copilot+ PC.
D-LINK DXS-3410 LAYER 3 STACKABLE SWITCHES
The DXS-3410 Series are highly versatile Layer 3 stackable switches that provide adaptable, bottleneck-free 10G business connectivity. As they include powerful L2 and L3 features, they are highly flexible and capable of accommodating different network deployments.
Each of the two new models boast 10G fibre ports as well as four 10/25G SFP28 ports to provide versatility and speed, whilst providing either 10GB Ethernet or 10GB SFP+ interfaces across the models, providing flexibility for any type of deployment.
The DXS-3410 Series allows multiple switches to be combined to form a single physical or virtual stack. This increases redundancy over multiple physical units, simplifies management and provides a single IP address to manage all members in the stack. Up to nine switches can be combined using DACs/Fibre to make up to 252 10Gb Ethernet ports available, allowing switching capacity to be increased with demand, whilst up to 32 units can be virtually stacked.
In turn, the DXS-3410 Series gives enterprises and organisations a highly reliable network, allowing for maximum business continuity and by utilising built-in G.8032 Ethernet Ring Protection Switching (ERPS) help minimise recovery times to 50 ms.
Highlights:
• 10 Gigabit connectivity: 24x 10-Multi-Gigabit Ethernet ports with 4x 10G SFP
• High-speed Uplink ports: 4 x 25G SFP28 ports for uplink connection and stacking
• Scalability and high availability: Physical stacking up to 9 units and virtual stacking up to 32 units.
• Advanced L3 Features: OSPF, RIP/
Along with a host of essential network reliability features, both new switches in the series also support an external redundant power supply to ensure business operations continue unimpeded.
RIPng, IGMP v1/v2/v3, MLD v1/v2, QinQ, 802.1Qbb, RIP, OSPF, VRRP, 802.3ah, 802.1ag, Y.1731 OAM
• Zero Touch Provisioning: Effortless deployment with zero touch provisioning
• Enhanced flow control mechanism: IEEE802.31Qbb Priority-based Flow Control (PFC) for intelligent lossless network and data center bridging
Highlights:
Optimize demanding workloads with the Snapdragon X Elite processor, which delivers more performance than laptops without Dual Core Boost.
AI-dedicated chip improves power efficiency, extends battery life, emits less heat and runs quietly. Supports 45 TOPS.
Stream, share and create from anywhere with stunning graphics that invite entertainment immersion.
GARTNER POLL FINDS 55% OF ORGANIZATIONS HAVE AN AI BOARD
More Than 50% of Organizations Have an AI Leader, but 88% Indicate Their AI Leader Does Not Have the Title of Chief AI Officer
Arecent Gartner, Inc. poll of more than 1,800 executive leaders, revealed that 55% of organizations have an AI board. The poll also indicated 54% of organizations have a head of AI or an AI leader that orchestrates activities.
“The findings show that organizations are divided regarding if an AI board is necessary,” said Frances Karamouzis, Distinguished VP Analyst Gartner. “The answer is yes, enterprises need an AI board to transcend the multidisciplinary challenges to drive value and reduce risk. However, the duration, scope, and resourcing is context-specific and use-case dependent. For some, it’s a short-term, stopgap measure. For others, it’s a longer-term change to their operating model.”
The poll included 1,808 respondents who participated in a Gartner webinar in June 2024 discussing how executive leaders can assess the cost, risk and value of AI and GenAI initiatives. Results of this poll
do not represent global findings or the market as a whole.
AI Boards Must Have Clearly Defined Rules that Map Back to Business Remits Accountability for AI is spread out. Additionally, some organizations are decentralized, siloed or unclear as to where AI initiatives should lie. When asked who is accountable for AI initiatives, only a quarter of respondents aligned to a clear role (see Figure 1).
“AI board member composition should have representation from multiple disciplines and cross business units,” said Karamouzis. “It’s up to each organization to determine the best approach to drive speed and agility within their organization to ensure that the board does not get unwieldy and unproductive due to inability to meet or drive consensus.”
When asked to identify the top three focuses of the board remit, 26% of execu-
tives identified governance, and another 21% indicated strategy should be one of the primary focuses.
“The board member composition should align expertise with the scope of the remit,” said Karamouzis. “Board members should be senior level and seasoned executives with strong skills in strategy and execution, especially if they have GenAI ambitions.”
AI Leaders Are More Prevalent Among Organizations Than CAIOs
Of the 54% of executive leaders who indicated their organization had a head of AI, or an AI leader, 88% said that their AI leader did not have the title of chief AI officer (CAIO).
C-suite leaders take direction from their board of directors, and most boards do not want to expand the C-suite. Despite this, boards do want an AI leader who is responsible for AI orchestration.
Source: Gartner (June 2024)
