Network World Middle East by Network World Middle East

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www.networkworldme.com | Issue 146 | May 2011

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NETWORK GLORY Roundup of this year’s recipients of our high honour for technology leadership

ISSUE 146 | MAY 2011

contents COMMENT 04 Excellence revisited BITS 06 Dell to set up global solutions centre in Dubai 10 China sourcing fair returns 12 SCADA security race underway IN ACTION 18 A matter of scale: The hospitality giant

InterContinental Group has revamped its IT

infrastructure to meet user expectations

Full steam ahead: Abu Dhabi Ports Company

is one of the first government companies in

the region to have a 100 percent virtualized

server infrastructure environment

FEATURE 40 Paths to profitability: Telecom service

providers are beginning to outsource

their network operations in a bid to shore

up their sagging fortunes

COVER STORY

Network glory: Roundup of this year’s recipients of our high honour for technology leadership

EVENT REPORT 46 Security strategist 2011: Adding a new

dimension to enterprise security

INTERVIEW 48 Ushering in UC: Aspect Software’s VP of

worldwide sales on the promise of UC for

contact centres

TEST

Citrix XenServer: Citrix tackles server

virtualization with a fast hypervisor

NEW PRODUCTS 54 A guide to some of the new products

in the market

LAYER 8 58 All the news that’s fit for nothing

Quick Finder Page 6-26

Page 26-60

Dell, Cisco, Orange Business Services, Avaya, IBM, Nokia Siemens Networks, Motorola, SITA, Teradata, Etisalat Misr, InterContintenal Hotels Group, Abu Dhabi Ports Company, Qatar Foundation, Abu Dhabi University, du, Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, Kuwait National Petroleum Company, SHUAA Capital, Saudi Arabian Airlines

Landmark Group, Sharjah Islamic Bank, DHL Express, Juniper Networks, Aastra, NetApp, Motorola Solutins, 3M, EMW, Injazat Data Systems, Ericsson, FVC, Cisco, Nokia Siemens Networks, Citrix, Axis, Inmarsat, Dell, Hitachi, Toshiba, Intel

EDITORIAL Publisher Dominic De Sousa COO Nadeem Hood

Excellence revisited

Commercial Director Richard Judd richard@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9126

There were no stretch limos, teary-eyed speeches or even a host in smarmy clothes. But, what we did have were 22 winners you all will want to know about. The regional IT industry’s who’s who descended to the prestigious Address Hotel in Dubai Marina on the evening of 25th April to celebrate the winners of our second annual awards. We’d a couple of records this time around – we received close to 200 nominations across the 22 categories from a multitude of industries from the region. More than 4,000 of our readers voted for the two prestigious categories of networking vendor and networking value-added distributor. This year, we have evolved the criteria for winning to reflect the turmoil in the marketplace – end-user winners were chosen for their projects that transformed the business by reducing costs and enhancing efficiencies. Vendors were evaluated based on products and services that demonstrated clear value and return on investment. Conventional wisdom says that during economic downturn, technology innovation is dead. Nothing could be further from the truth. If the nominations to this year’s awards were anything to go by, companies in the Middle East have turned the crisis into an opportunity. What was common to all the companies in the race for our awards this year was a crystal clear understanding of their core business value; the courage to re-examine what they do, how they do it and with whom they do it. We hope organisations that have made the cut this year will serve as inspiration and proof that charting new paths in technology deployment can yield business rewards and industry recognition. Flip the pages to find out about those networking gems.

Sales Director Raz Islam raz@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9129 EDITORIAL Dave Reeder dave@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9106 Senior Editor Jeevan Thankappan jeevan@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9109 ADVERTISING Group Sales Manager Rajashree R Kumar raj@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9131 CIO PROGRAMMES CIO Programmes and Events Lead Kavitha Rajasekhar kavitha@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9132 MARKETING AND CIRCULATION Database and Circulation Manager Rajeesh M rajeesh@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9147 PRODUCTION AND DESIGN Production Manager James P Tharian james@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9146 Designer Froilan A. Cosgafa IV froilan@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9107 DIGITAL www.networkworldme.com Digital Services Manager Tristan Troy Maagma

Jeevan Thankappan Senior Editor jeevan@cpidubai.com

Web Developers Jerus King Bation Erik Briones Jefferson de Joya Louie Alma online@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9100

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bits Dell to set up global solutions centre in Dubai

This is why we are building in-country, in-region data centres for cloud computing,

and Dubai is one of the locations on the roadmap,” says Basil Ayass, Enterprise Product Manager, Dell. Dell plans to set up 22 such global solutions centres all over the world over the next 18 months. “The creation of a network of global centres is meant to help our customers architect, validate and build the enterprise right from the data centre to the edge of the network,” adds Ayass. Dell’s focus in the past year was building out its enterprise product and service businesses, with the “epicentre” of the company shifting away from PCs and toward the enterprise, especially toward products for the data centre. Dell is growing its enterprise business through acquisitions that strengthen its hardware, software and services offerings.

management features that could help set it apart from other vendors. Containerised data centres typically are standard 20- or 40-foot shipping containers packed with servers, switches and other IT equipment. Pioneered by companies such as Verari Systems and Sun Microsystems, they’re used to quickly add extra capacity to an existing data centre or to bring capacity to a remote location, such as an oil exploration site or a battlefield. Cisco has opted for a 40-foot container that it says can be up and running in 90 to 120 days from when an order is placed. Like other vendors in the market, Cisco expects

customers to stock the containers primarily with its own products, but the racks inside can accommodate other vendors’ equipment as well, said Keith Siracuse, a manager and product marketing engineer at Cisco. Because they are small, self-contained environments, containerised data centres can be made highly energy-efficient. Cisco has gone a step further than other vendors by designing racks that each have their own enclosure, so the temperature for each can be set individually. That allows customers to operate individual racks at slightly warmer or cooler temperatures, depending on the equipment inside and the workload, which helps squeeze out more energy savings.

Dell plans to set up a global solutions centre in Dubai, which will serve as a hub

for the Middle East and Africa. This is part of the company’s recently announced plans to invest $1 billion over the fiscal year 2012 to bolster its data storage products to business customers, with the money going toward the research of technologies such as cloud computing and virtualisation, along with the development on new data centres. “For cloud computing, the major obstacle to adoption is that organisations don’t feel comfortable about sending data out of their national boundaries.

Cisco jumps into portable data centre market

Cisco Systems launched its first

containerised data centre, coming late to the party but offering some unique

TRUE FACT

$10.5

billion 6 Network World Middle East May 2011

Basil Ayass, Enterprise Product Manager, Dell

Is the global spending on BI (business intelligence), analytics and performance management applications in 2010.The results reflect the BI market’s continued strength throughout the world’s economic downturn, as customers looked to such software to find efficiencies and gain competitive advantage. Source: Gartner

www.networkworldme.com

May 2011 Network World Middle East 7

bits Orange Business Services expands telepresence community Orange Business Services has expanded Telepresence Community, its B2B

Telepresence solution, through an interoperability agreement with Tata Communications’ Global Meeting Exchange to allow customers to conduct Telepresence meetings seamlessly on each respective network. The collaboration will provide customers of each organization with open access to connect across a much broader business ecosystem. Launched in July 2010, Telepresence Community enables Orange customers that have invested in immersive video technology to not only hold Telepresence meetings within their own enterprise, but also with customers, suppliers and partners that are either connected to the global MPLS platform of Orange Business

IBM refreshes Power systems BM has updated its Power systems lineup

with higher-density blades and faster processors for its mid-range Power 750 server, looking to keep its momentum in Unix sales as the market inches back to life. IBM has been outselling both Oracle and Hewlett-Packard in the Unix market, helped by its introduction last year of the eight-core Power 7 processor, and by lingering doubts about the roadmaps of its two biggest rivals, said IDC analyst Jed Scaramella. HP had to fend off more questions about the future of HP-UX last month, after Oracle joined Red Hat and Microsoft in saying it would stop developing new software for Intel’s Itanium processor, on which HP’s Unix servers are based. HP assured its customers its roadmap for Itanium systems stretches 8 Network World Middle East May 2011

Services or that of a partner carrier. This agreement enables meetings to take place between Telepresence Community customers and any private or public room on the Tata Communications Global Meeting Exchange, and vice versa. Tata Communications currently has the largest global network of public Telepresence rooms and is present in 31 major cities across five continents, with its 33 rooms spanning 17 countries.

out more than a decade, and said it would support its customers on existing Oracle releases throughout that time. But a glimmer of uncertainty can make buyers wary when it comes to decisions about high-end platforms. “Whenever questions are raised and people are talking about businesscritical applications, they tend to be very cautious,” Scaramella said. HP got something of a boost, however, when Intel announced in that its next Itanium processor, code-named Poulson, will ship next year and should double the performance of the current Itanium 9300. Oracle has had challenges too. The company may finally have convinced customers that it is committed to developing Sun’s Sparc-based systems, but it has also indicated that it has more interest in selling specialty, high-end systems than general purpose servers.

Avaya adds switch to VENA lineup Avaya has extended its data centre networking line and

architecture with a new top-ofrack switch. The Avaya Virtual Services Platform (VSP) 7000 switch features 24 ports of 10Gbps SPF+ Ethernet with an option for dual 40G Ethernet uplinks, and dual 100G uplinks in the future. Up to eight VSP 7000s can be stacked together via an integrated multi-terabit fabric interconnect for scale. The switch includes hotswappable redundant power supplies and fan trays, and supports multiple airflow configurations optimized for the data center, Avaya says. It will support IEEE data center standards such as Shortest Path Bridging for low-latency, multi-hop transmissions, Edge Virtual Bridging for interaction between physical and virtual switches, and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) through a software upgrade. The VSP 7000 allows Avaya to extend its Virtual Enterprise Networking Architecture (VENA) data centre scheme to the server rack and access switch. Rolled out last year, VENA is designed to allow users to configure a “Virtual Services Fabric” that enables onetouch provisioning of network services. This is intended to create a “private cloud” that simplifies access to content and applications.

www.networkworldme.com

May 2011 Network World Middle East 9

bits China Sourcing Fair returns The China Sourcing Fair for electronics resumes at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre, on May 31 to June 2, 2011. The Fair, is designed to provide an ideal platform for buyers of electronic products in the Middle East and North African markets to meet potential supply partners from China. Export-ready suppliers from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong will this year offer premium and affordable electronics to more global buyers in the Middle East’s trading capital. With its rapid growth over the past years, China’s electronics industry has made that country the world’s electronics manufacturing powerhouse. This year’s Fair will see supply partners showcase products in the following area: Consumer electronics Computer & networking Telecom products

Nokia Siemens completes Motorola deal Nokia Siemens Networks and Motorola Solutions have jointly announced that Nokia Siemens Networks has completed its acquisition of Motorola Solutions’ Networks assets paying $975 million in cash. As of April 30 2011, responsibility for supporting customers of Motorola Solutions’ GSM, CDMA, WCDMA, WiMAX and LTE products and services transfers to Nokia Siemens Networks. “The people, customers and technology we’ve acquired greatly complement our existing business by taking us into new markets and broadening our market share,” said Rajeev Suri, CEO, Nokia Siemens Networks. “Our combined knowledge and experience will provide our newly expanded customer base with the means to grow by providing greater value to their subscribers.”

10 Network World Middle East May 2011

Electronic accessories Home appliances According to the organisers of this annual event currently in its fifth year, there is more reasons to attend the China Sourcing Fair as visitors to the show will have the opportunity to meet the largest “Motorola Solutions is pleased to complete this transaction to combine our Networks team with an industry leader,” said Greg Brown, president and chief executive officer, Motorola Solutions. “This is great news for our customers, our investors and our people and will allow Motorola Solutions to further sharpen our strategic focus on providing mission-critical solutions for our government and enterprise customers.” The acquisition strengthens Nokia Siemens Networks’ position in key regions, particularly North America and Japan, as well as with some of the world’s major service providers. Based on revenue, the addition of Motorola Solutions’ Networks assets makes Nokia Siemens Networks the third largest wireless infrastructure vendor in the United States and the leading non-Japanese wireless vendor in Japan. In addition, the acquisition reinforces Nokia Siemens Networks’ position as the world’s second largest wireless infrastructure and services provider.

group of China’s suppliers of electronic products. The China Sourcing Fair features hundreds of top-choice suppliers known to produce international-quality products at competitive price points. The Dubai Fair falls between Asia’s peak sourcing months in April and October, giving you more freedom to visit other trade events in Asia. If you’re a buyer in the Middle East or North Africa, you now have greater access to China’s innovative supply partners right in Dubai. In addition, the event provided an ideal platform to accentuate local and international flair in their products for buyers from over 118 countries and regions, sourcing for innovative items from quality suppliers. Buyers mainly come from the Middle East, including the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Iraq, Egypt and Lebanon.

SITA launches cloud for airline industry Air transport IT specialist, SITA, has announced an ambitious programme to build a community cloud dedicated to the air transport industry (ATI) that will improve efficiencies and reduce costs. The ATI Cloud programme builds on SITA’s unique community role in the industry and meets a strong demand from its ATI customers. SITA’s investment in shared cloud infrastructure is already well underway and the ATI Cloud applications and services will go live from June. These include infrastructure, platform, desktop and software-as-a-service offerings, which will enable true end-to-end business and IT solutions on demand for the unique needs of air transport. www.networkworldme.com

kin r o w

net f o ules r e th

HP is changing networking. Gone are the days of networks that are hard to manage, vulnerable to attacks, and expensive to maintain. With HP game-changing solutions, the status quo is history. The New Rules of Networking #1 Simplified network designs that are twice as secure1 #2 Up to 2x better performance for greater flexibility2 #3 Up to 65% lower cost of ownership3 Put the new rules to work for you. hp.com/networking/change Outcomes that matter.

Copyright ÂŠ 2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. 1. Respondents from Infonetics September 2008 survey report that Tipping Point blocks 2.3x more threats compared to next-closest competitor 2. Based on line rate comparison between HP 12518 128x 10G (2.2 Bpps) and Cisco Nexus 7000 Series 18 (960mpps) 3. IDC white paper sponsored by HP, ROI of Switched Ethernet Networking Solutions for the Midmarket, #219843, August 2009

May 2011 Network World Middle East 11

bits GOOD

BAD

UGLY

External storage back from recession

External controller-based disk storage has recovered from the global recession, exceeding the record sales figure from 2008 with revenue in 2010 of more than US$19.4 billion, according to research company Gartner. Enterprises and service providers alike are investing more in external storage as they virtualise servers and build cloud-based services, said Gartner analyst Roger Cox. Migration from tape to disk for backup is also helping the market, he said. In addition, slow spending in 2009 amid the economic doldrums led to pent-up demand, he said. Meanwhile, growth in China and India is helping to power increased external storage spending.

GOOD

Middle East falls behind in data centre usage

Research released from Oracle reveals businesses in the Middle East and some other regions are lagging behind in their use of innovative technology in data centres, which means they are unable to meet industry demands and respond to change quickly. The research forms the basis of the Oracle Next Generation Data Centre Index, a figure on a scale from 0 – 10 which provides a snapshot of the progress of organisations in evolving their data centres through the adoption of today’s sophisticated technologies.

BAD

SCADA security race underway While the race between industrial control system attackers and

defenders didn’t start with the Stuxnet worm, it certainly acted as a catalyst to a new arms race and more researchers taking a closer look at the quality of SCADA software. Now, with the release of zero-day vulnerabilities for the software that controls industrial systems – much in the way vulnerabilities are fully disclosed for enterprise and consumer applications – some are now asking if SCADA system security is going to quickly begin to resemble the security of traditional software and operating systems. “There are some parallels between SCADA and traditional PC/server security problems,” says Gartner analyst John Pescatore. “Windows and other commercial operating systems were first written assuming they would only be connected to trusted LANs, and when they were connected to the Internet all hell broke loose,” he says. “Most SCADA, process control,

Critical infrastructure prone to cyber security attack

A new report reveals that some of the world's most critical infrastructures are prone to cyber attacks. Yet, even with this perceived danger, these infrastructures remain unprotected.The new study commissioned by McAfee and conducted by Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) revealed that 40 per cent of the IT executives surveyed felt that there was an increase in cyber attacks in their industry lately. However, nearly 30 per cent of the same group of executives said their company networks are unprotected and 40 per cent believe that a "major" cyber attack may be imminent within the next year.

UGLY

12 Network World Middle East May 2011

and medical machinery was written assuming it would only be on an isolated, trusted network. But often those things are on networks that increasingly do have paths to the Internet – even if the path is only via USB drives,” Pescatore says.

If the recent flurry of SCADA vulnerabilities and the success of Stuxnet are any indication, then it’s not too far a leap to expect industrial system operators to start to look more carefully for exploit and malware attacks. And the extent that is being done varies greatly from one company to the next. Gartner’s Pescatore does not see SCADA and process control systems security as entirely similar to traditional IT security efforts. “These systems are mostly limited to single-function servers or appliances, vs. user PCs. Simple strategies like whitelisting have proven very effective on things like ATM machines, kiosks and other servers or appliances where users don’t have to be allowed to install arbitrary software,” he says. He also contends that the same level of profit motive doesn’t exist to attack these systems. “The vast majority of clever attack code is written by those looking for financial gain – even Stuxnet mostly used known techniques bundled together, and the vast majority of attacks going against process control systems are nowhere near as sophisticated as Stuxnet,” he says. With the rapid increase in the development of attack software to get into these critical infrastructure systems, Network World Middle East in association with the security experts help AG is organising an exclusive roundtable for key IT decision makers from the energy sector to debate some of these burning issues and discuss better ways to defend SCADA and process control systems. Join us on May 16th at the Beach Rotana Hotel in Abu Dhabi.

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trend analysis | data analysis

Data Analytics powers Etisalat Misr New entrant to the Egyptian mobile market, Etisalat Misr has carved out an enviable slice of the local market through use of a Teradata data analysis solution, explains Dave Reeder

ntering a new market is never easy, even for a successful

regional player like Eitsalat. And, when the market is the increasingly volatile and complex telecom sector, you need a real edge to succeed. According to Mohamed Abdel Rahim Ismaiel, Head of Enterprise Information Management at Etisalat Misr, the company’s success since its debut in 2007 is down to one thing: sophisticated analysis of consumer data, based on a solution from data warehousing pioneer Teradata. Speaking at the recent Teradata Universe conference in Barcelona, in

16 Network World Middle East May 2011

place of scheduled rival Mobilink, he stressed that strategic use of customer data is what has propelled the company to a 25% market share within four years. However, implementation of a solution is not enough: he pointed out that Teradata user Mobilink has not leveraged the system to the same extent. “They followed us after one year and they acquired the same solution, but they are not as matured as we are because they are not getting the complete power to get the information and are not as timely,” he said, stressing that Mobilink takes too long to get the

answers to queries which, of course, affects its business. “Etisalat Misr is a strong believer that information is the blood of the company,” he said. “Therefore we are capitalising on having solutions that are helping the business now and in the future to manage our customer expectations, as well as to retain our subscribers.” Etisalat Misr was not the first member of the Etisalat group to adopt Teradata, currently in use or under consideration by every telecom provider in the region. Ufone in Pakistan was the first, followed by Etisalat Misr, with Xcelicom (Indonesia), Swan (India) and Etisalat UAE. At present, these operators do not share data and analysis although there are plans to do so. “At the moment we are sharing some resources, sharing some consultancy, with Etisalat Misr helping the others in some issues,” Ismaiel explained. The Teradata solution was necessary because of the complexity of the Egyptian market. With a population of nearly 90m, Egypt currebntly has one fixed line operator (Telecom Egypt) and three mobile operators (Mobinikl, Vodaphone and Etisalat Misr). 93% of miobile users are on prepaid schemes. “We face a torrent of data,” Ismaiel said. “However, partly because of the sheer volume and partly because of inconsistent decision skills, few managers could see, analyse and understand data relationshipos. The challenge wasd how to deal with information on a single platform.” The volumes are quite daunting – Ismaiel estimates each employee generates 800Mb of data a year, around a third of which is spreadsheets. “We faced poor quality information and slow delivery of information that we needed for critical business decisions. The answer was a shift to an active warehouse where information is genenrated in real time – a strategic intelligent solution.” Key to success, Ismaiel believes, was the decision not to build a database engine but a solution. “Without vision or a roadmap from day one, we would not have been able to drive the business forward intelligently.” www.networkworldme.com

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in action: IHG

A matter of scale The hospitality giant InterContinental Hotels Group has recently revamped its technology infrastructure to meet expectations of its guests and employees

nterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is one of the largest hotel groups

globally, with around 97 properties in the Middle East and Africa alone. It boasts some of the brand names as such InterContinental, Crown Plaza, Holiday Inn, to name a few. In a high competitive market, IHG has been investing heavily in the technology infrastructure to maintain its competitive edge and has many technology firsts to its credit. IHG was the first hotel group to have a centralised reservation system in place, which was conceived way back in 1965 and also the first chain ever to have a Web site for hotel reservation, which started in 1992. In the Middle East, IHG was the first to have converged infrastructure in hotels running triple play services. “All of our hotels have a fully fledged IT infrastructure to cater to guest needs and business support systems. With internet becoming most of a utility in hotels, most of our work is centred around that,” says Ali Saeb, Director of Technology, IHG. While the group has a de-centralised IT architecture in place, some of the core applications such as property management systems, central reservation system hosted on the central data centre based in Atlanta, most of the other applications are hosted within small data centres within hotels, which are linked back to the central one through a VPN link. Saeb says there is a reason why he chose this model, instead of a centralised 18 Network World Middle East May 2011

Ali Saeb, Director of Technology, IHG

one. “The current challenge in the Middle East is connectivity and cost of bandwidth. So from a design and RoI perspective, we try to push more things into the hotels, and we will adopt a different model once the cost of bandwidth comes down.” Last year, IHG has undertaken a major upgrade of its technology infrastructure to keep pace with high user expectations. The complete network was refreshed in terms of backbone, core switches, distribution switches and major focus has been on wireless connectivity. In the hotel business, Wi-Fi reliability can be the difference between getting guests or not. “Access to Wi-Fi is almost mandatory and guests make decisions on whether a hotel has adequate wireless service. A big population of our hotels have a very good wireless infrastructure in place and we have worked very closely with technology

partners to come with a design that made sure that there are no issues related to spotty coverage. We are still on that journey and Internet and connectivity are not luxuries anymore,” says Saeb. IHG is also one of the pioneers in converged infrastructure. The group was the first to have a completely converged infrastructure running triple play services at the City Stars Hotel in Cairo in 2001, which was followed by properties in Lebanon and Kuwait. “Right now, we have more than 80 of our hotels on a converged infrastructure running triple play services,” says Saeb. Unified communications is another area of focus for IHG, which has deployed a range of innovative communications solutions including in-room management, staff mobility solutions, and contact centre solutions. “UC is a journey we started way back in 2001 and it was the first Cisco installation in a hotel. Currently, we do have partner with both Cisco and Avaya to enhance collaboration levels,” says Saeb. Saeb believes in keeping things simple when it comes to guest-facing technologies. “To enhance in-room guest experience, we are trying to do things in a way that added value and we don’t want to overload guest rooms with gadgets. TV is focal point of technology in terms of guest rooms, and we have done lot of work with TV suppliers to develop smart TVs that can capture information about user behaviour.” IHG’s mission statement is to place hotel at the heart of technology and cloud computing is one of the things on Saeb’s agenda. “We don’t want to get sucked into networks and technology. We are a hospitality company and what matters is our guests and employees. We already have our email infrastructure on cloud and we are looking to use cloud for other application depending on partners, market and location,” he adds. www.networkworldme.com

May 2011 Network World Middle East 19

in action: ADPC

Full steam ahead ADPC is one of the first government companies in the region that have a 100% virtualised IT server infrastructure environment

Saif Salem Al Ketbi, ADPC’s VP of IT Set up in 2006, Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC) is a master developer

of ports and industrial zones. By developing transformational industrial zones and managing Abu Dhabi’s ports and maritime facilities, ADPC is a major driving force behind Abu Dhabi’s increasingly sustainable and broad-based economic future. Currently, Abu Dhabi has five ports and 13 others under development, the main one being Khalifa Port, which is slated to open in September 2012. The role of Khalifa Port is to accommodate Mina Zayed’s traffic as well as the new cargo generated by Kizad, set to become 20 Network World Middle East May 2011

one of the world’s biggest industrial zones. Khalifa Port will become one of the biggest ports in the world when all phases are completed. ADPC’s IT organisation caters to the needs of these ports and industrial zones, with around 600 plus network users. Being part of Abu Dhabi government’s initiative to reduce carbon footprint in the Emirate, ADPC has been making efforts for a more green IT environment, which translated into a fully-fledged server virtualisation project. ADPC’s primary goal was to achieve a 100% virtualised server environment including all its critical infrastructure servers and services eliminating single point of failover on the systems level in the head office in addition to the site office. By doing so, ADPC was able to move a step ahead in virtualisation and consolidated from 60 physical servers to five running around 65 virtual machines. This project simplified the management of applications and improved its performance, in addition to enabling the infrastructure to cope with the increasing business requirements in the foreseeable future. Following ADPC IT Vice President’s direction to go 100% virtual and with the support of IT management and the

rest of the IT team, the project was a big success. Some of the virtualised servers/ services include domain controllers, Exchange servers, Sharepoint, SQL DB servers, etc. With the help of VMware, ADPC is now in the process to implement a costeffective disaster recovery (DR) strategy based on VMware Site Recovery Manager and EMC Clariion SAN replication technologies. Saif Salem Al Ketbi, ADPC’s VP of IT says the company has reaped many benefits from the virtualisation project. “We have been able to save on resources, reduce power consumption by 40%, and also the flexibility to move servers between our two data centres. Another benefit is having a test environment that simulates the live environment which helps us testing and developing new applications and products.” Post-virtualisation, ADPC’s IT teams is now busy building a tier 3 data centre in the Khalif Port which will have a capacity to host 120 racks. “Khalifa Port will feature the latest technology and is designed to accommodate the largest ships. It will go live with an initial capacity to handle 2 million TEUs, and will be the first fully automated port in the world,” says Al Ketbi. He adds that the virtualisation model in two other data centres will be replicated in the new facility. “We will use 25% of the capacity of the new data centre for ports and industry zones and we will emerge as a cloud service provider offering IT services commercially. When this new data centre becomes functional, the other two will become DR sites for us.” Being at the cutting edge of technology, ADPC is all set to play a crucial role in the future prosperity of Abu Dhabi by supporting the vision of the Emirate in developing ports and logistics hubs. www.networkworldme.com

e Take th vey at Sur help AG tworkworld ne nd www. m/helpag a me.co xciting prizes win e

Phone: +971 4 440 5666 Email: info@helpag.com

May 2011 Network World Middle East 21 www.paloaltonetworks.com

Network glory The second annual Network World Middle East Awards were presented at a glittering ceremony at the Address Hotel in Dubai Marina.

he Awards – comprising 22 categories – celebrated innovative networking projects and recognised end-users for their contribution to business, and vendors for their product leadership. We received more than 200 nominations spanning across different industries and geographies. Winners from the end-user category were chosen based on their successful technology leadership and innovative use of technology to make a real business impact. All the entries we received this year from end-users demonstrated that IT organisations in the region have deployed technology wisely to deliver strategic value and high ROI

22 Network World Middle East May 2011

to their businesses. It was a classic case of turning crisis into an opportunity, with CIOs teaming up with business executives and IT vendors to build value-based business cases grounded in reality rather than wishful thinking. They invested not just in technology but in systems that had sound business cases. Which is probably why we received the most number of nominations in two categories – data centres and virtualisation. Winners in the vendor category were recognised for their outstanding performance and significant impact on the market. The criteria for winning included a variety of indicators,

including product innovation, quality of services, major customer wins and commitment to the region. Under the vendor category, the award for the Network Security Vendor went to Juniper Networks, while HP earned a honourable mention from the judges. NetApp walked away with the trophy for Storage Vendor of the year, and the award for the Structured Cabling category was bagged by 3M. Aastra was awarded in the Enterprise Telephony category, and Motorola Solution emerged as the clear winner for the Wireless Vendor of the year. The other shortlisted companies in this category included Meru Networks, Edimax and Cisco. EMW was chosen as the winner of the System Integrator of the year. Injazat Data Systems was conferred the Managed Service Provider of the year award in the enterprise sector, and Ericsson as the Managed Service Provider of the year in the telecom sector. Two prestigious categories – Networking Value-Added Distributor and Networking Vendor of the Yearwww.networkworldme.com

were determined by online voting from readers. We received more than 1500 votes for the Networking VAD category and around 1800 for the Networking Vendor category. The award for Networking VAD of the year was bagged by FVC, while Cisco won the most-coveted Networking Vendor of the year category by garnering 33% of the total votes polled. Apart from the winners, a number of companies have received honourable mention from the panel of judges. In the end-user category for network security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abu Dhabi gained an honourable mention and HP was given a special mention in the network security vendor category. Teksalah and helpAG also received special mentions in the system integrator category. The Network World Middle East Awards were sponsored by HP, 3M Gulf, FVC and helpAG (Gold); Brocade, ManageEngine, Optimus and Meru (Silver); and Avnet (survey sponsor).

A special thanks to our panel of judges: MN Chaturvedi Director of IT for Oasis Investment Co, (holding company of Al Shirawi Group) Douglas Ian Wakeford Senior Advisor, Experton Group Benvir Padda Director of Information Technology, Legatum

Raj Patel Vice President of Information Technology, Majid Al Futtaim (MAF)

May 2011 Network World Middle East 23

Data Centre Project of the year Winner: Qatar Foundation Project:

atar Foundation acts as a service provider to various entities within the Education City and so it needs to ensure that their tenants and customers can communicate, collaborate and share information as quickly, securely and reliably as possible. They required highly available, scalable and virtualised data center design in order for their business critical systems to be fully operational at all times. To overcome challenges associated with previous DC and in anticipation of the cloud; QF IT decided that there were certain fundamentals that had to be put in place. The result was a state of the art reliable, scalable, high-performance and secured multi-tenant DC which is accessible through the newly built QF enterprise MPLS network and the QF Education Cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s DWDM based MPLS network (QFREN).

Mobility Project of the year Winner: Abu Dhabi University Project:

DU is the first university in the Middle East to use blackboard mobile learning. This project involved a collaboration between the University, Etisalat, Blackboard, and Blackberry. The project was a POC for rolling out blackboard mobile learn to all ADU students. Blackboard mobile learning basically allows students to access their courses anytime, anywhere on either smart devices and can ask their faculty members questions, read course work, and chat to other students in the class. The POC is also the first time the full impact of online student learning would be tested - six classes in same subject areas are being used with three using traditional teaching methods and other three using the Blackboard mobile learning.

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www.networkworldme.com

Network Security Project of the year Winner: Emirates Integrated Telecommunication Company Project:

he Internet Content filtering solution deployed by du comes as a response to the mandatory regulatory requirement as propounded by Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA). The TRA requirement consists of ensuring that specific content is either blocked or filtered as described in the TRA ICF Policy & Procedure. The solution is a combination of HP as the hardware vendor, Cisco as the network vendor, and Netsweeper as the software vendor, and is expected to achieve a cost saving of $5.5 million over the next three years. The content filtering project has simplified operational management with reduced staffing requirements and is scalable up to 100 Gbps. Web sites are subjected to automated artificial intelligence scanning for categorization with no disruption to legitimate internet traffic categorised as safe. All generated reports of traffic data is used for business analytics.

Collaboration Project of the year Winner: Sheikh Khalifa Medical City Project:

olution implemented was an integrated, reliable and available UC solution, enabling deployment of hospital IP-enabled services while developing specifically customized healthcare applications to integrate with the call manager platform for the first time in the region. At the heart of SKMCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s planning and architecture were hospital workflows, staff communications, patient satisfaction, efficient routing, customer feedback and tracking. The Unified Communications solution provides SKMC a scalable, end-to-end approach for simplifying operation and helping ensure regulatory compliance. It supports mobility, unified communications, and various medical applications. Improved efficiency translates to reduced costs and better patient experiences. May 2011 Network World Middle East 25

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Enterprise Telephony Project of the year Winner: Kuwait National Petroleum Company Project:

uwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) has chosen to deploy Unified Communications technology solutions at its headquarters, refineries and marketing offices in Kuwait, where nearly 8,500 employees are employed. KNPC wanted to address the complexities of the workplace where employees are geographically dispersed and information overload is considered normal. The UC solutions will help broaden the scope of collaboration within the KNPC offices and employees to encompass document and text-based applications. With IP telephony being the first phase of this deployment, the aim is to consolidate all the KNPCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s branch and the headquarters infrastructure in Kuwait into a single unified IP telephony system to include voicemail, unified messaging, presence and the Cisco Unified Personal Communicator.

Storage Project of the year Winner: SHUAA Capital Project:

HUAA Capital deployed a DR for BusinessIT infrastructure solution with network storage being the backbone of the entire infrastructure. In addition to its real-time failover capability for its critical applications, the financial firm also replaced its traditional tape backup system with a state of the art single instance BRS (backup and recovery) system that utilises de-duplication technology with replication to recovery site. This new system through de-dupe technology backs up only new data bytes, allowing the company to rapidly complete backup of its entire server well within the available time frame. Real time failover to secondary (within the same site) and tertiary (In DR site) standby server infrastructure allowed the company RTF with recovery time objective varying between one to two minutes, while maintaining the near real-time recovery point objective.

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www.networkworldme.com

Virtualisation Project of the year Winner: Abu Dhabi Ports Company Project:

eing part of Abu Dhabiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s government initiative to reduce the carbon foot-print in the Emirate, Abu Dhabi Ports Company have been making efforts for a more green IT environment, which translated into a fullyfledged server virtualisation project as a first step to achieve its green goals. ADPC â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s primary goal was to achieve a 100% virtualised server environment including all its critical infrastructure servers and services eliminating single point of failover on the systems level in the Head Office in addition to the site office. By doing so, ADPC was able to move a step ahead in virtualization and consolidation of physical servers. This project simplified the management of applications and improved its performance, in addition to enabling the infrastructure to cope with the increasing business requirements in the foreseeable future.

Network Cabling Project of the year Winner: Saudi Arabian Airlines Project:

abling covering all of Saudi Arabian Airlines offices inside more than 30 cities over the kingdom, in addition to most of the Saudia sites globally which exceeds 250 cites spread across 100 cities. The airlines replaced its existing structured cabling network with a new Cat 6 soltuon complying with the EIA/TIA standards. Cabling components included OM3 fibre and about 8500 nodes of UT. The scope of fibre cabling was to interconnect all business buildings and villas using campus-wide fiber-backbone.

May 2011 Network World Middle East 29

Green IT Project of the year Winner: Landmark Group Project:

andmarks IT team supports the groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s environment initiative, in an endeavour to reduce the carbon footprint. As part of this initiative, the Groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s data centre has been re-engineered recently to make it more energy efficient by moving from precision cooling systems to a hot aisle/cold isle model, to contain heat, which is expected to reduce power consumption by 25 percent. Virtualisation is another major area of focus for the Landmark Group, which has contributed directly to the energyefficiency programme of the company. The virtualisation project started with a pilot of 10 servers, which used VMware on IBM blade servers, to be consolidated into two, and the plan is to have around 50 percent of the servers virtualised.

Network Connectivity Project of the year Winner: Sharjah Islamic Bank Project:

n order to address its connectivity concerns and challenges, SIB initiated a project which will eliminate the dependency on MPLS network. The bank added wireless connectivity to the mix, which will keep its second site connected with primary site always and will be available seamlessly when primary MPLS goes down. In the event of primary link failure, all the branch offices and off-site ATM and service centres will connect to the secondary site, which in turn will connect to the primary site using the wireless technology.

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Editor’s Choice for Best Practices Winner: DHL Express Project:

HL Express UAE was incurring significantly higher costs towards management of its document production – print, copy and scan activities. Frequent device failures and support complexities had affected service quality, and led to productivity loss. This also had a significant environmental impact that included high wastage, higher power consumption and carbon emission. DHL Express zeroed in on a managed print services solution involving leased equipment and services, moving the device-to-staff ratio from 1:4 to 1:8. Printing, copying and scanning devices were consolidated and replaced by multi-function printing devices. The management team has full access into an MIS reporting which has usage information in an internal database – this print, copy, scan activity data covers individual user level, date, time and device.

Network Security Vendor of the year Winner: Juniper Networks Why:

uring 2010, Juniper helped an increasing number of businesses from different industries and countries across the Middle East to create a responsive and trusted environment for accelerating the deployment of services and applications over a single network. Du, an integrated telecom service provider in the UAE, is securing its complete corporate infrastructure with Juniper Networks’ Unified Access Control (UAC) solution. Juniper UAC delivers a comprehensive access control solution by combining user identity, device security state and location information for session-specific access policies, which can be applied on a peruser basis.

May 2011 Network World Middle East 31

Enterprise Telephony Vendor of the year Winner: Aastra Why:

ast year, Aastra has implemented several enterprise IP telephony networks in UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran, and video conferencing solutions in Morocco. Aastra is field trialling a large scale deployment of a fixed-mobile convergence solution in the UAE using popular brands of smart phones. Recently, Aastra has also implemented several multimedia contact centers in Iraq, Jordan and Egypt. In the Middle East & North Africa (MENA), the company has diversified its product range offering and added open-standards SIP phones as well as Lync Optimized IP phones for Microsoft’s new Unified Communications Solution Lync 2010.

Storage Vendor of the year Winner: NetApp Why:

etApp’s growth was highly fuelled by the ability to offer economical solutions that meet today’s challenges but most importantly prepare customers for the future. NetApp implementations are based on Flexible IT philosophy a concept that helps its customers manage the complexity of data management solutions in a world where yesterday’s IT practices can no longer affordably cope with the new realities of growth and pace of business, Flexible IT from NetApp and its solution partners enables IT to provide affordable, always-ready IT at the speed of today’s business decisions.

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Wireless Vendor of the year Winner: Motorola Solutions Why:

ast few years have seen Motorola acquire a number of companies with complementary technologies, which have now come together as a powerful offering. The establishment of a new division, Wireless Network Solutions, to take these products to market has placed Motorola in the most coveted of Wireless Solutions companies. Specialised in distributed Wireless LANs, Motorola has done a number of implementations in the region, consisting of networks going into hundreds of access points, particularly in the retail sector.

Network Cabling Vendor of the year Winner: 3M Why:

M has launched its new Innovation Center in Dubai, UAE, aimed at bringing its products closer to regional customers. The facility showcases offerings from 3M Telecommunication division as well as its other businesses such as Healthcare, Display Graphics, etc. The Innovation Center is used for training and product application as a means to spur on the local uptake of such wares and services, and is the 30th 3M Customer Technical Center in the world. Some of the key implementations for the company last year included Abu Dhabi Education Counsel, which has been using 3M to build the structured cabling infrastructure for all schools in Abu Dhabi and it is the only approved brand for projects in the Landmark Group. May 2011 Network World Middle East 33

System Integrator of the year Winner: EMW Project:

ven during the crisis, EMW has been able to maintain a steady growth and added significant bigname customer wins in the region. The SI’s wins last year included Orbit Showtime Network, Department of Economic Development, Dolphin Energy, Aabar, Abu Dhabi Media Company, to name a few. EMW ME is recognized in the region as the smart convergence and applications expert, and boasts of technical and support abilities. It is also the first and only Avaya service expert in the Middle East region.

Managed Service Provider of the year (Enterprise) Winner: Injazat Data Systems Why:

njazat offers complete portfolio of Managed IT Services and is currently serving a large contingent of the Abu Dhabi Government Entities. Injazat’s portfolio of services ranges from helpdesk and workplace support services to SLA based managed services for an entire IT infrastructure of both SMBs and Enterprises. The unique element of Injazat’s portfolio of services is the flexibility to customers with regard to IT service selection. Based on their business requirements, customers can either elect for a single managed service or choose the entire gamut. Injazat adopts a consultative approach with customers by engaging its Consulting team for roadmap development aligned with company’s business plans and objectives.

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Managed Service Provider of the year (Telecom) Winner: Ericsson Why:

ricsson has the telecom industry’s most comprehensive Managed Services offering. It ranges from designing, building, operating and managing day-to-day operations of a customer’s network, including enduser services and business-support systems, to hosting service layer solutions, as well as providing network coverage and capacity on demand. The company has more than 15 years experience in managing multivendor, multi-technology networks for operators globally. In all current managed services contracts, Ericsson is managing networks that together serve more than 750 million subscribers worldwide, including du in the UAE.

Networking Value-added Distributor of the year Winner: FVC Why:

VC garnered the lion’s share of votes polled in this competitive category. FVC’s business strategy is built around key drivers for its partners: Demand creation/ Evangelization of emerging technologies with end users, and enablement for education, training and technical competence to support these end users. In 2010, FVC hosted certified training sessions for its partners to ensure that they are up to date with new technology and fully empowered to offer customized solutions to their customers. These were in addition to hosting regular educational initiatives like workshops and Tech Cafes at their various Technology Briefing Centres in Dubai, Riyadh, Cairo and Beirut.

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Network Vendor of the year Winner: Cisco Why:

isco edged out others in the way by receiving 33 percent of the total votes. Ciscoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vision is to lead emerging country innovation, prosperity, job creation, and social inclusion through life-changing networks. Cisco aspires to connect the nation by utilizing ICT to drive sustainable socioeconomic progress, secure affordable broadband networking, facilitate instant information access for businesses and to enable world-class citizen services with better access to healthcare, education, and social services. Cisco in the Gulf has also been very aggressive in its efforts to address the networking skills shortage. Cisco recently announced that its largest and most enduring corporate social responsibility program, the Cisco Networking Academy, has enrolled its 1 millionth concurrent student for the first time.

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www.networkworldme.com

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feature | managed services

Paths to profitability Telecom service providers are beginning to outsource their network operations in a bid to shore up their sagging fortunes in an increasingly competitive market

elecom operators worldwide are increasingly considering

outsourcing the management of their networks to companies like Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens Networks in order to lower costs, increase capabilities and/or focus on other strategic imperatives. “Operators are increasingly shifting their emphasis from the engineeringcentric stuff like running networks to customercentric stuff like marketing, segmentation and customer service,” says Jan Dawson, practice leader for operations, wholesale and regulatory at consultancy Ovum. “They see networks as a necessary asset that allows them to do what they do, but running those networks is not necessarily a core competency anymore.” Network services outsourcing has taken off among wireless providers in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, where all providers operate using common GSM technology. In the UAE, du has

40 Network World Middle East May 2011

recently signed up a deal with Ericsson to develop and maintain its applications for about 35 platforms and technologies, including upgrading and consolidation of du’s software applications domains, transformation of operations and enterprise support systems and managed services. With increasing competition and shrinking ARPU, most operators are forced to look for ways to run their network as efficient as possible to maximise margins “What is truly important for the operator to become successful is not the infrastructure. Network will no longer be a key differentiator but it is all going to be about the services you provide to the customers. Telecom services providers are transforming from being networkcentric organisations to customer-centric ones. To enable that, they need a partner to manage their increasingly complex networks,” says Staffan Akesson, Head of Managed Services, Ericsson. Dr. Sanjay Sinha, Head of Global Services Sales – Middle East, Nokia Siemens Networks, echoes a similar opinion: “For telecom service providers, managing and maintaining network and end-user services from multiple suppliers are the reality of doing business. They are faced with the challenge of how to manage this complexity while maintaining profitability. They are also looking to reduce operating costs and improve network efficiency to www.networkworldme.com

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feature | managed services

The region has seen organic growth slowing down, thus operators need to work harder to maintain and increase revenue. Dr. Sanjay Sinha, Head of Global Services Sales – Middle East, Nokia Siemens Networks and each market has its own specific conditions. We are living with new realities now, and the landscape today has changed. The region has seen organic growth slowing down, thus operators need to work harder to maintain and increase revenue by both reducing churn and increasing ARPU. That in turn will increase revenues but as cost and the competitive landscape continues to grow, again does the opportunity to outsource. Hence operators are doing a better job of recognising this and looking more closely at how they can use their assets better,” says Sinha. Thierry from Alcatel-Lucent says cost savings is always an important element. “In emerging markets low ARPU is coupled with high demand for

services. This creates a unique model where multiple services are required and yet must be delivered at the lowest cost possible. You cannot have high growth and high cost the challenge is to create high growth at low cost.” Why should telcos trust network equipment vendors with their networks than traditional managed service providers or SIs? “Telecom is just another vertical for IT managed service provider while we are specialised in telecoms IT. We started to invest in this business 12 years ago, and today we are the largest services organisation in the telecoms industry,” says Akesson. Sinha agrees: “Telecom networks, with all its applications, are our core business and IT is an enabling domain on which telecom applications are run. Traditional IT service providers focus on providing IT platform services to several industry verticals banking, manufacturing and so on including, of course telecom, where as companies like NSN are one-stop-shop for IT managed services for telecom service providers.” What does this mean for customers of service providers who sign outsourcing pacts? Improved service would be a welcome change for those who have complained about poor customer service and network coverage in the past.

enhance customer experience. One way to increase differentiation and lead the way in controlling costs is through outsourcing some of the non core activities that can free up service providers’ time and resources to focus on these differentiating activities.” He adds that outsourcing network operations under a managed services model allows for significant cost savings, improved service quality, faster time to revenue, reduced complexity, flexible business models and centralised governance and decisions making across a multivendor environment. For telcos, going the managed service route is also a way to accelerate network transformation. “With this, they will have access to needed resources, new skill sets and new technology and experience. Outsourcing today is based on shared risk and rewards, and the partner brings in other resources, labs, learnings from other engagements to help ensure transformation success,” says Thierry Langlais, VP of Services Business Development and Sales, Alcatel-Lucent. While the primary driver for We started to invest in this business 12 years ago, outsourcing in developed market is cost\ and today we are the largest services organisation in the saving, the focus is more on growth than telecoms industry,” says Akesson. just cost in emerging markets such as the Middle East. “I think it is a mix of both, Staffan Akesson, Head of Managed Services, Ericsson 42 Network World Middle East May 2011

www.networkworldme.com

May 2011 Network World Middle East 43

opinion | flash

Flash memory: It is cache vs. cash Where speed of data access is a determining factor for enterprise applications, the emergence of flash memory is a development which cannot be ignored Martyn Molnar

t’s just massively faster than anything that can be served from a mechanically

spinning platter accessed by a readwrite head. That’s not all: lacking those mechanical aspects, it’s also more reliable. These two factors make a potent cocktail for performance storage – but there is a drawback. Speed, reliability and cost are the holy triumvirate for most enterprise computing systems and form an equation which has to be balanced in the light of technical requirements and available budgets. Go up on speed and reliability, and cost inevitably spirals, too. Flash memory is expensive. It is only for this reason that it isn’t yet the de facto standard for the disk drives which are the building blocks of any storage technology. However, the cost is continually coming down, driven not only by the ramping up volumes in the enterprise storage space, but also through the enormous numbers of relatively low-volume consumer devices which are entering the market. It’s a simple matter of economies of scale: a 16GB solid state USB key today costs as little as 120 to 130 AED’s. Five or ten years ago, a 16MB memory stick cost roughly the same amount. It is an industry expectation for 2011 that flash memory will see increased use in enterprise applications as companies seek solutions to ensure high performance despite ever-increasing volumes of data. However, it remains expensive, with a permegabyte price which is far beyond that of 44 Network World Middle East May 2011

Flash memory is expensive. It is only for this reason that it isn’t yet the de facto standard for the disk drives which are the building blocks of any storage technology. ‘traditional’ disk drives. While it would be great to simply introduce the mass replacement of IDE drives with solid state devices, the cost is prohibitive. This demands an innovative approach to the introduction of flash which delivers the benefits of massive speed, without the drawback of massive cost. The answer, then, to reducing cash outlay while still gaining the benefits of flash memory lies in cache. Caching provides a way to decouple storage performance from the number of disks in the underlying disk array to substantially improve cost and at the same time decrease the administrative burden for performance tuning. For example, some storage systems use NVRAM as a journal of incoming write requests, allowing the system to commit write requests to nonvolatile memory and respond to writing hosts without delay. For read caching, a multilevel approach can be employed. A first-level read cache is provided by storage system memory.

Special algorithms decide which data to retain in memory and which data to prefetch. At a second level, an appliance can be used (called Flash Cache) which allows for the creation of a large low-latency block pool. On top of that, a third-level can be provided, again with an appliance, which creates a separate caching tier in your storage infrastructure, scaling read performance beyond the boundaries of a single storage system. While this represents a considerable simplification of how such a system works, the takeout is quite straightforward: through caching, it is possible to get optimal bang for the storage euro. It is, in effect, a form of ‘tiering’ within the storage subsystem itself which allows for optimal performance to be achieved without a massive outlay of cash. Using second-level read cache, for example, it is shown that it is possible to reducing the number of drives needed for a given level of performance by as much as 75% and even allowing the replacement of high-performance disks with more economical options. Even as flash increasingly makes its way into the enterprise, it will do so driven by innovation and careful application which seeks to achieve the optimal balance between that equation of speed, reliability and cost. And right now, cache is the best way to optimise cash. About the Author: Martyn Molnar, Regional Sales Director Middle East, NetApp

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Next-generation servers Please take this short editorial survey and help us discover how the next-gen servers can enable IT the ability to meet business demands and deliver value with newfound flexibility and scalability. What operating system(s) are you running? (Select all applicable)  Solaris  Windows  Linux  HP-UX  AIX  Other……….. What applications are you running? (Select all applicable)  Siebel CRM  E-Business Suite  Billing and Revenue Management (BRM)  Fusion MW (WebLogic)  Oracle Database  JD Edwards Enterprise One  FLEXCUBE  Other..... Server Consolidation and Virtualization: (Select all applicable)  The level of our Server utilization is an issue for us.  We are planning to implement consolidation / virtualization environment.  We are facing an issue with the performance of some of our applications.  We are planning to refresh our Server infrastructure. Infrastructure challenges: (Select all applicable)  Power and cooling costs  Footprint  Management and monitoring

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May 2011 Network World Middle East 45

SECURITY STRATEGIST 2011

Adding a new dimension to enterprise security CPI’s much awaited premier security event – Security Strategist 2011, held on 20th April in Dubai in aeCERT and supported by industry leaders including Injazat Data Systems, RSA, Oracle and Knowledge Partners ISACA, BCS and ITSMF brought together over 150 top decision makers and minds in the field of information security in its second edition from across UAE and GCC. The event was inaugurated by H.E Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim Director General – Telecommunications Regulatory Authority.

“I

n today’s environment where information travels faster than the speed of light, the approach to stand-alone security approach is fast changing to accommodate trust and collaboration amongst many stakeholders. The premise of ’isolation for security’ is fast changing giving way collaboration for security. Our endeavor with Security Strategist 2011 was to harness this power of collaboration by bring together multiple stakeholders on a single platform to discuss the key security challenges faced by their organisation and assist them in tackling the same in the most efficient manner, ” said Kavitha Rajasekar, Director CIO Programmes at CPI IT.

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As a curtain raiser to the event, CPI also surveyed over 185 IT decision makers on their security investment roadmap for 2011. As per the survey results, 53% of the respondents said that their main challenge was building a security strategy that connects people, process and technology; while 47% said measuring ROI on security investments was their challenge. Interestingly, the survey also looked at IT spending on security and found that 88% clearly stated that they have a roadmap for investing in 2011, while only 12% said they had cut back on spending. 59% of those surveyed said their spending would be directed towards Business Continuity, while 41% said it would go towards Managed Security Services.

HE Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim Director General – Telecommunications Regulatory Authority

Dr Eesa Mohammed Bastaki, CEO, ICT Fund

Tariq Abdulghaffar Mohammad Al Hawi, Director, aeCERT

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Arun George, Senior Solutions Architect, HP TippingPoint

Panel discussion: Defining the priorities that optimize your organization’s CyberSecurity

Ahmed Abdella, Regional Manager for Turkey, Emerging Africa and the Middle East , RSA, The Security Division of EMC

“Security has always been a key challenge for organisation no matter their size. However, by collaborating with CIOs and IT decision makers in the region we hope to create a pertinent learning platform where new technologies, solutions and innovative approaches towards security are brought to the fore. The security survey was conducted as a preliminary exercise to understand core issues of the CIOs today, and to customise the Security Strategist 2011 event around these issues to make it most relevant for them,” Rajasekhar added. The event not only brought together over 25 speakers and panelists to participate but also recognised key security projects from the region with the Security Strategist 2011 Editor’s Choice Awards. Five key organizations – RTA, Dubai, eGovernment Authority Bahrain, Emirates Group and Jumeirah Group were recognised with this award. Some of the key sessions educated and involved attendees in looking at key areas in the field of information security including building safe cyber strategies, curbing insider threat, emerging technologies and security implications, risk management and information security management.

Mostafa Mazen, Senior Sales Consultant, Oracle Middle East

As a run-up to the Security Strategist 2011, CPI surveyed 185 IT security decision makers from across the region to understand their key issues and challenges. 53% of the respondents said that their main challenge was building a security strategy that connects people, process and technology; while 47% said measuring ROI on security investments was their challenge. Interestingly, the survey also looked at IT spending on security and found that 88% respondents have a roadmap for investing in 2011, while only 12% said they had cut back on spending. 59% respondents were keen to spend towards Business Continuity, while 41% said they would spend on Managed Security Services.

In your opinion, what are the main challenges facing Information Security managers today?

Which technology areas are you expecting to invest in?

Are you looking to continue investing in security in 2011?

May 2011 Network World Middle East 47

interview | aspect

Ushering in UC Michael Sheridan, Executive VP, Worldwide Sales, Aspect, talks about the promise of UC for contact centres

of communication modes to the integration with presence capabilities, providing context about the users, as well as integration with business processes and applications. What makes UC attractive is that it enhances communications both inside and outside of the enterprise. Whether through the basic “click to call” application, or more advanced business process integration, workers can better communicate and collaborate with colleagues, customers, partners, and suppliers, regardless of location or media channel. In turn Unified communications and collaboration technologies provide

and the customer in new ways. These technologies bring vital capabilities to customer-company communications, including voice/telephony, unified messaging, contextual presence, multimedia conferencing, desktop and data sharing, web portals, social computing and content and knowledge management. How can companies break down barriers between CC and rest of the enterprise? As companies look to find common

ground between their enterprise and contact centre architectures, unified communications and collaboration technologies are primed to merge the capabilities of two separate environments. A survey conducted on behalf of Aspect showed that 10.3 percent of contact center agents’ calls required expertise from someone outside the contact center. Clearly there is a need to leverage outside expertise in order to quickly resolve customer’s questions and problems more effectively and efficiently, leading to higher first call resolution (FCR). Using UC, contact center agents can leverage subject matter experts or outside resources that have the expertise Tom Eggemerier, Sr VP for Sales EMEA Enterprise, Alcatel-Lucent needed to solve a customer’s inquiry or hat is the real promise of situation right away, without having to UC to contact centres, apart put the caller on hold or call them back. from increased productivity? The all-important first call resolution To boost competitiveness and improve becomes a reality, as companies can business performance in today’s global deliver a higher level of customer service. environment, more and more enterprises For contact centers, UC is essentially are turning to Unified Communications a strategy for dynamic business agility with a low TCO. A unified architecture that supports What makes UC attractive is that it enhances communications session initiation protocol (SIP) interoperability both inside and outside of the enterprise. provides a standard based (UC), which helps companies increase way to employ new and third-party the foundation for the next-generation revenues, reduce costs, and enhance applications as they become available, contact center, by connecting not only customer relationships. giving contact centers a foundation for the contact center and the rest of the UC goes beyond the simple unification enterprise, but also the enterprise taking advantage of these technologies.

48 Network World Middle East May 2011

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test

Citrix XenServer Citrix tackles server virtualization with a fast hypervisor and enterprise features, but leaves a few rough edges

itrix XenServer is a commercial implementation of the open

source Xen virtualisation solution. Citrix has extended the base Xen engine with management tools and tightened up various components related to implementing and managing Windows and Linux virtual machines, not to mention integrating the whole shebang with the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s virtual desktop initiative, as well as its foundational

50 Network World Middle East May 2011

server-based desktop and application delivery solutions. Citrix XenServer is a solid server virtualisation offering that installs easily, boasts good hypervisor performance, and includes enterprise capabilities such as load balancing and high availability. We did encounter a few snags with the management console and tripped over some issues with the overall solution. There is a lot to like about Citrix

XenServer, but it isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t as polished as some of the other options. Citrix XenServer installation Citrix XenServer 5.6.1 installs as easily

as VMware vSphere and Red Hat RHEV. Fire up a physical server with the install media, and within a few minutes you have a functional XenServer host. Like other Linux-based virtualization products, you can opt to install via PXE and pull the required packages in from HTTP, FTP, or NFS repositories. Plus, the ability to leverage automated installation scripts makes installing multiple hosts extremely simple and straightforward. Once the hosts are built, the Windows-based XenServer management console is installed and connected to one of the new hosts, and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re off and running. Configuring the host is fairly simple, with the usual steps of identifying and configuring network trunks, locating the storage, and other general configuration tasks. In these tests, XenServer was able to leverage the Citrix StorageLink APIs that allow XenServer to configure the iSCSI SAN array itself. This is a bit of a doubleedged sword, though, as it brings with it the benefits of copy and zero off-loading and other advanced features, but requires that each VM reside in a dedicated LUN on the array, rather than a large general LUN. With a large SAN and a good amount of VMs, the number of LUNs can grow exponentially, complicating otherwise simple management and administration tasks outside of XenServer. It would be nice to have the option of using dedicated LUNs or a general LUN, while still getting the advanced SAN features. After the first host has been configured for storage and networking, configuring the other hosts is literally as simple as adding them to a pool. Each host is automatically configured identically to the initial master host. This makes an implementation of many hosts extremely simple. You may www.networkworldme.com

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test need to manually assign IP addresses to the storage networks on each host as well, unless you’re using DHCP. But within a matter of 30 to 45 minutes, all four hosts were built and configured, ready to go. That’s what we call rapid deployment. Citrix XenServer management The XenServer management console is

a Windows application that connects to the master server in the farm. Like VMware’s vCenter Server and Red Hat’s RHEV Manager, and unlike Microsoft’s Virtual Machine Manager, the XenServer console allows management of all hosts and VMs. There is also a management API and integration SDKs for a variety

which to run CLI operations. Thankfully, the CLI provides tab completion of these IDs, which does help considerably. The XenServer console also handles all snapshotting and backup features, which are essentially the same thing. You can configure scheduled snapshots to occur on a per-VM basis, and you can select the number of snapshots to maintain for each host. XenServer’s high-availability and loadbalancing features are quite functional, but require some supporting players and configuration. To enable high availability, a central storage LUN must be configured and available to each host, though it only needs to be a gigabyte in size at most. Each server maintains state

XenServer’s high-availability and load-balancing features are quite functional, but require some supporting players and configuration. of development platforms. XenServer is based on Linux, so it’s no real surprise that all management operations have a CLI counterpart that can be run on any host, and there are a few CLI commands that can come in handy when the GUI has problems conducting an operation. For example, more than once we found that the only way to disconnect an ISO image from a VM was via the command line due to stalled operations within the client management. Overall, the management UI is straightforward, offering several different perspectives on the infrastructure, such as viewing all VMs by operating system type, current status, by folder, or even by a tag assigned. This makes finding specific VMs in a large implementation easier than paging through a huge list. Internally, however, VMs are referred to by a unique UUID, which makes sense from an architectural standpoint, but requires looking up the UUID of a specific VM on 52 Network World Middle East May 2011

information on this file system, which is used by the cluster to determine if a host is truly down or if a networking issue is disrupting normal communication. When we pulled a blade from the chassis, taking down a host that had been running six VMs, it took roughly five minutes before those VMs began booting on other hosts -- slightly longer than the other solutions, but still quite reasonable. Load balancing requires that a specific Citrix-built VM be imported into the cluster. Inexplicably, this is a Windows Server 2008 VM and, thus, requires a Windows Server license, though it will hopefully move to a Linux-based VM soon. The cluster is then configured to communicate with the VM, which enables VM migration operations to be conducted as requested by the load monitoring services. Several easily modified parameters control how sensitive the cluster is to host load, and CPU, disk, and network utilisation thresholds can be configured to

fine-tune the load balancing. In my tests, load balancing functioned as you would expect, and as with manual control, the VMs migrate quickly and smoothly from host to host. There is no concept of a live storage migration in XenServer, as there is in VMware. Citrix XenServer performance As you might expect, XenServer ran Linux

VMs handily, but it also played very well with the Windows Server 2008 R2 VMs. We used both Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and RHEL 5.5 for testing, since RHEL 6 support is still labeled “experimental,” but the Linux numbers reflected here were posted by RHEL 6 VMs. We did encounter some significant though sporadic issues with one Overall, the Linux concurrent thread tests showed that XenServer has a slight edge over Hyper-V,RHEV, and even VMware vSphere, but by a very small margin. This advantage was more pronounced in the Windows tests, but only when the physical host was not also carrying the weight of other loaded VMs. Running on an otherwise quiescent host, the Windows tests showed significant leads in intercore bandwidth, but with an accompanying increase in latency. This is likely due to the scheduling and core selection methods of the XenServer hypervisor. Once the same physical host was loaded down with other VMs, several of XenServer’s Windows numbers drop significantly, coming in under the results posted by the competition. Other numbers, including the crypto bandwidth tests, were in line with those of VMware. (Like VMware vSphere, XenServer exposes the AES-NI instructions of the Intel Westmere CPUs to the VMs.) When compared to vSphere, the storage numbers were slightly lower. fOR MORE PRODUCT REVIEWS, LOG ON TO: www.networkworldme.com

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May www.networkworldme.com 2011 Network World Middle East 53

toolshed tools & gadgets

Palm-sized network camera Designed for placement near building entrances, the palm-sized AXIS M31-VE Network Camera Series enables discreet surveillance for customers at an affordable price. The outdoor cameras can operate in temperatures from 50°C (122°F) down to -20°C (-4°F) and the impactresistant casing comes with a weather shield for protection from sunlight, rain and snow. Models without the weather shield, which have a greater tilt range, are better suited for ceiling mounted installations such as in cold storage rooms or under porches. AXIS M31-VE cameras are easy to install and are powered using Power over Ethernet, which means that only one standard network cable is needed for carrying power and video. The cameras can also detect tampering attempts such as blocking or spray-painting. Providing excellent quality progressive scan video at full frame rate, the camera series consists of AXIS M3114-VE models with up to 1 megapixel resolution, and AXIS M3113-VE cameras with SVGA 800x600 pixel resolution. AXIS M3114-VE additionally supports HDTV video conforming with HDTV 720p standards in color fidelity, resolution, frame rate and wide-screen aspect ratio. AXIS M31-VE cameras are supported by AXIS Camera Station video management software and the industry’s largest base of application software through Axis’ Application Development Partner program. The AXIS M31-VE Series will be available to order in Q2, 2011.

IsatPhone Pro Inmarsat has announced the availability of a data service on its global handheld satellite phone, IsatPhone Pro. The new circuit-switched data capability, offering an effective data rate of up to 20kbps is provided in the firmware upgrade to the handset. IsatPhone Pro is ideally suited for use as a data service. The handset design means the IsatPhone Pro can be simply placed on its side with the antenna deployed for connection to the satellite while a micro USB cable connects it to a laptop. And the Inmarsat-4 satellites on which the service runs are designed specifically to handle data communications, says the company. In addition to the data capability, the next firmware upgrade for IsatPhone Pro will feature a number of service enhancements.

Dell updates PowerConnect switches Dell updated its enterprise Ethernet switch lineup with the PowerConnect 7000 series, adding high-availability features, low power consumption and POE (power over Ethernet) to its equipment offerings for use in several parts of a LAN. The 7000 series consists of stackable Layer 3 Gigabit Ethernet switches in a variety of configurations with 24 or 48 ports. The 7000 line does not replace the PowerConnect 6000 line, which has been on the market since 2004, but brings in new features that some enterprises need in edge, aggregation and data-centre top-of-rack switches. Dell is also including both 24-port and 48-port switches in the line with IEEE 802.3at Power over Ethernet+, a standard for delivering as much as 30 watts of power over Ethernet cables. This technology can power devices including robotic surveillance cameras, video phones and dual-band Wi-Fi access points, without the need for separate cables, Hart said.

54 Network World Middle East May 2011

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toolshed tools & gadgets

Hitachi GST expands portable storage drives Hitachi Global Storage Technologies has introduced new Touro storage offerings that package local and online storage so data can be accessed locally or through the cloud via smartphones and tablets. The new Touro Pro line includes portable storage devices for local backup, and free online storage of up to 3GB for cloud backup, Hitachi said in a statement. The company provides applications for data to be backed up simultaneously on both accounts, or to be transported between storage accounts. The Touro Pro Portable Drive comes with storage of 500GB and 750GB. The disk is speedy, operating at 7,200RPM and is USB 3.0-capable. The larger Touro Pro External Drive, designed to sit on desktops, come with storage capabilities of between 1TB and 3TB of data.

New Intel Atom processor for tablets

Toshiba’s tablet Toshiba will launch its first tablet computer in late June . The tablet has a 10.1-inch screen and will run on Nvidia’s Tegra 2 processor. The LED-backlit screen has 1280 x 800 pixel resolution, and the tablet will be equipped with front and backfacing cameras, and connectors for USB, Mini USB, HDMI and an SD Card slot. Networking will be via 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1. It has 16 gigabytes of storage space and 1 gigabyte of memory. It will also have a removable battery pack, and Toshiba will offer a long-life battery as an option. Typical battery life of the tablet was not disclosed. 56 Network World Middle East May 2011

The new Intel Atom processor Z670, part of the “Oak Trail” platform, delivers improved video playback, fast Internet browsing and longer battery life, without sacrificing performance. The rich media experience available with “Oak Trail” includes support for 1080p video decode, as well as HDMI. The platform also supports Adobe Flash, enabling rich content and Flash-based gaming. The platform also helps deliver smaller, thinner and more efficient devices by packing integrated graphics and the memory controller directly onto the processor die. The processor is 60 percent smaller than previous generations with a lower-power design for fanless devices as well as up to all-day battery life . Additional features include Intel Enhanced Deeper Sleep that saves more power during periods of inactivity as well as optimized Intel SpeedStep technology. An integrated HD decode engine enables smooth 1080p HD video playback at a fraction of the power consumption.

May www.networkworldme.com 2011 Network World Middle East 56

May 2011 Network World Middle East 57

layer 8 DARPA’s new telescope could see the aliens on Mars

ou can bet that if there are little red aliens running around on Mars or spaceships patrolling other planet in our solar system for that matter, a recently powered-up telescope built by the researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency might just be able to see them. The Air Force, which operates the DARPA-developed Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) says the telescope’s design, featuring unique image-capturing technology known as a curved charge coupled device (CCD) system, as well as very wide field-of-view, large-aperture optics, doesn’t require the long optics train of a more traditional telescopes. The design makes the SST less cumbersome on its moveable mount, enabling it to survey the sky rapidly, the Air Force says. The telescope’s mount uses advanced servo-control technology, making the SST one of the most agile telescopes of its size ever built.

Google sparks solar energy

oogle said it invested $168 million in a solar energy plant known as a power towerthat uses directed mirrors to concentrate the sun’s rays onto a solar receiver at the top of a tall tower. In this case, a 450ft tall tower using 173,000 mirrors. From Google: “The technology works by using a field of mirrors, called heliostats, to concentrate the sun’s rays onto a solar receiver on top of a tower. The solar receiver generates steam, which them spins a traditional turbine and generator to make electricity. Power towers are very efficient because all those mirrors focus a tremendous amount of solar energy onto a small area to produce steam at high pressure and temperature (up to 1000 degrees F). The project should generate 392 gross MW of clean, solar energy.”

Computer factories eat way more energy

T NASA looks to build gas stations in space

uel is a major issue when it comes to long-duration spaceflights - its weight is a problem for launch and once a spacecraft runs out of fuel there’s no place to get more. That’s where in-space “gas” stations located in strategic spots along a route would be a boon to spaceflight. Which is exactly what NASA is looking to do by beginning to solicit proposals for what it calls anIn-Space Cryogenic Propellant Storage and Transfer Demonstration that will lay the ground work for humans to safely reach multiple destinations, including the Moon, asteroids, Lagrange points and Mars.

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he main idea behind saving energy in the high-tech world has been to buy newer, more energy efficient devices, but researchers say maybe that’s the wrong way to look at the issue, since as much as 70% of the energy a typical laptop will consume during its life span is used in manufacturing the computer. More energy would be conserved by reducing power used in the manufacturing of computers, rather than reducing only the amount of energy required to operate them say researchers from the Arizona State University and Rochester Institute of Technology. Designing computers that can be upgraded and more easily reused would help reduce the need for more and more new computers to be manufactured. Reuse has the potential to reduce carbon emissions more than recycling, they stated. To get their results, which are published in the recent Journal of Cleaner Production the researchers looked at power consumption and emissions resulting from the manufacture of 2002 model year laptop (in this case a Dell Inspiron 2500) computers. The researchers compared the amount of power used to operate a laptop computer over its typical lifetime to the energy consumption involved in the manufacturing process - and the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emitted by the process.

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