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inside COMMENTS 04

ISSUE 152 | NOVEMBER 2011

COVER STORY

Changing roles

BITS 06

EMC geared up for growth

Alcatel-Lucent teams up with Etisalat

FVC partners with Esnatech

DWTC rolls out 11n Wi-Fi

Sourcefire beefs up IPS

Avaya acquires Sipera

EVENT REPORT 22

Ready for the cloud era: VMware prepares for the post-PC world

Network management New realities, new challenges in the wake of cloud and virtualisation

IN ACTION 24

Saeed improves traffic policing, equipped with a new data centre and disaster recovery site

FEATURE 32

Top 10 strategic technology trends for 2012

Coping with big data

What to look for in secure collaboration tools

INTERVIEW

TEST

Erecting barriers: Chat with Eugene Kaspersky

Cisco Cius

NEW PRODUCTS 56

A guide to some of the new products in the market

LAYER 8 58

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FROM THE EDITOR

Changing roles

Publisher Dominic De Sousa COO Nadeem Hood

t a recent VMworld event held in Copenhagen, I’d the opportunity to listen to an interesting panel discussion on cloud, where one of

the panellists remarked voting for cloud is voting for redundancy, if the role of CIO is

purely infrastructural. I think, security fears aside, that is

one of the biggest hurdles to the adoption of cloud. There

is an increasing fear among the CIO community that cloud

will diminish their role, and decrease the number of staff in

their organisations, as it promises to take the technology out of IT. Though we have been talking about the changing role

of CIO into one of a business strategist for quite some time now, the truth is most of them still spend 70 percent of the time in technology deployment. Remember the old adage, in

every challenge there is an opportunity? I am inclined to think that cloud brings a unique

opportunity for CIOs to reinvent themselves and become even more important to business. A recent IDC report says “the cloud can empower CIOs in ways they have never been

empowered before. This is a chance for CIOs to redefine their role and either you are in or you are out.” Will cloud mean on-premise IT is going to vanish? That is unlikely. Whether

to have an automated infrastructure on-premise or rent it from someone else and have it

dropped into your environment is a business decision, not a technology decision. After all,

the avowed goal of cloud is business agility. Where does that leave infrastructure? Industry

pundits say though you would need a rock-solid and reliable infrastructure, that is not going to be business differentiator. Infrastructure is the new hardware, and if you are a CIO you

would be better served by leaving the plumbing to someone else and focus on what really

matters to your business. And with the advent of cloud, I think the definition of CIO is going to change to from Chief Information Office to Chief Integration Officer very soon.

Jeevan Thankappan Senior Editor jeevan@cpidubai.com

Managing Director Richard Judd richard@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9126 EDITORIAL Senior Editor Jeevan Thankappan jeevan@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9109 ADVERTISING Commercial Director Rajashree R Kumar raj@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9131 Advertising Executive Merle Carrasco merle@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9147 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 Art Director Kamil Roxas kamil@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9112 Designer Froilan A. Cosgafa IV froilan@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9107 Photographer Cris Mejorada cris@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9108 DIGITAL www.networkworldme.com Digital Services Manager Tristan Troy Maagma Web Developers Jerus King Bation Erik Briones Jefferson de Joya Louie Alma online@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9100

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bits EMC geared up for growth Increasing customer demand for storage and big data technologies has brought record financial gains and market share for EMC in the Middle East. EMC’s revenue in the Middle East has grown by 30 percent year on year and the company is raising outlook for the next year, backed up by huge investments in resources and offices across with the region, according to Mohammed Amin, Senior VP and Regional Manager, EMC Turkey, Emerging Africa and Middle East region. “We are gearing up for the same kind of growth next year as most of our customers get their infrastructure cloud ready. We will reinforce our presence in certain geographies such as Qatar and Kuwait, coupled with a special focus on the African market,” he says. Amin says there are big opportunities brewing in the regional marketplace for big data and cloud computing. “The

exponential growth in data volumes is creating unprecedented complexities for IT organisations and we offer big data solutions that will make storing, retrieving analysing reams of data cheaper and faster than ever.” Once relegated to the supercomputing environment, big data technology is becoming available to the enterprise masses -- and along the way it is changing the way many industries do business. Cloud is another big focus area for EMC. “It is the next wave. With so much unstructured data being generated every day by users, organisations will have to rethink the way they build infrastructure, share resources and will have to adopt a pay-as-you-go computing model. We are working with our customers and cloud service provider partners to accelerate the adoption of cloud and storage-as-a-service model,” says Amin.

HP aims high HP has rolled out an array of networking products for the enterprise campus, branch and data centre, including a switch that fills a major gap in the company’s offerings. The new gear is aimed at addressing the growth of virtualization, multimedia applications and mobility in the workplace, and the transition to IPv6 and 10Gbps Ethernet. It includes a high-density 10G top-of-rack switch for the data centre, a high growth segment of switching where HP has been lagging behind competitors. HP’s product splash falls under the company’s FlexNetwork architecture, unveiled in May. FlexNetwork attempts to unify enterprise data centre, campus and branch networks under a common and consistent operating environment. And data centre networking is where 6 Network World Middle East November 2011

Samer Zain, Director of HP Networking, HP Middle East

HP could perhaps use the biggest boost, especially in top-of-rack switching, where the company failed to show up on Dell’Oro Group’s market share radar screen for two straight quarters. Its new top-of-rack

20 m

virtual machines run on VMware

www.networkworldme.com

Mohammed Amin, Senior VP and Regional Manager, EMC Turkey, Emerging Africa and Middle East region

He added that EMC customers in the region have a much better storage utilisation levels, as compared to the industry average of 30-40 percent. “We help our customers with capacity planning and infrastructure optimisation, so that they have very good utilisation levels and are better prepared to deal with the colossal growth in data over the coming years. We sell information management solutions, not just storage.” switch, the HP 5900, may change those misfortunes. The 5900 comes in two configurations -48 10G ports and 24-ports. The 48-port 5900 has a switching capacity of 1.28Tbps and a forwarding rate of 952.32 million packet/sec. Latency is about 1 microsecond, HP says. Up to four units can be logically linked together using HP’s Intelligent Resilient Framework (IRF) technology, which the company positions as a method for flattening the data centre network. The 5900 supports the IEEE’s Data Centre Bridging (DCB) standard for lossless Ethernet operations, and the Fibre Channel over Ethernet standard is a future augmentation. The 5900 also supports four 40G Ethernet uplinks. The 24-port 5920 has a switching capacity of 480Gbps and a packet forwarding rate of 357.12 million packet/ sec. It, too, can be logically linked in groups of four through IRF, and also supports DCB.

www.networkworldme.com

November 2011 Network World Middle East 7

bits Huawei launches telepresence

Huawei has launched its new telepresence solution in the region, warning that not taking advantage of technologies such as video conferencing will cost MEA businesses money and international edge. According to an IDC study, only 11% of GCC companies use video conferencing and telepresence, despite the clear cost savings to be gained. “Telepresence 2.0 brings lifesize, panoramic images of meeting participants so you feel as if you’re sitting in the same room as your colleagues and making real eye contact with them. You don’t have to leave the office, so you save on travel costs, and

it feels like a natural, real-life business meeting experience,” says Dr. Liu Qi, President, Middle East for Huawei Enterprise. Huawei’s new Telepresence 2.0 contains several upgrades including lower bandwidth consumption, high resolution content sharing and a multiple content sharing functionality, as well as improved audio quality and interoperability. Huawei says its patented technologies tolerate an average data packet loss of up to 5%, which is an extraordinary feature particularly, when network connectivity is unstable. Mimicking real-life voice acoustics and delivering sharper clearer images, meetings can be managed via Androidbased smart phones and smart tablets, making it an even smoother and enjoyable experience. Users on the move can also join meetings via mobile and regular phones as well as on their desktops.

Alcatel-Lucent teams up with Etisalat Alcatel-Lucent and Etisalat have signed an agreement to jointly develop the most efficient and sustainable means to deliver mobile broadband to customers – built around the AlcatelLucent lightRadio product family. The agreement was signed by Nasser bin Obood, Acting CEO- Etisalat and Nicholas Bouverot, Vice President ME, Alcatel-Lucent. Through its collaboration around lightRadio, Etisalat will help define the commercial introduction of this new product family in the Middle East and in other markets, meeting its own subscribers’ demands for innovative new mobile services while providing operators 8 Network World Middle East November 2011

with a flexible path for business growth into the next decade. As global demand for Internet on-themove services grows dramatically, together with the adoption of the latest smartphones and tablet devices, the need www.networkworldme.com

Orange expands 3G network Orange Jordan, the sole integrated telecom operator in the Kingdom has selected Ericsson to expand Orange Jordan’s High Speed Packet Access (HSPA+) network that will bring 3G services to more areas in Jordan by expanding the coverage. The HSPA+ expansion contract follows Ericsson’s successful deployment of Jordan’s first 3G network with Orange in October 2009. With this new agreement, Ericsson will provide Orange with the latest 3G technology; HSPA+, which will allow the operator to expand its network and cover more areas in Jordan, therefore allowing more users to benefit from the services that Orange is offering. “We are glad to be partnering with Ericsson once again to expand our 3G network in the Kingdom, Ericsson was one of our key success factors for the 3G services launch,” said Orange CEO Nayla Khawam.

for operators to extend their wireless network coverage and capacity is also growing exponentially to cope with this demand, says Alacatel-Lucent. The lightRadio product family is said to addresses both of these needs, enabling superfast speeds and high-quality delivery of applications to a variety of mobile devices, while reducing the size, complexity, cost and power consumption of mobile networks, making it a greener and more cost-effective solution for operators. “Our work with Etisalat and other major operators on the development of lightRadio will provide us with a greater insight into how operators plan to implement this groundbreaking new technology in their networks.” Nicholas Bouverot said.

10 Network World Middle East October 2011

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bits FVC partners with Esnatech

K.S. Parag, Managing Director at FVC

The UAE-based value added distributor FVC has signed a partnership agreement with Esna Technologies (Esnatech), provider of cloud-based unified communications, to deliver cloud-enabled unified communications

to enterprises across MENA. FVC will offer Esnatech’s Office-LinX unified communications software as part of its solutions portfolio. K.S. Parag, Managing Director at FVC, said, “This agreement with Esnatech is an exciting new addition to our portfolio and fits in with our commitment to bring emerging technologies to the region. For a region as diverse as this is, cloud-based unified communications makes good business sense for a fragmented and mobile workforce, ensuring effective and productive communications.” Office-LinX is interoperable with any PBX system, including solutions from Avaya, Broadsoft, Cisco and others, and with all mobile operating systems, including RIM Blackberry, Android, and iPhone.

Sybase talks mobility During the Internet Show in Abu Dhabi, visitors had the chance to attend a seminar held by Lars Droste, Head of Mobile Solutions at Sybase Products Middle East, to understand the various advantages of mobile solutions in the corporate world. This Seminar aimed to create a common understanding of the various advantages of Mobile solutions by explaining the key success factors of every organization and linking them to automated standard processes. By having a consolidated platform such as Sybase Unwired Platform (SUP) which is able to connect to various backend sources or cloud services, mobile services can easily be leveraged across different kind of mobile devices independent from the device operating system and other factors. In addition to

the actual platform to provide a base for the data integrity and synchronization patterns it was as well explained that it is important to have a solid security platform to secure the data and the mobile devices which are physically out of reach which makes distribution of updates, connection management and other device management tasks difficult. Lars Droste explained that the Sybase AFARIA device management solution provides exactly the part where mobile devices need to be secured and a management of those devices irrelevant from the device breed is required. Together, Sybase Unwired Platform and Afaria combine best of breed mobile services, extended flexibility, reduced total cost of ownership and therefore increased return of investment.

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Rapid7 signs up Spire Solutions Security product provider Rapid7 has forayed into the Middle East market by tying up with Spire Solutions. The vulnerability management solution vendor has recently updated its widely used open-source Metasploit exploitation framework, expanding the software so it supports enterprise IT security staff as well as its core audience of penetration testers. “Originally the framework was focused on just running exploits. Penetration testers were our core base,” said Glenn Williamson, Rapid7 Regional VP of International Sales, referring to the security professionals who are paid by organisations to break into – and thereby document the weaknesses of – computer systems. “But now we are seeing a huge demand from organisations that just want to put all their existing vulnerability data in one spot and validate all those vulnerabilities.” The new version, the first major update in more than five years, is the first that offers the ability to capture engagement information in a database, which can then be searched and analysed with more ease. The Metasploit Framework is a collection of and execution platform for known software exploits, or code that harnesses, or exploits, security vulnerabilities in software programs for unintended purposes. The framework allows users to string together multiple exploits in order to gain illicit access to a system, replicating actions that would be taken by attackers. Rapid7 acquired Metasploit from Moore in 2009, who first created the framework. November 2011 Network World Middle East 11

bits Schneider Electric debuts StruxureWare

Christian Bertrand, VP of Middle-East and Africa, APC by Schneider Electric

Schneider Electric has introduced StruxureWare for data centres, a management software solution designed to maximise availability and efficiency of the

data centre’s physical infrastructure. StruxureWare for data centres combines Schneider Electric’s Data Centre Infrastructure Management (DCIM) and Data Centre Facility Management (DCFM) software tools. It provides data gathering, monitoring and automation, as well as planning and implementation functionality to facilitate an integrated and multifaceted view of all the mission critical physical system of the data centre. With a unifying view of the data centre energy usage, the operator gets an opportunity to see exactly where the energy is being used, highlight inefficiencies and look at ways to minimise the bottlenecks that increase energy usage with no concurrent benefit. Christian Bertrand, VP of Middle-East and Africa, APC by Schneider Electric, said: “With StruxureWare for Data centres, we have combined capabilities in a single product that provides the data centre

Netgear launches LTE products Netgear has launched the MBRN3000 and MBR1310, which is part of NETGEAR’s new line of Long Term Evolution (LTE) products, particularly targeting the Middle East region’s top Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The MBRN3000 is a 3G+ Mobile Broadband Wireless-N Router that can help create WiFi hotspots and comes with free parental controls and a usage meter to help control data costs. The new unit is compatible with all major DSL ISPs and 3G+ USB modems. It can be used by companies which operate in remote locations such as construction companies and others. The MBR1310 is a wireless-n router that is capable of sharing a DC-HSPA mobile broadband connection, in addition to a regular wired cable or DSL internet 12 Network World Middle East November 2011

Ahmad Zeidan, Channel Sales Manager, Netgear Middle East

connection. The device has a built in SIM card slot that allows the user to share the internet from any SIM card that has an www.networkworldme.com

manager with data and tools for operating data centres that are more reliable, efficient, productive, safe and green. Through the introduction of the dedicated software, we are reinforcing our commitment to becoming the global leader in software solutions for data centres.” StruxureWare includes the ‘Monitoring Suite’ and ‘Operations Suite’, which contribute to improving the monitoring and the operational aspects of data centre management. The StruxureWare Monitoring Suite offers a series of advanced options for real-time visualisation, notification and reporting of the physical facility and data centre systems for electrical power, cooling, security and IT infrastructure elements. StruxureWare Operations Suite enables customers to gain control of their day-to-day operations and helps address capacity limitations, frequent changes and availability challenges. associated data plan that uses HSPA. There are four 100 Mbps Ethernet ports as well as a 10/100 Dual WAN to share the wired internet connection. This allows for smooth auto-distribution and can switch back and forth between two connections. In order to get high mobile broadband signal, there is a built in RF port to plug in an optional external antenna. Since it can share off a SIM card, the MBR1310 can easily create a wireless network with shared internet access through any power outlet. “During the previous years, internet users could not enjoy high speed internet connectivity with DSL or fibre. The growing number of Internet users in the Middle East region have now created a strong demand for high speed internet connectivity that is seamless and can also handle multimedia functions and even internet gaming,” said Ahmad Zeidan, Channel Sales Manager, Netgear Middle East.

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bits DWTC rolls out 11n Wi-Fi The Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) has implemented a 802.11n wireless network based on the Aruba Mobile Virtual Enterprise (MOVE) architecture. “The criticality of secure, reliable mobile access in this region cannot be overstated,” said Usama Nouri, Manager, Network and Security at DWTC. “As the region’s premiere conference and business destination, we needed an access network that would handle the large volumes of voice and video traffic that our events and corporate tenants generate, and that would allow those bandwidth-intensive applications to be simultaneously delivered to large numbers of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.” To handle this crush of user devices and data traffic, the centre deployed an Aruba network consisting of Aruba 802.11n AP-105s, AP-124s, AP-75s and Aruba 3600 Series controllers with Airwave management, also from Aruba. The network, based on the Aruba MOVE architecture, is context-aware, taking each user’s device, location and application into account when applying access, security and management policies over the network. This helps DWTC ensure secure connectivity for tablets and smartphones, as well as application

performance and network reliability. MOVE enables network rightsizing for mobility, allowing access networks to be built at a fraction of the cost of traditionally overprovisioned and undersubscribed Ethernetswitch based access networks. “DWTC represents the best that the region has to offer in terms of business and guest accommodations, and provides unsurpassed services and amenities,” said Ammar Enaya, Regional Director for Aruba Middle East. “We are extremely pleased that the centre picked Aruba to help them ensure that they maintain their top-destination rankings and overall reputation for excellence.”

Microsoft Gulf announced that Office 365 will now be available for trials across the region as part of its commitment to deliver world class collaboration tools to regional businesses. Office 365 will help customers across the region take advantage of the cloud with the most complete set of solutions to meet any business need. With Office 365, Microsoft also offers the highest levels of reliability, performance, security and the best service guarantees (99.9% uptime guarantee). Microsoft Office 365 brings together Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft Lync Online in an always-up-to-date cloud service, at a predictable monthly subscription. Microsoft also announced LiveRoute, a

privately held technology company, as the first SME (Small & Medium Enterprise) partner for Office 365 in the region. Microsoft will roll out a wide range of service plans that are designed to meet the needs of a variety of companies of different sizes at the time of Office 365’s commercial launch. With Office 365, businesses can simply pay a monthly subscription at a price they can predict and afford, or they can connect Office software that they own already with the Office 365 service. Infrastructure-as-a-Service offering; essentially, it’s an option for customers who need more flexible procurement, lease or rental alternatives to control network capital expenses or who have tight budget constraints.

Ammar Enaya, Regional Director for Aruba Middle East

Microsoft trials Office 365

14 Network World Middle East November 2011

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Kuwait Finance House chooses Avaya Kuwait Finance House has implemented a contact centre using Avaya technology. KFH offers Islamic banking services that include Retail, Commercial, Real Estate and Cars financing, Direct investment, and Investment portfolio services. After being selected to provide the next-generation Avaya Aura Contact Center solutions, Avaya expert consultants worked closely with KFH employees to identify best-practice processes in order to design and implement an efficient contact center setup to leverage KFH’s strengths and help the business improve customer satisfaction. KFH’s contact center is based on the Avaya Aura Communication Manager, which helps deliver multichannel capabilities including voice, email, chat and SMS, as well as a resilient IP-based infrastructure. In addition, KFH selected Avaya Workforce Optimization to help the organization balance efficiency and effectiveness by using the contact center strategically, This implementation to offer insights into customer activity in order to allow the business to operate more efficiently. Avaya also equipped the contact center with Avaya IQ, a reporting and analytics platform intended to help KFH share “one view of the truth” and potentially to reduce decision-making time and risk, creating a consistent customer experience.

Dell KVM 4322DS Switches for Dell PowerEdge™ T710 Servers

Dell KVM 4322DS Thirty-two-port remote console switch with two local users, four remote users and dual power-supply units. Features include: • Intel® Xeon® processor • Two power-supply units • Virtual media support • Common Access Card (CAC) support with encryption • True serial support via Telnet/SSH • 16:10 and 4:3 video display with configurable resolution • Tool-less installation with Dell ReadyRails ™ mounting interface

Dell KVM 1082DS

Dell KVM 2162DS

Eight-port remote console switch with two local users and one remote user. Features include:

Sixteen-port remote console switch with two local users, two

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One power-supply unit Virtual media support Common Access Card (CAC) support with encryption True serial support via Telnet/SSH 16:10 and 4:3 video display with configurable resolution Tool-less installation with Dell ReadyRails mounting interface

For purchase or more information contact

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Two power-supply units Virtual media support Common Access Card (CAC) support with encryption True serial support via Telnet/SSH 16:10 and 4:3 video display with configurable resolution Tool-less installation with Dell ReadyRails mounting interface

Also available: Dell Latitude Notebooks Dell OptiPlex PCs Dell PowerEdge Servers Dell EqualLogic Storage Dell Compellent Storage Dell Power Conntect 

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Celeron, Celeron Inside, Core Inside, Intel, Intel Logo, Intel Atom, Intel Atom Inside, Intel Core, Intel Inside, Intel Inside Logo, Intel vPro, Itanium, Itanium Inside, Pentium, Pentium Inside, vPro Inside, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

bits Sourcefire beefs up IPS Sourcefire has rolled out new appliances expanding its portfolio of adaptive security solutions. This launch brings new models and enhancements to the 3D8000 series for high-end performance networks, introduces the new 3D7000 series of appliances for mid-range performance networks, and delivers a new SSL appliance that delivers lightning fast SSL decryption. The 3D8000 series now allows quad stacking so that customers can grow throughput to deliver over 40Gbps of IPS inspection in 10Gbps performance stages. This throughput scalability enables customers to purchase a device based on current performance requirements, and then easily expand throughput as needed. With its new 40 Gigabit Ethernet support, the 3D8000 family also makes Sourcefire the first network security vendor to offer programmable fail-open 40 GbE interfaces to the IPS market.

Marc Solomon, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Sourcefire

“With Sourcefire’s Agile Security launch in September, we outlined our vision for the way security solutions need to

operate and provided customers with criteria to evaluate their purchases,” said Marc Solomon, Senior VP of Marketing at Sourcefire. “The 3D8000 series and the new 3D7000 series appliances illustrate our commitment to the customer, providing them with the flexibility to select their current solution and expand capabilities as their needs change in the future.” The new SSL 2000 appliance enables customers to see inside encrypted communications to check for attack and misuse at the highest performance point available in the industry. With up to 2Gbps of SSL traffic decrypted in up to 10Gbps of overall traffic, the Sourcefire SSL 2000 appliance delivers the best SSL decryption capability in the industry. Unlike most other SSL decryption solutions this works on both inbound and outbound SSL traffic.

Sophos sees shift to integrated security Sophos, which recently acquired UTM vendor Astaro, is seeing a positive shift by organisations in the Middle East towards early adoption of technology and innovation. “The stage is set for the Middle East to develop its education and knowledge economy to replace more traditional areas of economic reliance and success.” said James Lyne, Director of Technology Strategy, Sophos. “For some time we have been talking about implementing layered security approach (at gateway, endpoint, web, email) but few organisations today have succeeded. However, organisations worldwide are set to fail if they continue the long tradition of legacy security controls and need to ensure their IT security measures can cope with the host of new enabling technologies like mobile and cloud if IT is to avoid losing control. The fact is that employees will use these technologies by 16 Network World Middle East November 2011

default, circumventing the usual IT controls and exposing organisations to risks like data loss. Organisations therefore need to take a layered – or defence in depth – approach and this is what we are seeing happening here in the Middle East,” he added. Today, businesses in the Middle East are at risk from a range of complex and targeted threats especially from across the web. Roaming employees, and in particular workers with non-company owned devices, are increasingly a weak spot when it comes to security. Sophos together with Astaro delivers coordinated network and endpoint security solutions, layered protection against complex web-based threats and safeguards data across the gaps created by user-owned devices, mobile users and dissolving network perimeters. “Sophos offers a licence structure and technology that is easy to adopt, www.networkworldme.com

James Lyne, Director of Technology Strategy, Sophos

crucial in today’s busy, complex business environment,” adds Lyne “Future developments will integrate Astaro’s network security more deeply into the core product offering, and will strengthen IT infrastructure irrespective of where the user or company data is stored. “

www.networkworldme.com

September November 2011 Network World Middle East 17

bits WatchGuard protects Apple users WatchGuard Technologies has unveiled their new security technology designed specifically for Apple iOS-enabled devices. By doing so, WatchGuard provides mobile users protection for their iPhone, iPad and iPod touch data, while giving network administrators a way to manage, monitor and secure mobile devices, information and applications. “With more and more consumers in the UAE and worldwide opting to use mobile internet as their connection of choice for consumption of content online, the issue of managing and securing consumer technologies is a real challenge for businesses, especially as more and more employees bring personal devices into their corporate IT ecosystem,” said Eric Aarrestad, VP of Marketing at WatchGuard. “By offering a way to securely connect iOS devices with WatchGuard security

appliances, administrators can say ‘yes’ to their employees, while knowing their corporate networks, applications and data are safe Eric Aarrestad, VP of Marketing and secure,” he at WatchGuard added. By creating a mobile virtual private network (VPN) connection via IPSEC, WatchGuard customers with iOS devices will be able to create fast and easy VPN connections from anywhere to their WatchGuard XTM firewall appliance. By doing so, an encrypted tunnel is created, which secures data traffic from an iOS device to the corporate network and other behind-the-firewall resources.

Jarir Bookstore, Saudi-based provider of office supplies, school supplies, IT products and books, has reduced its monthly Internet costs by 43 percent by deploying SonicWALL’s NSA series to manage the company’s growing retail branch network and connectivity requirements. “The amount of data being transmitted across company networks has grown exponentially in recent years – and this trend will not be reversed. Thus, it is critical for businesses that network infrastructures keep up with these increased volumes,” said Majid Felemban, IT Manager at Jarir Bookstore. Jarir’s network connected its branch locations and warehousing facility to the head office through a Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), which was tunneled through an ISP (Internet Service Provider). However, this architecture created multiple points of failure, hampering employee access

to businesscritical applications. “With our retail business growing rapidly across Saudi Arabia Shahnawaz Sheikh, regional director for and the GCC, MEA and Turkey at SonicWALL on average opening three to four showrooms a year, we decided to secure our connectivity and better manage bandwidth requirements by building resilient Virtual Private Network (VPN) tunnels to transfer data,” continued Felemban. “We immediately set out to find a solution that avoided the costly route of buying more bandwidth.” Called in to recommend solutions, NAJTech, SonicWALL’s partner in Saudi Arabia, confirmed and deployed the solution in 20 days. The solution allows real-time visualisation that helps IT managers in monitoring web traffic and detecting malicious threats instantaneously.

Jarir Bookstore deploys SonicWall

18 Network World Middle East November 2011

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Avaya acquires Sipera Avaya has acquired Sipera, a worldwide provider of Unified Communications (UC) solutions, including Session Border Control (SBC) functionality and a range of UC security applications. Sipera will become a fully integrated part of Avaya. Sipera strengthens Avaya’s UC portfolio with a set of fit-for-purpose, enterprise-class SBC capabilities for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunking that offers customers and channel partners flexibility, security and value. The company’s open, standards-based solutions work in both Avaya and non-Avaya networks. Combined with Avaya Aura, Sipera’s solutions will provide customers with secure VoIP, SIP trunks, videoconferencing, cloud-based communications, instant messaging, and collaboration tools for workers in any location using any business or consumer device. Sipera provides application-layer security that is intuitive, easy-to-manage and can lower the total cost of ownership of UC and Contact Center deployments. Security features include a patentpending remote worker solution that helps deploy VPN-less solutions and advanced toll fraud protection. “It is only a matter of time before enterprises adapt to the evolving needs of their workforce by creating a VPN. User-friendly solutions like SonicWALL allow enterprises to do their own tunneling quickly and efficiently requiring a minimum of technical training, thus allowing them to expand at will. We are proud to support Jarir in its rapid growth phase,” added Shahnawaz Sheikh, regional director for MEA and Turkey at SonicWALL. Jarir has connected 33 retail branches, the central warehouse and three head offices using SonicWALL and has begun connecting 11 branches of its wholesale division, Jarir Marketing to its network. The next phase is to connect its investment division, Jarir Investment

Almost $139 million in server room research. Now yours is FREE! The Advantages of Row and R Racka re Deploying oriented Cooling Architecture Architectures r H a Low o -Dens igh-Densit ure f for Data Centres y itty Da itect ensity h c r ta Cen Zones in A -D White Paper 130 n tre oved cy, High r White p Paper Po 134 An Im-Efficien by Kevin Dunlap and Neil Rasmussen Ma wer by Ne Highnt Centres il Rasm musse na an e n and Vi ctor Av ge d C iciata elar 126 ffD me oo aper E W P e hit y nt ling Whit e g r Pa for C Contents en e pe by muss n r1 > Executive summary Da apa Ne eil Ras E 50 il R by N ts a > Executivee ta sm ten u Con it ng sse summ Ce city n ar y n nt e tres Con ontte ers en nttss m n mary ple Ce sum ts e v > ti Ex Im ata en ecu x t E e n cu > 14 Co tiv D r1 Revision 1

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Download your white paper(s) within the next 30 days for FREE and get a chance to WIN a Lenovo® all-in-one touch screen PC! Visit www.apc.com/promo Key Code 10950p Call +9714-7099690 (Arabic) / +9714-7099691 (English) Fax +9714-7099650 ©2011 Schneider Electric. All Rights Reserved. Schneider Electric and APC are trademarks owned by Schneider Electric Industries SAS or its affiliated companies. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. APC Middle East, PO Box - 53852, Dubai, United Arab Emirates • 998-1764_GB www.networkworldme.com November 2011 Network World Middle East 19

bits GOOD

BAD

UGLY

Worldwide enterprise IT spending to reach $2.7 Trillion in 2012 Worldwide enterprise IT spending is projected to total $2.7 trillion in 2012, a 3.9 percent increase from 2011 spending of $2.6 trillion, according to Gartner. While enterprise IT spending growth is slowing (from the expected 5.9 percent increase in 2011), analysts said it’s important to note that despite the global economic challenges, enterprises will continue to invest in IT. “The days when IT was the passive observer of the world are over. Global politics and the global economy are being shaped by IT,” said Peter Sondergaard, Senior VP and global head of Reach. “IT is a primary driver of business growth. For example, this year 350 companies will each invest more than $1 billion in IT. They are doing this because IT impacts their business performance.” Sondergaard said two-thirds of CEOs believe IT will make a greater contribution to their industry in the next 10 years than any prior decades.

Good

Crime costs British retailers $7.85 billion Fraud related crime, admin error and shoplifting cost the British retail industry several billion pounds during the 12 months after June 2010. Companies on the UK high street faced tough trading conditions in the year-long period assessed by the Centre for Retail Research and the issue of theft should be taken more seriously as a problem to be addressed, the group's director Professor Joshua Bamfield said. The organisation's figures put losses incurred through 'shrink', meaning shoplifting, employee theft and admin mistakes, at $119 billion (£76 billion) globally and at £4.9 billion for the UK alone.

Bad

Saudi the top infected country Saudi Arabia tops the list of countries in the Gulf region (GCC) in terms of the number of infected PCs. This was the conclusion reached by Kaspersky Lab experts after analysing data on malicious activity in the region during the third quarter of 2011. The data was received from consenting participants in the Kaspersky Security Network (KSN), a network that brings together millions of Kaspersky Lab users worldwide to detect and pass on information about malicious activity. “We have analysed the figures for the third quarter of 2011 and found that the largest number of infections and attempts to compromise users’ computers were registered in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” says Vayacheslav Zakorzhevsky, Senior Malware Analyst at Kaspersky Lab.

Ugly

20 Network World Middle East November 2011

Nokia Siemens wins Airtel deal in Africa Customers of Bharti Airtel in Africa will soon enjoy seamless internet connectivity and simpler, more intuitive mobile data services. The operator has selected Nokia Siemens Networks’ Serve atOnce Device Management (SADM) software to be implemented across affiliates in 16 African countries. In addition, Nokia Siemens Networks will consolidate the operator’s existing multimedia messaging service (MMS) platforms into one centrally managed virtual platform. Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) and joint managing director, Bharti Airtel, said: “Nokia Siemens Networks’ mobile device management solution will allow our customers in Africa to enjoy the latest services by enabling seamless internet connectivity and excellent customer care support.

The solution will benefit Airtel from reduced operational costs when introducing new devices or services.” Nokia Siemens Networks’ SADM will enable Bharti Airtel to remotely and automatically manage and configure user devices for new data services. The software will also enable the operator to gain valuable insights on device capabilities to make right business decisions when introducing new services. In addition, under a three-year contract, Nokia Siemens Networks will provide its mobile internet browsing solution (MIBS) and multimedia messaging solution, hosted on a virtualised and centrally managed VaaS platform. This will allow Bharti Airtel to provide these services faster and cost efficiently to all its customers across all affiliates in Africa.

AEG goes green AEG Power Solutions has launched Protect B.PRO range of UPS, which is said to be the company’s most efficient line of interactive UPS system. With an increased power factor of 09.lag, this new line of UPS system boasts of parallel operation of USB/RS232 interface and extension slots to enable more communication possibilities. “We have improved the design of the UPS to fit the requirements of modern IT equipment and it can be configured directly via the operator panel. With the included accessories and the rotatable display the UPS can be used as a rack or tower version. We are also offering easy battery replace with slide-in batteries and strong battery management,” says Karim Laskri, Senior Sales Manager- MEA, AEG Power Solutions. AEG has also launched UPS systems targeted at enterprise data centres, www.networkworldme.com

Karim Laskri, Senior Sales Manager- MEA, AEG Power Solutions

which can go up to 24 kVA. “We have been providing power solutions for missing critical applications for over 60 years and will continue to set industry standards for future,” says Laskri. AEG Power Solutions is the subsidiary of AEG Power Solutions Group, which owns two brands- AEG Power Solutions and Harmer + Simmons.

www.networkworldme.com

November 2011 Network World Middle East 21

event report

Ready for the cloud era VMware prepares for the post-PC world

ome figures first. A virtual machine is created every 6 seconds. To put that in perspective, it’s more than the number of babies born in the US. Gartner says more than 50 percent of x86-based applications are now running on virtualised environments, and that is now increasing a rate of 9-10 percent yearly. There are around 20 million VMs running on VMware platform, representing roughly around 75 percent of the total virtualised workloads and the virtualisation leader believes we are now in what it calls post-PC, cloud era. At the recent VMworld conference held in Copenhagen, the company’s CEO Paul Maritz told the audience what characterises the cloud era and how his company plans to accelerate the journey into the cloud. “We are going to witness the next major phase of interaction of consumer-based technologies, not just influencing, but dominating what is happening inside the enterprise. We have billions of connected users and devices, not just PCs. We have new programming frameworks, new set of applications and to be competitive in the future we are going to have to be able to gather information from many sources, analyse it and respond in

22 Network World Middle East November 2011

The real challenge is taking the operational expense out of infrastructure and applying that to the new generation of applications. real time. It is no longer sufficient to capture information, put it into a giant warehouse and find out what happened last month,” he says. According to Maritz, companies need to service the Facebook generation in context, real time and those kind of applications cannot be done in the traditional three-tier model associated with the client-server era. “This is going to require a new data fabric and a corresponding change in the infrastructure. The real challenge is taking the operational expense out of infrastructure and applying that to the new generation of applications, where the real business value is. Given the fact that customers have already made significant investment in the three-tier architecture, the question is how do we take the operational expense out of infrastructure? The key is virtualisation.” www.networkworldme.com

He adds that the starting point of operational efficiency is virtualisation and the big story of the next decade would be application renewal and innovation. “Taking cost out of infrastructure, bringing up core things of business value and allowing fruits of these applications to be presented to the users in a manner they want is the real challenge. We are already extending the capabilities of vSphere platform to encapsulate the most demanding and mission-critical applications. But the question is what do we need beyond virtualisation to achieve maximum operational efficiency and the short answer is private cloud. We are going to assemble a complete suite of products that will enable you to build private cloud,” says Maritz. At the show, VMware announced a slew of new and updated software suites to simplify management and help enterprises virtualise more of their infrastructure. This includes an upgraded version of vCenter Operations Management Suite and the new packages, vFabric Application Managment and VMware IT Business Management Suite. The first suite to help VMware realise its strategy is a mixture of new and upgraded tools to handle both configuration and operational tasks backed up by analytics functionality. It’s called vCenter Operations Management Suite, and includes Operations Manager 5.0, Infrastructure Navigator 1.0, Chargeback 2.0, Configuration Manager 5.4.1 and a tech preview of Operations for View. With this update, Operations Manager has new dashboards and smart alerts that will correlate performance and capacity information to identify emerging problems, help customers “right size” their infrastructure and identify and remediate performance issues caused by configuration changes. In addition, the vCenter Operations

Management Suite will include new application awareness capabilities that automatically discover and map the relationships and dependencies between applications and the infrastructure components that support them. This means customers will be able to optimise infrastructure operations such as security management and disaster recovery based on application needs. The second management package is vFabric Application Management Suite, which is comprised of two new products: AppDirector 1.0 and Application Performance Manager1.0. The mission with that package is to streamline and automate how the application development, release, and operations and support teams collaborate in order to improve their effectiveness, according to VMware. It has been optimised for Spring-based Java applications running on vCloud Director-based cloud infrastructures, but “existing legacy applications that enterprises are looking to modernise and provision on to new virtual workloads” are also a good fit. The third management suite is the IT Business Management Suite, which is based on technologies from VMware’s June 2011 acquisition of Digital Fuel. SMB play VMware vCenter Protect Essentials Plus, formerly Shavlik NetChk Protect, is a complete on-premise management system designed to meet the needs of the SMB. VMware vCenter Protect Essentials Plus will offer agentless, easy-to-deploy and cost-effective management of physical and virtual machines, software update deployment in 28 languages, asset discovery, configuration, power management, antivirus and endpoint security. First launched in January 2011, VMware Go Pro is a cloud service (SaaS) that makes it easy for SMBs to create, manage, monitor and secure

Paul Maritz , CEO, VMware

their IT infrastructure by providing a single pane of glass to manage both physical and virtual machines. VMware Go Pro also provides patch management, including non-critical Microsoft patches, and asset inventory tracking for SMB IT environments. New capabilities in VMware Go Pro will include the IT Advisor, which will scan and assess a customer’s physical and virtual infrastructure and then provide recommendations, guidance, alerts and actions to help customers optimise their environments, streamline management processes, improve security and www.networkworldme.com

expand their virtualised infrastructure. Each time the IT Advisor scans the environment, it will provide new options, recommendations and alerts to help customers quickly identify and solve problems. With an integrated product s approach, VMware plans to the address the post-PC era by focussing on the connected enterprise. The company says what is required is a fundamentally different way of thinking about IT, where we need to think about services, not just servers and desktops. And it seems to walk the talk at the moment. November 2011 Network World Middle East 23

in action: SAAED

Saeed improves traffic policing Saaed, the UAE-based company responsible for traffic policing, will transform its services with a new data centre and disaster recovery site based on HP Converged Infrastructure.

he secure, resilient data centre will host one of the UAE’s most important e-government projects: an online portal offering vehicle, traffic, insurance and accident information. Saaed is the UAE’s leading provider of services and IT solutions for traffic accident management, automobile repair management, intelligent traffic systems and intelligent security systems. Utilising a database of all recently-produced vehicles, Saaed manages and resolves simple car accidents with smart systems that depend on constantly available IT. Information collected at the accident site is used to reconstruct the scene, evaluate costs of repair and define legal 24 Network World Middle East November 2011

liability. A network of repair workshops uses web-based remote management and monitoring systems so that operations can be controlled from anywhere, saving time and money while improving service quality. Integrated management of warehouse stocks of parts and paints enables fast location, automatic order management and electronic billing, which reduces costs. Saaed’s new data centre and disaster recovery facility will support the first phase of one of the most important projects in the region, which is being piloted in the UAE. Emirates Vehicle Gate (EVG) is a unique e-government portal that will provide a complete www.networkworldme.com

range of services for vehicles and traffic. Fast reliable access to information such as vehicle, owner and driver history, insurance company details, and availability of repair facilities will help reduce the impact of traffic incidents. For increased efficiency and availability, Saaed’s applications will be consolidated on 3 HP ProLiant c7000 enclosures with HP ProLiant BL460c blade servers, connected to a SAN (storage area network) based on an HP P4500 LeftHand Storage System at the main site. This will enable Saaed to easily scale its data storage to meet its growing requirements. Built on a storage clustering architecture that eliminates any single point of failure, the HP P4500 ensures complete business continuity with rapid disaster recovery. Centralised management simplifies Saaed’s IT processes, freeing the IT team for customer-facing activities and reducing costs. Complete business continuity is ensured by the replication of stored data to an identical SAN in the disaster recovery site. Some applications will be hosted off-site on stand-alone rackmounted HP ProLiant DL380 G7 servers connected to a third SAN based on an HP P4300 Storage System. At the data centre network core, powerful HP 7510 multi-layer switches boost communications performance and quality, and provide the flexibility for Saaed to meet the evolving needs of its integrated services network. In the separate disaster recovery facility, HP 7506 switches with cost-effective wire-speed 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports provide the throughput and bandwidth necessary for Saaed’s mission-critical data and high-speed communications. The entire network benefits from HP IRF (Intelligent Resilient Framework) technology, which allows switches to be stacked and managed as one “virtual” entity, simplifying management and maximising availability.

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September 2011 Network World Middle East 25 www.eset.com/me

in action: ADPC

A new route for collaboration Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC) has chosen Cisco Borderless Network and Collaboration solutions for Phase 1 of its Port Special Systems project.

he deployment will enable ADPC to build a secure and reliable platform to deliver services across Khalifa Port and eventually the industrial zone (Kizad). Cisco and ADPC have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to strengthen this relationship and explore potential collaborative opportunities that will enable the smart operations of the port as well as strategically connecting one of the world’s largest industrial zones which will facilitate trade, logistics and development contributing to the overall economic expansion of the region. As a core part of this agreement, Cisco will cooperate in the creation of new service propositions and initiatives, primarily focused on aligning ADPC’s ICT strategy objectives with Cisco’s advanced technologies. This will enable ADPC to stay at the forefront of technological updates and market transformations to be able to harness new trends and translate them into new business opportunities to achieve ADPC’s sustainable growth objectives. The agreement will also bring training and continuous education opportunities to ADPC’s employees that

26 Network World Middle East November 2011

strengthen their productivity, career development and job satisfaction. Khalifa Port & Industrial Zone is a key enabler for economic diversification, development and trade in the region as it will promote new partnership models and services at the forefront of industrial logistics and manufacturing. Hence there was an urge to deploy a smart and intelligent platform that will form the basis to drive the intelligence of the services and systems as well as to develop a connected hub for trade and logistics between the offshore port and the onshore facilities. ADPC was in need to explore a solution that delivers state of the art technologies to support the highly sophisticated portrelated applications and systems as well as to cater for the unprecedented world-class capacity growth of the port. Cisco was leading to achieve ADPC’s business goals through the provision of a technologically advanced and powerful network to cope with the envisaged network traffic while connecting people and devices onshore and offshore as well as outstations indoors and outdoors through a highly available, secured and reliable communications network. www.networkworldme.com

The Cisco Borderless Network solution was the solution that will allow Khalifa Port to connect anyone, anywhere, anytime and on any device – securely, reliably and seamlessly. An Ethernet Network is also required to provide data connectivity throughout Khalifa Port, allowing multiple Local Area Networks (LANs) to communicate between devices both on- and offshore. The active components must be technologically advanced and powerful enough to cope with the massive network traffic, allowing sufficient capacity for future expansion. Cisco Catalyst Switches was the key enabler for such an advanced and powerful network. The WLAN infrastructure will support the various port systems and stakeholder groups that require remote access to the data network. Since the WLAN is an extension of the data network, any system that is accessible over the LAN shall be accessible over the WLAN, given the correct security permissions. The Cisco Wireless solutions was able to provide anywhere, anytime access to information and resources. Connecting people across the onshore and offshore facilities and outstations was never made simpler through Cisco’s Unified Communications solutions.

www.networkworldme.com

November 2011 Network World Middle East 27

feature | management

Network management The cloud is revolutionising networking, and this overhaul presents enormous challenges for IT managers who are used to being able to see, monitor and control their networks and systems.

etwork and systems management software has been heading in this general direction for years and is better positioned than you might think to take this next step - but there are several areas that require more work by the industry. To understand the size of the problem, let’s take a look at what cloud computing is. There are many definitions, but at its heart, cloud computing is an abstraction of things that have not been abstracted before. Instead of having servers, software, applications and storage dedicated to

28 Network World Middle East November 2011

certain tasks, all of that is abstracted to the user and even the IT manager. Instead of being concerned about individual servers, the focus is on the services they provide – services like email or a sales application. Under the covers, resources (like servers, network devices, storage and operating systems) are shared for these services. Automation software can set up and tear down resources as needed – provisioning a virtual machine with an operating system and an application, for instance, and then tearing it down later. But the person using the service is unaware of the resources being used www.networkworldme.com

underneath, and they can be changing all the time. There are two major divisions of cloud computing – public clouds and private clouds. In a private cloud, IT departments build their own clouds in their own data centres. They set up the automation, they provide all of the hardware and software to support the service, and they provide the abstraction through virtualisation and automation techniques. In a public cloud setup, a company uses an outside firm to provide the service. The most abstract type of public cloud is software-as-a-service (SaaS),

where the software is hosted by the outside firm on an Internet site, and the client company usually accesses it through a Web browser. One step down in abstraction is platform-as-aservice (PaaS), where customers can create the applications to run on the platform, but all of the software and hardware is managed by the outside firm, and the applications are tied to the application platform provided. Another step down in abstraction and you get infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), where the hardware and the operating system are still managed by the provider, but the applications are completely determined by the client. You can imagine how these developments could throw enterprise management software for a loop. Management software’s roots are in the physical world, providing visibility and control into all of the hardware and software components of a network. Now, that visibility is being deliberately taken away. “With the emerging adoption of cloud computing, Software as a Service will become the popular application deployment model in the future. It will also result in servers, applications and other IT infrastructure to be concentrated into the data centre and such IT assets being located anywhere and being connected via high speed links. Thus the role of the data centre becomes all the more important. From a network management perspective, the IT within the data centre has to be managed efficiently and organisations will look for network management tools that can do that well. Another important consequence as a result of cloud adoption is the co-existance of both on-premise and SaaS models. Network Management tools will need to offer

Jonathan Reeve, Senior Director, Product Management, SolarWinds

Before cloud computing came, there was serviceoriented architecture, or SOA.

both as organisations may have both models in place for some more years to come,” says Sridhar Iyengar, VP-Product Management, ManageEngine. Nicolai Solling, Director of Technology Services, help AG Middle East, adds another perspective: Cloud computing requires enterprises to focus on new levels of network management. A specific issue with cloud based services is that many of them are normal web-based applications, so the infrastructure managing the bandwidth needs to be application aware, which means that the device can identify a specific application or function in an application to allocate the correct priority of the traffic. Many www.networkworldme.com

customers still do not have the correct infrastructure in place for this.” He adds that another thing which is still very interesting to look into from an infrastructure and management perspective is the elasticity of the cloud infrastructure. “We may need more bandwidth or resources in the cloud at certain times, so how do we make sure that the cloud is not always scaled to peak usage conditions, and resources are allocated when they are needed? In order to understand this issue then a strong knowledge and management of the access and data patterns of the cloud need to be enforced.” Past is prologue Cloud computing, however, did not arise out of nothing, and management software vendors have not stood still for the past decade. Although management software still has much to do to keep up with the changes, two key developments have helped prepare management software for the cloud. Before cloud computing came, there was service-oriented architecture, or SOA. While the buzzword is no longer buzzy, it did introduce the concept of abstracting resources. The key message was that servers, storage, software and network components are not as important as the business-related service they provide. These services could be anything from email to an HR application to a customer service application. This was a big shift in thinking for the IT industry, and it took some time to absorb. But major management platforms across the board reoriented to support this concept, whether the platforms were from BMC, CA, HP, IBM or others. The management software would roll up the supporting hardware

November 2011 Network World Middle East 29

feature | management

Still, there is some evidence that management software vendors haven’t done as good a job at managing server virtualisation as they could have. and software and give IT managers a view into which business services were being affected, and how. You could still easily drill down into the individual components, to track down the server that was slowing your email response, for example. But the emphasis had moved. The second key development was virtualisation. Virtualising machines abstracted the operating environment from the hardware it ran on. Once you have done that, the physical location of the software is less important, and you’ve just planted the seed for cloud computing. Indeed, private clouds have been called the next generation of virtualisation. Again management software vendors had to cope with this new reality and had to adapt to monitor and manage virtual machines. Still, there is some evidence that management software vendors haven’t done as good a job at managing server virtualisation as they could have. Enterprise Management Associates published a survey of 151 IT professionals in February 2011 that showed a “surprisingly high” number of companies either buying all-new tools or building their own to cope with server virtualisation, says Jim Frey, managing research director at EMA. In the survey, where respondents could choose more than one answer, 50% say they were buying and deploying new management tools, and a striking 33% said they were building their own. Contrast that with 54% upgrading their existing tools. 30 Network World Middle East November 2011

Sridhar Iyengar, VP-Product Management, ManageEngine

Nicolai Solling, Director of Technology Services, help AG Middle East

What’s in your network? Will traditional network management practices, in terms of both monitoring and control, still be relevant and important in virtual and cloud environments? Yes, at some level, says Jonathan Reeve, Senior Director, Product Management, SolarWinds. “We still have physical infrastructure and networks to deal with. However, there will be more of a focus on managing the logical aspects as the network itself becomes more virtualised.” Iyengar from ManageEngine adds that the overall concept of monitoring and control will be applicable but the way it is done (methodology) will be slightly different in the cloud environment. “Network management tools will need to manage infrastructure www.networkworldme.com

that is not just locally present but could be anywhere around the world. With larger organisations spreading out their IT assets across multiple geographies for either redundancy, disaster management or faster user access, this could be a challenge for Network management tools to present one view of IT across multiple geographies. The need is for the Network management tool to abstract and simplify the underlying complexity. This goes all the way from a basic network monitoring to a sophisticated function such as problem or change management within IT service management.” For sure, times have changed, and in some respects for the better. Some of the vendors are now fleshing out their management-as-a-service offerings. Since management is just an application, it can be put into the cloud as well – and that means you could use a cloud-based service to manage your cloud-based services. The plight of management software vendors mirrors that of IT managers – if they all can stay on top of cloud computing as it invades the enterprise, if they can manage it, then their prospects for survival are that much better.

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trends

Top 10 strategic S technology trends 1 for 2012 The technology that makes up many of the systems in the IT world today is at a critical juncture and in the next five years everything from mobile devices and applications to servers and social networking will impact IT in ways companies need to prepare for now.

o what issues need to be on IT’s radar screen for 2012? Here’s a look at the Top 10 Tech Trends and the implications of those issues according to Gartner: Media tablets and beyond: Bringyour-own-technology at work has become the norm, not the exception. With that come security and management challenges that IT needs to address. By 2015 media tablet shipments will reach around 50% of laptop shipments and Windows 8 will likely be in third place behind Android and Apple. The net result is that Microsoft’s share of the client platform, be it PC, tablet or smartphone, will likely be reduced to 60% and it could fall below 50%, Gartner VP David Cearley says. The implication for IT is that the era of PC dominance with Windows as the single platform will be replaced with a post-PC era where Windows is one of a variety of environments IT will need to support. In the smartphone arena, prices will fall to $75 for entry-level devices in 2012 with faster twoand four-core processors, and with bigger, brighter, higher-resolution screens, plus 3D, HD video and more sensors such as gyros, compasses and barometers driving greater features into high-end devices. While iOS dominates the tablet market today, Gartner says it expects iOS/Android will dominate the market with 80% of tablets shipped by 2015.

Mobile-centric applications and interfaces: Here touch, gesture and voice search is going to change the way mobile apps work in the future, Cearley says. By 2014, there will be more than 70 billion mobile application downloads from app stores every year. By 2014, at least half of the tools optimised for app store application development in 2010 will have been acquired or will have ceased to exist.

32 Network World Middle East November 2011

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Social and contextual user experience: According to Gartner, context-aware computing uses

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By February 2011, a Google search on “big data” yielded 2.9 million hits, and vendors now advertise their products as solutions to the big data challenge. information about an end user’s or object’s environment, activities connections and preferences to improve the quality of interaction with that end user or object. A contextually aware system anticipates the user’s needs and proactively serves up the most appropriate and customized content, product or service. The tipping point here could be technology such as near-field communications getting into more and more devices. Some interesting facts here: By 2015, 40% of the world’s smartphone users will opt in to context service providers that track their activities with Google, Microsoft, Nokia and Apple continuously tracking daily journeys and digital habits for 10% of the world population by 2015, Cearley says.

Application stores and marketplace: The key here is the rise of enterprise application stores that can develop specific apps for users. This will let IT manage and control certain apps. But embracing the idea of user choice might be a difficult concept for enterprise IT to embrace, Cearley says. Enterprises should use a managed diversity approach to focus app store efforts and segment apps by risk and value. Where the business value of an app is low and the potential risk, such as the loss of sensitive data, is high, apps might be blocked entirely.

The Internet of everything: The idea here is that we are building on pervasive computing where cameras, sensors, microphones, image recognition -- everything -- is now part of the environment. Remote sensing of everything

34 Network World Middle East November 2011

from electricity to air conditioning use is now part of the network. In addition, increasingly intelligent devices create issues such as privacy concerns. Eventually IT will need some central unified management of all these devices, Cearley says. Next-generation analytics: Most enterprises have reached the point in the improvement of performance and costs where Cearley says they can afford to perform analytics and simulation for every action taken in the business. Not only will data center systems be able to do this, but mobile devices will have access to data and enough capability to perform analytics themselves, potentially enabling use of optimization and simulation everywhere. Going forward, IT can focus on developing analytics that enable and track collaborative decision making.

Big data: Big data has quickly emerged as a significant challenge for IT leaders. The term only became popular in 2009. By February 2011, a Google search on “big data” yielded 2.9 million hits, and vendors now advertise their products as solutions to the big data challenge. The key thing enterprises have to realize is that they just can’t store it all. There are new techniques to handle extreme data, such as Apache Hadoop, but companies will have to develop new skills to effectively use these technologies, Cearley says.

In-memory computing: We will see huge use of flash memory in consumer devices, entertainment www.networkworldme.com

devices, equipment and other embedded IT systems. In addition, flash offers a new layer of the memory hierarchy in servers and client computers that has key advantages -- space, heat, performance and ruggedness among them. Unlike RAM, the main memory in servers and PCs, flash memory is persistent even when power is removed. In that way, it looks more like disk drives where we place information that must survive power-downs and reboots, yet it has much of the speed of memory, far faster than a disk drive. As lower-cost -- and lower-quality -flash is used in the data center, software that can optimize the use of flash and minimize the endurance cycles becomes critical. Users and IT providers should look at in-memory computing as a long-term technology trend that could have a disruptive impact comparable to that of cloud computing, Cearley says. Extreme low-energy servers: What if you could turn 10 virtual machines in one box into 40 slow physical servers that are tiny and use very low amounts of energy? There is a call for this type of computing to handle big data. For example, thousands of these little processors could work on a Hadoop process, Cearley says. Gartner says that 10%-15% of enterprise workloads are good for this. Moving the application from 10 images to 40 slower, less capable machines will only deliver on that promise if the software will perform the same. Server technologies are going to change to handle big data.

Cloud computing: This topic went from No. 1 last year to No. 10 this year, but it’s still an important trend. It will become the next-generation battleground for the likes of Google and Amazon. Going forward, enterprise IT will be concerned with developing hybrid private/ public cloud apps, improving security and governance, Cearley says.

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Coping with big data Got your â&#x20AC;&#x153;big dataâ&#x20AC;? plan in place? If not, you may want to start thinking about implementing one.

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June 2011 NetworkWorld WorldMiddle Middle East 35 November 2011 Network

feature | storage

Coping with big data Got your “big data” plan in place? If not, you may want to start thinking about implementing one.

ig data is being hailed – or hyped, depending on your point of view – as a key strategic business asset of the future. That means it’s only a matter of time before the suits in the corner office want to know IT’s thoughts on the matter. What to tell them? To be sure, handling large amounts of data isn’t virgin territory for most IT departments, but beyond the hype, analysts say, big data really is different from the data warehousing, data mining and business intelligence (BI) analysis that have come before it. Data is being generated with greater velocity and variability than ever before, and, unlike data in the past, most of it is unstructured and raw (sometimes called “gray data”). Blogs, social media networks, machine sensors and location-based data are generating a whole new universe of unstructured data that – when quickly captured, managed and analysed – can help companies uncover facts and patterns they weren’t able to recognise in the past. IT is standing at the forefront of this data revolution, industry observers say. To steer organisations into the era of realtime predictive intelligence, tech managers must evolve their enterprise information management architecture and culture to support advanced analytics on data stores that measure in terabytes and petabytes (potentially scaling to exabytes and zettabytes). Overcoming big-data hurdles Because it’s early on, big-data technologies are still evolving and haven’t yet reached

36 Network World Middle East November 2011

the level of product maturity to which IT managers have grown accustomed with enterprise software. Many emerging big-data products are rooted in open-source technologies, and while commercial distributions are available, many still lack the well-developed thirdparty consulting and support ecosystem that accompanies traditional enterprise applications like ERP, points out Marcus Collins, research director at Gartner. What’s more, there is a significant gap in big-data skills in most IT departments, which have, up until now, focused on building and maintaining more traditional, structured data warehouses. And there are major shifts to be made, both in terms of culture and in traditional www.networkworldme.com

information management practices, before big data can successfully take hold within an IT organisation and throughout the company, notes Mark Beyer, Gartner’s research vice president of information management. Rather than waiting for the pieces to fall into place, savvy IT leaders should start prepping themselves and their organisations to get ahead of the transformation, says Beyer and other analysts. Here are the top five things tech managers should be doing today to lay out a proper foundation for the big-data era of tomorrow. Take stock of your data Nearly every organisation potentially has access to a steady stream of unstructured data – whether it’s pouring in from

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November 2011 Network World Middle East 37

feature | storage

social media networks or from sensors monitoring a factory floor. But just because an organisation is producing this fire hose of information, that doesn’t mean there’s a business imperative to save and act on every byte. Smart IT managers will resist the urge to try to drink from the fire hose, and instead serve as a filter in helping to figure out what data is and isn’t relevant to the organisation. A good first step is to take stock of what data is created internally and determine what external data sources, if any, would fill in knowledge gaps and bring added insight to the business. Once the data scoping is underway, IT should proceed with highly targeted projects that can be used to showcase results as opposed to opting for a big-bang, big-data project.

Let business needs drive data dives It sounds like a broken record, but the concept of IT/business alignment is absolutely critical to an initiative as big and varied as big data, IT analysts say. Many of the initial big-data opportunities have been seeded in areas outside of IT, they say – marketing, for example, has been early to tap into social media streams to gain better insights into customer requirements and buying trends. While the business side may understand the opportunities, it is IT’s responsibility to take charge of the data sharing and data federation concepts that are part and parcel of a big-data strategy. Re-evaluate infrastructure and data architecture Big data will require major changes in both server and storage infrastructure and information management architecture at most companies, Gartner’s Beyer and other experts contend. IT managers need to be prepared to expand the IT platform to deal with the ever-expanding stores of both structured and unstructured data, they say. That requires figuring out the best approach to making the platform both extensible and scalable and developing a 38 Network World Middle East November 2011

Big data will require major changes in both server and storage infrastructure and information management architecture at most companies. roadmap for integrating all of the disparate systems that will be the feeders for the bigdata analysis effort. “Today, most enterprises have disparate, siloed systems for payroll, for customer management, for marketing,” says Anjul Bhambhri, IBM’s vice president of big-data products. “CIOs really need to have a strategy in place for bringing these disparate, siloed systems together and building a system of systems. You want to be asking questions that flow across all these systems to get answers.” To be sure, not every system will need to be integrated; approaches will vary depending on the size of company, the scope of the business problem, and the data requirements. But Bhambhri and others say the overarching goal should be to create an information management architecture that ensures data flow between systems. To create this foundation, companies will leverage technologies like middleware, service-oriented architecture, and business process integration, among others. In the meantime, traditional data warehouse architectures are also under pressure. Gartner’s Beyer says that 85% of currently deployed data warehouses will, in some respect, fail to address the new issues around extreme data management by 2015. Even so, he says, “we don’t want to give the idea that rip-and-replace is even on the table.” Instead, existing repositories can be expanded and adapted to encompass built-in data processing capabilities. “The warehouses of the past have been focused on determining what kind of data repository you have and where you have it. The new mindset is that data warehouses www.networkworldme.com

will be a combination of new and existing repositories plus data processing and delivery services,” Beyer explains.

Bone up on the technology The big-data world comes with a big list of new acronyms and technologies that have likely never graced a CIO’s radar screen. Open-source technology is getting most of the attention with technologies like Hadoop, MapReduce, and NoSQL taking credit for helping Web-based giants like Google and Facebookchurn through their reservoirs of big data. Many of these technologies, while starting to be offered in more commercial forms, are still fairly immature and require people with very specific skills sets. Beyond the new open-source options, IT groups will also have to ensure they are up to speed on other technologies important to the big-data world, such as in-database analytics, columnar databases and data warehouse appliances. IT managers and their staffs need to dive in and at least familiarise themselves with these new tools in order to be properly situated to make big-data decisions going forward. Prepare to hire or retrain staff Whether it’s a Hadoop expert or a data scientist, most IT organisations are sorely lacking the right talent to take the next steps with big data. The analytic skill sets are perhaps the most crucial, and they represent the area where the gap is currently largest. McKinsey projects that in the U.S. alone, there will be a need by 2018 for between 140,000 and 190,000 additional experts in statistical methods and data-analysis technologies, including the widely hyped emerging role of “data scientist.” In addition, McKinsey anticipates the need for another 1.5 million data-literate managers, on either the business or tech side of the house, who have formal training in predictive analytics and statistics. Under the IT department’s jurisdiction, traditional data warehouse and BI professionals will require some retraining.

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The case for connectivity Telcos pursue lower infrastructure pricing in Africa

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feature | infrastructure

The case for connectivity Telcos pursue lower infrastructure pricing in Africa

igh costs of accessing inland fibre-optic infrastructure and lack of guidelines on DSL access have forced telecom operators in Africa to seek government intervention in developing policies that help lower costs for users. In countries where former telecommunications monopolies had not set up extensive copper lines, the debate is on how government policies can help lower costs of accessing national fibreoptic backbone, while in other countries debate is on how smaller companies can access existing infrastructure and provide last-mile connections. In sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa has a wider coverage of DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) exchanges, which allow connection direct to customer premises, commonly known as the local loop. The

40 Network World Middle East November 2011

Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is currently involved in discussions over access to the local loop established by Telkom South Africa by other telcos. Smaller telcos that do not have the financial muscle to invest in infrastructure want to access the telecommunications infrastructure and provide value-added services to consumers in a process known as local loop unbundling, or LLU. “The South African market has already been experiencing increased competition, including in the local loop; fixed-line penetration is low, which means that there may be many players chasing relatively few customers,” said Dobek Pater, senior telecoms analyst at Africa Analysis, via e-mail. “One positive aspect of LLU that has been observed is that it is a competitive www.networkworldme.com

enablement – LLU enables competitors to the incumbent to grow and become stronger competitors, facilitating product innovation and differentiation, and translates into their ability to expand their product,” added Pater. Kenya has already unbundled the local loop and two main companies that were riding on Telkom Kenya infrastructure have been unable to mount any competition because the cost of copper line rental was not regulated. Telkom Kenya charged the companies the same

costs they charge end users, so it was easier for customers to go directly to Telkom Kenya. “In Kenya, inter-operator infrastructure access is not regulated, operators share on [a] commercial basis; licenses given to Popote Wireless and Flashcom were tied to Telkom Kenya,” said Nzioka Waita, Safaricom corporate affairs director, who has also been involved in regulatory discussions. In the past two years, Africa has seen developments in fibre-optic infrastructure and there are questions whether it affects the calls for unbundling of local loop especially with the prospect of fiber to the home. “These infrastructure build-outs are not likely to stop LLU introduction, particularly if LLU applies only to Telkom copper and does not include fiber-optic connections,” added Pater. “However, we have not really seen any proof of that in global markets that have introduced LLU.” However, some analysts feel that development of mobile and other technologies has reduced reliance on copper and the unbundling debate would have been better 10 years ago when data costs were very high and other technologies like mobile were not developed. “With wireless technologies and mobile, it may be a moot point in countries where the fixed copper network is not so pervasive; unlike Kenya, South Africa has more copper and a bulk of the broadband connections are DSL based, there was a time, perhaps 7-10 years ago, when this would have made sense,” said Frank Hook, IDC East Africa regional manager. Operators in many countries are facing the challenge of reducing internet costs further and the falling average revenue per user (ARPU) for mobile companies has meant reducing infrastructure costs

In 2010, France Telecom demanded a $385 million refund from the government from a total of $390 million paid earlier, arguing that it had overpaid for Telkom Kenya.

on the last mile to the mass market. “The missing link is mostly in access (last mile) and that’s an issue all over Africa – even South Africa; depending on what type of LLU is envisaged, (wire to subscriber or capacity at the exchange or switch, LLU can help foster last mile access where smaller players are ready to invest in last-mile to deliver services,” added Hook. While the cost of renting the infrastructure still remains an issue, operators will also have to agree on whether they can pick the areas where they want to provide value-added service over the local loop or to enter areas where there is demand, regardless of profitability. With fibre more extensive than copper in Kenya, the government has been forced to form a committee to explore ways to market the national fiber-optic backbone. The infrastructure had been left to Telkom Kenya under a renegotiated deal with France Telecom, but other operators www.networkworldme.com

complained that Telkom Kenya had not aggressively marketed the capacity. In 2010, France Telecom demanded a $385 million refund from the government from a total of $390 million paid earlier, arguing that it had overpaid for Telkom Kenya. After discussions and threats to quit, the parties renegotiated the deal that included waiver of the $10 million 3G license and a contract to take over and manage the 20 percent government stake in TEAMS (The East Africa Marine System) fiber-optic cable as well as marketing and maintaining the national fiber-optic backbone, covering the whole country. The government committee charged with looking at ways to market the backbone infrastructure is composed of representatives from the Ministry of Information and Communication, Telkom Kenya, Kenya Data Networks, Jamii Telecom, Safaricom and Frontier Optical Networks. The committee will address pricing issues as well as access by operators. November 2011 Network World Middle East 41

opinion

Cashing in on mobile video Mobile video is hot and it’s happening now. With smart moves to enhance the customer experience, Communications Service Providers (CSPs) are in the best possible position to monetise this opportunity.

he numbers tell the story about mobile video. YouTube usage on mobile devices increased by 123% in the first half of 2010 and accounted for 13% of all global mobile streaming video. By 2011, this figure had jumped to 45% (Allott, 2011). By 2015, Cisco expects streaming video to account for 66% of mobile data traffic. And if you need more proof, the service ‘HBO Go’ reached 1 million downloads during its first week of availability on iPhone and Android smartphones. (www.multichannel.com, May 2011). So, rather than step changes, these are sea changes. In the same way that Zynga’s new game Cityville went from 0 to 70 million users in 3 weeks (statistics.allfacebook.com, 2010), mobile video is taking off. Users are bringing their experience and expectations from the fixed world to mobile. They are an eager audience, ready to embrace mobile video. Opportunity knocking for CSPs The dramatic shift in mobile video consumption is raising new issues and opportunities for the communications industry. First, and obviously, video is a must to compete effectively. Ten years ago the big question about mobile video was: ‘When will 42 Network World Middle East November 2011

it happen?’ Today the question is: ‘Can the network cope?’ And even more crucially: ‘Can CSPs move up in the media value chain?’ The answer here is clearly ‘Yes’. Compared with content owners, device vendors and Internet players, CSPs already have many basics in place. They have the network infrastructure, the billing relationships and, of course, the mobile device customers. In many cases, they also have the TV-based service and multiscreen content rights. “Even better news is that LTE, or 4G, is made for video,” says Sandro Tavares, head of BSO business intelligence and analyst relations at Nokia Siemens Networks. “It provides the speed and capacity for excellent mobile video, on a par with the fixed box experience. And with solutions like network optimization, policy control, WiFi offloading, QoS differentiation and Smart WLAN, networks can be tuned to provide the best possible quality for mobile video, which has become one of the key measures of customer satisfaction. “CSPs are also in the best possible position to make sure mobile video works. They have an advantage over aggregators who only provide the content. By enabling and maintaining the delivery stream, they are the intelligence behind the scenes and can use this intelligence www.networkworldme.com

to optimize the experience, keep their customers happy, and establish a strong role as the preferred broker for mobile video.” Today’s applications Fanhattan and Clicker provide an example of how CSPs can become an effective OTT video broker. By showing users which OTT providers are offering the film they want to see and how much it will cost with each service, the apps take control of content distribution. For subscribers, the apps make it possible to compare sources and prices of films, rate their favorites and make recommendations.

Get the pricing right The first experiences with mobile video have provided some good lessons in how to prevent roadblocks to streaming video. In their concern about overloading the network, some providers have introduced pricing plans that effectively discourage users from using streaming video. As Light Reading reported in 2010, “In a PC Magazine test, watching Netflix in standard definition with a 1,500Kbit/s stream burnt through the entire monthly 5GB allotment in less than 7.5 hours. A movie at 3800Kbit/s took under three hours. That’s a hefty bill for a little mobile movie magic.”

The blogosphere has erupted accordingly: “What’s the point of 4G if you limit usage?” and “5 GB 4G data limit on 4G crushed in 32 minutes!” A far more effective approach would be to use the insight that CSPs can generate from their operations – from their networks, services, devices, usage, perception and subscribers – to manage traffic and shape customer behavior by giving subscribers options. Tiered pricing, which links prices to data volumes, is one possible option, so subscribers know what they are paying for and what they get in return. Providing free-of-charge streaming over WiFi to reduce network load is another. Get the quality right Quality is another factor in the equation. Many customers are dissatisfied with the quality of their mobile video streaming. Drop-outs, stuttering or delays significantly degrade the perceived customer experience. To help drill down to the root cause, CSPs can ask customers to rate their video quality, following the example of Skype, and match this with the actual experience based on the KPIs from reporting and analytics tools. This gives them much more accurate insights into the real issues causing the problem, which they can act on immediately. In return, customers are more likely to stay with them. Nudge! An even more sophisticated approach to managing video traffic is to encourage downloading rather than streaming. One example would be to notify subscribers that streaming a video right now will use 36 MB of their monthly quota, while downloading overnight will use 0 MB, so nothing at all. Downloads are the default in the Android Marketplace, which offers 30-day, one-view movie rentals, which users download to their phones and have 24 hours to watch once they start the movie. Being able to nudge customers in the right direction requires deep insight into their behavior, an understanding of which

Policy control enable premium quality services for high-value customers who are ready to pay for them.

Marc Veleenturf, Head of BSO, Middle East & Africa, Nokia Siemens Networks

The surge in traffic from both Wimbledon and the royal wedding was a predictable event, and the networks were tuned beforehand to cope with it. customers are willing to change their behavior and a clear business case to make the change. With this information, CSPs can determine which customers are flexible, or price elastic, and which customers are price sensitive, and unwilling to pay more. Reporting and analytics tools, for example, gather insight on customer response to campaign offers and give CSPs concrete information about which customers are most likely to accept targeted offers of new, and more appropriate, data plans. Network and service assurance tools combined with network and resource management tools can be used to monitor data usage and send alerts before SLA quotas are breached, helping to ensure uninterrupted mobile video performance. Reporting and analytics combined with Quality of Service and www.networkworldme.com

Up 1400% and counting Understanding, nudging and adapting to customer behavior is one of the key advantages of a personalized, proactive and automated customer experience management solution. But it is not the only advantage. The ability to use insight to predict or respond in real-time to market developments is as crucial, if not more crucial, to ensure a positive mobile video experience. Recent events provide good examples. On April 30th, BBC Mobile iPlayer traffic peaked at 1400% above normal during the British royal wedding (Sandvine, 2011). The analysis showed that many people used their phones to watch the wedding from work or from other locations without TV access. Wimbledon provides another example. As the Times reported on June 24th, data traffic over 3’s network shot up by 90 per cent when Andy Murray, the British #1, started his first round match. In addition to people outside the gates, spectators in the stands watched the live stream on their phones so they could hear the shot-by-shot commentary. And on Twitter, the same match inspired a 200% surge in Twitter usage on the network. The surge in traffic from both Wimbledon and the royal wedding was a predictable event, and the networks were tuned beforehand to cope with it. But the level of interest in Murray’s match was unexpected. In this case, having the insight to react immediately and adapt in real time was crucial to ensure a consistent high-level service experience. So, predictive analysis and planning based on customer behavior and service usage during mass events, as well as real-time response to unexpected changes in demand, are crucial capabilities that a holistic customer experience management solution provides. About the author Marc Veleenturf is the Head of BSO, Middle East & Africa, Nokia Siemens Networks.

November 2011 Network World Middle East 43

opinion

LTE - A step towards the future Mobile broadband has quickly become a necessity, as the internet generation grows accustomed to having broadband access wherever they go and not just at home or in the office.

f the estimated 3.4 billion people who will have broadband by 2014, about 80 percent will be mobile broadband subscribers – and the majority will be served by High Speed Packed Access (HSPA) and Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks. People can already browse the internet or send emails using HSPA-enabled notebooks replace their fixed DSL modems with HSPA modems or USB dongles and send and receive video or music using 3G phones. With LTE, the user experience will be even better. It will enhance more demanding applications such as interactive TV, mobile video blogging, advanced games and professional services, which have become a necessity for today’s internet generation. Consumers understand and appreciate the benefits of mobile broadband. People already use mobile phones and connect their notebooks to wireless LANs. The step towards full mobile broadband is intuitive and simple, especially with LTE that offers ubiquitous coverage and roaming with existing 2G and 3G networks. A number of broadband applications are significantly enhanced with mobility, Community sites, search engines, presence applications and content-sharing sites such as YouTube are a few examples. With mobility, these applications become significantly more valuable to users. User-generated content is particularly interesting, because it changes traffic patterns, making the ability to uplink

44 Network World Middle East November 2011

Anders Lindblad, President and Head of Region Middle East and North Africa, Ericsson

more important than ever. The high peak rates and short latency of LTE also enable realtime applications such as gaming and videoconferencing, making LTE and inevitable transition for most operators. As for the operators, they are now doing business in an increasingly competitive environment, competing not only with other operators, but also with new players and new business models. However, new business models also mean new opportunities and mobile operators have the advantage of being able to offer the competitive delivery of mobile broadband services using existing investments in 2G and 3G networks. This is why operators are so active in formulating strategies and driving requirements for mobile broadband through standardisation bodies. Some of www.networkworldme.com

the world’s leading operators, vendors and research institutes have joined forces in the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) program, which works alongside existing standardisation bodies and has established clear performance targets, fundamental recommendations and deployment scenarios for a future wide-area mobile broadband network. Although not defined by NGMN, LTE meets these requirements which include efficient reuse of existing assets, no impact on HSPA road maps and cost efficiency. One of the key success factors for any technology is economy of scale. The volume advantage is beneficial for both handsets and infrastructure equipment, as it drives down the manufacturing costs and enables operators to provide cost-efficient services to their customers. This is also one of the main reasons new operators will benefit from LTE. Deployment of LTE will vary from country to country, according to regulatory requirements. The first devices will be multimode-based, meaning that wide-area coverage, mobility and service continuity can be provided from day one, and existing mobile networks can be used as fall-back in areas where LTE is not yet deployed. It is important that the deployment of LTE infrastructure is as simple and cost efficient as possible; for example, it should be possible to upgrade existing radio base stations to LTE using plug-in units, so they become both dual mode and dual band. LTE offers several important benefits for users and operators including enhanced performance and capacity, simplicity and a wide range of compatible terminals which will incorporate embedded LTE modules. Operators can introduce LTE flexibly to match their existing network, spectrum and business objectives for mobile broadband. Therefore, with increasing competition and the end-users’ demands for faster more efficient services, LTE has emerged as the technology of the future. Anders Lindblad is the President and Head of Region Middle East and North Africa, Ericsson

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techupdate

What to look for in secure collaboration tools Despite monumental enterprise efforts to secure information, data breaches continue to top headlines, in part because of the way employees collaborate and share data. Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needed are enterprise-level secure collaboration tools.

he growth in mobile tech, the consumerisation of IT and the rise of cloud computing are creating additional security challenges. Never before has the need to equip users with a secure, easy way to share information been as important, because if IT doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do it, users will take matters into their own hands. In many regards, they already have. From 2008 to 2010, mobile storage devices including USB thumb drives, CDs and DVDs became common vehicles for transferring large amounts of data. Simple to use and relatively inexpensive, these devices were the ideal IT workaround for business users not wanting to deal with 46 Network World Middle East November 2011

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complex FTP servers. A steady stream of news stories has raised awareness of the security and compliance risks associated with these devices and how easy it is for them to be misplaced, lost in transit or stolen. During this same time frame, a growing number of consumer technologies began making their way into corporate environments, like peer-topeer (P2P) services then enable users up against a tight deadline to send an email that the corporate email system rejected as too large. Today personal smartphones and tablets are penetrating the workplace in increasing numbers. Included on

these devices are often free and low cost consumer apps that employees have downloaded for personal use. Business users are quickly embracing the anytime, anywhere data access that these devices offer. They’re accessing email, file sharing and other collaboration services from almost any device, especially iPads, which few enterprises have authorised for use.

Regaining control Employees need to do their jobs; IT needs to equip them to do so by offering “whitelisted” or approved apps that answer the same need, while providing IT the necessary control and insight over corporate data. The collaboration and file sharing space is quickly growing as established enterprise veterans, startups and consumer-focused providers answer the growing need for mobile file sharing solutions. When conducting your search, it is important to remember not all collaboration tools are equal. There is a vast difference between those developed for consumers and those developed specifically for enterprise organisations. To help IT regain control over corporate data being shared via mobile devices, consider the following: Businesses require more than just a freemium, public multi-tenant cloud solution. Meeting the needs of enterprises requires choice of where to store data, particularly sensitive information (organisations in EMEA do not want data stored in the U.S.). Allowing employees to sign up for individual file-sharing accounts exposes organizations to significant data security and compliance risks. Because IT has no visibility or control over the information being accessed or shared, it is impossible to know just how exposed an organization is to a data breach. Enterprise-level solutions provide IT with the necessary visibility and control

Mobile apps should have an intuitive interface and be available for common mobile platforms, such as Android, Apple iOS and BlackBerry. to monitor and manage what information is being accessed, by whom and when, so the enterprise can comply with industry regulations, such as SOX and HIPAA, that require monitoring and reporting systems to be in place. Utilizing security controls, IT administrators and business users can set policies to prevent files from being forwarded to unauthorized users. When looking for a solution, make sure you have the ability to set automated security policies to validate recipients, set workspace and file expiration dates as well as multi-tier access and permissions to workspaces and files. With file access monitored and logged, demonstrating compliance will no longer be an issue. Other things to consider: • Mobile apps should have an intuitive interface and be available for common mobile platforms, such as Android, Apple iOS and BlackBerry. When security solutions are easy-to-use, employees use them, rather than looking for workarounds that might put confidential data at risk. • When considering your options, do not overlook file sizes. If the solution you select does not accommodate the sharing of large files, you risk users turning to non-secure, unmanagedapplications. • Server-based security, as compared to client-based security, will help you avoid the daunting task of having to configure an ever-changing collection of hundreds or even thousands of mobile devices. Server-based security also www.networkworldme.com

enables administrators to enforce changes to security policies immediately. For example, to disable mobile access for an ex-employee, the person’s mobile phone is not required. With server-based security, IT can simply turn off access through an administrative dashboard. • Employees need to collaborate not only with colleagues but also with external users, such as business consultants, ad agencies, industrial design firms, legal counsel, and other types of business partners. Therefore it is important the solution you select supports crossboundary collaboration, so mobile users can work with all members of a team, including external users. Integration with your existing IT infrastructure, such as LDAP directories, active directory services, archiving systems, content management systems, data loss prevention (DLP) systems, mobile device management and digital rights management systems is essential. The ability to integrate your existing directories ensures access controls are consistently enforced across all IT services, while integration with archiving and DLP systems enables collaboration services to be part of broader data security initiatives and practices. In addition, the ability to plug secure file sharing capabilities into an existing content management system, such as SharePoint, to enable internal-external collaboration and mobile access enables centralized tracking and reporting of file sharing across the enterprise and leverages existing investments With an enterprise-level collaboration and file sharing solution in place for mobile devices, the temptation for users to use free Dropbox-type applications is eliminated. IT administrators can manage and audit file sharing, ensuring that business users are complying with security policies; and IT managers and compliance officers can be confident that compliance mandates are being met. November 2011 Network World Middle East 47

interview | kaspersky

Erecting barriers Kaspersky Labs co-founder Eugene Kaspersky talks about the future of security and how no one is safe online.

ou have argued for the creation of an ‘Internet Interpol’. How might that and law enforcement agencies work together to combat cybercrime? One of the main problems with investigating cybercrime is that cyber police departments are not connected and they are in different countries. Sometimes they co-operate, but not usually. Sometimes cybercrime police are not interested in investigations because the criminals are in another country so the benefits will come to the police in different countries. The problem is that they are disconnected and so we need to see how they can work more closely together. The idea [of an Internet Interpol started] with the 2001 European Convention on Cybercrime -- but the convention is not about an Internet Interpol. Its rules help to assist with investigations, but unfortunately, it has a very critical article called 32B. It is about cross border access to infected systems during investigation. It means that police departments are allowed to have cross border access to the computer systems. Because of this article, many countries refused to sign this convention. After 10 years there are about 30 countries who have signed. These countries include North America, South Africa, Japan and Australia. I don’t believe that the United States will open its network for investigators from Russia, China, Latin America or the Middle East. The same is for those countries; they will never open access to the United States or other regions. This European Convention about Cybercrime is, in my view, dead boring. It doesn’t work and people from the European Parliament disagree with me. Unfortunately, I 48 Network World Middle East November 2011

am afraid that we will be waiting a long time before the European Convention introduces it. Sooner or later, I think we will have something like an Internet Interpol, but at the same time there is a need to have a criminal Internet legislation. They have to adapt computer laws to the same standards because in some countries, they are different. For example, in Japan, there are no criminal acts for cybercrime. I was sure that Japan had such laws but they don’t. Sooner or later this organisation will be introduced, but I don’t know if it will be www.networkworldme.com

an independent international organisation or part of traditional Interpol or under the jurisdiction of the United Nations. The existing Internet Interpol can’t investigate international cybercrime because the Interpol is designed in a different way. It is designed to find the right [police] contacts in different countries. With cybercrime, it is different because there are no borders and the criminals can easily immigrate from country to country when they access victims. They can use proxy servers in different countries so there must be

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interview | kaspersky

contacts in many different countries and there has to be one organisation responsible for all investigations.

What is the state of Cloud security? There are two issues with Cloud security. First of all, the security technologies that use Cloud are new elements and there is an interesting shift happening in the security industry. The companies provide more and more services that are based on Cloud technology and that’s good news, because that makes the life of cyber criminals harder. The second issue is that when the enterprise is government or businesses allocate data in the Cloud there is a serious security issue because when they keep it in-house or at end points, the company who owns that data is responsible for security. You own that and manage security for that. If the data is allocated in the Cloud than who is responsible for security? The company which provides this service. If you leave your personal data in the Cloud who guarantees that no one else has access to that? There are many issues and unfortunately there are more incidents where Cloud services are hacked and it is leaked in a rain of data. Do you think Anonymous are hacktivists or cyber punks causing trouble? The hacking landscape is not the same. There are different cyber criminals who steal data to earn money or engage in cyber sabotage, such as those responsible for the Stuxnet worm. At the same time, there are hackers who only hack systems to learn. They don’t damage the systems and just get inside to see the application work. Hacktivists which crack websites because of political or religious issues, I don’t think that is a good thing. But if they hack a website which has bad content or not so legal, these ones are a shade of grey. If you talk about hacks on websites that are questionable than I will never do that myself. My principles won’t let me do that.

One of our regional websites was hacked last year than there were other reports of our partners getting attacked. We are victims of distributed denial of service [DDoS] attacks. What is your view on WikiLeaks? With WikiLeaks, I think it’s dangerous to publish every piece of information that can damage others. For example, if your neighbour forgot their key and left it in their door, it’s a bad idea to cry to the whole city, “Hey that man forgot to lock his door”. If we receive information which is confidential, usually about vulnerabilities in software, we help to fix this mistake. When it is fixed, we delete this information. We don’t want to have 15 minutes of fame, that is not my style. We are working to protect this world and make it more secure. Personally, I am conservative with information. For example, there are comments made by politicians and they are leaked it damages cooperation between these countries. It works against international cooperation. If you want to have a war than it is good. If you want to www.networkworldme.com

have a global economy that works better than it is bad.

Given the fact there has been a lot of attacks on security vendors such as RSA recently, what is Kaspersky doing to protect itself? One of our regional websites was hacked last year than there were other reports of our partners getting attacked. We are victims of distributed denial of service [DDoS] attacks. Sometimes the attacks are serious but we have a distributed service so our customers and visitors don’t recognise that. I never hear about a serious attack on our corporate head quarters site and pray our perimeter is protected in the right way and we have invested heavily in security, but there is no 100 per cent security. The only example of 100 per cent security is when you are dead and in a coffin. November 2011 Network World Middle East 51

test

Hands on with the Cisco Cius Cisco aims to transform how you work and collaborate with its new tablet, the Cius.

isco aims the Cius squarely at large enterprises, companies whose pockets are deep and whose workforces are scattered and thus crave the easy visual communication the Cius aims to provide. That said, the device’s seamless visual communications, coupled with Cisco’s support, could offer a lot to smaller businesses that have far-flung staffers, too. It also is

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ideal for vertical industries that are developing an Android-based app infrastructure, and for healthcare and other organisations that rely heavily on videoconferencing. The Cius tablet can serve as a communications hub and virtual desktop interface, too. Collaboration and video conferencing goes to a whole new level with the Cius: Think of it as an advanced video phone that can also play Angry www.networkworldme.com

Birds--and run custom-designed apps. It’s mobile office communications with a twenty-first century twist. As a tablet, the Cius doesn’t physically distinguish itself through its stylish design. It measures 8.9 by 5.5 by 0.6 inches and weighs 1.15 pounds--heavy by 7-inch tablet standards, but not so heavy as to discredit it from being a mobile device. The Cius is obviously optimised for use in landscape mode; in that orientation, the

video camera is centered above the display, and the speakers are positioned below it, with three physical Android navigation buttons. The menu, home, and back buttons are contoured and well-defined. At back, an indentation beneath the battery houses some of the inputs (headphone jack, two docking station jacks, and a MiniHDMI port). The inclusion of a removable battery is an important one for businesses and vertical environments; time and again, We hear a call for batteries to be userreplaceable, as it minimises downtime. Cisco says the battery should last about 8 hours for “business” use, which it defines as video calling, some Web browsing, Cisco WebEx collaboration calls, email, and staying in standby mode during meetings. The Cius tablet is the first to use Intel’s Moorestown CPU, a single-core, 1.6GHz chip for low-power mobile devices. It has 1GB of memory; 32GB of on-board storage, expandable via the microSDHC card slot; and hardware acceleration for h.264 video. At back is a 5-megapixel camera, and up front is a 2-megapixel 720p video camera. Wireless connectivity options include 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built in. The micro-USB port and microSD card can be disabled by IT managers, as can the front and rear cameras and the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities. Cisco says it’s using a fairly stock varietal of Android 2.2, though the home screen on the Cius tablet will look unfamiliar. Some of the icon images are changed, the phone icon has been moved to the otherwise standard touch menu, and the Cisco software is front-and-center on the home screen, as is a custom widget that serves as a unified inbox. The base install of the Cius includes the core Cisco apps that are at the heart of the Cius: Unified Inbox, Phone, Chat, Email, Calendar, and Contacts. Video phone calling is integrated directly into the phone app, and ties into Cisco’s TelePresence video conferencing systems; also installed is the Cisco WebEx web-conferencing app. These

The base install of the Cius includes the core Cisco apps that are at the heart of the Cius: Unified Inbox, Phone, Chat, Email, Calendar, and Contacts.

apps were written by Cisco to provide deep integration among the various modes of communication. Part of the base installation of the Cius is Quickoffice, for reading Microsoft Office apps. If you want full-bore editing, though, your company would need to buy that license separately, or buy another app via Cisco’s App HQ store. App HQ will offer apps that have been vetted by Cisco to work on the Cius, and to be malware-free. The App HQ infrastructure, for a fee, will enable companies to create custom stores for employees; the benefit here is that employees can then download customized Android apps for company-specific applications, or download apps that the IT department has already licensed, all without having to enter personal credit card info. For security, Cisco builds in data encryption, support for the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility VPN client, remote wipe options, and a host of security protocols at the network access level. To enable the Cius and Android 2.2 to work with the docking station, Cisco wrote its own drivers to support USB host devices, as well as a mouse and keyboard, and to do tasks that business users might expect, like right-mouse action. The 7-inch tablet has 1024-by-600pixel resolution, and outputs video via mini-HDMI. Or, when docked in the HD Media Station, it can output upscaled video via DisplayPort. Sadly, the tablet’s output looks disappointing: Text was grainy and overblown, a situation made even worse because Android 2.2 isn’t optimized for scaling to large screens. In the initial release, Cisco says the Cius will support www.networkworldme.com

mirrored display presentation, so that what is on the tablet is shown on a larger, attached LCD. In the future, Cisco is looking at providing a “presentation mode,” so applications on an external display will be shown at a higher resolution than what the Cius itself supports. And while Cisco sees the Cius as a potential full-bore mini-workstation for employees to do e-mail, update calendars, send documents, and more (otherwise, why have the video-out capability and USB support for host devices, mouse, and keyboard?) the company doesn’t see it as a replacement for a desktop. Much remains unknown. Cisco expects to sync its update cycle with Google’s Android OS update cycle, but the company will ultimately control how quickly a new OS will roll out, as does any other hardware maker using the Google Android OS. We don’t know how long Cisco plans to keep the hardware active, either, which may be an issue for corporate purchasers who may treat the tablet more like a computer infrastructure purchase than like a video conferencing service. And we’ll have to see just how smoothly the transition of OS updates will be, and how that might affect companies’ independently maintained applications. But for all the unknowns, it will be interesting to see how well Cisco’s Cius gains traction in the marketplace. It feels as if this tablet may be touching on the tip of a bigger need in business--simply by rethinking how a tablet could be optimized for business use. For more product reviews, log on to:

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November 2011 Network World Middle East 53

toolshed tools & gadgets

Motorola Solutions debuts enterprise tablet

Motorola Solutions has unveiled the ET1 tablet, said to be the first in an emerging category of enterprise-class tablet computers designed for a variety of vertical markets. The ET1 brings the familiarity and popularity of a consumer-class user experience to a true enterprise-class device that includes enhanced durability, an optional barcode scanner and magnetic stripe reader, hot-swappable battery packs, and secure system software.

Key industrial-strength accessories such as secure multi-slot recharging stations are also available. Intended for demanding day-long use, the Wi-Fi-enabled ET1 is password-protected so it can be easily shared and instantly provisioned for each employee according to his or her level of responsibility and access rights. Based on log-in information, managers can automatically control and monitor use of approved applications to help ensure on-the-job productivity is not compromised. Running an enterprise-ready hardened version of the Android operating system, the ET1 tablet is designed to be used 24 x 7 by multiple staff members. Supported by Motorola’s portfolio of enterprise-grade software modules including RhoElements, a new HTML5 application enablement framework, the company says businesses can now quickly and cost-effectively develop enterprise applications once and deploy them on both traditional Windows Embedded Handheld and Android-based Motorola devices, allowing for consistent user experiences. The ET1 incorporates a durable Gorilla Glass 7-inch color display, designed for customer-facing applications containing video and images. In addition, the screen bezel can be customized to match the retailer’s brand. Motorola Solutions’ ET1 tablet will be available in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Polycom unveils virtual whiteboard Polycom has unveiled an innovative whiteboard solution, the Polycom UC Board, which improves communication and collaboration in video conferences by allowing meeting participants to leverage their existing video display screens and mobile devices as interactive whiteboards for video collaboration. Whiteboards are an important communication tool, but when traditional whiteboards are used in a video conference, it’s a common problem that remote participants have trouble seeing the whiteboard content, which undermines teamwork and participation. The first integrated video collaboration whiteboard technology of its kind, the Polycom UC Board is a simple, elegant and cost-effective solution combining a plug-and-play receiver and stylus for ease-of-use, and a compact design for portability. The solution transforms LCD monitors and display surfaces into a video whiteboard space so every participant can stay fully engaged. The Polycom UC Board software natively integrates with the latest Polycom RealPresence Room HDX solutions to share content naturally, efficiently, and easily. Users participating in a video meeting can also share content such as a

54 Network World Middle East November 2011

presentation, and use the Polycom UC Board to write, annotate or highlight key points, right on top of the presentation for everyone to see in real-time. As part of the solution, Polycom is leveraging eBeam technology from Luidia, the global provider of interactive solutions. eBeam turns many common flat surfaces into collaborative workspaces where the capture, saving, and sharing of digital content is made easy. Today, hundreds of thousands of eBeam systems are in use across multiple industries worldwide.

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29 Doha NOV

Platinum Sponsors

Intercontinental Doha

Gold Sponsors

Featured Speakers Salim Bouzekouk, Deputy to the IT Director, Qatar Exchange Dr Hussein Shehata, Technical Director - EMEA, Uptime Institute Professional Services (UIPS) Carlos Garcia, Director - DC Architect, Quark Technological Rodney Callaghan, Vice President – UAE & Gulf Countries, APC by Schneider Electric For more information visit:

www.datacenterdynamics.com

Design, Build, Operate is our longest running conference theme and focuses on every part of the mission-critical facility lifecycle. From site selection and engineering design through to power availability and full data center automation; these are must-attend sessions for any organization embarking on a new data center project or operating existing facilities.

For every decision to build a data center there is one to outsource. From colocation to Platformas-a-Service, from Software-as-a-Service, to building your data center capacity in the cloud, what are the options most appropriate to your organization? This conference theme explores an enterprise’s strategic options for data center outsourcing, weighing up the economic benefits, the risks and the performance characteristics against those of doing it yourself.

The efficiency of the facility is only half the equation – optimizing all the systems that run within it is crucial: from processing to storage, to network to application. The ITO conference stream provides insight on how IT needs drive data center strategy and how that impacts infrastructure requirements.

Middle East & Africa conference locations for 2011

“

Dubai 26th October 2011

Doha 29th November 2011

Muscat 25th September 2011

Thanks for organizing such an excellent event. It was extremely informative and rich in content.”

Riyadh 28th March 2011

Abdul Saleem Gerab Systems Technology Abu Dhabi 30th May 2011

Johannesburg 8th September 2011

www.networkworldme.com Global Training and Certification Services

To register, call:

November 2011 Network World Middle East 55

+971 (4) 434 8450

Keynote speaker: General (Retired) Michael Hayden, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Deputy Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) presents “cyber security and cyber threats in a changing world”.

EMIRATES PALACE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

[training, 12 – 13 Dec]

[briefings, 14 – 15 dec]

 TEHTRI-Security: Advanced PHP Hacking

 iSnoop: How to Steal Secrets from Touch Screen Devices by Federico Maggi

 Cyber Network Defense Bootcamp  SensePost: Hacking by Numbers: Unplugged Edition  Infrastructure Attacktecs & Defentecs: Hacking Cisco Networks  HotWAN: Mobile Hacking

 Software Security Goes Mobile by Russell Spitler  Taming Worms, RATs, Dragons and More! By Christiaan Beek  Financial Armageddon? Inside the Zeus and SpyEye Wave by Ken Baylor

 Android : from Reversing to De-compilation by Anthony Desnos

 Assessing and Exploiting Web Applications with Samurai-WTF  The Exploit Laboratory  Incident Response: Black Hat Edition by MANDIANT  Foundstone: Malware Forensics & Incident Response  TaoSecurity: TCP/IP Weapons School 3.0

[dates] TRAINING: DECEMBER 12 – 13

 Yet Another Android Rootkit – Protecting System is Not Enough by Tsukasa Oi  Check your Zombie Devices! : Analysis of the DDoS Cyber Terrorism Against the Country and Future Attacks on Various Devices By DongJoo Ha 

From Redmond With Love by Katie Moussouris

 Legal Aspects of Cyber-Security - (AKA) CYBERLAW: A Year in Review, Cases, Issues, Your Questions My (Alleged) Answers by Robert Clark

BRIEFINGS: DECEMBER 14 – 15 EXPO: DECEMBER 14 – 15

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www.blackhat.com Join us on Facebook: Blackhat // LinkedIn: Black Hat // Twitter: @BlackHatEvents or BlackHatHQ // Flickr: BlackHatEvents 56 Network World Middle East November 2011

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Smart Wi-Fi from Ruckus Ruckus Wireless has rolled out its newest line of Smart Wi-Fi products, which include the Zone Director 3000, The Zone Director 5000 and a broad range of Zone Flex access points, Zone Switches, point-to-point and multi-point Wi-Fi bridges, and the FlexMaster MMS management system. The Ruckus Wireless Zone Director 3000 (ZD3000) and Zone Director 5000 (ZD5000 are said to be the first WLAN controllers to uniquely combine power, simplicity and scalability into an affordable system. The ZD5000 manages up to 1,000 Zone Flex Smart Wi-Fi access points simultaneously from a single location, supporting up to 20,000 clients and 2048 WLANs. The ZD3000 and ZD5000 both integrate the Ruckus Smart/OS application engine that delivers smart wireless meshing, high availability, hot spot authentication, elegant guest networking, and dynamic Wi-Fi security.

SafeNet secures the cloud SafeNet has announced new cloud functionality for its SafeWord 2008 strong authentication management platform. SafeWord 2008, which has become known as one of the simplest OTP authentication platforms to deploy, integrate and manage, now includes identity federation and single sign-on (SSO) capabilities for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, including Salesforce.com and Google Apps. As key solutions in SafeNet’s cloud security portfolio, both of SafeNet’s authentication management platforms, SafeNet Authentication Manager (SAM) and SafeWord 2008, now enable customers to seamless extend enterprise identities to SaaS-based applications. SafeWord 2008, along with SafeNet Authentication Manager (SAM), now provides a seamless and extensible strong authentication and SSO experience for customers accessing SaaS-based applications. By federating an enterprise user identity via Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), SafeNet’s authentication management platforms now enable organizations to leverage existing infrastructure, and allow users to have the same login credentials for both on-premise and cloud-based applications. This extension of SafeNet’s authentication management platforms to accommodate both on-premise and cloud-based applications is significant for customers who are making the move to the cloud, or planning for a future infrastructure that includes cloud-based or virtual environments, says the company.

Ruckus says its Wi-Fi systems are designed to minimize cost while maximizing the number of users with uninterrupted wireless connections. Ruckus technology is easily configured through a point-and-click web wizard so that enterprises with limited IT staff and tight budgets can create secure wireless LAN (WLAN).

A unified platform that includes features such as SSO allows users to log on to enterprise and cloud-based applications with the same set of credentials. This simplifies and accelerates the log-on process for end users, and supports customer goals of driving down costs and better utilization of resources through central management of operations by IT staff. Administrators no longer need to manage several sets of entitlements or credentials for disparate systems and applications, which also improves the process of attestation for both regulatory and internal policy compliance.

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November 2011 Network World Middle East 57

layer 8 Harward, MIT to New copper theft get shots at Watson foil: Bust the drivers I

BM is taking its Watson supercomputer on the road and its first stop will be Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management where some of the country’s brightest upcoming business minds will take their shots at the smart Big Blue computer. Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management are the first two business schools where IBM will co-host what it calls a Watson symposium. Today’s symposium will include teams of students competing against Watson in an exhibition game of Jeopardy! Watson earlier this year beat its human counterparts on the Jeopardy! show. Watson understands the meaning and context of human language, can analyse data and learn correlations between data. The technology introduces the capability to sift through an equivalent of about 1 million books or roughly 200 million pages of data to provide instant answers to questions posed to it, IBM stated.

Can humans alter climate change?

an humans change the course of the environment? Seems like a stretch in many cases but scientists continue to look into the possibility of controlling greenhouse gases and reversing some of the toll of global warming. One of the topics being explored is controlling the effects of solar radiation, according to a release on new research into the

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ith news today that copper prices are on the rise again - up 7% to $3.45 a pound, in over a month - law enforcement officials are looking for new ways to put a crimp in copper and metal thefts that continue to plague almost every community in the US. Clearwater, Florida police this week announced one new plan that targets any vehicles carrying large loads of metal. Called operation “Cold Steal,” police say they will require the person in possession of the metal must be able to account for where they got it. If they can’t, they could be subject to arrest and the property seized. “If you’re toting a large load of metal or air conditioning parts in your vehicle and you’re headed to a recycling center, you better be able to tell us how you got it and from where. We see too many people who cannot account for their metal cargo and that is no longer an acceptable excuse,” said Clearwater Police Chief Anthony Holloway in a release. In Clearwater, metal and air conditioner condenser thefts continue to rise, with 145 reported cases so far this year. This amounts to a 254% increase in metal thefts from 2010 and a 480% increase from 2009.

topic from Carnegie Institution for Science. Ideas for solar radiation management include increasing the amount of aerosols in the stratosphere, which could scatter incoming solar heat away from Earth’s surface, or creating low-altitude marine clouds to reflect these same rays. Clearly the size of the scale and the intricacies of the many atmospheric and climate processes make testing these ideas difficult, Carnegie stated. “While it is clearly premature to consider testing solar radiation management at a scale large enough to measure the climate response, it is not premature to understand what we can learn from such tests,” said Doug MacMynowski of the California Institute of Technology, who led the research. “But we did not address other important questions such as the necessary testing technology and the social and political implications of such tests.”

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HUAWEI AR G3 Access Router

Multi-core support for superior access performance.

60 Network World Middle East November 2011