Reseller Middle East

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ISSUE 196 // APRIL 2013 WWW.RESELLERME.COM

NEW BEGINNINGS

HP’s Eyad Shihabi on going back to the vendor’s roots in order to safeguard a bright new future.

VENDOR FOCUS

HOT PRODUCTS

PARTNER WATCH

EMC’s new partner programme, which is taking the channel by storm

Seagate’s new Wireless Plus carves a new niche in the extenal hard drive market

Cerebra Middle East on storage and data centre infrastructure

T H E C LO U D H A N G I N G O V E R T H E C H A N N E L

RIDING THE ENTERPRISE MOBILITY WAVE

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Mindware FZ LLC I Tecom – Cayan Business Center I Dubai, UAE P.O. Box: 55609 I T.: 04 450 0600 I E: dell@mindware.ae I W: www.mindware.ae © 2012 Dell Products. Dell, the Dell logo and Latitude are registered or unregistered trade marks of Dell Inc. in the United States and other countries. Intel, the Intel Logo, Intel Inside, Intel Core, and Core Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Windows and the Windows logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks or trade names may be used in this document to refer to third-party products (such as operating systems and software) included with the products offered by Dell and the entities claiming the marks and names of those products. Dell disclaims proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. [Dell Corporation Ltd, Dell House, The Boulevard, Cain Road, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 1LF.

CONTENTS ISSUE 196 // APRIL 2013

HIGHLIGHTS 6

COVER FEATURE

News We help you catch up on all the major news and announcements in the regional channel community.

ANALYSIS 16

The next frontier At the Cisco Connect conference in Dubai, Cisco offered a glimpse into a fantastical world of next-generation technologies, urging the UAE to be bold in its innovations.

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Going big on big data At its first Middle East partner conference in Dubai, CommVault showed its partners that big data provides a host of new opportunities as does the firm’s new Simpana 10.

Year of change and transformation?

PARTNER WATCH 28

Primed for growth Despite being a new entrant to the regional value-distribution landscape, Cerebra Middle East is ramping up fast to cash in on the opportunities around storage and data centre infrastructure. We speak to Asit Ahuja, Director and CEO.

FEATURE 30

The mobility wave Mobility is sweeping across the enterprises in the Middle East, creating bright opportunities for a channel reeling under pressure on account of wafer-thin margins in other IT solution areas.

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Back to the start Eyad Shihabi, HP’s Middle East Managing Director, on how retracing steps to provide the spark needed to launch HP into the future.

HOT PRODUCTS Canon PowerShot N

Acer Aspire ZC-605

Up in the clouds Cloud is one of the hottest topics of the industry, and the channel is struggling to understand what the real impact of it could be. Many worry that the cloud might severely impact the channel’s traditional revenue streams, but there are opportunities to be found. We explore what these could be.

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EDITORIAL Publisher Dominic De Sousa Group COO Nadeem Hood

EDITORIAL

The next big thing

Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan jeevan@cpidubai.com +971 4 4409109 Contributing Editors Ben Rossi Joe Lipscombe Online Editor Tom Paye

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There has been a lot of buzz around enterprise mobility lately.

Though we have been talking about it for ages now, mobility hasn’t really caught on in enterprises in the region, mainly due to the security implications. But things are starting to change this year. The steady influx of smartphones and tablets coupled with increasing bandwidth availably is creating a perfect storm for enterprise mobility.

A recent State of Mobility survey from Symantec puts companies into two buckets – innovators who are embracing mobility to reap the benefits and traditional ones who are still slow to adopt. The survey says 84 percent of innovators are moving ahead with mobility, and among them, 50 percent more employees are using smartphones for business.

Most of the enterprise vendors are now porting their apps onto mobile platforms and going by the popularity of CRM tools such as Salesforce on mobile devices. This trend is likely to continue to give the workforce the freedom to handle critical tasks on the go, and in real time.

But, on the flip side, mobility has added to the complexity of IT architecture, which in turn, has created opportunities for the channel in the areas of security, unified communications and wireless LANs. The industry experts almost unanimously agree that security is indeed a big opportunity for the channel as organisations look for ways to control and monitor the information accessed via mobile devices.

The research firm Canalys says security is not the only area where partners can cash in on. While the adoption of smartphones and tablets is cannibalising the PC market, the same trend is driving wireless LAN upgrades. Canalys says WLAN is becoming the primary data access network, as new mobile devices lack fixed Ethernet port devices, and needs significant capacity upgrades to cater to increasing traffic and density of devices.

I feel mobile device management is another area which remains largely untapped. There are solutions available now to address the challenges related to device diversity, security of corporate data and real-time management features that span the entire device lifecycle.

The attractive ROI of MDM solutions makes a compelling business case for enterprises and is an ideal stepping stone for channel partners to lay the foundation, and sell broader mobile solutions to their customers.

Registered at IMPZ PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 4 447 2409 Printed by Printwell Printing Press © Copyright 2013 CPI All rights reserved While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.

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HIGHLIGHTS News

Huawei signs Optimus as VAD

Meera Kaul, Managing Director, Optimus

Optimus Technology and Telecommunications has signed a value-added distribution agreement with Huawei that will see Optimus promote and distribute Huawei’s enterprise products for networking, unified communications (UC) and security.

The agreement will expand Huawei’s

channel network across the GCC region, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq, Optimus said, adding that it will conduct regular marketing and channel development activities to help increase the vendor’s regional market share.

“The partnership is very important for Optimus as Huawei brings a complete range

of technology for business across industries to help fulfil customers’ IT requirements,” said Meera Kaul, Managing Director, Optimus.

“The addition of Huawei to our product portfolio enhances our overall offering enabling us to provide a comprehensive and complete solution to our partners and customers.”

Kaul added that Optimus plans to position Huawei with various complementary offerings from other vendors.

Huawei’s enterprise products include solutions for data centres, cloud computing, enterprise networking and wireless, as well as UC, video conferencing and telepresence solutions. To help sell the solutions more effectively, Optimus will purvey training, certification, skills development and consultancy to its channel.

The distributor will also offer value-added services such as marketing and pre- and postsale support through Optimus 360.

“Optimus, a reputed VAD in this region, has the experience, market knowledge, expertise and a solid channel base, which makes it an ideal distributor for our world-class enterprise products,” said Dong Wu, Vice-President, Huawei Enterprise Business Middle East.

“Huawei will continue to invest in training, motivating and incentivising partners, so they are well-equipped to represent our enterprise products to their customers and prospects.”

Computerlinks winds down Kasperksy relationship Computerlinks has announced that it will be winding down its relationship with Kaspersky Lab, effective immediately.

The decision comes as Computerlinks expands its operations across the Middle East and India, reflecting a difference in the two companies’ market strategies.

“We have great respect for the Kaspersky Lab technology, and have represented them in a long-standing relationship.

Unfortunately in order to be most effective and service our

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vendor and channel partners, we occasionally need to prioritise and make strategic decisions such as this one,” said Lee Reynolds, Managing Director, Computerlinks Middle East and APAC. “It’s never easy but in the long-term interests of both companies, it’s the best plan moving forward into 2013.”

Computerlinks already represents McAfee and has recently expanded its operations with the vendor, as well as signing with a new vendor, Sophos.

Lee Reynolds, Managing Director, Computerlinks Middle East and APAC

GBM awarded Cisco customer satisfaction gold star Gulf Business Machines (GBM) has been awarded a Customer Satisfaction Excellence Gold Star from Cisco.

The star recognises GBM for delivering outstanding customer service in the GCC, the systems integrator said.

“Providing the best solutions for our customer is of paramount importance to us at GBM, and our partnership with Cisco strengthens our ability to do so,” said Hani Nofal, Director of Intelligent Network Solutions, GBM. “We value our relationship and are grateful to have received the Customer Satisfaction Excellence Gold Star, the highest distinction a partner can achieve within the Cisco Channel.”

Cisco measures customer satisfaction levels achieved by its Gold, Silver and Premier-certified partners based on regional target goals, providing a weighted average of a partner’s pre- and post-sales support over a rolling 12-month period.

Partners that achieve outstanding customer satisfaction are awarded the Customer Satisfaction Excellence Gold Star, and can be found using the advanced search menu in the Cisco Partner Locator.

The award is part of the Cisco Resale Channel Programme, which provides a framework for partners to build the sales, technical and Cisco Lifecycle Services skills that are required to deliver Cisco solutions to end-customers.

Westcon named Motorola distributor of the year

Westcon Group was recently named Motorola Solutions’ EMEA Distributor of the Year 2012 at the vendor’s 2013 Executive Partner Conference.

The award was granted in recognition of outstanding performance across the year.

It was also one of only 13 companies in the EMEA region to receive an award at the annual conference.

The winners successfully achieved a key performance benchmark in 2012, such as the highest-percentage revenue growth over plan, the most innovative solution, the greatest year-over-year revenue growth, or the highest percentage growth within a peer group.

“The Motorola Solutions partner awards

are an opportunity to recognise the best work that our channel partners deliver to customers.

Hailing from every part of our region, winners share an exceptional ability to understand customers’ needs, build relationships and deliver top-quality solutions,” said Marco Landi, Vice President of Channels, Motorola Solutions EIA. James Saldanha, Divisional Director of Infrastructure and Mobility Division, Westcon Middle East, said, “Motorola’s innovative products are an integral part of our networking and enterprise mobility solutions portfolio. Our partnership with them has been mutually beneficial, which is why we have strived to position ourselves as the leading regional distributor for their device, network and software solutions.

“We are extremely happy to have won the EMEA distributor of the year award, which is in recognition of our efforts and dedication, valuable support from our channel and alignment with the Motorola EMEA team.”

Hani Nofal, Director of Intelligent Network Solutions, GBM Through the programme’s specialisations and certifications, Cisco recognises a partner’s expertise in deploying solutions based on Cisco advanced technologies and services. Using a third-party audit process, the programme validates partner qualifications such as technology skills, business best practices, customer satisfaction and pre-sales and post-sales support capabilities.

Lexmark holds workshop for Omani resellers Lexmark Middle East recently held a seminar and workshop for resellers based in Oman.

Designed to familiarise Omani channel partners with the latest product lines, upcoming product launches and service and maintenance issues, the event drew in 30 partners from across the Sultanate.

Delegates were trained by Nawal Khan, Middle East Sales Manager, Lexmark, on various aspects of what makes up a successful partnership.

Product launches, corporate value propositions, services and hands-on demonstrations were all covered.

“Lexmark invests a lot into our relationship with our channel partners in the region,” said Mathias Militzer, General Manager, Lexmark Middle East.

“Workshops like these play a significant role in spreading awareness about our latest offerings as well as improving communications channels.”

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HIGHLIGHTS News

D-Link holds annual partner awards in Dubai D-Link MEA recently held its annual partner awards ceremony in Dubai, where important partners from the retail sector and the channel were awarded for the contributions to D-Link’s growth during 2012, the networking specialist said.

Categories at the awards ceremony included best partner, SMB products, highest growth, longest partnership and top performer. Retail partners were also given awards in such categories as best in-store display and promotions, fastest-growing power retailer, best power retailer, fastest-growing hypermarket, and best hypermarket.

One of the night’s biggest highlights came from the prizegiving ceremony of D-Link’s Dollar Promotion, a popular programme among the vendor’s regional channel partners.

D-Link gave away a number of gifts during this ceremony, including a 55-inch Panasonic LED 3DTV, two Philips LED 3DTVs, a MacBook Pro, a holiday trip for two worth Dh10,000, three gold vouchers worth Dh20,000 each, a Toyota Yaris, two Mitsubishi Pajeros, two Mercedes-Benz C200s and one Chevrolet Spark.

“2012 has been a great year determined by significant growth for D-Link,” said Sakkeer Hussain, Sales and Marketing Manager, D-Link MEA. “Despite the challenges in the region with currency fluctuations and political instabilities, we are very blessed to have reached a solid growth within the UAE. Our partners’ drive and commitment is the key to D-Link’s success and the objective of our rewarding ceremony is to let them know that they have done an incredible job last year.”

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Logicom fine-tunes management structure ICT distributor Logicom Dubai has restructured its management team by way of internal promotions and a new appointment.

The distributor said that Sajith Raj had been appointed to the role of Regional Distribution and Sales Manager, and Ahmed Diab, who was formally Logicom KSA’s Business Unit Manager for Cisco, will become Business Development Manager for Iraq. The company also announced the appointment of Emma Millar, the firm’s new Regional Marketing Manager.

Raj’s new role will include taking on additional responsibilities for vendor relationships, business growth and customer satisfaction across Logicom Dubai’s region. He will also be

responsible for new vendor market opportunities, the distributor said.

Diab’s appointment, meanwhile, speaks of Logicom’s commitment to the Iraqi market, the firm said.

Diab will be based between Erbil and Dubai, and will have responsibility for channel development, expanding the portfolio of vendors in the Iraqi market, profitable growth and customer satisfaction in the country. Diab will also establish Logicom’s office and warehouse in Erbil.

Millar will oversee the marketing function for all of Logicom Dubai’s regional markets, Logicom said.

She will be responsible for developing the Logicom brand, corporate communication and vendor co-marketing activities. Millar

has five years in marketing experience, and her previous role involved ICT distribution in the Middle East.

“We are excited with these developments and the addition of new members in our key management team,” said Demetris Demetriou, General Manager, Logicom Dubai.

“We are confident that the promotion of Sajith and the new additions of Ahmed and Emma in our Logicom Dubai team will enhance our strength in the distribution landscape and will assist Logicom and its vendors to implement effectively our long-term plans.”

Logicom said that the new appointments proved that it is investing in key personnel to grow and enhance its business in the region.

Eros group opens 32nd retail store in UAE

Deepak Babani, CEO, Eros

Eros Group recently opened its 32nd retail store in the UAE, making the group the widest retail network in the country.

The new store is located in Dubai Mall, the largest shopping mall in the world. Eros said that it is located on level two, in the electronics section.

“It’s a pleasure to announce the opening of our 32nd store in the UAE – we have brought the brand closer to the consumers with a new store in the prestigious Dubai Mall,” said Deepak Babani, CEO, Eros, who added that the group is looking into diversifying into different sectors.

“We are also in the final stages of entering into non-electronics sectors. This will help us deliver more options to our customers and service them better,” he said.

Eros Group distributes Samsung AV and Mobiles, Hitachi’s entire consumer electronics range, TCL flat panels, Sonos, BenQ flat panels, Candy appliances and Lenox, among a large number of other brands.

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HIGHLIGHTS News

DISTREE Middle East dates announced

Farouk Hemraj, CEO and Co-Founder, DISTREE Events DISTREE has announced the dates of its upcoming Middle East event, and invited senior executives from leading ICT and ICE retailers in Africa, Turkey and CIS states to participate, along with the usual Middle Eastern suspects.

DISTREE said that the inclusion of these new areas will open up channel growth opportunities in fast-growing markets for exhibitors attending.

The event itself will be held from May 21 to 23 at Abu Dhabi’s Fairmont Bab Al Bahr Hotel.

“The expansion of the retailer delegate base to cover the entire Middle East, Turkey, Africa and CIS (METACIS) region reflects the changing way that vendors are approaching and managing retail channels in this region,” said Farouk Hemraj, CEO and Co-Founder, DISTREE Events.

“With a structured agenda based on prescheduled one-to-one meetings, this year’s event offers a powerful channel platform for ICT and CE vendors and distributors looking to expand, manage or build new routes to market in this fast-growing region.”

DISTREE Middle East attracts more than 600 senior executives each year, and is focused on business-to-business interaction between vendors, distributors and retailers.

“DISTREE Middle East allows delegates to schedule meaningful meetings with senior channel executives that align with their immediate business objectives,” Hemraj added. “It is a ‘must-attend’ event for senior retail channel executives in the region. There are no consumers and no distractions. The even offers three days of meetings and networking opportunities in a professional and business-focused environment.”

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EMPA appointed as Huawei’s master disti EMPA Middle East, one of the principal IT distributors in the MENA region, recently signed another major vendor into its portfolio by acquiring the distribution rights for the full enterprise range of Huawei’s networking, Unified Communications, IT infrastructure, and security solutions across the entire GCC region including Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, UAE, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Nicholas Argyrides, Managing Director at EMPA Middle East, commented, “I can comfortably say that this agreement epitomises

our efforts for expanding EMPA’s operations into the enterprise sector – a vision we have been intensely working towards since early 2012. The Huawei name requires no introduction and we are nothing less than proud of being associated with a manufacturer of such magnitude and industry influence. We are confident that the collective investment with our new business-partner will bring fruits to everyone across the regional channel – sooner rather than later. Truly exciting times indeed.”

Dong Wu, Vice President at HUAWEI Enterprise Middle

East added, “The partnership with EMPA represents our commitment in providing leading ICT solutions to our valued customers in the GCC channel. It is our belief that Huawei’s enterprise solutions together with EMPA’s customer-centric approach will be the driving force behind technical innovations, global competitiveness and business mobility in the region. The Huawei Channel Program has been growing at a rapid pace since its inception in 2012 and we are positive that our cooperation with EMPA will help take it to the next level.”

Logicom, NetApp in distribution pact

Michael Papaeracleous, Executive Director of Distribution, Logicom Logicom recently signed a partnership agreement with NetApp. The agreement, effective as of March 2013, names Logicom as an official distributor of NetApp products and solutions across a select geography of countries in EMEA, including Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait,

Oman, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Michael Papaeracleous, Executive Director of Distribution at Logicom, said, “We are excited to have entered into this partnership with NetApp in so many of our markets. As NetApp is a leader in Data Management and Enterprise Storage, Logicom is thus significantly enhancing our value proposition for our partners in the region. With this agreement, we believe we are very well positioned to address significant, untapped potential we see in the markets served. We are very confident that our partnership will accelerate business for both NetApp

and Logicom”.

Konstantin Ebert, Director Channels and Alliances, EMEA Emerging Markets, at NetApp, added, “Business demands are changing fast and IT infrastructures need to adapt more quickly to new applications and solutions.

Logicom builds on a strong, value added distribution expertise and is the perfect match to support our joint ambitions in the market. We see a high demand from customers in finance, public, oil and gas as well as the commercial sectors and will be supporting Logicom as it builds and develops a successful reseller network that takes the NetApp data management solutions to end users in the region.”

HIGHLIGHTS News

Mahindra Satyam aims rapid growth in ME Mahindra Satyam has announced its intent to pursue rapid growth from Australia, New Zealand (ANZ) and the Middle East markets under the newly formed leadership team, comprising industry veterans with proven track record in business expansion, large deal pursuit and strategic collaboration.

Bobby Gupta will take over as Head of ANZ operations after successfully transforming the MENA operations, building a world-class team and capabilities. His dynamic leadership a MENA resulted in a series of new logo wins, big deals, and opening up of new geographical markets. Bobby had studied & worked in Australia for several years and joined Mahindra Satyam from IBM in 2009. In his new role in ANZ, he will be tasked with building on one of the largest English-speaking markets for Mahindra Satyam which has substantive presence.

Replacing Bobby in MENA is G. B. Kumar, an IT industry veteran with 20-plus years in product and services, sales, marketing, business and solution development across Asia Pacific, India, Japan and China. In his previous role, Kumar led Asia Pacific, Japan and China as Managing Director for Enterprise Services for Cisco Systems. In this new role, he will be responsible to grow the company’s revenues to contribute to the bigger target of $5 billion by 2015.

Mahindra Satyam earns 24 percent of its revenues from the rest of the world market, which comprises the geographies Australia, New Zealand, Middle East and other geographies in Asia and Africa. With good traction seen in BFSI, Manufacturing, Resources, Airlines, Government, the company aims to grow rapidly with the new leadership change.

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Samsung signs Mitsumi as pan-African distributor Samsung Electronics Africa has signed up Mitsumi as the official distributor for all Samsung IT products, across sub-Saharan Africa.

Thierry Boulanger, Director for IT Solutions and B2B at Samsung Electronics Africa, said, “This partnership agreement is a first of its kind for us and certainly speaks to our continued investment in, and commitment to our African customers. This agreement not only enables

us to expend our logistical footprint, but leverage on an established African distributor and support network.”

Through this partnership agreement, Mitsumi will deliver the full suite of Samsung IT consumer and business solutions to the market.

Mitesh Shah, Managing Director at Mitsumi, said, “As one of the leading African distributors we understand the broader African continent and

hold a viable expertise, having been in operation for 17 years across 19 African countries.

We intricately understand how to cost-effectively support the technology needs of end users of all sizes, including smalland medium-sized businesses, large enterprises, educational institutions, government agencies, and consumers and certainly see this partnership with Samsung as an opportunity to continue our growth across the continent.”

Redington to distribute VMware in Africa Redington Value, the value-added distribution division of Redington Gulf, has been appointed as a VMware distributor in WECA, marking a significant drive by the leader in virtualisation and cloud solutions into the African continent.

As a value-added distributor, Redington Gulf currently has a distribution chain that serves resellers throughout Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Central African Republic, Congo, Congo (DRC), Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.

“The WECA region has been an area of tremendous growth for VMware and Redington’s appointment will fuel this growth, adding valuable support to the partner channel and subsequently to customers in the region,” said Chris Norton, Regional Director Southern Africa, VMware. “We believe that through their efforts in taking our solutions to and developing skills in the African market, the company will bring the reality of the software-defined data centre, hybrid computing and end-user computing to the region.

With six physical offices across the region, the company has one of the most diverse reaches in Africa. In addition to its experienced and capable operations, as well as its pre-sales skills and marketing abilities, Redington emerged as an ideal candidate to be a distribution partner for VMware. The partnership is a result of a

Ramkumar B., Vice President, Redington Gulf Value Division

thorough evaluation process where a number of well-known distributors in the region were required to tender.

“Redington Value Distribution has been focusing on providing converged infrastructure solutions to our partners in East and West Africa,” said Ramkumar B., Vice President, Redington Gulf Value Division. “It is with this that we have implemented initiatives towards building a team to support the channel and also align with leading technology vendors in the space of converged infrastructure.

“The addition of VMware will help us to support our channel not only by complementing our converged infrastructure offering, but also by helping complete our overall enterprise software and datacentre virtualisation offering,” added Ramkumar.

EMEA server revenue decline decelerates in Q4 According to the latest EMEA Server Tracker from IDC, factory revenue in the EMEA server market reached $3.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012, a decrease of 7.4 percent when compared with the same quarter of 2011. This rate of decline was slightly softer than in the previous quarter when revenue was down 10.4 percent. Q4 2012 shipments reached 569,000 units, for an annual decline of 11.1 percent. The quarter-on-quarter performance displayed a different landscape with double-digit growth in the value area and revenue up 32.2 percent with shipments growing by a more subdued 8.2 percent. This roughly reflected seasonality trends.

The x86 server segment remained the main growth engine, with revenue of $2.6 billion, down 4.9 percent annually and equivalent to 68.7 percent of the total market (a decline in market share from the previous quarter, when x86 systems reached 76.4 percent of the total server value market in EMEA). Industry standard servers also suffered a decline in volumes, with shipments down 10.8

percent annually.

Non-x86 sales fared a bit better in Q4 2012 with revenue slightly above the $1 billion mark despite annual declines of 12.5 percent, which was nevertheless a softer decrease than in 3Q12 when the technology was down 20.3 percent year on year. Although the signs of moderate recovery in the non-x86 market must be put in the context of seasonality factors — the last quarter of the year has historically been the strongest for legacy sales — there is no doubt that this shows a more balanced outlook partly due to CPU refresh cycles hitting some of the major platforms, specifically mainframes.

“After three quarters of dollar revenue declines of around 11 percent, the market showed a little stabilisation, thanks mostly to a more favourable comparison to Q4 2011 and a cyclical rise in mainframe sales,” said Giorgio Nebuloni, research manager, Enterprise Server Group, IDC EMEA. “The picture for the full 2012 was nevertheless negative, with a 10 percent yearly decline in dollars and -3 percent in euros.

Volumes remained under considerable pressure

in 2012, down 7 percent yearly, as consolidation and macroeconomic factors took their toll.

Blades declined 6.3 percent annually, as the technology matures and after reaching $730.5 million in sales. Density optimised servers enjoyed strong annual increases of 79.5 percent, and overtook the $100 million mark after reaching $107.9 million.

“The share of modular servers has declined in the EMEA region compared with Q3 2012,” said Andreas Olah, Research Analyst, Enterprise Server Group, IDC EMEA. “The number of blades has only slightly grown, while a drop in density optimised server shipments has been observed, with the sharpest drop in Germany and Ireland. This is not surprising, considering that Q3 included some large one-off supercomputing projects such as SuperMUC, which relied mainly on density optimised servers. At the same time modular server shipments increased in Spain, the Netherlands, Finland, and France, which has mainly been driven by hosters and service providers investing in new data centres.”

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info@spectrami.com www.spectrami.com APRIL 2013

Reseller Middle East

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HIGHLIGHTS News

Jumbo receives Sony award for service excellence

UAE-based retailer Jumbo Electronics has been awarded by Sony for service excellence. The award recognises the best in the industry for its consistent commitment to high quality customer service while supporting after sales service, call centre, delivery and installation, among other channel partner services.

Jaishankar Krishnan Nair, Head of Jumbo Service, said, “We are honoured to have received the Service Excellence Award by SOMEA (Sony Middle East and Africa). This award recognises our commitment towards customer service across the Jumbo network. In order to reinforce our customer focus, we will shortly launch a customer survey campaign in partnership with SOMEA at all customers touch points.

This exercise will enable us to get an in-depth understanding of all customer needs and expectations and further help us align our process and service deliveries in the right channel.”

The Jumbo service centre located at Jebel Ali is ISO certified and offers services to various brands across categories. The 800JUMBO customer support number operates out of this service centre and receives in excess of 10,000 calls each month. The nature of these calls varies from product information and to after sales support.

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Belkin completes Linksys acquisition Belkin has announced the completion of its acquisition of Linksys. Linksys’ technologies, including its routers and the popular and innovative Smart Wi-Fi portfolio and services, will be managed and maintained as a separate brand and product portfolio.

“Linksys has a rich heritage, a passionate customer base and a wide product line, all of which fuelled our decision to acquire the company and our plan to maintain the Linksys brand,” said Chet Pipkin, CEO, Belkin. “The Linksys portfolio will continue to exist and evolve to include even richer user experiences and network management functionality.

Smart Wi-Fi is an innovative and easy way for consumers to stay connected to their home network and we look to continue investing in it by adding more features and products.“

Linksys customers and retailers will continue to see new Linksys products come to market in the near future, starting with several announcements in the spring time frame. By maintaining the Belkin and Linksys brands in home networking, Belkin aims to address a broader range of consumers with distinct networking solutions and will create the premier ecosystem for mobile devices and homes.

Support for Linksys products remains available through the existing Linksys support channels. For service,

Linksys customers should go to the support page on the Linksys website. All valid warranties will be honored.

“A lot of exciting things are happening in today’s connected lifestyle segment, and we are honored to continue the Linksys brand and enable new connected experiences,” added Pipkin.

“Linksys and Belkin are now one team. We are ready to do fantastic things as a team and deliver products that delight consumers and support the increasingly connected, mobile world.”

Middle East IT spending to reach $192.9bn in 2013: Gartner Middle East IT spending is projected to total $192.9 billion in 2013, a 5.5 percent increase from 2012, according to the latest forecast

by Gartner.

According to the forecast, Middle East device spending is forecast to reach $29.6 billion in 2013, up 7.7 percent from 2012.

“Devices are represented by mobile phones, media tablets, PCs, and printers, with mobile phones excelling with more than 14 percent spending growth in 2013,” Sondergaard said. “Mobile phone sales between 2013 and 2016 are forecast to increase 64 percent, reaching $32.7 billion.

“IT demand is quite selective in large ME organisations. We expect strong IT demand from vertical industries like banking and government in 2013. As the Gulf economies continues to develop the non-

oil GDP part of the economies, increased reliance on information technology will happen to spur this growth. A detailed understanding of vendor offerings and user needs are critical to fulfilling business needs.

“The growing young population in the gulf region will drive the need for technologies around the Nexus. The Nexus of Focus, the intersection of cloud, mobile, social and information, changes the approach to IT. Across the region every budget will become an IT budget.”

In 2013, Middle East software spending is forecast to grow 7.1 percent over 2012, the report states, attributing the drivers of this segment to key markets such as security, storage management, and customer relationship management.

Breathe easy. Partner with Redington Value.

Redington Value is an end-to-end value-added distributor in Middle East and Africa. It assists value-added resellers with most optimal IT solutions across technology domains such as Unified Communications, Virtualization and Cloud Computing, Converged Infrastructure, End-to-end security, Mobility Solutions, Power Solutions, Cabling Solutions, Storage, Back-up and Recovery. They are also supported with in-house pre-sales expertise and regular sales/technical training and programs.

For more information, contact sales.value@redingtongulf.com Some recent recognitions:

Avaya

Distributor of the Year 2012

Dell SonicWall

Distributor of the Year 2012

Red Hat

Value Added Distributor of the Year 2012

Redington Value is a value-added distributor for the following brands in parts of Middle East and Africa:

Trend Micro

Distributor of the Year 2012

ANALYSIS Cisco Connect

Rabih Dabboussi, Managing Director, Cisco UAE

THE NEXT FRONTIER At the Cisco Connect conference in Dubai, Cisco offered a glimpse into a fantastical world of next-generation technologies, urging the UAE to be bold in its innovations.

Following its Cisco Live event in London, Cisco has been on something of a world tour, and arrived at Dubai’s Atlantis hotel for Cisco Connect UAE in March.

To call Cisco Connect a scaleddown version of the enormous Cisco Live conference would be unfair. Yes, some elements of the Dubai-based event were lifted from Cisco Live – such as the demonstration of the firm’s new Unified Access innovations – but it would be more accurate to describe Cisco Connect as a localised version of the big event.

The show began with a heart-tugging film about the UAE’s enormous growth over a short period, featuring interviews with local citizens all too happy to sing the country’s

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praises. The discussion focused on the UAE’s willingness to adopt cutting-edge technology, which, in turn, helps the country grow at a much faster rate than would be possible in mature markets.

“We are witnessing a paradigm shift and a global transformation in everything we do,” said Rabih Dabboussi, Managing Director, Cisco UAE, following the introductory video.

“The main ingredients driving this change focus on technology. I can’t think of a better community than the one in this room to lead

the nation into the future.”

For a glimpse into what the future holds, Dabboussi handed the stage to Howard Charney, Senior Vice President, Office of the President, Cisco. As a co-inventor of Ethernet, his work led directly to the global build-out of the Internet, making him something of a technological hero.

Charney began by speaking about the Internet of everything, a situation that could see every device hooked up online, communicating with one another and taking action without the need for human intervention. Cisco predicts that 50 billion devices will be connected by 2020, though, Charney admitted, the world has a way to go yet.

“While we may feel all wired up, everything that is connected today is just 1 percent of what could be connected,” he said.

“The value at stake, the bottom-line revenue, could be up to $14.4 trillion worldwide over the next 10 years – just in the private sector.

However, I’m a cynic and I’m also an engineer, so I’ve been looking for proof that the Internet of everything will be transformative.”

He then described the fascinating developments that are taking place around the world. From a $5 million project by NICTA, Australia’s ICT Research Centre of Excellence, to the use big data in order to determine the source of geothermal energy to the Danish government’s adoption of video-calling in order to provide government advice to citizens in far-flung regions, Charney catalogued fantastic applications for emerging technologies.

Whether or not the Middle East will one day contribute to the advancement of technology as a whole remains to be seen, but given by the way in which the UAE audience lapped up these two presentations, it would seem that the country’s brightest are willing to try. And Cisco made clear that it wanted to help. //

“I can’t think of a better community than the one in this room to lead the nation into the future.”

ANALYSIS CommVault Partner Conference

GOING BIG ON BIG DATA At its first Middle East Partner Conference in Dubai, CommVault showed its partners that big data provides a host of opportunities – as does the firm’s new Simpana 10 solution.

CommVault Systems hosted its inaugural Middle East Partner Conference on March 20 and 21, 2013 at the Meydan Hotel, Meydan Racecourse, Dubai. The company set out to educate partners about the latest release of its singular data management software platform, Simpana 10, and outline the role of the channel in the company’s strategy, product sales, business development and marketing initiatives for 2013.

Ahead of the event, Martin Gibbons, Director of Channel, EMEA at CommVault Systems said, “The Middle East continues to be an interesting and rewarding region for our business thanks to the emergence of the big data trend among enterprises in the region and the consequent growing demand for modern data management solutions. Building a strong and competent partner base to service these demands is vital to our strategy for the region, which is why partner enablement will be the focus of this event.”

Present at the event were CommVault’s top regional sales, marketing and channel

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executives, who engaged with attending partners. The event also featured sales academies, technical tracks and live demonstrations.

“Over the course of the two days, we will deliver a number of sessions aimed at raising awareness about the new version of our product, strengthening partner ties though interaction and feedback and driving sales strategies,” said Fiona Moon, Marketing Director, EMEA at CommVault, ahead of the event.

CommVault was hoping to enable enterprises to take an exponential leap forward in protecting and managing their data at scale, creating value from information and improving access with the release of Simpana 10. The brand new solution extends CommVault’s data protection and archiving leadership to deliver secure, self-service access from mobile devices, speed the adoption of cloud computing and extract value from big data. For the first time, employees across the enterprise – not just IT managers – can easily repurpose data under management and quickly search, access,

create information to enable better decision making and collaboration. More than 300 new features in Simpana 10 combine to reduce risk, slash costs by up to half, reduce administrative overhead by up to 80 percent and lower aggregate support costs by up to 35 percent.

According to one partner, Natheer Abu Joudeh, Technical Director, Cell Information Technology, the event was certainly a success.

“I think they did really well to get the brand essentials across,” he told Reseller Middle East after the event’s first day. “There were of course lots of questions about Simpana 10, and the representatives did well to address every question.”

On Simpana 10, Abu Joudeh said that there was plenty to be excited about. “The new solution looks like it has a lot of capabilities,” he explained. “It will be interesting to see customers’ reactions to it, but I think a lot of the partners were excited about it.”

CommVault is attempting to expand across the Middle East, and has grown its offices in Dubai considerably over the past year. //

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ANALYSIS Software piracy

PIRACY STATS WHAT’S UP WITH THAT? The detectives at IDC have been at it again, this time with the compliments of Microsoft, which commissioned a study into pirated and counterfeit software. Findings suggest that pirated software is costing the industry in excess of $114 billion – shocking, right? Joe Lipscombe and Tom Paye go deeper.

On the day the IDC figures were released, Microsoft announced its ‘Play It Safe’ campaign, an initiative aimed at raising awareness for businesses. The main thrust of this campaign, however, was that pirated software opened up businesses to malware-related risks.

What we wonder is whether or not Microsoft was using the threat of malware to encourage a sales boost. And if so, are there better ways to portray the strain that pirated software is putting on the industry?

The tech giant has good reason to show concern for sales. The pirate market is fairly excessive in the Middle East, and, make no mistake, pirate markets are in strict

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competition with distributors.

Business Software Alliance (BSA) statistics showed that some countries in the Middle East and Africa had a pirate software market percentage among the highest in the world, although the UAE was encouragingly low.

Pirated or counterfeit software makes up 86 percent of Iraq’s market, whilst the UAE

records only 37 percent of pirated downloads.

But compare that to the United Kingdom (26 percent) and the USA (19 percent), and the numbers still leave a lot to be desired.

The worldwide average for pirated of counterfeit software stands at 42 percent, however the Middle East and Africa is an alarming 58 percent. Western Europe was

“The 37 percent of pirated software in the UAE is 37 percent loss of business here. That represents $208 million cash flow loss.”

recorded at 32 percent and North America as 19 percent.

“The 37 percent of pirated software in the UAE is 37 percent loss of business here.

That represents $208 million cash flow loss. It affects jobs, revenue and data safety,” says Dinis Coutro, General Manager World Wide Microsoft Anti-Piracy.

“It’s a huge problem for the channel as well, because every time someone goes to the Web to purchase cheap counterfeit software, that’s business being taken away from loyal, honest channel resellers and partners.”

Had Microsoft simply stuck with that message, it would certainly have resonated with the channel, and probably made an impact on end-users, too. Indeed, Microsoft could have come up with data that showed how much it costs for the research and development of its products, stating that the loss of business, ultimately, means less money for investment, and fewer innovations.

But instead, the vendor went with its ‘Play It Safe’ campaign, which was released in tandem with the IDC survey titled ‘The Dangerous World of Counterfeit and Pirated Software.’

“We’re coining the Play It Safe campaign as a way of raising awareness – alerting consumers and businesses who are using pirated software of two things; either that they’re using pirated software knowingly but don’t know about the risks, or that they they’re using pirated software without even knowing it’s pirated in the first place and think there is no risk,” says Coutro.

It’s no secret that many consumers and businesses purchase and download pirated software purposely as a way of saving money, and the survey revealed that 33 percent of the software downloaded by businesses came already infected with viruses such as malware and botnets.

One in three pieces of consumer software was also found to be infected at the time of download and Microsoft says that businesses will spend 1.5 billion hours and $22 billion discovering and repairing infected software in 2013.

Over 2,000 consumers and 250 CIOs in 10 countries were surveyed, as well as websites and peer-to-peer networks being analysed

for dangerous software. Coutro says that 45 percent of pirated software is now downloaded from the internet, 78 percent of which was already infected with viruses.

But the problem seems to be a few layers deeper than this. For example, Yemen recorded an 89 percent market volume of counterfeit software – not a percentage that can be acquired overnight.

So, if 45 percent of Yemen’s 89 percent pirated software market is downloaded from the internet, 78 percent of which is infected with harmful viruses, that equates to around 31 percent of the country being infected.

“What we’re seeing is a new kind of organised crime, one less risky than arms dealing or drug selling – people taking advantage of high quality counterfeit and selling it at discounted prices on peer-to-peer networks or websites,” says Coutro.

“These organised crime units are infecting these pieces of software, selling them at a discounted price and then using methods such as key scanning. The second a business or consumer logs into any sensitive site, such as banking or other, the passwords are all read and the perpetrator has full control of the machine.”

Coutro said that the market is in a “horrific position” when it comes to dealing with pirated software. Many pieces of software now are

extremely high quality and it would take detailed analysis just to recognise if it was counterfeit.

“We work on three fronts to address this; we educate and raise awareness, we engineer our software with unique keys and components which make piracy more difficult, and we also work with local entities to offer expertise for governance and protection,” he said.

As IDC’s numbers suggest, though, Microsoft faces an uphill battle in fixing the problem. What’s interesting is the way that the vendor dressed the report up as looking out for its customers. Perhaps Microsoft really does have its users’ interests at heart, and no doubt there are security risks when it comes to using pirated software. But surely the point should be more pertinent than that.

Pirated software is costing the industry billions every year, and unless something is done to properly tackle it, the companies that create, distribute or resell software are going to lose out. What pirate software users need to realise is that, if this state of affairs continues, there will be nothing decent left to pirate in the first place.

And while Microsoft says that it is playing an awareness campaign on the back of these numbers, it is not beyond reasonable doubt that the firm anticipates to see a little sales push from them, too. //

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OPINION Condo Protego

TO BYOD OR NOT TO BYOD? Andrew Calthrope, CEO, Condo Protego

We love our smartphones and tablets. Never before have we been so in thrall of technology and so dependent on it for day-to-day functions.

Smart devices are no longer accessories; they are veritable life support systems brimming with all the media we need for work and play.

And herein lies the problem for CIOs; employees are so married to their tech that they just cannot let go in the workplace.

This is certainly the case in MENA. The region’s bring your own device (BYOD) alacrity was recently highlighted by a study from networking vendor Aruba Networks, which reported that 80 percent of surveyed companies allowed some form of access to personal devices. In another 2012 study, Fortinet pointed out that 56 percent of respondents in the Middle East considered using their own device as a right rather than a privilege.

There are of course plenty of operational plus points to be had from

Resist or go with the flow? The BYOD boom may bring new security challenges but it is the reluctant businesses that may pay the price, says Condo Protego CEO Andrew Calthorpe. grasping the BYOD nettle. For a start, outlay on smart devices can plummet if workers can use their own.

And they seem to be willing to pay for that convenience - at least up to a point.

According to this year’s State of BYOD Report by Good Technology, 50 per cent of BYOD-supporting companies require that all costs are covered by employees, who are more than willing to comply. The other 50 per cent offer a mixture of options, including the ability to expense certain aspects of use.

Arguably the most important BYOD benefit is worker satisfaction. Juggling multiple phones and tablets is a headache and a proven productivity-killer. For switched-on workers, the thought of being shackled by overly restrictive and inferior technology is always going to be a motivational buzzkill.

BYOD devices are also far more likely to be cutting-edge than those bulk-bought for work, which means businesses can tap into mobile wizardry

“Fortinet pointed out that 56 percent of respondents in the Middle East considered using their own device as a right rather than a privilege.”

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and hardware refresh cycles previously beyond their budgetary realm.

Even so, there is plenty to be wary of before opening the floodgates. This is particularly true in the UAE, which was highlighted by Websense in its recent Threat Report as the sixth most victimised country in EMEA when it comes to cyber attacks.

Lack of control remains the overriding concern. The comfy status quo of company-issued kit and its accompanying tried-and-tested policies just doesn’t exist in a BYOD-friendly environment.

But a more relaxed stance needn’t be the precursor to a malware-infected, SPAM-laden Wild West. With some incisive consultation, a robust BYOD policy can soon transform liability into opportunity.

For the canny VAR, this means there is plenty to get excited about. Who better to support BYOD policy development than the team that has already helped configure the IT architecture?

Then there’s the security solutions themselves. The relentless addition of new devices to networks presents a considerable challenge, but the shift to focus on individual protection is eminently achievable with the right guidance. Applied with precision, the voice of the VARs can - and indeed should - be hugely influential in shaping the region’s BYOD future. //

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COVER STORY HP

BACK TO THE START As the dust begins to settle following arguably HP’s most challenging era, Middle East Managing Director Eyad Shihabi talks to Joe Lipscombe about where the wheels came off, and how retracing the steps back to the beginning will provide the spark needed to launch the company into the future.

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The night is darkest just before the dawn, so the saying goes. HP certainly believes that to be true, Eyad Shihabi, Managing Director, HP, Middle East, tells me as he sips his coffee the morning after shareholders re-elected the entire board of directors – something that seemed highly unlikely at the time. He cuts a confident figure, not something you would have associated with HP personnel a few months ago.

But since the Autonomy scandal, job losses, writedowns, and channel conflict, HP has more than doubled its stock prices and gained three points market share – a healthy sign for a company which has effortlessly kept itself in the broadsheets for the wrong reasons over the past year.

“Firstly, we’ve been fortunate to be the biggest supplier of IT news over the past few years,” laughs Shihabi.

“It has been challenging, personally.

Since the Autonomy scandal I’ve found myself spending most of my time defending the company, the policies, the innovations, but not anymore. Now, when I go into a meeting with a partner, I ask if I have to update them on HP and they say no, they’re confident, they’re happy.”

Shihabi says that it was very important, as a public company, to be transparent and open when a mistake is made and to tackle that head on, take the writedowns, and move on. This, he claims, has been a process branded into the employees by the CEO, Meg Whitman.

“What Meg [Whitman] did was come in and recognise our problems and issues, honestly and openly admit these and then set about publically rectifying them. She is exactly what this company needed, she instils confidence and enthusiasm into this company

“This is about recognising where we went wrong, stripping it down and starting again.” and every team, partner and customer believes in her.”

Customers and partners spoke openly about how complicated HP products had become and how difficult it had become to work with the company. Shihabi says that only Whitman had the impetus to challenge this head on.

“We had multiple products that were largely doing the same thing, too many silos, too many complications. Meg has given us new standards, we listened, we innovated.

Now, take our converged cloud as an example – we’re the only company which can deliver the flexibility to our customers that we do, with no lock in. We’re proud of that. We give the tools to administrators in this space with over 100 maps for them to implement. We’ve completely simplified the experience – that’s what we’ve been strictly focused on over the past year,” he says.

“This is about recognising where we went wrong, stripping it down and starting again. Technology can always be improved.

The last few years have been confused; we were focused on acquisitions and not innovation. Now, we’re back in R&D and 100 percent of our energy is in investing in technology and innovation.”

The company believes that Whitman’s demeanour is far more suited to HP than previous CEOs. HP has eaten up CEOs in the past few years but what Whitman has done, that others have not, is lay out a very simplified and culture-focused five-year plan to take HP back to the glory days. Whitman has described 2013 as a fix and rebuild

year – innovations and growth are said to be noticeable by 2014.

“What Meg has done has recognised the culture of the company, the roots that Bill [William Hewlett] and Dave [David Packard] installed and made it what it once was. About four or five years ago, we started to deviate from this culture and then the cracks started to show. Meg has made it clear to all of us that this company needs to be run on the culture of Bill and Dave, and that’s where we’re headed now.”

Shihabi believes that negative press was also a factor in the mini-meltdown of HP. He claims that the competition used public

Eyad Shihabi, Managing Director, HP ME

APRIL 2013

Reseller Middle East

25

COVER STORY HP

William Hewlett (left) and David Packard founded HP in 1939 in a garage in Palo Alto, California

information against HP, but that this time is also over.

“We’re growing now, and we’re pulling away from our competition. Competition won’t have any reason to make noise about us anymore,” he says.

A question of trust However, the Autonomy accounting scandal wasn’t something that was easy to sweep under the rug, and it was doing the exact opposite which has helped pull HP through this. In November last year, HP took an $8.8billion writedown following the news that Autonomy had grossly misrepresented its finances. But Shihabi claims that in the Middle East, Autonomy had many good references and when the news broke, and HP publically addressed it, it was business as usual.

“I went into meetings thinking I was going to have to do some explaining, however, when

I arrived, I was stopped and told to deliver a message to our CEO saying they salute what Meg has done. They believe in the technology and that’s different to the acquisitions. I replied, ‘You just saved me half an hour.’

Smart people, business people, understand what Meg has done and the culture she has inspired. When we make a mistake, we acknowledge it and move on.”

Turnaround time Shihabi says that it’s been all positive since then, and that HP can take many positives out of the experiences of the last few years. He describes the recent process as cleaning out the house, focusing on a solid strategy and capitalising on the entire portfolio.

“We’re one of the most successful and vigilant brands in the world. Last quarter, we over-achieved, that brings confidence to us.

Before, in the big quarters we were under-

“What Meg [Whitman] did was come in and recognise our problems and issues, honestly and openly admit these and then set about publically rectifying them.

She is exactly what this company needed.”

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shooting the mark, because our vision wasn’t clear and we had problems in-house. But we cleaned up the foundations, we changed things, and now we’ve never been more confident.”

HP is focusing heavily on its enterprise group, which makes up almost 50 percent of its business. Having recently launched the business-targeted ElitePad 900, using Emirates as the global launch partner, and confirming many more “big clients” close to signing deals, the enterprise space has shown itself to be successful. The company isn’t shying away from the consumer side, however. Shihabi states that HP is working on delivering consumer tablets he believes will be competitive and different to current market offerings.

Moreover, the company isn’t turning its back on the PPS sector. Significant deals are on the horizon involving enterprise printing and PCs, as well as tablets.

The channel plays a vital role, more so here than anywhere else globally perhaps, for HP, as 99 percent of Shihabi’s business is run through it. HP was accused previously of stepping on partners’ toes and nipping in late to sign big deals, taking business away from the channel. But Whitman and Shihabi have both addressed this and HP claims that it has finally aligned its service channel with its product channel.

“We didn’t have a single channel that dealt with both. This caused confusion and lack of trust. So we restructured this, so it was all under one simple leadership. I went on a tour to meet all the partners, lay out the foundation of the changes, explain the alignment and now our satisfaction has tripled,” he says.

“We will never increase our direct business here. Those partners are crucial to us.”

HP is one of very few companies which people are sentimental about, and whether press has been positive or negative in recent years, it’s been hard to dodge. Shihabi and his team have shown 100 percent faith in Whitman and the company, however, and with growth promised to be just around the corner, the dark cloud which has loomed overhead may be clearing to reveal some fairly sunnier climes. //

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EMC2, EMC, the EMC logo, and where information lives are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. Š Copyright 2011 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

PARTNER WATCH Cerebra

PRIMED FOR GROWTH Despite being a new entrant to the regional value-distribution landscape, Cerebra Middle East is ramping up fast to cash in on the opportunities around storage and data centre infrastructure. We spoke to Asit Ahuja, Director and CEO, to find out what makes Cerebra tick.

You are a new kid on the block.

How’s the ride been so far?

Yes, we are a relatively new entrant in the Middle East. We took off in mid-2011 and spent the first six months in building a team and forming vendor relationships. So effectively, last year has been the fully fledged operational year for us and we have already made good inroads into this market. We are a purely value player with a focus on data centre infrastructure and storage solutions. We operate throughout the Middle East, purely through channel partners and we have vendors such as Fujitsu, FalconStor and Fibrenetix in our portfolio.

You made your foray into this market during a time that wasn’t really conducive to growth…

We look at it differently. Yes, times are indeed challenging, for both vendors and the channel.

We did understand that 2012 wasn’t probably the best time to enter the market but we did manage to address the pain points of channel

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partners. When we entered here, the cash flow situation was really bad in the market and there was room for extended credit terms. One of our go-to-market strategies was to assist the channel to fulfill commitments to their customers and, as a result, we acquired a lot of partners. Today, we are actively working with 60-plus partners through the region. We are a VAD, so we would like to work with less but more focused partners.

How do you define value?

I would define value addition as something that assists the channel partners achieve greater margins and save costs. We provide pre- and post-sales and assist our partners with their go-to-market. There are times when we do PoCs for them to convince their customers about the technology. The backend support to the channel partners is very critical and that is the real value addition.

Some of the vendors in your portfolio don’t have a presence here. Do you have

to evangelise technology and act as an extended arm?

Yes definitely, even if the vendor has a direct presence in the region. In some cases, they outsources pre-sales to us. So the value addition we provide is not just to the channel partners but to the vendors as well.

How do you see the regional channel landscape evolving?

We have done our due diligence before stepping into the market, and it indeed is very different from what we see in other parts of the world. The channel here is quite demanding in terms of price, and also we are dealing with partners who have been hard hit by global recession and political unrest in the region. Having said that, the encouraging factor is that the grasp of technology is tremendous in this particular channel community and the entire focus on technical learning process makes it easier for us as VADs to enable our channel partners.

Is training and certification key to your channel enablement?

Absolutely, and we follow the train the trainer concept. First, we send out our resources to get trained and then we enable our partners with training programmes leading to certification.

Services is probably where the margins are now, but the business model of most channel partners is product dominated. Do you see that changing?

I beg to differ. It might be true in the case of the SMB market, not in the enterprise, and high-end midmarket where we play. We address the solutions-based market, where we sell the utility rather than the product itself.

Are you able to capitalise on the booming storage market?

Data is growing at an average of 20 percent across all organisations, leading directly to an increase in storage capacity required.

A lot of enterprises in the region are now looking at disaster recovery and business continuity, partly driven by government regulations. We are also seeing a huge demand for storage-related to video surveillance. Throughout the Middle East, ministries of interior have mandated that city surveillance footage be kept for 180 days and critical segments such as banks have to keep their video footage for longer periods. This is driving a huge demand for storage and we have established a separate business division within Cerebra to address the needs of this market.

Are you looking at the SMB market?

Our focus is on the mid-market now mainly due to two factors – it’s easy to penetrate this market segment and secondly, even enterprises are looking for ‘inexpensive’

products. However, many vendors are moulding their products and services to suit the needs of the SMB market and I don’t see any reason not to address this market in the future.

What are your plans for this year?

It sure has been a roller coaster ride for us.

Last year, we forecast $10 million and closed the books at $14 million. This year, we are going in for a full-fledged presence in Saudi with a joint venture of sorts. We are opening up offices in Riyadh and Dammam, and will have a JV into Qatar as well. Recently, Cerebra globally has made a $30-million acquisition of Cimelia, one of the world’s larest e-waste recycling companies. We will very soon offer e-waste management services to both the channel and their customers. //

“It sure has been a roller coaster ride for us. Last year, we forecast $10 million and closed the books at $14 million.”

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29

FEATURE Enterprise mobility

THE MOBILITY WAVE Mobility is sweeping across the enterprises in the Middle East, creating bright opportunities for a channel reeling under pressure on account of wafer-thin margins in other IT solution areas.

There is no doubting the fact that mobility is on the top of CIOs’ priorities today. The availability of smartphones and other devices coupled with bandwidth has fuelled mobility adoption across enterprises in the region today.

There are couple of factors in play influencing the uptake of mobility solutions in enterprises. “The consumerisation of IT

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is driving mobility, often starting from senior management. Executives are bringing their personal iPads into work and expecting to be able to use them. Employees often have better experiences using their own smartphone or tablet than the tools provided to them by IT. These factors make mobility a reality today, even when IT isn’t ready for it,” explains Richard Marshall, Research Director, Managed Services and Outsourcing, Gartner.

He adds that new form factors, such as increasing flexibility in work practices and a desire to improve productivity without increasing spend mean that business units are keen to adopt mobility. “They can see how processes can be enhanced and work improved, hence creating a demand for mobile solutions.”

Industry experts expect more and more mission-critical enterprise apps to move to a

mobile platform this year. “BYOD policies are being widely implemented across the region according to the recent GBM regional survey that included more than 900 organisations in the GCC. Sixty-two percent of the IT professionals polled stated that they were allowed to connect their own devices to company networks. The study also revealed that a third of the IT professionals polled owned up to three devices, and one in 10 owned five or more personal devices, such as smartphones and tablets,” says Hani Nofal, Director of Intelligent Network Solutions, GBM. Haroon Iqbal, Sales Manager, Middle East and Africa, WatchGuard, echoes a similar opinion and says specifically that many of these applications will move to the cloud in order to support mobile devices. “Cloud services are helping support and drive mobile device adoptions. Today, smartphones outsell laptops. However, these devices have more limited resources (memory and hard drive) than traditional desktops and laptops. As a result, they often have to rely on cloud- or web-based applications. Enterprise and business applications will continue to move to the cloud in order to support mobile devices.

Depending on your business, some missioncritical applications may have access to some very sensitive data you don’t want to share outside your own organisation. However, even in those cases, enterprises will still build private or hybrid cloud applications to continue the mobile support.”

Gartner predicts that, by 2015, there will be four times more mobile apps than traditional ones developed by corporate

“It is very important to listen to what the mobility requirements of your customers are and tailor solutions to suit their unique needs.

Mobility is a solution; not a product.”

Baher Ezzat, Regional Director, Alcatel-Lucent Middle East

IT. These will extend the range of functions from ‘email and calendaring’ to a wide range of industry vertical solutions. The increasingly fragmented nature of the laptop will encourage this trend. “Today, the most cost-effective way for companies to rapidly deploy new applications or services is indeed the mobile way,” says B. Ramkumar, Vice President, Redington Gulf.

Stephan Berner, Managing Director, Help AG, says IT departments are scrambling to create the environments necessary to support the influx of devices. “A large number of organisations are still very much at the first phase of this process wherein concerns regarding device management and delivery of services in a safe and secure manner are at the top of their checklists. It is only after this initial groundwork is in place and the mobile platforms necessary to support BYOD are deployed that organisations will really being to look at making their mission-critical applications available on mobile platforms.”

How big an opportunity is mobility for the channel? Meera Kaul, Managing Director, Optimus Technology & Telecommunications, says the channel has a huge opportunity in

“Partners can concentrate on UC and provide services in support of roll-out of mobile UC applications that the enterprise customer chooses.”

Ray McGroarty, Director, Enterprise and Cloud Market Development, Polycom, EMEA

addressing the enterprise mobility needs as the maturity of the market grows. “The channel could engage in consulting the end customers for a mobile enterprise strategy and driving long term return on investment.

The process of adoption of mobility is another huge opportunity for the channel apart from deployment, performance, security, integration and migration as well as support. The channel could also be a player in enterprise mobility apps and management domain. The revenue drivers will be services, support, app development and renewal opportunities in the enterprise base.”

Another questions is whether the channel really has an opportunity in the mobile devices spaces, which are typically sold through contracts with service providers.

“The communication service providers are constantly changing their policies and are very geographically and market dependent.

Some CSPs are no longer providing devices with their contracts, while some enterprises are now offering SIM-only packages to their staff. These companies are allowing their employees to provide their own device or pick from a catalogue. In this space, the reseller can provide the order fulfillment,” says Marshall.

Another area where resellers can help is to offer complete, managed solutions.

Telecom services, device management, expense control, even mobile application management and support as part of a single package priced per user. This managed service means that the client does not need to invest in the skills required to run a hugely fragmented set of devices and focus on core business, he adds.

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Reseller Middle East

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FEATURE Enterprise mobility

The channel can also play the role of a trusted advisor and help their customers implement an effective mobility strategy. “As with any technology deployment, the role of the channel in enterprise mobility will be to act as the expert advisor and to identify the solutions which meet the needs of the customer. There is also the issue raising risk awareness, which is something that is currently lacking. Channel partners can work with organisations to educate employees on acceptable usage and to formulate safe-usage policies,” says Berner.

Mobile strategies have been implemented reactively based on devices being brought into the workplace. On the other hand, some departments, often marketing, have opted to commission mobile apps. The best reaction is to take a step back and develop a high-level framework strategy covering B2C and B2B mobility, with mobile apps, device management, security and network infrastructure management as integral parts.

Baher Ezzat, Regional Director, AlcatelLucent Middle East, says resellers will have to change their mindset to do this. “It is very important to listen to what the mobility requirements of your customers are and tailor solutions to suit their unique needs.

You have to profile their employees because a back-office person may not need mobility and approach it in a more of a consultancy engagement rather than pushing what you have. Mobility is a solution; not a product.”

Kaul agrees: “The key to do this is to have an effective mobility consulting practice. If the channel cannot justify the resources to drive

it, distributors like Optimus provide these advisory services to its value partners and can be contacted for this.”

Mobile security and mobile device management are probably the two areas where partners have the best opportunity to make margins. “Mobile security and mobile device management are areas of real concern and have yet to become completely commoditized. While the consumerisation of devices has brought many benefits to

“The consumerisation of IT is driving mobility, often starting from senior management. Executives are bringing their personal iPads into work and expecting to be able to use them.”

Richard Marshall, Research Director, Managed Services and Outsourcing, Gartner

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enterprise mobility, it has tended to push prices down and lowering perceived values significantly. Management and security remain the premium markets and the situation is likely to stay that way through the next few years,” says Marshall.

Ramkumar from Redington says that mobile security is a hugely untapped market.

“The understanding of security on mobile environment is very poor. Vendors are working on it but the overall framework for mobile security is still a work in progress. I don’t know how many people check if they have anti-virus installed on their smartphones but the threat to mobile platforms is very real. It is also a huge opportunity for the channel.”

Iqbal agrees that partners will have a better long-term opportunity with mobile security solutions. “MDM is a valuable stopgap technology, but it doesn’t really add any of the addition security controls that mobile devices desperately need. MDM essentially helps customers audit and manage personal

FEATURE Enterprise mobility

mobile devices, which are suddenly flooding into their networks, but it doesn’t really add additional security to these devices. Longterm, businesses will still need to improve the security of mobile devices, so my bet is on the additional mobile security controls.”

Berner from Help AG points out that to enable the mobile workforce, organisations need to ensure that their networks are ready to cope with the additional strain. They also need to revisit the control and monitoring capabilities since access to the corporate network though a mobile device should never be left unchecked. There is also the need to develop strong usage policies and educate employees about the risk factors.

All of these represent opportunities for the channel, he adds.

While mobility is transforming many organisations and attracting the attention of IT decision makers, the high investment cost is a significant barrier for resellers looking to develop mobility practices. Many vendors such as Polycom have come out with reseller support networks of tools and resources to help partners sell and recommend solutions to meet the needs of their customers.

“Through this support network, partners can concentrate on UC and provide services in support of the roll-out of mobile UC applications on the devices that the enterprise customer chooses or procures by means other than that of the UC partner. The key here is that the partners can reassure the client on interoperability between all the elements of the UC solution, thus the investment costs are similar to those associated with becoming a skilled

“The role of the channel in enterprise mobility will be to act as the expert advisor and to identify the solutions which meet the demands of the customer.”

Stephan Berner, Managing Director, help AG

UC reseller,” says Ray McGroarty, Director, Enterprise and Cloud Market Development, Polycom, EMEA. Nader Baghdadi, Regional Director, Ruckus Wireless, offers a different perspective: “We believe mobile practices are becoming adopted on a worldwide level, and the CAPEX is no longer perceived as a barrier, as the advantages outweigh such investment. Mobility and BYOD are becoming mainstream to almost every enterprise; hence, mobility is now a business requirement. The channel will benefit from investing in such a domain whether in applications or technology products.”

According to a recent 2013 State of Mobility Survey from Symantec, many organisations in the Middle East are moving ahead with mobility, motivated by business drivers, and they are expecting significant benefits from it.

“The gravitation towards mobile devices in the workplace represents a transformation of business technology priorities across the Middle East. Individuals in the region want a device they can use for work-related and

“The gravitation towards mobile devices in the workplace represents a transformation of business technology priorities across the Middle East.”

Johnny Karam, Regional Director, Middle East and French Speaking Africa, Symantec

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personal tasks, and we’re witnessing a divide between organisations ready to adopt this trend and those more hesitant,” says Johnny Karam, Regional Director, Middle East and French Speaking Africa, Symantec. “In the United Arab Emirates and worldwide, the difference in attitudes and results between the organisations that actively embrace mobility and those that are reluctant is significant. Organisations taking a proactive approach benefit much more than those that put it off until they eventually find themselves trying to catch up to the competition.”

The message is loud and clear for the channel: Mobility is now mainstream, and partners can play a crucial role in helping regional enterprises to hop onto this burgeoning bandwagon, and benefit significantly in the process. //

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FEATURE Cloud and the channel

UP IN THE CLOUDS Cloud is one of the hottest topics in the industry, and the channel is struggling to understand what the real impact of it could be. Many worry that the cloud model might severely impact the channel’s traditional revenue streams but there are opportunities to found.

We explore what these could be.

The cloud is well and truly hanging over the IT industry.

Commentators from across the board have stressed how important cloud computing is, and that the emerging trends stemming from cloud are set to change the way that people think about IT. For many, it’s all terribly exciting, given the host of new opportunities that have arisen from cloud computing.

However, many from the channel are concerned that these emerging technologies will begin to eat into their traditional revenue streams. And in some cases, there is good cause for this concern, as Boby Joseph, CEO, StorIT Distribution, explains.

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“Cloud is the next big IT disruption to happen after the PC and Internet era,” he says. “The total scenario is not yet very clear but it is in the same stages as when the Internet or PC started gaining momentum.

However, compared to the past disruptions, cloud brings in a total change in how platforms and applications are delivered to the end user. And this will add up new pressures into the channel.”

Anand Choudha, Managing Director, Spectrami, agrees on the disruptive nature of the cloud on the channel: “Cloud is a disruptive business model which not only changes the way customers consume IT but also in the way the channel serves the business. It essentially

leaves very little option to the channel but to adapt their business model to cater for selling cloud,” he says.

It’s clear from the off that the channel needs to adapt in order to keep up with the cloud, then. The numbers alone make for mouth-watering propositions, according to Ayman Dwidar, Middle East Indirect Sales Manager, HP. “The average growth rate in this business is around 23.6 percent year over year. That’s huge – think about it. If you are a channel partner, you see this huge amount of spending there – we don’t have a clear picture on the Middle East spending, but it would be relative.

The average growth rate of IT spending year

over year in the Middle East will be between 3 to 4 percent. If one line of business is growing at 25 percent year over year, you have to be there, you have to play,” he says.

For some, this is a blessing in disguise, as declining margins on hardware sales are forcing resellers to move into other segments, anyway. However, due to the emerging nature of the cloud – and the number of conflicting opinions about what cloud means – many are still in the dark as to how they can really take advantage of cloud computing.

For a start, resellers can look at the B2B market, according to Meera Kaul, Managing Director, Optimus Technology & Telecommunications. “The opportunity lies in planning, strategising and executing the customer’s cloud strategy. Apart from that, being able to offer cloud solutions of vendors to the market augmented with services and support,” she says.

“For the more agile partners in the channel, consulting and building private clouds for mission-critical applications would be another opportunity.”

Choudha, meanwhile, says that there aren’t actually that many cloud-based services for resellers to make money from. However, there are a number of services that resellers could get involved with, he says, adding that in the future, there will be many more.

“If observed keenly, you would see a few of them already existing. We are seeing business applications like Office 365 and Salesforce.com being offered on cloud platforms, and partners can give custom

“Cloud is a disruptive business model which not only changes the way customers consume IT but also in the way the channel serves the business. It essentially leaves very little option to the channel but to adapt their business model to cater for selling cloud.”

Anand Choudha, Managing Director, Spectrami

services on platform as a service (PaaS) on either amazon EC2 or Microsoft azure or Force.com cloud, and then you have infrastructure cloud delivered as services like ZScalar, or like our very own Threatgrid threat intelligence cloud solutions. They are the beginning of a new generation of services and, sooner than later, partners would be spoilt for choice to offer their customers solutions to choose from.”

Dwidar, however, says that the answer to making the most money from cloud-based services is to play the niche game, seeing as the mainstream game is already dominated by global players such as Amazon Web Services and Google.

“I know some guys who have a very small banking application for small, emerging banks.

They want to cloud enable this application and sell it as a service. It’s a fantastic idea!

“A channel partner has the opportunity to sell routers, Wi-Fi access points, network switches, network cables, surge protectors to protect the network infrastructure and much more.”

Khalid Wani, Sales Director, Branded Business, Middle East, Africa and India, WD

It’s a niche player - instead of paying a large lump sum, you can subscribe with me and I will manage the whole environment for you and give it to you as a service,” he says.

That said, there is still concern among the channel that moving to include a cloud-based business model might cannibalise other parts of the business, particularly if partners innovate to create their own cloud-based applications.

For example, if a customer wants to buy IaaS due to the smaller cost, the reseller’s hardware attributed to that market segment is going to be difficult to sell.

According to Khalid Wani, Sales Director, Branded Business, Middle East, Africa and India, WD, the answer is to augment cloud services with traditional ones – with the two sides of the business helping each other.

“Channel players should look at offering ancillary products and services along with the cloud services that they sell to their customers.

While the cloud does remove the need for some local hardware, you still need local network infrastructure so that everyone can actually connect to the Internet and therefore the cloud. That means a channel partner has the opportunity to sell routers, Wi-Fi access points, network switches, network cables, surge protectors to protect the network infrastructure and much more,” he says.

“At the same time, all this local infrastructure will still have to be maintained and/or managed, so a channel partner could capitalise further by offering maintenance

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FEATURE Cloud and the channel

“Cloud is the next big IT disruption to happen after the PC and Internet era. The total scenario is not yet very clear but it is in the same stages as when the Internet or PC started gaining momentum.”

Boby Joseph, CEO, StorIT Distribution

contracts as a value-added service. By adopting this approach, channel players can quite easily reduce and even grow their business as a result of offering cloud services.”

Dwidar advises going one step further – he thinks that, if partners offer complimentary cloud-based services to their existing products, it should be through separate companies altogether. He advises partners to set up a cloud business and continue as normal with their existing businesses. Because the models are so different, he opines, they should not even be sharing resources.

“The different business model takes a completely different cost structure. The calibres that you are hiring are going to be different.

The cost of them should be different. The

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profitability and revenue stream is completely different,” he says. “I think this is a radical change. Very intelligent partners are saying that they’ll keep their own business at it is, and

they will establish a new business with new fundamentals and keep it completely separate.”

This might not be as difficult as it seems, as vendors are happy to help their partners come up with innovative ways to sell cloud-based solutions. After all, many vendors depend on the success of their partners, and realise that, if they want to put something out there, they’re going to have to appeal to channel to do it. That’s the opinion of Dan Smith, Head of Integrated Marketing for the Middle East and Africa, Developing Markets, Xerox, anyway.

“Clients will have to work with vendors on the challenges this brings in security, application development and mobile working. Xerox has the ability to help clients with these challenges and provide users and IT professionals with the best of both worlds,” he says.

At the end of the day, all the experts agree that staying up-to-date on the cloud means working out how best to serve the end-user.

Dwidar says, “The best channel partners will master this game, and this is not easy. The end user wants the IT services, less headaches, less cost and streamlined business. And they need it on demand.”

One thing is clear: channel partners who rely too heavily on traditional technology sales will eventually lose out, as the cloud is becoming an all-encompassing entity. And the channel needs to tool up for coming cloudy storm. As Kaul from Optimus says, “Cloud is a business model that cannot be catered to in a channel unless the distribution augments its skill sets to be a part of the cloud services agenda in being a broker, washer or even just a services provider.” //

“The opportunity lies in planning, strategising and executing the customer’s cloud strategy. Apart from that, being able to offer cloud solutions of vendors to the market augmented with services and support.”

Meera Kaul, Managing Director, Optimus Technology and Telecommunications

FEATURE Cloud and the channel

with additional hardware and software from HP or third parties. CloudSystem Matrix supports Windows, Linux and HP-UX. Supported hypervisors include VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Integrity VMs. Red Hat KVM will be supported with the next release in 2013.

Do you think this fills a gap in the region’s cloud market?

Various surveys conducted across the region pointed out the opportunities for public and private sector organisations from deploying cloud solutions. But their scepticism of stepping into the unknown was equally evident. The Cloud Centre of Excellence aims to address this gap with the successful demonstration of use cases based on real customer scenarios, providing the much needed confidence to the organisations in the region.

TAKING CLOUD SERIOUSLY As an illustration of just how seriously the channel is taking cloud computing, MDS Computers recently launched the first and only Cloud Centre of Excellence in the Middle East. The new MDS Computers centre is built entirely around the latest technology using the HP CloudSystem Matrix, which delivers a virtualised pool of network, storage, and computing resources that can be optimised and adjusted to meet the dynamic business demands of its users. Nader Eid, General Manager, MDS Computers, told us a little more about the centre.

What makes the Cloud Centre of Excellence stand out from other cloud services that are available in the Middle East?

The Cloud Centre of Excellence stands out from the rest by providing unified delivery and control of services across cloud and traditional IT environments, support for private, public and hybrid cloud environments, broad ecosystem of applications, hypervisors, OSes, automated application to infrastructure lifecycle management, scalability to meet unpredictable business demand, and end-toend security.

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What does the HP CloudSystem Matrix contribute to the package?

CloudSystem Matrix Accelerates the delivery of shared infrastructure services with Matrix infrastructure orchestration. It creates a dynamic test and development infrastructure by rapidly activating and deactivating test and development environments, and by quickly repurposing infrastructure without reinstallation.

Resources may be pooled and shared, improving utilisation and reducing cost. Cloud bursting further allows provisioning services beyond the “private cloud” by “bursting” into a public cloud for a specific template-defined service. The resources in the public cloud are paid for only when used, and released when no longer needed, optimising cost and flexibility.

Does the Cloud Centre of Excellence have to be a fully integrated system, or can customers pick and choose which services they want?

Customers can buy CloudSystem Matrix in small, medium or large configurations based on their needs. CloudSystem Matrix supports third-party x86 servers, networking and storage. The configurations can be expanded

Cloud uptake is still relatively low in the region. Considering this, how well do you think the Cloud Centre of Excellence will be received?

Organisations across the region are realising that they need the cloud to compete on cost savings, efficiencies and performance. It is widely expected that cloud-based services will become a part of the accepted IT model in the region. 2013 will see the onset of vendors and solution providers rushing to the cloud to offer customers more reliable services, cheaper prices, enhanced management and ease of use. This year will see the use of cloud in ways we didn’t imagine a short time ago.

Security is a big concern for many when it comes to the cloud. How does the Cloud Centre of Excellence deal with those concerns?

The enhanced multi-tenancy capabilities in the Matrix IO v7.x release help enterprises to share IT resources securely among their business groups. Multi-tenancy software architecture allows sharing resources across many client organisations, or tenants. CloudSystem Matrix includes secure multi-tenancy features for heterogeneous managed environments delivered through Matrix IO functionality.

VENDOR FOCUS EMC

Havier Haddad, Channel and Alliances Director, EMC

UNRIVALLED VELOCITY Undisputable storage powerhouse EMC claims to be ahead of the game, and you don’t get out in front by standing still. The company recently announced significant enhancements to its leading channel partner programme, Velocity, and Havier Haddad, Channel and Alliances Director, EMC, states no other vendor can claim to be close.

“Last year, IDC chose EMC for having one of the best vendor partner programmes,” says Haddad, Channel and Alliances Director for Turkey, Emerging Africa, Middle East and, just this month, Eastern Europe.

“I’ve worked with many partner programmes throughout my career, and I can honestly say that I’ve not seen any programme that comes close to what we’ve

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got here at EMC.” Haddad, immensely pleased with he and his team’s work at EMC, says that recent enhancements announced on the Velocity programme support the idea that EMC is the industry leader when it comes to cloud and big data technologies for the channel.

“This is customer demand – these changes represent our efforts to constantly meet the requirements of companies which

rely on these programmes to survive.

“We don’t compete with our partners, we refuse,” he says.

“We don’t do cloud. We offer it as a technology, but not as a service. We’re here to do what’s best for our customers.”

A welcoming announcement for the channel scene, no doubt, but EMC recognises the difficulties that companies are facing in the market – another piece

VENDOR FOCUS EMC

of evidence in regards to the nature of this programme revamp.

“Technology is transforming, rapidly. If companies cannot transform with them then they’re gone – they won’t survive.”

EMC says that the improvements of the programme are based on two main ideas.

The first is that EMC realised, after believing the opposite, that its partners are ready and willing to become as specialised as the company itself in its technologies. And, secondly, that the new rebate changes will ensure that signature partners are awarded more money.

“Money is the most important thing, that’s what this is all about. Partners work with you for a few reasons – they want to make money, and they want to sell great products that they know. So we specialise partners in our products now,” says Haddad.

“The Velocity programme is very rich in awarding partners. Signature partners can make up to five percent back on what they sell, to me, that’s too much. Honestly, no other vendor can claim to offer this.”

Moreover, this is pure profit before profit from services, EMC states. This new enhancement on rebates doesn’t include front-end margins.

Specialisation Haddad says that the one of the key improvements to the programme, again prompted by customer requirements, is the additional training that partners can receive in order to become specialised in more specific areas.

“Before, a partner would say I want to be specialised in consolidation, and we would specialise them in that area. However, now we have five separate ranks in consolidation.

So, the specialisation is far more specific.

We’re helping our partners to be more

detailed and to have a deeper knowledge, and this will be a differentiator in the market – again, no other company is putting this emphasis on its partners.”

The incentive will also be good for distribution customers, who, EMC believes, will now have more confidence in their resellers due to the improved level of certification during business.

These are difficult times for the channel.

Haddad believes that the industry is moving online, and in a few simple clicks, one can have anything they want distributed within minutes. These companies need to be able to adapt to this technology landslide in order to remain competitive and relevant.

“There are no volume distributors any more, it’s all about value-add now.

Acquisitions are being all the time because people now see that if they’re not able to get into the value-added arena, they’re going to

“The company has invested in a demo and training centre within the same facility to offer free training to its partners and customers.”

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suffer,” Haddad explains.

“If you’re a reseller and you do not speak the language of cloud, you’ll disappear. If you don’t get some value-add into your DNA, you’ll disappear. Resellers must now recognise the increasing customer requirements. This is what our programme is providing for them – knowledge, specialisation, and reward.”

Being the best Haddad believes that EMC has now set the bar for all partner programmes and claims that other vendors must look to EMC when attempting to beat the best.

“Other programmes will try to mimic what we’ve done here. We’ve raised the bar,” he says.

“There have been times with this programme where I’ve sat with major, major telcos, and they’ve been telling me that they want to leverage my Velocity partner programme. As I said before, never in my career have I ever seen this kind of reaction to a partner programme.”

Haddad’s hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed by EMC, either. He recently had a career-enhancing move himself, taking on Eastern Europe as part of his jurisdiction. //

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INTERVIEW Trust

MIDDLE EAST INVASION Having conquered much of Europe, Dutch accessories manufacturer Trust has its sights set on the Middle East. We speak to Harold Huizing, the firm’s Group Commercial Director, on the strategy behind this bold market invasion.

Can you explain a little bit about the Trust brand, and why you want to come over to the Middle East?

It all started in Holland, close to Rotterdam, over 30 years ago. From there, we started to conquer Europe, and opened up offices in the UK, in Italy, in Germany – all the big countries around Europe. We were doing quite well. We’re very ambitious – since two years ago, we have a new board (I’m also a member of the trust board), and we want to conquer the world. We think we are ready for it because we have a strong base in Europe. Last year, we opened up in Brazil. And since two weeks ago, we’re starting up here.

How many countries do you operate in now?

I think it’s over 30 countries. Of course, you have a lot of little countries in Europe. Our expansion plans have been over the last two years, since the new board started, and then we opened up in Brazil, and we’d already started before in Russia.

Harold Huizing, Group Commercial Director, Trust

How have you prepared for your entry into the Middle East market?

Because we want to do everything properly, over the last two weeks, we’ve been doing a lot of price research. We wrote down all the prices, and we were looking at Souq.com. We made a really good price comparison because we want to have the key pricing and the right reseller margins. We’re going to the Gitex Shopper to meet people and really get into the market, step by step.

What kinds of prices are we looking at here?

It’s mostly mid-range, but we have a clear structure. If there is a leading brand in the product group - let’s say Logitech, which is the world leader – we are priced about 10 to 15 percent below their prices. This is the endconsumer price. Actually, at the same price

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point, we have better specs and more beautiful products. This is always our challenge. They put their money into the marketing and the advertising, but we just put it into the products and we give our resellers a better margin.

What kinds of margins can a reseller expect?

Depending on the product, I would say somewhere from 25 percent up to 35 or 40 percent.

Now that you’re in the Middle East, how do you hope to get the brand name out there?

We will be present at DISTREE in Abu Dhabi, and we’ll be at GITEX in October. The resellers can visit us and they can see the products, they can touch the products. And of course, they’re also more than welcome to over to our offices in Jebel Ali, which, at the moment is still just a small office.

Aside from good margins, what can you offer potential partners?

We’re a very sales-oriented company. We want our partners to make money with us. For us, if we just sell to them, the value lasts just five minutes. I’d rather have a new order the next day with a partner. What’s also really nice for resellers is that we have a really wide range of products. We started with PC accessories, but nowadays everything is there. The best part for the retailers who deal with us is that we’re a one-point contact for them for everything.

It’s very important to us that we help our partners to make profit. In a marriage, if there’s only one happy, the marriage will go wrong in the end. I like to take this principle with me in business. We will not be the cheapest, but we will never leave our partners if we have a problem. We’ll help them with the rotation of the products, and we really point out how they can cross-sell. We’ll also help with up-selling.

We have the most important price points. //

INTERVIEW Brocade

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY On his first visit to the UAE, Regan McGrath, Vice President, Global Channel Sales and Marketing, Brocade, tells us that he would rather work with a few valuable partners than with scores of worthless ones.

How are you finding your first visit to the UAE? The biggest eye-opener for me in the region is how readily this region adopts new technology. It’s very exciting for us to see the appetite for new and innovative technologies. I think this region distinguishes itself for having a very strong appetite for not just the legacy, old way of doing things, and that lends itself very much to what we’re presenting to the marketplace, and that’s an alternative way to build network architectures for future requirements. I think it’s a great fit for us, and it’s beyond the obvious growth opportunities with a region like this that’s clearly investing disproportionately around infrastructure – not just in Dubai but across the region.

How much of Brocade’s business is done through the channel?

We have two distinct areas of Brocade. One is our SAN storage networking business, and the other is our Ethernet networking business.

The storage networking business is largely an OEM play that goes through the channel, so we sell to EMC, we sell to HP, we sell to IBM, sell to Hitachi, and then they take our

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products and resell to their channels. With that, it’s a very high proportion that goes through the channel. For us, the channel is an OEM on that side of the business.

On the Ethernet side of the business, right now, 75 percent of our worldwide revenue goes through the channel. And where we don’t go through the channel, we’ve clearly communicated - it’s largely with our large service provider customers. In the Middle East, it’s all channel – we don’t sell direct. It’s really only in the United States, where we’ve got a few legacy large service provider customers, and everybody sells to those customers direct.

What’s your global channel strategy?

When we talk to the channel, we think of our Ethernet business. I think there are three overriding strategies. One is to clearly articulate our differentiation in our global market model. The fact that we have a very predictable model in going through the channel, and we don’t flip-flop – saying we’ll go direct here or through the channel here – makes it a very clear strategy. Communicating that to our partners is critical to our success.

Secondly, the strategy has really been

around building and accentuating the tools that we have to make it easier to do business with Brocade. For example, we’ve invested in a brand new partner relationship management system, which is very cool. It makes it much easier, and it’s a one-stop portal for all things channel. It’s got things like a new, low-end, easy-to-use configurator, so you don’t have to be an expert on Brocade to configure the tools. And then we’ve got several different marketing initiatives and marketing tools that are accessible at no charge - or at a very low charge - for our channel partners to help them market our solutions.

Lastly, we’re really articulating our technology differentiation to the marketplace.

We’ve got some very, very unique offerings that are very interesting for our channel partners, as they’re under more pressure to provide innovative solutions and take their customers to the next level to accommodate for all the emerging dynamics like cloud, virtualisation, video and mobility.

How does Brocade enable partners to navigate new technologies such as cloud, virtualisation and data centre consolidation?

There definitely has to be an investment from

INTERVIEW Brocade

“I think the difference between us and others is that we’re not looking to go find 1,000 partners; we’re looking for a few very, very strong partners.” channel partners to want to learn your value proposition. That’s the same, no matter who it is. I think the difference between us and others is that we’re not looking to go find 1,000 partners; we’re looking for a few very, very strong partners. You see a lot of our competitors dilute themselves quite a bit with over-distributing their products, and that plays havoc in a lot of different areas – not just the profitability of the partners, but the capabilities of the partners, as well.

We’ll help them on an ongoing basis.

And what a lot of vendors lose sight of is that the partners can add value in many different stages of the sales cycle. There’s value if a partner just introduces us to their customer; there’s value if they do nothing else in the sales cycle other than plug something in and we do all the selling; there’s value in providing credit to the partners; there’s value in having product available. There are several different areas of value in the sales cycle, and you don’t necessarily need a partner to add 100 percent of value in every sales cycle. Sometimes, they’re going to do something completely independently, and other times, they may just provide a very key 10 percent, and we might do the rest of the work on a larger opportunity.

And it’s everything in between.

What kinds of opportunities do you see in emerging technologies?

I think the biggest overriding opportunity is to make people’s jobs easier. I don’t care what kind of IT you’re providing to them, if you can take complexity away, and can provide operational simplicity to their day-to-day lives, they’re going to pay money for that. You’re providing a value that addresses the numberone challenge for people right now.

IT operators are overwhelmed with all the things coming at them. There’s virtualisation, there’s cloud, and then how do

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you address the ongoing issue with video and social networking in the utilisation of your architecture and certainly your network?

There are a million different things coming at them. And, by the way, their budgets aren’t going up. The budgets are flat, and they’re losing people, quite frankly. To me, the opportunity that we have – not unlike a lot of people – is in making those jobs easier.

How important is training and certification to Brocade?

It’s very important. It’s actually the mechanism, the only gate, to moving up the tiers of partnership. Some people require you to have a certain revenue trend, but for us, it’s all about training and certification.

Going from Select, which is our entrylevel, to Premier to Elite is all about the number of people you have certified in your organisation.

I would also say that, from a channel partner’s perspective, their customers are looking for them to be technically competent as well. And as difficult as it is for IT

professionals to keep up, channel partners also are being forced to focus on less and less product lines, because they have to have experts – they can’t just casually understand something, or else they’re not going to be providing the value that their customers expect.

What impact will the cloud have on a channel that is focused on network solutions?

The cloud impacts everything. You’re going to see it change the way people go to market, the way people build products, the way people service their customers, and the way customers think about where their spend is going. It is the most prevalent IT trend, I think, in 20 years. I don’t know that there’s anything in the history of IT, other than the Internet, that has had as profound an effect on everything. I don’t know where the cloud doesn’t have an impact.

What kind of growth do you want to see out of the Middle East this year?

We have expanded our Middle East team by at least 30 percent over the past year. In terms of the numbers, I’m not going to give you exact numbers, but in terms of percentages, we are looking to push our Ethernet Fabric over 10 to 15 percent. And that falls in line with the global targets. //

McGrath with Khaled Kamel, Regional Channel Manager, MENA, Brocade

DISTRIBUTOR

RETAILER

VENDOR

E- TAILER

MIDDLE EAST

21-23 May 2013, Fairmont Bab Al Bahr, Abu Dhabi

Find

new business

Maintain relationships

Discover new products

The most important ICT & CE event for the ME retail channel.

EVENTS

www.distree-me.com

info@distreevents.com

@DISTREE_MidEast

distreetubes

HOT PRODUCTS Review: Seagate Wireless Plus

SEAGATE WIRELESS PLUS With only a few major players in the external hard drive market, it can be difficult for brands to differentiate their products. With the new Wireless Plus, though, Seagate has found a nice little niche that it looks set to dominate.

If you’ve got a 1TB WD Passport, for example, and you’re happy with it, why would you go for anything else when you need more space?

Well, brands like Seagate have been at pains to add a little more to their hard drive offerings to seduce new customers. Now, units come bundled with media players, automatic back-up software and Wi-Fi connectivity. And customers seem willing to pay extra for this.

The new Wireless Plus should do relatively well, then. A sleek, good-looking unit, it packs 1TB of storage space, Wi-Fi and Apple AirPlay connectivity, a 10-hour battery life, and a killer app on which to stream and manage media.

It’s the spiritual successor to last year’s GoFlex

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Satellite, so how much has Seagate improved over the past 12 months?

Well, the Wi-Fi reach is good enough to cover an entire medium-sized apartment, and during my test, I saw no reason to doubt the claimed 10-hour battery life – a big improvement over the GoFlex’s six hours.

You can connect up to eight different devices over Wi-Fi with iPads, iPhones, Androids or laptops – whatever you want.

Each device can stream different files at the same time, though if more than three devices watch separate movies, the streaming speeds begin to suffer. Still, you could quite happily fetch photos or Word documents from the drive without affecting anyone else.

Everything is done through the new Seagate Media app – available for free on the Apple App Store or Google Play store. I’ve been told you can also get the app on your Samsung smart TV. Simply turn the Plus on, find the network from your Wi-Fi network list, connect, and open the app. If you’re using a PC, you just open your browser and you get taken to the same central dashboard that’s displayed on the app.

“Ah-ha,” you may be thinking. “If I connect to the Plus’s network, I’ll no longer be connected to my home or office network, meaning I won’t have Internet access.”

You’d be right about that. Happily, there’s a drop-down bar contained in the central dashboard. Here, you’ll find a list of available networks, and you’ll be able to connect to your network through the hard drive.

Back on the dashboard’s home screen, you can view either video, audio or picture files in alphabetical order. If, like me, your hard

drive is organised meticulously into folders and sub-folders and more sub-folders, this alphabetical view is annoying, because it just takes everything you’ve got and dumps it onto one screen. Happily, a folder view is available – it’ll just take a bit of searching to find it. Once you’ve picked your file, streaming is no issue whatsoever – the system works great.

You can upload to the Plus via Wi-Fi – something that the GoFlex can’t do. But, to be honest, it’s not the fastest way of doing things, particularly when your wired option is USB 3.0.

There isn’t much to fault the Wireless Plus for – it does exactly what it says on the tin at a price of just Dh799. Given that’s what some firms charge for their standard hard drives, I’d say that the Plus has found the perfect way to differentiate itself from the competition.

RATINGS: HARDWARE

9/10

PERFORMANCE

9/10

VALUE FOR MONEY

9/10

This review was done by RWME online editor Tom Paye.

He can be reached at tom. paye@cpimediagroup.com.

HOT PRODUCTS New launches

TP-LINK LAUNCHES BATTERYPOWERED 3G MOBILE WI-FI TP-LINK has launched its new 3G Mobile Wi-Fi M5350, designed to provide high-speed Internet access on the go. This product got the Red Dot Award for Product Design 2013, iF 2013 Product Design Award and CES Innovations 2013 Design and Engineering Award. It is at the forefront of wireless 3G sharing, combining the mobility of 3G broadband

connections using its internal 3G modem with the flexibility of Wireless 802.11n and powered using a high-capacity 2000mAh internal rechargeable battery creating a robust wireless sharing device with unbeatable performance.

With its sleek “pebble-like” design and OLED status display, the M5350 is as comfortable at the beach as it is on the conference table. Whether on a business trip or a road trip with their family, users can enjoy the freedom of wireless Internet wherever 3G coverage is available, without having to haul around a bulky device. With its powerful 2000mAh battery, the M5350 is able to operate for a full six to seven hours at full capacity and can be flexibly recharged via a micro USB cable connected to a laptop, portable charger or included adapter to provide endless hours of 3G sharing.

NOKIA EXPANDS WINDOWS PHONE PORTFOLIO Nokia has expanded its Windows Phone 8 portfolio with the retail launch of the Lumia 520 and Lumia 720. The new range, which represents Nokia’s strategy to bring innovative technologies from flagship devices to a wider audience, is now available at all major participating retail outlets.

The Lumia 520 is Nokia’s most affordable Windows Phone 8 smartphone, delivering experiences normally only found in high-end smartphones, such as the same digital camera lenses found on the flagship Lumia 920, Nokia Music for free music out of the box and even

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offline, and the HERE location navigation suite.

A four-inch, super sensitive touchscreen makes for a more responsive and immersive experience than can usually be found at this price.

The Lumia 720, meanwhile, delivers a high-end camera performance at a mid-range price point. The Lumia 720 also packs Nokia’s best front-facing camera, which is sure to be popular for self-portraits. In addition, the 4.3-inch ClearBlack Gorilla Glass 2.0 display also boosts visibility from different and wider angles.

CANON UNVEILS POWERSHOT N Canon Middle East has unveiled the PowerShot N, a new type of camera that offers a different approach to capturing creative photos and sharing them instantly with social networks. The unconventional square design, innovative zoom and shoot operation lens rings and tilting touch screen encourage people to capture their world from a fresh angle, whilst the new Creative Shot mode automatically generates a selection of unexpected creative treatments with every shot taken.

The PowerShot N features integrated Wi-Fi and one-touch connectivity to smartphones or tablets, thanks to the Mobile Device Connect button. Users can upload images or movies to social networks such as Facebook and YouTube just moments after they’ve been captured, no matter where they may be.

Despite its compact size, the PowerShot N inherits much of Canon’s latest imaging technology to deliver superior, Canon-quality images and movies. Combining a high-sensitivity 12.1-megapixel CMOS sensor and an advanced DIGIC 5 image processor, the HS System featured in this camera supports a maximum ISO of 6,400 to produce sharp and clear images in challenging low-light conditions.

SEAGATE LAUNCHES NEW STORAGE SOLUTIONS Seagate Technology, a worldwide leader in storage solutions, has introduced two of its most anticipated wireless network storage devices—the Seagate Wireless Plus and Seagate Central—to consumers across the UAE as part of the brand’s expansion plans within the Middle East retail electronics market.

The new Seagate Wireless Plus builds on the success of the company’s first-generation product, the GoFlex Satellite drive, and is designed to wirelessly stream content for up to eight smartphones or tablets with enough space for up to 500 high-definition movies, extending the limits of today’s mobile lifestyle.

The new Seagate Wireless Plus now also includes a 10-hour battery life to match that of most tablets and smart phones. The integrated 1TB drive provides all one needs to be entertained anywhere, including long road trips or flights, without an Internet connection. The Wireless Plus is accessed through the mobile Seagate Media app

for Apple iOS, Android and Kindle Fire HD devices.

The first storage device to feature a Smart TV app for access to files on the big screen, the Seagate Central delivers automatic back-up for the entire home, access to digital movies and music from networked devices, as well as remote access from outside a home network.

Seagate has also taken a new step in the design, which looks great in any living room.

RUCKUS INTROS WI-FI WALL SWITCH Ruckus Wireless has launched its its dualband concurrent ZoneFlex 7055 Wi-Fi wall switch, which gives hotel and resort operators an elegant, low-cost and inconspicuous solution that leverages their existing wired infrastructure, while enabling the delivery of high-speed Wi-Fi to support an everexpanding assortment of IP-based guest services over multiple virtual LANs (VLANs).

The only integrated solution in the industry to

offer the simultaneous operation of 2.4 and 5 GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi along with wireless meshing, the ZoneFlex 7055 Wi-Fi wall switch uniquely combines wired and wireless connectivity within a universal low-profile form factor (13.6 cm square by 30 cm deep) that fits into any standard United States or European electrical junction box, among others.

Functioning as a standalone device or managed centrally by the Ruckus ZoneDirector wireless LAN (WLAN) controller, the ZoneFlex 7055 Wi-Fi wall switch is also fit for schools and large institutional organizations wishing to address the proliferation of 5 GHz capable client devices like the Apple iPhone 5 and others, while continuing to support 2.4 GHz and wired access.

ACER UNVEILS ALL-IN-ONE ASPIRE ZC-605 Acer has launched its latest all-in-one consumer desktop, the 19.5-inch Aspire ZC-605.

As is the case with most all-in-one desktops, Acer’s new unit puts strong emphasis on having a clean design. Encasing the display is a thick, black bezel that looks like a high-quality photo frame. The capsuleshaped speaker and port bay is also pretty eye-catching.

And to ensure that you don’t ruin the sleek looks with ugly wires running everywhere, Acer has fitted hooks to the ZC-605’s stand, so that cables can be kept in place.

Behind the pretty face there are plenty of practical applications to the new design. The tilt can be adjusted from 10 to 30 degrees, for example, and the 1-megapixel HD webcam is also adjustable. That capsule housing the speakers, meanwhile, also houses the most frequently used ports, including a USB 3.0 input.

In terms of the computing power, the ZC-605 can be specced with an Intel Pentium 2117U processor, an Intel Celeron 1007U processor or an Intel HM70 Express Chipset.

Users can spec up to 16 GB of DDR3 1600 MHz SDRAM, and up to 1 TB for storage, which comes in the form of a 7200 rpm, 3.5-inch SATA 3 GB/s hard disk drive. Graphics are dealt with

by Intel HD Graphics.

Naturally, the new Acer comes preloaded with Windows 8, and Acer will also throw in AcerCloud, the firm’s own public cloud service.

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HOT PRODUCTS New launches

HP LAUNCHES ELITEPAD 900 HP has introduced the ElitePad 900, designed for business, government, healthcare and retail.

Ergonomically shaped to fit comfortably in the hand, the HP ElitePad offers a 10.1-inch display, weighs just 0.68 grams and measures 9.2 millimeters thin. The 16-by-10 aspect ratio maximises the display area for ideal viewing of traditional business applications, as well as video content. Precision crafted, with an eye toward fit and finish, the HP ElitePad uses premium materials such as CNCmachined aluminum and Corning Gorilla Glass 2.

Powered by next-generation Intel mobile processors, the HP ElitePad delivers PC productivity for those on the go and Intel x86 compatibility for existing business application support. It is optimised for Windows 8 and supports touch-, pen- or voice-based input. The HP ElitePad also provides power efficiency and smartphone-style convenience

with compatibility for traditional Windows applications, as well as easy integration into existing IT environments.

The HP ElitePad tablet’s 1080p frontfacing video camera and 8-megapixel rear camera with an LED flash and included CyberLink YouCam software help users easily communicate face to face, create high-definition web videos or record training videos without high production costs.

LOGITECH UNVEILS NEW G LINE Logitech has unveiled the new G Line for PC gamers. The new line-up includes six redesigned mice and keyboard favourites and two new headsets.

The G100s and G400s Optical Gaming Mice feature “Delta Zero” sensor technology, Logitech said. This is a new sensor technology that accurately

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responds to hand movements.

The mouse line-up is headed by the G700s Rechargeable Gaming Mouse, which, Logitech claims, offers the report rate of a wired gaming mouse. The rest of the mouse line-up consists of the G500s Laser Gaming Mouse, the G400s Optical Gaming Mouse and the G100s Optical Gaming Mouse.

The new keyboard line, meanwhile, consists of the G19s Gaming Keyboard and the G510s Gaming Keyboard. The G19s feeds a steady flow of information, including vital statistics.

The G Line also includes two headsets – the G430 Surround Sound Gaming Headset and the G230 Stereo Gaming Headset.

SIEMON’S NEW FIBRE TRUNKING SOLUTION Siemon has expanded its comprehensive line of fibre trunking solutions with XGLO RazorCore assemblies. Siemon’s RazorCore cables have a significantly reduced cable outside diameter (OD) for maximum space savings and optimised air flow, the company said in a statement.

Available in OM3 and OM4 laseroptimised multimode fibre and in single-mode fibre, XGLO RazorCore assemblies provide an efficient, costeffective alternative to individual fieldterminated components. By combining the performance of factory termination with the reduced OD of Siemon’s RazorCore fibre, these new assemblies ensure both superior reliability and space utilisation in data centres, storage area networks (SANs) and local area networks (LANs), while offering up to 75 percent faster deployment over traditional field termination.

Compatible with all Siemon fibre enclosures, the new XGLO RazorCore assemblies feature an optional encapsulated protection sleeve with cable pulling eye to fully protect the fibres during installation.

Sporting an impressive 20-year warranty, the XGLO RazorCore fibre assemblies come with 900μm simplex breakout, 2.0-millimetre duplex breakout, simplex and duplex SC or LC connector types, as well as SC-LC hybrid options.

PARTNER EXCELLENCE CONFERENCE & AWARDS 2013

12th June 2013

Godolphin Ballroom, Jumeirah Emirates Towers Join the premier partner gathering in the Middle East as they discuss the latest trends that are together changing the IT landscape at Reseller Middle East’s Partner Excellence Conference 2013.

Then, watch as the best of the region walk away with prized trophies in recognition of their efforts at Reseller Middle East’s Partner Excellence Awards 2013.

REGISTER NOW!

www.resellerme.com/awards ENQUIRIES Rajashree R Kumar Commercial Director raj.ram@cpimediagroup.com Tel: +971 4 440 9131

Jeevan Thankappan Group Editor jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com Tel: +971 4 440 9109

COLUMN

58

Reseller Middle East’s online editor offers his thoughts on the Middle Eastern technology channel.

Channel surfing

Channel surfing

Reseller Middle East

IT’S ALL ABOUT STORAGE If I was the kind of person to play the stock market, I’d invest heavily in anyone who has anything to do with storage.

Storage is big news at the moment – people just need more and more of it. With the advent of big data and the desire to have up-to-the-minute analytics, even small and medium businesses are buying stacks of hard drives. On the consumer side, meanwhile, buyers are increasingly looking for desktops and notebooks sporting at least 1TB of storage – and they’ll probably have a couple of external hard drives, too.

The thing that really sets storage out as a winner, though, is that storage vendors can’t keep up with the demands the market is placing on the industry.

“Industry estimates are that the storage demand is going to continue to grow north of 50 percent. What we’re struggling to do as an industry is keep up. The rate at which we squeeze the data onto the disk is growing at about 15 percent, and that’s finite,” Mark Whitby, Vice President of EMEA Sales and Marketing, Seagate, told me at the recent Seagate Partner Conference Middle East.

For a storage vendor, Whitby acknowledged that it’s a nice problem to have, because the only way people can actually get the storage they need is by buying more hard drives.

Surely, I pressed, there must be an emerging new technology around the corner – one that would solve the problem of fitting more data onto the same amount of real estate. After all, we can’t simply be expected to fill our lives up with hard drives, can we? What’s more, isn’t SSD getting cheaper?

The answer was yes and no.

Yes, the likes of Seagate and its competitors are looking at ways to increase hard drive capacity, but

APRIL 2013

Tom Paye, Online Editor, CPI Technology

unfortunately, this still won’t keep pace with the ever-increasing demand. At some point, Whitby said, there literally won’t be enough storage to go around.

And nope, SSD is still far too expensive to replace old-fashioned disk drives.

“Fundamentally, we’ve got fewer and fewer companies, we’ve got to invest more and more money to keep pace, and that’s kind of the economic challenge. The technical challenge is how we can squeeze more data onto a piece of real estate. And that’s something we’re working with,” Whitby said.

I was told at the conference that Seagate puts more money into R&D than its two main competitors combined, so if anyone was going to crack the problem, it’ll probably be Seagate. But by Seagate’s own admission, there isn’t anything on the horizon yet.

The end-user can get around the problem of having to buy more and more drives by simply moving onto cloud. Whitby told me that, pretty soon, around 65 percent of people’s data will be up on the cloud, with the rest being on their hard drives. This would negate the need for buying more storage.

Yet the data still has to be stored somewhere – this time, it’s with your cloud provider. What happens when they start running out space because everyone has decided to move to cloud? They’re going to need to invest in yet more storage – warehouses full of it, if something doesn’t change – and those costs are going to be passed down to the end-user. Either way, everyone’s going to have to pay for more storage.

And that brings me back to my original point – this is great news if you’re involved in storage. No doubt any resellers who have partnered up with the main storage vendors will know what I’m talking about. If it was me, I’d invest heavily over the next few years. //

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