Reseller Middle East November 2018 by Reseller Middle East

ISSUE 262 | NOVEMBER 2018 www.tahawultech.com

REALISING THE DIGITAL DREAM HOW OMA EMIRATES IS ENABLING THE REGIONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S DRIVE TO DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

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CONTENTS

ISSUE 262 // NOVEMBER 2018

COVER FEATURE

REALISING THE DIGITAL DREAM

Niranj Sangal, group CEO, OMA Emirates, elaborates on the roadmap the company has undertaken to realise the digital goals of the region.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEWS

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

OPINION

14 WALK THE DIGITAL TALK

16 CONSISTENCY IS KEY

KS Parag from FVC, sheds light on what digital disruption means for regional channel partners.

REVIEW

XIAOMI: Mi A2 LITE

Service consistency and customer empowerment will give telco service providers in the Middle East an edge over competition, says Mohammed Al-Moneer from A10 Networks.

INTERVIEW

22 SEIZING THE DAY

Reseller ME caught up with David Grant, Westcon International and Steve Lockie, Westcon-Comstor ME to learn company updates.

HOT PRODUCTS

FEATURES

26 THE BIG LEAGUE

Reseller ME speaks to industry stalwarts to learn how channel partners can leverage the opportunities in the big data market.

VENDOR FOCUS

34 KNOCKING ON OPPORTUNITIES

Ring’s Mohammad Meraj Hoda explains how the firm aims to harness the regional prospects and shares expansion strategies.

PARTNER WATCH

OPPO F9 STARRY PURPLE EDITION NOW AVAILABLE IN UAE

40 GEARING FOR GROWTH

Pouya Parsafar from Enterprise Systems, examines how its training academy is equipped to enable partners become skilled in new and emerging technologies.

43 EFFECTIVE PARTNERSHIPS

Nuvias’ Mario Gay discusses plans to onboard channel and vendor partners across the firm’s focused technology areas.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // NOVEMBER 2018

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EDITORIAL Maximise your full potential

Janees Reghelini Editor

E-mail: janees.reghelini@ cpimediagroup.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/ TahawulTech Twitter: @TahawulTech

FOUNDER, CPI MEDIA GROUP Dominic De Sousa (1959-2015) Publishing Director Natasha Pendleton natasha.pendleton@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9139 Published by

Registered at Dubai Production City, DCCA PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 4 447 2409 © Copyright 2018 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.

e are constantly offered statistics and figures on the growth and uptake of new and emerging technologies and how the market is developing. Most of these facts are usually from a global perspective, which is why it was refreshing to see Enabler One take the initiative to discover the true picture from a regional standpoint. Enabler One’s Channel Speak survey revealed insights that we probably were aware of but now have a clear view on. One of the findings that I found most interesting was how partners are not ready to sell new technologies such as IoT and big data analytics, even though 81% admit that the market is prepared to take the risk in adopting these advanced technologies. The lack of adequate skillsets and trainings are the biggest deterrents to this situation. Regional vendors and value-added distributors are increasingly making an

EDITORIAL Managing Editor Michael Jabri-Pickett mjp@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9158 Editor Janees Reghelini janees.reghelini@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9167 Online Editor Adelle Geronimo adelle.geronimo@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9135 DESIGN Head of Design Froilan Cosgafa IV froilan.cosgafa@cpimediagroup.com Senior Designer Analou Balbero analou.balbero@cpimediagroup.com

effort towards this challenge; however, partners need to consciously decide to become proficient in these technologies if they wish to have a portion of the pie. What’s also surprising is that while more than 50 percent partners offer cloud and over 40 percent provide consulting, professional and managed services around it, it didn’t feature as the top solutions sold in the last one year. Instead, the market spending was focused on servers, storage and network infrastructure. There is a distinct need for partners to go beyond what they usually do and offer customers innovative solutions for their evolving challenges. At the very least, partners should make it a point to provide the entire strength of their existing portfolio and not only focus on what might be easy to sell. If they wish to grow their margins and increase profitability, they must exploit every revenue stream they have while simultaneously work on developing new ones.

Designer Marlou Delaben marlou.delaben@cpimediagroup.com ADVERTISING Group Sales Director Kausar Syed kausar.syed@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9130 Business Development Manager Youssef Hariz youssef.hariz@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9111 Senior Sales Manager Sabita Miranda sabita.miranda@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9128 Sales Manager Nasir Bazaz nasir.bazaz@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9147

CIRCULATION Operations Manager Shweta Santosh shweta.santosh@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9107 DIGITAL SERVICES Web Developers Jefferson de Joya Abbas Madh Photographers Max Poriechkin Charls Thomas webmaster@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9100 DIGITAL www.tahawultech.com Printed by Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing LLC

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // NOVEMBER 2018

HIGHLIGHTS

Sophos signs Ingram Micro to deliver next-gen cybersecurity solutions

ophos has announced it has signed Ingram Micro as its newest distributor for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq and Yemen. The agreement will see Ingram Micro distribute and promote next-generation cyber threat protection from Sophos for networks and endpoints, including web, email, server and mobile security through its wide network of resellers across the region. “Signing up Ingram Micro is a part of a focused channel expansion strategy for the region to deliver advanced and highly-effective cybersecurity solutions that are only available through our channel partners,” said Harish Chib, vice president, Sophos Middle East & Africa. “Ingram Micro’s geographical coverage, extensive customer base and its valueadded services have established it as the largest and fastest growing value-added distributor in the region. Ingram is the perfect distribution relationship for our robust pipeline of exciting new products

Marc Kassis, Ingram Micro and Amar Mehta, Sophos

and technology, especially in our strategic pillars of next-generation endpoint, next-generation firewall, and the Sophos Central cloud-based management platform which enables synchronised security protection.” The specialised partner dashboard within the Sophos Central cloud-based management platform allows partners and managed service providers (MSPs) to manage and configure product settings, distribute licenses and have real-time

perspective on their customer activity. The Sophos Central dashboard also provides partners with up-to-the-minute threat and product updates, allowing them to deliver faster, more effective protection to customers. Marc Kassis, Ingram Micro cybersecurity director, said, “Ingram Micro strongly believes in empowering organisations with best-in-class cyberdefense capabilities. With cyber threats evolving and changing daily, organizations of all sizes need trainings, services, consultancy and technology that’s on the frontline of developing highly effective security solutions. With Sophos in our portfolio, our partners can provide the most advanced and predictive security technology to their customers. Sophos is a channel driven company that focuses all its efforts towards technical innovation, marketing, sales, and support initiatives that will help our partners succeed on all levels. With Sophos in our portfolio, we are the front runner of the most innovative and advanced Value-Added Distributor of IT security in the region.”

Redington Value unveils new cloud platform – CloudQuarks

egional value-added distributor Redington Value presented its extensive portfolio with an emphasis on emerging and advanced technologies such as cloud computing, IoT and data analytics, at the 38th edition of GITEX Technology Week. The distributor showcased the prowess of its recently introduced data science and analytics practice and also launched a new cloud platform called CloudQuarks at the exhibition. Redington Value’s CloudQuarks is a new cloud platform, which aims to assist partner organisations to build the right foundation and achieve seamless business excellence, when they set up their cloud practices. Channel partners can now enjoy the benefits of being able to have an aggregate view of customers, manage

subscription payments and credits while also gaining invaluable insights to their customers’ cloud consumption patterns through CloudQuarks analytics. Partners can effortlessly join Redington’s CloudQuarks cloud platform within seconds through a simple two-step process. CloudQuarks multi-cloud marketplace houses a portfolio that encompasses solutions for every customer need, right from storage and security to analytics and software. Redington Value offers its channel community customised engagement models with CloudQuarks such as Cloud Advisor, Cloud Reseller and Cloud Service Provider. Ramkumar Balakrishnan, President, Redington Value, said, “Cloud Advisor partners will engage with customers wholly based on their advisory proficiency while we will take care

NOVEMBER 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

Ramkumar Balakrishnan, Redington Value

of managing the commercials and services. We play the role of cloud advisors to those partners who want to be our Cloud Resellers. These partners are ready to embark on the cloud journey and we further assist them to comprehend and outline customer business challenges.”

HIGHLIGHTS

Exclusive Networks reinforces strengths in cloud and security

t GITEX 2018, regional distributor Exclusive Networks reiterated its strengths in not only the security space but also in cloud. To this effect, the distributor has unveiled a Cyber and Cloud super centre at show. The company is emphasising its cloud portfolio along with its security offerings, which are already quite well known in the market. Nathan Clements, MD, Exclusive Networks, said, “We want to highlight and emphasise that Exclusive Networks has evolved into being a strong player in both cybersecurity and cloud technologies.” According to the MD, launching the Cyber and Cloud super centre at the show is another way of reinforcing this messaging to the market. “Customers can rely on us for all their end-to-end security and cloud

tailors its business requirements. We are according to the working towards being nuances of each market a one-stop-shop in and offers partners and these areas. Globally the customers customised cybersecurity and cloud solutions. markets are worth $140 Clements said, billion. This is a huge “We are enabling our opportunity and we are partners to be a trusted enabling our partners to advisor for customers’ take advantage of it.” future requirements. He added that They need to not only GITEX is essential for be able to address the distributor’s newer their security needs but brands as they can Nathan Clements, Exclusive Networks also be in a position advertise themselves to to counsel them when the Middle East market customers make that move to the and “showcase that they are backed cloud in the future. There are so many by a strong distributor like Exclusive aspects when it comes to moving to Networks.” the cloud era and partners need to be “The show offers them a great well equipped to be able to do that. At platform to announce to the market Exclusive Networks, we offer partners that they are ready to do business,” he in-depth support and resources to scale added. their businesses to new heights.” Exclusive Networks ensures that it

Seclore partners with StarLink for value-added distribution

tarLink has announced the signing of a distribution partnership with Seclore. Seclore is a provider of the industry’s first browserbased Rights Management solution, Seclore’s Data-Centric Security Platform (DCSP), a first-of-its-kind platform, is designed to give customers an open, integrated and automated Data-Centric Security approach to discover, identify, protect and track sensitive data. The automation and agility of the platform enables organisations to remove the limitations of point solutions while increasing the security of sensitive data. At the core of the Seclore DCSP, is the Seclore Unified Policy Manager, the central engine for orchestrating policy management, identity federation, and usage data consolidation. This new partnership agreement enables StarLink to add the Seclore DCSP to its portfolio of IT security

Mahmoud Nimer, StarLink and Rohit Oberoi, Seclore

offerings. StarLink with its extensive channel network will support Seclore expand its market reach and operations across the region. Moreover, Seclore’s integration with Boldon James, one of StarLink’s strategic vendors, will facilitate customers with one solution that delivers end-to-end, data-centric security with data classification. Seclore Data Classification, powered by bestof-breed classification from Boldon

James, enables organisations to easily define and apply classification to their documents as they are created and modified. Mahmoud Nimer, general manager, StarLink, said, “By adopting a DataCentric security approach, cyber threats become easier to manage and IT security becomes an enabler of future innovation. StarLink is well positioned to deliver Seclore’s solutions through its expert teams and channel reach.” Rohit Oberoi, Seclore’s director of channel sales for India and Middle East, said, “StarLink’s widely recognised status as a Trusted Security Advisor means that Seclore will be able to significantly expand our reach, leveraging StarLink’s impressive sales, pre-sales and professional services expertise to deliver the many benefits of the Seclore Data-Centric Security Platform to customers throughout the region.”

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // NOVEMBER 2018

HIGHLIGHTS

Lenovo, EES partner to drive intelligent transformation in the UAE

enovo and Emitac Enterprise Solutions (EES), an IT infrastructure services and solutions provider, have announced a strategic partnership for the UAE market. As a part of this partnership, EES has been officially been appointed as a tierone partner and will leverage Lenovo’s data centre portfolio to drive intelligent transformation through software defined solutions for enterprise customers in the UAE. Lenovo’s data center portfolio spans servers, storage, converged and hyperconverged, networking, hyperscale, software and services. This includes its ThinkSystem and ThinkAgile products. Richard Wilcox, regional director, Middle East said, “The UAE is one of our most strategically important market and Lenovo is singularly focused on

Gautham Raj, EES

empowering enterprise customers to intelligently transform their businesses to competitively perform in this new era of the third-platform technologies. With the appointment of EES as our tier-one partner in the UAE, we are confident that we’ll be able to better serve our

invaluable customers.” “EES has an unparalleled leadership position in delivering IT infrastructure, managed and cloud services and solutions to clients in the UAE and through this partnership, we’ll be able to further tap into the telecommunications, education and healthcare verticals,” added Wilcox. Gautham Raj, EES CEO said, “We are excited to partner with Lenovo as they have one of the strongest data center portfolio and have become the platform of choice for a wide variety of software defined solutions in the marketplace. With the latest announcement of their strategic alliance with NetApp, this portfolio is clearly the richest in the industry. With Emitac’s long history of customer relationships and strong technical delivery and support capabilities, we have the perfect synergy to make this partnership a success.”

Zyxel partners with Al Hosani Computer to deliver multi X mesh WiFi home system

yxel Communications has signed a partnership agreement with Al Hosani Computer, a multi-vendor distributor of information security products. At GITEX, Al Hosani Computer had introduced the latest broadband WiFi home routers from Zyxel. Zyxel’s flagship Multi X Home Mesh Wifi System is powered with a TriBand wireless system, Multy delivers maximum wireless speed through its dedicated 5 GHz connection (between nodes), and broadcasts with 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WiFi network. The Multy WiFi system can cover up to 7,500 square feet (696 m2), enabling expansive wireless coverage without compromising performance. Meanwhile, ARMOR Z2 offers a powerful processor and speedy Wi-Fi connectivity for ensuring uninterrupted massive game and media streaming, according to Zyxel. Handling 4K UHD media contents, immersive gaming, big file transferring,

products,” said music streaming, Mamoun Abdullah, ARMOR Z2 ensures general manager performance by and head of channel, 1.7GHz dual-core Middle East, Zyxel processor and Communication. dual-band Wi-Fi for “We are happy maximised speed to add Zyxel home up to 2600Mbps routers to our Stream 4K UHD video product portfolio,” contents. said Ryad Santouh, Zyxel’s 3GPPmanaging partner, compliant, highAl Hosani Computer. performance LTE “Zyxel home routers product series Mamoun Abdullah, Zyxel Communications are the products provides wireless of choice for the ultra-fast broadband customers worldwide and have many connectivity for users to freely surf the impressive awards such as Taiwan Internet and access any information Excellence Award 2018, PC Pro at home, in the office, on the move, or anywhere that falls under LTE coverage. UK 2018, POC Network USA 2018, Techzine Netherlands 2018, IDomiX “Our partnership with Al Hosani Germany 2018 to name just a few. We Computer will help to distribute the look forward to delivering Zyxel home new line of Zyxel’s home routers to routers to the Middle East customers the key retailers of the Middle East so customers in the Middle East may enjoy so that they can enjoy their quality and unmatched performance for gaming and the latest technology and fantastic HD media streaming and on the move.” performance of our highly acclaimed

NOVEMBER 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

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11th December 2018

Renaissance Downtown Hotel, Dubai TahawulTech.comâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seventh edition of Hot 50 Awards is scheduled to take place on 11th December, 2018. Each year, the event inspires channel stakeholders to go above and beyond and truly optimise market opportunities to be considered as an esteemed Hot 50 brand. The exclusive event pays tribute to channel players who are resolute in their strategies to craft value and equally successful relationships for customers, partners and themselves.

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HIGHLIGHTS

Infoblox offers managed service providers new core network solutions

nfoblox has announced a new programme that combines its DNS, DHCP, and IP address management (DDI) and DNS based security solutions with a consumption based pricing model to enable Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to fill a gap in their service portfolio. DDI infrastructure is critical to enterprise networks however most organisations attempt to manage it internally due to limited availability of such services from MSPs. Infoblox is addressing this problem by offering a robust set of services combined with a flexible pricing model that allows enterprises to focus on their core competencies and MSPs to provide a full suite of services that include secure DDI. For MSPs a robust portfolio of services and flexible pricing and deployment models, helps them address a wide variety of customer needs without any significant impact on their

to their customers and operations or sales pay based on actual motions. The services usage, minimising the can seamlessly be upfront investment. added to existing The model allows managed offers while us to ensure that we greatly reducing offer solutions aligned the massive upfront with customer need – investments typically whether they choose to associated with new deploy and manage it service creation. A themselves or consume flexible range of Dilip Pillaipakam, Infoblox them as a service.” potential packages allow MSPs to start with entry-levels options or offer complete Infoblox’s secure managed secure DDI solutions with DDI services and threat intelligence. “There is a gap in managed the new services offered by MSPs today,” consumption-based said Dilip Pillaipakam, vice president model allows MSPs to and general manager of Infoblox’s Service Provider Business. “Infoblox’s capitalise on market secure DDI services and the new demand and offer consumption-based model allows deployment flexibility to MSPs to capitalise on market demand, offer deployment flexibility their customers.”

Bulwark expands security offerings with new deal

ulwark Distribution has expanded its security specialised product portfolio by signing a distribution agreement with Ekran System, a provider of cybersecurity and insider threat monitoring solutions. Under the agreement, Bulwark will sell, implement and support Ekran System, solutions through its wide network of channel partners in the region. Jose Menacherry, CEO, Bulwark Distribution, said, “Bulwark is excited to work with Ekran System, a leading technology specialising in User Behavior and Insider Threat Monitoring solutions, in the Middle East and Indian sub-continent region and as a distributor partner we would be offering our value-added services including lead generation, channel enablement, pre-sales and post-sales support. We have well-trained, certified staff to

At Bulwark, we cater to our customers’ needs and introduce not just products but solutions that make the users’ life easier, faster and more secure.” Jose Thomas Menacherry, Bulwark

support our partners and customers. At Bulwark, we cater to our customers’ needs and introduce not just products but solutions that make the users’ life easier, faster and more secure.” Ekran System’s solutions portfolio delivers customers with easy-to-use tool to address all their insider threat monitoring needs as well as improvise

on their compliance and meet security audit requirements. Oleg Shomonko, head, Business Development for Ekran System, said, “Our aim is to penetrate different verticals and across different market segments in the Middle East region and this may be achieved through implementing a focused go to market strategy with Bulwark and its global resources to deliver support to our customers.”

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // NOVEMBER 2018

HIGHLIGHTS

Pivot3, AlJammaz partner to bring intelligent hybrid cloud solutions to GCC

and prioritises resources to the most important workloads so customers can consolidate them on one infrastructure with confidence. hyperconverged infrastructure “Pivot3’s vision for (HCI) performance and delivering smarter technology firm, to distribute infrastructure solutions intelligent hybrid cloud and that radically simplify Internet of Things (IoT) Asim AlJammaz, management at scale solutions in GCC. AlJammaz Distribution resonates with the market in Through this partnership, GCC,” said Asim AlJammaz, AlJammaz will provide vice president, AlJammaz Distribution. the channel with Pivot3’s smarter “Our goal is to provide differentiated infrastructure solutions that bring solutions to the channel, and we are security, resilience and manageability at able to do that with Pivot3’s intelligent scale for mission-critical environments. infrastructure platform.” Pivot3 is the only hyperconverged AlJammaz, together with its channel solution with an intelligence engine partners, will supply mid-market and that eliminates resource contention, enterprise customers with a practical automates data and workload mobility lJammaz has announced that it has partnered with Pivot3, the

and proven path to the software-defined data centre with the simplicity and economics of a cost-effective and easy to manage HCI platform. With Pivot3’s unique and innovative technology suite, AlJammaz is broadening its set of comprehensive solutions for every business vertical and technology need while continuing to provide agile and best in class IT solutions on a global scale. “This is a great opportunity to expand our rapidly growing partner channel,” said Anand Chakravarthi, area vice president MEA and APAC, Pivot3. “AlJammaz is a leader in its region, and we’re proud to help them and their resellers gain a competitive edge by providing customers with the same automated and intelligent solutions that thousands of Pivot3 global customers count on every day.”

Kaspersky Lab signs up Redington Value as regional VAD

aspersky Lab has partnered with Redington Value, value-added distribution division of Redington Gulf, to provide its wide range of products and services to organisations across the gulf market. Through this strategic agreement, Dubai-based Redington will act as the vendor’s dedicated partner and leverage its strong network reach to provide advance cybersecurity services and products to organisations and enable them to develop new capabilities in mitigating cyber-attacks. With an extensive network of stockpoints and sales offices, Redington Value has embarked on a journey to help partners in the channel ecosystem to deliver the most optimal IT solution to their customers. Through their strong partner network, Redington is committed to meet the length and breadth of customer demands, through

our new distribution fast and efficient product partnership with and service delivery, easy Redington and make support access, prompt them a part of our journey dispatching of relevant to not only meet our information and optimised customers’ needs but distribution operations. exceed it,” he adds. Amir Kanaan, Ramkumar managing director, Balakrishnan, president, META region, Kaspersky Redington Value, said, Lab, said, “Reflecting “We are very excited to the dynamic nature join forces with Kaspersky of the cybersecurity Lab. This partnership landscape and the will enable us to lead the continuous threats to frontlines of cybersecurity businesses, Kaspersky Amir Kanaan, Kaspersky Lab innovation. As a valueLab expects investment added distributor, it is our in strengthening the IT core responsibility to offer advanced security infrastructure to increase by 18 solutions that effectively address our percent for both enterprise and small customers ever-evolving security business for the next three years. concerns. We are proud to announce “We continue to look at new ways this agreement and look forward to to empower our customers to protect developing a strong partnership with their data from all sorts of cyber threats. Kaspersky Lab.” Hence, we are delighted to announce

NOVEMBER 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

HIGHLIGHTS

IBM acquires open source firm Red Hat in a “game-changing” deal

eal accelerates IBM’s high-value business model, making IBM the #1 hybrid cloud provider in an emerging $1 trillion growth market. In what could well be one of the biggest tech mergers, IBM has announced that it has acquired the open source cloud software for approximately $34 billion. “The acquisition of Red Hat is a game-changer. It changes everything about the cloud market,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM Chairman, president and chief executive officer. “IBM will become the world’s number one hybrid cloud provider, offering companies the only open cloud solution that will unlock the full value of the cloud for their businesses. “Most companies today are only 20 percent along their cloud journey, renting compute power to cut costs,” she added. “The next 80 percent is about unlocking real business value and driving growth. This is the next chapter of the cloud. It requires shifting business applications to hybrid cloud, extracting more data and optimising every part of the business, from supply chains to sales.” According to IBM, the acquisition will bring together the best-in-class hybrid cloud providers and will enable companies to securely move all business applications to the cloud. “Over the last couple of years, Linux has emerged as the number one operating system for business applications both on premise and on the cloud. In addition, containers and Kubernetes technologies have become the common fabric for both modernizing existing applications and writing cloud-native applications,” said Arvind Krishna, senior vice president, IBM Hybrid Cloud. “Together, IBM and Red Hat will bring this value to our clients, building on the progress IBM has already made with our $19 billion hybrid cloud business,” he added. “IBM and Red Hat will remain committed to the continued freedom

(L-R) James M. Whitehurst, Red Hat and Ginni Rometty, IBM

The next 80 percent is about unlocking real business value and driving growth. This is the next chapter of the cloud. It requires shifting business applications to hybrid cloud, extracting more data and optimising every part of the business, from supply chains to sales.” of open source, via such efforts as Patent Promise, GPL Cooperation Commitment, the Open Invention Network and the LOT Network,” said the statement from IBM. Upon closing of the acquisition, Red Hat will join IBM’s Hybrid Cloud team as a distinct unit, preserving the independence and neutrality of Red Hat’s open source development heritage and commitment, current product portfolio and go-to-market strategy, and unique development culture. Red Hat will continue to be led by Jim Whitehurst and Red Hat’s current management team. Whitehurst also will join IBM’s senior management team and report to Rometty. IBM intends to maintain Red Hat’s headquarters, facilities, brands and practices.

Symantec significantly expands cloud security portfolio Symantec has announced innovations and expansions to its cloud security portfolio, designed to help organisations protect the cloud generation applications and infrastructure they rely on. Symantec’s Cyber Defense Platform offers the broadest cloud protection available, providing visibility and control for virtually any cloud app and integrations with CloudSOC CASB, Cloud Workload Protection (CWP) and Data Loss Protection (DLP). It also provides the deepest cloud protection, giving customers the ability to track more risk attributes and scan cloud applications and repositories with new API Integrations. Symantec’s Cyber Defense Platform offers integrated security solutions covering a robust set of IaaS, PaaS and SaaS technologies that businesses use every day. Key portfolio updates include protection for cloud infrastructure, security for cloud applications and expanded cyber security services. Bradon Rogers, senior vice president, Enterprise Product Strategy, Symantec said, “Our cloud security suite was designed with innovative new features and comprehensive integrations to help meet the security and compliance needs of any organisation. By delivering these technologies with a cloud-first mindset and integrating security across infrastructure, workloads and applications, we are able to provide the most expansive protection in the industry. And, through innovations across the Integrated Cyber Defense platform, we are able to secure key control points – cloud, endpoint, network and email.”

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // NOVEMBER 2018

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APPOINTMENTS

INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS

The latest of who has moved where in the IT channel business.

Riverbed announces new regional director for territory and telco in METNA Riverbed has promoted METNA at Riverbed Mena Migally to the who said, “Migally has position of regional a keen understanding director, Territory and Telco of the Riverbed Digital for Middle East, Turkey Performance Platform, and North Africa (METNA). has a deep sense of As part of his new role, commitment to customers, Migally will be responsible and well-established ties for leading a direct and with our channel partners, channel-led sales team making him the ideal across the region, with addition to our regional emphasis on growing the executive leadership Mena Migally, Riverbed company’s market share team.” in the rapidly advancing Armed with 15 years of telecom sector and increasing business experience, Migally has been a part of opportunities for the company’s endthe Riverbed METNA team since 2014 user experience monitoring solution, in which time he has played a key role Riverbed SteelCentral Aternity. in expanding the company’s image Migally will continue to report directly as the Digital Performance Company. to Elie Dib, regional vice president, Building on this transformation, Migally

and his team will also focus on helping businesses modernise their networks to enhance performance, security and flexibility, by transitioning to SDWAN with the Riverbed SteelConnect platform. By working closely with the company’s partner ecosystem, Migally also sees opportunity in establishing Riverbed SteelHead, for WAN optimisation, and Riverbed SteelCentral, for network, application and end-user experience monitoring, as technologies of choice for service providers. Using these solutions in their network functions virtualisation (NFV) environments, telcos will gain an easier way to deploy and manage their distributed networks in today’s cloudcentric world.

Spire Solutions appoints new CEO Regional value-added distributor Spire Solutions has appointed Avinash Advani as its new CEO. The appointment, according to the company, is part of the company’s efforts to strengthen its regional presence and to grow its business footprint into new market. As the new CEO Advani’s responsibility is to optimise operations and steer the firm’s growth in line with its long-term vision. Advani joins Spire with an 18-year track record of driving technology and strategic and operational leadership at both startup and established organisations in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, as well as the US and Europe. Advani has an aptitude for product portfolio

founder and president, evolution, geographical added, “We are excited expansion, cultivating to have Avinash on strategic partnerships and board. He has extensive fostering tactical customer experience in the Middle development. East, with a background “This is an exciting in the IT security, cloud, juncture in the trajectory IoT, data centre, analytics, of Spire Solutions,” said networking and mobile Advani. “As one of the domains. He is also well region’s preferred valuedacquainted with the added distributors, it market dynamics and boasts a significant, Avinash Advani, Spire Solutions is skilled in maintaining satisfied customer strategic relationships base, and has plenty with channel partners as well as of experience under its belt. Now enterprise and government customers we’re going to leverage this history of in the region. Our market outlook success to launch Spire Solutions into continues to be bullish as we make new markets and cement its presence this further investment and anticipate in pre-existing ones.” exponential year-on-year growth.” Sanjeev Walia, Spire Solutions’

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // NOVEMBER 2018

OPINION // FVC

Walk the digital talk KS Parag, managing director, FVC, sheds light on what digital disruption means for regional channel partners.

wave of digital transformation (DX) is currently taking place in the Middle East. According to IDC, worldwide spending on DX technologies will pass the $1 trillion mark this year. In a recent report published by the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS) and conducted by PwC, it was highlighted that DX will generate $16.9 billion in extra revenue each year for companies in the Middle East from 2017 to 2021, as well as a further $17.3 billion in annual cost savings and efficiency gains. The increasing e-government and smart city initiatives by regional governments and the growing Internet penetration and social media usage is fueling the growth of digital transformation adoption in the region. In addition, rapid adoption of digital services in BFSI sector and enterprise mobility are all going to be the major growth drivers of the MENA digital

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The biggest challenge for channel partners is adapting themselves to benefit from the DX wave. Adapting also means that channel partners pivot from an industry that has been primarily focused on selling boxes, to one with an entirely new business model and way of working.â&#x20AC;?

NOVEMBER 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

transformation market. In addition, IT markets in the Middle East are expected to enter a period of transformative growth, buoyed by a relentless shift toward digital transformation and the more rapid adoption of Third Platform technologies. Going forward, technologies and solutions such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things, robotics, and blockchain will have parts to play in transformation across industries, particularly in Smart City and public sector initiatives. So, in terms of DX, what sort of possibilities does the market hold for the channel? What actually does digital disruption mean for the channel? How easy is it for solution providers to embrace the digital transformation we all keep harping on about? Well, when it comes to opportunities pertaining to DX, there are five factors that are shaping up the market for the channel. These include increased

adoption of cloud solutions, managed services efficiencies, orchestration and integration demands, increasingly complex datacenter technologies, and the need to sell and deliver business outcomes. The biggest challenge for channel partners is adapting themselves to benefit from the DX wave. Adapting also means that channel partners pivot from an industry that has been primarily focused on selling boxes, to one with an entirely new business model and way of working. Companies today look at channel partners to provide them with a level of expertise and support, which previously didn’t exist, to guide them through their DX journey. Since not everyone in the channel posses the talent, skillset, and resources required to support DX, key channel players and vendors need to step in to help the channel community with bridging this gap.

“When it comes to opportunities pertaining to DX, there are five factors that are shaping up the market for the channel. These include increased adoption of cloud solutions, managed services efficiencies, orchestration and integration demands, increasingly complex datacenter technologies, and the need to sell and deliver business outcomes.”

And this is where FVC’s expertise comes into play. While our channel community is highly diverse, all share some common challenges – such as the shortage of resources, money, and time. So, we strive very hard to make it as easy as possible for our partners to sell solutions rather than just equipment. FVC is always at the forefront of the support initiatives whether it is generating customer leads, assessing the IT requirements, and so on, we are with our partners in every step of the way. Our advice to the channel is simple - they should work towards understanding customer pinpoints in the DX journey and help and address those pinpoints through working collaboratively within a channel ecosystem. Channel partners who identify those enablers and vendors who will work collaboratively and support their journey, will find that the sky is the limit.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // NOVEMBER 2018

OPINION // A10 NETWORKS

Consistency is key

Service consistency and customer empowerment will give telco service providers in the Middle East an edge over competition, says Mohammed Al-Moneer, regional director, MENA at A10 Networks.

or service providers, consistency is imperative. Experience an outage? Service can’t scale to meet demand? Suffer a cyberattack? These events can severely harm the reputation and business of a telecom service provider. As an industry, we have the tendency to get caught up in the speeds and feeds. How fast is a service delivered? How much data can we cram in a pipe at a single time? What are the packets per second? And while fast is good, consistent is better. Think of it this way: it’s better to have a slower connection that is available 99.999 percent of the time than it is to have an ultra-fast connection available just 50 percent of the time. Consistency wins. And in the always-on, digital, connected world, consistency is the norm and therefore goes unnoticed. It’s inconsistency that gets the headlines.

“Customer empowerment is another major component of modern service provider success. It’s a part of customer satisfaction that is rarely talked about. Why? Because there’s a desire to be needed by a customer; and when they’re empowered to do things themselves, there’s a perception that service providers are no longer indispensable.”

NOVEMBER 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

But how do you employ a set of consistent services? Here are four steps to service consistency: 1. Start internally: Ensure your network and security policies are enforced consistently across data centers and clouds and that they can be centrally managed from a single location. This ensures that your services are being delivered consistently regardless of where they live. 2. Ensure your infrastructure can scale: Consistent service delivery requires around-the-clock availability. That means your services can’t slow down during peak demand. Having a hybrid infrastructure where cloud bursting is an option — sending traffic to the cloud when the data center gets overloaded — can ensure a seamless service experience for your customers without breaking the bank.

3. Focus on security: A DDoS attack or any kind of breach can cause massive disruption. Ensure your network is protected from multivector DDoS attacks and other threats, such as malware that hides out in SSL encrypted traffic. Being proactive about security and mitigating threats as they arise will ensure your services are delivered consistently and unfettered. 4. Converge services: Service providers can harness the power of services consolidation and automation to drive operational efficiency. Network architectures that build on optimization and consolidation are key to achieving service continuity and a seamless user experience. You want your applications to be delivered smoothly and uninterrupted. You want consistency. Following these steps will help you get there. Customer empowerment is another major component of modern service provider success. It’s a part of customer satisfaction that is rarely talked about. Why? Because there’s a desire to be needed by a customer; and when they’re empowered to do things themselves, there’s a perception

that service providers are no longer indispensable. But it’s actually quite the opposite. When you implement or enhance the selfservice capabilities you offer, you give your customers the freedom to tune services to meet their specific needs. Putting that control into the customers’ hands has powerful benefits. Reduce Support Volume First, giving your customers the ability to use services how they want means you don’t have to do it for them. That equals fewer calls, fewer emails and fewer chats. That means less hours spent tuning customer services, and more time spent on other imperative customer service activities. Save Money Fewer support calls cuts costs. Instead of paying techs and support staff to manually tune each customer’s specific service demands, you can put resources toward improving your offerings, speeding your time to market and beating your competition. You not only save money on support staff, but the money you do spend is no longer being dumped into a cost center and instead is being put toward innovation and differentiation.

Enable Personalisation Modern architectures like softwaredefined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) empower you to offer more personalized services to customers, which leads to deeper subscriber and application awareness. Automating the ability to create customized and personalized services on a per-subscriber and per-application basis ensures customers have a consistent experience while you can have a service offering that’s a key differentiator. Increase Customer Satisfaction A happy customer stays a customer. No one has ever left a service provider because they’re happy with the service and they are satisfied. Empowering the customer through self-service puts them in the driver’s seat and gives them control. That plus not having to wait on endless support calls to accomplish a seemingly simple task will keep your customers happy, and keep you happy as well. Those are just some of the ways empowering your customers can improve your business as a service provider.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // NOVEMBER 2018

COVER FEATURE // OMA EMIRATES

REALISING THE DIGITAL DREAM Niranj Sangal, group CEO, OMA Emirates, elaborates on the roadmap the company has undertaken to realise the digital goals of the region.

AE-based payment solutions provider OMA Emirates aims to accelerate the region’s drive to digital transformation with a host of digital solutions and services. Advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are enabling enhanced customer experiences. Increasingly not only customers but regional governments as well are seeking seamless digital commerce solutions to enable efficient and faster processes.

NOVEMBER 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

OMA Emirates, a frontrunner in the payments industry, has recently moved its operations to a dedicated building in Sharjah, UAE, called OMA Group, where all its companies have been integrated into one entity. Niranj Sangal, group CEO, OMA Emirates, says, “Tapping into the market opportunities and identifying the potential, we have consolidated our business into a single unit. We take pride in announcing that our new headquarters building is completely cashless and an ideal premise to demonstrate our innovative digital portfolio to our customers.”

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our aim is to expand our digital wallet and digital banking solutions and endorse the cashless ecosystem in every country where we will invest significantly.â&#x20AC;?

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // NOVEMBER 2018

COVER FEATURE // OMA EMIRATES

Keeping in line with the region’s digital ambitions, the company is working on several related initiatives. One of them includes retail chatbots, which is expected to be released early next year. According to Sangal, he expects it to be more of a servicebased revenue. The company is also

working extensively with AI. “We will be launching our first digital banking concept before the end of the year, which will be completely driven by AI. It will be an unmanned branch where customers can walk in and avail regular services instantly such as opening an account and

depositing or withdrawing cash. All that the customer would need is his or her card to tap in and enter.” While a number of players have done pilots for similar deployments, the concern is around training customers to utilise the facilities effectively. Lack of knowledge can

“We are trying to create a store that can offer customers seamless experiences. A scenario where customers can walk in, use their phones to scan a product and pay for it, and then walk away, confident that their purchases will be delivered to their desired location at their selected convenient time.” 20

NOVEMBER 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

deter customers from embracing these kinds of digital initiatives. “This is why we have built an AI-enabled training module, which directs customers through the speaker when they walk into the unmanned digital bank. Customers could also simply plug their headphones into the machine to learn how to navigate the digital branch. This is what we will be demonstrating within our new headquarters,” adds Sangal. Additionally, the company is also experimenting if it can use AI with hologram technology. “We have not tested it yet, but the objective is that it will be a virtual assistant that takes customers across everywhere.

When customers tap their card, the virtual assistant reads their name and helps to guide them in their service request.” Although it does seem like a scene off a sci-fi movie, Sangal says we could see these kinds of implementations as soon as within the next five years in the region. “For these kinds of implementations to be a norm, a high literacy rate is required within customers and the related ecosystem. While we have seen a few use-cases in mature markets, it really depends on how educated and adaptive the customers are.” OMA Emirates is also planning to introduce a similar digital concept for the retail space. “We are trying to create a store that can offer customers seamless experiences. A scenario where customers can walk in, use their phones to scan a product and pay for it, and then walk away, confident that their purchases will be delivered to their desired location at their selected convenient time.” Sangal expects digital and mobile commerce to grow exponentially over the next five years. At the new OMA Emirates headquarters, all transactions are done through a digital wallet. With plans to house a gym, grocery store and cafeteria, employees don’t need to worry about having exact change or any cash at all, for that matter. He says, “We don’t accept any cash. Our digital wallet solution was launched mid of this year. We have invested into the technology and would like to make it open-end for every user to use it. Even small mom-and-pop stores are keen on getting on the digital bandwagon today. These store owners can easily use our product and white label it to become a part of the digital payment seller ecosystem.” Over the course of 2019, OMA Emirates aims to continue its drive to create a network of solutions to enable digital lifestyle more effortlessly. “We will continue to expand into new markets and acquire companies that can augment what we do. We are looking to enter geographies such as Indonesia and Senegal soon. We are already present in Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Tanzania and

OMA Group’s new headquarters in Sharjah, UAE

“We have invested into the technology and would like to make it open-end for every user to use it. Even small mom-and-pop stores are keen on getting on the digital bandwagon today. These store owners can easily use our product and white label it to become a part of the digital payment seller ecosystem.” Kenya. We are hoping to enter at least seven new countries in the next year alone. Our aim is to expand our digital wallet and digital banking solutions and endorse the cashless ecosystem in every country where we will invest significantly.” Sangal added that the near future will see intensified use-cases of digital bots, AI and blockchain technologies.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // NOVEMBER 2018

INTERVIEW // WESTCON

Seizing the day Reseller ME caught up with David Grant (DG), COO, Westcon International and Steve Lockie (SL), group MD, Westcon-Comstor ME at the recently concluded GITEX 2018 to learn company updates and how partners can succeed in an increasingly digital era.

Can you elaborate on some of the latest updates at Westcon International? DG: Our biggest update is around the investments we have done in setting up legal entities in Qatar and Kuwait. Historically, we have tried to get into these markets, but it has always been remotely. Subsequently, we are going to continue these investments to Bahrain and Oman. By physically having a presence in these markets, we are reiterating our commitment to the local reseller community and to growing our operations in the region. It is already beginning to have a positive impact on

BY PHYSICALLY HAVING A PRESENCE IN THESE MARKETS, WE ARE REITERATING OUR COMMITMENT TO THE LOCAL RESELLER COMMUNITY AND TO GROWING OUR OPERATIONS IN THE REGION.

NOVEMBER 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

our business. On the strength of that, we are looking into our investments in Egypt more seriously. From a local team perspective, this means we have invested in premises and in people. And because this has been successful, we are now evaluating how we can invest more to accelerate the growth. Can you share the firmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s highlights at GITEX 2018? SL: GITEX was very much a networking event for us. We talk very little about the products and focus greatly on getting to know our partners and have true business-to-business conversations.

This year more than ever, those business conversations also included financing topics because of the lack of liquidity in the channel, which is a huge challenge for all of us at the moment. Our conversations included topics such as transparency in accounting, business planning and working out ways in which we can be more creative in the manner we work out the deals. Can you elaborate on your IT digital distribution platforms? DG: Spanning over two to three years, we have undergone a journey to ensure our SAP platform is fully deployed in the Europe, Middle East and Africa. This is important to our customers because now it means our Middle East team can really leverage all of our inventory availability, assistance and tools that we have developed in Europe, which is a much bigger market for us financially. In this year, we are planning to invest another 12 million dollars in our digital distribution platform. What does the digital distribution platform include? DG: It is our one view pro team tool, which is integrated into a number of our core vendors. This means we can take all of our quoting and provide it electronically to all our partners. They can access that either through us emailing it to them as well as primarily through our partner portal view. This effectively allows them to not only look at all their account information but also view quotes, place orders, renewals information and so on. We are driving complete automation of the

renewals process with our vendors and resellers. What’s interesting is that most of our vendors are migrating to selling licenses on a subscription basis. These subscription-based licenses on the device or on the platform is a part of our automation so that we can help our resellers transact seamlessly and create follow-up renewals for the coming year. We are investing heavily to ensure that we integrate into our core vendors’ systems. We are making sure all our channel partners that we work with, from service providers, local systems integrators to the SMB partner base, can access all of this information from their online accounts. We can service our customers and vendors electronically, which is a big win. How are distributors helping partners enhance their operations in the digital era? DG: As distributors, we enable partners to transition their business to the digital era and embrace all the involved aspects such as automation. However, the most important element continues to be around training and education. Whether the solution is delivered by a cloud consumption or subscription billing model, the complexity of the technology doesn’t change. When our partners sell any of the complex solutions from our vendor portfolio, helping them understand the complexity of the technology, sell and support it, is a critical role that we do. The area that we are continuing to invest in terms of developing our training proposition, will be helping channel sales people to sell the consumption or the billing

“Now is the time; with the IT, people and regional investments we’re making; that they will see an accelerated growth from our success in the region. We can never forget that the success of our business is dependent on the success of our partners.” David Grant, Westcon International

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // NOVEMBER 2018

INTERVIEW // WESTCON

“I believe we are therefore developing a business model which could be termed as ‘volume capacity based on a value capability’.”

At GITEX 2018, Westcon’s conversations with partners included topics such as transparency in accounting, business planning and working out ways on how they can be more creative in the manner they work out the deals.

proposition effectively, not only the technology. What do you believe will be the next business model in the distribution space? DG: We are doing a lot of work to support what we see as three different segments of customers. We have a strong penetration into the global service provider and global systems

integration market. And we can leverage that capability into the regional services provider and the regional SI community. Around 25 percent of all of our revenues in EMEA come from that quite select group of customers across infrastructure networking security. Historically, our reputation has been around the enterprising commercial space outside of that. We are investing in our Velocity programme over the

next six months, which specifically focuses on two areas – less complex technology that could be transacted by inside sales account management model and the second is the SME market. We see significant opportunity in the SME market, from a customer size perspective. Our digital platform makes it much easier for SME partners to engage with us as it is more automated. I believe we are therefore developing a business model which could be termed as ‘volume capacity based on a value capability’. We can take the strength and depth of our technical capability coupled with our platform investments and help the SME partner community leverage that, which otherwise they may not have the access to. Do you have a message for your partners for 2019? DG: I like to thank all our partners who have worked with us. Now is the time; with the IT, people and regional investments we’re making; that they will see an accelerated growth from our success in the region. We can never forget that the success of our business is dependent on the success of our partners. SL: We are going for a far more intimate policy approach by having in-country resources, we have added a fantastic army of talent now. Together with our local partners, we aim to accelerate our growth in the region. After a couple of tough years, it is now the sign of a new Westcon and we are in an expansion mode again. Exciting times ahead and we look forward to capitalising on market opportunities with our network of partners.

“We are going for a far more intimate policy approach by having in-country resources, we have added a fantastic army of talent now. Together with our local partners, we aim to accelerate our growth in the region.” Steve Lockie, Westcon-Comstor ME

NOVEMBER 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

FEATURE // BIG DATA

The big league Increasing number of customers are seeking big data analytics tools to transform their business operations. Revenues for big data and business analytics solutions are expected to reach $260 billion in 2022, according to research firm IDC. Reseller ME speaks to industry stalwarts to learn how channel partners can leverage the opportunities in this growing market.

NOVEMBER 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

he explosion of data driven by the growth of mobility, social media and advanced technologies are presenting enterprises with a big opportunity to take informed and focused critical business decisions. However, only few organisations are truly maximising the complete potential of this opportunity. IBM data scientists break big data into four broad aspects – volume, variety, velocity and veracity. Today a fifth one is being included in this list – value. The value that big data technologies can offer businesses across verticals is tremendous, however, the challenge lies in the lack of knowledge and training from both customer and partner perspectives. “Middle East organisations understand the value of big data analytics – but only specialised industries and verticals that have big data and need high-frequency analytics. Top industries can include government and public sector, banking and finance, media companies, aerospace and astronomy, mapping and genomics,” says Savitha Bhaskar, COO, Condo Protego. SAS Middle East’s general manager Marcel Yammine agrees and says that the firm too has seen an increase in demand for big data analytics in the

Marcel Yammine, SAS Middle East

region especially in the banking and finance, telecom and government sector. “In a recent study by SAS to determine the use of analytics and analytics platforms across EMEA, 72 percent of organisations claim that analytics help them generate valuable insight and 60 percent state their analytics resources have made them more innovative. However, these numbers could be much higher if organisations better align in skills and leadership to maximise the potential of analytics by making sure that data and analytics are the cornerstone of decision-making,” he adds. We will see the uptake of big data and analytics solutions rising as customers are better educated on the benefits and trained on its use-cases. Maya Zakhour, head of distribution and alliances, Middle East and Africa, NetApp, says, “A forecast by Gartner expects revenues from the Big Data and Analytics (BDA) industry is set to reach $3.2 billion (AED 11.75 billion) in the Middle East and Africa (MENA) region by 2020. Meanwhile, IDC anticipates the Middle East big data and analytics market to grow at a CAGR of 10 percent over the next five years. These predictions are indicative of the region’s growing reliance on BDA.” Zakaria Haltout, head of channel

“In a recent study by SAS to determine the use of analytics and analytics platforms across EMEA, 72 percent of organisations claim that analytics help them generate valuable insight and 60 percent state their analytics resources have made them more innovative.”

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // NOVEMBER 2018

FEATURE // BIG DATA

Zakaria Haltout, SAP MENA

and general business, SAP MENA, believes channel partners can play a big role in enabling the adoption of these technologies and helping customers meet business needs. He says, “In the face of the four Vs of big data – volume, variety, velocity, and veracity – channel partners should educate customers on the digital transformation needed across storage, software, and security. Channel partners can also help organisations to break down data silos across lines of business and learn data science skills that they can exchange with their customers.” Partners are in a position to assist customers only if they themselves understand the whole potential of big data and analytics solutions.

Ramkumar Balakrishnan, Redington Value

“In the face of the four Vs of big data – volume, variety, velocity, and veracity – channel partners should educate customers on the digital transformation needed across storage, software, and security. Channel partners can also help organisations to break down data silos across lines of business and learn data science skills that they can exchange with their customers.” They need to be able to proactively advise customers on the areas where these technologies can transform their operations and help them make better decisions. They have to educate themselves on best practices and share the knowledge with their customer base. Bhaskar says, “Channel partners in the Middle East face the challenge of understanding that Big Data Analytics cannot be for technology’s sake, but rather using technology to meet business needs. For example, taxi companies can use Big Data Analytics to meet needs in insurance liability, driver and passenger safety, and asset management.” Zakhour adds, “Partners should regularly engage into training

programmes to equip them with a range of sales, marketing, enablement, and training tools to strengthen their solutions offerings. These NetApp training programmes for continuous knowledge and skills improvement are tailormade to the market requirements and customer demand.” She further says that vendors and distributors also have a responsibility to enhance channel performance in this area. “We believe in creating the best partner programmes to achieve this goal. As a partner-centric organisation, we recognise the role of our partners in our success, as customers now are relying on data more than ever to drive business growth.”

“We knew that there is huge opportunity in the big data and analytics space, however, we noticed that our partners are not taking advantage of it. This is primarily because of the skills gap in this space. We then came up with a strategy to help bridge this gap in the market through our new practice.”

NOVEMBER 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

Savitha Bhaskar, Condo Protego

Identifying the market potential, regional value-added distributor Redington Value has recently unveiled its new data science and advanced analytics practice to enable partners to leverage the high-growth segment. Ramkumar Balakrishnan, president, Redington Value, said, “We knew that there is huge opportunity in the big data and analytics space, however,

“Channel partners in the Middle East face the challenge of understanding that Big Data Analytics cannot be for technology’s sake, but rather using technology to meet business needs. For example, taxi companies can use Big Data Analytics to meet needs in insurance liability, driver and passenger safety, and asset management.” we noticed that our partners are not taking advantage of it. This is primarily because of the skills gap in this space. We then came up with a strategy to help bridge this gap in the market through our new practice.” According to Balakrishnan, besides cloud, this is the first time when there is a net new opportunity on the table. “Partners need to look into this space

seriously,” he adds. “They need to build a model where they are able to leverage the investments we are making and then get themselves specialised in different areas of this segment.” Partners need to actively look at investing in resources and trained personnel in their teams so that they can optimise the big data opportunity wholly.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // NOVEMBER 2018

FEATURE // HUAWEI

Three things to consider when buying flash storage The advantages of all-flash storage and why Huawei OceanStor all-flash storage is an ideal choice for mission-critical business.

pplications of flash storage are poised for explosive growth, thanks to increasingly lower-priced and higher-capacity SSDs. In fact, the newest generation of 3D NAND flash technology has now reduced the cost of a single SSD to less than $1 per GB. As a result, more and more users are using all-flash arrays to build their own data centers. All-flash storage is expected to account for nearly 30 percent of storage in data centers in 2018, according to third-party authorities. All-flash storage benefits IT systems in many ways: • It improves user experience. All-flash storage can quickly respond to service requests. For example, in the securities industry, all-flash storage enables traders to smoothly process

•

online transactions. In the medical industry, registration, diagnosis, and treatment can be quickly coordinated, and patient information can be swiftly retrieved from the hospital IT system. It reduces O&M costs. Traditional storage systems need dozens of disk cabinets and tens of thousands of HDDs to meet performance requirements. Now, the required performance can be delivered using just a few allflash cabinets. This significantly reduces procurement costs, power consumption, space requirements, and maintenance manpower, all while slashing OPEX by more than 75 percent. It supports discovery of new business opportunities. For example, consider a cloud service provider that uses the original IT architecture and provides only gold, silver, and copper services.

NOVEMBER 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

All-flash storage could help that service provider provide a platinum cloud space leasing service with higher performance and lower latency. Deduplication and compression make the provider’s services even more commercially competitive. Considering the massive potential impact on your business, the decision to build an all-flash data centre should not be taken lightly. All-flash storage vendors will often push for you to make the switch without giving you the full story. When the time comes to make the switch to all-flash, here are three crucial points to keep in mind: 1. Hardware architecture should offer large capacity and efficient data exchange In the past 10 years, SSD performance has seen a 4000-fold improvement, but CPU performance is only about 20

times better. The bottleneck at data centres lies in CPU usage, because it reaches 90 percent or higher when only a dozen disks are used. To get the most out of SSD performance, the latest CPU must be used to meet business requirements. This is especially true for front-end financial transactions, carrier CRM, billing, and any core business with high storage performance demands. Only with the right all-flash hardware architecture can these needs be met. The use of SSDs drives demand for larger cache capacity. Data on SSDs is scattered all over the place. As a result, corresponding metadata increases as storage data grows. In particular, after deduplication and compression are enabled, metadata must be frequently invoked and fingerprints must be compared before data is flushed. In the cache, more and more metadata is stored. Therefore, every all-flash array must offer a cache with large capacity. High-speed interconnection between controllers is also necessary. Data exchange channels must be efficient enough for all-flash storage to be fully utilised in the multi-controller layout. Therefore, most storage controllers are interconnected using PCIe 3.0 to improve switching bandwidth. 2. All-flash data centres need software architecture designed for all-flash storage Your software architecture cannot be wasting SSDs at places such as protocol parsing, data flushing, and space reclamation. In addition, to maximise SSD performance, read and write I/Os must have the highest priority in obtaining resources. All-flash storage requires end-toend all-flash architecture design, including flash-oriented CPU multicore optimisation, cache-adaptive algorithms, link transmission optimisation, SSD scheduling algorithms, and drive optimisation. Without these elements, in-depth software-hardware integration is out of the question. Proper all-flash software architecture allows storage controllers to intelligently sense each SSD’s data layout, enables both controllers and SSDs to adjust data layouts and I/O priorities as needed, and leverages disk and controller algorithms to deliver optimal performance.

A STORAGE SYSTEM SPECIALLY DESIGNED FOR FLASH STORAGE, OCEANSTOR BOASTS BOTH INDUSTRY-LEADING RELIABILITY AND SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE. EQUIPPED WITH SMARTMATRIX 2.0 (ENHANCED INTELLIGENT SWITCHING MATRIX), THIS STORAGE SYSTEM FEATURES FULL REDUNDANCY WITH 4 CONTROLLERS IN A SINGLE ENGINE.

In addition to SSD performance, the cost effectiveness of deduplication and compression must be considered. Deduplication and compression greatly reduce the amount of physical storage space needed, and alleviate investment, environment, and maintenance pressures. Deduplication and compression can also effectively reduce the number of write times and amounts of data written to hosts, prolonging the service life of SSDs and protecting customer investments. 3. Strong security and reliability are critical to centralised data access With all-flash storage, performance is 10 times better than with HDD-based storage. This means that a single allflash storage system can host many more services, such as CRM systems, billing systems, B2B reselling, server virtualisation, and office systems. Vendors have their own ways of ensuring high system reliability. Some vendors improve their underlying algorithms, some use multi-controller redundancy architecture, and some leverage active-active or georedundant DR solutions. It can be challenging to evaluate a vendor’s approach to ensuring reliability, but the key factors are as follows. First, check whether underlying virtualisation technology is used and whether physical disks can be logically scattered and effectively organised. These features prevent the permanent data loss that can be caused by

time-consuming data reconstruction using traditional RAID groups. Underlying virtualisation technology enables all disks in the disk group to simultaneously reconstruct data if one disk is faulty, instead of reconstructing data on a single hot spare disk. This dramatically shortens reconstruction time. Huawei is capable of offering this technology. Huawei’s all-flash storage can reconstruct 1 TB of capacity in just 30 minutes. That’s 10 times faster than traditional storage. Next, check whether the architecture can provide multi-controller redundancy. In other words, if multiple controllers on a single engine fail, can service continuity be ensured? Huawei can currently offer this ability. Last but not least, check whether the active-active solution is simple and reliable: • Is the gateway-free SAN and NAS integration mode used? This mode can reduce faults and latency while cutting procurement costs. • Does the solution enable access in active-active mode, rather than active-passive mode? This mode can implement rapid site failovers and achieve RTO ≈ 0, and RPO = 0. • Is a simple networking mode adopted? IP or FC networking can be used to meet the requirements of different users. Huawei can implement this architecture. The ideal choice for missioncritical business Considering hardware architecture, software architecture, and reliability, there is only one solution available that checks all the boxes: Huawei OceanStor all-flash storage. A storage system specially designed for flash storage, OceanStor boasts both industry-leading reliability and superior performance. Equipped with SmartMatrix 2.0 (enhanced intelligent switching matrix), this storage system features full redundancy with 4 controllers in a single engine. In addition, the gateway-free HyperMetrobased (active-active) solution ensures 24/7 uninterrupted services for users and ensures a latency of less than 1 millisecond. With OceanStor, you can rest assured that your data centre is supported by the best in the industry.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // NOVEMBER 2018

VENDOR FOCUS // RING

KNOCKING ON OPPORTUNITIES Mohammad Meraj Hoda, vice president, Business Development, Middle East and Africa, Ring, explains how the firm aims to harness the regional prospects and shares expansion strategies.

mazon-owned global home security firm Ring aims to expand across stores in the Gulf and African markets over the coming months. Having commenced its business in the Middle East a year ago, the company is now seeing keen interest from other regions. Ring offers a range of home security products that include outdoor and indoor motionbased cameras and doorbells, one of its flagship devices include Ring Video Doorbell. As the threat landscape grows, end-users are faced with the challenge of securing not only their digital assets but also increasing security around their homes. Mohammad Meraj Hoda, vice president, Business Development, Middle East and Africa, Ring, believes the company’s offering is perfectly aligned with the evolving customer needs. He says, “We are a security firm and offer customers products to secure their home and neighbourhood perimeters with our cameras and doorbells. Our goal is to bring Ring products to every household and provide a 360 view of security to every neighborhood.

“We are looking to provide security inside and around a customer’s home as well as the entire neighbourhood premises. Our core focus is security, and this will continue to be the priority in our future roadmaps.” The products can be controlled easily and remotely through an app, which is effective and simple to install. The simple and powerful app also allows

NOVEMBER 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

customers to share an incident with the neighbourhood community.” AT GITEX this year, the company has also introduced its first indoor camera, which will launch soon in the region. “We are looking to provide security inside and around a customer’s home as well as the entire neighbourhood premises. Our core focus is security and this will continue to be the priority in our future roadmaps.” The company works with incountry distributors such as Arab Business Machines for UAE and Gulf, AlJammaz Distribution for Saudi Arabia and X-cite by Alghanim Electronics in Kuwait. “These partners add immense value to our business with their strong incountry presence.” Currently Ring products are available in select retail stores. “We are seeing a lot of interest coming in as we are building the brand. We plan to further deep-dive with our partners to expand across UAE and the Gulf market,” Hoda adds. “We are also seeing a lot of interest coming from South African subcontinent, which will be our next focus. Once we ensure we have a solid platform for the Middle East, we aim to enter into East and West African markets too.”

VENDOR FOCUS // ARRAY

ARRAY NETWORKS SETS SIGHTS ON REGIONAL GROWTH Srinivas Vege, Array Networks’ regional sales manager for the Middle East and Southeast Asia, elaborates on the firm’s expansion plans.

rray Networks, a network functions platform company headquartered in Silicon Valley, is enjoying double-digit growth in the Middle East and Southeast Asia – and this expansion is likely to accelerate with the launch of a major new solution. The company has debuted hyperconverged platforms for networking and security, part of its efforts to help companies that are grappling with the performance and complexity challenges of moving toward virtualised networking, security and application delivery. A key aim of the technology is to allow migration to softwarecentric virtual appliances, in place of dedicated hardware appliances, but without a decline in performance, an increase in complexity or a high price. Srinivas Vege, Array Networks’ regional sales manager for the Middle East and Southeast Asia, said the company had already enjoyed rapid growth since it launched in this region. “We started our operations in 2013 in the Middle East and we partnered with SCOPE Middle East, the valueadded distributor, to have the great technology and access to companies

“We started our operations in 2013 in the Middle East and we partnered with SCOPE Middle East, the value-added distributor, to have the great technology and access to companies and partners.” and partners,” said Vege. “It’s a well-known brand in the Middle East. We’re based out of Dubai and we travel extensively to the remaining parts of the Middle East.” Headquartered in Milpitas, California, a city in Silicon Valley, the company can trace its history back to 2000, when it was founded by

NOVEMBER 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

Laurence Lu as ClickArray Networks, although it soon changed its name to Array Networks. It became the first foreign company to become listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange when it held its initial public offering in 2009. Array Networks has a particularly strong presence in major Asian markets such as China, India and Japan. However, Vege said Array Networks, which operates under the tagline “Powering Global Enterprises Since 2000”, was raising its profile in the Middle East too. “We’re rapidly gaining customers for all our products. Demand is there,” said Vege, adding that the company’s solutions were suited to organisations of all sizes and across an array of sectors, including banking, telecommunications, retail, tourism and government. “The solutions from Array are for each and every vertical, so we see a great demand for our products and services.” Growth is, said Vege, “quite evident” in this region, with annual growth in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, the area that he covers, running at about 20 percent, and he is “optimistic” that this will continue.

VENDOR FOCUS // STORMSHIELD

SAFEGUARDING CRITICAL NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURES Stormshield’s sales director for the Middle East, Africa and Turkey Hakam Kayed discusses the firm’s cybersecurity solutions for industrial environments.

he Cold war is taking new forms today by utilising technological vulnerabilities to get to industrial networks, actions that could disrupt the continuity of critical network infrastructures (CNIs). This, in turn, could create damage at a large scale. Such CNIs could be used by utility companies (water, electricity), Oil and Gas, mass transportation and other sectors At GITEX 2018, Stormshield highlighted its cybersecurity expertise in protecting operational technology networks (OT networks) and Information Technology Networks (IT networks). Like other digital security vendors, Stormshield has products for IT Security, Endpoint Security and Data Security, but it is its industrial cybersecurity solutions that the company showcased at GITEX, which helps it to stand out from the crowd. “For example, if you are an organisation with SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems, these industrial systems are becoming vulnerable

“Recently there were major attacks on industrial networks worldwide. Cyber-attacks on CNIs could emanate from foreign governments or other organisations looking to destabilise nations. Stormshield’s industrial security solutions aim to combat such risks.”

and need to be considered in the organisational cybersecurity strategy,” said Hakam Kayed, Stormshield’s sales director for the Middle East, Africa and Turkey. “Recently there were major attacks on industrial networks worldwide. Cyber-attacks on CNIs could emanate from foreign governments or other organisations looking to destabilise nations. Stormshield’s industrial security solutions aim to combat such risks.” Illustrating the potential scale of the problem, Ukraine has suffered cyber-attacks that have resulted in electricity blackouts, with Russian hackers blamed for the incidents. Stormshield has secured important contracts with some major CNIs in the region and is now a preferred OT security provider to major industrial vendors. Kayed added that Stormshield’s key markets in the region are the GCC, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey. “We’ve heard recently in the news about back doors and products that are not being secured. Stormshield is certified by the ANSSI (French National Agency for Information Security) and our products are reviewed by third parties.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // NOVEMBER 2018

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PARTNER WATCH // STARLINK

Empowering regional ecosystem Regional value-added distributor StarLink’s MD Nidal Othman and GM Mahmoud Nimer explain how the firm is fuelling growth in the regional channel business.

t the five-day GITEX Technology Week, which took place in Dubai World Trade Centre, regional value-added distributor StarLink participated for the eighth consecutive year under the theme ‘StarLink Empowers’. Nidal Othman, managing director, StarLink, said, “Through the theme of ‘StarLink Empowers’, we are focusing on bringing true value-add to the three pillars of our business – vendors, partners and customers.” According to the distributor, vendors can rely on the firm for several benefits such as dedicated product management team, inside sales and other activities. Othman added, “A primary unique offering to our vendors is our innovation centre. Through this innovation centre, we are able to extend the R&D capabilities in-country whereby we can integrate the vendors’ technology with other technologies and add features by working closely with the R&D team. This is truly a unique way in which we empower vendors.” StarLink’s partners are able to transact online for the distributor’s cloud offerings through its cloud marketplace.

“We have also announced our new corporate messaging, which is around StarLink security strategy. Our security strategy is to focus on the main security challenges that customers are facing and how we can address them effectively with innovative solutions.”

“We empower partners through our innovative cloud marketplace and offer them an opportunity to scale their traditional business with us. Through the marketplace, partners will enjoy a single view of all their online transactions as well as see the current status of their businesses. It is a perfect tool to review their pipeline and keep a track on transaction status and upcoming renewals.” StarLink empowers customers through StarLink academy, which the distributor offers to its entire customer base to extend and deliver simplified trainings. “Additionally, we have also announced our new corporate messaging, which is around StarLink security strategy. Our security strategy is to focus on the main security challenges that customers are facing and how we can address them effectively with innovative solutions,” Othman added. Mahmoud Nimer, GM, StarLink, said, “The regional market can expect to see next-generation technologies from Star Link going forward. We are expanding our service capabilities to support our channel and technologies. We are also looking to expand to new countries over the next year.”

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // NOVEMBER 2018

PARTNER WATCH // ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS

Gearing for growth Pouya Parsafar, CEO, Enterprise Systems, examines the importance of partner training and how its training academy is equipped to enable partners to become skilled in new and emerging technologies.

roficiency in a technology is a key element for regional IT channel partners to be successful. Today as technologies become advanced, partners must be well-versed with every aspect involved, in order to advise customers on optimum solutions sets to meet their business and operational requirements. Identifying the challenges partners have around training and becoming adept in new and emerging technologies, regional value-added distributor Enterprise Systems had introduced its training academy around a year ago. Today the distributor is an authorised training partner for Ruckus Wireless and Hauwei Enterprise. Pouya Parsafar, CEO, Enterprise Systems, says, “We are the Channel Training Distributor (CTD) for Ruckus Wireless. We conduct regular certification trainings and other types of technical and commercial trainings for Ruckus. We conduct similar trainings for Huawei, right from sales and pre-sales to post-sales.” Parsafar explains that the distributor also provides financial and non-financial incentive schemes to motivate systems integrators and partners to participate in the trainings. “We do this to get our partners excited about training. The incentives can either be a trip to a global destination or a monetary gain, which is approved by the vendors.” The distributor conducts regular trainings for its portfolio vendors and is in the process of meeting the requirements to become certified training partners for all of them. “Our partners are well versatile with the existing brands that they have. When it comes to our brands, which are relatively new to the region, some partners are

“It is important for partners to be prepared for AI and be in line with the technology as it is c reating new applications and requirements. They need to be aware of how the technology is going to evolve in the future and what can be the various use-cases.” not adequately qualified. Even if they have had trainings in the past, it needs to be refreshed as they are not using that knowledge on a day-to-day basis. It is imperative for partners to be retrained or trained on the new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).” This is especially true with AI being the theme for almost all the vendors that Enterprise Systems houses.

NOVEMBER 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

“It is important for partners to be prepared for AI and be in line with the technology as it is creating new applications and requirements. They need to be aware of how the technology is going to evolve in the future and what can be the various use-cases. This is what we impart during our training sessions. We educate them on the market potential and how vendors can support their business growth.” Parsafar says other technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud are part of the AI ecosystem. “IoT, big data and cloud are the core of AI and partners need to know about the related infrastructure layers. Our vendors are primed for AI and they are investing heavily in R&D in this technology. We are in a great position to help partners gain the relevant skillset and capabilities.” Enterprise Systems’ training academy is fully equipped to offer trainings through one-on-one sessions, group trainings or webinars either at its own headquarters or at the partner’s premises. “We prefer one-on-one training sessions so that we can focus on the partner and examine the technologies and verticals that he is looking at. We help our partners to map out prospects and focus on the sales pipeline that they have built. This way partners are able to apply the trainings directly on potential customers and close as much business as possible.” Parsafar believes one of the reasons why vendors choose the distributor to work with is because of the focus it brings to the table. “We shy away from mass trainings and like to do focused ones. We are extremely flexible in terms of delivery and can also tailor the training to the time scales the engineers have within the organisations,” he adds.

PARTNER WATCH // ARROW

Aiding the future

Mostafa Kabel, technical manager, Arrow ECS, explains how the distributor assists regional customers to transition to the digital era efficiently.

Which are the technologies that Arrow ECS is betting on to drive its growth in the region? Arrow offers a wide range of technologies to help businesses/ solution providers to embrace digital transformation opportunities such as IT, digital, security and workforce. We are also focusing on moving the customer from the traditional model to the digital era to show the power of the intelligence software. How are technologies such as AI, blockchain and deep learning realigning customers’ security strategies? New technologies enter the marketplace every day. From AI, blockchain, deep learning and the Internet of Things (IoT) to cloud, data analytics and security, these technologies are helping organisations to transform and enabling businesses to disrupt industries. Now the discussion with the customer is totally different from before. All that customers need are solutions that are cloud-enabled, can be easily scaled, equipped with analytics engine, easy searching and is software-defined. This is the future and we have to work towards this. What are the biggest challenges customers face in the digital era? How is Arrow assisting them to address these issues? The biggest challenge is how we can

As an IT professional in today’s extremely competent market, to add greater value, the need of the hour is to provide the level of services, which are high in value proposition, professionalism and sophistication to what your competition is offering.

move to the digital era, and how to implement and sustain this change. As an IT professional in today’s extremely competent market, to add greater value, the need of the hour is to provide the level of services, which are high in value proposition, professionalism and sophistication to what your competition is offering. Arrow’s Services team for enterprise computing business is the answer for all your professional services requirements, with the collective experience of the team spanning more than 60 years, which includes IT areas such as strategic consulting, designing, planning, deploying, implementing and training. Arrow has an inhouse training centre with certified instructors where we offer certified product trainings to our customers, which enable them to understand and leverage the features of the product and technology. How is Arrow ECS enabling customers to have a faster and easier transition to the digital era? At Arrow ECS, our primary focus is on our valuable customers. We ensure the highest quality of professionalism, standards and rapid execution when offering our solutions and services to our customers. We also offer several customised services bundles with a series of added benefits, which empower customers to leverage more from the product or solution and fast-track their journey to the digital era effortlessly.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // NOVEMBER 2018

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PARTNER WATCH // NUVIAS

Effective partnerships Mario Gay, regional general manager, Nuvias Middle East, discusses plans to onboard channel and vendor partners across its focused technology areas.

t the recently concluded GITEX Technology Week, regional value-added distributor Nuvias highlighted its partnership with networking and security vendor Juniper Networks. It also showcased the strengths of its Nuvias Academy to help partners gain the relevant skillsets to sell effectively in today’s business environment. The company is focused on transferring knowledge and skills to its partner community. The distributor also reinforced its presence in the region with investments in Saudi Arabia. It is also planning to expand to Kuwait and Egypt markets soon. Mario Gay, regional general manager, Nuvias Middle East, said, “Over the last few months, we have strengthened our presence in the region and reorganised the team. We believe we have built a robust foundation that has the potential to make 2019 very successful.” Nuvias commenced its Middle East operations a year ago and is focusing on three main technologies. “We are a value-added distributor with a dedicated focus in three key areas – networking, security and unified communications (UC). The approach is to be an integrated solutions provider and enable our partners to offer complete solutions set for their customers.” Gay said the company will continue its efforts in empowering partners

“Our key messaging is that partners can avail our best-of-breed experience coupled with our local market knowledge and the expertise of people who have been working in the region for several years.”

with regular trainings and enablement sessions. “We will have our usual trainings and offer partners access to our partner portal, which will provide a way to create effective go-to-market strategies. This way small and medium partners can rely on us for our capabilities in marketing and leverage our experience, knowledge and best practices to go directly to build our story with the end-user,” he added. Gay said that the company is looking to onboard any vendor who falls into the domains it specialises in – networking, security and UC – as long as it doesn’t create competition for existing partners. “We have a wide portfolio of vendors at the EMEA level. Our story in the Middle East is a recent one, however, Nuvias is a global organisation. Our aim is to replicate our success at the EMEA level locally as well. Our partners have the added benefit of leveraging our global resources and support to help remain profitable in their businesses,” he added. “Our key messaging is that partners can avail our best-of-breed experience coupled with our local market knowledge and the expertise of people who have been working in the region for several years.” Going forward, we will see the distributor expanding its solutions and vendor portfolio as well as adding channel partners across networking, security and UC segments.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // NOVEMBER 2018

REVIEW RATING

XIAOMI: Mi A2 LITE

The device sets the standard for the budget smartphones but Xiaomi should have avoided the 3GB and 32GB model and simply stuck to the more powerful 4GB RAM model, editor Joseph George says.

true value for money, Xiaomi`s latest budget friendly smartphone can best be described as a device waiting to hop on to the other side of the fence, reserved for the big boys in the game. The Mi A2 Lite is Xiaomi`s latest attempt to take on rivals Huawei and Samsung in the `B` category, and it is taking on the challenge head on, with a combination of factors - powerful hardware, combined with the Android One experience and a brave pricing strategy. Starting from its design, to the build quality to hardware, the Chinese smartphone maker has created a device that almost looks and matches a high-end smartphone, that`s unless you start examining it under a microscope. To start with the design and build quality, the Mi A2 Lite has an almost bezel less screen with a notch. The screen offers 5.84-inch Full HD+ display with an interesting 19:9 aspect

ratio at 432ppi and 1500:1 contrast ratio. It has a 2.5D curved glass but the back cover is made of plastic and is one of the main differentiators compared to a flagship model. Another drawback of the device is that it comes with a micro-USB port and has a single row of speakers. The other set of holes at the bottom covers the microphones. Equipped with a 4000mAh fast charging battery, it lasts well over a day and can easily last for more than 8 to 9 hours despite heavy usage. Xiaomi has done well to free the device of its customised OS -MIUI and instead go with the Android One, offering timely updates and a pure android experience. The A2 Lite is powered by a Qualcomm Octa-Core Snapdragon 625 processor and comes in two different models - the 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage version and 6GB and 4GB and 64GB storage. The dual-sim device also has a third slot that enables

NOVEMBER 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

expansion of storage up to 256GB. Within three weeks of usage we found the 3GB RAM clearly spacing out between apps, unable to keep pace with constant shuffling of apps and at times (twice during the past week) requiring a forced restart. WhatsApp remained the main culprit as the app froze on many occasions. Therefore, we recommend users to opt for the higher configurations RAM instead. It has a dual camera at the back with a 12MP Sony IMX486 sensor and a secondary 5-megapixel camera and a 5MP camera at the front. The most important USP of the device is its pricing. While, in 2017 we would expect these specs to be priced at anywhere between Dhs900 to Dhs1300, come 2018 and smartphone makers have started reducing the price of the budget devices. The 3GB RAM version of the Xiaomi A2 Lite can be purchased online for as low as Dhs590 to Dhs620 while the 4GB RAM and 64Gb storage model stars from Dhs680 onwards.

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ave time and money with OKI by optimising your print and document workflow with a tailored service to meet the needs of any type or size of business or organisation. With print and document related processes, there are often questions that go unanswered. For example, are you aware of the amount of avoidable printing that occurs in your organisation every day resulting in unnecessary costs? Or how much time is spent by you or your staff managing and maintaining your printer fleet when you could be focusing on your business? These unanswered questions can result in costs that are often hidden and unaccounted for within the business. Smart Managed Document Solutions from OKI offers a portfolio of services underpinned by software, technologies

and tools to tackle these unanswered questions and offer a solution to help reveal significant savings for your business both in time and money. How OKI Smart Managed Document Solutions works Through a structured process, OKI determines the optimal printing and document workflow solution for your organisation. We will work with you on a continual basis to assess your needs by analysing your printer usage and recommending the right service to meet your specific requirements and to help reduce your printing costs. OKI not only facilitates the management of your devices and consumables, we also advise on the right mix of devices and where they should be located to increase productivity.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // NOVEMBER 2018

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SMARTPHONE FOR THE BLOCKCHAIN ERA NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDERS

HTC has announced the early access period for its first blockchain phone, the ‘Exodus 1’. The ‘Exodus 1’ combines HTC’s smartphone technologies with blockchain. The device contains a secure enclave – a locked area on the device that is protected from the Android OS (Android O). This secure enclave will hold the keys to your crypto, whether that is currencies or non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or in the very near future, all digital data. HTC has developed a unique Social Key Recovery mechanism in case the phone is lost or stolen, or the user forgets the keys. It is an easy and secure way to recover keys lost in the hardware. It also ensures that HTC does not hold the user’s keys in a central location at any point ensuring security and privacy. In a further step to strengthen the technology, HTC will soon release APIs that will allow thirdparty developers to use the ‘Exodus 1’ hardware to protect keys and sign transactions. It will release the Zion key management API and wallet SDK to partners who hold the same vision – to expand the blockchain ecosystem and build a foundation of security and trust. Pre-orders can be placed at www. htcexodus.com using either BTC or ETH, with expected ship date for preorders in December.

OPPO F9 STARRY PURPLE EDITION NOW AVAILABLE IN UAE OPPO has launched the Starry Purple edition of its F9 smartphone across different retail stores in the UAE. The mid-range smartphone is equipped with VOOC Flash Charge, a technology that has been independently developed by OPPO. The low voltage charging applied takes battery from zero to 100 percent full power with a speed of up to four times faster than general charging at 5V/1A. With this technology, users can easily realise “5-min charge, 2-hour talk”, according to OPPO. OPPO F9 is also the first smartphone in its price segment to have gradient colour design with a water drop screen. It has three

gradient colour combinations – Sunrise Red, Twilight Blue, and the new Starry Purple. The device has a 25MP front-facing camera, and, for the first time in OPPO F series, is equipped with dual rear cameras (16MP + 2MP). As for the software, OPPO brings the ColorOS 5.2 Operating System to create a smarter interactive experience for users. When it comes to hardware, the OPPO F9 has a 4GB/6GB + 64GB memory combination improves the speed of operation. Moreover, OPPO F9 supports multiple SIM cards – two for SIM cards and one for the storage card. The OPPO Starry Purple smartphone is priced at AED 1249.

HP ENHANCES SPECTRE LINEUP HP has redesigned the Spectre x360 13 and HP Spectre x360 15 with the aim to create a portfolio of new premium products that deliver superb design, security and performance. The new devices are available in dark ash silver with copper luxe accents and the all-new poseidon blue with pale brass accents. The devices feature a gem cut design that can only be achieved with aluminum CNC machining, according to HP. The new Spectre lineup is also equipped with numerous security features including a privacy camera kill switch, which allows the user to electrically turn off the webcam when not in use. It comes equipped with optional HP Sure View, an integrated privacy screen to help users avoid prying eyes in public areas. According to HP, the devices are built to deliver an Always-On, AlwaysConnected PC experience. This includes long-lasting battery life, with up to 22.5 hours in the Spectre x360 13 – a 37 percent increase versus the previous

NOVEMBER 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

generation – and up to 17.5 hours in the Spectre x360 15. The Spectre x360 13 has been designed for an on-the-go lifestyle with up to the latest 8th Gen Intel Core processors. Meanwhile, the Spectre x360 delivers up to 20 percent more performance versus the previous generation, making it the most powerful Spectre convertible laptop to date. It features the latest six-core 8th Gen Intel Core processors, and the optional NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti with Max Q design. In addition, the Spectre x360 15 offers various display options, including an optional 4K touch display or up to 650-nit FHD display and up to two Thunderbolt 3 ports support dual 5K displays.

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HUAWEI’S AIPOWERED SMARTPHONE DEBUTS IN THE UAE

Huawei Consumer Business Group (CBG) has unveiled the muchanticipated Huawei Mate 20 Series to users in the Middle East and Africa region. Available in 6.53-inch, 6.39-inch and 7.2-inch sizes, the Huawei Mate 20 Series has four devices: Mate 20, Mate 20 Pro, Mate 20 X and Mate 20 RS. The new Mate series also houses a large, high-density 4200mAh battery, and supports 40W Huawei SuperCharge, which gives the device 70 percent charge in 30 minutes. The safety of the technology is certified by TÜV Rheinland. Moreover, Huawei Mate 20 Pro supports 15W Huawei Wireless Quick Charge and Wireless Reverse Charge, which enables the device to work as a power bank for selected electronic devices supporting wireless charging. The Mate 20 series comes with what the company claims is the ‘industry’s most powerful and sophisticated process technology,’ thanks to the in-house chip Kirin 980 that is built using 7nm process incorporating the powerful CortexA76-based CPU and Mali-G76 GPU. The Mate 20 and pro, both come with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Huawei has priced the Mate 20 at AED 2,599 and the Mate 20 pro at AED 3299.

HMD GLOBAL INTRODUCES NOKIA 7.1 TO THE REGION HMD Global, the home of Nokia phones, has announced the Nokia 7.1 – the first smartphone to come with PureDisplay screen technology. The Nokia 7.1 is equipped with an HDR and offers advanced imaging experience powered by a dual rear depth sensing camera with 2PD and ZEISS Optics. According to HMD Global, the device is the first smartphone to come with PureDisplay screen technology for HDR10 cinematic quality entertainment inside and out. It has a full HD+ 5.84-inch and 19:9 screen ratio display. It has been designed with 6000 series aluminium CNC machined frame and die cast metal centre. The device is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 Mobile Platform, which is optimised for content consumption with first-class graphics performance and battery efficiency enhancements so users can enjoy audio and video for even longer. It sports ZEISS Optics 12MP/5MP dual

cameras with 2PD enable fast, accurate autofocus giving great shots in both bright and low light conditions. The new camera UI gives users ultimate control of white balance, ISO, focus and shutter speed using the Pro Camera Mode. The device is built ready for the Android 9 software update, which includes AI-powered features that make the device smarter, faster and more adaptive. The Nokia 7.1 comes in Gloss Midnight Blue and Gloss Steel and is available in the UAE for a retail price of AED 949 (3GB/32GB) and AED 1049 (4GB/64GB).

APPLE UNVEILS NEW IPAD PRO Apple has introduced the new iPad Pro with all-screen design and nextgeneration performance, marking the biggest change to iPad ever. The all-new design pushes 11-inch and 12.9inch Liquid Retina displays to the edges of iPad Pro and integrates Face ID to securely unlock iPad. According to Apple, the A12X Bionic chip with next-generation Neural Engine in iPad Pro outperforms most PC laptops and offers a new USB-C connector, Gigabit-class LTE, and up to 1TB. The 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro will be available in silver and space gray finishes in 64GB, 256GB and 512GB configurations as well as a new 1TB option. The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at AED 3,199 for the Wi-Fi model and AED 3,799 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro starts at AED 3,999 for the Wi-Fi model and AED 4,599 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. Apple has replaced the lightning connected with USB-C connector.

The significant upgrade to the new iPad Pro is the edge-to-edge Liquid Retina display. The 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro are 5.9 mm thin and is powered by A12X Bionic Neural Engine. According to Apple, the new chips are built on industry-leading sevennanometer technology and features four performance cores and four efficiency cores for up to 35 percent faster single-core performance and a new performance controller for simultaneous use of all eight cores for an up to 90 percent boost during multithreaded tasks.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // NOVEMBER 2018

Tech talk Reseller Middle East's Online Editor Adelle Geronimo shares her views on the current tech scene.

Adelle Geronimo, Online Editor, Technology Division

Let the games begin

he eSports industry may still be at its nascent stages, but the concept of competitive gaming is far from new. Ever since the 1980s video game tournaments have been a popular affair across the globe, with the first competition held by Atari and exclusively featured Space Invaders. Fast forward to 2002, the Major League Gaming (MLG) franchise was launched and has since become the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest gaming organisation and tournament host for a variety of games and genres. Today, the global gaming market is expected to reach over $115 billion in 2018, according to Newzoo, a market intelligence firm for games, eSports, and mobile. With tremendous opportunity in store, the Middle East is a prospective market

for eSports. In fact, a report from Statista has valued the Middle East gaming industry at around $3 billion in 2017, with Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE markets leading revenues. Furthermore, the potential for eSports in the regional market came into sharper focus when the leaderships from countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia recognised the growing opportunities. In October last year, Saudi Arabia launched the Saudi Arabian Federation for Electronic and Intellectual Sports (SAFEIS) with the aim to develop the gaming industry in the Kingdom. Meanwhile, in April 2018, Dubai has revealed plans to become the world leader in competitive video gaming with the launch of Dubai X-Stadium. The growth and development in the regional gaming industry are fueled by the increasing Internet and mobile

NOVEMBER 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

penetration coupled with the high young population in GCC nations. The movement towards more immersive digital entertainment, from movies to games, will also likely accelerate the growth of this industry with technologies such as 3D, virtual and augmented reality playing a big role. As gaming rapidly move towards being a full-fledged industry, the demands for gaming technologies are undeniably increasing. There is huge potential for vendors of gaming PCs, consoles, peripherals and even VR platforms. This presents an even bigger opportunity for technology resellers and distributors to answer the growing demands in the billion-dollar regional gaming market. Subsequently, they are at an optimal position to help pave the way for international gaming technology vendors to penetrate the Middle East market.

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