Reseller Middle East December 2014

ISSUE 216 | december 2014

Power of two

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Exclusive Networks on the distributor’s channel strategy

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CONTENTS ISSUE 216 // december 2014

cover feature

32

Review

62

Hyper X Cloud gaming headset

Power of two

Exclusive Networks Middle East had entered the market with the acquisition of the regional security distributor, Secureway, last year. CEO Fari Boustantchi speaks to Reseller ME on the company’s channel strategy to work closely with partners.

hot products

66 Highlights 6

News

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

Opinion 26

Flash frenzy

Mohammed Amin from EMC, discusses the varied benefits of flash storage.

28

Monetising mobility

Matteo Masserini from Citrix, describes how EMM solutions will move beyond the device.

Feature 36

Setting the pace Reseller ME delves into the channel opportunities present in the regional SMB segment.

43 In bloom

Reseller ME talks to experts to explore and understand the upcoming markets within the region.

WD launches My Passport Wireless

Partner watch 48

Strategise to grow

Arrow Electronics’ Jean-Loup Desamaison-Cognet discusses the company’s focus points for the region.

50

The pursuit of partners

Granteq is seeking channel partners in the enterprise segment as it introduces IT solutions for the healthcare and finance verticals in the region.

Vendor focus 52

Positioned for progress

Sakkeer Hussain from D-Link MEA, discusses the role partners play in its growth journey.

54

Lead the way

Avaya elaborates on plans at its annual channel partner conference.

report 58

Fostering business ties

Reseller ME speaks to Irish technology firms, looking to strengthen its Middle Eastern ties.

68

Synology launches DiskStation DS1515+ & DS1815+

70

Brother International launches ScanNCut device

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Reseller Middle East december 2014

3

Editorial GROUP Chairman and founder

Dominic De Sousa Group CEO

Nadeem Hood Group COO

Georgina O’Hara

Publishing Director Rajashree Rammohan raj.ram@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9131

A mixed bag

Editorial Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9133 Assistant Editor Janees Reghelini Contributing Editor Anna Bricker Online Editor James Dartnell Advertising Sales Manager Merle Carrasco merle.carrasco@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9161 Circulation Database and Circulation Manager Rajeesh M rajeesh.nair@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9142 Production and Design Production Manager James P Tharian james.tharian@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9136 Designer Analou Balbero analou.balbero@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9132 Digital www.resellerme.com DIGITAL SERVICES Digital Services Manager Tristan Troy P Maagma Web Developers Jefferson de Joya Photographer and Social Media Co-ordinator Jay Colina

Jeevan Thankappan Group Editor Talk to us: E-mail: jeevan.thankappan@ cpimediagroup.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/ ResellerME Twitter: @ResellerME

As we wind down 2014, it’s time to look back and take stock of the ground channel has covered so far. The year started out on a bullish note for channel after having recovered some of its lustre and there was an air of optimism all around. Will 2014 go down in the annals of history as one of the best for the regional channel industry? There are mixed feelings about that.

This year might have opened on a good note and a robust quarter, but the subsequent two quarters were relatively quiet. The corporate IT budgets remained more or less stagnant and the only saving grace was the government sector, which loosened up its purse strings. The sudden spurt in the construction sector saw a huge demand for IT infrastructure solutions and mobility saved the day for many partners who were reeling under the impact of a contracting PC market. Many component distributors have already shifted their focus to mobility and have started working very closely with the retail sector. In terms of technology, demand for networking and security remained robust while cloud services have failed to find any takers.

With all major vendors starting to whittle down the number of partners they work with, the focus was mostly on up-skilling and certification.

On their part, partners have also started to be picky about the vendors they want to work with. Brand reputation and channel loyalty is a thing of past now, with most partners re-evaluating their vendor selection criteria based on margins and sales support.

Will 2015 be any better? At the time of writing this, we are yet to see the numbers from the industry about the very crucial last quarter but the general feeling is that channel is on the rebound, despite the addressable market in the region shrinking significantly. The booming African market has attracted the attention of many, making up for the loss in markets such as Libya, Syria and Iraq. While a lot will depend on the global economy and its cascading effect on the region, plummeting oil prices remain a major worry. Will this considerably slow down government spending? Let’s hope such boom-and-bust cycles will have no impact on technology spending and channel gets to sustain its growth momentum.

webmaster@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9100 Published by

Registered at IMPZ PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 4 447 2409 Printed by Printwell Printing Press © Copyright 2014 CPI All rights reserved While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.

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highlights

Mindware to hold partner summit & awards

SNB appoints new CEO

Munaf Chouguley, CEO, SNB IT Distribution SNB IT Distribution has appointed Munaf Chouguley as its new CEO. Chouguley has over 25 years of experience in the Middle East region with stints across the electronics, IT and telecom, oil and gas, automobiles, watch and jewellery sectors.

“SNB is currently in a strong position in the region, and I plan to take the company to the next level where we are global players, through strategic expansion,” said Munaf Chouguley, CEO, SNB IT Distribution.

“I also look forward to enhancing transparency with our partners and customers, and setting the stage for the success of the enterprise.

Retaining the set standards and empowering our staff with the tools they need to approach the market, will ensure SNB reaches new heights.

“To stay ahead of the competition, we are embracing and encouraging technological innovations and next generation distribution practices.

SNB has always focused on making singular technologies accessible to the channel in the region; I plan to build on this strategy and will look at new vendor alliances that will bolster our product portfolio,” explained Chouguley.

With Chouguley at the helm, SNB IT Distribution also plans to branch out into manufacturing.

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december 2014 Reseller Middle East

Regional distributor Mindware is all set to honour their top performing partners in their inaugural summit – Synergy: Mindware Partner Summit and Awards – on 7th December 2014 at Habtoor Grand, Dubai Marina.

The half-day event will feature a number of presentations from vendor partners and will conclude with an awards ceremony where the best performing partners will be recognised and awarded. The summit will also have a speaker from the research firm, IDC to discuss the latest trends and highlights in the industry with the partners.

Mario Gay, General Manager, Mindware, said, “We want to extend our appreciation to our partners for their consistent performance and honour them at our awards on the 7th next month. We have been at the forefront of delivering innovative solutions and catering to the demands of our customers in the region.

We believe in being a step ahead of the new trends and transferring the knowledge to our partners so that they are better enabled. This is what we aim to achieve

Mario Gay, General Manager, Mindware through the presentations from our vendor partners at the event. The last 23 years have been remarkable for Mindware and this would not have been possible without our channel partners. Join us in recognising and highlighting best performance.”

The distributor has recently announced its rebranding, new vendor partnerships and the launch of the company’s mobile app to its partners and customers in the region.

MDS PACC bags Avaya award

MDS PACC, a UAE-based premier Infrastructure solutions provider, has won the Avaya GCC Partner of the Year award 2014, a prestigious global award from Avaya.

Manish Bakshi, Director, MDS PACC, said, “2014 was an outstanding year for our business where we achieved an overall solid 17 percent year-on-year growth, and expanded into new markets. We have also transformed

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our go-to-market approach to deliver valuebased, end-to-end communications solutions, in comparison to the traditional price-based and fragmented services model.” The award ceremony was held at the annual Avaya Customers and Partners Connect 2015 conference in Dubai earlier this week.

Anton Buys Du Plessis, GCC Channel Manager, Avaya said, “Avaya has achieved a double-digit growth across the Middle East, Africa, China, Russia and India markets in 2014 and almost 90 percent of our business is driven by our partners. The winners are those who adopted the valuebased services and were able to exceed the expectations of their customers.”

“We are extremely proud of the achievements of MDS PACC, the power of consultancy and project management that its team delivered in 2014, and we look forward to engaging with our business partner and our clients in the country to continue building adding value to their business and all their stakeholders,” he added.

2013

www.datacenterfuture.com

highlights

Jumbo Electronics launches online store

Vishesh Bhatia, CEO, Jumbo Group Jumbo Electronics, the regional consumer electronics retailer and distributor in the UAE, has launched its innovative online shopping portal that combines the retailer’s expertise in local markets with the capabilities of e-commerce and digital strategy specialists, including Build-

a-Bazaar, RBBi, MENA360, and Google, to offer a comprehensive omnichannel experience to shoppers.

The new online store – www.jumbo. ae – offers a fully integrated platform that services customers online and offline, in a simple, convenient process. Besides offering genuine products from global brands, and access to the retailer’s awardwinning service centre and support, the online store also addresses the challenges faced by shoppers at pure play online stores, such as difficulty in processing returns or lack of access to customer support and human interaction.

Vishesh Bhatia, CEO, Jumbo Group, said, “For the last 40 years, Jumbo has consistently set the benchmark for consumer electronics retail in the region.

We introduced organised retail into our sector here and today we are offering what

Resolution1 Security announces global partner programme

Neil Batstone, VP Global Alliances and Channels, Resolution1 Security Resolution1 Security has announced its global partner programme, Resolution1 Connect.

The programme will offer enhanced support to Resolution1 reseller, systems integrator (SI) and managed service provider (MSP) partners.

The programme’s goal is to collaborate more closely with partners, speed up sales cycles and advance IR technologies and environments.

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december 2014 Reseller Middle East

“Resolution1 Connect answers the industry’s call for advanced IR expertise to rapidly resolve any cyberattack,” said Neil Batstone, VP Global Alliances and Channels, Resolution1 Security.

“We are empowering our partners with integrated tools and IR programs so they can sell effectively and help their customers respond to security incidents immediately and continuously to avoid risk and major damage to their business now into the future.”

The programme’s benefits include access to a new cloud-based demo environment and the ability to provide prospects with the ThreatTap virtual appliance trial. The ThreatTap trial provides validation and severity of alerts using on-site customer data.

Other channel program benefits include lead sharing, comprehensive onboarding enablement both in person and by an online learning management system, deal registration incentives, compelling margins, technical resources and training.

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is undoubtedly the first truly omnichannel experience for consumer electronics shoppers in the region. Our goal is to offer the same high level of products and customer service that we are known for in our stores, to our online customers as well. This move is one part of a deliberate strategy towards entering the digital space.”

Nadeem Khanzadah, Head, OmniChannel Retail, Jumbo Group, said, “We have attempted to leave no stone unturned with our integrated customer engagement strategy. Over the years, buying patterns and decision-making processes have evolved to include a mix of online and offline behaviours. There is a need to ensure that our online presence doesn’t just tick off boxes, but addresses today’s changing realities and customer expectation for an anytime, anywhere, seamless shopping experience.”

stats MENA Healthcare providers will spend

US $3 billion

on IT products and services in 2014, an increase of

1.3 % over 2013 revenues

Source: Gartner UAE’s e-commerce is forecast to reach

US $10 billion

(Dh36.7 billion) in value by 2018

Source: Online Shopping Behavior 2013 study

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highlights

Interactive Intelligence signs NCBS as elite KSA partner

Interactive Intelligence Group, a global provider of software and services designed to improve the customer experience has signed National Company for Business Solutions (NCBS), as an ‘elite’ partner.

Under the terms of the agreement, NCBS will sell, implement and service Interactive Intelligence’s products and services portfolio across all market segments and verticals in Saudi Arabia.

Naif T. Bin Hwail, Head of Contact Centre, NCBS said, “The rapidly evolving technology scene in Saudi Arabia has

led to the emergence of a new class of consumers who access information and express their views using diverse communication channels. The increasing demands of these customers have compelled call centre operators and organisations to evolve quickly and adopt the latest technologies. In addition, the Saudi government’s endeavour to engage with citizens and open new channels of communication with them has led to an increasing demand for contact centre and unified communications solutions and this trend is set to gather pace in the next few years”.

“We have decided to become a dedicated partner of Interactive Intelligence in Saudi Arabia to better serve the market. The partnership will enable NCBS to bring world-class contact centre solutions to the country, enhanced by the highest quality local support.”

NCBS is based in Riyadh and operates across Saudi Arabia. The company is specialised in the Business Process

Outsourcing (BPO) market and is one of the largest players in the Kingdom in this space. CCBS, the contact centre division of NCBS has built experience in deploying highly competent people using innovative technology to deliver contact centre services. The NCBS Technology Solutions and Services division provides state of the art end-to-end ICT infrastructure solutions and this division will be responsible for promoting and implementing Interactive Intelligence’s solutions.

“Interactive Intelligence over the past few years has been actively expanding its reach in Saudi Arabia by signing up with local vibrant channel partners and we are delighted to sign NCBS as an Elite partner.

The company’s experience and record of success will ensure that we can offer organisations the benefits of working with an expert team in deploying an all-in-one contact centre platform for multichannel interactions. NCBS will play a strategic role in expanding Interactive Intelligence deployments in the country as they are able to offer various models such as premise, outsourcing and hosted (cloud),” said Safwat Alshawaf, Territory Manager, Saudi Arabia at Interactive Intelligence.

TP-LINK introduces partner rebate programme The networking products and wireless solutions provider, TP-LINK has launched a channel partner rebate programme aimed at incentivising and rewarding partners for the business they do with the company.

The rebate programme has been designed to reward all its channel partners based in the UAE market, said the vendor.

The rebate programme is open to all its channel partners and will run until the end of fourth quarter this year.

Denny Liang, General Manager, TP-LINK Middle East said, “We want to encourage the partners and draw them closer to us through initiatives that recognise the good work they are doing with TP-LINK. This rebate programme has been designed to achieve that.”

Liang added that the company is also running a similar programme in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Iraq. “I like

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to encourage partners to participate in the rebate programme because this will help them to motivate their sales teams and work closely with the TP-LINK team to grow the business across the region.”

Besides the rebate programme, the company is also planning to roll out training on its Outdoor Series and EAP this quarter. “We normally gather partners in our office for training on a regular basis.

We believe this is a better approach for us to do as we are able to provide handson training with our product specialist on a range of offerings. In addition, this accords our partners, an opportunity to demos and explain in detail the technology, design and implementation of our products in a customer environment,” he added.

Liang reiterated that TP-LINK remains committed to developing skills around

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Denny Liang, General Manager, TP-LINK Middle East its technology and product array. “We are not just content with providing training. We have a partner certification component to our training programmes as we believe this is the best approach to develop domain expertise and the much-needed skills in the networking and wireless segment across the Middle East market,” he said.

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highlights

Help AG achieves Palo Alto Diamond Partner status

Stephan Berner, Managing Director, Help AG Help AG has announced that it has become the first Palo Alto Networks channel partner in the Middle East region to achieve Diamond Partner status.

The IT security reseller was also

recently named ‘Partner of the Year – United Arab Emirates’ by Palo Alto Networks at the vendor’s 6th Annual NextWave EMEA Partner Conference held earlier this month in Barcelona.

“Our success with Palo Alto Networks has truly been a remarkable achievement for Help AG,” said Stephan Berner, Managing Director, Help AG. “By combining their industry leading technologies with our unmatched local expertise, we have managed to create solutions that offer our enterprise customers the nextgeneration protection they need. Thanks to our Diamond status, customers can be assured that when they employ Help AG for a Palo Alto Networks implementation, they will receive the most professional and technically sound services through every phase of the deployment.”

Help AG has enjoyed a long standing

relationship with Palo Alto Networks, having been the vendor’s first authorised training partner in the Middle East region and currently holding the position of a Palo Alto Networks regional authorised service partner.

The qualification process for Diamond status involves an evaluation of a partner’s technical competence, install base, completeness of product offerings and commercial performance.

Christian Hentschel, Vice President, EMEA Sales, Palo Alto Networks said, “Help AG has demonstrated a level of commitment and excellence to Palo Alto Networks that makes them a key partner for us in the Middle East region. They fully support our enterprise security platform and continue to deliver value to our shared customers. We congratulate Help AG on achieving Diamond status and look forward to continued mutual success.”

Al-Futtaim Technologies Qatar wins global Avaya accolade Regional systems integrator, Al Futtaim Technologies has won the ‘Networking Partner of the Year’ award from Avaya, a global provider of solutions that enable customer and team engagement across multiple channels and devices. The award, presented to the company for its performance in the country of Qatar earlier this week, represent Al Futtaim’s success in 2014 in delivering outstanding communications consultancy and services to leading public and private sector businesses in the country, and driving the key vertical sectors on one of the most advanced networking technologies in the world.

Venkat Raghavan, General Manager, Al Futtaim Technologies, said, “The technology market in Qatar is undergoing an enormous transformation in the way businesses, technology providers and vendors engage to achieve greater value out of investments in technology. This 360 degrees shift in the technology adoption model is based on

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value, in comparison to the traditional price-based and fragmented services model. Businesses in Qatar are keen to engage with technology partners who can lead business discussions, innovate out-of-the box solutions, and deliver measured business outcomes. It is this value-based model that enabled us to deliver an incredibly successful year in 2014, achieving 130 percent of our growth targets, including a 30 percent build-up on our Avaya total communications solutions business.”

Al Futtaim in Qatar won the award across the vendor’s India, China, Russia, Middle East and African markets. The award ceremony was held at the annual Avaya Customers and Partners Connect 2015 conference in Dubai earlier this week. Some of Al Futtaim’s newest projects in Qatar include Sheraton Doha Resort & Convention Hotel, Centro Rotana Hotel, DOMASCO and Burj Marina-Lusail Avaya awarded its business partners

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Venkat Raghavan, General Manager, Al Futtaim Technologies for their exceptional results, loyalty and for driving the transformation of the industry towards a value-based model where achievements are measured by the ability of the Avaya partners to exceed customer expectations. 18 business partners from across the Avaya global growth markets were recognised, indicating a bright future for its global growth markets-led global footprint and paving the way for a services-andcustomer-value-led business model from the vendor in 2015.

highlights

Focus Softnet enlists Future Kenya as country partner

ERP and software solutions development firm Focus Softnet has announced that it has signed Future Kenya as its new partner in Kenya.

According to the terms of the partnership agreement, Future Kenya will sell, deploy and support Focus Softnet’s entire range of solutions as well as offer a range of services to customers across Kenya.

“Africa is a very important market for Focus,” said Jawad Ali Khan, Regional CEO, Focus Softnet. “Signing on the right partners and empowering them with the

required knowledge, skills and support has been a huge part of Focus Softnet’s growth strategy for Africa. We were looking for an established local partner with strong expertise in the enterprise software solutions domain and Market Mate helped us to identify the right partner in Kenya. After reviewing a number of companies, we felt Future Kenya was a perfect partner as they have more than 15 years’ experience in the ERP space and requisite market knowledge, expertise and an extensive channel network to promote

our solutions and grow our business and market share.”

The latest versions of Focus Softnet’s products boasts features including integrated mobile apps, integrated CRM and multi-server synchronisation.

Incorporated in 1999, Future Kenya is a solutions and service oriented company providing business software solutions and services to Kenya and Tanzania’s small, medium and large businesses.

“The ERP market in Africa is growing at a rapid pace as government organisations and midsized companies are increasingly looking towards technology as a business enabler,” said Naved Sheikh, CEO, Future Kenya. “There is a huge market for ERP solutions that offer flexibility and a low cost of ownership, and Focus Softnet offers solutions that are not only feature-rich and customisable but also absolute value for money. We reviewed a few ERP solutions in the market and found that not many vendors had products that were inclusive to most vertical segments. Focus Softnet was the only vendor that had an extensive range of solutions for different verticals, which could help fill this gap. We are excited to partner with Focus Softnet in Kenya and look forward to working closely with them to offer our customers the best solutions, services and support on the ground.”

Visa announces online shipnow2.me partnership Visa has partnered with the international shipping platform and shopping facilitator, shipnow2.me, to enable Visa cardholders in the Middle East to shop at thousands of U.S. e-tailers that do not ship internationally.

Shipnow2.me, in conjunction with its parent company, international mail and package service provider SkyPostal, offers customers a physical tax-free U.S. address, allowing non-U.S. residents a to fulfill online purchases from American brands that have an online retail presence.

Through its partnership with Visa, shipnow2.me will now bring its offering to the Middle East, giving Visa cardholders in the region exclusive access to a selection of U.S. e-tailers.

Karim Beg, Head of Marketing,

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MENA, Visa said, “In line with our vision of accelerating e-Commerce solutions, Visa is excited to partner with shipnow2.me to bring this service to customers in the GCC, Lebanon and Jordan. Through shipnow2.me, shoppers will now have access to US merchant sales and the best deals in the U.S., while enjoying the confidence of safe and secure transactions through the Visa network.”

In instances where e-tailers do not permit transactions on non-U.S. credit/ debit/prepaid cards, customers can avail the ‘Personal Shopper’ feature that processes the purchase on their behalf.

The users can fill in the shipnow2. me order form, informing the shopping facilitator of the details of their purchase, and the ‘Personal Shopper’ feature makes the purchase for them with a

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minimal additional fee.

There is no registration membership fee and a price comparison engine allows customers to search for the best price on what they are looking for.

“E-commerce retail solutions are rapidly growing in the GCC, Lebanon and Jordan and we are pleased to enter into an exclusive partnership with Visa in the region to offer all its cardholders the chance to avail of exciting discounts and promotions that would otherwise be beyond their reach,” A J Hernandez, Chief Executive Officer, SkyPostal, said. “Shipnow2.me works by removing barriers and allowing cardholders to shop from the U.S. with the same ease as any US resident while saving up to 80% in shipping costs when compared to other international shipping companies.”

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highlights

Emitac scoops Brocade award

Miguel Angel Villalonga, CEO, Emitac Enterprise Solutions Brocade has awarded UAE IT infrastructure and solutions provider Emitac Enterprise Solutions (EES) with the ‘Partner Status Quo Breaker’ award.

The award recognises Emitac’s partnership in delivering cutting-edge networks, including working closely with the networking vendor in getting competitive accounts and investing in a Brocade-focused team.

Yarob Sakhnini, Regional Director, MEMA, Brocade, said, “The world has changed, and today’s users are demanding much more from IT. To meet this challenge, data centre networks must be more flexible, scalable, and efficient. Unfortunately, legacy networks simply aren’t designed for today’s growing workloads. It is time for organisations to say goodbye to status quo networks and make the transition to the New IP and Ethernet Fabric based networks that pave the way for software-defined networking and support highly virtualised and cloud-ready environments. But given the time, money, and manpower invested in legacy networks, IT departments must overcome quite a bit of inertia before buying into a new way of thinking.

“We rely heavily on our partners to carry this message out to the market and bring about change in the mindsets of CIOs and IT managers. The award celebrates the resourcefulness and spirit of our partners who have broken out of

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status-quo thinking, status-quo selling and status-quo solutions to deliver the best possible answer to customer challenges. We congratulate Emitac for being among the first batch of winners of this award globally.”

Miguel Angel Villalonga, CEO, Emitac Enterprise Solutions, said, “EES is pleased to be recognised for the ‘The Status Quo breaker’ award from Brocade. We are encouraged and extremely happy to be appreciated for demonstrating vision, cuttingedge technology expertise, intense customer commitment and building complementary value solutions that meet the demanding business needs of our key customers. Like Brocade, we have always been keen to develop and extend value-adding relationships with key partners where we can leverage each-others’ core competencies to reach customers and markets. In that regard, we are continually renewing our efforts across the business and between our sales and services teams to identify, propose and win mutually successful sales together. This award is certainly a testimony to our ongoing efforts.”

We rely heavily on our partners to carry this message out to the market and bring about change in the mindsets of CIOs and IT managers. The award celebrates the resourcefulness and spirit of our partners who have broken out of status-quo thinking, status-quo selling and status-quo solutions to deliver the best possible answer to customer challenges. We congratulate Emitac for being among the first batch of winners of this award globally.” www.resellerme.com

Cyberoam announces Technology Alliance Partnership (TAP) programme Cyberoam has announced a collaborative partnership initiative ‘Technology Alliance partnership’ (TAP) programme, designed to provide the infrastructure and support for third-party organisations, MSSPs and systems integrators to integrate their solutions with the vendor’s security products and offerings for large enterprises and other customers. The programme aims to build a partner ecosystem with a wide variety of vendors, partners and service providers to deliver interoperable, flexible and innovative security solutions.

Ajay Nawani, Global Presales Head, Cyberoam, says, “For today’s evolving milieu in enterprise networking, Cyberoam understands how customers benefit from having improved interoperability, economies of scale and easy integration in a multi-vendor scenario. With TAP programme, we intend to tap into innovative partnerships with vendors, systems integrators and MSSPs while providing our existing partners with a broader and enriched value proposition to market.”

“Technology Alliance Partnership (TAP) programme has been planned to facilitate strategic benefits to our mutual customers and channel partners. We are driving more investments in our partner ecosystem and are determined to meet the growing demand for interoperable security solutions,” he added.

The key highlights of Cyberoam TAP programme includes an opportunity for Cyberoam partners to cross-sell Cyberoam Next-generation Firewall and UTM security as a bundled or interoperable offering with other networking solutions. It also enables systems integrators and enterprise technology consultants to integrate custom applications with Cyberoam security to provide more complete solution.

highlights

Brocade: Virtualisation top EMEA trend

Abdul Rehman Tariq, Regional Channel Manager, MENA, Brocade, According to research conducted by Brocade, virtualisation, has emerged as the top customer trend and network complexity and bandwidth provisioning are the top two customer pain points.

The report comes following a survey of 230 distributors and resellers from across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).

Virtualisation (72 percent) and BYOD (43 percent) were identified as the top customer trends in EMEA, with softwaredefined networking (SDN)/network function virtualisation (NFV) following in

third (30 percent). Fifty-three percent of EMEA partners think that more than 75 percent of customer data centres will be virtualised within two years.

In terms of customer pain points, EMEA respondents reported that network complexity and bandwidth (both 46 percent) were the biggest challenges related to networking requirements, followed by CapEx investment in IT (33 percent).

The survey revealed that 18 percent of companies are now deploying SDN, with 33 percent are currently evaluating plans to adopt it, and 18 percent having no future plans to consider SDN or NFV. “It is not surprising that virtualisation takes top position on account of its significant benefits especially as organisations across the region embrace cloud computing,” Abdul Rehman Tariq, Regional Channel Manager, MENA, Brocade, said. “With data centre build-outs gaining pace in the Middle East, organisations will be looking to virtualise more and more aspects of their infrastructure. BYOD is also an

up-and-coming trend. The Middle East is seeing a convergence of the wired and wireless worlds where customers expect a seamless and secure experience irrespective of what device they are using or from where they connect to the enterprise network.

“Middle East channel organisations need to recognise these technology trends and develop their capabilities in these areas if they are to take advantage of the market opportunities.”

While technology differentiation was cited as the most important factor in choosing a vendor (67 percent) in EMEA, vision and strategy came in second, with 42 percent listing it as a top factor, along with customer demand (39 percent).

The research, conducted by Brocade via an anonymous online SurveyGizmo survey, was cast among a range of individuals at partner organisations.

The majority of respondents were from technical (63 percent) and sales (27 percent) job functions, with the remaining respondents in executive level (2 percent) and marketing (8 percent) functions.

AccessData announces company split

Brian Karney, CEO of Resolution1 Security AccessData Group has announced the split of its businesses into two independent, global companies, AccessData and the newly formed

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Resolution1 Security, effective 1st January 2015.

Tim Leehealey, AccessData’s current CEO and Chairman, will oversee AccessData’s strategic vision and business growth. He will serve as Chairman of the Board for both AccessData and Resolution1 Security.

The company also announced the appointment of industry veteran Keith James as EVP of Global Sales and Marketing. The corporate headquarters are based in Lindon, Utah.

“AccessData has highly successful cybersecurity and investigations businesses,” Leehealey said. “The rapidly changing security landscape accelerated our plans to separate the two companies and aggressively pursue opportunities to extend our industry leadership. The split enables each company with the focus,

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flexibility, independence, and resources to innovate and solve enterprises’ most vexing challenges.”

Automated and integrated IR solution Resolution1 Platform was developed seven years ago.

“The cybersecurity market has reached a critical point and Resolution1 Security is at the forefront of defining the future of incident response, namely Continuous, Automated, Incident Resolution (CAIR),” said Brian Karney, CEO of Resolution1 Security. “Our business has grown as has the interest and adoption by major companies and enterprises. The split comes at an optimal time for our company to realise its full potential and advance incident resolution for unsurpassed response speed, certainty and incident intelligence.”

highlights

Global Distribution to distribute Zyxel’s solutions

Mario M. Veljovic, VP Solutions MENA, Global Distribution Global Distribution has signed a masterdistribution agreement with ZyXxel Communications Corporation, a global broadband access solutions provider.

Global will distribute the vendor’s comprehensive range of networking and connectivity products in the Middle East, as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The announcement comes as Global further expands its solutions portfolio for the MENA Region, which now covers the key IT Infrastructure pillars, such as enterprise storage, high performance computing, IT infrastructure and physical security and software. The new partnership allows Global to distribute all of ZyXEL’s products including, UTM firewalls, switches, routers, wireless LAN solutions.

“Global Distribution FZE has extensive experience in Solutions Distribution and an excellent reputation in Channel Development and Enablement,” said Muhammad Arsalan, VP Sales at Zyxel Middle East. “We are pleased to have them join our network of Distributors and added us to their comprehensive Solutions Portfolio. Together, we will expand the footprint in the Middle East.”

“We are continuing to broaden our offering by signing new agreements with key manufacturers,” said Imran Batoaq, BU Manager – IT Infrastructure &

Physical Security for Global Distribution.

“Zyxel has shown considerable growth over the last years and introduced a broad range of networking solutions products that complement our existing manufacturer portfolio.”

“Our vision is to enable the reseller community to embrace solution selling. Zyxel’s comprehensive line of networking solutions allows us to offer a ‘one stop’ shop and brings us another step closer to accomplish our vision,” added Mario M. Veljovic, VP Solutions MENA at Global Distribution.

Our vision is to enable the reseller community to embrace solution selling. Zyxel’s comprehensive line of networking solutions allows us to offer a ‘one stop’ shop and brings us another step closer to accomplish our vision.”

VMware: 7 month gap between business demands and IT delivery in KSA

Sam Tayan, Regional Director, MENA, VMware VMware has announced a research revealing that 73 percent of IT decision makers in the United Arab Emirates believe an average time lapse of seven months exists between what the business wants and when IT can deliver it.

This misalignment between business and IT can carry significant ramifications for the performance, competitiveness and

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growth prospects of organisations. The reduced likelihood of company growth by revenue (50 percent), reduced staff productivity (47 percent), and increased cost of management and maintenance of legacy systems (39 percent) were cited by IT decision makers in Saudi Arabia as the implications of the gap.

As companies in the United Arab Emirates grapple with the new era of IT, this gap can add to the growing pressure IT is under. The research by Vanson Bourne, commissioned by VMware, finds that 75 percent of IT decision makers in Saudi Arabia feel their department is under pressure from the CEO, CTO or board to modernise IT in the next 12 months. Beyond the ongoing challenge of reducing the cost of IT (38 percent), these departments specifically have been tasked with: increasing the mobility of the workforce (31

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percent), and moving more infrastructure into the cloud (28 percent).

“A lag of more than half a year between what the business in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia expects of IT and what it can deliver is huge. We cannot underplay the pressure IT departments face in this new mobile cloud era, as they balance a need to maximise value from existing systems alongside the necessity to deploy new technologies,” says Sam Tayan, Regional Director, MENA, VMware. “We’re hearing time and again that businesses see IT as a driver of innovation; it has to be part of future, not part of the furniture. Organisations of all sizes need an IT infrastructure that can scale up and down with business demand, increase automation to reduce management burden and help improve productivity and support innovation. Investment needs to shift so that IT can genuinely impact the business and reduce the gap.”

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CommVault

opinion

Surviving BYOD Nizar Elfarra, Pre Sales Director, CommVault, explains how to control data risk in a BYOD-enabled environment.

Data protection has always been a challenge, even when data flow was, more or less, confined to a closed network system. Now, we have the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) era in which your

employees and contractors basically feel they should be able to use whatever device they want to create information, share it and retrieve it at will. It makes previous risk mitigation issues look relatively simple. The

challenge and potential for risk will only increase. IDC forecasted that by 2017, the number of global workers bringing their own smart phones to work will reach 328 million, up from the estimated 175 million workers doing so

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in 2014.Company-purchased smart phones are also on the rise, with an anticipated 88 million in use by 2017, up from an estimated 69 million in 2014.

Tablets, too, are on a fast trajectory. Forrester Research

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opinion

commvault

reports that by 2017, nearly one in five tablet purchases will be made directly by companies. That equates to roughly 68 million tablets flooding the workplace. The numbers tell the story: BYOD and the flexibility it gives our highly mobile workers are here to stay. Happy as employees may be to use mobile devices, it presents an enormous challenge to CIOs who must set new standards and policies across the enterprise to protect data and mitigate risk. CIOs are working with their IT teams to put into place systems, rules and technology that will allow workers the computing freedom they desire, at the same time ensuring data is safe, retrievable and to the best possible extent, risk free.

Below are five areas that CIOs and IT managers need to be watchful about when deciding the best data management and protection solution: Enabling file Synchronisation Enterprises view BYOD as a way to increase productivity, and that means enabling work to continue without delay across the different devices used by employees. They need a file synchronization solution that meets data security objectives while enabling data access, whether the data was created at an office desktop, or on a laptop at a different location. While employees send files to the cloud or put them on USB drives, assumedly to work on later at home, often they may

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not be able to return to the file and wind up working on it again, back at the desktop or laptop. This creates risk because business data now resides in a potentially unsecured location and different versions of the files exist in different locations.

It’s critical to managing risk to be able to pull different data sources into a single pool of protection, management and access.

Efficiently protecting data As employees use as many as three devices a day, data governance takes on more complexity. Even less sensitive data needs to be governed as files move across devices, and outside the enterprise, to suppliers and customers. It is important to have a solution that helps to prevent data loss by enabling efficient, rapid and transparent backup for business-critical data on laptops and desktops through deduplication, opportunistic scheduling, bandwidth throttling, flexible policy definition, and the intelligence to run a backup only if a file has changed.

Easily accessing files with mobile Employees will no doubt expect the same quick access to files while using a mobile device as they have from their laptop or desktop. The solution needs to be able to deliver data portability and self-service access to a secure, personal data cloud so that they are able to access their files from virtually anywhere,

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As employees use as many as three devices a day, data governance takes on more complexity. Even less sensitive data needs to be governed as files move across devices. at any time, and also protect files from their tablet or phones.

Fast eDiscovery It’s also necessary to be able to access and retrieve documents that have legal and compliance relevance, regardless of where they reside, without having to spend a lot of resources retrieving laptops from far flung locations. The solution needs to have simplified administration and the ability to rapidly find key documents. Chief Legal Officers (CLOs) will thus be able to create legal holds and choose the best strategy earlier in the audit or litigation process.

Dealing with data on lost or stolen endpoints Data breaches are becoming more prevalent these days.

Employees’ increasing mobility only adds more probability to these types of incidences. One of the major enterprise concerns is the incidence of lost or stolen laptops. File encryption is essential to preventing

unauthorized access that can occur. Remote wipe can be used to delete files and geo-location is a valuable tool in tracking lost laptops.

Techniques like IP address logging can be used to identify where a laptop or desktop is located to determine if it has been lost or to help recover it. The solution needs to allow administrators to set policies that define granular encryption rules down to the file level.

BYOD’S next frontier Like it or not, CIOs and IT teams are going to face even more complex challenges as the mobility and BYOD trends continue to accelerate. To further minimize data loss and breach risk, CIOs are looking at new ideas such as ‘geo-fencing’ in which an employee can only access certain data within a specified physical distance from a secure building.

It is a critical time in BYOD’s evolution as executives are examining ways to advance data protection solutions that work in a mobile environment.

R E T N U H E BE TH

RSA SECURITY ANALYTICS AND RSA ECAT GIVES SECURITY TEAMS AN EDGE IN THE HUNT FOR CYBER ATTACKS

opinion

EMC

Flash frenzy Mohammed Amin, Senior Vice President and Regional Manager, Turkey, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Middle East, EMC, discusses the varied benefits of flash storage.

We continue to witness the evolution of technology all in the name of making our personal and professional lives better. Today, we have come to expect the same level of real time responsiveness from all applications, whether for business or personal use.

Over the last few decades processing and networking technologies have doubled their performance every eighteen months, yet the mechanical limitations of hard disk drives have prevented storage performance from advancing at the same speed.

So while the ability to create, capture, and process vast

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amounts of data already does exist in most scenarios, the ability to actually leverage the insights from Big Data was limited because of the speed at which data can be moved on and off of persistent storage to be processed.

Things got worse as we continued to witness the heavy adoption of modern technologies like virtualisation that drove demands for enterprise application responsiveness even further and lead to the expansion of the pre-existent gap between processing, network and storage, creating what many call a perfect storm for IT. As always, all isn’t lost. Flash

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technology was borne out of the necessity to adapt our storage abilities to effectively leverage the power of new technologies, disrupting some very important assumptions under which IT had been operating. The technology not only dramatically improved application response time but also allowed applications to scale to extraordinary levels of data usage.

What’s so special about flash?

Flash delivers unprecedented data access performance for both random and sequential data, delivering superior application throughput and response time performance for virtualised environments.

Flash consumes much less power, as there are no disks to spin and no mechanical arms to move, and requires much less cooling, helping alleviate overtaxed data centre environments.

Many often ask if this specialised weapon of a drive expensive is expensive. Given the explosive adoption of mobile devices using flash – iPods, iPhones, iPads, as well as tablets of all makes and models – the technology has become more mature and affordable, to a point where with the right combination of storage array technology it can meet the price and performance requirements of today’s applications.

Like with any other emerging technology, flash has raised many questions about its utilisation and operational effectiveness, and they are rightfully asked.

The organisations that ask these questions stand a better chance of making an effective decision founded on a clear understanding of how flash technology fits in their overall infrastructure given their workloads, and performance requirements instead of the hype that any new technology brings.

The trick to unleashing the true power of flash is to remember that while this may indeed be a disruptive technology, it needs a well thought out plan and approach for one to successfully leverage its power to their benefit.

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opinion

Citrix

Monetising mobility Matteo Masserini, Regional Sales Manager, Mobility, Middle East & Africa, Citrix, describes how Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solutions will move beyond the device.

Enterprise mobility has been a long sought-after goal and till date has seen success with wireless email and specialised vertical applications.

For the average user though, email and web browsing defines their mobile experience. Enterprises have been holding back on mobilising more of their apps based on a number of reasons—user experience, cost, security to name a few. But as more companies deploy Mobile Device Management (MDM) and now Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) as part of their mobility architecture, this will drive the adoption of enterprise mobility beyond the initial stages that most organisations are in today.

In the Middle East, EMM is rapidly being adopted and this

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is evidenced by the growth of mobile phone usage and tablet shipment in the region.

In its Global Media Intelligence Report, eMarketer highlighted the region’s significance as having the world’s second largest smartphone population at 561 million in 2014, which is expected to swell to 670.9 million by 2017. Meanwhile, International Data Corporation (IDC) reported in June that as other regions around the world posted a slowdown in tablet shipments, the Middle East and Africa expanded by a hefty 77.3 percent, year on year, in the first quarter of 2014 to reach 4 million units.

This growth has in turn, led to organisations seeking more complete EMM offerings that enable full mobile productivity.

On a strategic level, they now think about mobility in terms of mobile workspaces that provide access to apps, desktops, data and services anywhere, on any device, over any network—a trend with important implications for providers and customers alike.

The evolution of enterprise mobility maps to a shifting mindset among IT around mobile devices and applications.

During the initial wave of enterprise mobility, IT tended to view the trend of BYOD, for example, as a problem.

As consumer smartphones and tablets entered the workplace, and employees requested mobile access to corporate assets and email, IT was understandably concerned about security and manageability. The first enterprise mobility strategies were defensive in nature, allowing only a small handful of carefully managed apps for strictly limited use cases.

Over time, IT had to respond effectively to a growing list of requests and requirements to prevent users from turning to unmanaged, less secure workarounds. The embrace of MDM reflected a fallback to a familiar model: IT would manage devices the same way as any other endpoint, such as a laptop or desktop computer.

This did address many needs, but significant pain points remained. These challenges and the solutions introduced to address them, have defined the current state of EMM. Focus shifts from managing devices to apps, data and connectivity The diversity of enterprise mobility use cases is leading IT to take a more granular approach to management.

Instead of managing devices as a whole, EMM tools allow IT to manage the mobile, apps and data they contain, as well as the transport between devices

and the corporate network.

While the secure delivery of mobile workspaces relies on EMM, it also requires broader functionality for enterprise file sync and sharing, flexible application delivery, networking and virtual windows application and desktop delivery. In this manner, IT can apply policies selectively based on specific use cases and user personas, device ownership, vertical industry requirement, data recovery requirements and other variables.

Enterprise mobility has gone mainstream Enterprise mobility has matured from basic, limited use cases, like mobile secure email and browser to full mobile productivity and a broad spectrum of specialised use cases. Executives and salespeople take tablets with them in place of a laptop when they travel and doctors use them to consult electronic medical records and clinical applications right from the patient’s bedside. The key to success here has been less around which platform or device to support, but identifying mobile use cases, data and creating more specialised services to get to the data that is needed, when it’s needed, in a secure way. This shows how all is about the apps, through which users still access their data.

It’s all about the apps This expansion of enterprise mobility is made possible by technologies that make any kind of app available on any kind of device. Today, mobile

EMM tools allow IT to manage the mobile, apps and data they contain, as well as the transport between devices and the corporate network. apps account for only about 8 percent of the applications in the enterprise; IT now needs to be able to empower people with Windows (still delivering 64 percent of the business apps), web and SaaS applications on mobile devices as well. To be fully productive from wherever they are, users have to be able to access any type of application from their mobile workspace with equal simplicity—without even having to think about what type of application it is.

A follow-me data capability is equally essential to ensure that people can access the same data wherever or on whatever device they work.

User experience is paramount In enterprise mobility as in any other part of IT, user acceptance is a major factor in the success of a technology. Vendors need to provide business-grade capabilities while offering the consumer-like experiences people are familiar with. A corporate email client can’t require people to adapt to a completely different look-andfeel from the iOS or Android they’ve been using, but it does need to offer essential business features, like the ability to add an attachment to a meeting

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invitation, possibly as a link to limit data consumption. Or to join a meeting right from its calendar listing.

One of the key features a mobility solution has to deliver to the user is definitely SingleSign-On (SSO), which avoids the typing of usernames and passwords while on the move, especially on devices without a hard keyboard with the risk of accounts lockout. The ultimate result is to present all this kind of apps in a seamless way to the user, and in a ‘one click away’ delivery model as the user will access them simply touching the app icon on his device.

Only a few years after its inception, enterprise mobility is now poised to fully realise its promise. By ensuring secure, on-demand access to applications, desktops, data and services anywhere, over any network, from any device, organisations can empower mobile workers with the freedom and flexibility to choose how they work. With the emergence of mobile workspaces, work has finally been transformed from a place where people go, to something they can do wherever and on whatever device they choose.

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opinion

brocade

Adapt to Gen Z Marcus Jewell, Vice President, EMEA, Brocade, elaborates on how businesses will need to transform with Generation Z entering the workplace.

The word ‘teen’ was first used in the early 19th century, but concerns about our young people - and how they differ from ‘adult’ society - have been around much, much longer. From Ancient Greece onwards, every new generation of young people has developed its own behaviours and social norms that older members of society must learn to deal with or accept. Within businesses, ‘Generation Y’ has been the focus for many years as those born in the 1980s and early 90s have entered the workforce, bringing with them new demands and ways of working. Now however, attention is turning to a still younger group that is soon to come of age: Generation Z.

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Defined as anyone born after 1995, members of Generation Z have been called everything from ‘screenagers’ to ‘digital natives’ and today make up a reported two billion of the world’s population. They have grown up hearing of foreign involvement in wars, watched their parents and elder siblings experience the recession and have simply never known a world without the internet.

Understandably therefore, Generation Z is already showing signs of being markedly different from the previous generation to enter the workforce. Where Gen Y have been typecast as entrepreneurial, ambitious and with unrealistic expectations for success, early reports show their younger counterparts appear

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to be frugal, display healthier behaviours, and are more outward looking and concerned about doing their part to contribute to social good.

They are also, as you would expect, extremely technology-focused. Instinctive multi-taskers, they’re reportedly hooked on to as many as five screens, with a large percentage using a desktop computer, laptop, TV, smartphone and gaming device or tablet on a daily basis.

Growing up with the internet as an ever-present resource has made Gen Z naturally more collaborative and this means that concepts such as crowdsourcing and open platform education are seen not as innovations, but as the obvious and most efficient way to solve problems. They are also much savvier than older generations about how and when they are tracked online and they take privacy seriously; as demonstrated by the fact that they are less likely to use Facebook, regularly use misnomers on social media and frequently turn off geolocation tracking on their devices.

Another consequence of Gen Z’s internet-centric upbringing is their impatience. With shorter attention spans and a whole new type of anxiety based on the fear of missing out (or ‘FOMO’), they simply have no time for technology that doesn’t just work. They’re also rapid-

firing, imprecise communicators, using images and videos in place of words and sentences and strongly favour streaming content over downloading.

These behaviours are not going to go away and it won’t be long before we see these traits - a high dependence on devices, expectation for high-bandwidth capability at all times and use of short-burst rich content - impacting on businesses.

Generation Z will bring new ways of working and communicating to their employers; the best companies will learn and adapt from them rather than seeking to control them. We already know from Generation Y that trying to make new generations adapt to existing workplace cultures and behaviours is doomed to failure; and it is certainly no way to attract the best talent.

Whether you’re planning to market to or employ this generation at some point, to do so will require a strong understanding of their values and behaviours and, crucially, a robust infrastructure to support them technologically.

After all, an entire generation of people streaming and sharing video and images in place of text across multiple devices will involve huge volumes of data surging through networks in the Middle East. Organisations that cannot cope with this demand will quickly need to get up to speed, or get used to that ‘Fear Of Missing Out’ themselves.

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Exclusive Networks ME

Power of two Exclusive Networks Middle East had entered the market with the acquisition of the regional security distributor, Secureway, last year. CEO Fari Boustantchi speaks to Reseller ME on the company’s channel strategy to work closely with partners.

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partners in the ME region

The value-added security distributor, Exclusive Networks Middle East, formerly and better known as Secureway in the region has spent the last one year rebranding and merging itself to its European parent company. Since its acquisition exactly a year ago, the brand formally presented itself to end customers and partners at GITEX this year. What it now aims to do is create awareness in the region about the legacy of the group and the strengths it brings with it.

Fari Boustantchi, CEO, Exclusive Networks Middle

East, says, it is more like a merger rather than an acquisition, as the former stakeholders of Secureway continue to be on board and still have the authority.

We will also not see a major change in the operations of the company. This is because the business model of Exclusive Networks globally works in such a way that each subsidiary is free and independent to run it with its local team.

“This is a good thing as we have the expertise of the Middle East market. What we are doing today is to help the group understand better what the dynamics are in this

market. And also to see what is the best way to consolidate the business in the group within the Middle East,” explains the CEO. “What works to our advantage is that vendors are increasingly seeking panEuropean or panEMEA distributors and this helps us consolidate our position and partnerships with many vendors.”

The distributor has security vendors such

We want to make sure that our partners have the in-depth expertise of the business. And for this, we conduct many seminars, trainings and workshops on a regular basis.”

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as Fortinet, F5 Networks, Infoblox, FireEye, Sourcefire, Lumension and Vasco in its portfolio and now thanks to the group it also distributes products from brands such as WhiteHat Security, Lieberman Software, LogRhythm.

“These brands complete our portfolio, this is the advantage of being a part of a larger group,” he adds.

CHANNEL STRATEGY One of the primary focuses for the distributor will be to go ahead and invest more in training and knowledge transfer to its partners. In order to grow the business, one of the most crucial elements is having more people on the field.

This is done by enabling partners and ensuring they know the products and solutions inside out.

“We want to make sure that our partners have the in-depth expertise of the business. And for this, we conduct many seminars, trainings and workshops on a regular basis. The security

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space is a complex one. There are new threats, technologies and features every day, it is important that partners are updated with all these changes.”

The company’s partner programme, Exclusive Networks Partner Programme, looks to facilitate and motivate partners with incentives and rewards and also encourages them to attain different product certifications.

Boustantchi says, “What we try to do through this partner programme is to train more and more of our partners on the new technologies and products.

And also to educate them with in-depth expertise on the existing products.

Knowledge transfer is very important.”

Currently the distributor has around 400 partners all over the Middle East region.

GEOGRAPHICAL REACH Although Middle East has been the focus for the company, it is now looking to increase its business in North and West Africa along with

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Exclusive Networks ME

Egypt. The distributor says it already has an activity in these markets, however now it aims to be more proactive.

“We want to make sure that we have the possibilities to bring on board valuable partners from Africa and also Egypt. We have good partners in Egypt and we are trying to make this market gradually more profitable for our partners and for ourselves as well. Business is growing dramatically in Egypt.”

Countries such as Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Nigeria are the priority markets for the distributor in the continent.

Boustantchi says, “Within our base business, which is the Middle East, we are going to be focusing a lot more in Saudi, because today that is the second region after UAE for Exclusive Networks Middle East. We will invest heavily in this market in the coming year.”

The company is already doing a good amount of business in Saudi Arabia at the moment, and the CEO

100% growth in Saudi Arabia in 2014

believes this market could surpass the UAE in 2015.

“By the end of 2014, we should grow about 100 percent in Saudi. This is something we think we can repeat in 2015. We have a good penetration in other regions, our biggest ones include the UAE, KSA, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Egypt.”

GROWTH ROADMAP In 2015, we will see the VAD implementing its strategy for growth, which is branched out into three different aspects – people, brands and partners. First, it will focus on its people and enable them to work with partners for the market penetration of its brands.

“Our marketing budgets in this region will be dramatically focused on our partners – to emphasise more on training them and to ensure that they understand our products and technologies well. Also to make sure that they have whatever they need to go to the market in an effective manner.”

Our marketing budgets in this region will be dramatically focused on our partners – to emphasise more on training them and to ensure that they understand our products and technologies well.

Also to make sure that they have whatever they need to go to the market in an effective manner.”

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QUICK TAKE Name: Exclusive Networks Middle East CEO: Fari Boustantchi Parent company: Exclusive Networks Distribution model: VAD Global HQ: Paris, France Regional offices: Dubai, UAE and Riyadh, KSA Vendor partners: F5 Networks, Infoblox, FireEye, Lumension, HID, Leiberman Software, Fortinet, WhiteHat Security, Vasco, LogRhythm

The company’s chief focus will continue to be to build a complete two-tier model of business through its partner network.

“We are here to support our partners and to win together. We have the full support of our vendors, they are here to help us to go ahead and make sure our partners are not missing out on anything. Another advantage is that we have the power of the group, which increases our expertise and reach. We are the biggest independent security VAD in the EMEA region, this will help us to give more possibilities to our partners to go ahead and become one of the winners in the promising Middle East market,” says Boustantchi.

feature

SMB channel opportunities

Reseller ME delves into the channel opportunities present in the regional SMB segment and how partners can lead the discussions to be successful.

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Deploying high-end technology solutions is no longer restricted to only large enterprises, the small and medium businesses (SMBs) also want to achieve the same results, however the catch being, using much less resources and investments.

Over the years, IDC has noted the increasing demand from SMBs in the GCC region for ICT services in order to grow their businesses, improve their offerings and to gain an edge over competition.

According to the research firm, the regional SMBs adopted ICT solutions around basic connectivity and cost-efficient productivity applications.

But this trend is gradually moving to matured services and solutions as SMBs realise the business advantages of employing the third platform and other technologies.

The general notion when it comes to approaching small and medium business customers is that they have budget constraints and may not invest into IT as much.

While this is true to a certain extent, it should be noted

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that more than not spending, SMBs are on the lookout for cost reduction. Therefore, a technology, which will help in optimising operations and also cutting down on the costs in the long run will appeal to this set of customers.

Glen Ogden, Regional Sales Director, Middle East, A10 Networks, says, “SMBs have the money, but there is no blank cheque anymore.

They are very clever about orchestrating their budgets around cost savings.”

Osama AlHaj-Eisa, Channel Director, Middle East & Turkey, Aruba Networks, adds, “From a cost benefit perspective, I can confirm that most SMB clients are determined to lead in their field by adopting the most effective business supporting technologies. That being said, even the SOHO market segment sometimes realise the importance of deploying solid technology with a little higher premium than consumer products and we see them happily acquiring our Instant Access Points, for example.”

While agreeing to this, Meghan McCarthy, Regional Sales Manager, Partner

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feature

SMB channel opportunities

Organisation and Commercial Segment, Cisco UAE, also adds that today the cost of most technology solutions have come down due to the rapid technological advancements.

“This way it becomes affordable for the SMBs, enabling them to more rapidly respond to market transitions and consumption models.”

customer’s requirement but also being a step ahead and future-proofing the technology.

Channel partners need to keep the customer-first attitude in order to gain the faith of the customer and develop a longterm relationship.

“The role of the reseller is key as he is the trusted advisor in this segment,

Resellers should make themselves more accessible by being present on social networks such as LinkedIn or Twitter.”

Khwaja Saifuddin, Senior Sales Director, Middle East, Africa & India, WD

How to approach SMB customers Resellers play a pivotal role in creating a demand within this segment, as they are the direct link for customers to understand better about the uses of emerging technologies. But how should channel partners approach SMB customers?

Pradeesh VS, General Manager, ESET Middle East, says, “Ideally a channel organisation needs to approach an SMB client with a solution that can give the owner a control of his business. It is important to analyse where the SMB lacks and advice a solution that will be best suited to their requirement.”

It is not only about understanding the SMB

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especially as the IT Knowledge of SMB is limited considering the absence of a full-fledge IT department, unlike large organisations.

Resellers should turn to vendors that are offering ‘outof-the-box’ solutions, which are duly tested and proven to address this segment,” says Mario M. Veljovic, Vice President – Solutions MENA, Global Distribution.

“Furthermore, resellers should train their sales force to be more consultative in nature and be able to present business benefits of the solution they promote, rather than simply ‘reading technical specifications’. A business owner or a CEO is not interested in the latest processor speed, but what

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Technologies suited to SMBs Ranjith Kaippada, Product Sales Manager, StorIT Distribution “Security, storage, back up and virtualisation are some of the technologies that SMBs look for. Cloud computing is offering the SMB segment opportunities, which were previously limited to large enterprises.

We are seeing an increased trend where SMBs are adopting cloud services, mobility, social media and Big Data to grow their businesses, reach broader markets and increase sales.”

Glen Ogden, Regional Sales Director, Middle East, A10 Networks “From a reseller perspective, hardware (boxes) are the best solutions, because they are comfortable with it, they know what to do and it’s easy to sell. However from the customer’s perspective, hardware is not always the better option. Using cloud as an example, the only reason we have cloud is that from the SMB end-user perspective, it is a great model financially since they don’t pay until they use the service. So the SMB end-user is going to be pushing for cloud and virtualisation, while bigger enterprises would opt for hardware solutions.

There is going to be a big push among SMBs towards the virtual editions of IT solutions, but with that comes the requirement to do a lot more scripting.”

Meghan McCarthy, Regional Sales Manager, Partner Organisation and Commercial Segment, Cisco UAE “Connectivity, employee mobility, and Big Data are making our customers’ business more complex. The cloud will play a key role in delivering platforms and services for SMBs to deploy a wide range of solutions, especially Big Data – which is leading to a rise in solutions across a wide range of business intelligence models. Video solutions are enabling healthcare professionals to collaborate more easily, regardless of location, improving the timeliness and the quality of care, with care-at-a-distance technology for healthcare consultations.Unified Communications combine business communications into a single, unified solution that enables an organiSation to move with greater speed and agility. Security-as-a-service is a key protective measure, requiring input from resellers, channel partners and vendors that are capable of building comprehensive, end-to-end architectures.”

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SMB channel opportunities

it will do for his business and that’s measured in profitability of his Business.”

According to Khwaja Saifuddin, Senior Sales Director, Middle East, Africa & India, WD, “Resellers should make themselves more accessible by being present on social networks such as LinkedIn or Twitter.”

This is an interesting point, especially since the regional resellers are yet to take social networking sites seriously.

“It’s critical that every reseller has the capacity to differentiate whether a buyer is an end consumer or someone looking for a solution for a SMB. Once the distinction is made, the reseller has the opportunity to lead the discussion. Resellers can also proactively identify and reach out to SMBs and offer basic advice on their IT infrastructure in relation to their needs and challenges.”

However, resellers should be careful when giving out the advice as it shouldn’t be an all-out sales pitch. “Not everyone may want or be able to buy at that very instant,” he says. “By cultivating a relationship and becoming a

Partners are found to be catching up with the releases and changes announced by the vendors. Besides, there is also the challenge of getting their field team trained on the new features introduced by vendors from time to time.”

Vidya Vasu, Head of the ManageEngine Community and Free Tools

trusted advisor at this stage, it’s very likely that the SMB will come back to that reseller for their future needs.”

How to overcome challenges Few of the challenges resellers may face here are common to other technologies – having the expertise and the right vendor partnerships.

Vidya Vasu, Head of the ManageEngine Community and Free Tools says, “Most often, the partners are found to be catching up with the releases and changes announced by the vendors.

Besides, there is also the challenge of getting their field team trained on the new features introduced by vendors from time to time.

Some ways of overcoming these challenges will be to actively participate in the vendor user community.

The vendors must have a dedicated team that bridges the gap between them and their partners.”

And added to that, the ever-evolving facet of the regional technology landscape makes it even more challenging for the channel partners. Resellers need to be updated in real-time and though vendors can help here by having educational and training initiatives, it is also up to the reseller himself to drive this factor. This in turn boosts his confidence and results in proper implementation of the solution across his customer base.

From a cost benefit perspective, I can confirm that most SMB clients are determined to lead in their field by adopting the most effective business supporting technologies.”

Osama AlHaj-Eisa, Channel Director, Middle East & Turkey, Aruba Networks

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“The opportunities created by the era of the Internet of Everything also adds to a reseller’s challenges,” says Cisco’s McCarthy. “Business leaders in the Middle East region today want partners who can guide them through change and help shape their organisations for the future.

According to Veljovic, the technical skill set required to deploy these solutions means you need to invest in capable sales people. “Like those who are able to drive C++ level of discussions. Also, the list of vendors offering ‘out of the box’ solutions you can trust is limited, therefore the reseller needs to look beyond the usual vendors in ICT industry today.”

Vendors can also enable resellers to move to a more holistic manner of selling and develop a long-term relationship with customers.

With SMBs constituting a majority of the market in the Middle East region, channel partners have a plethora of opportunities to gain from.

However, partners need to have a deeper understanding of the SMB segment and strategise a customised modus-operandi to be successful in this market.

Enable the all-wireless workplace with 802.11ac LEARN MORE: www.arubanetworks.com/11ac

Upcoming markets

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In bloom Reseller ME talks to experts to explore, which are some of the hot markets within the region and how the channel players can leverage the opportunities.

Middle East and Africa are reported to be high-potential frontier markets by various research firms. While the market development in these regions are driven by factors such as the construction and retail boom, increasing tourism, growing young

population and foreign investments, what kind of opportunities exist from a channel perspective?

Fortinet’s Channel Director for the Middle East region, Maya Zakhour says that the company has been growing in double digits within the region.

But the top markets that have

helped in its growth include the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Kuwait.

“Understanding diversification priorities and aligning the strategy with it has helped us to succeed in these markets. We have also focused on leveraging global talent to develop local

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skills and has developed partnerships with a broad range of Gulf companies in key sectors,” She says. “Strong channel prospects are present in these markets and we have invested on a bigger team to reach out to most of these potential channels and develop a stronger reach.”

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Upcoming markets

Most players understand the potential and opportunities present in the UAE and KSA markets as technology begins to take the centre stage for businesses. And while the focus is on the enterprise market within these countries, an increasing number of players are also now catering to the SME segment, which is the majority in these marketplaces.

Channel partners need to make sure that their portfolio caters to the SME segment as it is a lucrative one.

Agreeing, Maged Eid, Regional Director, Nexthink, adds that while the company continues to grow in KSA and UAE, “We also believe that Egypt and Kuwait are promising markets, which have immense potential. In Egypt, the newfound stability is reviving business and consumer confidence and as a result, organisations are now investing in their IT infrastructures to support further growth.”

Eid says some factors that are driving growth in Egypt includes the “newfound political stability and need for visibility and security of IT infrastructure.”

D-Link also has seen a significant growth in its Egyptian operations. The company’s Regional Director for MEA, Harrison Albert says, “Niche markets, namely Egypt, Nigeria, Angola and Yemen are growing regions for us. The fact that we are providing endto-end networking solutions and that we are able to offer specific products from a wide active and passive product range – including a broad selection of fiber and copper products, have helped us to grow greatly in these markets.”

Regional distributor, FVC divides the region into three broad areas – Gulf, Saudi Arabia and Africa and Levant. Dharmendra Parmar, GM, Marketing, FVC, says the company has the highest growth coming from Africa.

And this comes as no surprise as primarily the region is considered to be a high growth market and finds itself at the peak of development. The region’s potential will only increase as reports expect its one billion population, largely constituting young citizens, to double over the next three decades. This means there

Technologies driving growth “Mobility, cloud computing and security are the highest technology trends and I can say they are driving the growth in these upcoming markets like Africa and KSA.” Maya Zakhour, Channel Director, Middle East, Fortinet

“The increased Internet penetration through the use of 3G and 4G technologies and a growing demand for IP surveillance, storage and switching solutions to answer to the rising regional security concerns have allowed us to grow by almost 30 percent in each of these segments.”

Harrison Albert, Regional Director, MEA, D-Link “Unified Communications, advanced networking and information security are some growth drivers in markets such as Africa. The key one is networking and UC is also seeing a big boom as increasing number of multinationals are setting shop in the region. All three have a huge potential.”

Dharmendra Parmar, GM, Marketing, FVC

The market is moving towards offering customised solutions. Partners need to become more specialised in what they do. They need to enhance their services and decrease their dependency on the vendors. It should be a one partner-shop who can integrate multiple vendors to provide the right solution and also definitely have the best services in order to be able to go and lock their customers.”

Elie Dib, Head of channels, METNA, Riverbed Technology

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will continue to be a surge of infrastructure boom, attracting many more companies and different businesses into the region, which will further help the market to mature.

Parmar says, “There is a tremendous scope for businesses in the African region. We are seeing a high growth specifically from East and West Africa. In 2015, these markets will be our main growth drivers.”

Channel players should, however, take into account that each of the several countries present within the African regions comes with its own set of challenges and unique traits.

While they are similar in many ways, there are differences too.

“The needs of each market is

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Upcoming markets

In a highly competitive environment, channel partners need to differentiate their offerings and deliver a solid ROI to the customer.”

Did you know?

Often, ‘frontier markets’ are mistaken with ‘emerging markets’.

While the classification basis are similar for both categories, there are slight differences.

Emerging markets are those who are in the process of ascertaining a more mature market environment like that of countries such as the US and Japan. In a report

by Bloomberg at the beginning of the year, it ranks China as the top emerging market, followed

by South Korea and Malaysia. The definition of a frontier market is quite broad-ended, but it generally refers to those countries, which are economically even less developed that emerging markets and the business risks are higher in these countries. However, many frontier markets are expected to triumph over emerging markets driven by factors such as, surge in infrastructure development, growing young population, booming retail sector and increasing investments from foreign companies.

Bloomberg in the same report positions Qatar as the top frontier market, followed by UAE and Saudi Arabia. And the report also states that maximum opportunities exist in Africa propelled by young population, consumer spending, faster growing GDP among other trends.

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Maged Eid, Regional Director, Nexthink

quite different. Those channel partners who are willing to put in the right amount of efforts and have the right amount of skill set will be able to deliver the solutions to the customer in an optimum manner,” he adds. It is also important to sign up with the right kind of partners in these markets.

What is important is to be relevant to the market. “As a VAD, we ensure we can provide the right solutions by making sure we have the right people, facilities and programmes on the ground. We analyse the needs of the market and empower our partners,” Parmar explains.

Elie Dib, Head of channels, METNA, Riverbed Technology, says, “The market is moving towards offering customised solutions. Partners need to become more specialised in what they do. They need to enhance their services and decrease their dependency on the vendors. It should be a one partner-shop who can integrate multiple vendors to provide the right solution and also definitely have the best services in order to be able to go and lock their customers. This can also help partners differentiate

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Top frontier markets are Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia Source: Bloomberg

themselves.” Dib further adds that partners can optimise the opportunities present in these high-growth markets by being able to approach the end user from a consultancy perspective rather than just pushing a solution or a product by itself.

Nexthink’s Eid says channel partners can be successful if they are able to earn their customers’ trust. “It is important that channel partners deliver on the promise of providing

value-added solutions and personalised service.

In a highly competitive environment, channel partners need to differentiate their offerings and deliver a solid ROI to the customer.

IT analytics solutions can be useful additions to complement a channel partner’s portfolio of offerings.”

The current channel development in these upcoming regions is still at an early stage, says Albert from D-Link. “But there are plenty of opportunities to grow. We have managed to establish an efficient channel network in the Gulf region with an extremely successful partner programme based on several tiers, to cater to the partners’ specific needs, and we are planning to adopt this system to the emerging markets, which we will be focusing on strongly in 2015.”

It is clear that these markets have a bright future before them. The opportunities present within it cannot be disputed. Channel partners need to develop a specific strategy to match the demands of each geography and deliver solutions that suit those requirements.

partner watch

Arrow Electronics

Strategise to grow Jean-Loup Desamaison-Cognet, Vice President for Central and Middle East Region, EMEA for Arrow’s Enterprise Computing Solutions business, discusses the company’s focus points for the region.

Identifying a huge opportunity in the Middle East region, the value-added distributor, Arrow Electronics aims to educate the market on its strengths and value proposition over the next couple of months.

It had used GITEX 2014 as a platform to officially launch the brand into the Middle East region since its acquisition of Computerlinks last year.

Jean-Loup DesamaisonCognet, Vice President for Central and Middle East Region, EMEA

for Arrow’s enterprise computing solutions business, says, “We see a huge opportunity in the Middle East region, because it is a fastgrowing market. For example in KSA, we have seen a 10 percent growth of the IT investments, which is huge.”

We are looking at growing in KSA and will eventually set up an office in that market.

Our strategy is to build and grow our portfolio across the region. We are strong in security, infrastructure and networking, and will continue to focus on these areas,” he explains.

According to the VP, the growth for the company will come from the various markets in the region, its skills and knowledge, by sharing best practices from other markets and finally by enlarging its portfolio.

“Value-added distribution is about being able to do channel enablement, which is one of our strengths. We are growing faster than our competition because we have the resources, which includes people to support the partner to onboard new technologies of solutions, being able to sell and install them and make them successful. We not

“We bring our knowledge and expertise about the vendors to our channel partners. We also bring them the relationships we have with the vendors and have specific programmes with vendors at a global level.”

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only have the resources here but we also have it at a global level to grow those capacities quickly to be stronger. We are also an Authorised Service Centre (ATC) for many of our vendors, which is key for us to deliver professional services and training services among others,” DesamaisonCognet says.

Being a VAD is in the DNA of the company, he adds. The value-proposition the distributor offers to its vendor partners is that it can enable and manage the channel to grow their business. “And we bring our knowledge and expertise about the vendors to our channel partners. We also bring them the relationships we have with the vendors. We also have specific programmes with vendors at a global level,” he adds.

Partners and customers alike can expect a number of plans from the distributor in the following months. But the main focus will be to ensure “Computerlinks becomes Arrow”, the VP says. The company will continue to bring in an increased number of services and enlarge its existing product portfolio with the right solutions while also enabling its partners. “Expanding geographically where it makes business sense is also a part of our strategy. Our message to partners in the region is – come and work with us because we can help them to grow faster. We can bring them the right solutions, the right vendors, the right support, the right trainings to develop a profitable business. We can help build a growth strategy.”

The company will focus on key growth drivers such as social, mobility, analytics, Big Data, cloud and security in the coming few months along with supporting partners to help grow the business.

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*Based on internal Dell analysis in July 2013 based on Dell Compellent flash-optimised vs.spinning disk arrays and an internal test performed by Dell in March 2013 with Storage v6.310 on dual SC8000 controllers running OLIP type workloads using IOmeter with a 100% random, 70/30 read/wirte mix and 8K sector transfer size achieved this IOPS performance.

Actual performance/latency will vary based on configuration, usage and manufacturing variability **Based on internal Dell analysis performed in May 2013, comparing similar Dell Compellent offerings to EMC VNX Family, HP 3PAR StoreServ, HP EVA, IMB V7000, IBM XIV, Hitachi Data Systems HUS 100 Family,and Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Family and competitive US list pricing from Gartner Inc, Cp Storage, as of June 2013. Š 2013 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

partner watch

Granteq

The pursuit of partners Granteq, a value-added distributor, is seeking channel partners in the enterprise segment as it introduces IT solutions for the healthcare and finance verticals in the region.

Granteq, a ten-yearold value-added distributor in the region is looking to increase its reseller base in the SME and enterprise segment in 2015. Terming itself as a Learning and Communication Technology company, it aims at innovating human interactions through the latest IT solutions.

At GITEX this year, the company has launched telemedicine and online banking solutions, which integrates video conferencing to deliver convenience to customers.

Girish Narayanan, Managing Director, Granteq, says, “Telemedicine is not a new concept, however what we are bringing in is affordable telemedicine. Through our solutions, patients can meet the doctor on demand through video conferencing without the location being a hassle.”

Online banking is convenient for a number of reasons. But one aspect it lacks is the ability to maintain the personal relationship with the customer.

“We can achieve that through video banking,” says Narayanan.

“While these kind of solutions have been implemented in other emerging markets, it’s

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quite nascent in the Middle East market and there are many opportunities present here.

Also, we customise the solution as per the bank’s requirements.

We bring the power of software and the ability to have affordable technology.”

Over the next year, the distributor will continue to focus on healthcare, education and finance verticals.

“There are tremendous opportunities as technology transforms the everyday operations within these verticals. Education and healthcare will drive the growth in the coming year,” he adds. The company boasts a number of vendor partners in its portfolio including brands such as Vidyo and Vivitek.

While bringing in innovative solutions is a primary focus for the company, it also ensures its partners who take these solutions to the end customers are given adequate support.

The company’s channel strategy for the coming year is to continue onboarding more partners to its existing partner profile.

Narayanan says, “What we are ideally looking for are new partners who are IT savvy and

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“What we are ideally looking for are new partners who are IT savvy and are from the IT industry. We need partners who want to bring in an additional value to their existing customers.” are from the IT industry. We need partners who want to bring in an additional value to their existing customers.”

Currently, the distributor has about 120 partners in the small and medium enterprise, IT and AV channels and is looking to double this number in 2015.

Narayanan adds that the company is now looking to add large systems integrators to its partner base. “As we cater to segments like online banking now, it becomes interesting for these kind of partners to come on board, while earlier we didn’t have solutions to offer them.”

The VAD holds regular partner events and training

programmes for its channel partners in Dubai. According to the MD, the company also supports partners with marketing and helps them with generating leads.

“We enable partners in a number of ways and even support them with other aspects such as warranties,” he explains.

Categorising its partners in three different tiers – silver, gold and platinum, the distributor says depending on the level of commitment the partner shows, the benefits are awarded.

Operating out of Dubai, the company has sales offices in Doha and Saudi Arabia; and works with partners in other regions.

Vendor focus

dlink

Positioned for progress Sakkeer Hussain, Sales & Marketing Director, D-Link MEA, discusses about the company’s new products and what role the partners play in its growth journey.

What have been some highlights from D-Link in the last couple of months?

We are in the process of entering into a new product category – smart devices. We already have products such as cloud camera, where the user is able to control our other devices such as routers and motion sensors through a single app. We have made it easy to integrate these products with each other. We are currently in the testing stage for smart plugs, motion sensors and camera, which are also expected to be really affordable for the user.

When will these new launches be available to the market and partners?

By Q1 of 2015, partners should have access to these products.

We will first begin with two smart devices.

Can you elaborate on your partner base?

Our partner base is classified into three categories. The first constitutes our channel partners, who are primarily based out of Bur Dubai. The

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second category includes the retail partners and this involves all power retailers. We have systems integrators in the third category. We have different and specific programmes for each category of partners. We ensure we have training programmes and informal get-togethers on a regular basis. And apart from these partners, we work with Trigon and Aptec- an Ingram Micro company, which are our distributing partners.

What are your marketing differentiators?

Our strengths include the fact that we are one of the oldest companies in the market.

Our customers know us well and trust the products that we have. Our products are of the highest quality. Partners in the region are aware of the support we provide. We have a good relationship and rapport with all our partners.

We have been here and we will continue to grow in this market. One of our greatest commitments to this market has been our investment into our headquarters in Dubai, which covers a large area.

Today, we are over 100 people in the company and have a wide

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regional coverage.

Could you discuss your presence in the region?

We have a wide reach from UAE to Levant to North Africa. We work with over 60 distributors throughout the region. In most of the countries, we have one or two distributors. We also have people on ground in these markets to support partners.

Africa is one of our main focuses, we started the operation in this region about three to four years back and today it is a growing market for us. We have tied up with many ISPs and there are many projects happening here. And we have also observed a high potential in structured cabling segment in this market and it is growing well.

Can you discuss the company’s plans for 2015?

We have several new products coming in next year, especially on the 3G and 4G front. We also have new products

coming in for wireless especially in AC, multiple routers and different segments of cameras. We also have products in structured cabling. One of the areas we are looking to focus on is the power retail segment. If we consider the Gulf countries, there has been a big boom in the power retail segment. We have a good success story with power retail in the UAE. We will be targeting the Gulf countries, going forward as we have many products for them.

D-Link’s business is classified into four segments – consumer retail, solutions SMB, structured cabling and telco. We are planning to grow and expand each of these businesses in the next year. We have new technologies coming to each and every segment. We are looking at a better growth and expanding to other locations where we are not present yet.

Partners are the face of our business and it's our pleasure to recognize and reward them for their ceaseless support and hard work. As part of the Cloud Club campaign, Mindware together with Microsoft, flew their partners spread across the regions, to the dynamic cosmopolitan and historical city, Singapore from 4th to 7th November 2014. The muchdeserved trip for our partners, included networking sessions, updates on key cloud club plans and promotions, team-building activities and was also packed with a number of entertainment activities. Be a Microsoft partner today, to win exciting rewards.

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Vendor focus

Avaya

Lead the way Avaya elaborates on plans at its annual channel partner conference.

At its annual PartnerConnect Conference, ‘Beyond’, Avaya Global Growth Markets President, Nidal Abou Ltaif announced the company’s double-digit growth figures for the Middle East, Africa and Turkey markets.

Ltaif also highlighted the expectation that this theatre would become the largest by revenue for the company within just a few years. This is reflected in part by the 600 percent growth in video the company has enjoyed across the region and the 2.5x growth they have seen in India, contributing to a decision to hire more than 3000 new employees in 2014.

Expectations for the cloud market led some of the conversation as well, as Avaya projected a USD 10.9 billion contact centre cloud market, USD 61.9 billion UC cloud market, and a USD 12 billion cloud services market across the global growth markets theatre by 2019.

The opportunity in these markets is causing a shift in how Avaya is structuring its global business, including its geographical transformation towards a GGM-led global footprint and the creation of a new services-and-customervalue-led business model.

“IT leaders are being tasked with doing more with less,” Richard Steranka, Vice President, WW Partner Organisation, Avaya, said. “With

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that in mind a trend like mobility is very important and is unavoidable, so we are always looking to exploit that. It is also important for those in charge of budgets to be able to drive capex down, and from that standpoint cloud is gaining massive popularity in the region. It’s down to us to define new network operational models, to design more predictable opex, reducing costs. Networks and our video solutions are also a key focus for our partners. We realise the importance of having the right partner programmes and engagement to help reap rewards.”

Avaya recently announced its Connect channel partner programme, which Steranka said has seen shift from the company’s previous strategy, “We have basically shifted from a volume-based model to one that centres around value.

There’s now much more of an emphasis around solution specialisation rather than sheer volume of sales.”

In terms of support offered to Middle Eastern partners, Steranka highlighted the company’s online resources as a key feature, “We provide extensive channel account

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“Our focus for 2015 is on developing new products, exploring new markets and gaining new customers. We’re looking to evolve our product lines and exploit midmarkets.” management,” he says. “Our online partner portals, as well as the services we provide, act as tools to help our partners grow, driving development hands-on.

“Our focus for 2015 is on

developing new products, exploring new markets and gaining new customers,” Steranka says. “We’re looking to evolve our product lines and exploit mid-markets. Growth is very important to us.”

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Vendor focus

Zyxel

Design for success Reseller Middle East sits down with Gordon Yang, President, Zyxel, to discuss market opportunities at an event held for the company’s partners in Dubai. complete network solutions and our devices are tied together.

Partners and resellers receive all the training from a single vendor. At this event, we are introducing our offerings to our partners. We will be back after a couple of months to provide technical training.

From a leading modem manufacturer to a serious competitor in the broadband solutions market, Zyxel has stood witness to the transforming IT landscape since its inception in 1989. With headquarters in Taiwan, today the company is looking to expand its product portfolio and build a robust partner ecosystem in the evolving regional market. Gordon Yang, President, Zyxel, elaborates on the company’s plans.

What is the business focus for Zyxel?

Zyxel has a clear portfolio of telecom, SMB and consumer products – we cover all areas.

We are a 25-year-old company and a well-known brand, especially in North America and Europe. In the Middle East, we cater to the operators’ market and have been strong in this segment globally. We have also experienced a steady growth in the commercial segment. The SMB market is also important for us. We are going to invest heavily in this segment here. We have recently opened up office in the region to enhance this business, although we did operate here in the past through our telecom end of business. We need to know the local requirements and need someone who is well-versed with the market to help us understand it better.

The operators’ market is all about customisation and localisation, and therefore we

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have a strategic partnership with Etisalat. Similarly, we are also approaching our SMB business in the region through a partner model and is currently on the lookout for distribution partners.

What are the opportunities present in the Middle East region?

We have been in this business for over two decades and have witnessed the evolution the market has undergone.

We too have evolved with this transformation. There are tremendous opportunities present in this market. The region is catching up quickly with global markets. Our strategy for this market is to

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replicate the success that we have had in Europe. We are looking to invest heavily in the region with the office and then plan to recruit key partners in the surrounding countries.

And once the business has expanded, we will set up more local presences, around five or six in the region. We work through a two-tier partner level and we also have our sales and marketing offices where we invest directly.

What is your unique selling proposition?

We offer value through a one-stop-shop approach. We offer not only end-to-end but

What has been the company’s year-on-year growth?

We have grown about 15 to 20 percent year-on-year. In the SME market, we have grown more than 20 percent annually. And we grew about 12 percent in broadband as our market share is already strong in this area. We are putting more emphasis on the smaller operators right now such as tier-2 and tier-3, we have grown around 25 percent in this area.

In the next two to three years, we are expecting to maintain 20 percent growth in both tier-2 and tier-3 operators. We see immense opportunities especially in this market.

What are your plans for the region?

We are here to stay and support the partners. We are carefully planning our channel strategy for this region. We are in the channel markets and are depended on our resellers.

We make sure our partners can provide their value along with our marketing strategy.

We are here for the long run and we want our partners to grow with us.

Report

Enterprise Ireland

Some Irish companies that were showcased last month include:

Fostering business ties Irish technology companies seek to strengthen Middle Eastern ties. Reseller ME speaks to some of the participating firms to understand the opportunities in the region.

Fondly known as the ‘emerald isle’, Ireland is the European home for many technology giants such as Google, Apple, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft, to name a few and is considered to be a major ‘technology hub’ in the global marketplace.

The export agency of the Irish government responsible for development and growth of Irish enterprises in overseas markets, Enterprise Ireland, held a oneday technology forum in Riyadh last month, providing a platform for Irish and Gulf business communities to network and share best practices.

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“There is a lot of room in the market for Irish and Gulf businesses to work more closely together. At Enterprise Ireland, our aim is to bridge the gap between the buyers and the software providers and we are really keen to develop the tech trade corridor between the Gulf and Ireland in an even stronger way,” said Alison Tran, Market Advisor, Software and Services, Enterprise Ireland, Dubai.

High-level representatives from governmental organisations and private sector firms in Saudi Arabia shed light on some major areas of opportunity in the Kingdom’s

december 2014 Reseller Middle East

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software and ICT sector through detailed presentations.

The 25 Irish companies, which ranged from security, software to telecom networking firms, were also hosted at a reception at the Irish Embassy in Abu Dhabi, last month, following the event in KSA. Although most of these companies have a regional presence, they are looking to strengthen and develop it further.

One of the participating companies, Copperfasten Technologies is a 15-year old security firm based in Galway, Ireland. It has a sales and support office in Florida, USA and also in Dubai, UAE

Accuris Networks (www. accuris-networks.com) Akari Software (www. akariesoftware.com) Avonbrook (www. avonbrook.com) Copperfasten Technologies (www.spamtitan.com) Cut-e (www.cut-e.com) Daon (www.daon.com) Intuition (www.intuition.com) Miagen (www.miagen.com) Netfort Technologies (www. netfort.com) Openet (www.openet.com) Virtual Access (www. virtualaccess.com)

through a partnership with ABS MENA. According to its Channel Manager, Eddie Monaghan, the firm sees two types of channel opportunities in the Middle East.

“We see that organisations are starting to look at IT Security as an essential element in enabling their business to grow

Report

Enterprise Ireland (L-R) Dr Amin Al Shanqiti, Chairman Irish Saudi Arabian Business Council; Eng. Meshary Al Soairy, Chairman, MAS Technologies; Dr Tom Kelly, Enterprise Ireland

securely rather than merely being an option. We believe that a substantial opportunity exists in helping resellers introduce our products to their client base. Both SpamTitan, our award-winning mail filtering solution and WebTitan, our feature-rich webfilter, offer advanced security solutions that are both easy to use and easy to deploy. We offer full local technical assistance to all of our partners in both Arabic and English to help them deploy free product evaluations to prospective clients. By working closely with our channel partners we believe that we can help them uncover some lucrative opportunities,” Monaghan explained.

He further said the second channel opportunity in the

region is around Managed Services. “As the MSP space grows exponentially on a global scale we are seeing many of our traditional resellers develop their own managed services offerings. A fantastic opportunity also exists in this area for larger ISP’s and Telcos to add additional revenue streams. In many cases we enter into partnership and revenue sharing agreements with MSP partners. These type of agreements usually come with very low capex costs for the partner. We also offer a flexible licensing model that enables our service provider partners to scale up progressively. We have enjoyed a lot of success in this arena in the USA and we are confident that similar opportunities exist in the Middle

East,” he added. The company plans to increase its head count in Dubai, together with ABS MENA, as its channel partner network continues to grow.

“We are very interested in talking with both resellers and Managed Services Providers throughout the region. We offer a comprehensive channel programme that includes deal registration, fully supported free product evaluations, local technical and sales assistance and of course generous margins and attractive income opportunities.”

Another security firm, Netfort Technologies, which is known for manufacturing deeppacket inspection software for monitoring, troubleshooting and reporting on network and user activity, also aims to

“At Enterprise Ireland, our aim is to bridge the gap between the buyers and the software providers and we are really keen to develop the tech trade corridor between the Gulf and Ireland in an even stronger way.”

Alison Tran, Market Advisor, Software and Services, Enterprise Ireland, Dubai.

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further strengthen its brand with regional partners and potential customers.

John Brosnan, Managing Director, Netfort Technologies, said, “We are looking to sign agreements with partners who operate in the security space and leverage the Netfort integrations with other well-known products such as Solarwinds, McAfee ESM and Splunk. We also want to ensure organisations of all sizes always have a visibility into network activity, usage of key resources and what users are actually doing.”

The Middle East region is still a relatively untapped market, when looked at from a global perspective. And Irish technology companies are building on their success in the traditional markets of Europe and North America to enter the Middle East and win contracts with government organisations, banks, telecoms, airlines and large commercial companies throughout the Gulf.

Regional channel partners and service providers have a vast opportunity in building a profitable business by leveraging on the expertise of these companies.

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review

Kingston

Hyper X Cloud gaming headset Kingston’s latest launch, the Hyper X headsets offers premium comfort to gamers at reasonable price.

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The Hyper X headsets by Kingston are their newest offer and they do pretty well for a company that is better known to produce memory cards and other computer components. It has partnered with QPad, a headset manufacturer, to introduce this latest product.

When a user looks for a gaming headset, the first aspect that helps in sealing the deal is comfort. Tapping into this, the company has put in efforts to ensure Hyper X is comfortable to use and also is light in weight, to enhance the gaming experience. Its leather ear cups are soft and snug and if by any chance it does get damaged, the user can fall back on the additional pair, which is also included in the box. Considering that the headset will be used for long hours of gaming, the headset functions really well. The headband of the device is built of memory foam and does get better with more usage; initially you might want to shape it to your liking. The leather ear cups provide a passive noise cancellation effect thus creating a better immerse sound experience.

However, the sound quality could be a lot better, considering the competition in the audiophile category of headphones. But that being said, Hyper X is geared up to the entry level of the gaming headset market and it performs really well for the price point it is at.

Built on a 53mm driver that is HiFi capable, the Kingston-branded headphones does the job more than aptly. In terms of build quality, the Hyper X does not play it cheap – made primarily of aluminum, memory foam and soft touch leather, the headset looks and feels premium while also being comfortable to use. In the box, users get a microphone, additional two meters of cable and a second pair of ear cups that are made of soft touch Velour.

The sound quality is where the Hyper X stands out considering the retail price. Though the headphones perform much better when connected to a motherboard with an in-built sound card, it is not too bad on an iPod either. Across genres, the Hyper X delivers decent to good quality sound output. And the device does not disappoint when using it for gaming as well. Higherend gaming headphones are ‘open’, which means the user can hear the enemy approaching from many angles, while the Hyper X sound stage is a bit ‘closed’.

The sound quality remains consistent across the range and offers a balanced volume even if it is high-pitched treble or high bass. For FPS (first person shooter) games an important requirement is the microphone and the Hyper X features a good-quality one. The design and build quality of the microphone makes it easier to adjust and set as per the users’ preference.

In conclusion, the Hyper X by Kingston is one of the best gaming headsets at the current price point in the market and gamers will not be disappointed.

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review

Lenovo

Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 Reseller ME’s Online Editor, James Dartnell, tries and tests Lenovo’s latest launch.

Chinese tech giant Lenovo recently released an upgrade of its Yoga Tablet range, which is distinguished by the cylindrical spine that carries its battery, and doubles as a stand.

They’ve taken the unorthodox measure of releasing the Yoga Tablet 2 range in both Windows and Android operating systems, but I took the 10-inch Android version for a spin.

The screen resolution has been improved from 1280 x 800 to a full 1920 x 1200 display, which is an instant eye-catcher.

The Tablet is powered by a 1.86GHz Intel Atom Z3745 processor and features dual band Wi-Fi and a micro USB port. It has an 8MP rear camera and front-facing speakers enhanced by Dolby Audio and Wolfson Master HiFi. These speakers are an experience enhancer, but they do lack bass and can distort slightly at very high volumes.

Software flexibility comes in the new Android versions of the Yoga Tablet 2, which run Android 4.4.2 KitKat and come with 16GB of storage, expandable to 64GB with a micro SD card.

Apart from the operating system, the Android tablets are distinguishable by their platinum gray finish, and slightly longer battery life of 18 hours.

In complete honesty, although I was initially skeptical about the design - in which the battery is weighted down the spine of the tablet - the Yoga Tablet 2 is likeable, and, to a large extent, practical.

Lenovo have added a hook into the sturdy built-in stand, meaning the Tablet can be propped or hung from almost any angle, which is certainly a big plus.

Of course, there are inevitable flaws that come with the unique

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design. Finding a case that could accommodate the Yoga Tablet 2’s chunky spine - aside from Lenovo-made ones - was near-on impossible, limiting the product in this respect.

It must also be noted – although this didn’t bother me that much personally – that the tablet is slightly more awkward to hold when held vertically.

However, one thing that did was the long wait for it to charge, which is certainly frustrating.

Activated via an upward swipe, the pop-up control centre is a neat tool that Lenovo has added, allowing for shortcuts to display and audio settings.

Also new is the multi-window feature which can displays up to four apps, whose size can be adjusted once on the screen. They’ve also introduced their ‘e-frame’ app, which turns the tablet into a digital photo frame; a nice touch.

Call me picky, but the standby button does occasionally take several seconds to bring the device to life.

A valid gripe for the impatient user that is yours truly.

On the whole, the Yoga Tablet 2 represents a solid effort from Lenovo. They’ve upped the ante from the previous range.

Although Windows 8.1 may be unpopular, giving the option of both OS’s provides wider consumer choice, while the expansion of the battery-cum-kickstand design is a subtle but neat addition, while the boost in screen resolution is entirely welcome.

Still, once you factor in the cost of USD 249.99 and USD 299.99 for the 8-inch and 10-inch models respectively, what is relatively reasonable but not outstanding value, especially given the larger model has the same resolution as its 8-inch sibling.

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WD launches My Passport Wireless Western Digital has expanded its portable storage range with the launch of its latest Wi-fi enabled My Passport Wireless at GITEX Shopper 2014. The My Passport Wireless is an easy storage drive that allows consumers to save, access and share up to 2TB of stored content wirelessly with any smartphone, tablet, computer or other device. For frequent business travelers, families, individuals or creative professional working in the field, My Passport Wireless is a simple way to connect all computing and mobile devices to terabytes of storage without any wires or Internet connection.

My Passport Wireless broadcasts its own wireless network that allows up to eight devices to connect at the same time and access any content stored on the drive.

Available in 500GB, 1TB or 2TB models, users now have the ability to store and access hundreds of hours of movies and music, as well photos and other digital files, from their

smartphones and tablets that are typically limited by minimal storage capacity.

The portable wireless drive features Wireless N with MIMO technology for enhanced wireless performance so that users can access and transfer files quickly, as well as stream up to four HD videos simultaneously.

The built-in rechargeable battery provides six hours of continuous streaming and up to 20 hours of standby power making the drive a perfect travel companion. Additionally, large amounts of data can be quickly and easily transferred using its high speed USB 3.0 connection.

The built-in SD card slot lets users copy their content from the SD card to the My Passport drive to make room for more memorable moments. Additionally, with integrated FTP, the drive connects to compatible wireless cameras so that users can automatically transfer photos from their cameras to the drive as they are taking them.

Lenovo launches new storage array for SMBs Lenovo has announced the UAE launch of the Lenovo|EMC VNX5150 Storage Array, a storage area network solution that offers small-to-medium sized enterprise businesses (SMBs) an excellent value with an affordable price according to the company.

Ideally suited for the demanding needs and unpredictable workloads of today’s SMBs, the new Lenovo|EMC VNX5150 is a dual storage processor SAN with full redundancy for all major components and dual paths of connectivity through-out, available exclusively through Lenovo.

Based on the award-winning EMC VNX unified storage family, the Intel-powered Lenovo|EMC VNX5150 is designed to handle mixed workloads, both physical and virtual. Featuring 6-Gb/s SAS drives with

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multi-protocol block connection support and either 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch drive bays, the Lenovo|EMC VNX5150 offers impressive capacity, performance and efficiency at a competitive price.

It enables organisations to dynamically grow, share, and cost-effectively manage multi-protocol block storage access via a robust platform for consolidation of legacy block storage, file servers, and direct-attached application storage. The Lenovo|EMC VNX5150 supports iSCSI, Fibre Channel (FC), and FCoE access for high-bandwidth and latency-sensitive block applications.

Ideal for SMB deployments where IT support is limited, the Lenovo|EMC VNX5150 is configured with EMC Unisphere, a built-in

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management system that provides an integrated user interface for simple remote management, as well as tool-less hot-swap components, fans and power supplies for easy device servicing. It also includes the customisable Unisphere dashboard, which aggregates system information, including capacity, CPU utilisation, health and alerts, enabling administrators to gain instant and actionable knowledge about environment performance.

The Lenovo|EMC VNX5150 is also designed to protect data against localised failures, outages, and disasters with its local and remote protection suite software, reducing the need for IT infrastructure support staff at small organisations.

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Synology launches DiskStation DS1515+ & DS1815+ Synology DiskStation DS1515+ and DS1815+ are 5-bay and 8-bay NAS servers designed for small and medium-sized businesses to facilitate intensive data exchange, collaboration, and backup among large groups of employees.

Featuring an Intel Atom processor C2000 family 2.4GHz quad-core processor with Intel AES New Instructions (Intel AES-NI) encryption, as well as a RAM module expandable to 6 GB, both models deliver the robust performance required for businesses’ mission-critical tasks, in particular for encrypted file transfers. The four Gigabit LAN ports supporting Link

Aggregation and failover also ensure writing speeds exceeding 420 MB/s for DS1815+ and 390 MB/s for DS1515+ – twice as fast as their predecessors – and reading speeds exceeding 450 MB/s, making them capable of handling requests from a great number of users simultaneously. The DS1515+ and DS1815+ can be scaled up to a raw capacity of 90 and 108 TB respectively by connecting DX513 expansion unit.

The two models support Synology High Availability, taking advantage of their multiple LAN ports to ensure the highest uptime and resiliency. The SSD read/write cache support further allows

NEC launches SV9100 Al Yousuf Computer & Telecommunications has released SV9100, which is cost effective solution, capable to handle more than 900hybrid extensions with additional features and specs like multi-carrier support, single point configuration and comprehensive suite of unified communications and contact center solution.

“We have been exclusive distributors for NEC SMB Telephony portfolio for more than eight years and are proudly receiving top distributor awards each year. This is because of our customer oriented approach, consumers in the SMB market are looking out for more affordable, feature rich and hybrid solutions and we’ve responded to it by introducing NEC’s SV9100 Solution which is ideal for both small and bigger capacities

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with new terminals,” said Hayder Salman, General Manager at Al Yousuf Computer & Telecommunications LLC for NEC division.

The product will be targeting a new fragment in addition to the predecessor NEC SV8100.

The SV9100 is five times more powerful and comes with a host of brand new onboard applications. It will take forward NEC’s trend of creating a natural migration path for customers, while evolving the technology to meet the needs of today’s businesses. Some of its features include versatile architecture as it works as an IP system, digital system or a combination of the two. It has modular architecture for exceptional scalability and is cost effective from 10 to 800+. The SV9100 will be available with resellers in the UAE and Qatar.

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organizations to see a considerable boost in throughput while minimizing the cost per gigabyte. Certified by VMware, Citrix, and Microsoft Hyper-V, both NAS servers can be seamlessly integrated into a company’s virtualization environment and act as a powerful central storage.

The DS1515+ and DS1815+ run DiskStation Manager (DSM), the most advanced and intuitive operating system for NAS devices. Its wide range of applications from backup to network management make the two models suitable for providing all essential business services and increasing productivity at work.

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Brother International launches ScanNCut device

Brother International has revealed the Middle East launch of a new industry first, the revolutionary ScanNCut machine, the world’s first-ever home and hobby cutting machine that comes with a built-in 300-DPI scanner—offering users the convenience of being able to turn scanned images into unique cutting designs and projects without the need or expense of a computer, software, or pricey cartridges. Using the new ScanNCut machine will allow now give users the opportunity of creating uniquely designed personal scrapbooks, greeting cards, quilts and stunning one-of-a-kind arts and crafts.

According to the company’s senior executives, the engaging new machine will give consumers the ‘See it, Scan it, Cut it and Create it!’ advantage.

“Combining our technology advancements in the sewing and imaging markets with research across the craft industry, we have been able to produce a cutting machine that can keep up with the limitless creativity of scrapbookers and crafters. In fact, this is the machine they have been asking for. For Brother, the ScanNCut is a natural progression in our ongoing commitment to promote creativity across the craft market with unique technology and complementing our ‘At your Side’ philosophy,” said Soichi Murakami, Managing Director, Brother International.

Brocade unveils ICX 7450 Switch The Brocade ICX 7450 Switch delivers the performance, flexibility, and scalability required for enterprise Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) access deployment. It offers market-leading stacking density with up to 12 switches (576 1 GbE and 48 10 GbE ports) per stack and combines chassis-level performance and reliability with the flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and ‘pay as you grow’ scalability of a stackable solution. In addition, this stackable switch is the first in its class to offer 40 GbE uplinks, enabling enterprises to dramatically increase their network capacity while using their existing optical wire infrastructure.

The design of the Brocade ICX 7450 provides three modular slots, offering up to 12 1/10 GbE SFP/SFP+ ports, 12 10GBASE-T ports, or up to three 40 GbE QSFP+ ports for uplink or stacking. As a result, the Brocade ICX 7450 can easily deliver sufficient bandwidth between the edge and aggregation layers to support expanding video traffic, VDI adoption, and high-speed wireless 802.11ac deployment.

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The Brocade ICX 7450 is an ideal network solution for campus network 1 GbE access or small aggregation deployment with 10 GbE or 40 GbE uplinks to the core. The Brocade ICX 7450 also makes a very suitable data centre Top-of-Rack (ToR) solution, delivering a mix of 1 GbE and 10 GbE server connectivity ports with 10 GbE or 40 GbE uplinks to the data centre aggregation or core.

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Huawei displays Ascend Mate 7

Huawei has launched Ascend Mate 7 to target customers towards the run up to Christmas holidays.

The Huawei Ascend Mate 7 is the

company’s latest flagship smartphone boasting a 6-inch HD display, a slim 7.9mm body for increased comfort, lightning fast connectivity with LTE Cat 6 and a 13MP rear facing camera.

It is equipped with a fingerprint reader on the back of the handset that stores up to five sets of fingerprint records for different apps and functions.

Thanks to its borderless 6-inch high definition display and industry leading 83 percent screen-to-body ratio, it is ideal to watch sports or play games on-thego. It also features the fastest LTE Cat6 connectivity, enabling fast download of HD movies.

AOC showcases new monitor range HTC and Google have launched the first Android Lollipop tablet, Nexus 9, which combines HTC’s cutting-edge technology with Google’s excellence in intuitive software, for a premium tablet experience, said the company.

Encased in a brushed aluminum frame that seamlessly connects the screen to a softgrip back, the Nexus 9 features an 8.9-inch display and weighs 436g, making it lightweight and easily portable.

The tablet is equipped with Nvidia Tegra K1 64-bit dual-core processor that makes switching between tasks both simple and fast, while its Keppler GPU delivers desktop grade performance and graphics in tablet form.

It features a front camera of 1.6MP and a rear camera of 8MP, which allow users to capture good quality images effortlessly.

The Nexus 9 tablet’s 2K screen (2048x1536) resolution delivers sharp detail and vibrant colours when viewing photos, browsing the web or watching videos. Dual front facing

speakers feature a dedicated smart amp and HTC BoomSound profile for speaker mode, to enable stereo sound from the front of the device, ideal for music and gaming fans.

The Nexus 9 comes packed with features that make multi-tasking a breeze, while allowing for a high level of personalisation and security through a range of secure login functions. Its extended battery life allows the user to spend more time playing and less time charging. The Nexus 9 comes in 16GB, 32GB and 32GB LTE models.

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Asus announces Zenbook UX303 Asus has announced the sublime new Zenbook UX303, which heralds a new generation of the traditional Zenbook combination of elegance and power.

With its new thin and light design, smoky brown colour, and classic Zenbook design detailing, UX303 is an Ultrabook with a difference, according to the company.

The high-performance 4th-generation up to Intel Core i7 processors are teamed with dedicated up to NVIDIA GeForce GT 840M graphics for smooth performance, 1920X1080 FHD display amazes with its lifelike detail. Asus SonicMaster audio, incorporating ICEpower, Bang and Olufsen technology, enables good sound quality.

With its NVIDIA G-SYNC technology, the 24-inch (61 cm) G2460PG from AOC’s Style Line immerses the player right into the gaming action. The integrated G-SYNC module synchronises the display refresh rates to the graphics card’s GPU so nothing comes between the player and the game.

The extremely short response time of just 1 ms effectively eliminates ghosting effects, delivering crisp and clear images even in the most intense in-game situations.

Thanks to the outstanding refresh rate of the G2460PG, enemy movement is displayed in ultra-smooth motion and competitors can be easily targeted. Not only do the in-game environments come to life in one super-smooth movement, but also at a 1920 x 1080 Full HD resolution.

Thanks to a luminosity of 350 cd/cm² colours are vibrant and bright. In addition, the G2460PG supports DisplayPort for fast and seamless image transmission.

Reseller Middle East december 2014

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Reseller Middle East’s assistant editor offers her thoughts on the Middle Eastern technology channel.

Channel surfing

Column

Continue the momentum The past 12 months have been nothing short of incredible. The year started off on a plateau but went on to reach a new level with several exciting developments within the industry. I believe 2014 helped the regional channel to stabilise operations internally and most companies on an average have had a great year. For me, at a personal level too, it has been one historic year – my first step into the IT channel world.

Over the past months, I’ve learned a great deal about the channel – its complexities and its dynamics – and have grown to love it. However, the learning process never stops.

Even from a channel perspective, this is something that is echoed in most of our features and my meetings with you all. The want to know and be abreast with the latest happenings, whether it is a new technology or a new process. While it comes naturally to some partners, others shouldn’t shy from developing it. And it is definitely something that can be made a habit of. The regional channel is highly competitive, and we know what makes all the difference are these little things.

From Reseller Middle East’s point of view, we have continued to be the voice of the Middle Eastern IT channel for over two decades now. And 2014 has been one remarkable year in our growth story. We have shared some great and some not-so-great, moments with you all.

Either way, you are very much a part of our success, a vital element in pushing ourselves to raise the bar and surpass previous achievements.

And again, we look at it as a continuous journey, one that we are proud to make along with you.

The takeaways I have for you this month are primarily two things – one is to never stop learning and the second is to push yourself beyond the impossible. In an industry like ours, there is no time to rest on our laurels.

And speaking about time, I feel this year has gone by particularly faster than the rest. They say, when you enjoy what you do, you really don’t feel the passage of time. (Unless we are in a movie like Interstellar where time is relative!)

Hope you all had a fabulous 2014, write to me about your highest points this year and let’s keep the conversation going on to 2015.

Janees Reghelini, Assistant Editor, Reseller ME

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Information is the key to protecting information. That’s why our security solutions are backed by world-class intelligence to help you identify threats in real time and keep your information safe.

Learn more at symantec.com/security-intelligence When you can do it safely, you can do it all. #GoKnow

Go ahead, you’ve got

For more information contact Alia Hussain, Business Unit Manager, Symantec Tel: +971 4 369 7111 Ext: 274 | Email: alia@aptecme.com Copyright © 2014 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved. Symantec, the Symantec Logo, and the Checkmark Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries.

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