Reseller Middle East July 2017

ISSUE 247 | JULY 2017 www.tahawultech.com

BRAND

Rising stars of the regional IT marketing

BUILDERS SAKKEER HUSSAIN D-Link MEA

ADITYA PURI Redington Value

GRATION D’MELLO SAP

CARLOS ROBLES GBM

YASMIN KHALIQ Equinix

Download the FREE ResellerME app and explore your favourite magazine PUBLICATION LICENSED BY DUBAI PRODUCTION CITY, DCCA

Introducing the

EnGenius Neutron Series Distributed Network Management Soluuon

x Enterprise Wi-Fi Network Management

Global Wireless Management

Multiple Site Network Management

Unlimited Access Point Management

Powerful Network Controller

Ideal for:

No User License

Ideal for Indoor & Outdoor Access Point

STRATEGIC VAD PARTNER

CONTENTS COVER FEATURE

BRAND BUILDERS

ISSUE 247 // JULY 2017

20

Profiles of marketing managers from across vendors, distributors and systems integrators and how they have helped enhance their firms’ brand images.

36 TURN A PROFIT

HIGHLIGHTS

04

NEWS

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

PARTNER WATCH

OPINION

18 THE NOTPETYA OUTBREAK

44 REVIEW

BOSE HEADPHONE

45

Infoblox’ Mohammad Tabbara on the recent ransomware attack and the role partners can play.

FEATURES

32 A FINE STATE

Reseller ME speaks to channel managers on strategies to ensure partners are profitable.

How resellers can customise their offerings for the government sector.

40 AN ELITE GOAL

Jignasu Rathod from Elitser Technologies, shares the firm’s strategies and expansion plans.

EVENT

42 PURE AND SIMPLE

Reseller ME reports on Pure Storage’s Pure Accelerator 2017 customer and partner event.

46

HOT PRODUCTS

HOT PRODUCTS

APPLE: watchOS 4 ENHANCES FITNESS, INTELLIGENCE FEATURES

HP RELEASES POCKET-SIZE PRINTER – SPROCKET

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JULY 2017

1

FOR BUSINESS

AÂ POWERFUL, RELIABLE AND COST-EFFECTIVE WAY TO SCALE NETWORKS Business happens on the edge of the network, where people interact with endpoint devices and peripherals that run organizations. Linksys Managed Gigabit Switches and accessories give business networks the flexibility and agility they need at the edge of the network.

MORE MANAGEABLE An intuitive browser-based interface simplifies common complexities in setup, security, QoS, and management. Dynamic, automatic VLAN and QoS parameters support VoIP endpoints and ensure high voice quality and traffic connections.

ADVANCED AND AFFORDABLE Get advanced technologies at an affordable price, including QoS intelligence and advanced traffic shaping capabilities to simplify and optimize the addition of voice, wireless, and business application services.

SAFEGUARD YOUR BUSINESS Powerful security measures, including advanced access control lists (ACLs) and guest virtual LANs (VLANs) segregate and provide state-of-the-art communications while protecting applications and sensitive data.

POWER OF PLENTY With the latest Power over Ethernet Plus (PoE+) standard and a power budget up to 30W per port, our future-proof, businessgrade managed switches can power devices in your network without additional AC wiring expense.

FULLY LOADED AND FLEXIBLE Full Layer 2 switching and Layer 3 routing features optimize network efficiency. Additional 10 Gb SFP+ fiber uplinks empower your network as it grows, scaling seamlessly as you upgrade datacenters and servers.

PROTECT YOUR INVESTMENT Rigorous testing and third-party validation ensure high performance and reliability, including a limited lifetime warranty, advanced technical support, software updates, and community forum support.

MANAGED SWITCHES FOR BUSINESS

linksys.com/ae

EDITORIAL For good measure

Janees Reghelini Editor

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

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

Published by

Registered at Dubai Production City, DCCA PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 4 447 2409 © Copyright 2017 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.

The importance of channel is a known factor within the industry, especially for those companies who completely depend on partners for their revenue generation. But how many firms spend time and resources in measuring the success of their channel partners?

According to a recent research, ‘The Data-Driven Channel’ by partner relationship management (PRM) software provider Relayware, those vendors who are not tracking partner metrics are obstructing their resellers’ success. The research surveyed 319 channel managers to gauge how effective they are at generating revenue through the channel with the resources at their disposal. The key finding was that 69 percent of channel managers don’t track both revenue and partner activities – this means only less than one-third measure all of the activities

that lead to increased revenue. It also revealed that channel managers are mostly unsatisfied with the resources provided to them, which restricts their potential revenue impact. Also, only a quarter of the respondents track both portfolio depth and number of leads brought in by partners. Almost 50 percent of channel managers believe they spend a lot of time on tasks that may not help in enhancing their channel partners’ productivity, according to the research.

Regional players also need to assess resources available to them and evaluate if it is as effective as it needs to be, keeping in mind the growth objectives of the company.

Metrics is a vital element to partners’ success as it can help improve the impact of their revenue-generation activities greatly.

EDITORIAL Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9129

ADVERTISING Group Sales Director Kausar Syed kausar.syed@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9130

Editor Janees Reghelini janees.reghelini@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9167

Sales Manager Merle Carrasco merle.carrasco@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9147

Online Editor Adelle Geronimo adelle.geronimo@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9135

CIRCULATION Database and Circulation Manager Rajeesh M rajeesh.nair@cpimediagroup.com +971 4440 9119

DESIGN Senior Designer Analou Balbero analou.balbero@cpimediagroup.com Designer Neha Kalvani neha.kalvani@cpimediagroup.com

PRODUCTION Production Manager James P Tharian james.tharian@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9159

Operations Manager Shweta Santosh shweta.santosh@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9107 DIGITAL SERVICES Web Developers Jefferson de Joya Abbas Madh Photographers Max Poriechkin Charls Thomas webmaster@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9100 DIGITAL www.resellerme.com Printed by Printwell Printing Press

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JULY 2017

3

HIGHLIGHTS

Dell EMC names Ingram Micro as key ME distribution partner

A

ptec, an Ingram is an excellent affirmation of Micro company, the success during many has been years of Aptec as a distributor selected as a of Dell in the Middle East strategic distribution partner by region,” said Ali Baghdadi, Dell EMC across the UAE, senior vice president and chief Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait executive, Ingram Micro META and Yemen. region. “We are pleased to The expanded relationship offer an expanded portfolio builds on Aptec’s current of advanced solutions to Ali Baghdadi, Ingram Micro partnership with Dell EMC our reseller partners as we and further strengthens Ingram Micro’s continue to deliver on our commitment to relationship with the company. The Middle support the growth of their businesses. Our East value-added distributor’s vendor team possesses excellent expertise and solutions offerings now provide access is well-positioned to provide unparalleled to Dell EMC’s full portfolio of products, support to resellers to build their Dell EMC including advanced cloud IT infrastructure, businesses.” converged systems, server/storage “Our distributors play a crucial role in solutions and Client Systems. our new Dell EMC partner programme.

“The expansion of our partnership to We are pleased to have Ingram Micro on include the full Dell EMC solution portfolio board in this important market, as they

The expansion of our partnership to include the full Dell EMC solution portfolio is an excellent affirmation of the success during many years of Aptec as a distributor of Dell in the Middle East region.” are a key player of ICT distribution who is well connected to the partner landscape both on a global scale and specifically in the META region,” said Mohammed Amin, senior vice president, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Dell EMC. The distributor said that it will deliver on a joint go-to-market strategy with Dell EMC built around its key technology differentiators such as its recent acquisition of physical security solutions distributor NIT, cybersecurity offerings, data centre and networking infrastructure solutions portfolio and cloud computing solutions.

Synnex to acquire Westcon Americas for $800 million Global ICT firm Datatec has divulged plans to sell its WestconComstor business in North America and Latin America to US-based IT Jens Montanana, Datatec distribution firm Synnex for $800 million.

The company will also acquire 10 percent of Westcon International for $30 million, establishing a minority share in Westcon-Comstor’s regional business.

A Fortune 500 corporation, Synnex provides a comprehensive range of distribution, logistics and integration services for the technology industry and offers outsourced services focused on customer engagement strategy. The company distributes IT systems and products, and provides systems design

4

and integration solutions. The deal will enable Datatec to benefit from the scale of the distribution firm.

Closing of the transaction is subject to several conditions including shareholder and regulatory approvals.

Datatec CEO Jens Montanana said, “This exciting industry-transforming opportunity to partner with a stronglygrowing, well respected Fortune

This exciting industrytransforming opportunity to partner with a strongly-growing, well respected Fortune 500 corporation makes sense from both a supplier and customer value perspective.”

JULY 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

500 corporation makes sense from both a supplier and customer value perspective.

According to the company, Montanana will be appointed to Synnex’ board.

He added that Westcon-Comstor North America will benefit substantially from being part of a bigger business with a much larger addressable market.

“The transaction also realises value for our shareholders as a result of the strategic relationship with Synnex through its shareholding in Westcon International, a business which is yet to benefit from the ERP and BPO transformation programmes currently being implemented,” he said. “Post-transaction, the WestconComstor businesses will work seamlessly together for our vendors and customers globally, enabling us to unlock further potential for Westcon International.”

HIGHLIGHTS

Digital Shadows unveils ‘Channel Rev’

D

to cybercriminals and igital Shadows hacktivists needs has announced protecting,” said Chris the launch of its Catanzaro, director, channel only Channel Sales, Digital partner programme, Channel Shadows. “Partners Rev, and an associated recognise that Digital online Partner Portal.

Shadows’ revolutionary According to the SearchLight solution is company, the Partner Portal Chris Catanzaro, ideally placed to give is designed to accelerate Digital Shadows them the visibility and partner revenue and intelligence they need to tailor their enhance their customers’ loyalty by offering the Digital Shadows SearchLight own cybersecurity solutions to their customers around the world.” service that combines scalable data Digital Shadows also highlighted analytics with human analysts to effectively manage and reduce the digital that its Channel Rev portal aims to give partners the tools they need to move risks of cyber threats, data leakage, and fast to build their own professional reputation risks. services around the SearchLight “The digital footprint organisations solution from Digital Shadows. The present to the world, and specifically

new portal gives partners access to marketing materials, training videos and a host of other content 24/7, as well as request quotes, submit incentive claims, run reports, track opportunities and registrations, request marketing development funds (MDF), and sales promotion incentive funds (SPIF).

“Digital Shadows is a natural extension to our team and through that our Managed Security Services capability,” said Tom Millar, CEO, ITC Secure Networking. “Digital Shadows supports us through every stage of an opportunity — from demand generation and qualification, right to deal closure.”

Digital Shadows underlined its active presence around the world but it said that it is specifically targeting US, UK, Germany and Holland for new channel partners.

Kodak Alaris launches new partner programme Kodak Alaris’ Information Management division (IM) has overhauled its channel partner programme to introduce David Whitton, Kodak Alaris several new sales tools, incentives and technical resources designed to support its partners and help them expand their businesses.

“More than 90 percent of Kodak Alaris’ Information Management business is done via resellers and distributors, which means if our partners aren’t successful, neither are we,” said Gerry Kelliher, EMEA sales director, Kodak Alaris Information Management. “Our new partner programme is designed to enable our channel partners to offer best-in-class technology, sophisticated solutions and services, and to grow their businesses

Our company’s go-to-market model is indirect and partner focused.

90 percent of our business in the Middle East goes through channel partners.” by helping customers solve their information management challenges.”

The Alaris Partner Programme is designed to empower partners to “expand, connect and grow.”

Positioning partners to better connect with their customers, the company said it is conducting global demand generation campaigns and passing all qualified leads to its channel ecosystem.

Partners who participate in the Alaris Partner Programme can also grow their bottom-line profitability with new and improved incentives, rebates and promotions.

David Whitton, general manager, Kodak Alaris, Eastern Cluster (Middle East, Africa, East Europe, Turkey and Russia) said, “Our company’s go-tomarket model is indirect and partner focused. 90 percent of our business in the Middle East goes through channel partners. Channel management is an important aspect of our overall strategy as the efforts of our channel reflect directly on our bottom line.”

He added that the top two initiatives for the company is around ‘channel coverage and enablement’.

Through specific training and technical initiatives, the firm is equipping its partners with the skills needed to leverage market opportunities as part of its new partner programme.

The Kodak Alaris Partner Programme includes financial incentives including a new set of reseller benefits and bonuses, which are determined by membership tiers and a partner’s level of commitment to the firm.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JULY 2017

5

HIGHLIGHTS

Salesforce announces $50 million SI Trailblazer Fund Salesforce Ventures has launched a $50 million systems integrator (SI) Trailblazer Fund and SI John Somorjai, Trailblazer Salesforce Ventures, Salesforce Alliance Initiative to enable cloud consulting firms to enhance their skillset and drive the company’s solutions.

The new SI Trailblazer Fund investments include 7Summits, Arxxus and ATG. Launching in parallel with the SI Trailblazer Fund, the SI Trailblazer Alliance Initiative will provide SI Trailblazer portfolio companies with access to a wide-range of concierge resources, training and tools including accelerated onboarding experience, marketing and sales mentorship and implementation guidance.

“Consulting firms play a pivotal role in the Salesforce ecosystem, implementing Salesforce solutions that meet the needs of customers of all sizes, industries and geographies,” said John Somorjai, EVP, Corporate Development and Salesforce Ventures, Salesforce. “This new fund will foster the next-generation of SIs and supercharge the growth of the Salesforce ecosystem.”

100M EXPECTED NUMBER OF AR AND VR HEADSET UNITS TO BE SHIPPED GLOBALLY BY 2021 SOURCE: IDC

6

Fidelis Cybersecurity releases endpoint cloud solution

F

machines, determine the idelis root cause of issues, and Cybersecurity take rapid response and has announced remediation actions. the availability of “When an attacker Fidelis Endpoint Cloud, gets on an endpoint, which is expected to provide they gain a foothold in security personnel with the your network – so what visibility, context and begins as an inadvertent automation required to Kurt Bertone, Fidelis click on a well-crafted investigate and resolve Cybersecurity phishing email can threats lurking on endpoints escalate as attackers move laterally and to protect their organisations from within your network and gain access cyberattacks, to your sensitive information,” According to the company, this said Fidelis Cybersecurity CTO solution includes all the features and Kurt Bertone. “Security teams are benefits of the on-premise version buried in alerts, so we designed our of Fidelis Endpoint with the added convenience, scalability and economy of technology to provide the visibility, context and automation that security a cloud-based deployment model with professionals need to detect, capacity-based subscription pricing. investigate and resolve the modern With Fidelis Endpoint, users can threats that enterprises face today.” quickly identify other compromised

Malwarebytes unveils inaugural channel programme Partners can look forward to attractive margins from the new EMEA channel programme. Malwarebytes has introduced its inaugural channel programme for partners across EMEA. According to the firm, the programme has been designed to be simple and focused on driving deal registrations with a commitment from the company to help its partners “close business opportunities quickly and easily.”

Where traditional channel schemes evaluate partners based on revenue, Malwarebytes looks to incentivise its reseller and distributor network based on the exposure and opportunity reach they provide for the security company. Partners can attain gold and platinum levels based on numbers of deal registrations rather than revenue, certification schemes or complex

JULY 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

points based programmes.

“As a Anthony O’Mara, company, Malwarebytes Malwarebytes has always been innovative and we’re carrying that ethos through to our partner programme,” said Anthony O’Mara, EMEA vice president, Malwarebytes. “Vendors often make partners jump through far too many hoops, wanting arbitrary criteria to be met, often dictating to resellers how to run their business. We’re not doing any of that. We know our partners run successful businesses. So, we’ve designed our programme to be flexible, forward-looking and mutually beneficial. We want our channel to feel part of a mutually beneficial partnership where both parties are invested in driving growth together.”

REDEFINING technology transformation

+971 4 440 9100

@TahawulTech

info@cpimediagroup.com

www.tahawultech.com

Media City, Building 4 Office G-08, Dubai, UAE, PO Box 13700

gitex.com

Re - Imagining Realities

“

Dubai’s digitisation initiatives could generate a potential USD 4.87 billion in value by 2019

The event for transformative global technology Because digital business doesn’t wait

“

Dubai, is a city of the future, a dynamic innovation hub, a bridge between east and west, a pioneer in technology innovation & early adoption that makes theoretical technology a mass-consumption reality.

JOHN CHAMBERS, CHAIRMAN, CISCO, 2017

DISCOVER

INNNOVATE

TRANSFORM

Future Tech is synonymous with Dubai.

Witness the revolution first hand with straight from R&D products, prototypes and the freshest ideas in the Future Tech Hall

From the back of an envelope to a billion $ business. It’s not all on the show floor in 2017, serendipity can happen at 1 of 100 events in GITEX Fringe

New Sectors for 2017!

Smart Manufacturing, Global Smart Cities, Robotics and Vehicle Tech.

Plus, the latest in AI, VR and AR

Dubai attracted USD 7 billion in Foreign Direct Investment in 2016, with 73% directed to tech projects

GITEX Technology Week gives your business access to these game-changing initiatives

CALL US TODAY FOR ACCESS TO THE MIDDLE EAST & AFRICAN MARKETS To find out how about this year’s participation opportunities contact us on +971 4 308 6282 / 4090 / 6566 / 6077 or sales@gitex.com Exclusive Digital Transformation Partner

Official Publisher

Official Publication

Official Airline Partner

Official Courier Handler

Organised by

HIGHLIGHTS

Farsight Security and Infoblox sign reseller partnership Farsight Security and Infoblox have announced a reseller partnership that will integrate Farsight’s Newly Observed Domains (NOD) solution with the Infoblox ActiveTrust platform to significantly reduce the risk of cyber-attacks associated with new domains.

By integrating Farsight NOD with Infoblox Threat Intelligence Data Exchange (TIDE) part of ActiveTrust, users can be blocked from communicating with new domains within minutes of a domain’s first activity, providing protection during the critical hours-to-day long window of maximum vulnerability before a reputation score can be assigned.

“The cheap cost of domains is fueling the cybercrime economy. It only takes 30 seconds for a domain name to be registered and become usable by

a cybercriminal. Together, Infoblox and Farsight Security enable organisations to match threat actors’ agility in launching quick strike attacks, to better protect their businesses against potentially devastating attacks,” said Paul Vixie, Farsight Security CEO and co-founder.

“Through our Technology Alliance Partner Program (TAP), Infoblox is able to integrate with complementary security solutions like Farsight NOD to help better protect organisations from cyber threats,” said Kanaiya Vasani, Infoblox vice president of Corporate and Business Development. “Farsight Security is a natural partner for Infoblox and we look forward to successfully delivering Newly Observed Domains to our customers to increase the speed and accuracy of their attack detection and mitigation.”

SAP: SMBs to drive $12 billion BI market in the Middle East Middle East small and medium businesses will drive the region’s USD 12 billion business intelligence market, according to the newly Zakaria Haltout, SAP appointed channel head at digital transformation enabler SAP. While small- and medium-sized enterprises comprise the majority of Middle East enterprises, they lag in digital technology adoption. Among SMEs in the region, only 18 percent in the UAE are digital, and only 15 percent in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, according to a recent report by Digital McKinsey.

Showing the strong potential for Big Data analytics to enable digital

transformation, the Middle East business intelligence market is set to more than double to $12 billion by 2020, according to a recent report by MicroMarket Monitor.

“Small and medium businesses in the Middle East and North Africa need the right channel partner to succeed in the Internet of Things. Partners should have specialised training in new digital business models, especially across artificial intelligence, blockchain, and machine learning innovations,” said Zakaria Haltout, head of global channels and general business for the Middle East and North Africa at SAP. The SAP MENA channel programme grew by 61 percent, with channel coverage increasing by 25 percent from 2015-2016, making it one of the fastest-growing regions in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for the SAP PartnerEdge Program. SAP counts over 120 regional partners.

NetApp, Microsoft alliance to include hybrid cloud services NetApp has announced plans to expand its strategic alliance with Microsoft to help enterprises accelerate digital transformation for hybrid cloud.

Customers are evolving their data centres to integrate hybrid cloud delivery models for greater agility.

These integrations, however, can create new compatibility issues, particularly with existing applications that depend on file services.

NetApp said it intends to expand its collaboration with Microsoft to include hybrid cloud data services, built on its proven ONTAP software, that will deliver enterprise-grade data visibility and insights, data access and control, and data protection and security for customers moving to Microsoft Azure.

The firms expect the collaboration to deliver a solution architecture that will speed the migration of enterprise applications to Azure and Azure Stack so that customers can unlock greater value from their data.

It also plans to integrate NetApp’s newly launched FabricPool functionality, which reduces the cost of cold data by automatically tiering it from on-premises to cloud, with Azure Blob Storage. The extended partnership aim to enable Azure as a backup destination for NetApp’s Cloud Control SaaS offering, which provides backup, archive and compliance services to enhance Microsoft Office 365 environments.

Anthony Lye, senior vice president, Cloud Business Unit, NetApp, said, “This new development in our strategic alliance will extend the reach of NetApp’s world-class data services for Azure cloud and support customers as they modernise their businesses and pursue new opportunities for growth.”

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JULY 2017

9

HIGHLIGHTS

Gartner: Dell EMC only top server vendor to grow in Q1 In the first quarter of 2017, worldwide server revenue declined 4.5 percent year over year, while shipments fell 4.2 percent from the first quarter of 2016, according to Gartner.

HPE continued to lead in the worldwide server market based on revenue. The company posted over $3 billion in revenue for a total share of 24.1 percent for the first quarter of 2017 . Dell EMC maintained second place with a 19 percent market share, and was the only vendor in the top five to experience growth in the first quarter of 2017.

“Q1 2017 showed declines on a global level with a slight variation in results by region,” said Gartner’s research vice president Jeffrey Hewitt.

“Asia/Pacific bucked the trend and posted growth while all other regions fell. Although purchases in the hyperscale data centre segment have been increasing, the enterprise and SMB segments remain constrained as end users in these segments accommodate their increased application requirements through virtualisation and consider cloud alternatives.”

In server shipment numbers, however, Dell EMC secured top spot in Q1, registering a 17.9 percent market share. The company had a slight increase of 0.5 percent growth over the first quarter of 2016. Despite a decline of 16.7 percent, HPE secured the second spot with 16.8 percent of the market.

$5.9B

FORECASTED VALUE CLOUDBASED SECURITY SERVICES MARKET IN 2017 SOURCE: GARTNER

10

STC Cloud and A10 partner to offer ADC as a service

Abdullah Aldhafr, STC Cloud with Mohammed Al-Moneer, A10 Networks at the partnership signing ceremony

A10 Networks and STC Cloud have come together to offer application delivery as a service in Saudi Arabia. The vendor has announced that its vThunder Virtual Appliance is now available via the service provider.

According to the terms of the agreement, STC Cloud will sell A10 vThunder Cloud offerings as a service for public use environments.

Talal Al-Bakr, Cloud VP, STC, said, “STC Cloud is proud to build on its ongoing commitment to STC customers through this agreement with A10 Networks, which will see both parties

develop, in collaboration, secure and agile solutions that leverage A10 Networks’ global expertise in cloud deployments.”

The A10 vThunder-Bluvalt is purposebuilt for high performance, flexibility, and easy-to-deploy application delivery and server load balancer solutions within STC Cloud Marketplace deployments. A10 vThunder combined with the STC Cloud platforms enables customers to rapidly scale and optimise cloud environments, increasing performance on demand.

Mohammed Al-Moneer, regional director MENA, A10 Networks, said, “Entering into this strategic partnership with STC Cloud reiterates the strong position for A10 products in the Saudi market, where we are seeing an increased demand from customers and partners for the A10 vThunder on STC Cloud. With A10 vThunder running on STC Cloud, customers can establish secure tunnels and bursts to the cloud, all while giving them full control of their applications.”

Cisco certifies Emircom as specialised partner in Gulf Regional systems Mohamad Abou-Zaki, integrator Emircom Emircom has announced that Cisco has certified it as a Cisco Master Security Specialisation Partner for the Gulf markets.

As a Master Security Specialisation Partner, the SI guarantees efficient delivery of sophisticated and valueadded Cisco solutions through its comprehensive sales capabilities, technology expertise and service portfolio. According to the company, it will now have greater opportunities to differentiate itself from competitors, better align itself with one of the world’s top technology brands, and

JULY 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

be eligible to qualify for Cisco’s prestigious Certifications.

Mohamad Abou-Zaki, COO, Emircom, said, “Emircom is selective of its regional and global technology and business partnerships to ensure that we deliver only the best systems and solutions to our customers. We are honoured to be one of Cisco’s Master Security Specialisation Partners and look forward to deploying advanced Cisco technologies to ensure safer IT environments across the region. We need forward-looking industry leaders such as Cisco to provide us with better tools and techniques to neutralise the region’s growing cyber threats as countries here accelerate their transformation into knowledge-based societies.”

HIGHLIGHTS

Kaspersky Lab, Injazat sign MoU to support cybersecurity

Eugene Kaspersky, Kaspersky Lab, and Khaled Al Melhi, Injazat at the signing of the MoU

Global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Injazat Data Systems (Injazat), a secure data centre and managed services solutions provider. The agreement will see the two parties working together to develop a potential partnership in the areas of industrial IT security, cyber defense and other offerings.

The memorandum was signed in May at Kaspersky Lab’s Trusted Advisors Summit in Abu Dhabi, UAE, between Eugene Kaspersky, chairman and CEO of Kaspersky Lab, and Khaled Al Melhi, CEO, Injazat.

Al Melhi, said, “We will review ways of enhancing common areas and services, including incident response, consultation, deployment and installation within the Kaspersky Industrial CyberSecurity solution sphere.”

Under the terms of the MoU the parties will discuss and develop go-tomarket models to pursue new business opportunities with the aim of recruiting new customers. Elsewhere, the parties will also contribute their individual technical expertise and support in areas of common interest.

Gartner recognises Paladion as a representative vendor Global managed security services provider (MSSP) Paladion has announced its placement in Gartner’s Market Guide for Managed Detection and Response (MDR) as a representative vendor.

Gartner identified Paladion as a representative vendor for its advanced threat detection and incident response capabilities using their proprietary security analytics and orchestration platform, which are capabilities profiled in this research, said the company.

This comprehensive market guide for MDR is developed by senior security analysts Toby Bussa, Craig Lawson, Kelly M. Kavanagh, and Sid Deshpande, and is targeted toward IT security professionals that are looking for real-time threat detection and incident response capabilities to augment their security operations.

Paladion is one of the few large MSSPs in the MDR representative vendor list from Gartner that has a fully

developed MDR offering in the market.

Rajat Mohanty, CEO, Paladion said, “We believe our inclusion as a representative vendor in the Gartner Market Guide for MDR services validates why leading enterprises across the globe rely on our services to set up robust cyber defenses. CyberActive MDR brings in a new breed of security talent that is complemented by our advanced machine learning algorithms and security analytics platform to enable faster than ever detection and response to cyber threats.”

Paladion’s CyberActive MDR is a fully managed offering that can fix the disparity between the speed of compromise and the speed of detection.

Organisations using managed security services or in-house SOCs can augment their security operations using MDR, or they can set up 24/7 security monitoring, advanced threat hunting, remote incident investigation and response in place of traditional SOCs.

Huawei CBG to open experience store in UAE Huawei Consumer Business Group (CBG) has announced plans to open its first experience store in the UAE, which will be equipped to offer customers a complete hands-on product experience.

The store will be strategically located at The Dubai Mall and is slated to strengthen the firm’s position in the smartphone market.

In line with Huawei’s global consumer centric strategy, the new store will offer its loyal customers an immersive experience where they will be able to engage with a range of Huawei products. The sleek and modern store layout will allow customers to test devices, resolve issues, and even shoot cover shots with the latest flagship devices – such as the P10 and P10 Plus, said the company.

Huawei CBG CEO Richard Yu said, “The United Arab Emirates is a key market for Huawei globally and the company sees Dubai as a city that is strategically located to reach consumers in and around the region. With the store’s strategic location, we aim to provide our consumers a compelling space to connect with the Huawei brand, our latest technologies and products at a more personal level.”

Currently, Huawei has 47 service centres in the region with two dedicated service centres in the UAE – one in Dubai and one in Abu Dhabi – where customers receive VIP assistance and shorter service cycles for their devices.

The experience store is set to compliment Huawei’s existing service centres offering customers a complete retail experience.

The date for the store opening is yet to be revealed, but expected over the course of the upcoming months.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JULY 2017

11

HIGHLIGHTS

Epicor, RheinBrücke collaborate with SmartWorld Epicor Software has announced that its international partner RheinBrücke has signed a partnership agreement with Sabby Gill, Epicor Software SmartWorld to deliver Epicor solutions and services to businesses in Dubai South.

The collaboration between Epicor, RheinBrücke and SmartWorld will provide businesses in Dubai South with access to enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions to help them better manage their business, automate processes, improve

operational efficiency, and set their business on course for growth.

As one of the largest Epicor partners in the region, RheinBrücke is partnering with SmartWorld to offer a full range of the firm’s solutions and services, including Epicor ERP, Epicor iScala, Epicor HCM, and Epicor Mattec, a choice of deployment on-premises or via the cloud, and industry process models for best practice implementations.

Abdulqader Obaid Ali, chief executive officer, SmartWorld, a joint venture between Etisalat and Dubai South, said that RheinBrücke will be able to provide the right support for its clients in empowering their employees and customers with the latest technology solutions and attract more local and global businesses to invest in the area.

“We want to ensure that the businesses that are located in Dubai South can operate within the smartest global value chains, and providing them with access to flexible ERP solutions is central to driving regional and global growth,” he said.

“Working together with RheinBrücke and SmartWorld to help businesses in Dubai South modernise their operations and grow their businesses will be a truly exciting experience,” said Sabby Gill, executive vice president, international, Epicor Software. “Dubai South is set to become the key global business hub. It is integral to maintaining Dubai’s position among the top international centres for trade and logistics and as a new destination for investment.

We are delighted to be able to support companies in the city on their path to successful growth.”

US-based Zaloni signs strategic VAR partnership with ixtel Data lake company Zaloni has signed a strategic valueadded reseller partnership with UAE-based digital services company ixtel, Mehdi Quraishi, ixtel as a part of its expansion plan in the Middle East.

Having set up a regional base in Dubai last year, US-headquartered Zaloni is now looking to build its regional business by leveraging the strengths of ixtel’s offerings. The reseller’s consulting services focus on supporting the digital transformation of organisations across industries including telecommunications, financial services and healthcare.

With Zaloni, ixtel said it is looking to deliver top-tier Big Data intelligence solutions more efficiently and costeffectively than competitors in the region.

“With its ability to analyse and report on large and complex data, Zaloni is a perfect complement to ixtel Big Data and analytics service offerings, providing strategic benefits to both ixtel and our customers,” said Mehdi Quraishi, ixtel’s CEO. “With Zaloni, users always have access to the real-time data they need to make more informed business decisions.”

Ben Sharma, CEO, Zaloni, said, “Zaloni’s partnership with ixtel will help companies in the Middle East region derive maximum value from their growing data assets with a nextgeneration data architecture.

Credence Security to deliver Rsam’s GRC solutions across MEA Regional speciality distributor Credence Security has signed up with Rsam, an enterprise Vivian Gevers, software Credence Security provider for risk and compliance solutions, to deliver its complete suite of solutions across the Middle East and Africa.

The distribution agreement particularly focuses on the vendor’s solutions around vendor risk management (VRM), security incident response and corporate risk and compliance assessments. Credence will also be responsible for providing the professional services associated

with deployments of these solutions.

Vivian Gevers, managing director, Credence Security, said, “Named a leader in the 2016 Gartner IT Risk Management Magic Quadrant, Rsam’s solutions perfectly complement our existing portfolio of cybersecurity solutions. Their highly adaptive, intuitive, feature-rich modules are easy to implement and allow businesses to automate their risk and compliance processes while adapting easily to any changes.”

With solutions such as Risk Assessment, Vendor Risk Management (VRM) and Security Incident Response Platform (SIRP), Rsam said it aims to help organisations overcome daily challenges of managing risk and compliance.

TITUS signs Help AG to deliver data security solutions

Stephan Berner, Help AG

Help AG has signed a reseller agreement with TITUS, the global classification and protection solutions provider for

unstructured data.

Stephan Berner, CEO, Help AG, said, “Data is the new oil in the Middle East. The consumption, sharing, and analysis of information is what drives business but at the same time, these essential functions add security risk if not properly managed and monitored.

“In over a decade, we have established ourselves as the trusted security advisor to many of the region’s largest government, defence and financial institutions. Through our partnership with TITUS, we will now focus on solving these enterprises’ most critical data protection challenges.”

According to TITUS, its Classification suite enables people and technology within organisations to better understand, value, and protect information assets, leading to enhanced information governance and sharing decisions.

Mitch Robinson, president and COO, TITUS, said, “We are pleased to have the opportunity to work with Help AG to significantly grow our presence in the Middle East. Help AG’s track record and their wealth of knowledge and experience in the security sector will enable TITUS to increase the introduction of our solutions to enterprises throughout the area. We are looking forward to strengthening our relationships and growing our enterprise customer base in this region.”

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JULY 2017

13

HIGHLIGHTS

MEA PC market falls 8.8 percent in Q1 The Middle East and Africa (MEA) personal computing devices (PCD) market experienced a decline of 8.8 percent year-on-year in Q1 2017, according to research from IDC. The firm’s Quarterly PCD Tracker for Q1 shows that PCD shipments fell to around 6 million units for the quarter, the lowest levels recorded since Q4 2011.

The market’s slump was primarily rooted in the fall in demand for traditional desktops and slate tablets, with shipments of these devices suffering year-on-year declines of 25.3 percent and 16.9 percent respectively.

Detachable tablets, on the other hand, experienced large growth of 102.5 percent over the same period, albeit coming from a smaller base.

Notebook shipments were also up in Q1 2017, with units increasing 5.9 percent year on year.

In terms of the PC vendor rankings for Q1 2017, all of the top five vendors maintained their positions when compared to the previous quarter. They all experienced slow year-on-year growth in terms of market share, with the exception of Acer, which suffered a drastic decline in shipments as a result of a significant slowdown in Turkey and several parts of Africa.

In the tablet space, meanwhile, Samsung continued to lead in terms of market share in Q1, while Apple and Huawei climbed up into second and third positions, respectively.

The top five vendor rankings for the quarter were rounded out by Lenovo and UAE-based vendor i-life.

Looking ahead, IDC expects the MEA PCD market to experience a year-on-year decline of 8.2 percent for 2017 as a whole. This will correspond to a total of 24 million shipments for the year, which is the lowest annual volume recorded since 2011.

14

ISYX Technologies wins accolade, joins new partner network

UAE-based consulting firm ISYX Technologies has announced that it has won the ‘Emerging Partner of the year’ award at Cisco’s 2-tier channel event held recently in Dubai. According to the firm, it was recognised for its outstanding performance and expertise in promoting and deploying Cisco’s technologies in its first year as the vendor’s partner.

Cisco’s annual partner awards is a consolidation of the top 2-tier partners who were able to meet both

the challenges of reskilling themselves in a short window of opportunity and delivering solutions successfully for their key customers.

Last month, ISYX has also became a channel partner of global enterprise applications company IFS. As part of the agreement, ISYX will market and deploy IFS’s complete range of enterprise applications including enterprise resource planning (ERP), enterprise asset management (EAM) and field service management (FSM) for its customers across the MEA region. The systems integrator is also investing in training and certification of its presales and delivery teams through the IFS Academy. By building local competency and capabilities in IFS Applications, ISYX will help customers transition through the digital era.

VR and AR headset shipments to hit 100M units by 2021: IDC Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) continue to gain momentum in the mainstream tech media, according to recent forecast data from the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Augmented and Virtual Reality Headset Tracker.

The report also highlighted that dedicated AR and VR headsets collectively are expected to grow at a very strong pace from just under 10 million units in 2016 to just shy of 100 million units in 2021, with a five-year CAGR of 57.7 percent.

The IDC report revealed that VR headsets have led much of the device volume to date.

Within that category, screenless viewers (VR headsets powered by a smartphone), which are the cheapest available form factor, have been leading the charge.

It also showed that the second half of

JULY 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

2016 saw a ramp up in volume from three highly publicised market leading VR device products, the Sony PlayStation VR, the HTC Vive, and Facebook’s Oculus Rift.

“The next six to 18 months will further stimulate the VR market as PC vendors, along with Microsoft, introduce tethered headsets and high-end standalone VR headsets also enter the market,” said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst, IDC Mobile Device Trackers. “With lower hardware requirements on the PC and lower prices on headsets, VR will be more accessible than ever before. And the introduction of additional motion tracking and hand tracking will help further blur the line between digital and physical reality.”

In terms of dedicated devices, AR continues to sit slightly in the background of VR. The reason for this is not that AR is less important, but rather it is harder to achieve, said the research firm.

PRESENTS

ALIGNING INFORMATION SECURITY WITH BUSINESS Monday, 28th August 2017

Habtoor Grand, Dubai, UAE

REGISTER NOW www.tahawultech.com/cso-perspectives-conference/2017

WHY ATTEND: • Get direct access to information security knowledge and expertise from some of the industry’s security practitioners and thought leaders.

• Gain new ideas, insights and actionable intelligence • Meet select exhibitors under one roof • Network with your peers and discuss the issues WHO SHOULD ATTEND: • C-level (CEO, CISO, CTO, CIO) • Board and director level • IT managers and GRC specialists

OFFICIAL CYBER SECURITY INNOVATION PARTNER

CATEGORY SPONSOR

For sponsorship enquiries Natasha Pendleton Publishing Director natasha.pendleton@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9139 / +971 56 787 4778 Kausar Syed Group Sales Director kausar.syed@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9130 / +971 50 758 6672

Merle Carrasco Sales Manager merle.carrasco@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9147 / +971 55 118 1730

For agenda-related enquiries Jeevan Thankappan Group Editor jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9129 / +971 56 415 6425 James Dartnell Editor james.dartnell@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9153 / +971 56 934 4776

MEDIA PARTNER

Adelle Geronimo Online Editor adelle.geronimo@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9135 / +971 56 484 7564

ORGANISER

HIGHLIGHTS

KSA’s maroof portal to alert users on counterfeit products

NXN launches managed security services

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Commerce and Investment has advised e-commerce and e-marketing sites with a social media presence to register on www.maroof.sa portal, to ensure credibility of their business at a time when there is an increase in counterfeit products. The ministry has also urged the public to be alert when purchasing products through different platforms such as websites and social media.

According to a report that appeared in The Saudi Gazette, the caution was issued because of a surge in counterfeit and imitations products being sold online. The ministry said, “It’s a violation of the anti-trade fraud law and trademarks law.” It also emphasised that people who were involved in such crimes could face up to three years in prison and will be liable to pay a fine up to SR1 million.

The report also stated that the ministry has closed more than 75 accounts on social media including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat as there were posts promoting counterfeit goods.

To stay ahead of this problem, the ministry’s maroof portal safeguards registered users by carrying out assessment of online businesses in the Kingdom and alerts them against fake products.

With over 15,000 websites across verticals registered with maroof, the ministry urges consumers to contact its toll-free number 1900 to notify about any counterfeit products that they may come across, said the report.

NXN has joined forces with McAfee to launch a Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) practice in the Ghazi Atallah, NXN Middle East.

According to NXN, the MSSP practice will enable them to build on their Smart City Managed Service offering by providing governments and enterprises in the GCC, particularly in the critical infrastructure sector, security monitoring, threat detection and analysis services.

Ghazi Atallah, CEO, NXN, said, “Over the last couple of years, we have made significant investments in building a comprehensive Safe City Managed

66%

OF SAUDI FIRMS ARE ALREADY USING INFRASTRUCTURE-AS-ASERVICE SOLUTIONS SOURCE: ORACLE

16

Services offering and today, through our integrated portfolio of technology, intelligence and insights, we provide smart city managed services—including urban safety and security, security analytics and critical infrastructure protection—to governments, real estate and enterprise customers across the GCC. Adding cybersecurity capabilities is the next step in our evolution and core to our strategy of being able to ultimately offer enterprises end-to-end Smart City technology solutions.”

NXN will leverage its Security Operations Center (SOC) to offer enterprises a full suite of customised security monitoring, threat detection and analysis solutions. As the SOC evolves and matures, NXN plans on rolling out a more standard and generic cybersecurity offering that will cut horizontally across all market verticals.

AudioCodes inks distribution pact with Nuvias AudioCodes, the Voice and Unified Communications Networking Solutions vendor, has signed a pan-EMEA distribution agreement with Nuvias, following the recent launch of Nuvias’ Unified Communications (UC) Practice across EMEA. Under the agreement, Nuvias is now able to offer complete end-toend solutions and technical support for Skype for Business and BroadSoft Business UC environments, based on AudioCodes’ Session Border Controllers (SBCs) and handsets. Nuvias has also been appointed as master distributor for AudioCodes’ range of Skype for Business and SIP handsets across EMEA, to ensure a rapid response to meet growing demand from the channel.

“Nuvias combines technical UC expertise and in-depth market knowledge with excellent commercial management and logistics, and importantly, is able to deliver this consistently across EMEA,”

JULY 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

said Arieh Shemesh, head, Global Channel Sales Operations, AudioCodes.

“Nuvias also has existing strong relationships with service providers and specialist resellers that will open up new opportunities for us.”

Steve Harris, EVP, Unified Communications, Nuvias, “With AudioCodes’ advanced SBCs and popular, intuitive handsets, we are now able to offer complete Skype for Business and BroadSoft solutions from a single vendor. We will also benefit from AudioCodes’ strong global relationship with Microsoft and will be working closely with their certified partners, making maximum use of our comprehensive suite of Microsoft UC professional services to drive product sales. With growing interest in UC we want to work with our channel partners so that their customers get the most out of their investment in technologies such as Skype for Business.”

APPOINTMENTS

INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS

An overview of the latest people movement within the IT channel business.

Juniper Networks strengthens EMEA leadership team Juniper Networks has appointed Marcus Jewell Marcus Jewell, as senior vice Juniper Networks president and general manager for its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) business. In this role, he will be responsible for Juniper’s sales operations across the region, including its go-to-market and channel strategies.

Joining from Brocade Communications, where he most recently ran the EMEA business and was also the global head of the company’s software sales, Jewell has worked in the technology industry for more than 20 years. He has held several senior sales leadership

positions in networking organisations.

“Juniper is a company I have admired for its integrity and quality of technology for many years. I believe the current opportunity for growth in EMEA is strong for the company, given the fundamental importance of innovative, high-performance and secure networking that underpins the drive for digital transformation among enterprises, cloud and service providers alike. I am excited to be leading the team forward and expect us to achieve great things together,” said Jewell.

Jewell will be based at Juniper’s EMEA headquarters in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and will also spend a lot of time with customers and partners across the region on a regular basis.

Arbor Networks names new VP and GM for EMEA Arbor Networks, the security division of Netscout, has appointed James Cater to the position of vice president and James Cater, Arbor general manager Networks for Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA). Cater will be responsible for driving the company’s sales and channel initiatives as the company penetrates the service provider and enterprise markets with its suite of visibility, DDoS defence and advanced threat protection solutions.

With over 25 years of experience across several industries including service providers, global enterprise, healthcare and financial services, Cater joins the firm from Tata Communications where he was

vice president of the Global Systems Integrators Business building, scaling global partnerships and providing them with knowledge, skills and investment needed to scale their business and open new markets.

“Arbor Networks is a channel-focused security business deeply commited to partner success,” said Tony King, senior vice president of worldwide sales, Arbor Networks. “Cater’s background, building strategic, mutually beneficial partnerships, as well as his sales management experience driving growth for a market leader, are an ideal fit for Arbor Networks.”

“I am proud to lead our team and grow our business for Arbor Networks in EMEA. Our market leading capabilities deliver immediate relevance to our channel, service provider and OEM partners enabling them to provide security and protection to organisations of all size,” added Cater.

Gulf Business Machines appoints new CEO Gulf Business Machines (GBM), a regional IT solutions provider and systems integrator, has appointed Martin Tarr, GBM Martin Tarr as the new chief executive officer, effective from June 4, 2017.

Tarr’s responsibilities as the new CEO include leading the overall, dayto-day operations from GBM’s Dubai headquarters and working closely with the company’s branches in the region.

Nabil Iskandar, chairman, GBM, said, “Tarr brings over 30 years of IT experience and a proven track-record of leading and transforming businesses to capture new market opportunities in hardware, software, and services. We are confident that his knowledge and extensive experience across the GCC region will shape the future of GBM to the benefit of its customers.”

Tarr was previously vice president of Global Technology Services for IBM for Middle East and Africa. He brings a wealth of international experience across multiple disciplines to the job, having previously held several key IT leadership roles over the last 10 years in IBM’s European and Middle East and Africa headquarters.

Tarr said, “I am excited to be given the opportunity to lead GBM through this exciting period of transformation in the industry. The digital era is having a profound effect on our clients’ businesses and I am confident that with GBM’s capabilities and talented team, we will be able to capitalise on these new opportunities.”

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JULY 2017

17

OPINION // INFOBLOX

The NotPetya outbreak

Mohammad Tabbara, senior systems engineer, UAE and Channel, Infoblox, discusses the recent ransomware attack and how channel partners can help customers to stay on top of their cybersecurity solutions.

18

JULY 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.resellerme.com

B

arely after the dust has settled on WannaCry, the ransomware that affected hundreds of thousands of computers in 150 countries in May, another ransomware attack, NotPetya, started infecting organisations across Europe and into the Americas on June 27, 2017. Initially, this attack was thought to be a variant of Petya ransomware because the attackers crafted the malware to resemble Petya. Upon further analysis, it was discovered that the main distribution and payment schemes were not consistent with prior Petya campaigns.

Where prior Petya campaign operated an organised payment and decryption key distribution system accessed via the Tor network, this attack relied upon a single email account for coordinating ransom payments and decryption keys. That address was identified and deactivated early leading investigators to conclude it was unlikely attackers intended for it to remain operational through the duration of the campaign.

NotPetya was disseminated via the compromised software update

service from MeDoc, a distributor of tax accounting software mandated by the Ukrainian government. The malware spread to more than 12,000 systems in Europe and the Americas. This new variant started spreading across networks using Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC) or the Microsoft Server Message Block (SMB) exploit known as ETERNALBLUE. The SMB exploit is the same method used by WannaCry ransomware, and Microsoft had already released a patch for the vulnerability.

Once NotPetya infects a system, it sets up encryption routines and attempts to spread over the network. What’s different about NotPetya is that it tries to extract cached user credentials from the original infected machine and propagates using WMIC. The other difference between NotPetya and WannaCry is that while WannaCry used a killswitch domain, NotPetya doesn’t. Encryption will happen irrespective of whether the infected system is in an isolated environment or connected to the Internet. Our open source intelligence analysis has led us to conclude that the campaign involved the following major actions: • Implanting a trojan into software essential to the intended target • Utilise a watering hole attack through a compromise of the software supply chain and distributing the trojan through the legitimate vendor’s genuine software update service • Enhance the malware to harvest credential and use capabilities inherent in the operating system to move lateral and spread the malware The end result of ransomware is to lock up the files on infected machines and demand a ransom to retrieve the data, though the true goals of the NotPetya creators may have been disruption rather than monetary gain. NotPetya’s encryption process presents a fake chkdsk splash page, which encrypts the hard disk master boot record if a privileged user executes it. Then it

Partners need to strengthen the cybersecurity ecosystem integration between the existing IT solutions and offer a completely novel solution that can mitigate these rising malware threats.

schedules a task to restart the system once to prompt the ransom note. If it is unable to execute the payload as a privileged user, then it encrypts the file types annotated below and writes a README.TXT ransom note.

BEST PRACTICES FOR STAYING PROTECTED AGAINST RANSOMWARE Ransomware has been constantly in the news recently. A total of $1 billion was paid out to ransomware criminals in 2016 alone. 2017 has seen a 6000 percent increase in ransomware infected emails compared to 2016.

Organisations should follow certain best practices to stay protected against ransomware and other advanced malware.

Backup: Always backup essential data and test the restore procedures.

Timely patches: Prioritise and apply security updates and patches. Since a known vulnerability in the Microsoft Server Message Block (SMB) was used in this attack, installing updates in the Microsoft March 2017 Security Bulletin will resolve the weakness. It is recommended that SMB is disabled until the proper patches can be applied to the system.

Network hygiene: Segment networks to limit the propagation of malware.

User training: Train your employees to: • Not open email attachments from unknown senders • Disable Microsoft Office document macros by default • Not allow documents to open additional files or execute macros without external confirmation (e.g. phone, in person) that the sender is valid. Further, confirm that they intentionally sent the document that requires the use of those features for a specific reason.

High quality curated threat intelligence feeds: Using high quality curated threat intelligence that is up-to-date can protect users from unwanted DNS communications and maximise DNS protection. In addition, using RPZ based security capability integrated with DNS to detect and block communications to bad sites and command and control servers can help stop the spread of advanced malware and ransomware.

THE ROLE OF THE CHANNEL This is where the channel needs to step in to help their customers contain and remediate ransomware. They can do so by educating them on the threat and helping them to implement best security practices. Partners need to strengthen the cybersecurity ecosystem integration between the existing IT solutions and offer a new add-on or a completely novel solution that can mitigate these rising malware threats.

www.resellerme.com // Reseller Middle East // JULY 2017

19

COVER STORY // BRAND BUILDERS

BRAND BUILDERS

Intelligent marketing strategies have the ability to put a brand on the map and increase its sales and reputation considerably. Marketing managers play a key role in implementing joint channel marketing initiatives where liaising with marketing departments from different stakeholders becomes crucial. Reseller ME features marketing managers from across vendors, distributors and systems integrators and finds out how they have helped create overarching brand images for their organisations.

20

JULY 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

A

s customers find themselves in the digital era, their expectations and demands have evolved when purchasing products or solutions. They are better-informed, digital and social media savvy and seek innovation. In such an environment, marketing managers across vendors, distributors and partners need to constantly conceive innovative ways to capture the mindshare of customers in an increasingly competitive IT space, which is challenging to say the least.

Over the last five years, the marketing function has had the most innovation and change, mainly due to digital, says Yasmin Khaliq, marketing director, Equinix MENA. “The change continues, tactics and strategies used by marketers becoming more cutting-edge and honing in on precision targeting of end – customer base.”

According to Carlos Robles, head of Brand and Communications, GBM, today customers are seeking brands that can understand their needs.

“They are looking for those firms that can deliver an experience that goes beyond the initial ‘product’ pitch.”

Technology brands should also keep in mind that customers now have the means to engage with them on a regular basis on social media platforms.

“This has shifted the way brands think and deploy their strategies. Today if you don’t think about the customer first, your brand could be ignored or can become irrelevant,” adds Robles.

Marketers should look at engaging with target audience through digital tools.

Think Software Services’ marketing manager Kavitha Advani says immense creativity is key.

“Irrespective of which industry we focus on, high resolution and high definition creative videos form core parts of any marketing campaign success. Digital marketing tools like Instagram have a great impact across UAE.” Those marketers who shy away from using social media platforms are missing out on a huge opportunity to connect with relevant customers. According to a 2017 HubSpot report, 74 percent of people say they use Facebook for professional purposes while a 2016 eMarketer report revealed that one-third of the world uses social networks regularly.

If you are not using social media tools for marketing strategies then you are out of the market, says Sakkeer Hussain, director, sales and marketing, D-Link Middle East and Africa.

“The biggest change from traditional marketing is that today social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, are playing a vital role in

74%

of people say they use Facebook for professional purposes Source: HubSpot 2017

creating effective strategies to reach relevant customers within a matter of seconds,” he adds.

Shankari Gnanadesikan, marketing manager, Gulf, Aptec-An Ingram Micro Company, says, “Digital and social media is also a boon for marketers as they provide ready to use analytics and dashboards to measure ROI for every dollar spent.” eHosting DataFort’s senior marketing executive, Gunika Arora, points out that a well-planned social media marketing strategy can bring remarkable success to businesses of all sizes.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JULY 2017

21

PRESENTS

28th August 2017

18:00 - 23:00

Habtoor Grand, Dubai, UAE

VOTE NOW

www.securityadvisorme.com/awards/2017

For sponsorship enquiries Natasha Pendleton Publishing Director natasha.pendleton@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9139 / +971 56 787 4778

Kausar Syed Group Sales Director kausar.syed@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9130 / +971 50 758 6672

Merle Carrasco Sales Manager merle.carrasco@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9147 / +971 55 118 1730

For agenda-related enquiries Jeevan Thankappan Group Editor jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9129 / +971 56 415 6425

OFFICIAL SECURITY SOLUTIONS PARTNER

SILVER PARTNER

James Dartnell Editor james.dartnell@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9153 / +971 56 934 4776

OFFICIAL CYBER SECURITY INNOVATION PARTNER

MEDIA PARTNER

Adelle Geronimo Online Editor adelle.geronimo@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9135 / +971 56 484 7564

STRATEGIC THREAT DETECTION PARTNER

ORGANISER

BRAND BUILDERS // COVER FEATURE

“This is because it helps in increasing website traffic and conversions, enhancing brand awareness, creating a brand identity and positive brand association and improving communication and interaction with key audiences.”

It is interesting to note that a distributor’s role in marketing has also evolved over time. It is no longer just about organising partner enablement sessions, managing agencies for vendors and running promotions.

Aditya Puri, senior marketing manager, Redington Value, explains that valueadded distributors (VADs) had functioned as vendors’ extended arm to manage executions as per their centralised marketing strategies.

“Today incremental business for vendors is dependent on how VADs successfully run ROI based campaigns.

Apart from traditional platforms, digital marketing has taken off in a big way,” he adds. “As a VAD, it is no longer possible to sit back and drive vendor strategies, we have to be instrumental in creating customer-centric strategies to drive incremental sales.”

Agreeing with Puri, Gnanadesikan adds, “We are seeing a growing importance and relevance given to marketing function in the channel business. There is a significant increase in the investment

allocated to channel marketing initiatives driven by distribution.”

All the marketers are in consensus that ‘innovation’ should be at the centre of their strategies, no matter how daunting it might be. However, Equinix’ Khaliq says this doesn’t mean that it needs to be big.

“Innovation success is measured, not by the magnitude of the change, but of the results. The question for all regional marketers is ‘what are the outcomes of all that we do’,” she says.

“Moreover, marketing needs to help create an innovative DNA and culture in the core organisation.”

“Innovation is a much-needed ongoing experiment. We need to have our eyes and ears open to sense it and then quickly act upon it,” says Avinash Kagava, manager, Corporate Marketing and Communications, ManageEngine.

This is only possible if marketers have a deep customer knowledge and knows what will be effective as per unique characteristics of the market.

“Understanding the market and the target audience is imperative for successful marketing in any region.

Language and culture in the Middle East region is so rich and diverse, we continuously seek assistance from our local partners and vendors to align with

Marketing is all about the way you communicate and tell the brand’s story.

The onus is on marketing managers to ensure this is done as sophisticatedly as possible, without diluting the brand image.

1/3

of the world uses social networks regularly Source: eMarketer 2016

our customers, and to get our products to do the talking,” says Kagava.

While communicating the brand message successfully to customers from diverse backgrounds is a challenge, another big one that Puri sees is that the majority of the marketing execution is often left to agencies who have limited knowledge on marketing technology. Also, marketing budgets are being consumed for creating extravagant events, which may not be always necessary, unless it is a major launch or announcement.

“Technology selling in a B2B environment is more about understanding customer pain points and building solutions to solve them,” he says. “While organising heavily branded events surely attract attendees, marketing managers should keep in mind that it is also a myopic strategy.

Customers are more interested in solving their business problems rather than attending glitzy events.”

Marketing is all about the way you communicate and tell the brand’s story.

The onus is on marketing managers to ensure this is done as sophisticatedly as possible, without diluting the brand image.

And it is also about relationships. Over the next few pages, we have featured marketing managers and how they have played a critical role in building positive perceptions for their firms.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JULY 2017

23

COVER STORY // BRAND BUILDERS

ADITYA PURI senior marketing manager, Redington Value

AVINASH KAGAVA manager, Corporate Marketing and Communications, ManageEngine

An innovative marketing initiative led by you: The conception of the RedVault, a multi-vendor solution centre at our HQ office at H Hotel Dubai, is an initiative that stands out the most. Between Harpreet Singh, our principle consultant for Strategy and myself, the project took six months in the making and was built with the sole purpose of re-imagining value-added distribution and designing a transformational customer experience.

An innovative marketing initiative led by you: As a team, we were involved in the recent repositioning at ManageEngine.

This included the revamp of our website and a lot of other marketing activities.

Biggest challenge you have faced in this role: The lack of marketing services agencies, which have a clear understanding of technology, is a challenge. I believe there is a big difference in having a heavily branded event and a ROI-driven demand generation activity.

A marketing wisdom you live by: “If you keep doing what you have always done, you will keep being what you have always been.”

What got you interested in marketing? My interest had always been in what makes people take decisions. As marketers, we can drive consumer behaviour using marketing initiatives and then analyse buying patterns to develop future strategies. The entire process fascinates me and drives my passion as a marketer.

24

Biggest challenge you have faced in this role: Understanding the market dynamics, language and culture when carrying out a marketing activity in a new region is challenging. This requires detailed preparation and learning as each region is rich and diverse in its culture, and it’s essential to understand these nuances in order to be in tune with the market.

A marketing wisdom you live by: Run your ideas with your closest peers before you share them with the outside world, but execute your gut feeling.

What got you interested in marketing? The whole concept of storytelling and getting people inclined to your stories is an amazing feeling. This piped my interest into marketing. It’s a play of words and strategy and it’s addictive. Beware!

JULY 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

BRONWYN SAMUEL EMEA channel marketing manager, South Europe and Emerging Markets, HPE An innovative marketing initiative led by you: There have been several such initiatives where we have taken solutions from across our business to deliver a complete end-to-end story to our customers and stakeholders across multiple activities such as digital, social and events, and getting our channel partners, sales teams and customers to buy into a shared vision. While this is really what many of us do daily, the challenge was to bring this to life for a diverse audience and still deliver ROI to my company.

Biggest challenge you have faced in this role: Learning to say no.

A marketing wisdom you live by: “It always seems impossible until it is done.” - Nelson Mandela What got you interested in marketing? The ability to bring people together and to get people from differing backgrounds to share your passion for an idea or a brand and feel like you are part of something so much bigger than yourself, got me passionate about marketing.

PRESENTS

19TH SEPTEMBER 2017

DUBAI, UAE

REGISTER AT

www.tahawultech.com/datacentrebuild/2017/ For sponsorship enquiries Natasha Pendleton Publishing Director natasha.pendleton@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9139 / +971 56 787 4778

Kausar Syed Group Sales Director kausar.syed@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9130 / +971 50 758 6672

Merle Carrasco Sales Manager merle.carrasco@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9147 / +971 55 118 1730

For agenda-related enquiries Jeevan Thankappan Group Editor jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9129 / +971 56 415 6425

EXCLUSIVE STRUCTURED CABLING PARTNER

STRATEGIC THREAT DETECTION PARTNER

James Dartnell Editor james.dartnell@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9153 / +971 56 934 4776

STRATEGIC VAD PARTNER

ORGANISER

MEDIA PARTNER

Adelle Geronimo Online Editor adelle.geronimo@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9135 / +971 56 484 7564

EVENT PARTNERS

COVER STORY // BRAND BUILDERS

CARLOS A. ROBLES head of Brand and Communications, GBM An innovative marketing initiative led by you: Recently, I’ve led GBM to become the first IT brand in the GCC region to adopt the Social Selling concept with LinkedIn. Thanks to the adoption of a tool called Sales Navigator, our sales team can now communicate with our customers in a more personalised manner, gain better customer insights, and convert new relationships into relevant business opportunities. The GBM partnership with LinkedIn supports one of our strategies for brand building, which is to continue to associate ourselves with innovative global brands.

Biggest challenge you have faced in this role: I believe my biggest challenge until now has been pinning down how we communicate the value proposition of our solutions and technologies in a language that is simple and digestible to the business leaders outside the IT department.

A marketing wisdom you live by: “Branding adds spirit and a soul to what would otherwise be a robotic, automated, generic price-value proposition.” - David A. Aaker.

What got you interested in marketing?

Ever since I was a child I’ve always had passion for brands. That passion later developed into an aspiration to better understand how many brands emotionally connect with their customers.

26

GRATION D’MELLO head, Strategic Marketing Programs, SAP MENA

An innovative marketing initiative led by you: The ‘CEO Innovation Series’ was a recent campaign we’ve launched and brought to life the business value of today’s digital innovations through CEO storytelling.

Biggest challenge you have faced in the role: The prime objective when I joined the organisation was to create awareness for our brand and to shake-off the incorrect perception that SAP was only for large enterprises. With limited spend on branding, this challenge was a chance to think beyond the traditional marketing mix and gave me an opportunity to be immensely creative.

A marketing wisdom you live by: “Dare to be different.”

What got you interested in marketing: Creativity and people – there is the constant challenge to think differently, therefore there is no limit to creativity. To complement this, the most prominent industry currently driving market disruption is the technology sector, hence makes life exciting for marketers like myself. One other remarkable aspect of marketing is the amazing people that you meet along the way – customers, partners, colleagues, agencies.

JULY 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

GUNIKA ARORA senior marketing executive, eHosting DataFort

An innovative marketing initiative led by you: We have recently innovated our email and video marketing campaigns. We experimented by moving away from brand colours and by introducing an ‘animated’ style to all our campaigns. The campaigns now are bold in terms of colour, design and concept. We have also moved away from ‘direct selling’ tactics and have kept the content interesting. All our emailers are ‘conceptual’ and talk about interesting content. We have also introduced explanatory animated videos on services.

Biggest challenge you have faced in this role: Providing the ROI on marketing activities was a challenge in the past. However, with analytics and other tracking tools, this can now be managed. Another challenge is the highly competitive market, and constant innovation is the only way forward.

A marketing wisdom you live by: “Don’t settle: Don’t finish crappy books.

If you don’t like the menu, leave the restaurant. If you’re not on the right path, get off it.” - Chris Brogan, American author What got you interested in marketing? Its constant evolving, fast-paced nature.

JITENDRA BULANI PR manager, Emerging Markets, Sophos

KAVITHA ADVANI marketing manager, Think Software Services

MALLIKA SHARMA marketing manager, Exclusive Networks ME

An innovative marketing initiative led by you: Sophos Intercept X is an endpoint security product. We launched our campaign to promote Intercept X in two stages. In the first stage, the messaging was ‘Sophos Intercept X- A completely new approach to endpoint security’. We gave as much information as possible through this campaign. In the second stage, the messaging was ‘Sophos Intercept X- Stop ransomware before it stops you.’ We got a lot of traction for Intercept X from partners as well as from the end customers.

An innovative marketing initiative led by you: ‘The Think’ – a bold outdoor magazine for the UAE market with latest company information, updates and customer case studies.

An innovative marketing initiative led by you: I have introduced cricket series and Football Champions league for all Fortinet partners across ME. A private movie screening in line with a new comprehensive portfolio ‘FortiWorld’ encompassing Fortinet’s Security Fabric solution was another unique initiative.

Biggest challenge you have faced in this role: Every marketer at some stage faces two major challenges how to increase recall value of your brand among your target audience and how to measure brand equity.

A marketing wisdom you live by: “Consumers do not buy products. They buy product benefits.”- David Ogilvy What got you interested in marketing? The power of marketing to influence buying decisions and things at large is what fascinates me. I am also attracted towards the storytelling aspect of marketing.

Biggest challenge you have faced in this role: Understanding and keeping up with the fastgrowing technology and how to efficiently strike the market.

A marketing wisdom you live by: “You can’t sell anything if you can’t tell anything.” – Beth Comstock What got you interested in marketing? Creativity, experiences, various market exposure and everyday challenges in today’s growing market got me interested in marketing.

Biggest challenge you have faced in this role: Ensuring ROI is delivered for each campaign for all our vendors has always been a major concern for me. To cope with this, one has to be detail-oriented and simultaneously ensure it’s a win-win situation for us along with our vendors.

Additionally, I also believe managing people is an art.

A marketing wisdom you live by: “Marketing is a race without a finish line” - Philip Kotler. As marketers, we set benchmarks with great work but the fact is we have to keep evolving.

What got you interested in marketing? I have always loved doing things that are impactful and unique.

Also, I have always been a people’s person and this quality has been a catalyst in helping me be a team player and ensuring everyone’s objectives are met within an organisation.

www.resellerme.com // Reseller Middle East // JULY 2017

27

COVER STORY // BRAND BUILDERS

MANJU MATHEW marketing manager, StorIT Distribution

An innovative marketing initiative led by you: One of the best ones I’ve done has been the ‘Imagine Possibilities’ campaign. The campaign was targeted towards our reseller channel encouraging them to gear up for future and capitalise on market disruptive technologies.

Biggest challenge you have faced in this role: Keeping up with constant changing trends that marketing goes through.

A marketing wisdom you live by: If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.

What got you interested in marketing? Marketing is a realm that requires constant brain storming and there is so much room for creativity.

The dynamic nature of the industry makes it exciting with limitless possibilities and greater rewards.

MARIE HASTINGS marketing manager, UAE and Gulf, Logicom Distribution An innovative marketing initiative led by you: Logicom Demo Café - While the concept of a demo centre is not new, the technologies available are. The Demo Cafés are a real value-add to our partners where our in-house experts will demonstrate solid solutions, provide enablement and dedicated support. The end goal is for our partners to grow with us, to feel confident and empowered to further establish themselves within a constantly developing industry.

A marketing wisdom you live by: “If you’re a good marketing person, you have to be a little crazy.” – Jim Metcalf.Dig a little deeper into the meaning and it’s also about creating stories and showing personality through your marketing initiatives.

People buy from people.

What got you interested in marketing? The majority of my background is sales. I slowly integrated marketing strategies into my pitches and realised I was pretty good at it. My degree is in photography and I have a passion for design and customer experiences, so it was a natural path for me to take.

28

JULY 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

MARY AJI marketing director, StarLink An innovative marketing initiative led by you: At StarLink, we espouse traditional marketing principles and complement them with various new age tactics. Over the years, we have built a strong brand that communicates who we are, and this has been at the core of my marketing strategy for StarLink – every event is a brand, with a specific style, format, and KPI. Biggest challenge you have faced in this role: I strongly believe that marketing is everyone’s job. When you cage marketing to just one department, we diminish the impact that every department has on a customer’s experience with us, as an organisation.

This challenge is not unique to me – most marketers often mull over the prospect of inculcating a ‘culture of marketing’ across their organisation.

A marketing wisdom you live by: “You can’t sell anything, if you can’t tell anything.”Beth Comstock What got you interested in marketing?

I call myself an ‘accidental marketer’. Even before I completed my PG in computer applications and management, I knew that I did not want to pursue a career in software development. During my internship with a small software development firm, there was an opportunity to take on marketing along with the project management role I held – that opened up the best of both worlds for me, a career in IT and applying my gift as a storyteller.

PRIT PATHAK channel marketing manager, Linksys

An innovative marketing initiative led by you: An innovative marketing campaign I’ve led was the launch of the new Volkswagen Beetle in India. The only brief that was given to us was to do something that was never done before.

Our campaigns included a series of eyecatching stunts, from helicopter banner advertising to hanging a giant car fixture on billboards, we did it all.

Biggest challenge you have faced in this role: For most of my career, the marketing campaigns I have worked on was targeted directly to end customers.

At Linksys, I had to adapt to marketing to the IT channel segment. This required deep understanding to tailor my marketing campaigns for each channel segment in each Middle East region.

Although, it was difficult to change my thought-process initially, I adapted and learnt the game quickly.

A marketing wisdom you live by: All good thoughts and ideas mean nothing without action.

What got you interested in marketing? With good communication skills and a knack to understand the consumer mind-set, I believe in making things happen and get excited when put forward with a new challenge. This motivated me to deep dive into marketing.

ROHAN DANIEL NAIR marketing head, ISYX Technologies

An innovative marketing initiative led by you: Innovation is a grassroots movement at ISYX. Marketing has helped in numerous ways to improve clients’ outcomes through digital campaigns, awareness creation, conceptualisation and execution of new ideas.

Biggest challenge you have faced in this role: Quick analysis of the data generated in multiple fast-moving digital campaigns is a challenge.

A marketing wisdom you live by: “Don’t deliver a product, deliver an experience.”

What got you interested in marketing? While doing my Masters at London South Bank (LSBU) University in the UK, I was working as an international student ambassador as a part time job with the marketing and student recruitment department of LSBU. As an ambassador, I had to support a range of University activities, which included outreach and student recruitment, mentoring and ‘buddy’ schemes to support other University students and potential applicants. The role required high-level of energy and enthusiasm. That is how I generated my interest in marketing and decided to make it a career.

SAKKEER HUSSAIN director, sales and marketing, D-Link Middle East and Africa

An innovative marketing initiative led by you: I have led initiatives to put D-Link MEA on the map and make it a brand that has high recall value. We have positioned it as a complete networking solutions vendor in the region across segments such as enterprise, SMB, consumer, retail and most recently passive as well.

Biggest challenge you have faced in this role: As the market is dynamic, it is important to constantly be on your toes and stay updated on current developments in the field.

Another challenge is that it is difficult to convince a customer to look beyond the pricing and consider factors such as product features, quality and after-sales services.

A marketing wisdom you live by: “The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” - Tom Fishburne What got you interested in marketing? I love devising creative strategies, which have to cut across cultural and language barriers, so that users can grasp it well.

www.resellerme.com // Reseller Middle East // JULY 2017

29

COVER STORY // BRAND BUILDERS

SHANKARI GNANADESIKAN marketing manager, Gulf, Aptec-An Ingram Micro Company An innovative marketing initiative led by you: Spearheaded the launch of ‘flyHigher’ –a high impact go to market programme for channel partners in the Gulf region. It is a structured programme that takes channel partners on a journey of onboarding, enablement, training, demand generation and sales acceleration.

Biggest challenge you have faced in this role: It has been quite a challenge to move away from traditional B2B marketing and embrace the new wave of digital marketing techniques.

It was a rewarding experience to bring all our stakeholders together and chart out the digital strategy.

A marketing wisdom you live by: “Whether B2B or B2C, good marketing essentials are the same. We all are emotional beings looking for relevance, context and connection” - Beth Comstock What got you interested in marketing? I was fascinated by the power of marketing communications to capture the imagination of the people, influence their feelings and trigger buying decisions.

30

SONALI BASU ROY marketing manager, Bulwark Technologies

YASMIN KHALIQ marketing director, Equinix MENA

An innovative marketing initiative led by you: I have successfully devised marketing programmes that have a measurable mix of direct and indirect channels and digital medium while collaborating with partners such as agencies or printers. A planned approach, optimum utilisation of resources and budget and the right marketing mix have helped me quickly achieve the desired results.

An innovative marketing initiative led by you: I love the idea about interconnecting brands to service a cause. At Equinix, we talk about ‘interconnection’, the ability to connect in many ways to the numerous partners, customers, employees and geographies today’s enterprises need, to accelerate business performance and create new opportunities.

Biggest challenge you have faced in the role: A good challenge that I constantly try to overcome in all my marketing initiatives is to develop accurate metrics to measure the outcome of the marketing activities and the direct sales/ revenue generated from such marcom activities.

Biggest challenge you have faced in this role: As the MENA marketing lead for Equinix, the challenge has been to increase awareness in the region, across all enterprise verticals and talk about the barriers and the opportunity digital disruption brings.

A marketing wisdom you live by: Marketers should be visionary and creative with a constant thirst for knowledge to adapt and be updated on the market developments.

A marketing wisdom you live by: Stay ahead of the curve, keep it simple and integrated, and execute with speed and a big dash of passion.

What got you interested in marketing: When I was in the crossroads of choosing a sound career, I was highly fascinated and impressed to see how an ordinary product transforms into an extraordinary brand with the assistance of the creative engine of marketing. This inspired me to pursue my dreams of becoming a successful marketer.

JULY 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

What got you interested in marketing? I studied Economics, the discipline of analysing market trends and dynamics to develop strategy, took me into my first role as a market analyst. With my childhood passion of storytelling – it was just a question of time before I was fully immersed in the world of marketing.

FEATURE // GOVERNMENT FOCUS

A FINE STATE Recent Gartner report revealed that governments in the Middle East and North Africa markets are expected to spend $11.6 billion on IT products and services in 2017. In such a scenario, we speak to experts to discover how resellers can customise their offerings and approach to be the preferred partners for the regional government sector.

G

CC governments are in the midst of ensuring they are at the forefront of digital transformation, which is increasingly becoming a priority for most organisations. Government initiatives such as Saudi Vision 2030 and the UAE Vision 2021, are possible only with increased investments in IT and if technology is made the fundamental point of its success.

Channel partners have a massive opportunity in this setting to help implement IT solutions that will enable and meet the digital transformation goals. However, partners must identify their strengths and develop strategies to differentiate their offerings to become a partner of choice with a government organisation.

Savitha Bhaskar, COO, Condo Protego, says, “In a crowded field of generalist systems integrators and resellers in the Middle East, the top channel partners need to show government organisations that they have both the technology expertise and the experience driving success with public sector enterprises.”

Sanjay Ahuja, vice president, MEA, AGC Networks, says systems integrators will need to devise tailor-made solutions to tackle the needs of this sector. The technology demands of government establishments are ongoing and often vary in scope and size, and their

32

requirements are stringent.

“They are also trendsetters for digital transformation, for example, UAE government’s Smart Dubai Government initiative. This challenges suppliers and systems integrators to offer niche and customised solutions to address their needs,” he says. “They must offer

Sanjay Ahuja, AGC Networks

“They need to offer valueadded services rather than concentrating on selling products. Playing the role of a ‘solutions provider’ rather than a ‘products distributor, is what will set a systems integrator apart from the rest of his competition.”

JULY 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

value-added services rather than concentrating on selling products.

Playing the role of a ‘solutions provider’ rather than a ‘products distributor, is what will set a systems integrator apart from the rest of his competition.”

But how can a reseller really get down to achieving this?

Maged Eid, regional director, MEA, Nexthink, says, it is important for the channel to be optimistic, regularly speak to customers, and prove that their role is strategic.

“Channel partners should not be focused on selling traditional technologies, but instead provide consulting, add value and support customers throughout their different stages of growth. Customers take delight in looking for new solutions and niche technologies, instead of relying on traditional and costly solutions.”

Eid adds that partners should also show customers how their existing investments are being utilised and where they need to focus for future investments.

“IT analytics solutions can fill this gap by providing real-time information on the health and usage of the entire IT infrastructure – from the head office to the remotest branch location. Channel partners who can provide IT analytics solutions will be well positioned to capitalise on this opportunity,” he says.

Partners can only do this if they

develop a constant communication with their customers and understand what is required before pitching a solution. They must think long-term relationships and approach government customers accordingly.

Fadi Moubarak, vice president, Avaya, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa, says, “Unlocking superior customer service, effective internal communication, increased productivity of employees, ease of implementation, flexibility with security, are all prevalent government priorities.

“In order to achieve mission success, resellers must understand the motives and goals of those they serve.

Only then the right technology and vendor can be implemented to serve the right customer, all from the first interaction itself.”

When catering to the government sector, it is important for channel partners to understand the nuances of the space. This sector drives large

Savitha Bhaskar, Condo Protego

“Channel partners should work with vendors who have local data centres and cloud solutions running in-country. They should also gauge their project pipeline and budgets in line with government agencies as they usually have longer procurement timelines.”

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JULY 2017

33

FEATURE // GOVERNMENT FOCUS

infrastructural projects, which are vital for many businesses, and the larger economy.

Partners face challenges such as budget constraints and prevailing market conditions when catering to this segment.

Zacky Vaz, regional channel manager, Fortinet, says this places pressure on channel partners “to offer more for less.”

Apart from that, payment and ordering processes are also slower in this space.

Mohammad Mobasseri, chief executive officer, EMT Distribution, says, “This creates challenges for a reseller business to expand and also to be able to fulfill its commitment. In addition to that, price is the only factor some organisations consider when selecting a reseller.”

Agreeing, Mark Thompson, director of sales, Africa, Oki Middle East, India and Africa, says, “Government businesses are usually price orientated, making it difficult for resellers to compete

Fadi Moubarak, Avaya

“Unlocking superior customer service, effective internal communication, increased productivity of employees, ease of implementation, flexibility with security, are all prevalent government priorities.”

34

when there is no or little concern for a value proposition. Resellers need to engage more with the respective departments before tender documents are issued to understand their pain points and assist the IT director, CIO and CFO in making the right decisions for procurement.”

Mobasseri also adds that in good government entities in Dubai, the firm has experienced that technical experiences amount to 60 percent while financials are rated at 40 percent when they make a decision.

Vaz says, “Besides offering competitive and cost-effective solutions to meet budget requirements unique to the public sector, partners also need to work closely with vendors and distributors to support long-term financial plans requested by most government organisations.”

According to him, by offering endto-end solutions and rising to the role of trusted advisors, partners can improve their approach in challenging times.

One of the biggest differentiators for the Middle East government sector is that agencies need to ensure that they are using information management solutions that store and analyse citizen data in country, says Bhaskar.

She adds, “Channel partners should work with vendors who have local data centres and cloud solutions running in-country. They should also gauge their project pipeline and budgets in line with government agencies as they usually have longer procurement timelines.”

Professional services is another competency with which partners can stand out in competitive market.

Mobasseri says, “I have personally experienced that offering professional services can differentiate resellers and therefore they can improve their reach to this sector. Keeping this in mind, we have developed an extensive list of professional services and training, which can help enhance our partners’ offerings

JULY 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

Maged Eid, Nexthink

“Channel partners who can provide IT analytics solutions will be well positioned to capitalise on this opportunity.” and increase the possibility to gain more opportunities.”

Thompson says, “Education, confidence and persistence is key.

Having a consultancy approach to understand customers’ needs will help our partners make a more robust offering.”

As is the case with any other sector, at the end of the day, it comes down to possessing adequate skills and staying abreast of market developments.

Bhaskar adds, “As many regional government agencies have legacy employees, channel partners need to play a major role in upskilling public sector staff to use and be prepared for the next wave of information management and Internet of Things solutions.”

Partners who make it a point to hone their skills and ensure they are in a position to cater to complex IT demands especially now as more importance is given to automation and technology, will be able to help lead government organisations in their digital transformation initiatives.

99% of ransomware starts with phishing emails.* No problem, employees don’t click those.

Take back control and make email safer for business Stop Malicious targeted email attacks with Mimecast Targeted Threat Protection.

A cloud solution that: • • • •

Protects from Malicious URL’s Protects against Social Engineering and impersonation attacks Layered defence from malicious email attachments Protects from internal email threats

Add

.com

FEATURE // PARTNER PROFITABILITY

TURN A PROFIT Sustaining profitability is one of the key issues that Middle East channel players continue to have today. Profitable partners are essential to the success of a vendor’s business. But with declining margins and difficult market conditions, resellers are increasingly finding it hard to be lucrative. Reseller Middle East speaks to channel managers to learn their strategies to ensure partners are profitable.

36

JULY 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

ne of the oldest problems for regional channel partners have been sustaining profitable businesses. With eroding margins, resellers now have to establish new strategies in place to ensure their operations stay more than just afloat.

However, this is not as easy as it may sound.

Before devising strategies to become and remain profitable, a partner needs to first identify the reasons behind not being able to sustain this.

Zacky Vaz, regional channel manager, Fortinet, says, “Traditional channel partners often lose out for not acquiring specialised skill sets to deploy and support advanced technologies, which can help to drive profitability. Some of the key factors affecting partner profitability include budget constraints with end customers, longer sales cycles and competition.”

According to Elie Dib, senior managing director, METNA, Riverbed, profitability can be impacted by partners’ willingness to change.

He explains, “From the customer and even the vendor perspectives, business models have transformed in the last four to five years. Distributors have been adjusting to these changes but so far, the channel has been content to wait. They hope to invest at the right time when they gain a ‘clearer picture’ but need to recognise that by the time they choose to do so, it could be too late.”

Another reason thwarting partners’ profitability is also because of low availability of channel finance.

Dib points out that in mature

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JULY 2017

37

FEATURE // PARTNER PROFITABILITY

markets, it is common for resellers to secure financing from banks.

“However, traditionally, in the Middle East, it is the value-added distributors (VADs) that finance large deals. This makes resellers highly dependent on them. The performance of the

Elie Dib, Riverbed

“From the customer and vendor perspectives, business models have transformed in the last four to five years. Distributors have been adjusting to these changes but so far, the channel has been content to wait. They hope to invest at the right time when they gain a ‘clearer picture’ but need to recognise that by the time they choose to do so, it could be too late.”

38

VADs therefore is one of the most significant factors affecting the availability of credit in the channel.”

How can partners overcome these challenges and create strong strategies, which can ensure profitability?

First and foremost, partners will have to invest in the right sales and technical resources to stay ahead of the competition and offer value to their customers, says Vaz. “They need to align themselves with the vendor and distributor strategies while being compliant with sales and technical certifications that are part of the channel partner programmes,” he adds.

Partners are slowly but surely understanding that to remain profitable long-term, it is all about the value that they can offer to the end-users. They have to evaluate their strengths and focus on key differentiating factors.

Ossama Eldeeb, senior manager, MENA Partner Organisation, VMware, says, “In this new era of mobile cloud transformation, the most profitable area for partners is in professional services and the deployment of these new solutions. With the Middle East hosting a limited number of professional partners with the needed technical skills, the ones who invest now in skills and professional services before the rest will profit the most.”

Concurring with Eldeeb, Dib says, “In doing so, they will be able to position themselves as trusted advisors who can provide holistic solutions that incorporate the best point products to address the unique requirements of each customer.”

JULY 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

Zacky Vaz, Fortinet

“Partners need to align themselves with the vendor and distributor strategies while being compliant with sales and technical certifications that are part of the channel partner programmes.”

He also says that resellers need to be completely transparent with respect to their engagement with their VADs and vendor partners.

What this means is that they have to allow their vendors and distributors total visibility into their business models, investments, audited financial reports, cash flow details and other relevant transactional information.

Dib says, “This will enable the partner to shape the payment and financial terms in a professional and well-regulated fashion that incorporates the correct internal policies and controls. In turn, this will

help them secure the backing they need to go after bigger and more profitable projects.”

According to Pui-Chi Li, head of marketing, Xerox Middle East and Africa, partners should look at remaining relevant and connected to customers. She says, “Only by maintaining customer stickiness can

Ossama Eldeeb, VMware

“In this new era of mobile cloud transformation, the most profitable area for partners is in professional services and the deployment of these new solutions. With the Middle East hosting a limited number of professional partners with the needed technical skills, the ones who invest now in skills and professional services before the rest will profit the most.”

they safeguard long term profitability.

This can be achieved through embracing a solutions-based offering to the customer.”

Added to professional services, Li encourages partners to also consider managed services, which can help in recurring revenues.

“Customers are no longer looking for a simplistic interaction with their document suppliers, which falls into the commoditised category, and associated margin levels, they are looking for how document suppliers can add value to their business with increasing creativity and flexibility – this is where sustainable profitability resides going forward,” she adds.

While profitability is primarily measured on the amount of business a partner brings in, Vaz says, profitability is also determined by the number of resources that a partner allocates to service the vendor.

He says, “We have product champions in each of the resellers managing vendor relations and building brand loyalty.”

Vendors and distributors also have a big role to play in ensuring their partners are profitable.

They need to be in constant communication with their reseller ecosystem and understand their challenges because a profitable partner influences a vendor’s business positively.

Li says that her firm ensures partners are well-informed and engaged with the market, which is imperative for a “joint profitable success.”

“Offering a competitive product set coupled with comprehensive training resources both online and

Pui-Chi Li, Xerox MEA

“Only by maintaining customer stickiness can they safeguard long term profitability. This can be achieved through embracing a solutions-based offering to the customer.”

face to face ensures they are able to offer the products to the market.

This training and offering includes solutions and services, essential to building a value-based offering to customers for sustainable profitability on the medium to long term,” she adds.

Staying profitable is not just about incorporating a one-time change in the strategies and operation process but should be about continuously evaluating and ensuring your business have all the factors to drive better revenues.

Partners who pay attention to these aspects will stand a better chance to remain profitable long-term.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JULY 2017

39

PARTNER WATCH // ELITSER TECHNOLOGIES

An elite goal Jignasu Rathod, CEO, Elitser Technologies, shares the firm’s strategies and expansion plans for the region to continue growing at its current pace.

H

aving commenced operations in the Middle East in 2003, Elitser Technologies, an IT solutions, consulting, training and managed services provider, is part of the 18-year-old Elitser Group.

Positioning itself as an IT Service Management (ITSM) partner, Elitser Technologies provides cost-effective and strategic solutions that create and add value to an organisation’s operations.

Jignasu Rathod, CEO, Elitser Technologies, says, “We design and market solutions to match the needs of our clients to help them succeed in their respective areas of business efficiently and economically. Our core focus is around ITSM/ITIL, IT and non-IT infrastructure monitoring, IT security, IoT and Business Intelligence (BI).”

Over the last year, the systems integrator has grown significantly despite tough market conditions.

It had launched its operations for IT manpower outsourcing – Elitser Recruitment Services, along with managed services offerings.

“This enabled us to become one of the few players who have a legal license to outsource IT manpower in UAE. We also bagged our first big IoT project in the field of Fire Panel monitoring last year and have delivered it successfully.

2016 also saw us officially stepping into

40

managed services domain and have won the first project for NoC monitoring with tools and resources.”

Rathod says as the firm’s offering is focused in the niche area of ITSM, its key differentiator is being able to provide one-stop-shop solution in this space.

“The other key strength is our technical expertise and know-how of the domain and the products with which we are dealing with,” he adds.

According to the CEO, the factors driving businesses today are IoT, data and analytics, security, managed services and cloud. Enterprises within the region are rapidly realising that in order to be ahead of stiff competition and enhance operations, they must deploy these solutions.

“We have anticipated the market inclination and growth in these areas and have geared up to cope with the demand. As we have had the right partnerships and have invested into these technologies, we will reap the benefits of being an early entrant and adopter,” he explains. “We are ready with the technology and man power to deliver these solutions at a reasonable investment.”

While there are opportunities with these technologies, Rathod says that systems integration businesses are also wrestling with the challenges in the current market scenario.

“Due to budget constraints,

JULY 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

companies are not investing on new technologies and domains, which have had a deep impact on systems integrators like ourselves.”

Customers are keen on investing only in mission critical systems, which are show stoppers rather than good to have technologies, he says.

“Another big challenge is the price competition. As the business is not great, vendors have started to reduce the price at a low level to attain the order, which has damaged the market expectations. Customers are taking advantage of this situation and are negotiating heavily, which affect us as we believe in the quality aspect.”

Growing at a pace of 25 percent year-on-year, Rathod hopes to continue leading his firm into the ITSM domain.

“We want to invest more on human equity and prepare ourselves for when the market recovers and scales up. We want to replicate our experience and knowledge into other Middle Eastern countries,” he says.

With operations already begun in Bahrain, the CEO aims to open offices in two more GCC countries by the end of the year. We will see the firm investing heavily on human resources as well, going forward.

“We aim to become a reputed managed services provider in the region who can deliver processes, tools and trained manpower,” Rathod says.

Dubai’s BIGGEST Events Are Now Accessible On Your Smart Phone Devices

Access to latest events

Search using the Browse chronologically key name, calendar or map

EVENTS // PURE STORAGE

Pure and simple Pure Storage’s Pure Accelerator 2017 event had several updates in store, Reseller ME finds out how easy it is for partners to grow along with the enterprise data flash storage firm.

Scott Dietzen, Pure Storage

P

ure Storage’s second annual customer and partner event, Pure Accelerator 2017, which took place in an offbeat location – San Francisco’s historic Pier 70, had a number of software and product updates. Chief among them was the announcement of its new Purity//FA 5.0 software with the Active Cluster feature, which according to the firm, extends availability to a higher level.

A key communication from the event, besides all the new releases, was how the company is prepared to clock in $1 billion revenues by this year-end with an objective to achieve $2 billion by 2020. The firm is confident of this objective because it says it has the advantages of the $35 billion TAM, sound go-to-market strategies and “innovation” at the core of what it does.

However, is the path to that journey one smooth ride? Scott

42

Dietzen, CEO, Pure Storage, believes the biggest challenge will be around recruiting.

He says, “We have a gifted team and a strong corporate culture that people identify with. I worry about continuing to recruit the best and instilling that winning corporate culture across 30 countries around the world. Maintaining that excellence is going to be a tall order and that’s what we’ve got to focus on to be successful.”

When it comes to enabling its channel partners to deliver on this ambitious goal, Dietzen says the firm is doing “everything possible” to make itself an ideal vendor.

“We are creating the opportunities for partners to build value-added services practice in and around our technology and platform. It is an easier equation for customers when they don’t have to rip and replace a technology.

When partners leverage that, they get a

JULY 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

portion of the subscription business and can build their footprint over time just like Pure does.”

Remko Deenik, director, Novaccent Managed ICT, a Netherlands-based partner for Pure, says that while the $2 billion goal is certainly ambitious, the tougher part is to reach the first billion.

“If they achieve that by the end of this year as planned, it will be much easier to hit the $2 billion mark over the next three years. Partnering with Pure is important because they have a strong vision, which matches my firm’s growth strategies,” he says.

According to the Dietzen, what partners can be assured of is that the firm’s solutions are much easier to adopt and implement compared to competitors.

“This frees up our partners to offer value addition for customers as opposed to having to dedicate their best engineers on just configuring and setting up the solution,” he adds.

David Hatfield, president, Pure Storage, adds that the transformation the channel organisations need to go through is to first understand that the company’s solutions no longer demands implementation services.

“This means the services opportunity is around data migration and application performance. Partners need to focus on assessing the application agility. As storage has traditionally been a bottleneck for customers, we are encouraging our partners to examine where those challenges are and then ensure they are in a position to offer an ideal solution,” he says.

Hatfield says that he has also seen the channel ecosystem developing new services around application performance.

He adds, “It is all about moving up a level to offer value-added services versus lower margin, tactical implementation services. It takes a bit of modification but leads to repeatable business, better margins and higher revenues for partners.”

For Novaccent, around 30 percent of its business comes from services – either professional or managed – and the rest from hardware and software.

“While the revenue is high in hardware and software, the gross profit is not. It is a lot better when we offer services. With Pure solutions, there is also an attached rate for other services,” adds Deenik.

Having recently signed up with Intertec Systems, a UAE-based systems integrator, Pure Storage is in the process of building its Middle East channel with its distributors – VAD Technologies and StarLink – as the region is only three years old to the vendor.

Koshy Oommen, director, Infrastructure and Security, Intertec Systems, says, the firm receives

“This means the services opportunity is around data migration and application performance. Partners need to focus on assessing the application agility.”

David Hatfield, Pure Storage

sup-port from Pure to develop the market, and has certified its technical team on the company’s solutions.

“The challenge I foresee for us is the approximate 30 percent yearon-year (YoY) growth rate, which the company has announced, as we have just onboarded the solutions.

Having said that, we have already finalised good projects and decent sized volumes,” he says. “If we can reach 80 percent of our commitment for this year, then we see the 30 percent YoY growth coming in for the following years as well.”

The systems integrator also hopes to see more coverage support coming from Pure, going forward.

He adds, “We need to see support coming from Pure’s marketing side to enable partners to move faster into the territory and help us with lead generation. The faster we move, the better chances we have to succeed.”

Whether the firm hits $2 billion by 2020 or not, what is for certain is that the vendor is on a rapidly growing path, and is a good bet for partners who are looking at similar growth curves.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JULY 2017

43

BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

REVIEW

RATING

BOSE SOUNDLINK REVOLVE

When it comes to audio, Bose is a name you simply cannot miss. Adelle Geronimo tries and tests the new SoundLink Revolve. he trend in Bluetooth speakers these days is all about 360-degree audio, with music sounding the same omnidirectionally.

As the name suggests SoundLink Revolve is able to project quality in every direction, offering a great experience whether it be at an outdoor party or in the family room playing a soothing background music.

The speaker has a compact look and feel, we can see it fitting into any space in your home. Sturdily built, the device has a sleek design and an aluminium casing with rubber ends.

Weighing at 1.5 pounds, the device doesn’t feel too heavy, and is portable and compact enough to be carried in a backpack or a large handbag.

The speaker is available in two colours – ‘triple black’ (black, basically) and ‘lux grey’ (silver).

Revolve has a circular rubber base and a slightly smaller circular top panel. Along the upper rubberised panel, there are control buttons for power, Bluetooth and volume. But perhaps, the most interesting bit is the multi-function button – the one with three dots. It can be used for play/pause or held down to connect with Siri or Google Assistant – there’s a microphone for voice commands.

It can also be a speakerphone giving you the option to make hands free calls. The voice quality is quite good

44

and the calls connect seamlessly.

Of course, the most important feature of the speakers is the audio quality. The sound from the Revolve is detailed and bold. For a portable device, the speaker delivers a laudable bass thump that is not compromised even at top volume levels. Subsequently, if the volume is at a more moderate level, you can hear a more robust and fuller bass depth.

The speaker has memory for pairing with eight devices, which can be cycled through without having to go through the Bluetooth pairing procedure each time. You can also sync two Revolves or set them in a multiroom party mode. This is most easily achieved via the Bose Connect app, which is available for Android and iOS devices.

What’s more is that the device is IPX4rated, which means that it can withstand poolside splashes and even a few raindrops, however prolonged water exposure is not advisable.

Bose Soundlink Resolve also has a decent battery life

JULY 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.resellerme.com

lasting up to more than 12 hours of playback. It has an auto-shutoff feature that turns the speaker off after 30 minutes of inactivity to conserve battery. However, the downside is that it takes at least four hours to fully re-charge.

All in all, Revolve stayed true to the company’s history of delivering audio devices that combine quality design and sound. It ticks all the right boxes, and for AED 799 this might just be the right speaker for you.

HOT PRODUCTS

BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

APPLE: watchOS 4 ENHANCES FITNESS, INTELLIGENCE FEATURES Apple has previewed watchOS 4 at the recently held Worldwide Developers Conference.

The company highlighted the device’s latest enhancements specifically on its fitness and intelligence features. The latest update features a proactive Siri watch face that displays the information users need most throughout the day, personalised activity coaching and an entirely new music experience.

In addition, Apple has enhanced its Workout app as well as introducing GymKit, a technology platform that will offer customers connected workouts with cardio equipment.

With each raise of the wrist, the information on the watch display dynamically updates based on the time of day, daily routines and

pertinent data from apps such as Activity, Alarms, Breathe, Calendar, Maps, Reminders and Wallet, as well as headlines from the new Apple News app.

With watchOS 4, the Activity app delivers intelligent coaching and tailored encouragement to help close Activity Rings more often and achieve longer success streaks. Every morning, users will receive a personalised notification if they’re close to earning an achievement, or suggest what they can do to match yesterday’s activity levels.

Users can now also make and receive person to person payments quickly, easily and securely with friends and family with Apple Pay using their watch.

ARUBA LAUNCHES 8400 CORE SWITCH SERIES Aruba has unveiled a campus core switch that extends intelligence from the edge to the core and allow IT teams to derive better business outcomes from their networks.

The company’s newly-introduced enterprise core and aggregation switch and the advanced operating system, ArubaOS-CX, is designed for modern mobility, cloud, and IoT requirements.

The Aruba 8400 Core Switch Series and ArubaOS-CX are purpose-built for emerging mobile-cloud business applications and changing traffic patterns that are being driven by the massive flood of data sources and growth in IoT. The key features include high performance 19.2 terabits per second

switching (1.2Tbps/slot) capacity and a carrier-class high availability with redundant management, power and fabric, said the company. ArubaOSCX enables automation and usability using built-in REST APIs and Python scripts and users can take advantage of intelligent monitoring and visibility with Aruba Network Analytics Engine.

Its advanced layer 2/3 feature set includes BGP, OSPF, VRF, and IPv6 and features a compact 8U chassis with high density, line rate 10GbE/40GbE/100GbE connectivity.

SONY MEA ANNOUNCES AVAILABILITY FOR BRAVIA OLED TV SERIES Sony Middle East and Africa has announced the availability of its 55inch and 65-inch Bravia OLED TV A1 in the UAE. The television will be rolled out over the course of July 2017, and consumers who have pre-booked the product will receive the Xperia XZ Premium smartphone for free.

According to the company, the Bravia OLED TV A1 series offers superior picture quality of OLED powered by Sony’s 4K HDR Processor X1 Extreme, with the firm’s Acoustic Surface sound system, and an edge-to-edge stand-less form factor. With over 8 million self-illuminating pixels, the series bring a significantly enriched visual experience with unprecedented black levels, rich and lifelike color, dynamic contrast, blur-less image and a wide viewing angle. The 4K HDR Processor X1 Extreme extends the capability of OLED to deliver an exquisite 4K HDR picture.

The 55-inch television is priced at AED 14,999 while the 65-inch is retailing at 19,999 in the UAE.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JULY 2017

45

HOT PRODUCTS

HP RELEASES POCKETSIZE PRINTER – SPROCKET

HP has launched the HP Sprocket Photo Printer. The pocket-size printer allows users to print photos from a smartphone or tablet from virtually anywhere, said the company.

HP Sprocket is portable and small enough to fit in a pocket.

According to the company, the snaps are instantly shareable, colourful and can even be personalised with filters, frames, emojis and text.

The HP Sprocket App, free on iOS and Android, allows users to easily customise their favourite smartphone and social media photos with colourful frames, text, stickers, filters and more. The company said that Sprocket brings favourite memories to life with vibrant 5 x 7.6 cm smudge-proof, water-resistant and tear-resistant photos to share, or peel-andstick to decorate bedroom walls, backpacks or create collages and art projects The printer is available in white with rose gold accents and comes with a 10-pack of HP ZINK Photo Paper for AED 499. Packs of HP ZINK Photo Paper (50 sheets per pack) are available at 79 AED each.

Customers can find both exclusively at regional retailer Sharaf DG.

46

XEROX DEBUTS VERSALINK B7000 SERIES FOR SMES Xerox has announced a new product series, the Xerox VersaLink B7025/B7030/ B7035 multi-function printers, as part of the company’s ConnectKey portfolio that launched earlier this year.

According to Xerox, the VersaLink product family delivers reliable, low cost service and out-of-the-box mobile capabilities that make it ideal for small to medium workgroups and distributed teams. The series have print speeds ranging from 25 ppm to 35 ppm and scan speeds of up to 55 ipm in colour or black and white, allowing customers to select the printer that is the best productivity fit for them.

Built-in on each of the devices in this series is a tablet-like touch screen interface that can be personalised for different work

environments or users. They offer built-in apps on the Xerox App Gallery that can help organisations create workflows tailored to their needs.

The VersaLink B7000 series has comprehensive safety features that address and secure points of vulnerability. These keep printers and data safe through every part of the data chain including print, copy, scan, fax, file downloads and system software.

The Xerox VersaLink B7000 series is available immediately.

TP-LINK INTRODUCES MESH NETWORKING SOLUTION – DECO M5 TP-Link Technologies has announced the availability of Deco M5 Whole-Home Wi-Fi Systems, which is a mesh networking solution that provides seamless wireless internet coverage and comprehensive security via TP-Link HomeCare.

Currently available as a three-unit multipack, Deco M5 Whole-Home WiFi systems may be purchased from power retailers, e-tailers and independent high stores.

Lucas Jiang, general manager, TP-Link MEA said, “Deco M5 creates seamless WiFi that allows them to stream, game and browse the Internet in any room.”

According to Jiang, Deco M5 automatically optimises WiFi connections for every device, and

JULY 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

it comes equipped with TP-Link HomeCare, which allows consumers to customise their network security.

Deco M5 utilises the firm’s Adaptive Routing Technology (ART) to ensure your network is always operating at top speeds.

Powered by a quad-core processor, the dual-band AC1300 system is capable of throughput speeds of 400 Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 867Mbps on the 5GHz band, and it supports MU-MIMO data streaming. Up to ten Deco M5 units can be added to a single network at any given time for seamless WiFi coverage across incredibly large spaces, said the company.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

NOKIA 6, NOKIA 5 AND NOKIA 3 NOW AVAILABLE IN THE UAE HMD Global, the manufacturer of Nokia phones, has announced its first Nokia smartphone range – comprising of the Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6.

The new devices, according to the firm, will be available to buy at selected retailers.

The new Nokia 6 features a 5.5-inch full HD screen and a unibody crafted from a single block of 6000 series aluminium.

It has a smart audio amplifier with dual speakers allows consumers to experience a deep bass and unmatched clarity, whilst Dolby Atmos sound delivers a powerfully moving entertainment experience. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 mobile platform and Qualcomm Adreno 505 graphics processor. It will retail at AED 799.

POYNT SMART TERMINAL LAUNCHES IN THE UAE

The Nokia 5, according to HMD Global, has been engineered out of a single block of 6000 series aluminium to create a perfect pillowed body that flows seamlessly into the laminated 5.2-inch IPS HD display with sculpted Corning Gorilla Glass. The device is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 mobile platform. It is priced at at AED 649.

Lastly, the Nokia 3 features a precision machined aluminium frame. It features a fully laminated 5-inch IPS display with no air gap and sculpted Corning Gorilla Glass.

With fewer reflections because of the polarised screen, the device shows crisp and clear displays. It will retail at AED 499.

FUJITSU ROLLS OUT NEW BIOMETRIC AUTHENTICATION SOLUTION

Fujitsu has launched PalmSecure ID Login, a new biometric authentication solution that helps organisations secure their networks against unauthorised access, while also reducing the risk of attack from hackers and identity thieves.

According to the company, PalmSecure ID Login integrates Fujitsu’s highly secure biometric palm vein authentication technology into corporate network environments using Microsoft Active Directory – helping boost IT security while also making it easier for users to log on to

their system without needing to remember complex passwords, which need to be changed on a regular basis.

To log on to their PC, or authenticate for internal system access, PalmSecure ID Login users simply hover their hand over a contactless palm vein scanner – already built in to a number of Fujitsu Lifebook notebooks and Stylistic 2-in-1 tablets, and available as a stand-alone USB pluggable device. The Fujitsu PalmSecure technology works by capturing an infrared scan of oxygen-depleted blood veins within the palm of a hand. The technology combines the convenience of a contactless sensor with biometric security.

For users, the system is more convenient and faster than typing a password – with identity verification usually completed within one second, said the firm.

Waypoint Systems has announced the availability of the Poynt all-inone smart terminal in the UAE, which according to the reseller, allows the businesses to take the checkout experience to the customer.

It is equipped with a 7-inch touchscreen display 800 (w) x 1280 (h) pixels as well as a 4.3inch Secure touchscreen display 800 (w) x 480 (h) pixels. It is also capable of simultaneous 10 finger capacitive multi-touch The device has a built-in printer, hybrid card reader and multiple connectivity options provide businesses with the flexibility they require.

Poynt Smart Terminal features a mobile and countertop credit card terminal, printer, signature pad, PIN pad, and docking station. It also has WiFi capabilities that enables businesses to take the checkout (and tipping) to their customer, inside or outside their business.

The device has encryption and Safe-T technologies to ensure that the customers’ data are protected.

It processes all payment types – magstripe, chip (EMV) cards, and mobile payments such as Apple Pay (NFC).

It also has a dashboard that makes it easy to monitor sales, refund transactions, and settle with one click.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // JULY 2017

47

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

Adelle Geronimo, Online Editor, Technology Division

i for innovation This year, Apple is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the launch of the iPhone.

When Steve Jobs first introduced the phone in 2007, he called it a “magical and revolutionary device.”

And true enough, the iPhone didn’t just disrupt the smartphone industry it also built Apple into the most valuable and important technology company of our time.

The device became a powerful technology that went on to impact the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world, changing the way we communicated, worked, learned and played.

A decade ago, my mobile phone was just a communication device. A handy gadget for getting in touch with family member through phone or reach friends via SMS. If I wanted to listen to music I’d carry an MP3 player and if I needed to use the Internet or send an email I had to do so using a laptop or a PC. Although Apple was not the first

48

to introduce some of the technologies it used in the iPhone, it undoubtedly perfected its integration. A good example is its touch screen feature.

While smartphones had touch-sensitive screens for years, the iPhone was the first true touch-focused phone. It eradicated the need for a stylus and let users enjoy a gesture-based interface.

As an Apple enthusiast, I believe that the iPhone was revolutionary device because of one word, ‘simplification.’ It made things easier by integrating all the tools we need to connect and interact with the rest of the world into one device that fits into our pockets.

More than that, the genesis of the iPhone also caused a tidal wave of change to multiple industries.

The first industry it disrupted was the PC market, where Apple’s allowed people put one in their pockets. Until the iPhone shipped, PC sales were around 400 million a year. But as the iPhone and smartphones in general have become critical tools for productivity and

JULY 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

communication the PC has become less important to many.

It undoubtedly transformed the telecommunications segment, with the iPhone paving the way for VoIP applications, which ultimately pushed out companies that were focused on traditional voice business models. The birth of iPhone also transformed the entertainment, music and even the gaming industries with the introduction of the Apple Store and iTunes.

While other smartphone brands have caught up and created competitive devices of their own, it’s hard to argue that with the iPhone, Apple had laid the groundwork, that inspired and the mobile innovations that followed.

This year, rumours suggest that it might incorporate new design and features including augmented reality. While, we can only speculate, expectations are surely high with the iPhone celebrating its 10th-year anniversary. But for now, we’ll just have to wait and see.