The Review Apr 2015 by Reseller Middle East

REVIEW

THE

APRIL 2015

An in-house publication by Aptec â&#x20AC;&#x201C; an Ingram Micro Company

Business insights for IT solution providers

How channel partners can leverage services to increase profitability and add value to the business

INSIDE

Migration from Microsoft Windows Server 2003/R2

Oracleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s specialized programs

VMware SDDC

Vendors and Contact Information

Contact Information APTEC – GCC Dubai Internet City, Dubai, UAE PO Box 33550 Tel: +971 4 3697111 Contact: Svetlana Sorokina E-mail: svetlanas@aptecme.com APTEC – Egypt 11 JAber Bin Hayan Street Parallel to Abbas El Aqad Street Nasr City Cairo, Egypt Tel: +202 2 240 1 7046 Contact: Mohamed Selim E-mail: Mohamed.Selim@aptec.com.eg APTEC – Lebanon St. Georges Sq, Lebanon Tel: +961 4 718891 Contact: Elie Abou Emaan E-mail: elie@apteclebanon.com

INGRAM MICRO - Morocco #12, Al Abderazzak street 4th floor office 411, Casablanca, Morocco Tel : +212-5-22928167 Contact: Nouha Doudouh Email: Nouha.Doudouh@ingrammicro. com INGRAM MICRO - Pakistan Suit # 1310, 13th floor, National IT Park, Ceasers Tower, Opposite: Ayesha Bawani School Main Shahra-e-Faisal. Karachi - Pakistan. Tel: 0092-21-32786675 Contact : Rizwan Ahmed Email : rahmed@aptecme.com

APTEC – Oman Knowledge Oasis Muscat Building 4 PO Box 100, Rusayl, Oman Tel: +968 96429250 Contact: Mashook Rehman E-mail: mrehman@aptecme.com APTEC – Turkey Bayildim Cad Acelya Sok. No:2/3 Macka Besiktas Istanbul, Turkey Tel: (90 212) 259 0064 Contact: Hulya Erkmen E-mail: hulya.erkmen@aptec.com.tr APTEC – Saudi Arabia PO Box 94609 Riyadh 11614 Tel: +966 14601950 Contact: Mohammed Sheikh E-mail: msheikh@aptecsa.com

Published by

April 2015

w w w. a p t e c o n l i n e . c o m

Introduction

11 Benefits of Symantec Backup Exec 2014.

Dear Partners, IT services constitute 17.6% of global IT spend and are forecast to grow at an annual rate of 3.1% compound annual growth by 2018. In the Middle East, Turkey & Africa region, services constitute only 7% of total IT spend, estimated to reach $11B by 2018 and growing at 10.5% CAGR. This offers a tremendous upside opportunity for system integrators, ISVs and resellers. Implementation, support services and training are just some of the categories of services with the highest potential. The rapid increase in Cloud adoption offers significant opportunities in migration services, security, training and support. There are many specialty vertical segments like data capture, point of sale, physical security, Unified Communications and Machine to Machine that open new opportunities. Many of these vertical segments within our META region represent significant opportunities and the market is in dire need of them. In Ingram Micro and its subsidiaries, we have established dedicated departments for these strategic segments. We aim to support and enable our partners to deliver the right services and with the appropriate solutions. We can certify your engineers in our Global Training Academy, or if you wish to use our own consultants and engineers you can do so at highly competitive rates. We look forward to establish partnerships that can serve the market and take advantage of this great opportunity. Call us now. Sincerely, Ali Baghdadi President & CEO Middle East, Turkey & Africa

17 Learn about Dell’s PowerEdge R730 server.

20 HP’s hyper-converged offering simplifies deployment of virtual infrastructure.

25 Discover D-Link’s home automation devices.

Aptec news

Aptec launches customer service department Through the new department, the regional VAD aims to continue being a leader in the market.

Rana Karkouti, Customer Service Manager, Aptec – an Ingram Micro Company

Aptec-Ingram Micro has unveiled its new customer service department, where partners can share feedback with the distributor.

Ready to flyHigher? Reach your full potential with Ingram Micro & Cisco

Over the course of 2015, the distributor aims to focus more on customer satisfaction and is thriving to get partners feedback against its performance and understand their level of satisfaction. “The objective of getting feedback is to understand where we can improve and develop our process to serve customers better,” said Rana Karkouti, Customer Service Manager, Aptec-an Ingram Micro company. With a policy to Listen, Learn and Act, Aptec – Ingram Micro’s customer service department is dedicated to take partners’ feedback, analyze and act to satisfy their requirements. Partners can contact these channels through the company’s website www.apteconline.com, where they can share their feedback with the distributor by clicking on the Feedback form tab. Alternatively, they can also share it by sending an e-mail to

customerservice@aptecme.com or by dialing 00971-4-369-7111 ext. 414. “Increasing the communication channels will help to receive more responses and feedback to give us a real picture about what to do to satisfy our partners. This will also help us to be positioned at the top in the market. And we are determined to reach this target through having professional customer service standards followed by all APTEC team. We will be calling customers to get their feedback and act accordingly. Customers will be informed with our progress regularly. Each feedback is very important to us. We are here to listen to the customer, learn from their feedback and suggestions and act accordingly to meet their expectations,” added Karkouti.

Aptec SE wins Netapp award Aptec-Ingram Micro wins ‘Best Newcomer VADMiddle East’ for IBM Software.

Aptec-an Ingram Micro company launched its flagship program called ‘flyHigher’ for Cisco resellers. flyHigher is a high impact sales enablement program targeted at resellers in the SMB segment. At the heart of the flyHigher program lies a single objective – to make it easy for resellers to sell into the small and mid-sized market. And for Cisco Registered partners, flyHigher offers training, sales enablement and go-to-market resources, as well as a host of additional support – all from one central hub. Visit us at Ingram flyhigher Middle East Website: http://www.ingramflyhigher.com/me Facebook http://fb.com/Aptec.Ingramflyhigher.Cisco.Page Twitter @flyHigherME

April 2015

Aptec-Ingram Micro’s Gururaj Katti honoured as the ‘Distributor SE of the year, FY15’ by NetApp.

Gururaj Katti, was awarded the ‘Distributor SE of the Year, FY15’ by NetApp in an award ceremony that was held in Sahara Desert Resort mid-March. Katti was awarded at NetApp Middle East Top Gun System Engineer Community Awards. He was chosen from among the many nominations received from the whole region, including internal NetApp SEs and Channel Managers. This award recognizes the best performance and technical support to NetApp and partners, enablement of partner skills, selling NetApp technical values to business partners and customers.

w w w. a p t e c o n l i n e . c o m

Aptec wins IBM’s accolade Aptec-Ingram Micro was awarded the ‘Best Newcomer VAD-Middle East’ for IBM Software by the vendor at IBM VAD University 2015 event held on 2nd and 3rd February, 2015 at Kempinski Hotel Corvinus, Budapest, Hungary. The award was honored to Aptec Distribution FZ LLC for its ongoing efforts on IBM Software partner recruitment in the Middle East region, spreading awareness on various IBM Software incentive programs and following the best practices of the business. The award function was held in the presence of distinguished members of the IBM team and various distributors from the EMEA region.

Aptec hosts solution forum APC on 16th February, 2015, at Oberoi Hotel, Dubai. During the event, Aptec launched its Flexpod Partner Program in the presence of more than 40 channel partners who attended the event. Varuna Shah, Marketing Manager, Aptec Ingram Micro, Gulf region said, “This Solution Forum is the first of many forums that are planned for this year across the region. The focus will be to form multiple solutions and launch it to partners with the simple objective of providing further business opportunities to them. Dubai was the first of the series and we are happy that the event was very well accepted by partners. Further Solution Forums are planned for different regions including Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Qatar in this quarter.”

Aptec-an Ingram Micro company hosts first edition of Solutions Forum 2015.

Aptec-an Ingram Micro company, largest valueadded distributor in the region hosted the first of many Solution Forums of the year. This first edition was a dedicated forum for the launch of Flexpod Solution, which was co-hosted by leading vendors such as Cisco, NetApp and

Authorized IBM GTP offers ME IBM Systems and Software Training Building on its worldwide technical services and training expertise, Ingram Micro has begun its delivery of authorized IBM Systems and Software training in the Middle East effective from 15th October 2014. Training delivery is already available in Africa. As an authorized IBM Global Training Provider (GTP), Ingram Micro is one of the five companies authorized to provide a broad selection of systems and software courses from IBM Training. “Training and certification of our channel partners is a cornerstone of Ingram Micro’s value-added services. Our commitment and growth in training centers and resources have enabled us to accelerate our roll-out of IBM Training as an IBM authorized GTP in Africa, while preparing for our imminent roll-out of IBM training in the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia and rest of the Gulf region,” said Ali Baghdadi, President,

Technology Solutions, Middle East, Turkey and Africa region. “We are pleased to expand on our longstanding relationship with IBM and play an integral role in the delivery of IBM Training. Together, we will help our worldwide channel partners to serve and earn better by advancing their skills and differentiating their value and expertise.” Ingram Micro Training and IBM Training will work closely to enhance the distributor’s value proposition and provide a superior training experience globally. A complete listing of the IBM Systems and Software courses now available from Ingram Micro Training can be found online at www.ingrammicro.com/ training. Ingram Micro Training is a one-stop shop for the skills development needs of IT professionals worldwide and a strategic partner to technology vendors.

w w w. a p t e c o n l i n e . c o m

Ingram Micro ME recognized for Best Training Initiatives in 2014

In a ceremony held on 10th December, 2014 at the Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, the best technology companies were recognized by Reseller Middle East, a CPI Media Group company, for their excellence in various categories at the third annual Reseller Middle East Hot 50 Awards. Ingram Micro Middle East was honored for its ‘Best Training Initiatives’ in 2014. Honorees were selected by the editorial staff of Reseller Middle East for excellence in various categories and exceeding the norm in their service to partners and customers. “We are sincerely honored to receive this recognition by Reseller Middle East,” says Zornitza Hadjitodorova, Ingram Micro Head of IT Training Services META, who received the award on behalf of Ingram Micro Middle East. “We have invested in growing our training business based on the needs of our valued customers and partners. We look forward to continued growth and investments in 2015.” The award was presented with high praise from Reseller Middle East. “The award is a formal felicitation of Ingram Micro’s consistent performance across the year, its ability to stand out above the rest, and our impartial role in drawing industry attention to such performances,” Rajashree Rammohan, Publishing Director Technology & Business Divisions, CPI Media Group.

April 2015

Microsoft Azure

Azure in Open Volume Licensing Aptec recommends Microsoft® software

Azure in Open Licensing is designed to simplify doing business on Azure, with a familiar licensing option that enables you to easily add cloud services along with your other on-premises solutions. Microsoft is the only vendor that offers a complete platform for delivering customer solutions across on-premises, virtualization, and the cloud. So you can build once, and deploy in whatever way best meets the needs of your customers. With Azure in Open, you can take advantage of this opportunity with a new licensing model designed to help you build a profitable business while helping customers migrate to the cloud in the way that’s best for them.

Why Microsoft Azure? Azure is an open and flexible platform that provides all the building blocks to quickly build, deploy, and manage cloud-based solutions. Azure offers a wide range of usage-based services across applications, compute, storage, and network. You can build applications using any language, tool, or framework on a fully automated self-service platform that enables the provisioning of scalable resources within minutes. The following are great examples of Azure-based solutions partners are providing today: Backup Data in the Cloud

Deploy Applications within VMs

Host Websites

Azure provides durable cloud storage, backup, and recovery solutions for large and small data. It works with the infrastructure customers already have to cost- effectively enhance existing apps and business continuity strategy.

With Azure you can use your existing tools to create and quickly deploy apps without the time and cost of managing infrastructure.

Grow your business helping customers move their websites to the cloud with Windows Azure

Azure offers secure and flexible development, deployment and scaling options for any size application. Server applications are validated to run on Virtual Machines.

•

• •

Use for a range of applications, including file servers, SharePoint, SQL Server, Exchange, and BizTalk Server. Rely on encrypted backups and geo-redundant global datacenters Quickly and easily provision storage as needed

• • •

Avoid capital expense for infrastructure Reduce IT management burden Scale as needed

Aptec - an Ingram Micro company P.O.BOX: 33550 | Dubai Internet City - UAE Tel: +9714 3697111 | Fax: +9714 3697110 | Website: www.apteconline.com

• •

Quickly build, deploy, and manage websites on a flexible cloud platform Instantly scale to meet fluctuations and spikes in site usage Offer the peace of mind from hosting on a global network of Microsoft- managed datacenters

Evolving Office 365 plans for small and midsized businesses Aptec recommends Microsoft® Office

Making Office 365 even better for small and midsized businesses From October 1, 2014, Microsoft has released three new Office 365 plans tailored to meet the needs of small and midsized businesses (SMBs), ranging from 1 to approximately 250 employees. The new plans are: Office 365 Business

Office 365 Business Essentials

Office 365 Business Premium

The full Office applications – Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Publisher, with 1TB of OneDrive for Business cloud storage to access, edit and share your documents across your Windows PC, Mac, iPad, Windows tablet and smartphone.

The core cloud services for running your business – business class email and calendaring, Office Online, online meetings, IM, video conferencing, cloud storage and file sharing and much more.

Get everything from both the Office 365 Business and Office 365 Business Essentials plans.

The new plans provide the following benefits: New Choice: The Office 365 Business plan ($8.25/user/month) makes it simple to get just the familiar, full Office apps at a great price – always up to date and available on all your devices including your PC, Mac, iPad and smartphone. The included 1TB of cloud storage makes it easy to access and edit your important files from anywhere. New Value: Office 365 Business Premium includes Office 365 Midsize Business’ services at the Office 365 Small Business Premium price of $12.50 user/month. Office 365 Business Essentials matches Office 365 Small Business on price ($5/user/month) with improved features and additional services like Yammer and Active Directory support. The higher seat limit of 300 means even more businesses can take advantage of the great value these plans provide. New Flexibility: As you grow and your technology needs change, you can move your company (or just specific users) to an Office 365 Enterprise plan, a different Business plan, or even add solutions like Project, Visio, Dynamics CRM Online and more. For more detail on the differences between the new plans, take a look at this breakdown:

Aptec - an Ingram Micro company P.O.BOX: 33550 | Dubai Internet City - UAE Tel: +9714 3697111 | Fax: +9714 3697110 | Website: www.apteconline.com

Windows Server 2003/R2

Why to migrate from Windows Server 2003/R2 Organizations failing to do so are susceptible to vulnerabilities.

n July 14, 2015, Microsoft will end support for Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2. Organizations that fail to migrate from

Windows Server 2003/R2 before this date will be out of compliance with certain existing business standards and possibly expose themselves to vulnerabilities.

Recommendation We recommend you begin your MIGRATION planning by using the four-step process from Microsoft: discover, assess, target, and migrate.

Why now? End of support for Windows Server 2003/R2 is coming. Transforming your datacenter presents an opportunity to stay in compliance with current standards and help you maintain security levels. It is also a chance to innovate not just your datacenter, but the applications that are critical to your business success.

could mean that companies such as Visa and MasterCard will no longer do business with your organization. Or, the new cost of doing business will include paying catastrophic penalties and astronomically high transaction fees.

No savings: Staying put will cost more in the end. For example, a Custom Support Agreement (CSA) requires an application and has a high minimum entry cost. The cost doubles each year. Maintenance costs for aging hardware will also increase, and customers will face added costs for intrusion detection systems, more advanced firewalls, network segmentation, and other security measures—all simply to isolate Windows Server 2003/R2 servers.

What end of support means? On July 14, 2015, Microsoft will completely end support for Windows Server 2003/R2. The points below explain what end of support means for customers. No compliance: Lack of compliance with various standards and regulations can be devastating. This may include various regulatory and industry standards for which compliance can no longer be achieved. For example, lack of compliance with Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards

April 2015

No updates: 37 critical updates were released in 2013 for Windows Server 2003/R2 under extended support. No updates will be developed or released after end of support. Imagine what impact zero updates will have on your infrastructure. No safe haven: All servers running Windows Server 2003/R2 are affected. Both virtualized and physical instances of Windows Server 2003/R2 are vulnerable and would not pass a compliance audit. Many applications will also cease to be supported, once the operating system they are running on is unsupported. This includes all Microsoft applications.

w w w. a p t e c o n l i n e . c o m

What are the Destination alternatives? • Windows Server 2012 R2 with on-premises hardware and hypervisor • Windows Server 2012 R2 with Microsoft Azure infrastructure as a service (IaaS) • Windows Server 2012 R2 with Cloud OS Network IaaS • Microsoft Azure platform as a service (PaaS) • Software as a service (SaaS)and Office 365 • Windows Server 2008 (32-bit)

Microsoft SMB Cloud Club

Incentivize with cloud C

loud solutions have transformed business operations all across the globe, Middle East is considered a high potential market for cloud spending. According to a recent report from the research firm, Gartner, USD 4.7 billion will be spent on cloud services in the MENA region from 2015 to 2018. To tap into the opportunities present in the SMB cloud space, Aptec – Ingram Micro along with Microsoft took the initiative to launch the SMB Cloud Club program to the partners. The program provides a platform for the partners to transact on the cloud business. Additionally, the top performing partners have an opportunity to fly to new and exotic locations each quarter with Microsoft and their distribution teams. “The idea behind the Cloud Club is to encourage the partner community to transform to Cloud quickly and successfully. This program is completely focused on Office 365 and Azure. It has been designed keeping in mind how partners can benefit and also takes care of their deployment needs with the

customer,” says Renu Dhar, Business Unit Manager, Microsoft Aptec. “We have been also conducting frequent round tables to constantly focus on enabling and recruiting the partners on the cloud Renu Dhar, Business transformation.” Unit Manager, Microsoft Aptec Through the programme, partners are offered benefits against their sales target. Some of the benefits include incentives planned for Reseller Partners’ sales team, 3-day trip for partners, Migration Support on Office 365 and Azure against deal order and product training and recognition. Fadi Farhat, Gulf Distribution Manager, Microsoft Gulf, says, “I am confident that partners are sure to gain much more by this unique promotion. The training is open to all the partners who are keen to know more about the products and their offerings. The

w w w. a p t e c o n l i n e . c o m

FREE Office 365 migration support is offered on the deal size, that is, the first 20 seats. And for Azure, the minimum order value has to be 5000 USD. Partner can avail these benefits by achieving Fadi Farhat, Gulf Distribution Manager, their business target Microsoft Gulf and objective.” Dhar adds, “We have been observing a good traction from the partner sales personnel, who constantly thrive to hunt for new opportunities to become a part of this Club. This has surely ensured getting many new followers to join the Club every quarter. This quarter, we are looking forward to take Cloud Club qualifying partners to Sun City, South Africa.” According to Farhat, the highlight of the allinclusive promo package has been to promote Office 365 and Azure extensively and to offer benefits. “This enables us to create a win-win situation for business and its partners.”

April 2015

LcAD03FLn

1080p 3MP Indoor Night Vision Dome Camera BusInEss soLutIons

LcAD03VLnoD

1080p 3MP Outdoor Night Vision Dome Camera

Unmanaged PoE+ Switch Smart or Managed PoE+ Switch

1080p 3MP Outdoor Night Vision Bullet Camera

supplying businesses with quality, reliable connectivity solutions for more than 15 years. Whether a small start-up or a thriving organization, Linksys networking products are designed to scale with your business.

Access Points

VPn RouteRs

switches

suRVeiLLAnce

Linksys.com

MRE19646_LNK_CNME_MEA_March_230x275mm_UK

Designed to grow right alongside you and your business.

LcAB03VLnoD

Symantec

5 reasons why you’ll want to upgrade to Symantec Backup Exec 2014 today Symantec Backup Exec 2014 has a number of advantages, from cost and time saving to enhanced performance. We take a look at the highlights.

o matter which version of Backup Exec you’re currently using, upgrading to Symantec Backup Exec 2014 can help you save time, get faster backups, and reduce costs. Featuring improved performance, increased visibility, simplified management, and support for the latest operating systems and applications, Backup Exec 2014 is available now—and here are just 5 reasons why you will want to start using it immediately to protect your infrastructure.

Up to 100% faster. That’s right: 100%. In fact, Backup Exec 2014 processes some backup jobs more than 200% faster than the prior version. It doesn’t matter if you’re backing up physical servers, VMware or Hyper-V virtual machines (vms), Backup Exec 2014 helps you backup quickly, reduce your backup windows, and save you time. Plus, Backup Exec’s deep integration with Microsoft® Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and VMware’s vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP) means you benefit from fast vm snapshots and powerful data protection that doesn’t impact your vms.

Seamless migration to and support for the latest platforms and operating systems. You can upgrade to Backup Exec 2014 quickly and easily. Backup Exec 2014 maintains Backup Exec 12.5, 2010 and 2012 job policies and settings, so you can enjoy a seamless, worry-free upgrade. In addition, Backup Exec 2014 fully supports Window® Server 2012 and Windows server 2012 R2. You can back up and recover Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2, at any level, whenever

you need to. Plus, Backup Exec 2014 extends its market leading patented granular recovery technology to Exchange 2013 and SharePoint 2013. Through a single pass backup, Backup Exec 2014 gives you immediate visibility into your backup jobs with the ability to instantly recover files, folders, and granular objects—all without staging or mounting backup jobs. Backup Exec 2014’s fast and efficient granular recovery technology makes it easier than ever to restore what you need when you need it. Superior visibility into backup jobs. For starters, the Backup Exec 2014 job monitor and multi-server job model are back! You can monitor the status of all your backup jobs from one convenient view with the new backup job monitor. It gives you superior visibility into the status of your backup jobs. In addition, you’ll save time and simplify the creation of backup jobs by backing up and managing multiple servers with a single backup job. Backup Exec 2014’s centralized administration console delivers scalable management of distributed Backup Exec 2014 servers and reduces the time and resources needed to manage your backup operations. The easy-touse interface features intelligent dashboards and intuitive wizards that automatically track and monitor every backup and recovery job. With a few simple clicks, you can set backup jobs, view backup status, and perform recoveries. There’s no need to configure each job separately.

Fast, flexible, and versatile recovery. You can easily find and recover data— at any level—all from a single pass

w w w. a p t e c o n l i n e . c o m

backup and single administration console. Because Backup Exec 2014 intelligently indexes and catalogs backup data, you don’t have to waste valuable time and disk space mounting the backup job, determining what’s inside, and searching for specific data. With a few simple clicks, you can recover virtual machines, applications, databases, files, folders, and granular objects directly from backup storage including individual objects from Exchange, Active Directory, SQL Server, and SharePoint. Backup Exec 2014 simplifies and speeds up recovery when you need it most. Backup Exec 2014 also includes—at no extra charge—Simplified Disaster Recovery (SDR) technology for minimizing downtime and business disruptions. In the event of a disaster, Backup Exec 2014 can recover an entire server from a bare metal state to the same hardware or dissimilar hardware in minutes—instead of hours or days. A single product for both virtual and physical environments. Forget purchasing, deploying, and managing separate backup solutions for your physical and virtual machines. Backup Exec 2014 protects both physical and virtual environments from single server environments to thousands of servers/ virtual machines—all with a single solution. You can get a complete picture of your entire backup and recovery status from one administrative console at any time. If scalability is important to you, rest assured that Backup Exec 2014 will support your backup and recovery needs as your organization grows.

For more information on Backup Exec online forum, please visit www.backupexec.com

April 2015

Specialized programs

JUMPSTART YOUR ORACLE BUSINESS WITH REMARKETER PROGRAM No Fees, No Barriers, No Excuses

xperience the easiest way to resell Oracle products for midsize companies through the Oracle Remarketer Program. With zero barriers to entry, this program enables your company to: • Resell a range of Oracle products with no initial investment • Transact Oracle business on day one through Authorized VAD -APTEC-INGRAM . • Leverage an Oracle Authorized VAD - APTECINGRAM for full support, training and other reseller services • Realize higher margins to start building your Oracle resale business • Grow your business today, and then consider joining Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) to deliver a full range of Oracle offerings including Enterprise Edition products Remarketers are affiliated with Oracle only through authorized VADs and APTECINGRAM has recruited more that 250+ resellers to this program in the Gulf region. We provide continuous enablement training to the Remarketers and help them with sales and pre-sales support to position and sell Oracle 1-Click Products. With these products – attractively priced for smaller deployments – you can develop solutions that earn higher

Martin Morganti, Global 1-Click Program Manager margins and provide a foundation for future, higher-end services “The major advantage of the program is that it gives Remarketers an opportunity to sell the world’s best technology products without any investment. We have seen big revenue growth in this segment because the program offers profit opportunities for SMB-focused VARs,” said Julie Varghese Oracle Business Unit Head – MENA region.

We provide continuous enablement training to the Remarketers and help them with sales and pre-sales support to position and sell Oracle 1-Click Products. 12

April 2015

w w w. a p t e c o n l i n e . c o m

Julie Varghese, Oracle Business Unit Head – MENA region Martin Morganti, Global 1-Click Program Manager said, “The products covered by the Oracle 1-Click program are ideal to allow Remarketers, resellers who are not yet members of OPN, to distribute some of Oracle’s industry leading products. The 1-Click program is simple to execute for both the reseller and the end user, offers a broad range of products to be resold and has been widely adopted across the world. Working with Aptec – Ingram in MENA has enabled us to develop this business well together over a number of years and I look forward to continued growth with Aptec - Ingram through the 1-Click program.” The most commonly asked questions about remarketer program are listed below: What can a Remarketer resell? Remarketer can resell Oracle’s One Click products listed below:-

Oracle 1-Click Ordering Desktop Programs

Oracle 1-Click Ordering Programs

MySQL Perpetual Licenses

Support

Oracle 1-Click Server and Storage Systems

Crystal Ball

Business Intelligence Standard Edition One

MySQL Standard Edition Perpetual

Oacle Linux Support

StorageTek SL150 Modular Tape Library

Crystal Ball Classroom Student Edition

Internet Developer Suite

MySQL Enterprise Edition Perpetual

Oracle Oracle VM Database Support Appliance

Availability for distribution of MySQL perpetual licenses is subject to the restrictions shown in the Oracle MySQL Global Price List.

Crystal Ball Classroom Faculty Edition

Oracle Database Personal Edition

Crystal Ball Decision Optimizer

Oracle Database Standard Edition

Crystal Ball Enterprise Performance Management

Oracle Database Standard Edition 1

MySQL Standard Edition Subscription

WebCenter Capture

MySQL Enterprise Edition Subscription

WebLogic Server Standard Edition

Oracle AutoVue 2D Professional Oracle AutoVue 3D Professional Advanced Oracle AutoVue EDA Professional Oracle AutoVue Electro-Mechanical Professional Oracle AutoVue Office

Do Remarketers have to pay Oracle a fee to participate? Oracle does not charge any fee to participate; Remarketer management and recruitment are the responsibilities of Remarketer Authorized VADs. Who is eligible for Oracle’s VAD Remarketer Program? Any company that does not have a current distribution agreement with Oracle is eligible for the VAD Remarketer Program. Who is responsible for training, supporting, and enabling an Oracle Remarketer?

Aptec -Ingram Micro Company will work directly with Remarketers and are responsible for program enrollment, training, support, and sales enablement. Remarketers who do not become OPN members are not eligible to receive training, support, or enablement offerings from Oracle directly. Do Remarketers sign up for OPN? Remarketers are not required to join OPN; Remarketers pay no OPN fee to Oracle and receive no OPN benefits. Who Offers Oracle’s Remarketer Program? Oracle’s Remarketer Program is offered only by Remarketer Authorized VADs. Contact Oracle Team at Aptec -Ingram Micro Company for more details. Julie Varghese ORACLE Business Unit Manager -MENA email: juliev@aptecme.com

w w w. a p t e c o n l i n e . c o m

GULF SALES TEAM Ambili ambilik@aptecme.com Abdul Rasheed abdulr@aptecme.com Sujith Sudhakaran sujithks@aptecme.com Shashwat Bhanti shashwatb@aptecme.com EGYPT SALES TEAM Mahmoud Saad mahmoud.saad@aptec.com.eg Shereen Mohamed shireen.Mohamed @aptec.com.eg KSA SALES TEAM Mohamed Abdelaziz mabdelaziz@aptecsa.com Aman Khan kaman@aptecsa.com LEVANT SALES TEAM Rejane M. Rizkallah rejane@apteclebanon.com

April 2015

Editorial

Gain a competitive edge with expert services I n a highly competitive channel market, partners are looking for innovate ways to remain profitable. While expanding product lines and venturing into newer technologies could be some ways of doing it, another route is through services. Today we observe that an increasing number of partners are bundling their solutions with services in order to offer customers an added value. One of the first criteria resellers need to do is adequately train themselves with the vendor’s solutions and focus more on certifications. Customers prefer reseller partners who are certified and trained in a particular solution as compared to those who are not. This way partners gain better credibility and trust with their customers. When we say IT services, it could refer to a number of aspects. As per the research firm Gartner, IT services refer to the application of business and technical expertise to enable organizations in the creation, management and optimization of or access to information and business processes. Bahaa Salah, Managing Director, Gulf and Near East, Aptec - Ingram Micro, says, “Services signifies how one will be able to deliver the required to the best of the customer’s expectation, the quality of service is an essential factor.” How can IT services solve customers’ challenges? Today the biggest challenges for a customer includes the complexity of the existing system, the increasing cost in terms of training and service and operating expenses, level of integration between different elements as well as availability. “Most of the customers are trying to overcome the complexity of their today’s infrastructure by applying agility to their systems and solutions. Customers have started paying attention to concepts such as scalability and integration. Most

April 2015

Bahaa Salah, MD, Gulf and Near East, Aptec - Ingram Micro of them have already addressed ‘seamless’ as a basic requirement of their tomorrow’s network,” says Martin Meitza, Senior Business Unit Manager, Aptec Holdings. Salah adds, “I personally believe that tomorrow, though it might vary based on region and business line, we will only be in a position to sell service. To be prepared for the future, I strongly advise the reseller community to develop the concept of service, such as consultancy, presales, professional service, implementation, upgrade support, cloud and training to name a few.” Training Quality services can only be provided if partners are trained adequately and have in-depth knowledge. Training helps partners improve profitability primarily through program discounts, rebates and services revenue. “Research has revealed that partners with the right certification and accreditation make as much as twice the net profits of competition. Considering MEA is an

w w w. a p t e c o n l i n e . c o m

emerging market, training becomes critical for partners to have the right level of knowledge to sell and implement technology,” explains Zornitza S. Hadjitodorova, Head of IT Training Services MEA, Technology Solutions, Aptec-Ingram Micro. Research from IDC has shown that to gain the full value of technology - deploying and integrating it correctly, driving better utilization within the customer’s environment, and optimizing it long-term - solution providers should dedicate 7 percent of their annual budget toward training. As a trusted partner, Ingram Micro enables its partners to leverage its expertise, and those of its vendor partners, to turn that investment into profit. Professional services Leveraging Ingram Micro Professional Services can uncover the root of technology challenges in a customer environment as well as lay the foundation for future projects through the distributor’s assessment and planning services. Ingram Micro is committed to helping the customer realize the ‘Promise of Technology’, having the hardware is just the beginning of this promise, it won’t be realized without the professional services, that will integrate, customize and configure this hardware according to customer needs. Achieving these needs will help the customer in achieving its company strategy, only then they will realize the ‘Promise of Technology’. At Ingram Micro, the objective is to help grow the partner business and profits through the company’s complete portfolio of Professional Services. The distributor provides a managed platform armed with dispatch and branding capabilities. Partners can take advantage of these offerings to expand their technical competency and extend their geographic reach across the GCC and increase profitability. Along with quality assurance and managed SLAs offerings, partners will also receive support to expand their service delivery business and test new verticals without investing into resources. Partners will also be trained to market their own services to other solution providers and help meet their customers’ needs. Through Aptec-Ingram Micro’s Professional Services offering, partners can be assured of customer loyalty and repeat business.

Training

IBM Training at Ingram Micro Transforming training to bridge the global IT skills gap.

he largest global distributor of technology is now a distributor of technology training. Ingram Micro Training Middle East and Africa delivers education for the industry’s top brands including VMware, IBM, Veeam and McAfee. Ingram Micro Training offers affordable, world-class vendor-authorized certification training with a portfolio of first-rate instructors. Our award-winning certification training courses are designed for IT solution providers and enduser technical staff. All classes are live and taught by top vendor-certified instructors with extensive practical, real world experience. To enhance the learning experience, class size is limited to allow for more personal instruction. Classes may be conducted in any of our company-owned classroom locations across the Middle East and Africa, Live Online or onsite. Private classes are available upon request as well. As an authorized IBM Global Training Provider, Ingram Micro is one of the only five companies worldwide approved to provide the complete portfolio of software and systems courses from IBM Training. Ingram Micro Training MEA launched its IBM Training across Africa and has started expanding its offerings across Middle East as well. We help channel partners and IT professionals advance their skill sets for mobile, cloud, analytics

and social while meeting the technical needs of businesses worldwide. As your personal IBM global training provider, Ingram Micro can help you get the right training for new hires and existing employees. Our network will help you accelerate the growth of skills and training in your organization to improve your business. We are also able to leverage the high quality, up-to-date Authorized IBM Content with smart and connected delivery engines to address the learning needs of today’s enterprise. Ingram Micro provides the responsive and personalized service you expect from an IBM training provider. We can help you with everything from career path and certification planning to the selection of courses that fit your budget and meet your specific learning goals. More and more in business today we need to make the training relevant to the business goals, Ingram Micro’s advisors will help you define your needs and set up private customized courses when required. As an IBM Global Training Provider with IBM Training experience worldwide, Ingram Micro offers traditional offerings of public and private training but this is significantly augmented by “Smarter Skills Services” (see chart). As IBM Global Training Provider we work together with clients to create an always-learning

w w w. a p t e c o n l i n e . c o m

paradigm that can drive solution success and address retaining the right resources in your organization with the right tenure. To learn more about how training and skills development can help you generate revenue, improve productivity and save costs, please visit www.ingrammicro.com/training/MEA or email us on IMTAMEA@ingrammicro.com.

April 2015

VMware SDDC

“It’s a liquid world”

VMware elaborates on vSphere with Operations management (vSom) and Virtual San (vSan). Rewards promotional discounts: • Earn up to 22% upfront discount with the Advantage+ Accelerator on vSom • Server Virtualization competency partners can earn 10% Solution Rewards for selling vSom • Management Operations competency partners can earn 10% Solution Rewards for selling vSom 2) Partners can increase their VMware revenue and deal size with eg. services, other softwares 3) Customers already using vSom can identify capacity shortfalls, which may lead to up selling opportunities Mustafa Fakhri, Product Manager, VMware

“

It’s a liquid world. Every industry is being transformed,” states VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger. VMware propaganda has been what is called the ‘Software Defined Datacenter’ for some time now. What are the key VMware components and what is the partner benefit? The bold message from VMware CEO was “‘Inhouse’ IT shops will set policies for how their data centers should run, and VMware products will actually manage all the physical servers, storage, and network boxes”. The components covered here are: vSphere with Operations management (vSom) and Virtual San (vSan).

vSphere with Operations management (vSom): Product Profile: vSom provides a single pane of control and health check on entire virtual environment. It offers most trusted virtualization platform (using vSphere) with critical operation enhancements in performance monitoring and capacity management. It performs efficiency, risk and health. Partner Benefit: 1) Partners can increase their profitability upto 30% by combining all Advantage+ and Solution

April 2015

Sales Triggers: 1) Renewals - Leverage renewal conversations to upsell to vSom. Customers who have growing IT environments can benefit from having insight into their data centers. 2) Server hardware refresh cycles - Look for customers who purchased vSphere five-to-six years ago since they will most likely be in the refresh cycle. 3) New Infrastructure purchase - Look for customers making new infrastructure purchases (storage, network). 4) Application concerns – Focus on customers looking to deliver high service levels for business-critical applications, in addition to better managing these apps. 5) Small IT staff supporting large organization – These customers are under pressure to do more with less (i.e., cuts in IT staff/ resource budget, IT group split due to Merger &Acquisition). Partners can provide a demo or leverage vSphere Optimization Assessment (VOA). Aptec (IM) can assist partners on executing these VOA. Resources: Review technical, training and business resources http://www.vmware.com/mena/products/vsphereoperations-management/resources.html

w w w. a p t e c o n l i n e . c o m

vSAN: Product Profile: In brief, VSAN basically pools the storage from x86 servers (HDD/SSD) and creates a virtual SAN. The servers storage is basically portrayed as a SAN storage, which is much easier to configure. Its solution basically simplifies storage requirements and helps in assessing the underutilized server storage. Partner Benefit: • Up to 22% front-end discounts • 15% back-end rebate for selling vSan Sales Triggers: • Customers running out of primary storage for VMs • SDDC initiative • VM storage performance degradation • External Storage and server Refresh • New project that needs storage • Virtual SAN expansion/new workloads on Virtual SAN Resources: VMware Virtual SAN technical and business resources http://www.vmware.com/mena/products/virtual-san/ resources.html

Aptec has created a niche for itself by providing business offerings suitable to all market segments (enterprise, SMB) and act as a one-stop IT shop for all channel requirements. Aptec VMware Team heavily relies on Aptec’s preposition of value services by following a systematic approach for the ME channel. We work as an extended arm for the vendor. Today, we team up and offer VMware training, post sales services and pre-sales services fulfilling the value proposition. Aptec VMware carries full VMware portfolio of Software Defined Data Center (SDDC), Cloud and End User computing (EUC). We recently initiated vertical focus on VMware End User computing (EUC) with a dedicated pre-sales expert and Business Development Manager to focus on this $8 billion market potential (global forecasted number by VMware till 2016). The goal of Aptec VMware is to ensure that the right solution is made available in the most effective way. The delivery of right value-add to channel partners and vendors will create business opportunities and empower Aptec to position more robust and beneficial solution for the channel.

Dell servers

PowerEdge R730 A highly versatile, two-socket 2U rack server with impressive processor performance, a large memory footprint, extensive I/O options and a choice of dense, high performance storage or lowcost, high-capacity storage.

he PowerEdge R730 excels at a wide range of very demanding workloads for midsized and large enterprises, such as data warehouses, e-commerce, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), databases and high-performance computing HPC) as a data node. When configured with 3.5” drives, the R730 provides up to 48TB of rapidly accessed storage for databases, business intelligence and HPC applications.

expansion slots and highly scalable local storage, the R730 is extremely flexible. Create a dense, resource-rich virtualization environment with up to 16 2.5” drives. Combine that with the R730’s GPU capability to save infrastructure costs and consolidate management operations in a scalable and centralized virtual desktop environment. The GPU option also makes the R730 an excellent choice as a midrange medical imaging solution.

Deliver peak performance Drive peak compute performance across a variety of workloads with the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v3 product family and state-of-the-art DDR4 memory. Boost data access for applications with up to 16 x 12Gbps SAS drives and highperformance dual RAID. Take advantage of advanced accelerators and GPUs to maximize performance in HPC, VDI and imaging environments.

Maximize operational efficiency PowerEdge servers let you construct and manage highly efficient infrastructures for data centers and small businesses. Accelerate time-to-production with automated deployment processes that use fewer manual steps and reduce the potential for error. Improve IT productivity with innovative at the-server management tools like iDRAC Direct and iDRAC Quick Sync to deliver in-depth system health status and speed deployment, optimize data center energy usage with improved performance-per-watt and more granular control of power and cooling.

Discover greater versatility With 24 DIMMs of high-capacity, low-power DDR4 memory, seven PCI Express (PCIe) 3.0

w w w. a p t e c o n l i n e . c o m

PowerEdge R730 • Latest Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v3 product family with up to 18 cores • Up to 24 DIMMs of high capacity DDR4 memory • Up to 7 PCIe 3.0 expansion slots • Up to 4 internal GPU accelerators

Innovative management with intelligent automation The Dell OpenManage systems management portfolio includes innovative solutions that simplify and automate essential server lifecycle management tasks – making IT operations more efficient and Dell servers the most productive, reliable and cost effective. Leveraging the incomparable agent-free capabilities of the PowerEdge embedded integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) with Lifecycle Controller technology, server deployment, configuration and updates are streamlined across the OpenManage portfolio and through integration with thirdparty management solutions. Monitoring and control of Dell and thirdparty data center hardware is provided by OpenManage Essentials and with anytime, anywhere mobile access, through OpenManage Mobile. OpenManage Essentials now also delivers Server Configuration Management capabilities that automate one-many PowerEdge bare-metal server and OS deployments, quick and consistent replication of configurations and ensure compliance to a predefined baseline with automated drift detection.

April 2015

Partner program

Fortifying partnerships Maya Kreidy, Regional Channel Manager, McAfee, Intel Security, outlines the features and updates of the Intel Security Partner Program and how partners can benefit. New enablement offerings are available for partners now under CloudRunner, Expert Center, and Post Sales Services Enablement.

ow do you plan to roll out the changes in the Intel Security Partner Program and how are partners notified? The program enhancements will be rolled out in a phased approach over the next 12 to 18 months. The first release of program enhancements was effective from January 1, 2015 and will lay the foundation for more significant program enhancements in the near future. Partners will be notified via our standard communications vehicles, including email, newsletters, webcasts, and social media. Could you elaborate on the changes that became effective on January 1, 2015? ‘McAfee Security Alliance Program’ is now ‘Intel Security Partner Program.’ We consolidated the five product competencies into three solution competencies that are Endpoint Security, Network Security, and Security Management, which were selected based on the total addressable market opportunity. The baseline certification requirements transitioned to a Continuing Education (CE) model. We have new specializations now such as managed service specialization, support provider specialization, services delivery specialization expected by July, 2015.

April 2015

Will the move to a CE points-based model for renewal of other certifications (sales expert, technical expert) change the renewal process for ACE certifications? Intel Security wants certified partner SEs to stay updated with hands-on experience doing demos and proof-of-concepts (PoCs). The requirement for completing two activities to renew will remain. Since Q4, 2014, partner SEs have access to CloudRunner, a new on-demand application that enables partner SEs to quickly and efficiently set-up and conduct customer demos. Demos delivered with CloudRunner will count toward renewal. CloudRunner is open to all partners globally, but partners need to register to request access on the Partner Portal. What is happening with the MSP program? The MSP program is migrating to a Managed Services Specialization within the new Intel Security Partner (formerly McAfee Security Alliance/MSA) Program. All MSP partner classifications will change to become a Managed Services Specialization Partner. Partner Business Access, and Partner Portal access will not change. All Managed Services partners will maintain Gold Product Support using MSP grant number for authorization. If they have completed one of the MSP Technical Certification competencies then they will maintain Base Partner Support as long as the certification requirements are fulfilled. Do you have any plans in 2015 to train partners for post sales and enable them to do professional services for Intel security solutions? To help partners strengthen their implementation services, we are introducing post-sales services

w w w. a p t e c o n l i n e . c o m

training and certifications. There are eight, fourday, instructor-led post-sales services training courses, including McAfee Next Generation Firewall, McAfee Security Information and Event Management solutions, McAfee e-Policy Orchestrator (McAfee ePO) software, McAfee Network Security Platform and others. Upon passing the associated exam, course participants are recognized as a Certified McAfee Security Specialist(CMSS), validating their installation, configuration, management, and basic architecture knowledge. The training courses are made available for partners who need to develop post-sales skills. Certification is acquired by passing the Prometric exam for a particular McAfee product. Only then will a partner be a Certified McAfee Security Specialist (CMSS) and considered certified. The post-sales training courses are fee-based training classes. It was announced that the names of the partner levels are changing. Why are you making the change, what will those levels be named, and when will the transition take place? Partner levels will be changing from Associate, Premier, and Elite to Silver, Gold, and Platinum (respectively) in the later part of 2015 to align with industry names and make it easier for partners to understand where they are in the Intel Security Partner Program. We will notify partners of the change well in advance, but we expect it will have no impact on the partner’s business since it’s just a name change. Program benefits will not be impacted by the partner level name changes. We expect to introduce the new partner levels in July 2015. What is the Partner 360 Dashboard? To whom is it available? The Partner 360 Dashboard is a tool to help partners manage their business with Intel Security. It provides data such as bookings, profitability program benefits (such as rebates and deal registration), and more. The intent is for partners to track performance over time, understand key trends, and make important strategic business decisions. If you are with a partner at the Elite level in an administrator role, then you would have access to Partner 360 Dashboard. Pilot group partners in Middle East will have access to the Partner360 Dashboard in the coming days.

Cyber-security

Safeguarding assets Hamed Diab, Regional Director, Middle East and North Africa, Intel Security, deliberates on the cyber-security landscape in the region and discusses measures organizations need to adopt.

ow has the cyber-security market evolved within the region? The cyber-security market is one of the most rapidly growing markets in the world, especially in the light of the increasing sophistication and volume of cyber-attacks. We have witnessed an increase in spending on cyber-security solutions in the region both in public and private sectors. Particularly, the most sensitive infrastructure sectors of banking and oil and gas are heavily spending on cybersecurity solutions after the traditional cybersecurity solutions proved their vulnerability towards cyber-attacks. The threat of advanced cyber-attacks has caused the growth of cyber-security products and services in the Middle East. Technologies such as antivirus, firewalls, data encryption and protection, UTM and DDoS Mitigation are currently used in many industrial organizations in the Middle East. Governments have also been directly involved in bringing about and enforcing regulations that impose the use of cyber-security technologies on businesses and organizations such as Payment Card Industry Security Standards (PC ISS), and the establishment of Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), the cybersecurity experts group operating in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.

What are the opportunities for partners? How should they approach the market? We aim to enhance our partnerships with leading companies and governments in the region as we seek to build new partnerships with partners who share the same objective as ours of creating, as much as possible, a secure cyber world. It is important to remember that as the sophistication of cyber threats increases, technology or product solutions to protect against them is not enough to stay secure. Identifying the right security plan or strategy as to what is at risk of a security breach within an organization or which assets need protection and what is the best method to protecting them should always come before choosing the appropriate security solution or product.

“We aim to enhance our partnerships with leading companies and governments in the region as we seek to build new partnerships with partners who share the same objective as ours of creating, as much as possible, a secure cyber world.”

What is Intel Security’s business focus? Intel Security’s main focus is inventing new security solutions to cope with the increasing security threats that we see in the world today with a special focus on the enterprise portfolio; the evolution of the McAfee product and solutions portfolio and the integration of this portfolio within the Security Connected Framework; strengthening of Intel Security’s leading position in the market as provider of choice of the best and latest IT security solutions and services, as well as maintaining our

w w w. a p t e c o n l i n e . c o m

relationship with our current partners and customers from both public and private sectors in the MENA region while gaining new customers. Could you elaborate on Intel Security’s plans for 2015? Enhancing TIE, NGFW evasion techniques and forensic capabilities. We also expect to reveal new releases from virtualization capabilities, and new releases related to our SIEM, analytics and risk visualization. How do you see the security space evolving over the next few months? In 2015 we expect Internet vulnerabilities to continue with cyber-criminals creating more malware that will try to take advantage of known vulnerabilities. It is important businesses move quickly to secure their systems once notified of any vulnerabilities discovered. We do expect Internet trust exploits, mobile, Internet of Things and cyber-espionage to be the top threats for the 2015. Anything else you would like to add? Security always must come first and it is important to be constantly aware of the threats that cyber threats pose and will only continue to do so. As such it is essential that we employ the right techniques and strategy, including cyber-security training for employees and individuals, to identify, counter and mitigate these threats and the damages they may cause, and to remember: No one and nothing is immune to cyberattack from personal information and photos of ordinary individuals and celebrities to confidential information and data of governments, businesses and global enterprises. No one entity can solve all of today’s cybercrime issues – we need greater industry and government collaboration to secure the strongest defence. Cyber Defence Centre operating in Dubai since 2013 a step towards keeping the region cyber-secure by providing greater intelligence sharing and gathering. Time to detection must dramatically decrease. Businesses must also look at greater integration between the technologies and systems deployed.

April 2015

Product spotlight

HP VAPORIZES VIRTUAL INFRASTRUCTURE SILOS WITH STOREVIRTUAL-BASED HYPERCONVERGED APPLIANCE Highly available simplified systems empower businesses to provision fully virtualized and resilient VMware vSphere infrastructure in minutes. hypervisor and HP StoreVirtual VSA software. • Pre-configured dashboards help visualize system health and performance while optional VMware vCenter Operations Manager (vCOPS) delivers VM-level insight.

Hyper-converged

ew hyper-converged offering that combines software-defined storage, compute, management and VMware integration to deploy a complete virtualized environment from power-on to provisioning of new applications in less than 15 minutes.

Key selling points Management simplified • Designed from the ground up to simplify deployment of virtual infrastructure to support business-critical applications and virtual desktops. • Features wizard-driven startup that enables complete deployment of virtualized compute and storage infrastructure in under 15 minutes. • Centralized management of compute, storage, and virtual machines from inside VMware vCenter Server assures that an IT generalist can manage the entire virtual infrastructure from a single interface without any specialized storage, server or virtualization expertise. • Pre-configured and only requires the entry of IP

addresses, credentials, and VMware vSphere license information to get up and running.

Virtualization optimized • Platform integration with VMware vSphere increases functionality and ease of use while application integration simplifies storage management for applications. • Multiple clusters can be managed from the same console. Adding appliances to the cluster is quick and easy, with each additional appliance seamlessly adding the power of four servers and associated storage. • Provides transparent VM failover across nodes, systems, and sites - bringing you worry-free protection in the event of a failure. Backup and recovery is equally easy with storage-based snapshots and HP Remote Copy integration with virtualization platforms and Microsoft Windows applications. • With built-in HP Peer Motion, data volumes can non-disruptively replicate and migrate data volumes from one ConvergedSystem 200-HC to another, or to any x86-based server running any major

• Features four individually serviceable servers in a 2U chassis with a choice between a hybrid, autotiering model with SAS and SSD capacity to serve performance and latency-sensitive workloads, or an all-SAS model to meet larger capacity requirements at a lower cost per capacity. • With all you need in one box, the ConvergedSystem 200-HC serves both applications and data services with 4 times the compute in 75 percent less space. • Provides scale-out flexibility to handle changing workloads while enabling simultaneous scale of server and storage resources. • With over 1 million HP StoreVirtual licenses issued, millions of virtual machines running on HP ProLiant Servers, and over 30,000 HP OneView for VMware vCenter downloads, customers can be confident that the ConvergedSystem 200-HC platform builds on proven virtualization expertise.

Models HP ConvergedSystem 240-HC StoreVirtual System (K2Q48A) HP ConvergedSystem 242-HC StoreVirtual System (K2Q49A)

For more details, please contact: hpsales@aptecme.com

April 2015

w w w. a p t e c o n l i n e . c o m

Solution centre

HP Service Manager Enterprise Suite A comprehensive service desk solution

T has never been easier and faster for IT to create and deliver services than in today’s world of hybrid cloud computing. But this also puts IT in crossfire – On one hand meeting the business expectations for service levels and quality and on the other hand reducing cost while minimizing risk. HP can resolve this challenge by delivering everything you need for a worldclass IT Service desk in a single offering with a choice of flexible pricing options.

LEVERAGE A SINGLE ITSM SOLUTION HP Service Manager Enterprise Suite is a comprehensive, fully-integrated IT service desk solution that draws on more than 25 years of service management focus and experience. It provides a powerful platform to standardize, automate and enforce your key IT processes and demonstrate value to the business. • Integration and automation of core IT processes such as incident, problem, service level, and end-to-end change and configuration statement.

• Out-of-the-box IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) v3-based process workflows for secure, efficient service operations and delivery • Service request management, service catalog, knowledge management, and support selfservice capabilities to save cost and meet business and user expectations

BUILD FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE HP Service Manager Enterprise Suite is simple to order and priced flexibly to meet today’s business demands. We have deviated from traditional pricing models to offer the suite as a single, comprehensive bundle. HP Service Manager Enterprise Suite is a comprehensive service desk solution that is available as either a perpetual license purchase or by subscription. This allows you to choose the model that best fits your budget requirements. HERE IS WHAT YOU GET! • Core capabilities for access, configuration management, a configuration management database (CMDB), and predefined reports

• Superb help desk, incident, and problem management support to quickly identify and resolve service outages, centrally triage issues, track work and responsibility, and establish a historical record of service disruptions and resolutions • Service catalog that provides a stateof-the-art, user-centric service portal for goods, services and self-service support, and streamlined request management that automates the entire process—from the initial user request through delivery, fulfillment, and update of the CMDB—thereby optimizing costs of the service desk • End-to-end change management for quick changes and high change rates • In Depth Service level management • Facilitates connectivity and integration with other HP software, such as HP Business Availability Center, HP Project and Portfolio Management Center, and HP Asset Manager, as well as with your Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directories, email, and databases The sooner we start, the better the business outcome

For more details, please contact: hpsales@aptecme.com

w w w. a p t e c o n l i n e . c o m

April 2015

BYOD

Unleash the full potential of BYOD management with confidence B YOD poses challenges for IT administrators looking to tackle security, governance, and network management when employees are allowed to use their own personal devices on the corporate network. Administrators need to know who is accessing their BYOD network and what their users are doing on the network by keeping data secure, either by quarantining threats or by preventing leakage of company sensitive information. Finally, administrators need to ensure that they have a scalable and manageable wireless infrastructure that meets the ever growing demand of wireless devices. The HP BYOD solution delivers a simple, scalable and secure solution to help meet those needs.

The BYOD movement is here – This is what you need to know How and the type of devices users connect at work has changed workforce connectivity. • 62% of workers say they are using personal devices for work. 72% believe their devices should be enabled for work purposes • Over 60% of companies have been breached in the last year This shift in workforce connectivity requires greater BYOD network security at work. Consider: • Secure network access to those allowed on the network • Create data governance as users share data between retail cloud and corporate platforms • Isolate threats as they come in, instead of spending time searching • Separate wired and wireless networks with devices

HP BYOD Solution Overview – User access Easily manage user access with secure onboarding and policy enforcement, creating a better user experience.

Data leaking Prevent data from getting into the wrong hands with pinpoint device management and network security. Security With threats multiplying, it’s important to spend more time fixing them, rather than isolating. Network provisioning & management Simplify network management with support and solutions for wired and wireless networks. HPN BYOD Essentials User Access Manager Provides identity based access for routers switches and servers. Endpoint Admission Defense Integrates Security policy management and endpoint posture assessment. User Behavior Auditor Real-time information about users & applications consuming bandwidth. Network Traffic Analyzer Audits the online behavior of internal users. Intelligent Management Center Standard Software Comprehensive network management. Modular and expandable.

IMC Smart Connect WLAN Plug and Play Virtual appliance with IMC Standard and User Access Manager. IMC Smart Connect Plug and Play Virtual appliance with IMC Standard and User Access Manager and Wireless Services Manager. Wireless Services Manager Provides unified management of wired and wireless networks. Why might the benefits of BYOD be for you? The complete BYOD security solutions deliver all the BYOD advantages and a unified network that is ready for software defined networking.

Securing mobile devices • With more employees than ever bringing their own devices, the challenge becomes keeping the network – and the devices, secure. • A variety of solutions that work together. Simplifying network management • Managing multiple networks at once is a challenge. The new solution needs to be integrated, not fragmented. • IMC helps network administrators manage their networks better and gives them more control. Scalability • Handle the deluge of mobile devices on the network, both personal and professional. • With the increase of security breaches, be on the offensive, instead of the defensive.

For more details, please contact: hpsales@aptecme.com

April 2015

w w w. a p t e c o n l i n e . c o m

Converged systems

Converge and conquer

platform will be extended over time to include even more functionality for the ConvergedSystem 200-HC StoreVirtual.

HP vaporizes virtual infrastructure silos with StoreVirtual-based hyper-converged appliance.

P is introducing the HP ConvergedSystem 200-HC StoreVirtual, which combines all required hardware and management into a single scale-out system. Architected for simplicity and built on proven and open data services, the system includes HP OneView InstantOn, HP OneView for VMware vCenter, and HP StoreVirtual VSA technology for simple self-installation and management of fully clustered, highly available servers and storage. This flexible solution is aimed to help midsize businesses, remote offices and branch office locations that want a building block approach to infrastructure in order to simplify IT operations, accelerate service delivery, and enable enhanced disaster recovery for virtualized as well as physical servers. This integrated appliance is sized for server virtualization and virtual desktop workloads based on VMware best practices, providing faster response times to business demands, simplified administration and improved application availability. The solution provides operational efficiencies through unified management across HP StoreVirtual, HP ProLiant Servers and HP OneView’s converged management with robust VMware vSphere integration and wizarddriven startup designed for IT generalists without specialized storage expertise. The new ConvergedSystem 200 line of hyper-converged solutions starting with the HP StoreVirtual version and then the EVO:RAIL version, offer customers greater choice and flexibility. Deep hypervisor integration and best practice design accelerates deployment The knowledge and time required to manage separate servers, hypervisors, networking and storage can prevent organizations from realizing the benefits of server virtualization. The HP CS 200-HC StoreVirtual system is designed to simplify virtual infrastructure management,

from ordering and deployment to support of applications and virtual desktops. Designed for speed of deployment, the system includes HP OneView InstantOn – a utility that provides simple self-installation and enables customers to be ready with loaded virtual machines in minutes and built on resilient server and storage infrastructure to provide application high availability. The HP ConvergedSystem 200HC StoreVirtual system arrives pre-configured with all software pre-installed and only requires the entry of IP addresses, credentials and VMware vSphere license information to get up and running. To simplify ongoing management, customers can take advantage of HP OneView for VMware vCenter for centralized management of compute, storage and virtual machines from inside VMware vCenter Server. This ensures an IT generalist can manage the entire virtual infrastructure from a single interface without any specialized server, storage, networking or virtualization expertise. Once the cluster-aware startup completes, administrators can: • Provision virtual machines directly from VMware vCenter Server • Manage all hyper-converged systems and traditional virtual server systems across all sites from a single console using HP OneView for VMware vCenter • Replicate from one hyper-converged system to another, or to a low-cost server/VSA combination for flexible disaster recovery • Use optional vRealize Operations (formerly VMware vCenter™ Operations Manager™) for comprehensive monitoring of health and performance across VMs and critical physical components To help streamline and automate management of both physical and virtualized infrastructure, the intuitive HP OneView converged management

Hyper-convergence with advanced data services for performance and resiliency The HP ConvergedSystem 200-HC StoreVirtual system fits alongside the software-defined HP StoreVirtual Virtual Storage Appliance (VSA) and the HP StoreVirtual 4000 Storage appliance. All three HP StoreVirtual-based product families offer 100 percent shared data services, including replication, federation and transparent site failover. The HP ConvergedSystem 200-HC StoreVirtual system provides scale-out flexibility to handle changing workloads and is available in both performance and capacity optimized configurations. Systems can be clustered together up to 32 nodes to pool capacity and performance capabilities. Multiple clusters can then be managed from the same console, and adding systems to the cluster is quick and easy. Each additional system seamlessly adds the power of four servers and associated storage, maximizing the speed, agility and efficiency of customers’ core infrastructure and operations. Unlike storage in less mature hyper-converged offerings, the HP ConvergedSystem 200HC StoreVirtual system includes a rich set of standard data services, including: Automated, sub-volume auto-tiering, thin provisioning and space reclamation provide capacity efficiency and lower storage costs without sacrificing performance. Stretch cluster capabilities that keep applications online during appliance, rack-level or site-wide outages to address the need for business continuity. Transparent multi-site high availability and workload mobility built on HP StoreVirtual technology certified by VMware as a vSphere Metro Storage Cluster solution and integrated with VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager. Data volumes that can be non-disruptively replicated or migrated from one HP ConvergedSystem 200-HC StoreVirtual system to another—or to any x86-based server running any major hypervisor and HP StoreVirtual VSA—using built-in HP Peer Motion to provide flexibility to meet changing business needs.

For more details, please contact: hpsales@aptecme.com

w w w. a p t e c o n l i n e . c o m

April 2015

HOME AUTOMATION D-Link products can “talk” to each other, so you can create your ideal automated and safe home.

No hidden charges. Seriously.

The mydlink™ Home smartphone and tablet app is the command centre for the D-Link range of smart home technology devices, enabling you to set, control, monitor and automate. What felt like science fiction not that long ago is now very much science fact...

Door/Window Sensor / Motion Sensor / Siren / Camera / Smart Plug

www.dlinkmea.com

Smart solutions

Make your Home Smart With D-Link’s New Range Of Home Automation Devices D -Link is known for being the industryleading pioneer in developing and launching cutting-edge networking technologies and is now at the forefront of their Smart Home technology, leading the way, designing and producing hardware and software to help you automate, control, monitor and enjoy your home more. D-Link’s new home automation series allows your home to react to motion, receive alerts on your phone when motion is detected, automate and schedule appliances to behave your way. There is no better time than now to make your home smart with D-Link’s Wi-Fi Motion Sensor, WiFi Smart Plug and Day & Night Wi-Fi Camera. DCH-S150 mydlink Wi-Fi Motion Sensor The mydlink Wi-Fi motion sensor will let you know when motion is detected at home. Pair it with the mydlink Smart Plug to automate devices even in off-limits areas. You can also be notified on-the-go and get alerts on your smartphone when movement is detected at home. Get alerted from anywhere Be aware of what’s happening at home even when you’re away. Get push or text notifications on your smartphone when motion is detected at home: when your pet leaves your home or when your child opens the medicine cabinet. Works great with other mydlink devices Use the motion sensor to trigger the mydlink Smart Plugs and turn on or off lights, fans, music and more when motion is detected. Easy installation Just download the free mydlink Home app, push the WPS set up button on the sensor and you can create different actions to turn on/off your devices connected to mydlink Smart Plugs.

FEATURES Connectivity: It supports Wireless 802.11b/g/n. Easy Setup: Its one-piece wall-plug design is compact, portable, and does not require additional power cables. It has Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) for secure setup with the simple push of a button. Advanced: It has push notifications via the mydlink Home app. And turns devices on/off when used with mydlink Wi-Fi Smart Plugs.

DSP-W215 mydlink Wi-Fi Smart Plug The DSP-W215 mydlink Wi-Fi Smart Plug is a multi-purpose, compact, and easy-to-use device that allows you to monitor and control your home’s electronic devices from anywhere. The mydlink mobile app will let you turn devices on or off, monitor energy use of connected devices, create on/off schedules and set up alerts. The DSP-W215 thermal sensor will help prevent your devices from overheating. Control your devices from anywhere The handy mydlink smartphone app will allow you to switch your device on or off remotely and change your energy use schedules on-the-go, so you don’t have to worry about leaving devices on when you’re away. Easy to setup, easy to use Simply push the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) button on the DSP-W215 and on your home mydlink router, to establish a secure connection. The mydlink Wi-Fi Smart Plug will automatically be added to your list of devices on the mydlink smartphone or tablet app, getting you started right away. Stay informed The mydlink smartphone app will send you customized notifications letting you know when it turns a device on or off, when you go over your

w w w. a p t e c o n l i n e . c o m

power consumption limit, or if a device has been automatically deactivated due to overheating. FEATURES Compatibility: Wi-Fi Network (802.11), mydlink app support. Free Mobile App: Through apps, users can do power scheduling, smart remote power control, push notifications, energy usage statistics. Other Features: Overheat protection. Convenience: Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS), compact size.

DCS-935L mydlink Home Monitor HD The mydlink Home Monitor HD allows you to monitor your home, whenever, from wherever. See everything in full colour high-definition 720p with sound. The built-in night vision allows you to see up to 5 metres even in complete darkness. It’s easy to setup, connects to your home Wi-Fi and can even alert you when motion or sound is detected. What’s more, it works with other mydlink Home smart devices to enable you to create a smart home without complicated setup, installation cost or monthly subscription charges. FEATURES Premium resolution and visibility: See up to 15 feet in complete darkness with built-in IR LEDs. It supports H.264/M-JPEG video codecs. It has 4x digital zoom for close-up viewing and a built-in microphone. Security: Sound and motion detection triggers e-mail/push alert notifications. It saves snapshots/ video clips to Mydlink Cloud NVR. Ease of use: Uses the Wireless 802.11 AC Technology and has WPS support for easy wireless connection. Convenient control with mydlink support: There is mydlink Home app support for iPhone, iPad, Android and mydlink portal for easy viewing and management.

April 2015

DIR-890L

www.dlinkmea.com

+971 4 880 9022

facebook.com/dlinkmea

info.me@dlinkmea.com

Organizations need ways to seamlessly migrate workloads or create virtual machines (VMs) in the cloud. VMware vCloud Air Network offers a multi-pronged approach.

Cloud computing has evolved into a mandatory strategy for agile, mobile, global businesses.

Cloud Driving Change of IT and business executives say the cloud will have a profound effect on their organization.

Why VMware vCloud Air Network

600,000

Unprecedented levels of

(State of the CIO 2014)

Choice

Extensibility

Flexibility Located in more than

Creating a strategy for moving to the public cloud is the top priority for 34% of IT executives. (State of the CIO 2014)

vCloud Air Network Service Providers

say Cloud computing is most likely to increase IT's reliance on outsourcers and managed service providers,

It is also more likely to require restructuring departments than any other technology/trend.

VMware vCAN benefits driving change Lower TCO is a top selling point for both Private & Public Cloud. (IDG Enterprise Cloud Study 2013)

compliance certifications and accreditations

Securtiy and Compliance VMware enterprise-class security and data sovereignty through more local providers, in more countries, supporting more OSs than the competitors.

VMware vCloud Air Network Service Providers can support twice as many operating systems as Azure and AWS combined

Other Key Benefits:

(Includes legacy operating systems and more flavors of Linux)

VMware Air Network Speed of Deployment

Enabling Innovation

Enabling Business Continuity

Gaining a Competitive Edge

Nearly 4,000 Partners

25 Partners

836 Partners

Over 100 Countries

27 Countries

8 Countries

Improving Customer Support or Services

To Learn more about how VMware can help you navigate the cloud, visit vcloudproviders.vmware.com