Value Journal | Issue 28 | December 2018

Issue 28 // December 2018

REDINGTON VALUE BRINGS OKTA’S IDENTITY MANAGEMENT SUITE TO MEA The Okta Identity Cloud allows customers to better secure and manage their extended enterprise.

Ramkumar Balakrishnan, Redington Value

Regional value-added distributor Redington Value has announced a distribution agreement with Okta, an independent provider of identity management solutions for the enterprise, to deliver Okta’s complete suite of business initiatives solutions across verticals for the Middle East and Africa markets.

Last month, Redington Value hosted a launch event in Dubai to introduce Okta and its innovative portfolio to the channel ecosystem in the region.

The Okta Identity Cloud enables or-

ganizations to both secure and manage their extended enterprise, and transform their customers’ experiences.

With a deep focus on its channel business, Okta also offers regional partners an exclusive opportunity to augment their portfolio through dedicated educational and professional services, helping them to increase margins and maintain profitability.

“Okta is a customer first organization. Everything we do, has customers at its Continued on page 3

Oracle highlights cloud applications strategy Next-generation voice user interface and powerful analytics extending industry’s broadest, deepest and fastest growing suite of cloud applications.

Oracle Executive Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison demonstrated next-generation voice user interface and analytics capabilities within Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications at the recently concluded Oracle OpenWorld. The only cloud applications built on machine learning, Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications provide a complete and fully integrated suite of applications that empower business users across the organization including customer experience, finance, HR and

supply chain professionals.

Built on a secure, self-driving cloud platform and cloud infrastructure, Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications take advantage of the Oracle Autonomous Database and separate applications and security processors to help customers increase business agility and reduce costs. According to the firm, customers can easily develop application extensions to meet unique business needs, enhance the user experience through a modern conver-

Larry Ellison, Oracle

sational UI, automate hundreds of manual business functions and automate cloud migration to reduce upgrade costs, accelerate time to value and improve delivery predictability.

Extending the industry’s broadest, deepest and fastest growing suite of cloud applications, Ellison launched Oracle Fusion Analytics Warehouse. A complete analytics platform for business users, developers and IT professionals that is built on Oracle Analytics Continued on page 3

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

For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtonmea.com

Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and/or other countries.

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Redington Value...

Oracle highlights...

center. We partner with companies who value the same approach and we’re thrilled to have found such a great match in Redington Value,” said Justin Doo, Territory Manager Middle East and Africa, Okta. “We’re on a mission to enable any company to use any technology, and with Redington Value’s solid expertise and well-known partner ecosystem across the Middle East, we will be able to help more companies stay secure and offer world-class experiences to their customers.”

Through extensive training and support, Redington Value will assist partners to gain in-depth product knowledge and help them to drive customers’ transformation journey with Okta’s portfolio.

Ramkumar Balakrishnan, President, Redington Value, said, “We are delighted to add Okta to our growing and elite class of vendors. Partners truly have a huge opportunity with Okta solutions to position themselves as trusted advisors for a customer’s end-to-end security and digital needs. Over the coming months, we look forward to delivering the unique value that Okta solutions bring through our partner community.”

and Autonomous Data Warehouse, Oracle Fusion Analytics Warehouse is optimized for all Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications to enable rapid deployment and business value. Customers can use the fully extensible and customizable solution to also bring in data from other SaaS and on-premises solutions.

Ellison said in his keynote address, “We provide you with a set of tools where people can collaborate together and ask questions, work together as teams, and solve problems. It is a whole new generation of applications.

By working together, your good ideas, our good ideas, we can deliver the next generation of SaaS applications in the cloud.”

Tableau’s Top 10 Business Intelligence trends for 2019 The market can expect a common theme for next year, which is the convergence of people, processes, and technology.

Tableau is a leader in the business intelligence (BI) industry. For the past eight years, Tableau has produced its view on the top trends in the business intelligence space, and has now shared what it considers to be the Top BI Trends for 2019.

For this study, Tableau interviewed experts in the industry—including engineers, product managers, and data visualization specialists in the field—to compile the top 10 business intelligence trends for 2019.

These trends focus on strategic priorities that will help organizations’ workforce do more with data.

A common thread running through the trends for next year is the convergence of people, processes, and technology. Data management is converging with business intelligence platforms to link data to context while actionable analytics is merging insight and action to shorten the time and effort between data and decision-making. Tableau is also seeing rising technologies, like artificial intelligence and natural language, evolving to increase transparency into complex models and augment human understanding.

And that’s just for starters. Tableau also explores a variety of topics including shift-

ing roles and responsibilities in the age of modern BI, specifically the data scientist role, and how organizations are applying data ethics principles to data collection and sharing in light of regulations like GDPR. “At Tableau, we believe that everyone should be able to explore their data to find insights that drive action. And in today’s data-driven world, it’s important for leaders to evaluate how emerging trends— from smart technologies to the proliferation of data literacy—will shape how their people understand their data, measure performance, and collectively take their organization to the next level,” said Andrew Beers, Tableau’s Chief Technology Officer at Tableau, in his recent blog post.

Download the full report from https:// mkt.tableau.com/trends/2019_BI_ Trends_report.pdf?id=90986

Blockchain: Hype or hope?

By Dharshana K, General Manager VCG, Redington Value

Blockchain has given a new meaning to digital currencies such as Bitcoins, where transactions happen without any intermediaries or government authorities. This means data can pass between participants without going through any regulated institution. Thus, data exists in a digital format and participants who use it also validate it and keep a record on a distributed ledger – which is known as the blockchain.

Blockchain is a method of digitally recording a particular transaction with other participants in the network validating it promptly while updating their own ledgers. Its prime advantages include immediate validation and recording with the consensus of the participants in the network by creating trust in a trustless environment and improving transparency.

Currency is the most popular use case of blockchain, however, it can have ground-breaking innovations in enterprise solutions such as healthcare, government services, supply chain management and media. It has the potential to reengineer the current paradigm and deliver power back to the people.

Recognizing the distinct opportunities present in this segment, Redington Value is ready to offer its blockchain-based solutions in supply chain management, healthcare and various other enterprise segments through its large partner network across MEA regions. We offer executive trainings, workshops, POCs and pilot projects addressing various customized solutions along with our highly experience ecosystem partners to transform blockchain hope to reality.

For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtonmea.com

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Middle East outpaces global averages in hybrid cloud deployments Nutanix commissioned report suggests cloud interoperability and app mobility outrank cost and security for primary hybrid cloud benefits among other findings.

Enterprise cloud computing firm Nutanix has announced the findings of its first annual global Enterprise Cloud Index, measuring enterprise plans for adopting private, hybrid and public clouds.

The new report found enterprises’ plan to increase hybrid cloud usage, with 91 percent stating hybrid cloud as the ideal IT model, but only 18 percent stating they have that model today. The findings also revealed that application mobility across any cloud is a top priority for 97 percent of respondents – with 88 percent of respondents saying it would “solve a lot of my problems.”

One of the key findings from the Middle East included that the region runs slightly fewer workloads in traditional data centres and outpaces the global and EMEA regional averages in its deploy-

Aaron White, Nutanix

ment of hybrid clouds, with 22% penetration reported as compared to the global average of 19% and EMEA average of 17%. Today, the Middle East runs half (50%) of its workloads in private and hybrid clouds. However, in two years’ time, the region indicates plans to decrease its traditional data centre workloads by more than half, drop its use of private clouds by 7% and increase hybrid cloud usage by the same amount. It also plans to in-

crease its use of public cloud services by up to 10%.

The Middle East ranks data security and compliance as the top benefit of the public cloud and as the top criteria for where to run its workloads, even more often than its peers in other regions Those priorities are followed by cost and performance, values that fall in line with responses from the rest of the world.

Public cloud use shows the most growth in the Middle East over the next two years, where use of a single public cloud will grow by 10 percentage points and use of multiple public clouds will grow by 6 percentage points. Public clouds will then account for more than a third (36%) of the region’s overall workloads, followed by hybrid clouds at 29%, and private clouds and traditional data

centres, collectively at 35%.

Nutanix commissioned Vanson Bourne to survey IT decision-makers about where they are running their business applications today, where they plan to run them in the future, challenges in setting up their cloud environments and how their cloud initiatives stack up against other IT projects and priorities. The survey resulted in approximately 2,300 respondents from multiple industries, business sizes and geographies in the Americas; Europe, the Middle East, Africa (EMEA); and Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) regions.

Aaron White, Regional Director, Middle East, Nutanix said, “It is clear that hybrid cloud is the future. Hybrid cloud capabilities constitute a growing necessity in the dynamic, digital business climate, in which enterprises demand the freedom to dynamically provision and manage applications based on business needs.

Reaching this ideal IT operating model will require more comprehensive hybrid vendor solutions, as well as greater expertise in designing, building, and operating hybrid clouds.”

IBM acquires open source firm Red Hat in a game-changing deal Deal accelerates IBM’s high-value business model, making it the top hybrid cloud provider in an emerging $1 trillion growth market.

In what could well be one of the biggest tech mergers, IBM has announced that it has acquired the open source cloud software for approximately $34 billion.

“The acquisition of Red Hat is a game-changer. It changes everything about the cloud market,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. “IBM will become the world’s number one hybrid cloud provider, offering companies the only open cloud solution that will unlock the full value of the cloud for their businesses.

According to IBM, the acquisition will bring together the best-in-class hybrid cloud providers and will enable companies to securely move all

business applications to the cloud.

IBM said it will remain committed to Red Hat’s open governance, open source contributions, participation in the open source community and development model, and fostering its widespread developer ecosystem.

IBM and Red Hat also will continue to build and enhance Red Hat partnerships, including those with major cloud providers, such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Alibaba and more, in addition to the IBM Cloud.

At the same time, Red Hat will benefit from IBM’s hybrid cloud and enterprise IT scale in helping expand their open source technology portfolio to businesses globally.

For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtonmea.com

Ginni Rometty, IBM with James M. Whitehurst, Red Hat

“IBM’s commitment to keeping the things that have made Red Hat successful – always thinking about the customer and the open source community first – make this a tremendous opportunity for not only

Red Hat but also open source more broadly,” said Paul Cormier, President, Products and Technologies, Red Hat. Upon closing of the acquisition, Red Hat will join IBM’s Hybrid Cloud team as a distinct unit, preserving the independence and neutrality of Red Hat’s open source development heritage and commitment, current product portfolio and go-to-market strategy, and unique development culture. Red Hat will continue to be led by Jim Whitehurst and Red Hat’s current management team. Whitehurst also will join IBM’s senior management team and report to Rometty. IBM intends to maintain Red Hat’s headquarters, facilities, brands and practices.

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Talend to acquire self-service cloud data integration firm Stitch The acquisition will add new offering for new cloud data warehouse users and a frictionless sales channel.

Talend has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Stitch, a leader in the fast-growing, self-service data integration market. Stitch offers an easy-to-use service for moving data from popular sources to leading cloud data warehouse platforms. The acquisition gives Talend both a strong solution for the cloud data warehouse market and a frictionless sales motion to land new cloud customers efficiently.

Under the terms of the agreement, Talend will acquire Stitch for approximately $60 million in cash, subject to certain transaction adjustments. The transaction is expected to close later in the fourth quarter subject to customary clos-

Mike Tuchen, Talend

ing conditions.

“Stitch is a great addition that gives us a compelling offering in the market for simple, self-service integration for cloud data warehouses,” said Mike Tuchen, CEO, Talend. “In addition, we believe

Stitch will work as an efficient high-volume way to acquire new cloud customers to whom we can market our advanced cloud solutions for data integration, transformation, cleaning, preparing and cataloging.”

“Talend is an ideal fit for Stitch.

Their products complement ours, and they share a similar culture and market vision,” said Jake Stein, Co-Founder and CEO, Stitch.

In addition to enhancing Talend’s product portfolio, the acquisition is expected to help strengthen Talend’s value proposition for cloud ecosystem partners including data warehouse partners such as AWS, Azure, Google, and Snowflake.

HPE Pointnext expands datacenter care services to empower modern businesses New expertise and tools modernize IT operations and increase IT management efficiency by 25 percent.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has introduced new operational capabilities to the HPE Datacenter Care services experience designed to transform and optimize customers’ IT environments from the edge to the cloud.

The new capabilities, delivered

by HPE Pointnext, will help businesses simplify complex IT environments and free up resources to focus on innovation and desired outcomes.

HPE Datacenter Care helps businesses run their IT operations by optimizing day-to-day tasks, integrating technology management and streamlining to a more agile cloud-like model. HPE Pointnext experts work with customers to advise on and provide recommendations on a modernization plan which is designed to help mitigate risk and drive IT operational efficiency, so the staff can focus on key IT innovation projects. HPE Datacenter Care addresses a wide

array of routine tasks, from stabilizing and automating customers’ IT environments to streamlining service delivery.

Working closely with its customers, HPE is expanding the Datacenter Care experience to include backup analysis and data loss prevention, SAP HANA migration and business alignment, Microsoft Azure configuration and management, performance optimization, business risk re-

duction and advanced security, automation for routine IT tasks and open source advantages with EnterpriseDB Postgres.

“HPE’s goal is to accelerate customers’ digital transformation by modernizing IT operations and offering best-in-class solutions.

HPE Datacenter Care is built on the vast expertise and IP available from our in-country and global teams, who become extended members of the customers’ IT organization,” said Gerry Nolan, Worldwide Senior Director for Operational Services, HPE Pointnext. “With today’s announcement, we are providing customers with critical skills and tools to help them shift their focus to accelerating innovation”.

The new HPE Datacenter Care enhancements have started rolling out in some markets globally, and more will be available to customers and partners at the end of 2018 and early 2019.

Symantec acquires mobile app security provider Appthority

Adi Sharabani, Symantec

Acquisition reinforces Symantec’s commitment to protect modern endpoints and operating systems Symantec Corp has announced its acquisition of Appthority, a privately held company that offers comprehensive Mobile Application Security Analysis. This technology gives Symantec customers the critical ability to analyze mobile apps for both malicious capabilities and unsafe and unwanted behaviors, such as vulnerabilities, risk of sensitive data loss, and privacy-invasive actions.

The acquisition of Appthority demonstrates Symantec’s continued commitment to securing modern endpoints and operating systems. Last year, Symantec acquired Skycure, a Mobile Threat Defense (MTD) technology, that enabled the launch of Symantec Endpoint Protection Mobile (SEP Mobile). Appthority’s technology will be built into SEP Mobile, further enhancing the firm’s ability to protect the broadest spectrum of modern endpoints and operating systems.

Symantec has also announced its acquisition of Javelin Networks, furthering its commitment to endpoint innovation. Javelin Networks is a privately held company that offers advanced software to help enterprises defend against Active Directory-based attacks.

Adi Sharabani, SVP, Modern OS Security, Symantec, said, “The Appthority technology extends SEP Mobile’s capabilities in limiting unwanted app behaviors, supporting regulatory compliance, and assessing vulnerabilities.”

For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtonmea.com

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Trend Micro research finds major lack of IoT security awareness 37% claimed they are not always able to define their security needs before implementing IoT solutions.

Trend Micro has revealed that 86 percent of surveyed IT and security decision-makers across the globe believe their organization needs to improve its awareness of IoT threats. This significant lack of knowledge accompanies rising threat levels and security challenges related to connected devices, which leaves organizations at great risk.

The poll of 1,150 IT and security leaders1 reveals a worrying lack of cybersecurity maturity in many organizations around the world as they deploy IoT projects to drive innovation, agility and digital transformation.

“A common theme in cyberattacks today is that many are driven by a lack of security

awareness, and this is accentuated with IoT security,” said Kevin Simzer, Chief Operating Officer, Trend Micro. “It’s a good first step to see that IT leaders recognize awareness levels need to rise across the organization. We

recommend business leaders clearly acknowledge the IoT security challenges affecting their company, understand where their security requirements, and invest accordingly to make their security goals a reality.”

A lack of IoT security awareness leaves companies increasingly exposed to potentially damaging cyberattacks. According to the survey, current attacks are targeting office devices most, followed by manufacturing and the supply chain. When an attacker compromises these devices, they can also gain access to the greater corporate network to conduct even more damaging attacks.

To protect against IoT secu-

rity attacks, more than 50 percent of surveyed IT and security decision makers reported they prioritize a few key capabilities in their security solutions. Monitoring for anomalous behaviors and vulnerability management were the most sought after requirements to mitigate the risk of IoT devices being compromised.

In addition to these specific capabilities, Trend Micro recommends a strong network defense approach to ensure IoT devices do not add security risk at any part of a corporate network. The company also offers a range of security solutions related to specific types of IoT devices for additional protection.

Avaya accelerates cloud-based communications Avaya has announced new Avaya Desktop Experience open SIP offerings to enable UCaaS providers to deliver a richer experience to the business desktop, using their UC platform of choice for simplicity and cost-effectiveness.

Avaya has announced new Avaya Desktop Experience open SIP offerings to enable UCaaS providers to deliver a richer experience to the business desktop, using their UC platform of choice for simplicity and cost-effectiveness.

“The open SIP phone market continues to grow year-over-year fueled by hosted and cloud-based communications deployments,” said Mohamed Alaa Saayed, ICT Industry Director, Connected Work and Digital Transformation, Frost & Sullivan.

“Over the past two years, Avaya has significantly accelerated its pace of innovation, particularly in cloud-based communications solutions. The investment and product introduction

in this growing market is a strategic move from the company which continues to be one of the leading vendors in IP desktop phone shipments and revenues.”

The expanded portfolio now includes additional Avaya Vantage devices, conferencing devices, and the complete J100 Series IP Phone portfolio as well as new devices for hospitality, wireless handsets and headsets enabling providers to evolve their offers and to deliver powerful and affordable user experiences across their current UC Cloud infrastructure.

“Service providers of all types can now leverage the powerful, globally known and trusted Avaya brand in delivering unique

For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtonmea.com

experiences to their customers,” said Greg Pelton, Vice President, Collaboration and Devices, Avaya. “The expansion of our Avaya Desktop Experience portfolio in both breadth and third party UC platform support provides an inflection point for UCaaS providers to move beyond generic

voice — to positively transform customer experience while increasing employee satisfaction and productivity, accelerating the ability of organizations of all sizes to achieve key business goals, and improve the overall quality of service that is needed for their users.”

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EVENTS

Microsoft Sales enablement workshop - Dubai - 12 November

OKTA - Redington Partnership launch event - Dubai - 13 November

Microsoft CSP Partner Roundtable - Ghana - 14 November

Veeam On Forum - 14 Nov

DELL EMC IDPA Partner Workshop, Jeddah - 22 October 2018

Fortinet SMB Roadshow - Qatar - 12 November

Aruba Partner Enablement Session - Dubai - 25 October

DELL EMC IDPA, Riyadh - 23 October 2018

Trend Micro Cyber Defence Challenge Dubai - 14 November

Cisco - Partner Enablements Session - 12 -14 November 2018 - Ethiopia

Fortinet Partner Security Enablement Session Ethiopia - 8 November 2018

Fortinet Partner Security Enablement Session Uganda - 13 November 2018

Microsoft Azure Partner Roundtable - 7 November 2018 - Kenya

Microsoft CSP Partner Roundtable - 14 November 2018 - Ghana

Oracle - Integrate and Extend SaaS with PaaS Handson Workshop - Kenya - 13 -15 November 2018

Oracle Partner Executive Forum - Kenya 15 November 2018

Symantec - End Customer Event With Computech Kenya - 14 November 2018

For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtonmea.com

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EVENTS

Trend Micro Cyber Defence Challenge - Dubai - 15 November

Fortinet SMB Roadshow - Qatar - 12 November

Micro Focus End Customer Event with Paramount - Kuwait - 29 October

Micro Focus Partner Enablement Session - Kuwait - 28 Oct

Sonicwall Network Security Day - Oman - 7 Nov

Sonicwall Partner Enablement Session - Dubai - 29 Oct

Splunk Executive Partner Meet - Dubai - 19 Nov

Splunk For Rookies End User Event with Paramount, Riyadh - 29 October

For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtonmea.com

Sonicwall Partner Sales Workshop - Oman - 8 Nov

Micro Focus Enablement Session, Riyadh - 31 October 2018

Splunk For Rookies Technical Workshop, Riyadh - 5 November

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EVENTS

Aruba HPE Enablement session, Khobar - 12 september

Mobile Iron End User Event with Securitty Matterz,Riyadh - 14 November

RSA Enablement Session, Riyadh - 29 and 30 October 2018

DELL EMC # Get Modern, Riyadh - 9 October

DELL EMC # Get Modern, Riyadh - 9 October

Check Point Endpoint BootCamp-Riyadh - 25 September

Nutanix Enablement Session, Riyadh - 29 October 2018

Palo Alto Rountable Session, Riyadh - 22 October

DELL EMC # Get Modern, Riyadh - 9 October

DELL EMC # Get Modern, Riyadh - 9 October

For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtonmea.com

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EVENTS

MicroStrategy Training Session-Riyadh - 16-20 September

MicroStrategy Customer Launch-Riyadh - 8 October

Oracle Block Chain partner Training, Riyadh - 19 September

Microstrategy Customer Launch-Riyadh - 8 October

Oracle Enablement Session, Riyadh - 2 October

MicroStrategy Customer Launch-Riyadh - 8 October

Splunk for investigation-Riyadh - 30 September

Fortinet Power to Secure-Riyadh - 16 September

HPE Simplivity Seminar-Jeddah -3 October

For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtonmea.com

Splunk For rookies-Jeddah - 17 September

Trend Micro Enablement session, Riyadh - 1 October

Symantec Training Session,Riyadh - 16 October 2018

Stu & Mitch IT Team of Two Retailer 198 Employees Technology: HPE Aruba Access Points and Switches HPE StoreVirtual HPE ProLiant Servers

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