Value Journal | Issue 29 | January 2019

Issue 29 // January 2019

HPE to acquire BlueData Expanding HPE’s offerings in AI and Big Data Analytics, the acquisition is expected to close within the company’s first fiscal quarter.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced a definitive agreement to purchase BlueData, a provider of software that transforms how enterprises deploy artificial intelligence and big data analytics, expanding HPE’s offerings in these rapidly growing markets. The acquisition is expected to close within HPE’s first fiscal quarter, ending January 31, 2019.

Founded in 2012, BlueData is a privately-held company headquartered in Santa Clara. BlueData’s software platform uses container technology to make it simpler and

more cost-effective to deploy largescale machine learning and big data analytics environments. By seamlessly combining BlueData’s software platform with HPE’s existing software-defined infrastructure, HPE can help customers accelerate their digital transformation by providing an all-encompassing and easy-to-implement solution for AI/ ML and big data analytics. With this container-based solution, customers can improve agility for their data science teams and potentially reduce their infrastructure costs significantly.

Milan Shetti, HPE

“BlueData has developed an innovative and effective solution to address the pain points all companies face when contemplating, implementing, and deploying AI/ML and big data analytics. Adding BlueData’s complementary software platform to HPE’s market-leading Apollo Systems and professional services is consistent with HPE’s data-first strategy and enables our customers to extract insights from data – whether on-premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid architecture,” said Milan Shetti, SVP and GM, Storage and Big Continued on page 3

SYMANTEC, FORTINET PARTNER TO DELIVER COMPREHENSIVE CLOUD SECURITY SERVICE Partnership delivers essential security controls across endpoint, network, and cloud environments

John Maddison, Fortinet

Cybersecurity firms Symantec and Fortinet have announced an expansive partnership agreement to provide customers with the industry’s most comprehensive and robust security solutions. Fortinet’s Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) capabilities are planned to be integrated into Symantec’s cloud-delivered Web Security Service (WSS). Additionally, endpoint protection solutions are also planned to be integrated into the Fortinet Security Fabric platform. The technology partnership provides essential security controls across endpoint, network, and cloud environments that are critical to en-

forcing the Zero Trust security framework.

“As the first step in this technology partnership, we plan to deliver best-of-breed security through the combination of enterprise-class advanced firewall controls to Symantec’s industry-leading network security service,” said Art Gilliland, EVP and GM Enterprise Products, Symantec. “Through this partnership, we hope to provide joint customers the power of Symantec’s Integrated Cyber Defense Platform bolstered by Fortinet’s leading NGFW in an integrated soluContinued on page 3 tion that’s easy to use and deploy.”

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

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From page 1

HPE to acquire...

Data Global Business Unit at HPE. “Growth in the volume and the types of data in the market continues to accelerate, as does the demand for a fast, easy, and unified consumption experience for AI and big data analytics,” said Kumar Sreekanti, Co-founder and CEO of BlueData. “From our perspective, data is fuel, and BlueData’s software is the engine that helps businesses consume their data and deliver insights in the most effective and efficient way. We’ve had tremendous customer success by providing a turn-key solution that delivers an as-a-service experience for AI and big data, and are excited to reach even more customers as part of HPE.” The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

COLUMN: REDefined

From page 1

Symantec, Fortinet...

Additionally, Symantec’s endpoint protection solution is planned to be integrated into the Fortinet Security Fabric platform, providing customers with real-time, actionable threat intelligence and automated response for exploit-driven attacks and advanced malware. Interoperability between Fortinet’s SD-WAN technology will also be certified to work with Symantec’s Web Security Service through Symantec’s Technology Integration Partner Program (TIPP). As part of the collaboration, both companies plan to engage in joint goto-market activities.

John Maddison, SVP of products and solutions, Fortinet said, “Upon completion of the integration, Symantec cloud web gateway customers will be able to benefit from Fortinet’s enterprise-class advanced firewall controls, and for the first time ever, Fortinet customers will be able to purchase the FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall via FWaaS. With the addition of Symantec as a Fortinet Fabric-Ready Partner, Symantec’s endpoint security solution will be validated to seamlessly integrate with the Fortinet Security Fabric platform to provide more consistent and effective protection for joint customers.”

Fully integrated Cloud Firewall Service within WSS is expected to be available in the 1st half of calendar 2019.

Fujitsu to provide end-to-end enterprise transformation offering with AWS This new offering will enable customers to improve business processes and accelerate innovation.

Fujitsu has announced a new end-to-end enterprise transformation offering which will fast track the move to the AWS cloud for organizations, helping them to improve business processes and speed up innovation. As the result of a new strategic collaboration between Fujitsu and AWS, the new Fujitsu Cloud Service for AWS is available immediately in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA) and enables customers to move their IT estates to the market-leading AWS Cloud.

The new Cloud Service for AWS combines Fujitsu’s extensive expertise as a system integrator with the power and scope of the market-leading cloud platform from AWS. It will deliver a set of services that accelerate the customer journey to the AWS Cloud including business consultancy, strategic assessment, and roadmap for change to advise the most appropriate and efficient way for an enterprise to move to AWS. It will also include additional consultancy services such as infrastructure design, build and test to help with the deployment of new applications on the AWS Cloud, as well as

application modernization services, supporting the re-hosting, re-platforming, and re-architecting of existing applications.

Duncan Tait, Senior Executive Vice President and Head of Fujitsu EMEIA, said, “For successful digital transformation, the two business imperatives are to get there fast, with minimal disruption. By introducing the new Fujitsu Cloud Service for AWS, we are further expanding our capabilities in working together with hyper scale cloud vendors to seamlessly integrate cloud into enterprise IT environments. With this approach, we empower customers with large and complex IT estates to modernize their applications and leverage the scale, security, agility and efficiency of AWS.” Fujitsu joined the AWS Partner Network (APN) in 2014 and since then has quickly grown to achieve Advanced Consulting status with hundreds of AWS Certified and Accredited employees. To address the rapidly growing customer demand for AWS cloud services, Fujitsu has also announced plans to train 4,000 employees in AWS over the next three years.

Embracing consumptionbased IT

By Kunal Singh, Server, Storage and Networking Head, MEA, Redington Value

We now live in a consumption-driven world and IT is no different. Business functions expect IT to play a pivotal role in helping them adapt to constantly changing demands. In order to remain competitive and deliver business outcomes faster, organizations must adapt to flexible, economical and innovative ways to consume IT. Organizations are more and more looking to invest in technologies which offers them consumptions choices, seamless ability to decide on capacity and address specific functional requirements. The HPE GreenLake consumption-based solution addresses the business needs with hardware, software and services in an on-prem or cloud environment. The new model offers multiple consumption-based solutions with uncomplicated financing model for costumers.

From our partners’ perspective, the launch of HPE GreenLake channel model also gives a massive opportunity for resellers to play a key role in the consumption solutions. With an extremely lucrative compensation incentive, channel partners have a great opportunity to position themselves in the consumption-based requirements.

Partners also have an opportunity to offer their own services in the current model. IT-as-a-service is defining the industry and it’s a completely different way of consuming technology, HPE GreenLake offering now allows everyone in the value chain to be a part of it.

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Pivot3 delivers policy-based security for hybrid cloud solutions Pivot3’s expanded Intelligence Engine capabilities enable customers to streamline security and regulatory compliance across the edge, core and cloud.

The hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) performance and technology player Pivot3, has announced new policy-based security management capabilities in its core Intelligence Engine. These expanded capabilities allow organizations to automate and simplify the process of protecting sensitive data with comprehensive, standards-based security for encryption and key management. Pivot3’s new platform enhancements also facilitate regulatory compliance as customers acquire and manage data across the edge, core and cloud.

John Spiers, Vice President of Strategy, Pivot3, said, “Customers rely on us every day to simplify man-

agement at scale. This extension of Pivot3’s Intelligence Engine brings new confidence to IT in knowing that data can be secured and pro-

tected as it moves across the entire hybrid cloud infrastructure.”

Pivot3’s Intelligence Engine enhances application performance,

data placement, data protection, and monitoring and analytics, enabling customers to confidently consolidate multiple, mixed-application workloads on HCI while reducing time, cost and complexity.

To address the increased regulation and compliance requirements, the new capability includes flexible, secure multi-tenancy and data-atrest encryption at a system, volume or virtual machine level, compliant with Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2. Pivot3 designed its data encryption algorithms to leverage Intel Xeon CPUs AES New Instructions (AES NI) to ensure minimal performance impact and low overhead.

SonicWall boosts EMEA presence The company’s key milestones include the opening of new offices.

SonicWall has announced its record year-on-year growth in the EMEA region.

Among the company’s key EMEA milestones include the opening of three new offices in Basingstoke, UK, Barcelona, Spain, and Dubai, UAE, as well as strategic new hires to drive additional regional growth.

Following unprecedented EMEA growth, SonicWall now has a direct presence in 16 countries across the EMEA region including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. The three new office locations in Basingstoke, UK, Barcelona, Spain and Dubai, UAE provide the vendor with improved access to local channel partners, ensur-

ing customers’ across EMEA gain access to SonicWall’s burgeoning channel presence. The move also demonstrates SonicWall’s focus on the EMEA region, as well as the enterprise market, alongside its continuing commitment to the SMB market.

The success of SonicWall’s EMEA business is in part attributable to new enterprise services announced during Q4 2018, which include zero-touch and Cloud deployment of SonicWall next generation firewalls, as well as secure SD-WAN which is now delivered alongside SonicWall’s firewall protection.

Michael Berg, Executive Director Sales EMEA, SonicWall, said, “Our boosted presence across EMEA is part of a long-term plan, and proof of our determination

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Michael Berg, SonicWall

and commitment to strengthen SonicWall’s value proposition among our valued customers and partners within this exciting and rewarding market.

“By ensuring our channel exper-

tise is always within easy reach and that we are committed to speaking local languages, we are better placed to understand and respond in a valuable way to our customers’ individual cybersecurity challenges.

In addition to new EMEA offices, SonicWall has invested in top talents to bolster and lead its teams.

Among which is the appointment of Mario Pucciarelli who is now the Strategic Partner Manager in SonicWall for the Middle East, enabling telecom operators, MSSP and main system integrator to deliver SonicWall cybersecurity solutions to their end customers.

SonicWall is forecasting double-digit growth as it continues to grow its partner base, which has increased by over 45 percent since the company divested from Dell two years ago.

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Ivanti simplifies endpoint software distribution with Ivanti Package Studio Reduces software packaging setup steps from hours to minutes.

Ivanti has announced Ivanti Package Studio, a new software packaging solution for Ivanti Unified Endpoint Manager. Offering pre-packaged content for simplified endpoint software distribution, the new solution can reduce software packaging steps from hours to just minutes.

“Creating packages for software distribution can be riddled with multiple steps, checks and tests,” said Duane Newman, Vice President, Product Management and Marketing, Ivanti. “Ivanti Package Studio dramatically simplifies the process with ready-to-use setups for Windows applications giving IT administrators back valuable time for more strategic projects.”

Duane Newman, Ivanti

Ivanti Package Studio provides a ‘Setup Store’ which contains readyto-use setups for most typical Windows desktop applications. These can be downloaded and configured automatically and deployed using

Ivanti Unified Endpoint Manager. Using Configuration Wizards, administrators can create transform files to customize the setups to align deployment with company guidelines and policies.

Ivanti Package Studio integrates with Ivanti Unified Endpoint Manager, an all-in-one solution for reliable endpoint and user-profile management. Ivanti Unified Endpoint Manager discovers everything that touches the network, automates software delivery and speeds login performance. It also automates and integrates actions with multiple IT solutions to unify the IT management process.

Ivanti Package Studio is available now in the Ivanti Marketplace

Nokia warns on the evolving threat of malicious software targeting IoT devices IoT bots now make up 16% of infected devices in CSP networks, up significantly from 3.5% a year ago.

The use of malicious software to attack IoT devices like smart home security monitoring systems is rising substantially and growing more sophisticated as cyber criminals take advantage of lax security, Nokia’s Threat Intelligence Report 2019 warned.

Driven by financial and other nefarious purposes, IoT botnet activity accounted for 78% of malware detection events in communication service provider (CSP) networks in 2018, according to the report, which is based on data aggregated from monitoring network traffic this year on more than 150 million devices globally where Nokia’s NetGuard Endpoint Security product is deployed.

That is up sharply from 33% in 2016, when IoT botnets were first seen in meaningful numbers.

“Cyber criminals are switching gears from the traditional computer and smartphone ecosystems and now targeting the growing number of vulnerable IoT devices that are being deployed. You have thou-

sands of IoT device manufacturers wanting to move product fast to market and, unfortunately, security is often an afterthought,” said Kevin McNamee, Director of Nokia’s Threat Intelligence Lab and lead author of the report. In 2018, IoT bots made up 16% of infected devices in CSP networks, up significantly from the 3.5% observed in 2017.

As an indicator of the rising threat, the report found that malware-infected crypto-coin mining is expanding from high-end servers with specialized processors to IoT devices as well as smartphones and web browsers. Crypto-coin mining is generally the process by which crypto currency transactions are verified and added to blockchain technology systems.

“Cyber criminals have increasingly smart tools to scan for and to quickly exploit vulnerable devices, and they have new tools for spreading their malware and bypassing firewalls. If a vulnerable device is deployed on the internet, it will be exploited in a matter of minutes,” McNamee said.

The Nokia NetGuard security suite provides protection against a wide variety of bots and malware.

The suite aggregates, analyses and correlates security data from a variety of sources, including endpoint detection software, to help security teams control risks and costs and to improve decision making.

The NetGuard Endpoint Security software includes an IoT behavioral anomaly detection component that is capable of constantly tracking devices against security threats.

The individual traffic profiles of any device, including an IoT device, are machine-learned automatically by the Endpoint system; any anomalies detected triggers immediate trouble-shooting against threats.

Avaya introduces new Device as a Service offering The company now provides three ways for businesses to enjoy the Avaya Desktop Experience - up front, financed, and by subscription.

Greg Pelton, Avaya

Avaya has introduced a new Device as a Service (DaaS) offering that will enable businesses to purchase Avaya’s latest smart desktop devices on a monthly subscription basis.

Similar to how smart devices are purchased in the consumer space, Avaya now provides three ways for businesses to enjoy the Avaya Desktop Experience: up front, financed, and by subscription.

Avaya’s Device as a Service offering delivers the company’s latest smart devices including the Avaya Vantage portfolio, the complete Essential Experience J100 series portfolio of IP Phones, and the Avaya B109, B179, and B189 conferencing devices. With the platform agnostic capabilities of the Avaya Desktop Experience, these devices can be deployed on Avaya or Non-Avaya UC platforms.

Customers can contract with terms of 1, 3, or 5 years, with longer terms offering lower monthly prices. Customers can upgrade at any time to more advanced devices without any penalty.

“Our customers and partners have been asking for this and we are very excited to announce this new offer,” said Greg Pelton, Vice President, Collaboration and Devices, Avaya. “It brings a new level of simplicity to UC as a Service (UCaaS) where customers can now enjoy the best cloud service and latest cloud devices, all on one monthly bill.”

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Cryptocurrency mining affected millions of users in 2018: Kaspersky Lab The major driver behind the crypto gold rush was the installation and use of unlicensed software and content.

The global outbreak in malicious cryptocurrency mining that unfolded in 2018 saw the number of attacks increase by more than 83%, with over five million users attacked online in the first three quarters of the year, compared to 2.7 million over the same period in 2017. The major driver behind the crypto gold rush was the installation and use of unlicensed software and content, according to Kaspersky Lab.

In 2018, malicious cryptocurrency mining prevailed over the main threat of the last few years: ransomware. The number of internet users attacked by malicious cryptocurrency mining software increased steadily during the first half of the year, peaking in March, with around 1.2 million users a month coming under attack.

Kaspersky Lab experts have investigated the economic background of the sudden onset of

crypto-mining fever to discover what drove the global distribution of this threat. They analysed the regulatory landscape, electricity prices in the top 10 countries targeted by crypto miners and main infection vectors for the popular malware families.

The analysis shows that neither cryptocurrency legislation nor the cost of power has a significant impact on the spread of malicious mining malware. However, the investigation of malware families reveals that they mainly infected devices by duping users into installing pirated software and unlicensed content.

“Our analysis of the economic background of malicious crypto mining and the reasons for its widespread presence in certain regions revealed a clear correlation: the easier it is to distribute

unlicensed software, the more incidents of malicious crypto miner activity were detected. In short, an activity not generally perceived as dangerous: the downloading and installation of dubious software, underpins what is arguably the biggest cyberthreat story of the year – malicious crypto mining,” said Evgeny Lopatin, security expert at Kaspersky Lab. Other key findings from the report include: • The total number of users who encountered miners rose by more than 83% from 2,726,491 in 2017 to 5,001,414 in 2018; • The share of miners detected, from the overall number of threats detected also grew, from 5% in 2017 to 8% in 2018; • The share of miners detected, from the overall risk tool detections is also on the rise – from 9% in 2017 to 17% in 2018; • The total number of users who encountered mobile miners also grew, increasing by over five times from 1,986 in 2017 to 10,242 in 2018.

Veritas Predictive Insights uses AI and ML to predict and prevent unplanned service Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning create proactive maintenance experience for IT staff.

Veritas Technologies has announced the launch of Veritas Predictive Insights, a new solution that utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms to deliver always-on proactive support.

Utilizing years of encrypted event data from thousands of Veritas appliances, Veritas Predictive Insights’ cloud-based AI/ML Engine monitors system health, detects potential issues and creates proactive remediation before problems can occur. Predictive Insights also enhances Veritas product availability and customer satisfaction by helping businesses reduce unplanned downtime, ensure faster time to fault resolution and lower overall total costs of ownership.

This latest offering from Veritas addresses the growing concern

from customers to simplify their data and infrastructure management while reducing the risks and costs associated with downtime and access to critical business data.

Veritas Predictive Insights processes millions of events, providing IT administrators with the ability to avoid alert fatigue and focus on significant incidents.

“Having consistently available IT systems is increasingly important

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to organizations that are responsible for managing, analyzing and protecting more and more data points every day,” said David Noy, Vice President and General Manager, Product Management and Alliances, Veritas. “This new technology harnesses the power of AI and continuous ML models to provide predictive analytics to IT staff.

Administrators can then proactively support and remediate a wide range of potential issues before they occur, react much quicker and allow for less costly resolution.”

Veritas Predictive Insights provides prescriptive support services, such as proactive maintenance, performance and capacity forecasting, as well as compliance determination. The services are driven from the power of AI and continuous ML models that uti-

lize years of collected data points from tens of thousands of Veritas customer installations. Combined with real-world input from service personnel, the Veritas AI/ML Engine delivers predictive insights about a customer’s environment, resulting in proactive recommendations and actions to improve their business operations.

Veritas Predictive Insights “Always On” feature allows for intelligent, data driven decision-making capabilities and optimized services ensuring that customers have an enriched support experience, which is fast, proactive and prescriptive.

Veritas Predictive Insights is available now on Veritas NetBackup Appliances and will be available on Veritas Access and Flex appliances in the coming quarters.

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EVENTS

Barracuda Partner Enablement Session - Dubai, 10 December

Fortinet ‘Power To Secure’ Event - Dubai, 6 December

CyberArk Technical Training Session - Dubai, 19 and 20 December

SonicWall Partner Event - Bahrain, 10 December

Fortinet SMB Roadshow - Jordan, 28 November

Fortinet SMB Roadshow - Lebanon, 26 November

Fortinet End Customer Session with STS - Jordan, 5 December

Fortinet NSE 5 Technical Workshop - Dubai, 27 and 28 November

Fortinet Security Day with Bahwan IT - Oman, 16 and 17 December

Fortinet SMB Roadshow - Kuwait, 17 December

Fortinet SMB Roadshow - Oman, 18 December

Fujitsu and NetApp NFLEX Blitz Day with Veeras Dubai, 30 November

Fujitsu and NetApp NFLEX Partner Event - Dubai, 27 November

Fujitsu and NetApp NFlex Partner Session - Qatar, 16 December

Kaspersky Launch Event - Dubai, 20 November

Kaspersky Launch Event - Qatar, 4 December

Pivot3 Sales Enablement Session - Dubai, 5 December

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

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EVENTS

SonicWall Network Security day - Qatar, 29 November

SonicWall Partner Sales Workshop - Oman, 8 November

Microsoft New Partner Roundtable - Dubai, 10 December

Veeam Partner Event with AWS - Dubai, 11 December

Cisco End Customer Event with Multiskills Nigeria Limited - Nigeria, 29 November

Microsoft CSP Partner Roundtable - Kenya, 22 November

SonicWall Network Security Day - Oman, 7 November

Cisco Partner Enablement Session - Tanzania, 29 November

Cisco SMB Partner Session - Tanzania, 4 December

Dell EMC End Customer Event With Jo World Agencies Limited - Kenya, 30 November

Fortinet Partner Enablement Session - Kenya, 29 November

Malwarebytes and MobileIron Sales Session - Kenya, 13 December

Palo Alto Networks and Redington partnership Launch - Kenya, 11 December

SAS Banking Event with Agile Data Global - Tanzania, 28 November

Splunk CIO Event - Nigeria, 28 November

Splunk Partner Rookies Workshop - Nigeria, 5 December

Trend Micro Partner Enablement Session - Kenya, 27 November

Cisco Service Partner Workshop - Nigeria, 19 December

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

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EVENTS

SonicWall Network Security Day - Kuwait, 5 December

Dell EMC Technologies Forum - Riyadh, 10 December

Microsoft Technical Bootcamp - Egypt, 19 and 20 December

Symantec End User Event - Riyadh, 27 November

Splunk For Investigation - Riyadh, 19 November

Splunk For Rookies Workshop - Riyadh, 5 November

Symantec Enablement Session - Jeddah, 21 November

Splunk For Investigation - Jeddah, 5 December

MobileIron Event - Riyadh,14 November

Splunk End User Event - Riyadh,12 December

Kaspersky Launch Event - Riyadh, 28 November

Kaspersky Launch Event - Riyadh, 28 November

MobileIron Event - Riyadh,14 November

Huawei Day Forum - Riyadh, 4 December

Kaspersky Launch Event - Riyadh, 28 November

Kaspersky Launch Event - Riyadh, 28 November

SonicWall Partner Enablement session - Bahrain, 10 December

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

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EVENTS

Aruba Clear Pass Session - Jeddah, 28 November

Aruba Clear Pass - Khobar, 5 December

Microsoft CSP Partner Roundtable - Ghana, 20 December

Dell EMC Technologies Forum - Riyadh, 10 December

Huawei Day Forum - Riyadh, 4 December

AWS Certification training - Dubai, 21 and 22 November

Microsoft - Redington Partnership Launch - Egypt, 18 December

Dell EMC Technologies Forum - Riyadh, 10 December

Microsoft CSP Partner Roundtable - Kenya, 14 December

Fortinet NSE4 - Riyadh, 25 and 26 November

Fortinet for SMB - Khobar,12 December

Fortinet Power To Secure - Khobar, 10 December

Fortinet SMB - Riyadh,19 December

Fortinet ‘Power To Secure’ Event - Riyadh, 5 December

Fortinet ‘Power To Secure’ - Riyadh, 5 December

Fujitsu NetApp Partner Event - Riyadh, 18 December

Huawei Day Forum - Riyadh, 4 December

Huawei Day Forum - Riyadh, 4 December

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