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Barracuda Networks
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EMC
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Tripp Lite
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HP
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Symantec
A special publication from Redington Gulf Value Division
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Cisco
presents
the
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Redington Value continues to go from strength to strength as a result of great partnerships and a leading portfolio
Efficient, Innovative Cooling for Data Center Needs Introducing Tripp Lite’s SRCOOL33K Energy-Saving, Row-Based Air Conditioning Unit The harder your data center works, the more it heats up. Tripp Lite’s row-based air conditioning unit provides advanced features that keep temperature controlled so your equipment can perform at its peak. • No plumber required—self-contained unit with built-in condenser • 33,000 BTU (9.7 kW) of cooling power while reducing consumption and operating costs up to 33%! • Outstanding price/performance ratio— costs up to 38% less per BTU
Costs 38% BTU less p than the le er ading comp etito r!
• Variable-speed compressor allows precise cooling adjustments— no more wasteful, noisy cycling between off and full blast • DC inverter technology limits inrush current to prevent line noise and overloads at start up In environments with less demanding requirements, SRCOOL33K
the award-winning SRXCOOL12K Portable Cooling Unit controls hot spots and provides compact, maintenance-free cooling at up to 12,000 BTU.
For Pricing and Detailed Product Information, Contact Tripp Lite Middle East and Africa +971.4.887.1633 • salesint@tripplite.com
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Ready for complexity - Barracuda Networks
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Securing results: EMC
contents 02 Ramkumar’s Blog 03 Interview: Barracuda Networks 06 Focus: EMC 09 Feature: Tripp Lite 12 Highlight: HP
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15 Opinion: Symantec Opinion: Symantec
18 Indepth: Cisco
from the director: Dear partner,
I
t’s been six years since Redington Gulf extended its distribution services to include Value Added Services. From a struggle to be in the consideration set of the channel ecosystem, today the Value Division at Redington has over 20 vendor partnerships trying to deliver a variety of technologies to over 1400 partners in more than 13 countries across the Middle East
and Africa. We continuously strive to enable our partners to be able to address some of the key concerns of IT decision makers in the region such as big data and analytics, flexible delivery platforms, digital marketing and social tools. Our Value Added Division will continue to engage with the channel ecosystem through different communication platforms by not just fulfilling immediate requirements but also working with the channel on
future opportunities technology might bring. I hope you enjoy reading this edition of ‘The Value Plus Quarterly’. Yours Sincerely,
Raj Shankar Managing Director, Redington Gulf
For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com
September 2012
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Ramkumar’S BLOG
Keeping pace with change...
D ear Partner, T he biggest challenge that we seem to face as distributors and channel partners is how to keep pace with the tremendous amount of change that is
going on with the vendor and technology landscape. Which technology and which vendor to bet on seems to be the million dollar question. On the consumer side, the tablet revolution combined with smart phones and on the enterprise, the
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cloud transformation is leaving behind many traditional players and introducing many new entrants into the market. Ten years back, no one would have thought of apple as a phone manufacturer or amazon as a major player in the IT market!!! T o keep pace with this change, we at Redington Value constantly update ourselves in terms of understanding the lead indicators and trends in the market. Apart from this, we also seek to engage and partner with many of the new age principals who are changing the dynamics of this market. Internally, from a technology stand point, we have our pre-sales teams constantly engaging and bettering their domain knowledge and they in turn are educating the channel. We do encourage you to join our partner programme, Partner Connect by logging on to redingtonvalue.com to be updated on the regular online and in-country trainings offered by Redington Value. I n the next few weeks, you will hear from us in terms of bringing new partnerships on board which will help us navigate the ever changing terrain of the technology market. Thanking you for your continued patronage, Happy selling, R amkumar B. V ice President-Value Division, Redington Gulf
http://ram-valueplus.blogspot.com
Barracuda Networks | interview
Ready for complexity Sherif AbdElGawad, Regional Sales Director & GM, Middle East and Africa at Barracuda Networks delves into the details of the recent partnership between Barracuda Networks and Redington .Value aimed at delivering a competitive edge
Please tell us a little bit about Barracuda’s operations in the MENA region? We have been in the region for over five years and since the beginning of the year have revised our strategies to focus on expanding the team based out of Dubai who focus
on operations in the larger MEA region. Our commitment to customers in the region has helped us achieve up to 30% growth year on year across the MENA region with customers demanding the latest in IT security and data protection systems.
In your opinion, how are IT investments in the region evolving particularly across the security and networking space? The strategic initiatives that top the list for CIOs in the region include enhancing operational efficiency, enabling cost saving and
most importantly simplifying complex IT infrastructures using virtualisation and cloud services. Risk management and compliance are driving demand across the security and networking space enhanced further by the significant interest in
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September 2012
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INTERVIEW | Barracuda Networks
technologies like cloud and virtualisation that require implementing dynamic security models that offer ample protection across multiple layers and IT stacks. Why did you decide to partner with Redington Value? R edington provides the professional reach that boost our ability to deliver solutions across the fast evolving markets of the Middle East and Africa. We believe that Redington will enable and scale our business through their ability to execute and support the channel. As a brand how do you differentiate your products and solutions? B arracuda Networks has done a tremendous job of bringing cost-effective, comprehensive end-to-end networking and security solutions to mainstream businesses. With the current economic climate and consequent restructuring of many businesses, there lies huge opportunity for cost effective solutions like ours. Our success is attributed to our ability to deliver endto-end, easy-to-use solutions that address any network issues without unnecessary add-ons, maintenance, lengthy installations or licensing fees. Our simple subscription based fee fits the change in business eliminating the need to pay per user, per session, or per server fees. Our partnership with Redington, will only further enhance our presence across the region. What do resellers stand to gain from this partnership? R esellers can leverage best in class support from a prominent value
Sherif AbdElGawad, Regional Sales Director and GM, Middle East and Africa at Barracuda Networks
added distributor that provides enterprise-class services focused on data protection, security, and network enhancement that is reinforced by Barracuda Network’s commitment to its partners. Our product and business strategy enables partners to adapt their own businesses to drive revenue and earn a significant competitive edge through deep product and technical expertise. How has this partnership fared for Barracuda Networks so far? R edington has demonstrated the commitment which gave us the confidence to accelerate our partnership to the next level by extending
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The ValuePlus Quarterly September 2012
the partnership to include distribution in Africa. Customers and resellers can now take advantage of a certified technical team well versed in the deployment of our award winning NG Firewall, Web Application Firewall (WAF), Backup Solution, and other awardwining security solutions. R edington has also sponsored two technical training sessions for NG Firewall and Web Application Firewall (WAF) to their extended partners in the region as part of their Partner Enablement program. How do you think the IT landscape is set to change in the next 12- 18 months? How will you leverage this
partnership to tap into these trends? C loud and virtualisation are the indisputable major wave of disruption in IT. Most organisations in the region are looking at shifting to ITas-a-Service deployment model which necessitates a shift in vendor business models to be able to leverage virtual or cloud based infrastructures. I believe that we are ready to cash in on this significant opportunity based on our comprehensive portfolio of solutions covering physical, virtual and cloud based environments and a strong partnership with a leading value added distributor in the region. I think this is the perfect storm to tackle the market with valuable cost-effective solution.
focus | EMC
Securing results Top reasons why customers virtualise their desktop infrastructures with VSPEX with VMware view
For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com
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The ValuePlus Quarterly September 2012
EMC | focus
T ransform your end-usercomputing environment with simple, efficient, and flexible virtualisation solutions. EMC VSPEX end-user computing solutions VMware vSphere 5 and VMware View provide IT with proven flexible architectures that improve accessibility, centralise management, and increase security.
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SIMPLE CONSOLIDATION C onsolidate your end-user-computing
environment with EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for VMware View. These Proven Infrastructures are built with best-in-class technologies that allow for flexible, modular and fast deployments that deliver greater efficiencies.
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FLEXIBLE REFERENCE ARCHITECTURES D eploy EMC storage architectures with unparalleled flexibility. VSPEX enables you to combine VMware’s industry-
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focus | EMC
leading desktop virtualisation technologies with your choice of servers, and network, into a proven infrastructure. VSPEX Infrastructure ensure predictable levels of performance, and eliminate the planning, sizing, and configuration burden of moving from physical desktops to virtual desktop environment. SIMPLIFY ACCESS S implify access from any device from any location with VMware View. VSPEX Solutions with VMware View enables secure remote access across multiple devices and allows you to effectively support bring your own device initiatives. This solution allows anytime anywhere access for users and because this solution automates desktop management operations, it will reduce costs and free up IT so you can do more with the same resources. SCALE EASILY Easily scale and expand your environment to deliver predictable high performance and high availability for 250 up to 2,000 virtual desktops. VSPEX Proven Infrastructures with VMware View uses a building-block approach that can scale to thousands of virtual desktops. EMC VNXe and VNX maximise your flexibility with scalable drive types and configurations. In addition, with EMC Avamar for backup, you’ll get the best of both worlds – IT managed backup for virtual desktops
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and the rest of your virtual environment - no matter the size - combined with end-user self-service recoveries. Your IT help desk just let out a cheer. SIMPLIFY SECURITY Securely support end-user mobility by virtualising your operating systems, user data, and applications in the datacenter for simplified management and better utilisation. VMware View’s centralised systems enable administrators to insulate their environments and increase security and compliance. For end-user backup and recovery, EMC Avamar allows for data to
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For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com
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single sign-on support, and the ability for end users to carry their persona with them across “non-persistent” sessions. Easily add and provision unified storage from VNX with Unisphere, and simplify backup management with one solution for your virtual desktop environment and your remaining physical environment – with EMC Avamar and Data Domain. EMC FLASH 1ST Improved performance with EMC’s FLASH 1st strategy ensures that you don’t have to make concessions for cost or performance. EMC FAST Cache enables you to boot up to 1,000 virtual desktops in just 7 minutes while using fewer drives compared with equivalent competitive configurations without Flash drives. EMC FAST Virtual Provisioning (VP) enables automated policy-based tiering of user data ensuring that cold or less active data is tiered to NLSAS drives for the lowest total cost per GB. SPEED BACKUP AND RECOVERY V NX enables organisations to build an information infrastructure that lets you easily scale and manage more data—more efficiently—making any VMware View deployment a success. VNX helps reduce data storage requirements in your environment by up to 50 percent by leveraging block compression, thin provisioning, and file-level deduplication or compression.
The ValuePlus Quarterly September 2012
be encrypted both in flight and at rest. REDUCE BACKUP STORAGE AND BANDWIDTH Reduce backup storage requirements by 10-30 times and get protection of end-user data and reduce network usage by 99% through EMC Avamar global, client-side deduplication. CENTRALLY MANAGE AND PROTECT P rovide complete, stateless customised virtual desktops that can be deployed in minutes with VMware View, that simplify access and provide faster login times,
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tripp lite | feature
Keeping your cool Seven steps to increase data centre cooling efficiency Energy efficiency in the data center used to be an afterthought, if it was on the radar at all. “It made sense at the time,” says Craig Watkins, product manager for rack and cooling solutions at Tripp Lite. “If your data centre felt uncomfortably cold, people were impressed. It was considered a sign that you were doing a good job keeping servers from
overheating. Rack densities were lower, electricity was cheaper and nobody was paying attention to the electric bill.” Today, data centre managers need to keep a close eye on energy costs. According to the Uptime Institute’s 2011 Data Centre Survey, 97% of respondents said reducing energy use was either “somewhat” or “very”
important, and 87% said the primary motivation was cost reduction. An Uptime Institute study also found that up to 70% of data centre energy use is for cooling and air handling, so increasing cooling efficiency is vital to reducing costs. “Start with the low-hanging fruit,” advises Watkins. “You’ll be surprised how much you can save with a few simple steps.”
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Implement Hot-Aisle or Cold-Aisle “You don’t need to keep your data centre at meat locker temperatures,” says Watkins. “Instead, concentrate on removing hot air from the room before it recirculates.” Separating hot and cold air is the key to cooling efficiency. Start by arranging racks in rows so the fronts face each other in
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feature | tripp lite
Combining a hot-aisle or cold-aisle configuration with SmartRack thermal duct rack enclosures (SR42UBTD) and close-coupled, row-based air conditioning units (SRCOOL33K) creates a highly efficient data centre cooling solution.
cold aisles and the backs face each other in hot aisles. That prevents servers from drawing in hot air from servers in the adjacent row. According to studies by TDI Data Centres, hotaisle or cold-aisle configurations can reduce energy use up to 20%. Tripp Lite’s SmartRack enclosures (SR42UB and SR48UB) are optimised for hot-aisle or cold-aisle.
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Install Blanking Panels “Blocking off unused rack spaces isn’t just cosmetic,” says Watkins. “It forces cold air through your servers and prevents hot air from recirculating through the enclosure.” Tripp Lite’s 1U blanking panels (SR1UPANEL10 and SR1UPANEL50) snap into place without tools, saving significant installation time.
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Organise Cables “Tangled cables block airflow,” says Watkins. “They prevent efficient cold air distribution under raised floors and cause heat to build up inside enclosures.” In raised-floor environments, move cabling to overhead cable managers (SRCABLELADDER and SRCABLETRAY). Inside enclosures, use high-capacity cable managers (SRCABLEVRT3, SRCABLEDUCTVRT and SRCABLERINGVRT) to organise patch cables.
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Replace Inefficient UPS Systems “Removing unnecessary heat sources helps cool the room,” says Watkins. Replace traditional on-line UPS systems with energysaving SmartOnline models to increase efficiency and reduce heat output, especially where
redundant UPS systems operate below full capacity.
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Use Close-Coupled Cooling Gartner Group reports that close-coupled cooling increases efficiency compared to traditional perimetre and raised floor systems. “Closecoupled cooling allows you to focus cooling where it’s needed most without lowering the temperature of the entire room,” says Watkins. The modular nature of closecoupled cooling also allows data centre managers to quickly reconfigure cooling to handle new equipment or overheating racks. Tripp Lite’s close-coupled cooling solutions are completely self-contained and can be installed by IT staff without costly contractors,
For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com
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The ValuePlus Quarterly September 2012
plumbing, piping, special ductwork, floor drains, water tanks or extra parts. The portable SRCOOL12K provides 12,000 BTU (3.4 kW) capacity. The row-based SRCOOL33K has a standard 42U rack form factor, provides 33,000 BTU (9.7 kW) capacity at costs up to 38% less per BTU than traditional designs. An innovative variablespeed, DC-inverter-driven compressor prevents disruptive inrush current, allows precise cooling adjustments and dynamically scales output to match the application, further reducing energy costs.
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Isolate and Remove Hot Air SmartRack thermal duct rack enclosures (SR42UBTD) route hot air through an overhead duct to the HVAC or CRAC return
air stream. “They isolate hot air so it can’t recirculate in the room,” says Watkins. “Convection forces hot air up through the duct, like a chimney, and positive pressure in the room and negative pressure in the plenum increase airflow.” You can also add thermal ducts to standard SmartRack enclosures with the SRTHERMDUCT kit.
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Solution Integration Service Tripp Lite’s free Solution Integration service employs experienced project engineers to help you determine the ideal power and cooling provisioning for your data centre and deploy an efficient, scalable, modular solution. Contact your Redington representative for more information.
Add “redefined the data center” to your resume. HP ProLiant Gen8 servers. So intelligent, they’ll transform your expectations of the data center. The next generation of HP ProLiant servers with HP ProActive Insight architecture brings over 150 groundbreaking design innovations* that will reshape how you meet demanding service level agreements and boost performance in your data center. With 6X increased performance*, 3X improved admin productivity*, and increased uptime*, you can turn IT innovation into business acceleration.
The power of HP Converged Infrastructure is here. Watch a new Computerworld video about HP ProLiant Gen8 servers at hp.com/go/proliantgen8_redefine
HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8 servers and HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8 servers powered by the Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2600 series
*For details on claim substantiations, visit hp.com/go/proliantgen8_redefine © Copyright 2012 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
highlight | hp
HP Expands Converged Cloud Portfolio with Optimised Solutions for VMware vCloud Suite New solutions enable VMware users to rapidly build, secure and protect hybrid cloud environments HP has recently announced it is expanding its HP Converged Cloud portfolio with new solutions for VMware vCloud Suite 5.1, enabling clients to transform traditional virtualisation deployments into open private and hybrid cloud environments with less risk and complexity. Introduced in April, HP Converged Cloud extends the power of the cloud across infrastructure, applications and information to provide clients with choice, confidence and consistency. As the industry’s first strategy and portfolio based on a single open architecture, HP Converged Cloud enables the integration of any combination of private, managed and public cloud, as well as traditional IT. This combination provides workload portability as well as dynamic scaling. HP has helped more than 1,000 clients transition from virtualisation to cloud computing with solutions engineered by HP and its partners. The expanded HP Converged Cloud portfolio, built on HP Converged Infrastructure and HP Converged Management and
Security, has been optimised for VMware vCloud Suite 5.1, and includes new capabilities that enable clients to: • Reduce complexity and accelerate building and managing cloud with preintegrated solutions. • Fast-track cloud adoption with comprehensive security and compliance controls that can be automatically applied to virtual machines. • Decrease the risk of data loss with automated policy-based data protection. “As organisations move from a virtualised environment to a private or hybrid cloud, they may face significant challenges with security, performance and the management of multiple, heterogeneous computing models,” said Eyad Shihabi, MD, HP Middle East. “Extending HP Converged Cloud with comprehensive, integrated solutions for VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 enables clients to embrace secure cloud computing with less risk and greater choice.” “With VMware vCloud Suite 5.1, organisations will have reliable, flexible cloud
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The ValuePlus Quarterly September 2012
solutions that enhance business agility while also addressing individual enterprise needs quickly and efficiently,” said Raghu Raghuram, Executive VP, Cloud Infrastructure and Management, VMware. “VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 and HP Converged Cloud solutions will enable our joint customers to accelerate their journey to the cloud, giving enterprises a proven, integrated solution that provides a competitive edge in a rapidly evolving market.” HP accelerates cloud transformation, management with new capabilities The expanded HP Converged Cloud offerings include the integration of VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 with HP CloudSystem, helping clients rapidly transform virtualised resources into self-service private and hybrid cloud environments. To accelerate time to value, HP offers customers preintegrated cloud solutions. Combined with VMware vCloud Suite 5.1, HP CloudSystem doubles virtualmachine density, reduces network complexity and provides flexibility to support any workload.
New HP CloudSystem capabilities integrated with the VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 include: • HP CloudSystem optimised for VMware—provides faster time to revenue with preintegrated solutions that include HP Converged Infrastructure and cloud management from HP and VMware. • Auto-flexing feature—reduces response time to business requests and improves overall service levels by enabling
HP | highlight
For VMware clients challenged with addressing the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) in virtual environments, HP also offers the industry’s first converged PCI Compliance Security Solution Stack for virtual and cloud environments. The solution accelerates the path to compliance covering a majority of 200 security-based PCI DSS controls, removing security hurdles associated with achieving PCI compliance and access to cloud.
VMware administrators to provision hardware for vCloud Director to automate the scaling of converged infrastructure. With this technology, customers can cut the time required to add a virtual host from four hours to 15 minutes. • Virtual-machine importing— simplifies clients’ path to the cloud by easily importing running virtual machines into an HP CloudSystem without downtime or reconfiguration.
• HP Cloud Maps for VMware—accelerates the design of cloud services and automates the deployment of virtual applications using prepackaged, optimised HP CloudSystem templates. New HP security solutions help overcome barriers to cloud adoption The expanded HP Converged Cloud portfolio also includes the HP Cloud Protection Program and Consulting Services, which delivers a comprehensive
security solution across network, storage and server virtualisation layers that can be designed and implemented in less than three weeks. The new service identifies an effective mix of HP and VMware cloud-security capabilities that addresses common barriers to the adoption of cloud services, while enabling compliance controls. Management capabilities include cloud, virtualisation of the network, and storage virtualisation layers.
New enterprise-class dataprotection solution extends support to the virtual cloud HP Data Protector, the industry’s first and only backup and recovery solution supporting federated deduplication for the enterprise, now delivers integrated protection for VMware vCloud Director. This new solution features patented HP StoreOnce deduplication technology, and dynamically provides one-touch policy-based protection for VMware’s multitenant cloud environment. These capabilities help vCloud customers and service providers eliminate the risk of data loss from applications, both on premises and now in the virtual cloud. Availability Select expanded HP Converged Cloud solutions are available through HP and its worldwide channel partners; the remaining solutions are expected by the end of the calendar year. HP also will offer all VMware vCloud Suite editions with HP Converged Cloud solutions through HP sales and channel partners in late third calendar quarter.
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Mobility without vulnerability. Devices. Apps. Data.
Copyright Š 2012 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved. Symantec, the Symantec Logo, the Checkmark Logo, and Norton are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries.
symantec | Opinion
Mitigating the Risks of BYOD with Mobile Application Management By Sheldon Hand, Territory Manager, Africa, Symantec Corporation
Bring-your-own-device (BYOD), is the latest technology trend nipping at the heels of nearly every CIO and CISO. But make no mistake, it is more than just a buzzword; it is a true movement. The concept is simple: Allow employees to supply their own devices, thereby increasing employee satisfaction and hopefully reducing capital – and perhaps even operational – expenditures. Generally, and especially for the purposes of this article, the “device” in BYOD refers to mobile devices, particularly smartphones and tablets. For all its potential benefits, BYOD is without a doubt not the right mobile strategy for every employee in every organization. For that matter, BYOD might not be the right approach for some organisations altogether; the benefits might simply not exist in certain use cases. Also, BYOD
does involve relinquishing at least some control over the devices connecting to corporate networks, resources and data. As always, there are some concerns when relinquishing any such control. That said, the concerns surrounding BYOD are much like those involved with driving a car. Are there potential hazards involved with both? Of course there are, but can those hazards be mitigated? Absolutely! In both cases, preparing for the various hazards by being properly equipped with appropriate protections and tools enables one to reap the benefits of these activities without getting banged up. Proper training, good tires, headlights and seat belts are a few of the preparations needed to operate a vehicle safely. Similarly, there are specific strategies and technologies that can be employed to avoid the hazards frequently associated with BYOD. Of course, there is also always the option to implement BYOD without any accompanying tools and protections. However, like driving a vehicle off a cliff, the hazards will be hard to avoid. In particular, mobile application management, or MAM, presents an intriguing option for preparing for and avoiding the hazards of BYOD. Before analysing how MAM can
be an effective BYOD accident avoidance technology, it is important to acknowledge the three primary, high-level considerations that must be taken into account when it comes to enterprise BYOD implementations. These considerations are: To manage or not to manage: When it comes to BYOD, the first question every enterprise must ask is: How much management of user-owned devices connecting to corporate resources does the company want to be involved in? This question is critical because the degree to which an enterprise is involved in managing various aspects of user-owned mobile devices has consequences. For example, a key anticipated benefit of implementing BYOD is often no longer having to fully manage employees’ mobile devices. In return, support costs are hopefully reduced. However, this aspiration is obviously negated by electing to completely manage userowned devices. Also, fully managing userowned devices often results in intruding on the personal use of those devices that goes beyond the corporate data and resources on them. This might include enforcing device-level authentication and encryption policies and complete device remote locking or wiping,
including users’ personal content. When faced with these realities, users often become disgruntled, and this can result in additional headaches for IT as they deal with pressure from upper management and users circumventing IT to secretly connect to corporate resources. Delivering corporate resources: Next, how will business-related apps and email access be delivered to user-owned devices? After all, without providing BYOD users with adequate access to such apps and corporate resources, having a BYOD program loses its luster quickly. In fact, there is little purpose behind it at all. Thus, a delivery mechanism for providing corporate apps and resources to BYOD users must be put in place. This issue might seem simple on the surface, but it is actually fairly complex. For example, considerations must be taken around where the apps and resources will be hosted and how the company will ensure only the resources appropriate for each user based on their specific needs and permissions are made accessible to them. These issues are made simpler if user-owned devices are fully managed by an enterprise. But what if they are not? Securing corporate resources once they are delivered: Finally, how will the corporate apps, including email access (and
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September 2012
The ValuePlus Quarterly
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opinion | symAntec especially the potentially sensitive data tied to them), remain secured once they are on user-owned mobile devices and what will happen to them when employees leave the company?” This is really the million dollar question. In reality, providing access to business-related apps and corporate resources to userowned devices is only the first part of the equation, and is in fact not the most critical part when it comes down to steering around the hazards of BYOD. The real issue is maintaining the security of those resources and data while not hindering users’ experience with their personal devices. Again, this takes us back to the first consideration – how involved a company wants to be in managing userowned devices. If user-owned devices are fully managed by an enterprise, the apps and resources can be made secure, but all the issues associated with the complete management of user-owned devices are brought to the surface. With these considerations in mind, it should be noted that the most common tool used to implement secure BYOD up to this point in time has been mobile device management, or MDM, technology. MDM certainly has its place in enterprise mobility. In fact, it is an essential part of a complete enterprise mobility strategy. MDM is technically a viable method to both deliver applications to user-owned devices and secure the corporate apps and data on them. For example, many MDM solutions feature corporate app store functionality. They also provide the ability to push applications to managed devices. In addition, MDM solutions allow
enterprises to enforce security controls on properly prepared corporate-connected userowned devices. Thus, MDM does address considerations two and three above. However, using MDM to address these BYOD considerations means enterprises are forced to fully manage user-owned devices because, simply put, that is what the technology does. Thus, all of the concerns and issues associated with complete enterprise management of user-owned devices are fully set in motion. This is where MAM comes in. MAM, in contrast to MDM, enables enterprises to avoid device-level management and instead implement applicationlevel management on userowned devices. As a result, MAM completely negates the issues listed above that are associated with fully managing user-owned devices via MDM. At the same time it also
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The ValuePlus Quarterly September 2012
addresses considerations two and three above just as well, if not better, than MDM. It does this by allowing enterprises to “wrap” each of their corporate apps and the data tied to them in their own security and management layers. This gives enterprises complete control of their apps and data while leaving the rest of the user-owned devices they are on and also users’ experiences with those devices untouched. In other words, with MAM controls such as authentication, encryption and expiration – apps and data can be manually expired or set to automatically remove themselves from devices based on perimeters established by administrators – can all be applied to corporate apps and other resources on otherwise unmanaged, user-owned devices. In addition, superior MAM solutions provide app portals that are tailored to each user to deliver the appropriate corporate apps to individual
user-owned devices. In this way, the user experience of downloading necessary corporate resources is as simple and streamlined as visiting a public app store, but enterprises can ensure that users are only being given access to the resources they have permission to download. Remember when air bags did not exist? Now it is hard to imagine driving a car without the safety and protection they offer. At the same time, the safety mechanisms of an airbag-equipped car are built in without ever impeding the productive use of the car itself, versus a car that has no airbags and is thus more risky to use. Likewise, implementing BYOD without the proper tools is also perilous. However, with the proper tools – MAM being first and foremost – the secure use of user-owned mobile devices in enterprises without hindering users’ experiences with those devices can be a reality.
IN DEPTH | cisco
SMB fit C isco Unified Data Center and EMC VSPEX Server Virtualisationare the apt solution for the midsized companies looking to provision agility and scalability. T he Challenge: Accelerate the Virtualisation Journey T he path to complete IT virtualisation with cloud computing capabilities has three distinct phases, each with its own separate challenges. Phaseone is characterised by the challenge of identifying a server virtualisation solution that will reduce costs and operating expenses. Phase two focuseso n the virtualisation of missioncritical applications, and the main challenges in this phase are helping ensure application availability and improving compliance with servicelevel agreements (SLAs). In Phase three3 the challenge
is to deliver business agility through increased emphasis on end-to-end automation and delivery of IT-as-aservice (ITaaS). Each of these phases can be an obstacle that prevents businesses from advancing toward a virtualisation solution. T he Solution: Proven Infrastructure A s customers contemplate the transformation of IT, they realise that they need a complete and modular virtualisation solution that is prevalidated. The EMC VSPEX platform provides such a solution. EMC VSPEX can accelerate your
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The ValuePlus Quarterly September 2012
organisation’s journey through the phases of virtualisation with solutions that are designed to scale as your business grows. Designed to provide a simple, efficient, and flexible infrastructure, EMC VSPEX solutions come in a variety of modular configurations to meet the needs of your business no matter whether you have just started or are already on your way toward virtualisation of your infrastructure. EMC VSPEX solutions offer architecture choices and enable faster deployment, greater efficiency, and lower risk.
H igh Performance The Cisco Unified Data Center is a complete data center solution that combines computing, networking, security, virtualisation, and management resources in a framework that delivers outstanding performance for physical and virtualised business applications. It is uniquely capable of providing he kind of simplicity, performance, and security that IT departments demand as they transition from physical to virtual and then to cloud environments. S calable T he Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS) integrates
cisco | IN DEPTH
computing, networking, and storage resources to provide a unified data centre, a complete data center solution that combines computing, networking, security, virtualisation, and management solutions in a framework that delivers outstanding performances for physical and virtualised business applications. Cisco UCS has been shown to reduce infrastructure capital expenditures (capex) by 20 to 40% and operating expenses (opex) by up to 40% and can be deployed more quickly than traditional server platforms. A gile Infrastructure C isco Unified Fabric, the industry’s highest-density network fabric for data centre business applications,
delivers end-to-end network fabric at half the cost of competitive systems and with twice the scalability of any competitive alternative. Cisco Unified Management, a framework of awardwinning solutions for IT service creation and self-service capabilities, enables IT to operate more efficiently and to more quickly offer new services to the business. Cisco solutions manage and simplify the deployment and operation of networking, computing, and applications and cloud services in the data centre, and they support open, third-party integration with Cisco’s ecosystem of storage, virtualisation, application, and management solution partners.
ESSENTIALS Challenge D eliver a complete and modular virtualisation s olution that is prevalidated.
Solution T he EMC VSPEX platform accelerates your o rganisation’s journey through the phases of v irtualisation with solutions that are designed to s cale as your business grows.
High Performance I mplement as combined computing, networking, s ecurity, virtualisation, and management solution i n a framework that delivers outstanding p erformance for physical and virtualised business a pplications.
Scalables T he Cisco Unified Data Center is a complete data centre solution that combines computing, n etworking, security, virtualisation, and m anagement solutions in a scalable framework t hat delivers outstanding performance for physical a nd virtualised business applications.
Agile S ignificantly reduces infrastructure capital e xpenditures (capex) and operating expenses ( opex) with a solution that can be deployed nearly 9 0% more quickly than traditional server p latforms.
V SPEX Offerings from Cisco and EMC C isco and EMC are offering VSPEX solutions built on the Cisco Unified Data Center infrastructure architecture. In combination with EMC storage solutions, these reference configurations enable flexible solutions that can easily be scaled, optimised for a variety of application workloads, configured for virtual
desktop applications, and optimised for mixed application workloads and cloud environments. EMC VSPEX with Cisco Unified Data Center is a validated configuration that delivers a virtualised data centre in a rack composed of leading computing, networking, storage, and infrastructure software components on a choice of hypervisors through joint partners Cisco and EMC.
For more information, please write to sales.value@redingtongulf.com
September 2012
The ValuePlus Quarterly
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Redington Event
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1. EMC-Partner Recruitment Event in Riyadh on 6th May 2.TrendMicro-Fast Track Event in Jeddah on 12th June 3. HPN-Product Orientation at Ritz Carlton, Riyadh on 14th July 4. Cisco-CORE Enablement Session By Global Knowledge on 18th June in Ghana 5. Cisco-CORE Enablement Session By Global Knowledge on 21st June in Tanzania
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