Value Stories | Issue 3

DI FF ER EN CE A MA DE TH AT ST OR IE S

ISSUE 03

POWERED BY

PLAY TO WIN

IN BUSINESS, AS IN CHESS, FORETHOUGHT WINS

$

DATA → INSIGHT → INNOVATION → REVENUE Capitalize on New Opportunities with the Right Infrastructure

ONE SCALABLE PLATFORM Intel® Xeon® Platinum Processor (8000 Series) Best Performance and Business Agility, Hardware-Enhanced Security

Up to 224 Cores (28 cores x 8 sockets)

Up to 12 TB of Memory (1.5 TB x 8 sockets)

Best for Mission Critical, Real-Time Analytics and Artificial Intelligence

Intel® Xeon® Gold Processor (6000 Series)

Up to 88 Cores (22 cores x 4 sockets)

Up to 6 TB of Memory (1.5 TB x 4 sockets)

Great Performance, Fast Memory, More Interconnect/Accelerator Engines More Interconnects

Intel® Xeon® Gold Processor (5000 Series)

Up to 56 Cores (14 cores x 4 sockets)

Up to 3 TB of Memory (768 GB x 4 sockets)

Better Performance, Advanced Reliability Advanced RAS Features

Intel® Xeon® Silver Processor (4000 Series)

Up to 24 Cores (12 cores x 2 sockets)

Up to 1.5 TB of Memory (768 GB x 2 sockets)

Efficient Performance at Low Power As Low as 70 Watts

Intel® Xeon® Bronze Processor (3000 Series)

Up to 16 Cores Up to 1.5 TB of Memory (8 cores x 2 sockets) (768 GB x 2 sockets)

Sockets Cores

Entry Performance As Low as 85 Watts

Memory

Published by

PROLOGUE

CONTENTS 04

IN CLEAR VIEW Grid Info Systems 06

08

STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS The third edition of Value Stories is a testament to the transformation that partner organizations have brought about in their businesses in becoming a true value-added consultant for customers. In this issue, we have featured success stories of innovative deployments in the security, cloud and data analytics space within the region.

Organizations will be compelled to scale their cloud as they expand their operations. Scaling the cloud will enable customers to save costs on hardware, boost network access, allow for customizations on software and increase storage for the growing volume of data.

With data dominating business decisions, channel partners have a huge opportunities as well as a responsibility towards customers in integrating advanced security and analytics in their systems. The stories showcased in this edition prove that regional customers are indeed looking to automate processes, move away from legacy architecture, embrace data analytics and unleash its complete potential, integrate sophisticated security solutions as well as advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Redington Value’s recently launched practice around data science and advanced analytics has hit the ground running with our channel partners taking the charge to strengthen their expertise in these areas.

Gone are the days where we would spend a considerable amount of time coaxing partners to embark on emerging revenue avenues. Today we are proud to see our partner ecosystem taking the initiative and being driven to grow their business together with us.

Towards the end of last year, we had also unveiled CloudQuarks, which is a brand-new revolutionary cloud platform. This aims to help partner organizations build the right foundation and achieve seamless business excellence, when they set up their cloud practices.

We encourage our partners to collaborate with us so that we can mutually maximize market opportunities.

NEW REALITY Augmented House for Software DATA CONNOISSEURS Beinex Consulting

10

IN CONTROL Hemaya IT 12

IN SAFE HANDS Global Brands Group 14

ALL SYSTEMS GO Smart System 16

SECURITY BLANKET Medunet 18

MAN AND MACHINE Delphi Consulting Middle East

20

MISSION POSSIBLE Mannai Trading Company 22

Ramkumar Balakrishnan President, Redington Value

ON CLOUD NINE Candor

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

3

IN CLEAR VIEW

FAISAL MAHAMOOD, BUSINESS UNIT MANAGER, GRID INFO SYSTEMS, EXPLAINS HOW THE FIRM DEPLOYED CHECK POINT SOLUTIONS TO HELP THE CUSTOMER GAIN COMPLETE VISIBILITY AND PROTECT ITS NETWORKS.

T

he CIO of a leading business group in the UAE with a diverse portfolio of companies was dissatisfied with the existing security solution that it relied on to protect its IT infrastructure. The primary issues included failing to solve the task of blacklisting of resources and real-time prevention of cyber-attacks. Also, the customer’s IT teams didn’t have a consolidated management solution for security devices and lacked visibility into the firm’s networks.

In recent years, the company had faced multiple issues around data protection, from unauthorized access to corporate resources to threats posed by ransomware. While the IT team promptly prevented all issues as they came to light, the customer realized the need for a proactive threat prevention approach in order to avoid damage to the business.

The CIO expressed his deep disappointment over the existing solutions with Faisal Mahamood, Business Unit Manager, Grid Info Systems, over a cup of coffee.

After hearing the CIO out, Mahamood was confident of offering an ideal solution to the customer.

Founded in 2009, Grid Info Systems was a family-operated partner business catering to niche requirements in the market.

“The customer was seeking a solution that could give him complete controls over his infrastructure, right from the perimeter to the branch levels,” said Mahamood. “After understanding the requirements in-depth and analyzing the gaps within the organization, we tried to come up with a few solutions, however, nothing was aligning with what was needed.”

He added, “Bringing a product to life is an extremely complicated process and there are lots of factors that can lead to a security vulnerability, from a non-trained developer to risky management decisions.”

According to the partner, it was a challenge to zero in on a vendor whose solutions were not only effective but also within the range of the customer’s budgets.

“Post our research and vendor assessment, we realized that Check Point solutions suit the customer’s

CUSTOMER: A LEADING AUTOMOTIVE BUSINESS Customer’s objective To consolidate multiple security solutions to simplify management and improve security

4

To protect the corporate network from external and internal threats

To protect To increase against Advanced security and Zero-day effectiveness threats and ease security admin workload

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

Why Check Point solution Provided high flexibility

Offered easy approval of access

Boasted efficiency, encouraging employees to be more responsible

GRID INFO SYSTEMS

“THE INTELLIGENCE EMBEDDED IN CHECK POINT PRODUCTS MAKE IT STAND OUT FROM ALL THE OTHER VENDORS IN THE INDUSTRY.” FAISAL MAHAMOOD, GRID INFO SYSTEMS

CUSTOMER: A leading automotive firm in UAE OBJECTIVE: To gain complete visibility and protect networks with one-stop security solution CORE REQUIREMENTS: Consolidate multiple security solutions, protect networks from

needs on all fronts.”

Mahamood and his team carried out detailed proof of concepts at the customer’s premises.

They ran the implementations for around two months, post which, they submitted exhaustive feasibility reports.

“These reports also gave comprehensive visibility to the customer on what is happening in its network. We did a security check using Check Point and the customer was satisfied,” he said. “We pushed Check Point’s enterprise series appliances into their data centre and mid-size appliances into their branches.”

From having no information on their networks such as who was accessing what kind of file or data, the customer now had aligned Check Point solutions catering to the lower end all the way to the

How Grid Info Systems did it Explained how Check Point solution’s features were best-suited for the customer’s needs

Understood the existing gap within the organization infrastructure

Analyzed the different security flaws to suggest an ideal solution

higher end of the organization. The customer was also able to solve issues on premature incidents and become proactive when it came to addressing security breaches. Additionally, it could retrieve information on the complete history of an incident, if in case a security protocol was violated.

“The intelligence embedded in Check Point products make it stand out from all the other vendors in the industry,” said Mahamood. “Check Point also boasts an advantage of being a solely security-focused firm.”

According to Mahamood, the way his team tackled the situation head-on was an innovative aspect of the implementation.

“Redington’s pre-sales team and the vendor account manager also supported us to excel with this deployment.” n

external and internal threats as well as advanced and zero-day threats SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: Check Point Next Generation Threat Prevention PARTNER: Grid Info Systems

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

5

NEW REALITY

SIRAJ SAYYAD, GENERAL MANAGER, AUGMENTED HOUSE FOR SOFTWARE (AHS) ALONG WITH FERAS ALTURAIGI, SOFTWARE ENGINEERING MANAGER, GDC MIDDLE EAST, DISCUSS HOW PTC AND MICROSOFT SOLUTIONS HELPED TRANSFORM THE BUSINESS.

G

DC Middle East, an aerospace technology and engineering company, is based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The company’s aim is to continue investments in its key business areas and build capabilities for achieving growth locally and internationally.

One of the challenges deterring this primary objective was inefficiency with employee training regarding aircraft maintenance processes.

The firm was looking for a solution that will help its technical staff carry out aircraft maintenance and repair equipment without any hassles. It was also seeking a solution that will help the team with training and instructions when doing maintenance.

The customer was also keen to deploy a solution that could help with owner guidance and instructions.

Grasping the customer’s pain points thoroughly, Augmented House for Software (AHS) recommended

to deploy PTC Vuforia AR technology and Creo Illustrate on Microsoft HoloLens.

Addressing the CAD and IT space across MENA, AHS adds value by offering technical trainings and CAD support services through its engineers who are armed with over 20 years of domain expertise.

Siraj Sayyad, General Manager, AHS, said, “The customer wanted to transform its aircraft maintenance process. After doing a detailed market research, we recommended PTC Vuforia AR, Creo Illustrate and Microsoft HoloLens, which we believe were a perfect match for the customer’s requirements.”

PTC’s augmented reality (AR) solution and the insights from real-time IoT data, enables technicians to leverage digital information, in any situation, in context to the physical equipment. Creo Illustrate permits technical illustrators to use existing CAD data to create 3D illustrations, interactive sequences, and 2D drawings.

Sayyad added, “We believed this was the ideal

CUSTOMER: GDC MIDDLE EAST Customer objective To carry out maintenance and repair on equipment

6

To train technicians

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

Why PTC solution To help with owner guidance and instructions – digital manuals

PTC Vuforia is the market leader in augmented or mixed reality solution

Users can quickly build scalable step by step AR service experience

Enables technicians to leverage digital information anywhere

AUGMENTED HOUSE FOR SOFTWARE

“WE BELIEVED THIS WAS THE IDEAL SOLUTION FOR THE CUSTOMER AS IT WAS SCALABLE, HAD EASILY CONSUMABLE AR EXPERIENCES, IMPROVED WORKFORCE PRODUCTIVITY, OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY AND TRAINING PROCESSES.” SIRAJ SAYYAD, AUGMENTED HOUSE FOR SOFTWARE

AT A GLANCE CUSTOMER: GDC Middle East CUSTOMER TYPE: Aerospace technology and engineering company OBJECTIVE: To train employees on how to inspect and service aircraft parts CORE REQUIREMENTS: Recognize objects in the aircraft, help staff carry out maintenance checks and repairs easily, help with instructions when doing the repairs

solution for the customer as it was scalable, had easily consumable AR experiences, improved workforce productivity, operational efficiency and training processes.”

One of the main challenges the implementation posed was having sufficient 3D data to create AR experiences, he explained.

“We positioned PTC customer success package, which ensured 100 percent adoption.”

Post deployment, the customer was able to reduce errors while servicing equipment and aircraft easily.

Feras AlTuraigi, Software Engineering Manager, GDC Middle East, said, “We wanted a technology that will help us recognize objects. The aim was to help

How AHS did it Understood customer challenges

Scouted the market and selected PTC

Carried out the implementation swiftly without obstructing operations

technicians carry out maintenance in the aircraft smoothly.”

In this regard Microsoft HoloLens, an untethered mixed reality headset that’s designed to help solve real business problems using intelligent apps, came to the rescue.

“The objective was to get our staff to use HoloLens when working on a part and see all the information appearing in front of them, making it easy to follow instructions effortlessly,” AlTuraigi added.

According to GDC Middle East, the reason why it invested in PTC solutions was largely due to the support the firm and the partner extended. At the same time, the solutions were quick and easy to implement. n

SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: PTC Vuforia AR, Creo Illustrate and Microsoft HoloLens PARTNER: Augmented House for Software – AHS

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

7

DATA CONNOISSEURS ASHWIN BHATIA, DIRECTOR, BEINEX CONSULTING, DISCUSSES HOW THE TABLEAU BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SOLUTION ENABLED A LEADING AUTOMOTIVE MANUFACTURER TO STREAMLINE ITS BUSINESS AND DELIVER BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE WITH THE POWER OF DATA AND ANALYTICS.

O

rganizations are increasingly looking to enhance their operational performance by trying to realize the complete potential of data and analytics. However, in order to do that, they have to first create a data-driven strategy and mindset within the business.

This was easier said than done, as the Middle East office of a leading automotive manufacturer discovered.

The car manufacturer faced a number of challenges when it decided to embark on its data analytics journey. The firm had information originating from multiple data sources, making it difficult to determine a single source of truth. It also had users who were spending 90 percent of their time generating reports rather than analysing and deriving actionable insights. The company’s IT department was stretched as its three-member team was taking the lead for running the business intelligence (BI) layer for its entire Middle East operations along with shouldering other responsibilities. The firm also battled with data quality issues such as inaccuracies and lack of governance.

To address these issues, the manufacturer saw the benefits of moving towards self-service analytics. It

enlisted Beinex Consulting’s expertise in achieving its objectives. A true value-added solutions provider, Beinex Consulting went the extra mile to guide the customer at every step of its move to data analytics.

While the customer was keen on going all out straightaway, the channel partner recommended against it and suggested to create a systematic approach first.

Ashwin Bhatia, Director, Beinex Consulting, said, “We began by conducting a detailed gap assessment of the client’s existing scenario. We spent time talking to all business users across departments to understand the requirements and challenges. Our gap analysis report identified four key areas to improve – people, process, technology and data.”

As an award-winning Tableau partner, Beinex Consulting was an expert in the Business Intelligence tool.

The partner went on to create a well-structured analytics roadmap, which addressed the gaps it had identified as well as directed the business users on how to run the adoption of Tableau BI tool within the organization. The roadmap included activities such as conducting Tableau days, specific events and activities as well as relevant trainings for users.

“The customer had business users who had never

CUSTOMER: A LEADING AUTOMOTIVE MANUFACTURER Customer objective

To move towards self-service analytics

8

To consolidate multiple data sources

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

Why tableau solution

To streamline operations through BI tool

Helped increase Provided selfFeatured as Gartner business efficiency service analytics Magic Quadrant tool that was leader for several consecutive years scalable and easy to adapt

BEINEX CONSULTING “WE CONDUCTED DATA LITERACY SESSIONS AND WORKSHOPS FOR THEM. AND AS THEY GOT ACQUAINTED WITH THE SOLUTION, THEY REALISED HOW EFFORTLESS THE ADOPTION WAS AND HOW IT GREATLY ENHANCED THEIR OPERATIONS.” ASHWIN BHATIA, BEINEX CONSULTING

worked on a BI tool and didn’t have time to spend on data analysis. The firm had to change the whole mindset of the employees, which was no easy task,” Bhatia explained. “Our team helped them identify data champions in each department.”

The customer began to work on implementing the roadmap.

From having only three members of its IT department using Tableau software, it now boasted almost 45 Tableau developers and more than 120 consumers of Tableau dashboards.

AT A GLANCE CUSTOMER: A leading automotive manufacturer OBJECTIVE: To move towards self-service analytics and unite multiple data sources through an effective and scalable business intelligence tool

“The users were now able to extract information from the customer’s multiple data sources such as cloud, excel and social media, and place it into dashboards. It now had more than 350 dashboards, which were also customized for projecting on television screens.”

The Tableau BI tool also enabled the customer’s social media and marketing team to connect to Tableau to monitor statistics, conduct sentiment analysis and analyse social media trends.

Bhatia, said, “When we first spoke to the employees, none of them wanted to use Tableau as they were inexperienced with a BI tool and felt it would be difficult. We were essentially asking them to change their complete working process.

“We conducted data literacy sessions and workshops for them.

And as they got acquainted with the solution, they realised how effortless the adoption was and how it greatly enhanced their operations.”

How Beinex Consulting did it

Conducted extensive Created an analytics roadmap for gap analysis exercise business users to on four fundamentals embark on self- people, process, service analytics technology and data journey

Conducted Data Literacy Workshops for business users and identified potential champions

Increased employee receptiveness to using BI tool by conducting workshops

According to Bhatia, the biggest challenge was changing the mindset of the business users.

“They did not have any data analysts within the team who understood what the data problems were. Also, their issues around data were extremely complicated and some data was unstructured. It was challenging to clean and streamline the data initially to bring it into shape for Tableau to consume.

However, Tableau Prep, a feature in the solution, made it much easier to automate this process.”

Beinex Consulting was able to achieve all the customer objectives over a period of three months.

“The customer enhanced its business significantly as more than half of its functions were now automated. Also, hundreds of hours were saved, which were otherwise spent on achieving certain KPIs such as connecting to multiple data sources, manual reporting, and conducting repetitive tasks,” added Bhatia. n

CORE REQUIREMENTS: Self-service analytics, unite multiple data sources, automate report generation, data cleansing, enable employees to leverage BI tool SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: Tableau Business Intelligence PARTNER: Beinex Consulting

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

9

IN CONTROL

HOSSAM GEMEAI, INFORMATION SECURITY ENGINEER, HEMAYA IT, OUTLINES THE MAIN FACETS OF A MOBILEIRON MDM DEPLOYMENT, WHICH ALLOWED A CUSTOMER FROM THE BANKING SECTOR TO GOVERN ACCESS TO CORPORATE DATA WHILE ALSO PRESERVING EMPLOYEES’ PRIVACY.

O

ne of the largest banks operating in Egypt with over 210 branches across the country, the Bank of Alexandria, was in search for an effective solution that would allow its employees to access corporate email and internal web portals securely on their personal devices.

As a financial institution housing critical and sensitive data, the bank could not afford a breach of any kind. Another requirement from the bank was that it should be able to delete data remotely in case personal devices were lost or stolen or in the event of an employee leaving the company.

Egypt-based systems integrator, Hemaya IT, which specializes in information security solutions and ser-

vices, was confident that it could solve the customer’s challenges through MobileIron solutions.

Hossam Gemeai, Information Security Engineer, Hemaya IT, said, “MobileIron solutions made it feasible to create a virtual container inside employees’ personal devices. This will segregate and hold corporate data and applications. The information within the container is also encrypted.”

Data Loss Prevention element embedded in the solution prevents users from copying/pasting outside container, taking snapshots, printing and open-in. The container can only be accessed through a pin code, which is different from the one that is used for the device itself.

Gemeai added, “The customer could be at ease as the access for e-mail and applications was only

CUSTOMER: BANK OF ALEXANDRIA Customer objective

To allow access for corporate emails and internal websites on personal devices

10

To remotely erase data in the event of employee departure

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

Why MobileIron solution

To secure both data at-rest and data in-motion

Provided encryption Offered a secure Enabled the for this data tunnel for accessing creation of virtual corporate email and container inside websites. employees’ personal devices to hold corporate data and applications.

HEMAYA IT

“MOBILEIRON SOLUTIONS MADE IT FEASIBLE TO CREATE VIRTUAL CONTAINER INSIDE EMPLOYEES’ PERSONAL DEVICES. THIS WILL SEGREGATE AND HOLD CORPORATE DATA AND APPLICATIONS. THE INFORMATION WITHIN THE CONTAINER IS ALSO ENCRYPTED.” HOSSAM GEMEAI, HEMAYA IT

AT A GLANCE CUSTOMER: Bank of Alexandria OBJECTIVE: To allow bank employees to access corporate e-mail and internal web portals on personal mobile devices securely

through a secure tunnel. Also, the access is only allowed to registered and compliant devices. The solution secured both data at-rest and data in-motion.”

Through the MobileIron solution, the customer can now allow the use of e-mail and corporate applications on personal devices with the confidence that corporate data were completely secured.

“Allowing employees to work on the devices they love increased their overall productivity,” said Gemeai. “We managed to achieve what the customer wanted while simultaneously preserving employees’ privacy.”

According to the partner, com-

How Hemaya IT did it

Offered strong security solutions that met customer expectations

Deployed security solution for the customer without impacting employee privacy

Delivered the project efficiently and swiftly

pleting pre-requisites for implementation such as security and network readiness was a major challenge.

“This was because we needed to coordinate with many teams to get the job done efficiently. However, we managed to complete the deployment and went live in five full days, which was considered as a record.”

Gemeai added that the aspect, which stood out in this deployment was ensuring the configurations were strengthened to pass all the penetration testing from the bank.

“The project would not have been accepted without passing all compliance needs and making sure there were no security gaps.” n

CORE REQUIREMENTS: Secure access of corporate emails and internal websites, remotely delete data if employee leaves the firm or device is stolen SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: MobileIron PARTNER: Hemaya IT

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

11

IN SAFE HANDS KARIM ATEF, AZURE CLOUD ARCHITECT, GLOBAL BRANDS GROUP, ON THE SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF PALO ALTO NETWORKS SOLUTION TO SECURE ASSETS IN THE PUBLIC CLOUD.

E

stablished in 1998, Amoun Pharmaceutical Company’s main line of business includes developing, manufacturing, marketing, distributing and exporting a wide range of human pharmaceutical and animal health products.

As enterprises increasingly understand the benefits of hosting their resources on a public cloud, the adversaries target them more and more. In such a landscape, the customer wanted to ensure that it had the same level of security for its public cloud as its on-premise infrastructures.

With its disaster recovery site on Microsoft Azure Public Cloud, Amoun Pharmaceutical sought to segment its infrastructure and secure traffic between

different subnets on the cloud. It also was looking to secure published services on the cloud.

Following a rigorous process, the customer selected Egypt-based Global Brands Group to implement a solution that matched its requirements.

Global Brands Group is one of the fastest growing IT companies in the country and is known to be a leading provider of consulting, technology and outsourcing services.

Karim Atef, Azure Cloud Architect, Global Brands Group, said, “After a detailed analysis of the customer’s challenges, we offered them Palo Alto Networks Virtual Firewall on Microsoft Azure.”

First, the firm configured a secure IPSec site to site VPN to connect on-premise applications to the Azure environment. Then the servers on Azure were published through a virtual firewall.

CUSTOMER: AMOUN PHARMACEUTICAL Customer’s objectivE

To segment infrastructure on public cloud

12

To safeguard To secure traffic published between different services on public subnets on the cloud cloud

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

Why Palo Alto Networks solution

Offered seamless integration with other security vendors on Azure cloud

Provided same level of security and visibility for the cloud as was onpremises

Met customer’s complete requirements

GLOBAL BRANDS GROUP

“I BELIEVE THE INTEGRATION BETWEEN PALO ALTO FIREWALL WITH OTHER SECURITY VENDORS ON AZURE CLOUD IS THE MOST INNOVATIVE ASPECT OF THIS IMPLEMENTATION. THE CUSTOMER IS NOW CONFIDENT THAT ITS DATA AND SERVICES IN THE CLOUD ARE AS SECURE AS IT IS ONPREMISES.” KARIM ATEF, GLOBAL BRANDS GROUP

AT A GLANCE CUSTOMER: Amoun Pharmaceutical OBJECTIVE: To segment infrastructure and secure traffic between different subnets on the cloud in addition to secure published services in DR site on Microsoft Azure Public Cloud

“We then secured traffic between database and application tiers within Azure. The customer now had the same level of security and visibility in the cloud as on-premises,” Atef added. “This gave the firm more confidence that its applications and data were secure in the cloud.”

According to Atef, there were few challenges when implementing the solution. “The major challenge was having servers on-premises to replicate to Microsoft Azure by using the same IP address. Also, another requirement was that the server should

How Global Brands did it

Surveyed customer challenges in detail

Offered ideal industry-leading solutions

Addressed customer requirements efficiently

be accessible only during failure of the data center on-premises.

So, we used Azure’s VNet peering feature along with routing failover on Palo Alto Virtual Firewall It took three full days to complete all the required use cases for the implementation, he added.

“I believe the integration between Palo Alto Firewall with other security vendors on Azure cloud is the most innovative aspect of this implementation.

The customer is now confident that its data and services in the cloud are as secure as it is on-premises.” n

CORE REQUIREMENTS: Security of public cloud assets, visibility and control like on-premise SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: Palo Alto Networks Virtual Firewall on Microsoft Azure PARTNER: Global Brands Group

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

13

ALL SYSTEMS GO

SAMEH EL-MAHS, NETWORK AND VOICE ENGINEER, SMART SYSTEM, DISCUSSES HOW THE FIRM IMPLEMENTED PALO ALTO NETWORKS SOLUTIONS TO SECURE A CUSTOMER’S NETWORK WITHOUT DISRUPTIONS.

A

lexandria International Container Terminals (AICT), a free zone company operating two fully integrated container terminals at Egypt’s main commercial ports, was looking for a robust security solution, which can secure its vast networks at its perimeter and data center sites.

The biggest challenge they faced was that its networks were vulnerable to being compromised by known and unknown threats. Considering the scale of business, the customer decided that the firm needed a solution that would not only protect but also provide complete visibility over its network applications and users. Additionally, it was seeking a solution that can monitor and track encrypted traffic.

Having understood the customer requirement thoroughly, Sameh El-Mahs, Network and Voice Engineer, Smart System and his team recommended Palo Alto Networks Next Generation Firewall using App-ID, User-ID and Content-ID technologies.

The Egypt-based IT solutions and services provider Smart System boasted expertise in offering a high level of integration with IT service management, enterprise asset management, cloud computing, virtualization and storage infrastructure solutions, security solution and so on.

El-Mahs said, “We recommended the solution, in addition to threat intelligence offered, as a cloud service to detect unknown and targeted attacks. We offered PA-800 series firewalls to be used as Internet firewalls for customer’s main as well as DR sites.

This secured published applications and users Internet access and protected the network from attacks

CUSTOMER: ALEXANDRIA INTERNATIONAL CONTAINER TERMINALS

Customer’s objectivE

To secure network, including perimeter and data center , against known and unknown threats

14

To have better visibility over network applications and users

To monitor and track encrypted traffic

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

Why Palo Alto Networks Next Generation Firewall solution Offered threat intelligence as a cloud service

Supported Effortlessly detected comprehensive unknown and visibility into network targeted attacks

SMART SYSTEM “THE CUSTOMER NOW HAS FULL VISIBILITY AND CONTROL OVER NETWORK TRAFFIC, BOTH INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL, AND WAS ABLE TO SECURE ITS NETWORK AGAINST, BOTH KNOWN AND UNKNOWN, THREATS WITH PALO ALTO NETWORKS’ LEADING TECHNOLOGIES.” SAMEH EL-MAHS, SMART SYSTEM

AT A GLANCE CUSTOMER: Alexandria International Container Terminals (AICT) OBJECTIVE: To secure network against known and unknown threats and have better visibility over network applications, users and encrypted traffic

originating from the Internet.”

Smart System also deployed PA-3000 series firewalls to be used as data center firewalls to protect servers and internal critical applications against attacks originating from internal networks, which also detected and prevented lateral movement of threats.

“Panorama, which centralized management, logging and reporting for Palo Alto firewalls was used to simplify management of the deployed firewalls and provided single pane of glass for the whole network security,” explained El-Mahs.

As a partner one of the main challenges Smart System faced was that the customer’s operations were 24/7.

“Just 15 minutes of down time would result in huge losses for

CORE REQUIREMENTS: Minimum disruptions to daily operations, comprehensive visibility and security SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: Palo Alto Networks Next Generation Firewall PARTNER: Smart System

How Smart System did it

Offered PA-800 series firewalls and PA-3000 series firewalls

Carried out the installations with minimum disruptions

the company,” he added. “We had to ensure the installation was carried out with minimum disruption as possible, which was challenging. By working nonstop for ten days and by detailed planning, well thought out designing and precise execution, we managed to successfully do this.”

According to El-Mahs, configuring high availability across the customer’s main and disaster recovery sites while achieving minimum failover time possible were the most innovative aspects of the deployment.

“The customer now has full visibility and control over network traffic, both internal and external, and was able to secure its network against, both known and unknown, threats with Palo Alto Networks’ leading technologies.” n

Obtained full visibility and control over network traffic for the customer

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

15

SECURITY BLANKET

AHMAD S. ALSABBAH, NOC MANAGER, MEDUNET, ON WHY FORTINET FORTIGATE FIREWALL WAS THE MOST COMPATIBLE SOLUTION FOR ITS OWN CORE REQUIREMENTS.

M

eduNet is a technology solutions and consultancy organization that assists customers to develop its businesses through innovations in the ICT space.

Headquartered out of Saudi Arabia, the company provides unique services and solutions in a wide range of sectors, and specifically in healthcare and education.

Ahmad S. Alsabbah, NOC Manager, MeduNet, said, “As an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and cloud hosting company, we have three data centers – two in Riyadh and one in Jeddah. We offer our customers a whole range of services from Internet and application services as well as security-as-a-service.”

The ISP has successfully delivered a project where Fortinet FortiGate Firewalls were deployed at its own premises to address its security related concerns.

The company realized it was time to upgrade its

existing firewall, which was from another vendor with a new next-generation solution.

“We were on the lookout for a new security solution, which could replace the outdated virtual firewall that we had in place for the last several years,” said Alsabbah. “This was placed inside our core switches and perhaps had never been updated over the past five or six years. It was high time we changed the solution.”

The company lacked visibility into its networks and was highly susceptible to advanced security threats.

After analyzing the benefits of Fortinet FortiGate Firewall solution and taking into consideration the company’s scale of operations, Alsabbah was convinced it was the most ideal solution for the firm.

He said, “We ran comparisons with other vendors, in terms of the prices, capabilities, meeting our needs and requirements. We found that Fortinet FortiGate Firewall was the most compatible solution for us.”

The solution promised high threat protection performance with automated visibility to prevent attacks. FortiGate next-generation firewalls utilize cus-

CUSTOMER: MEDUNET Why Fortinet FortiGate NextGeneration Firewall

Customer’s objective

To enhance security To improve visibility of operations on networks

16

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

To increase efficiency

Offered comprehensive threat protection

Reduced complexity with automated visibility

Advance yet effective interfaces and features

MEDUNET

“IT WAS DIFFICULT TO MOVE FROM A LEGACY SYSTEM TO A NEW NEXT-GENERATION FIREWALL SOLUTION. DURING THE IMPLEMENTATION, WE FACED SEVERAL CHALLENGES. WE HAD TO SORT OUT TRAFFIC MONITORING, BACKUP INTEGRATIONS AND OTHER SUCH ISSUES WITH THE EXISTING SOLUTION.” AHMAD S. ALSABBAH, MEDUNET

AT A GLANCE CUSTOMER: MeduNet OBJECTIVE: To replace existing virtual firewall with a new nextgeneration solution CORE REQUIREMENTS: Enhanced visibility on networks, advance protection, improve efficiency

tom-built security processors and threat intelligence security services to deliver top-rated protection and high performance including encrypted traffic. The solution reduces complexity with automated visibility into applications, users and network and provides security ratings to adopt security best practices.

After deploying Fortinet Fortigate firewalls, MeduNet now had comprehensive threat protection, including intrusion prevention, web filtering, anti-malware and application control.

“This implementation will not only be helping us but also will assist us in serving our customers.”

According to Alsabbah, the

How MeduNet did it

Compared vendors and analyzed benefits

Understood core requirements

primary challenge was migrating the existing virtual firewall to a new physical firewall.

“It was difficult to move from a legacy system to a new next-generation firewall solution. During the implementation, we faced several challenges. However, it was not related to the new solution. We had to sort out traffic monitoring, backup integrations and other such issues with the existing solution.”

The project was completed over a period of 30 days. Alsabbah added that the most appealing features about Fortinet solution were the advanced yet simple-to-use dashboards, monitoring interfaces and traffic among other innovative features. n

SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: Fortinet Fortigate Firewalls PARTNER: MeduNet Carried out the migration to the new firewall smoothly

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

17

MAN AND MACHINE

ANKIT BHUTANI, HEAD OF BUSINESS OPERATIONS, DELPHI CONSULTING MIDDLE EAST, DISCUSSES HOW A BUSINESS OUTCOME ORIENTATION HAS HELPED THE FIRM GROW ITS ACCOLADES.

A

large-scale real estate giant was facing challenges when attempting to streamline its operations by automating certain functions. The firm was spending a large amount of time and resources in dealing with administrative tasks such as getting employee leaves approved, locating documents and so on.

After an unsuccessful experience with a previous partner, the firm decided to give Microsoft-recommended Delphi Consulting Middle East a chance.

The customer had multiple meetings with the partner and learned the expertise and capabilities it boasted.

Ankit Bhutani, Head of Business Operations, Delphi Consulting Middle East, said, “We are a consulting firm and the primary reason why we started off is to solve business problems. Unlike other channel partners, we are not product-oriented.

“We believe the main reason the customer chose us was because of our business knowledge. We genuinely try to comprehend the customer’s business, instead of just going in and implementing the technology.”

After spending considerable time understanding the core requirements, the Delphi Consulting team knew without a doubt that Microsoft Azure Bot Services would perfectly address the customer’s challenges.

Azure Bot Service provides an integrated environment that is purpose-built for bot development, enabling customers to build, connect, test, deploy, and manage intelligent bots, all from one place.

“With this solution, all an employee had to do was type in his request such as ‘where to find a document’ or ‘How to do a task’ and the Bot would immediately do the search and respond to the user,” explained Bhutani.

For the solution to work smoothly, it is necessary to feed in certain information in the beginning.

CUSTOMER: REAL ESTATE GIANT Customer’s objective

To automate administrative tasks

18

To reduce costs and additional resources

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

Why azure bot services

To improve operational efficiency

Provided integrated environment

Permitted creation of conversational interfaces

Supported simple yet effective features

DELPHI CONSULTING MIDDLE EAST

“WE GENUINELY TRY TO COMPREHEND THE CUSTOMER’S BUSINESS, INSTEAD OF JUST GOING IN AND IMPLEMENTING THE TECHNOLOGY.” ANKIT BHUTANI, DELPHI CONSULTING MIDDLE EAST

AT A GLANCE CUSTOMER: Real Estate giant OBJECTIVE: To streamline operations through automation CORE REQUIREMENTS: Reduce costs and surplus resources,

“We were able to reduce the resources required and in turn increase productivity and efficiency.”

Bhutani admits that it was a challenging process as the service was newly introduced to the market and therefore takes time for the staff to get used to a different way of working.

“Post implementation, we now have the employees asking all sorts of questions to which the Bot responds to. The Bot also learns on its own as it uses machine learning on the back end,” he explained.

According to Bhutani, the real challenge was managing and meeting customer expectations.

“It was a challenge to understand what exactly the customer wants to achieve. Often, they have a particu-

How delphi consulting did it

Understood core requirements

Conducted detailed PoCs

Managed and met customer expectations

lar objective in their mind and post achieving that, they realize they also want to add other aspects.”

The most innovative part of the implementation was how the partner involved the business units when the requirement was only from the IT division.

“We did not deploy the solution by only talking to the IT, instead we made sure to involve the HR, finance and other departments to see how we could help them because then the solution can directly impact and enhance core operations.”

The customer was able to greatly reduce expenses on extra resources as now most functions were automated. The solution also enhanced user experiences significantly. n

improve operational efficiency SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: Azure Bot Services PARTNER: Delphi Consulting Middle East

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

19

MISSION POSSIBLE SHOAIB KHOT, SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER, HP SOLUTIONS, MANNAI TRADING COMPANY, EXPLAINS HOW THE FIRM HAD TO ENSURE THAT THE MIGRATION TO FORTINET SOLUTION WAS NOT ONLY SEAMLESS BUT ALSO, ONCE SUCCESSFUL, COULD ADD VALUE TO THE CUSTOMER’S CURRENT INFRASTRUCTURE.

A

behemoth in the oil and gas industry was seeking a robust security solution to enhance its existing network security apparatus and business efficiency at one of its remote industrial plants.

The deployment location was closed-off to the public as it was a sensitive site due to the geopolitical conditions. The entry to the site was highly restricted. The deployment was within an area of approximately 2.5 square kilometers. The requirement was to deploy and upgrade existing firewalls of a different make to Fortinet FortiGate Firewalls across its multiple sites.

The customer selected Doha-based solutions provider Mannai Trading to carry out this complicated and sensitive implementation. The company houses a number of divisions within its large-scale operations. Its HP Solutions department under ICT business unit took the lead for this project.

Shoaib Khot, Senior Project Manager, HP Solutions, Mannai Trading Company said, “As the site was in an industrial zone, we had to wear face masks, safety shoes, full body overalls and helmets at all times. We also had to wear a monitor, which measures the gas in the air and could trigger an alarm if the environment was not conducive. The stakes were high for us – we had to be very careful and do the deployment under extreme weather conditions.

The data center sites were not comfortable, to say the least. This was a huge challenge.”

The deployment wasn’t like a regular one because any outside security risk would bring the plant’s operations to a halt, resulting in huge financial losses for the customer.

However, none of these factors deterred the Mannai team to deploy the solution in the most efficient manner possible. The partner had to ensure that the migration to Fortinet solution met the defined objectives

CUSTOMER: LARGE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRIAL PLANT Customer’s objectivE

To migrate and upgrade existing network security setup

20

To deploy stable firewalls for comprehensive security

To add value to existing infrastructure

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

Why Fortinet FortiGate Solution

Provided stable and effective solution

Offered comprehensive security

Supported best-in-class network security appliances

Offered ease of deployment

MANNAI TRADING COMPANY

“WE FOLLOWED THE PROTOCOL STANDARDS AND BEST PRACTICES DIRECTED BY FORTINET AND OUR SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION IS PROOF THAT IT WORKS PERFECTLY.”

SHOAIB KHOT, HP SOLUTIONS, MANNAI TRADING COMPANY

AT A GLANCE CUSTOMER: Large industrial plant in the oil and gas sector OBJECTIVE: To migrate existing network security setup to a stable and more advanced technology/system CORE REQUIREMENTS: Comprehensive

It is also interesting to note that the customer’s Abu Dhabi operations had created a test environment for a similar migration two years ago, but it was not confident to move to production as the implementation seemed quite challenging. Mannai Trading was effectively able to move into production for the customer’s tertiary company in Doha and bring the trust into the customer for its capabilities and the solution implemented Khot said, “The Fortinet solution is a solid product that is easy to configure and maintain with great support features. The customer was looking for a solution that would provide an easy fix without affecting operations in the event of a breach or threat.”

According to Khot, his team presented several deployments in test environments to showcase to the customer the process that would be followed.

How Mannai Trading Company did it

Understood the challenges of a complex deployment and sensitive nature of business

Conducted different deployments in test environments

Improved implementation through in-depth support

“We followed the protocol standards and best practices directed by Fortinet and our successful implementation is proof that it works perfectly.”

As the customer’s network was closed, it was challenging to connect to the outside world to get the latest upgrades and patches.

“We had one PC at the head office that was able to connect to the outside internet. From there, it was being connected to another PC at the plant in one of the corporate offices, from where we were able to move in to the data center,” he explained.

Post the implementation, the end user received in-depth support from Mannai Trading and was also able to save on costs significantly by migrating to Fortinet.

The customer was so pleased with the whole deployment process that it is considering expanding the current implementation to include more sites at the plant. n

security, effective technology, adds value to existing infrastructure, stable in a remote location and in a complex network SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: Fortinet Fortigate Firewalls PARTNER: Mannai Trading Company

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

21

Web better. Net more.

ON CLOUD NINE PUNEET MIGLANI, FOUNDER AND HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY, CANDOR, EXPLAINS, HOW THE FIRM ASSISTED A LEADING FINANCIAL INSTITUTE TO MAKE ITS APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE ACROSS BRANCHES BY USING AWS CLOUD.

A

boutique financial institute acquired a new application to help manage its main operations across its multiple office locations in and outside of the UAE. The customer’s biggest challenge was to ensure the availability of this application across all branches. Besides software procurement, the customer would have to install high-powered servers to make this application online. However, maintaining data centers at multiple locations is costly. In fact, even having it at a single location will incur additional maintenance costs such as employing skilled manpower to ensure high availability of the application.

After an elaborate selection process, Candor, a regional solutions provider, won the project, beating stiff competition. The customer was thinking of going with data centers, when in fact, there was a much more inexpensive and simple solution. The partner’s

role became even more important as the channel firm needed to educate itself on the customer’s core requirements and be a true business consultant.

Puneet Miglani, Founder and Head of Technology, Candor, said, “We heard the customer’s problems and came up with the most ideal solution – cloud. We assessed AWS Cloud against other providers and conducted PoCs to showcase the benefits to the customer.”

AWS Cloud was much more efficient and cost-effective in the long-term.

“We also elaborated how this would be more economical than setting up their own data center and managing it,” said Miglani. “The customer then announced that all new company applications would run in the cloud and it would also systematically re-architect existing applications for the technology.”

According to Miglani, creating and maintaining private cloud in AWS is easy as compared to other providers. “This was one of the reasons why we proposed AWS to the customer.

CUSTOMER: A BOUTIQUE FINANCIAL INSTITUTION Customer’s objectivE

To make new business application available across branches

22

To have a costeffective solution

To deploy a scalable solution

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

Why AWS Cloud solution

Was most efficient compared to other providers

Had long-term benefits and was easily scalable

Supported easy implementation and configuration

CANDOR

“FROM A BUSINESS STANDPOINT, IT IS A CRITICAL DEPLOYMENT, AND ON THE SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF THE APPLICATION, IT WILL HELP THE CUSTOMER BECOME RATHER UNIQUE IN THE COMPETITIVE SPACE THEY ARE IN.” PUNEET MIGLANI, CANDOR

“With its richness in console, implementation is easy along with VPC configuration,” he added.

Currently the staging environment has been created with functional tests going on for user acceptance test (UAT), which is expected to go live in the coming quarter.

“The application is divided into multiple layers and each layer has its own specific configuration

AT A GLANCE CUSTOMER: A boutique financial institution OBJECTIVE: To make a new business application available across branches cost-effectively

and security. The instances are divided into Web Server, App Server and Database Server,” explained Miglani. “Integrating all of them as per application configurations and also ensuring adequate security at each instance or layer were new for us. Since my team has never done a similar implementation before this project, I believe this was the most innovative aspect of the deployment.”

Although, it was the first time the solutions provider was handling a project which demanded these characteristics, it was able to successfully carry out the implementation without any setbacks.

Once the complete deployment is carried out, the customer will reap huge cost benefits over the coming years.

“In terms of usage, the application will have high availability and will be easy to scale as per future load and also effortless to en-

CORE REQUIREMENTS: availability of application across offices, costeffectiveness SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: AWS Cloud PARTNER: Candor

How Candor did it

Listened to customer requirements

Assessed cloud providers and selected AWS

hance compute size.”

Had the customer opted to go with setting up their own data centers, the maintenance cost would have been high. With the help of cloud, the company could now focus entirely on its main operations without worrying about maintaining the hardware.

“From a business standpoint, it is a critical deployment, and on the successful implementation of the application, it will help the customer become rather unique in the competitive space they are in, allowing them to go out to the market and acquire new clients and meet their growth KPIs set for the upcoming years,” said Miglani.

He added that a solid IT Infrastructure is the backbone for growth of any business. “With this implementation, it not only helps our client grow but also accelerates our development in the process too.” n

Conducted an in-depth three-year analysis stating competencies required

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 3

23

START YOUR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TODAY! Citrus is your trusted partner for advisory consulting and end-to-end technology services, integrated engineering, quality services and management consulting for digital transformation. We help businesses harness unrelenting technological change to successfully deliver innovations that will help them gain a competitive advantage and improve the everyday lives of people around the globe.

Advisory Consulting

Cloud Transformation

Data & Analytics

Digital Transformation

IT Modernization

Decision Science

www.citrusconsulting.com

Internet of Things