7 minute read
BACK TO THE FUTURE
SAIF ALWAN, MANAGING DIRECTOR AT IT COMPANY FUTUREX, DISCUSSES HOW TRANSITIONING FROM MICROSOFT’S ENTERPRISE AGREEMENT (EA) TO ITS CLOUD SOLUTION PROVIDER (CSP) AGREEMENT HAS OPTIMIZED LICENSING COSTS AND EMPOWERED FUTURE GROUP TO HAVE GREATER FLEXIBILITY IN TERMS OF LICENSING.
FutureX was a company that was created 1 year ago following a consensus that the IT department at Future Pipe Industries had reached a level of peak maturity.
Alwan said, “Future Pipe Industries is a privately-owned global manufacturing company which is part of a larger group called Future Group. Over the past decade, we built the skills and expertise of the IT department through the deployment and management of several complex IT solutions. We had reached an advanced level of IT maturity so we took the decision to spin the IT department into a separate business called FutureX so that we could offer our skills and expertise to third party customers.”
Alwan spearheaded a major project which was to take Future Group from a Microsoft EA to a CSP agreement. He explained the complexities involved in the transition.
“It took several months of planning as you’re effectively changing your entire Microsoft licensing
model. In addition to this, you obviously need to get up to speed on of the various Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license types and establish and identify what the differences between them are so you can select the right package mix for your users. We have different types of users so it’s important you pick the right packages. This took several months of planning and we did that with Redington, using them as our distributor and FutureX was the reseller. We’re now the reseller into the group and to our third-party customers.”
Alwan stated that there was no cultural resistance from within the group on the transition from the EA to the cloud as they were already familiar with Microsoft.
He added, “There was no resistance because they didn’t feel any change. We were already using Office 365 and there was a familiarity with Microsoft that already existed. There was no service disruption at all and our users didn’t realize that we had completely changed the licensing model.”
The Managing Director at FutureX disclosed that Microsoft was heavily involved with them on their journey to the cloud as they needed to get up to speed
CUSTOMER: FUTURE GROUP
Customer Objective
Transition seamlessly from EA to CSP agreement
Enhanced offering for end-users
Removal of long-term commitments and optimization of license costs
Why Microsoft 365?
Flexibility in licensing
Robust security and reliability
Easy for internal teams and users to
collaborate
SAIF ALWAN, FUTUREX
AT A GLANCE
CUSTOMER: Future Group
OBJECTIVE: The objective was to transition the group away from its existing EA towards a CSP agreement.
CORE REQUIREMENTS: Greater flexibility in terms of licensing agreements, cost optimization and removed
on what the different components of Microsoft 365 were, particularly around Microsoft’s new security services.
“We needed to understand all of the services that each licensing type made available to us. What comes with an E3 license and a E5 license and what other licensing packages are available to you? We really wanted to optimize all of this to ensure we were buying exactly what we needed and weren’t overspending.”
According to Alwan the transition to the cloud has been a huge success and the flexibility the group now has in terms of its licensing has been empowering.
He said, “The project has been executed successfully and we now have a lot of flexibility in terms of licensing as a result of transitioning to CSP from the EA and moving to Microsoft 365. Our commitments are monthly, and we can remove licenses at will and we no longer have to go through the cumbersome process of truing up or truing down like you did when you were under an EA. We were already using Office 365 before switching to CSP which we had bought through the EA, so we were already using software as a service from Microsoft, but what we have now in terms of flexibility is hugely empowering.”
Alwan also highlighted the key role played by Redington on the delivery of the project.
He concluded by saying, “Redington added huge value because they were suggesting lots of different potential licensing models and different licensing types because of their experience. They have a strong Microsoft team and being a Microsoft licensing distributor they have the knowhow and expertise on all the ins and outs of licensing and that really helped us cut through all the noise.” n
How FutureX did it?
Managed the transition from EA to CSP
Familiarity with Microsoft software and products
Selected the right packages that optimized spend
the issue of entering into long-term commitments.
SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: Microsoft M365
PARTNER: FutureX
‘REAL’ SECURITY
ANSHUL PAREEK, LEADER PRE-SALES-PRACTICES, CYBER DEFENSE AT MDS DUBAI, HAS ARTICULATED HOW THEY HELPED TO TRANSFORM THE SECURITY OPERATIONS FOR A LEADING UAE-BASED REAL ESTATE ENTERPRISE BY IMPLEMENTING SPLUNK INTO ITS SECURITY FRAMEWORKS AND ARCHITECTURE.
MDS DUBAI is a holding company that has established itself as one of the leading IT enterprises in the United Arab Emirates with over 35 years of experience in the industry. The IT leader manages some of the biggest businesses in the country, which include the incumbent aviation airlines domestically.
Anshul Pareek outlined how the company transformed the security operations of one the UAE’s leading real estate firms.
Pareek said, “The client we worked with on this particular project is involved in real-estate and wanted to set-up a monitoring center for security and analytics. It was our responsibility to educate them on the
benefits of installing Splunk into its existing security portfolio. The client had been using technologies that had become antiquated, and in many cases obsolete, in fact in many respects the client was completely oblivious and unaware regarding the types of attacks that his business could be exposed to and the damage that could be done.”
MDS DUBAI was tasked with the responsibility of overhauling their security operations and embarked upon an ambitious project which was firmly centered on innovation.
He added, “They had never created or established threat models around their critical assets. They had invested quite significantly in standalone technology for their security needs, but they weren’t getting any real benefit from this in terms of its ROI. We planned an innovative project with the client and told them that we
Customer Objective
Establish threat models around critical assets
Consolidation of security architecture
ROI
Why Splunk?
Could act as brain for detection centre
Increased visibility on security threats
and compliance
Versatile technology
ANSHUL PAREEK, CYBER DEFENSE AT MDS DUBAI
AT A GLANCE
OBJECTIVE: Develop a robust security infrastructure that helps the company be able to detect bad actors and cyberattacks on its critical assets.
needed to revamp and review their security – and we subsequently performed a maturity assessment on all their security products to determine what needed to be done.”
Pareek also disclosed how Splunk would serve as a brain for its detection centre and adopted a hands-on approach with the client in order to ensure they developed the right use-cases for them.
“We created an automated detection centre and innovative threat intelligence integration back into Splunk which would actually work as a brain for their detection centre. We engaged in a consultation with them that primarily focused on the threat actors that are targeting real estate enterprises and we needed to make sure we had the right detection usecases developed on Splunk to be able to combat these sophisticated and complex threats.”
The cyber defense expert at MDS DUBAI concluded by highlighting how satisfied the client now was with its security architecture and then bringing everything back into Splunk. He said, “We installed Splunk for the client and we’ve really proved its value by consolidating their security architecture and we’ve gone back and created the right uses cases with automate workflows using Splunk. We’ve hardened their systems to make sure we can go back and remediate things in a much quicker fashion if they have been attacked. We have also introduced a robust and efficient incident response framework for their entire operations.” n
How MDS DUBAI did it?
Proven track record of delivering large security projects
Assisted in developing the right detection use-cases
Expertise in security maturity assessment
CORE REQUIREMENTS: Create automated detection centre and efficient incident response framework for their entire security operations.
SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: Splunk
PARTNER: MDS DUBAI
