Issue 07 // January 2017
CISCO GLOBAL CLOUD INDEX PROJECTS MEA CLOUD DC TRAFFIC TO GROW 440% BY 2020 The company attributes the rapid growth to increased migration to cloud architectures and their ability to scale quickly and efficiently support more workloads than traditional data centers.
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he recently released sixth annual Cisco Global Cloud Index (2015-2020) revealed that global cloud traffic is expected to rise 3.7fold, up from 3.9 zettabytes (ZB) per year in 2015 to 14.1 ZB per year by 2020. In
Middle East and Africa, data center traffic will reach 451 exabytes per year by 2020, up from 105 exabytes per year in 2015. This rapid growth of cloud traffic is attributed to increased migration to cloud architectures and their ability to scale quickly and efficiently support more workloads than
traditional data centers. With greater data center virtualization, cloud operators are also able to achieve greater operational efficiencies while flexibly delivering a growing variety of services to businesses and consumers with optimal Continued on page 2
Mike Weston, Cisco
Red Hat introduces OpenStack Platform 10 Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 drives new features that increase system-wide scalability, ease infrastructure management, and improve orchestration.
Avaya extends ACE-Fx Training Program to develop SDN skills Avaya Certified Expert – ACE-Fx Part II focuses on the advanced techniques required to implement the company’s fabric solutions safely and securely. Avaya has extended its Avaya Certified Expert-Fx program to further drive skills and training in the latest Software Defined Networking (SDN)-Fx fabric-based networking technologies. The ACE-Fx Part II curriculum will focus on the advanced techniques
Red Hat has announced the availability of Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10, the company’s scalable and agile cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution. Based on the upstream OpenStack ‘Newton’ release, Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 drives new features that increase Radhesh Balakrishnan, Red Hat
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Maan Al-Shakarchi, Avaya
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CISCO... performance. To better understand data center growth, new analysis on application workloads was developed for this year’s report. Several business and consumer projections were revealed. For example, one of the revelations was that business workloads dominate data center applications and are growing. “Over the past year, we’ve seen a variety of businesses and organizations develop plans for cloud migration or adoption. The move to
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The move to the cloud is imminent as cloud computing has advanced from an emerging technology to an essential scalable and flexible networking solution.”
the cloud is imminent as cloud computing has advanced from an emerging technology to an essential scalable and flexible networking solution,” said Mike Weston, Vice President,
multiple devices and connections and the growth of mobility, the importance of cloud readiness cannot be overemphasized.”
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Avaya...
Red Hat...
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Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 drives the enterprise-readiness of OpenStack by delivering a stable, reliable and open foundation for cloud deployments.”
system-wide scalability, ease infrastructure management, and improve orchestration, while also enhancing network performance and platform security. Additionally, Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 introduces a new software life cycle, with optional support up to five years. It delivers a reliable cloud platform built on the proven, enterprisegrade backbone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Integrated with the company’s hardened OpenStack community code, Red Hat OpenStack Platform provides the agility to scale and more quickly meet customer demand without compromising availability, performance, or IT security requirements. New enhancements and updates to Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 includes a more
Middle East, Cisco. “With multiple trends influencing the growth of data center and cloud computing such as increasing digitization, the widespread adoption of
streamlined user experience driven by an easier-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) reduces the complexities of installation and management. It also features improved flexibility for greater scalability through the introduction of customizable services and administration roles using Red Hat OpenStack Platform director. Radhesh Balakrishnan, General Manager, OpenStack, Red Hat, said, “Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 drives the enterprisereadiness of OpenStack by delivering a stable, reliable and open foundation for cloud deployments, delivering new innovations like composable services and roles while retaining our commitment to enterprise stability, highlighted by our new Long Life support model.”
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required to implement the vendor’s fabric solutions that are underpinning digital strategies for organizations globally. The ACE-Fx program was created to bridge the skills gap between traditional, hardware-intensive networking technologies and next-generation, software-defined fabricbased networking. It enables engineers and IT professionals to deliver the transformational networking capabilities provided by the Avaya SDN Fx architecture. With the exponential growth Avaya’s SDN Fx architecture has witnessed in the last 24 months, ACE-Fx II builds on the progressive structure of the ACE-Fx program. Since the program was launched last year, over 450 networking professionals have become members of the ACE-Fx community, with the training being successfully delivered in 50 cities worldwide.
“Networking professionals need a training and certification program that will grow with them and enable them to stay ahead of the digital curve. By expanding the ACEFx certification program Avaya is continuing to help our customers and partners achieve their digital objectives,” said Maan Al-Shakarchi, Head of Networking, AMEA and APAC, Avaya The extended program allows individuals to deepen their knowledge and experience of advanced networking technologies under the Avaya SDN Fx umbrella, covering Fabric Connect, Fabric Extend and Fabric Attach, as well as advanced integration of IP Multicast and IP Routing. The intensive five-day training program includes designing and implementing an Avaya Fabric solution including Fabric Extend and Fabric Attach technologies.
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Fujitsu launches Online Biometric Authentication Service The new service will have support for customers implementing FIDO.
Fujitsu has announced that it will begin offering a new FIDO-compliant service for online biometric authentication. The ‘Online Biometric Authentication
Service’ will initially roll out from early April 2017, starting with Japan. With this service, the company will provide companies that offer online
services with the servers and software necessary to implement FIDO (Fast IDentity Online), services that support the construction of cloud environments, and also software development kits and development support for incorporating FIDO into client-side applications. According to the company, customers can use this service to easily build online personal authentication systems with robust security and that do not require passwords for a variety of day-to-day situations, such as online
banking and shopping, ticket arrangements, and car sharing. This also reduces the burden of getting online authentication services up and running. In addition, because this service functions to use FIDO with facial recognition obtained through camera-equipped smartphones and other biometrics, the number of supported devices on the client side can be dramatically expanded. Fujitsu is aiming to provide the service for 10 million IDs by fiscal 2018. Going forward, the company plans to expand the service to cover authentication on a variety of devices.
Malwarebytes 3.0 makes antivirus obsolete
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The product equips users with comprehensive protection against today’s threat landscape.
Individuals can now leverage Malwarebytes 3.0 to replace or enhance their traditional antivirus protections, and have confidence that they are safe online.”
Marcin Kleczynski, Malwarebytes
Malwarebytes has announced the release of Malwarebytes 3.0, a next-generation antivirus replacement. “Our customers have made it clear that they want
an all-in-one solution from Malwarebytes to protect their PCs,” said Marcin Kleczynski, CEO, Malwarebytes. “With Malwarebytes 3.0, we are introducing a new generation of computer security. We built the solution with the understanding that combining proactive and signature-less technologies with traditional heuristics is the most effective way of protecting
users. Individuals can now leverage Malwarebytes 3.0 to replace or enhance their traditional antivirus protections, and have confidence that they are safe online.” According to the company, the solution replaces antivirus with superior technology designed to block malware, ransomware, exploits, and other advanced
threats that antivirus isn’t smart enough to stop. Malwarebytes 3.0 employs four independent technology modules—anti-malware, antiransomware, anti-exploit, and malicious website protection— to block and remove both known and unknown threats. The anti-ransomware and anti-exploit modules employ signature-less technology so users are protected from advanced threats that are not yet known to traditional antivirus research labs. The solution also scans 4x faster than its predecessor, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. The company will be introducing an enterprise version of Malwarebytes 3.0 in 2017.
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EVENTS
Check Point, CSSA Partner Training, Dubai, 11-15 December
Dell EMC, Partner Roundtable, Riyadh, 7 December
Oracle, Customer Executive Seminar, Jeddah, 6 December
Oracle - Partner Roundtable - Jeddah - 5 December
Oracle, Technology Session, Dubai, 5 December
Red Hat, Technical Bootcamp, Riyadh, 7 December
SonicWall, CSSA Security Bootcamp, Dubai, 12-14 December
SonicWall, Security Update Session, Oman, 19 December
SonicWall, Security Update Session, Qatar, 21 December
VMware, Customer Executive Seminar, Dubai, 19 December
Avaya, Engage Forum, Dubai, 5-8 December
Oracle, Customer Executive Seminar, Al Khobar, 7 December
VMware, Deepdive PoC Training, Riyadh, 12-13 December
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VMware, Innovation Day, Riyadh, 14 December
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VMware, User Group UAE Chapter, Dubai, 8 December
VMware, VSP-VTSP Technical Bootcamp, Abu Dhabi, 13 December
VMware, Innovation Day, Dubai, 7 December
Cisco, Security DEMO and NPL Training, Kenya, 1 December
Cisco, Security DEMO’s and NPL Training, Nigeria, 13 December
Cisco, Security Roadshow, Ethiopia - 13 December
Cisco Big Bet Event, Nigeria, 15 December
Cisco FSI Event with IE Network, Ethiopia - 15 December
Fortinet, Partner BootCamp, Kenya, 9 December
Oracle, Journey to Secure Enterprise Cloud, Ghana, 1 December
Oracle, Journey to Secure Enterprise Cloud, Tanzania, 8 December
Oracle, Journey to Secure Enterprise Cloud, Uganda, 6 December
Oracle, Journey to Secure Enterprise Cloud, Ivory Coast, 6 December
Tripp Lite Partner Training, Kenya, 2 December
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Amazon Web Services supports cloud growth in UAE AWS opens office in Dubai to accelerate cloud computing adoption.
Fahad Al Gergawi, Dubai FDI
Amazon Web Services, (AWS) has announced plans to open an office in Dubai, with the support of the Dubai
Investment Development Agency (Dubai FDI), an agency of the Department of Economic Development (DED) in Dubai, to accelerate the rapid adoption of cloud computing in the Middle East. The office will open on January 1 and will support organizations of all sizes, from start-ups to government institutions and established enterprises, as they make the transition to the AWS Cloud. The new office provides account managers, solutions architects, partner managers, professional services
consultants, support staff, and various other functions, for customers to directly engage with AWS in their local setting and in their language. “The opening of the AWS MENA office in Dubai further underlines the positive growth environment of Dubai and our ability to attract inward investments. It will drive the adoption of cloud technologies as well as public and private sector innovation and competitiveness,” said Fahad Al Gergawi, Chief Executive Officer, Dubai FDI. AWS also has a growing network of technology and
consulting AWS Partner Network (APN) partners in the Middle East helping customers get the most from the cloud. These partners include global organizations like CSC as well as prominent regional players like Redington. Ramkumar Balakrishnan, President, VAD business, Redington said, “We have chosen to work with AWS so that we can provide our customers with a secure, reliable and flexible platform. Having an AWS team in the region for us to work with is great news and will help us move even more customers to the cloud.”
Veritas launches Enterprise Data Management Solution powered by NetBackup 8.0 The new solution builds on the foundation of Veritas’ NetBackup to integrate data visibility, application resiliency and copy data management so organizations can uphold their most critical asset—data.
Scott Anderson, Veritas
Veritas Technologies has announced the launch of NetBackup 8.0 and an integrated Enterprise Data Management solution to help organizations manage data in the cloud and extract
new business value as they transform for the future. The new solution builds on the foundation of Veritas’ NetBackup to integrate data visibility, application resiliency and copy data management so organizations can uphold their most critical asset—data. “Nearly every organization in today’s data driven and cloud-based world is undergoing digital transformation, whether mobilizing the workforce, creating online customer experiences, enabling electronic supply chains, or providing real-time access to medical records and financial statements,”
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said Scott Anderson, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Information Protection Solutions at Veritas. “Using NetBackup 8.0 as the foundation of our vision for a sweeping range of solutions to help enterprises manage their growing data demands, Veritas is delivering a 360 enterprise data management solution that solves customers’ challenges to address the complexity of hybrid cloud and the realities of digital business.” NetBackup 8.0 provides unified protection for data in the cloud, as well as virtual and physical environments with enterprise-class scale, performance and extensive
workload integration. Now, Veritas NetBackup solution extends its reach from unified data protection towards a broader platform for 360 data management. With NetBackup 8.0, and by utilizing the 360 enterprise data management solution, organizations will be able to leverage their existing deployments to achieve global data visibility, simplified business resiliency and integrated copy data management in addition to a near 100 percent backup and recovery success rate, no matter where data resides.
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VMware announces $500 million Stock Purchase Agreement with Dell Under the agreement, the company has agreed to purchase $500 million worth of VMware Class A common stock currently held by Dell’s subsidiary, EMC Corporation. Global player in cloud infrastructure and business mobility, VMware has entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement (SPA) with Dell Technologies, under which the company agreed to purchase $500 million worth of VMware Class A common stock currently held by Dell’s subsidiary, EMC Corporation. Separately, Dell Technologies plans to use the $500 million proceeds to repurchase the Dell tracking stock for VMware, DVMT, as described in Dell’s announcement recently.
The $500 million stock purchase is expected to be completed during VMware’s first fiscal quarter ending May 5, 2017. The $500 million stock purchase is expected to be completed during VMware’s first fiscal quarter ending May 5, 2017. The impact of the $500 million SPA on VMware’s Q4 fiscal 2016 and full year 2016 diluted share
count and non-GAAP earnings per share is not expected to be material. This $500 million stock purchase is the only stock purchase plan currently authorized. As VMware disclosed on its Q3 2016 earnings call, a previously
authorized $1.2 billion stock buyback was completed in early Q4 2016. The company intends to comment on additional plans for returns of capital to stockholders, if any, during VMware’s Q4 2016 earnings conference call in January 2017.
Oracle report urges businesses to collaborate 62 percent of respondents said lines of business and IT must collaborate for the enterprise cloud model to succeed, according to a new study by the company.
Pascal Giraud, Oracle EMEA
An Oracle research report, IaaS: building a business that innovates, revealed that many organizations operate in a way that is counter to effective collaboration. The research looked at how companies in EMEA are approaching cloud computing and the organizational issues impacting their ability to effect
significant business change and innovation. 62 percent of respondents said lines of business and IT teams must collaborate for the enterprise cloud model to succeed. 34 percent said managing shadow IT (in which lines of business purchase technology unbeknownst to the IT department) is a significant barrier to adopting an integrated approach to the cloud. 41 percent said a lack of understanding by
business departments of the need for integrated cloud resources is one of the current IT infrastructure challenges around cloud deployment. Oracle found the greatest areas of inefficiency in the current platform model being used by companies are the integration of used services (50 percent), time to deployment (49 percent) and poor application integration (47 percent) – all of which are detrimental to effective and rapid innovation.
By moving to Infrastructure-asa-Service (IaaS), businesses can smooth over the cracks and create a truly collaborative organization.”
Pascal Giraud, Senior Director IaaS Foundation and Cloud Platform Oracle EMEA, said, “By moving to Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), businesses can smooth over the cracks and create a truly collaborative organization. It provides a common foundation for innovation and implementation, removing the limitations around resources and mitigating against silos.” The Oracle Cloud Platform is designed with security, reliability, and auditability in mind, with capabilities like resource isolation and API logging. The elastic, pay-asyou-go service model enables IT departments to stop worrying about capacity, lower total cost of ownership, and shift their focus to the strategic work of supporting the business.
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