Issue 18 // January 2018
DELL EMC’S HCI SOLUTIONS GET POWEREDGE BOOST With this latest PowerEdge server platform, designed and optimised for HCI, customers of all sizes can expect even more powerful and predictable performance Dell EMC’s HCI (hyperconverged infrastructure) portfolio has received a substantial boost with the availability of Dell EMC HCI appliances on Dell EMC PowerEdge 14th generation servers. With this latest PowerEdge server platform, designed and optimised for HCI, customers of all sizes can expect even more powerful and predictable performance with even greater configurability for hosting a widerange of mission critical software
applications on Dell EMC VxRail and XC Series appliances. “Customers transforming their IT are increasingly turning to HCI as an ideal foundation for simplifying IT today and for the future,” said Chad Sakac, President, Converged Platforms and Solutions Division, Dell EMC.
“Our turnkey, pre-integrated, tested and validated HCI appliances enable customers to simply stand-up and scale IT infrastructure, backed by trusted dependability and performance, to help IT organizations more easily meet the growing demands of their businesses.”
The upgraded Dell EMC hyper-converged infrastructure appliance portfolio offers customers significantly faster access to applications and data thanks to higher core counts, faster clock frequency, more memory channels, and faster memory resulting in up to 1.7x more processing power and 62 percent higher internal bandwidth. Dell EMC VxRail Appliances on PowerEdge 14th generation servers offer more Continued on page 3 powerful and
Cambium Networks, Redington Value host partnership launch event The event was aimed at acquainting the channel partners with the vendor’s offerings. Wireless broadband solutions provider Cambium Networks and regional value-added distributor Redington Value recently held a launch event of their partnership in Dubai, UAE. The event was also aimed at acquainting the channel partners with the vendor’s offerings. The 80 plus attendees were educated on Cambium’s extensive
portfolio and enlightened on the many benefits of partnering with the company. Martín de la Serna, Vice President Sales, EMEA and Biju SK, Vice President Engineering from Cambium Networks presented on how the channel can be empowered through the firm’s elaborate partner and incentive programs. One of the primary objectives
of the event was to ensure partners were informed on how their customers could benefit from Cambium’s end-to-end wireless fabric solutions. The vendor also took the opportunity to announce its Social Projects initiatives, where the company will provide a free POC for a partner’s customers involved in social causes through schools or NGOs.
Martin de la Serna, Cambium Networks
de la Serna said, “The engagement from the room comprising value-added resellers and systems integrators stakeholders was impressive. During Continued on page 3 the Q&A
Redington Value is a value added distributor for the following brands in parts of Middle East & Africa:
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predictable performance across millions of flexible configuration options to meet any HCI use case and more demanding, mission-critical workloads in VMware environments. Dell EMC XC Series on 14th Generation PowerEdge servers enables higher performance for workloads, faster networking speeds and new NVMe/SSD configurations. The firm’s VxRail Appliances on PowerEdge 14th generation servers can be ordered now and is generally available since mid-December. Dell EMC XC Series models XC640, XC740xd and XC740 on PowerEdge 14th generation servers are generally available.
session, their queries reflected the expertise they had in different vertical markets such as hospitality, security and SMB. It was also clear that many partners were looking for an alternative supplier of wireless technology that could deliver carrier class quality and performance at a disruptive price point and without recurring license fees.” He also added that Redington did an “excellent job getting the word out about Cambium’s unique selling proposition to its partner community. The launch event venue was at overflow capacity with partners excited to learn about Cambium’s end-toend wireless solutions and cloudbased management platform.” Partners wanted to know
how the vendor’s solutions could propel profitable business growth. “Cambium’s high performance, carrier-class solutions, disruptive pricing, and license-free controllers and cloud-based management resonated with the partners that were fortunate enough to join our event and that will be invited to join the Cambium Partner Program,” he added. Ramkumar Balakrishnan, President, Redington Value, said, “The response for the launch event is a testimony to Cambium Networks’ leadership in the wireless broadband space. We are looking forward to developing the market through our expansive network of channel partners and deliver Cambium’s exceptional offerings to regional customers.”
Fortinet extends cloud security applications portfolio to AWS customers AWS customers can now better identify and protect applications and data from cyber-attacks and other advanced threats vectors. Fortinet has extended its virtualised Security Fabric applications to Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers with a broad set of solutions that can be managed through a centralized console. The firm has also achieved AWS Security Competency status, which highlights AWS Partner Network (APN) members who have demonstrated technical success and proven customer adoption in providing security solutions on AWS. With Fortinet, AWS customers can now better identify and protect applications and data from cyber-attacks and other advanced threats vectors. FortiSandbox is now available as Pay-As-You-Go On Demand in AWS Marketplace and provides a cloud-based malware sandbox that automatically analyses suspicious programs and offers detection against zero-day threats for applications and data hosted on AWS.
John Maddison, Fortinet
FortiSIEM, AWS-integrated security information and event management solution, is available now as BYOL in AWS Marketplace, delivering comprehensive visibility and analytics of both security and network operations for a holistic view of threat data across an organization. Fortinet also announced that it has expanded its Fabric-Ready Partner Program with Amazon Web Services. John Maddison, Senior Vice President of Products and Solutions, Fortinet, said,
“To keep pace with evolving infrastructure requirements, Fortinet has extended its Security Fabric virtualized solutions to AWS customers, from sandbox capabilities, to centralized performance and compliance management. Having one cloud security provider to protect all types of workloads running on AWS ensures that customers benefit from a single security management console, with consistent updates and licensing models across all their cloud security applications.” In addition to FortiSandbox and FortiSIEM, Fortinet Security Fabric virtualized solutions are available now in the AWS Marketplace, including FortiGate Enterprise Firewalls, FortiWeb web application firewalls, FortiMail for secure mail gateway, FortiManager for centralized cloud security management, and FortiAnalyzer for centralized network logging, analytics and reporting.
Set for success By Rashad Baradie, General Manager, KSA, Redington Value
Redington Saudi Arabia Distribution has evolved from being a product-centric to a solutioncentric firm over the last few years. We boast the largest portfolio of IT products and solutions, which span across the traditional technology domains such as networking, voice, servers, storage, software, security and infrastructure. We aim to grow even more aggressively over the next year. During 2018, we encourage our partners to focus on solutions around Internet of Things, mobility, cloud and hyperconvergence. They can maximize the opportunity by attaching services to all these technologies, which will help them improve their margins greatly. Partners should invest in developing lasting relationships with their customers by ensuring they are consultative in their approach. They must think beyond just selling and become an advisor for their customers’ businesses. Over the course of 2018, our partners will see us reiterating our position in the market. Following the immense success of the Red Vault in the UAE, we are aiming to launch the solutions center in Saudi Arabia next year – Red Vault Saudi. We are bullish of our growth strategies in place and urge our partners to take the lead and transform their businesses to the requirements of the digital era. We are excited for a prosperous 2018 ahead.
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Red Hat OpenShift Application Runtimes now available This enables organizations to accelerate cloud-native app development with a curated set of frameworks and runtimes.
Mike Piech, Red Hat
Red Hat has announced the general availability of Red Hat OpenShift Application Runtimes, enabling organizations to accelerate cloud-native app development with a curated set of frameworks and runtimes for prescriptively building and running microservices-based applications.
By providing a tightly integrated and fully supported offering for developing microservices in multiple languages and frameworks, Red Hat aims to balance developers’ need for choice with the operational requirement for standardization and support – both for creating new applications and re-architecting existing ones. Mike Piech, VP and GM, Middleware, Red Hat, said, “Red Hat OpenShift Application Runtimes manifests Red Hat’s decade-plus of experience with Red Hat JBoss Middleware in this new runtime offering built from the ground up for the next generation of microservicesbased application development.” Red Hat OpenShift Application Runtimes supports
multiple runtimes, languages, frameworks and architectures, with the following key features and benefits: Simplified development: The offering reduces the complexity of developing cloud-native applications by integrating OpenShift Container Platform capabilities with multiple runtimes and frameworks, including wizard-based setup, service discovery, external configurations, and circuit breakers for fault tolerance. Strategic flexibility: Red Hat OpenShift Application Runtimes supports hybrid cloud configurations, helping avoid cloud provider lock-in. Speed of delivery: Due to its integration with Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, Red Hat OpenShift Application
Runtimes provides developers with a fully automated platform for provisioning, building and deploying applications and their components. Service Catalog integration: Combined with the OpenShift service catalog, enterprise IT organizations can take full advantage of multi-cloud investments by integrating cloud-based services. Certified and supported runtimes available with Red Hat OpenShift Application Runtimes include Java EE, WildFly Swarm, Eclipse MicroProfile, Eclipse Vert.x, Node.js, and Spring Boot. Red Hat OpenShift Application Runtimes is now available. Customers can download the latest release from the Red Hat Customer Portal or at OpenShift Online.
Cisco introduces new business architecture training and certifications Through this portfolio, the firm aims to equip professionals with the latest skills, tools and best practices. Cisco has expanded its learning portfolio with new business architecture training and certifications. Through this portfolio, the firm aims to equip professionals with the latest skills, tools and best practices, which will enable them to build and strengthen the bridge between technology solutions and business needs. These new offerings mark the second recent addition to Cisco’s business transformation-focused learning portfolio. “The relationship between customer and vendor is being significantly disrupted by digital transformation, with the long-term result being a closer relationship, spanning more than the deal,” said Shadi Salama, Channel Leader, East
Region, Cisco Middle East. “As the industry transforms and companies try to evolve their businesses, new talent gaps are forming. Our new Business Architecture training and certification offerings target the business skills that go hand in hand in conjunction with the technology skills to address the growing talent needs brought forth by business transformation.” Three new specialist certifications and related training courses have been designed to progressively build and validate expertise in business architecture: Business Architecture Analyst Certification: Equips professionals with a general awareness of business architecture principles and
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provides a methodology for uncovering a company’s business goals. Business Architecture Specialist Certification: Builds on the foundational skills and knowledge assessed at the Analyst level with a focus on change management and the creation of a customized transformation roadmap. Business Architecture Practitioner Certification: Expands upon the Specialist level by validating a candidate’s mastery in leveraging tools, methodologies and best practices to bridge IT solutions with the organization’s business goals. Training courses supporting each of these certifications, respectively, include adopting the
Shadi Salama, Cisco Middle East
Business Architecture Approach, applying Business Architecture Techniques and mastering the Business Architecture Discipline.
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AWS revamps AWS Partner Network The firm also introduced the preview of a new enterprise feature for sellers and buyers in the AWS Marketplace.
Terry Wise, Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services, (AWS), an Amazon.com company has unveiled several new features for its marketplace and AWS Partner Network program to further simplify the purchasing and deployment of third-party software on AWS. The company also introduced new AWS Partner Network (APN) programs to increase consulting partner success and aid ISVs in building
their SaaS businesses on AWS, as well as new APN competencies in Machine Learning and networking to help customers select APN Partners with the right expertise. Terry Wise, VP, Global Alliances for Amazon Web Services, said, “In the past year we have added more than 10,000 new partners to the APN, and more than 160 thousand active customers are using software from AWS Marketplace. To support this growth, we are continuing to invest heavily in the APN Program to ensure that AWS customers have access to the best software and services for AWS and so that our partners can continue to build successful cloud businesses on AWS.” AWS also introduced the preview of a new enterprise feature for sellers and buyers in the AWS Marketplace: the Enterprise Contract for AWS Marketplace, an agreed upon standardised contract template
between enterprise software buyers and sellers that resolves challenging terms including liability, dispute resolution, IP protection, warranty, and more across multiple vendors. Participating customers are able to eliminate lengthy procurement negotiations that can delay projects for months. Enterprise Contract for AWS Marketplace is currently available in preview to interested enterprise customers and will be generally available to all sellers and enterprise buyers who choose to accept the standardized enterprise contract terms in the first quarter of 2018. AWS also introduced the AWS Solution Provider Program for APN Consulting Partners and new programs for technology partners to build and grow their AWSbased SaaS offerings. The AWS Solution Provider Program, which will be available in early 2018, replaces the
Channel Reseller Program and offers a new, tiered incentive structure that rewards APN Consulting Partners who are innovating on behalf of their customers with proven solution capabilities and have achieved competencies in the areas of Migration, Managed Service Provider (MSP), and/or DevOps. The new AWS Software-as-aService (SaaS) Factory provides a comprehensive set of enablement content and collateral for APN Technology Partners with SaaS offerings. The new SaaS Accelerate Program aids technology partners in driving increased profitability with go-to-market support for their SaaS solutions including funding for lead generation and customer proof-of-concepts, and resources for joint sales support. The AWS SaaS Factory and SaaS Accelerate Program will be available in early 2018.
Veeam Availability Suite 9.5 Update 3 now released With this release, enterprises can replace their legacy backup and eliminate data management siloes with a single Availability platform for multi-cloud enterprise. Veeam Software has announced the immediate availability of Veeam Availability Suite (VAS) 9.5 Update 3 (U3), to extend comprehensive data management and ensure Availability for all workloads—virtual, physical, and cloud—centrally managed via a single Veeam “pane of glass.” With this release, enterprises can now replace legacy backup offerings, which have hindered business transformation for so long, and ensure Availability across their enterprise with a single, consistent platform. “Veeam recognized a decade ago that a more innovative approach to backup and Availability was needed, and
delivered what quickly became the No. 1 VM Backup solution with unprecedented reliability and ease-of-use,” said Peter McKay, Co-CEO and President, Veeam. “Veeam Availability Suite 9.5 Update 3 is the biggest release
Peter McKay,Veeam
in Veeam’s 10-year history. In one, unified Veeam solution, customers can manage their entire environment – virtual, physical, or cloud – and ensure No. 1 Availability for any app, any data, any cloud.” With this release Veeam is also including its Universal Storage API, a new storage interface that will allow Veeam to more rapidly support new storage integrations going forward, leading to superior backup performance, lower risk of data loss, and more rapid recovery. As a result, in Veeam Availability Suite 9.5 Update 3, the company is able to add integration with IBM Spectrum Virtualize,
extending Veeam’s storage snapshot integration capabilities to IBM Storwize and any SAN Volume Controller based storage arrays, as well as to the Lenovo Storage V Series. This expansion of Veeam’s strategic partnership with IBM is in addition to current strategic partnerships with HPE, Cisco, and NetApp. New capabilities in VAS 9.5 U3 include built-in management for Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows 2.1 and Veeam Agent for Linux v2, support for VMware Cloud on AWS, IBM Storage integration, Lenovo Storage integration along with new analytics and monitoring capabilities in Veeam ONE.
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EVENTS
Dell EMC - Workshop With Safaricom - Kenya - 1 December
Microsoft - Partner Roundtable - Kenya - 19 December
Fortinet-FortiGate Workshop -Riyadh-18th Dec 2017
Fortinet- FortiGate Workshop - Riyadh -17th Dec 2017
Palo Alto - UTD Session-Khobar - 13th Dec 2017
Fortinet-FortiGate Workshop -Riyadh-18th Dec 2017
Palo Alto -Next Gen Security Partner Event-Cairo -19th Dec 2017
Symantec - Customer Event-Riyadh-14th Dec 2017
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Cambium Networks Launch Event - Dubai - 12 December
Fortinet FortiGate Technical Workshop - Jordan - 13-14 December
Fortinet NSE6 Workshop for FortiADC - Dubai - 6-7 December
Fortinet NSE6 Workshop for FortiWeb - Dubai - 4-5 December
Jellyfish Launch Event for Partners - Dubai - 13 December
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Check Point CSSA-CSSE Technical Workshop - Dubai - 10-14 December
Fortinet FortiGate Technical Workshop - Kuwait - 10-11 December
Fortinet NSE5 Workshop - Qatar - 5-6 December
Fujitsu Partner Enablement Session - Dubai - 5 December
Jellyfish Launch Event for Customers - Dubai - 12 December
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Microsoft 365 Technical Workshop - Dubai - 13-14 December
Cisco - DCC Floor Day - Nigeria - 13 December
Redington Value a proud partner with VMware at Cairo ICT Forum - Cairo - 4-6 December
Splunk Boss of the SOC - Dubai - 6-7 December
StorageCraft Data Protection Roadshow - Dubai - 13 December
Mimecast Partner Connect Seminar - Dubai - 7 December
Cisco - End Customer Event With Covalence Ltd - Nigeria 14 December
Redington Value VAT Awareness Event - Dubai - 11 December
StorageCraft Customer Executive Seminar with GRID Info Systems Dubai - 12 December
VMware NSX Workshop - Oman - 20 December
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Oracle seals Aconex deal for $1.2 billion The combined companies are expected to provide an end-to-end offering for project management and delivery that enables customers to effectively plan, build, and operate construction projects. Oracle has entered into an agreement with Australia’s Aconex Limited, a provider of cloud-based solution that manages team collaboration for construction projects, for A$7.80 per share in cash. The transaction is valued at approximately $1.2 billion, net of Aconex cash. The Aconex project collaboration solution digitally connects owners, builders and other teams, providing complete visibility and management of data, documents and costs across all stages of a construction project lifecycle. The Oracle Construction and Engineering Cloud already offers customers solutions for planning, scheduling and delivering large-scale projects. Together, Oracle and Aconex said it will
provide an end-to-end offering for project management and delivery that enables customers
to effectively plan, build, and operate construction projects. “Delivering projects on time and on budget are the highest strategic imperatives for any construction and engineering organization,” said Mike Sicilia, SVP and GM, Construction and Engineering Global Business Unit, Oracle. “With the addition of Aconex, we significantly advance our vision of offering the most comprehensive cloud-based project management solution for this $14 trillion industry.”
With the addition of Aconex, we significantly advance our vision of offering the most comprehensive cloud-based project management solution for this $14 trillion industry.”
“The Aconex and Oracle businesses are a great, natural fit and highly complementary in terms of vision, product, people and geography,” said Leigh Jasper, Founder and CEO, Aconex. “As co-founders of Aconex, both Rob Phillpot and I remain committed to the business and are excited about the opportunity to advance our collective vision on a larger scale, and the benefits this combination will deliver to our customers.” According to a statement by the firm, Aconex’ Board of Directors unanimously recommended the transaction. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2018, subject to Aconex shareholder approval and certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
HPE launches multi-cloud management solution HPE OneSphere The solution provides a unified experience across public clouds, on-premises private clouds and software-defined infrastructure. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has introduced HPE OneSphere, a multi-cloud management solution that provides a unified experience across public clouds, on-premises private clouds and software-defined infrastructure. Through its software-asa-service (SaaS) portal, HPE OneSphere provides customers access to a pool of IT resources that spans the public cloud services they subscribe to, as well as their on-premises environments. HPE OneSphere is designed for IT operations, developers, and business executives seeking to build clouds, deploy applications, and gain
insights faster, said the company. Designed to simplify operations, the solution works across virtual machines, containerised workloads, and bare metal applications, so internal stakeholders can compose hybrid clouds capable of supporting both traditional and cloud-native applications. Delivered as a service, HPE OneSphere provides users with a single point to access all their applications and data from anywhere. Through it, users can build private clouds and connect public cloud resources, resulting in a virtual resource pool. “Our customers need a radically new approach – one that’s designed
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for the new hybrid IT reality,” said Ric Lewis, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Software Defined and Cloud Group, HPE. “With HPE OneSphere, we’re abstracting away the complexity of managing multi-cloud environments
and applications so our customers can focus on what’s important – accelerating digital transformation and driving business outcomes.” Through HPE Pointnext, the company simplifies customers’ end-to-end digital transformation, including helping them build their strategy, implement multi-cloud environments and simplify costs through consumption models HPE OneSphere’s key benefits include improved speed and simplicity, accelerated application delivery and greater cost efficiency, said the firm. HPE OneSphere will be available starting in January 2018.
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