Westcon Advantage Aug 2013

August 2013 | Private Circulation Only

Setting the standard in global value distribution How Westcon's commitment is second to none

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AT&T Cabling Systems

Foreword

Dear Partners, Welcome to another edition of Westcon Advantage, in which we again aim to showcase and share some company, vendor and Westcon programme updates with you. We have witnessed another fantastic year of growth and I’d like to thank all of our vendors, reseller partners and of course all the team at Westcon Middle East Group for your support and hard work over the last year.

We continue to lead and innovate in value distribution and are delighted to have had this recognized with no less than three regional channel title awards—Value Added Distributor of the Year at the Reseller Middle East Awards 2013, Networking VAD of the Year at the Integrator

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Awards 2013 and Value Added Distributor of the Year at the Channel Middle East Awards 2013.

We have also received vendor accolades as Cisco Distribution Partner of the Year for the Middle East, Motorola EMEA Distributor of the Year, APC EMEA Value Added Distributor of the Year and Juniper EMEA Distributor of the Year. The ‘Westcon Way’— recruit, enable and grow channel development— continues to lead, and with innovations such as our Marketing as a Service (MaaS) offerings, we continue to engage more partners each quarter in structured development plans.

Our commitment to the MEA markets is second to none, with the recent acquisition of Comztek in Africa and Afina Group’s Maghreb operations giving us the strongest value distributor footprint in MEA by far. With robust business ethics and compliance, we remain the undisputed leader for technology companies to partner with throughout MEA. We believe that, through our global reach, group financial strength and the ability to share in great innovation through Westcon’s global operations, we are able to better serve all of our partners this year. We have continued to invest heavily into new offices and a new legal structure in Saudi Arabia, and we also now have resources and logistics on the ground in Egypt and Iraq.

The key to our success is the partnerships we enjoy. These are only as good as our people, and we continue our Great Workplace initiatives, which have resulted in an all-time high employee engagement fcore for Westcon Group in FY13.

This continued, people-centric approach to distribution will further accelerate our innovation and leadership into the years.

Our Divisional portfolio development continues with Comstor driving deeper into the data center through NetApp Flexpod and ExpressPod solutions and the complete Panduit portfolio. And

Westcon Security has grown significantly with the addition of Blue Coat, Kaspersky, Forescout and Algosec. Watch this space for some additional major additions about to be announced. In Westcon Convergence, we have added Polycom, SNOM, Jabra and Platronics to complement our existing vendors and build a new Microsoft Lync ecosystem. Westcon Mobility has strengthened its position with Honeywell, whilst in Infrastructure, we have introduced AT&T, HID and NEC. All of the above continue to allow us to offer truly fantastic opportunities for our reseller partners.

Our approach with our partners remains one of value distribution. We engage in joint business planning and the appropriate services and value additions are agreed upon to drive success. The formula is simple and allows resellers to partner with Westcon and Comstor to create over-andabove demand for our mutual product and service offerings.

As always, I would welcome your feedback on what Westcon and Comstor are getting right, but more importantly what could we do to offer you an even greater level of satisfaction, or what we could do to mutually leverage more business opportunities in this exciting market.

Our systems engineers and consultants are engaged daily in providing fast tracks across the region. What training, education or workshops do you want for your staff, and how can we help?

Westcon and Comstor remain committed to your success in the market – let me have your thoughts and comments on how we can continue to profitably grow our mutual businesses at steve. lockie@westcongroup.com.

Kind regards, Steve Managing Director, WestconME Group

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As Comstor, our value to the vendor and the channel is in our focus on selling Cisco-centric solutions. We pride ourselves in being a specialty distributor offering a range of services to the channel on pre-sales, post-sales, credit services and marketing services, to name a few. We continue to raise the bar in the regional distribution landscape by continually adding to our offerings each year. Most recently, we have made available to the channel a converged infrastructure offering called Flexpod, which is a pre-tested infrastructure stack for the data center combining Cisco servers and NetApp storage. With this, we are offering integration services to the channel. We are additionally working on offering the channel a unique, cloud-based demonstration platform called “dCloud”, which will enable partners to do powerful demos on Cisco architectures via the cloud.

Renton D’Souza, Divisional Director, Comstor Middle East

Westcon Convergence brings together the best distribution offering of leading vendors and clients of unified communications, networking and wireless technologies. Our determined team, which has a winning attitude, thrives on the challenges of diversified solutions, each demanding special attention and focus. We aim to continue to lead the way in thought leadership by investing in futuristic technologies and unique offerings, including professional services and training from Westcon at each stage of the sales process, as we recruit, enable and grow the channel partner base.

Manoj Panchal, Divisional Manager, Westcon Convergence, Westcon Middle East

As Weston’s Infrastructure and Mobility division, we have invested in a business group structure, acquired and groomed talent with expertise on the subject matter— including a supply chain specialist, education consultant and trainer—to better support our partners' growth.

We continue to consolidate our leadership in the enterprise mobility market across the retail, transportation, logistics, healthcare and hospitality industries by illustrating the business benefits in driving efficiency and productivity by the utilization of cordless scanning, rugged terminals, RFID, smart badges, mobile work force management software, mobile device management, wireless and specialised printing related to bar codes, card and mobile through applications provided by our channel partners.

With our current data center offering encompassing cabling, cooling, containment, energy management and DCIM, we are working with our partners in illustrating business benefits to key decision makers on optimizing these resources within a data center.

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We enable our channel partners to provide cost-effective physical security products encompassing access control and video surveillance. We are in the process of on-boarding vendors offering optimized storage for video surveillance, video management systems and video analytics.

Of late, we are working on developing our interactive vendor portfolio to enhance collaboration for the education sector and the enterprise, building on our current offering of high-performance displays, video conferencing, unified collaboration, interactive whiteboards and projectors.

To better support and develop relations, we have allocated resources with subject matter expertise to be involved in educating the channel and end users on the business benefit of adapting technology. We have also been conducting proof-of-concepts and site surveys, building RFP, planning inventory based on forecast and historical analysis of products sold, and inducing credit in the market based on business plans and business needs.

We are excited about the growth opportunity and look forward to your continuous support and feedback to be mutually fruitful.

We wish to thank our stakeholders for their continuous commitment to execute against plans, grow relations and contribute business value.

James Saldanha, Divisional Director, Critical Infrastructure and Enterprise Mobility, Westcon Middle East

At Westcon Emerging Technologies, we bring you a new approach in addressing the needs of the security market for the Middle East. With our deep security knowledge and heritage, Westcon assists technology-leading vendors in building their base in the region by working on business development, marketing, solution selling and proof-of-concept lead approaches. We improve the visibility and capabilities of our partners with a clear focus on niche technology solutions to help protect their end users while adding value to their portfolio of solutions.

Lakshman Nalvade G., Divisional Manager, Emerging Technologies, Westcon Middle East

As Westcon Security division, we deliver the highest degree of professionalism and expertise to help organizations realize their technology ambitions through one of our main assets, which is our people.

With Blue Coat, Dell SonicWall, Kaspersky Labs and Juniper, Westcon boasts a comprehensive security solutions portfolio that addresses network security, secure web gateways, enterprise email security, unified threat management, endpoint security and cloud-based security. We are excited to be working with all our channel partners in a time when security is largely being recognized as an essential element in the adoption of new technologies and ways of conducting business Christopher Green, Divisional Manager, Westcon Security

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Cisco’s top 5 collaboration predictions 1

Mobile adoption will accelerate in the post-PC era. Fewer people will use desktop PCs to collaborate.

Boundaries between families, workers, and friends will continue to vanish as people’s lives become intertwined with their mobile devices. According to a recent announcement from Research and Markets, the mobile subscriber base is expected to reach 6.5 billion by the end of 2012 and increase to 7.5 billion by 2015. They forecast that 300 billion apps will be downloaded annually by 2016—10 times more than what was recorded in 2011. As a result, IT managers will have to look for options that enable workers to collaborate on their own terms. Employees will increasingly access presence, instant messaging, vide and voice messaging, desktop sharing, and conferencing capabilities via apps built for their mobile device, insisting on a consistent user experience (whether Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, or another). Businesses will go from managing multiple company apps to managing apps for a single employee across multiple platforms, including PCs, Macs, tablets and smartphones.

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Video will become more universal.

Inter-company collaboration with video will become more pervasive as companies of all sizes, from big enterprises to small/mid-sized businesses, share in-person experiences with customers, partners and vendors. Product innovation will support

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demand for interoperable, inter-company collaboration with secure text, voice, real-time video, and presence capabilities across multiple device platforms. Video will capitalize on the ease of use of touch-based and gesture-based devices in the marketplace, enabling greater adoption of video for collaboration and business transformation. Simplified through automation, employees will be able to instantly capture video and automatically upload it to their company’s intranet.

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Contact centers will evolve as customers choose to interact with companies in radical new ways.

Customer service centers will enable more proactive communications with their customers, allowing them to interact with agents through a variety of consumer-type mobile applications. We will continue to see a surge from customers in the utilization of voice, video, chat, social media, and the Web to interact with agents to resolve their issues.

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Cloud and desktop virtualization will enhance collaboration capabilities across the enterprise.

Enterprise adoption of cloud-based collaboration will continue at a record pace in the post-PC era. Unified communications will become one of the top elements for enterprise cloud strategies as part of a hosted collaboration offering. Companies will increasingly demand

Wael Abdulal, Collaboration Sales Manager, Cisco, UAE

desktop virtualization solutions that enable employees to access data when they need it, from any location at any time. Videoconferencing cloud services will enable small/ mid-size business to use video to collaborate inside and outside their company without the infrastructure investment required for video.

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Social business processes will become mainstream. In 2013, employees will use social business tools more often to be more productive at work, as business applications are “collaboration-enabled” by social software platforms. For example, from within structured, task-driven applications like CRM, people will be able to see their colleagues’ activity, find experts and ask questions. This type of social interaction will proliferate with the advent of HTML5 and as more developers use open standards such as XMPP and public application program interfaces (APIs) to support platform services.

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August 2013

Flexing muscle Comstor now offers FlexPod integration services, and has placed itself in the fight between FlexPod and Vblock. Ahmed Rushdy, Senior Technical Consultant, Comstor, outlines the company’s strategy for taking the solution to market.

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ow is converged infrastructure changing the data center?

Converged infrastructure packages multiple information technology components into a single, optimized computing solution. The components of a converged infrastructure solution include servers, data storage devices, networking equipment and software for IT infrastructure management, automation and orchestration.

Converged infrastructure offers decreased complexity, through the use of pre-integrated hardware with virtualization and automation management tools, while increasing the ROI by decreasing OPEX, which is related to power, cooling, and space.

With this in mind, customers and cloud providers are deploying a smaller number of networking/ server platforms in order to deliver their services without any compromises on performance or service continuity.

Can you give us some more information on the FlexPod architecture?

FlexPod is the reference architecture for server, storage and networking components that are pre-tested and validated to work together as an integrated infrastructure stack. The stack consists of products from multiple vendors and is sold by storage vendor NetApp Inc. or its value-added resellers (VARs) and systems integrators.

A FlexPod infrastructure stack consists of NetApp FAS storage, Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS), and either VMware or Microsoft hypervisor technology.

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with the latest FlexPod version release currency.

All of the configurations are subject to the completion of data capture spread sheets, which are communicated to the partner in advance.

How do you convince your customers to opt for FlexPod over Vblock, and what is the primary target in terms of delivery platform?

Vblock is generally seen as a more rigid, but truly turnkey model, usually requiring the purchase of another whole unit when additional storage, network or compute capacity is needed. Naturally, NetApp is trying to make hay with the “too static” knock on Vblock.

FlexPod was initially targeted to cover an SME customer base while considering customer future scalability plans of integrating the same data center on the cloud or maybe hosting it as a cloud-based data center. The solution is very easy to scale to support a SMB business customer requirement with rack unit servers and basic IP storage connectivity and can scale up to tens of thousands of servers with advanced storage protocols as FCOE.

What is the broader support available for FlexPod partners, and how many do you have for the product?

Ahmed Rushdy, Senior Technical Consultant Cisco Technologies, Comstor

Comstor offers a FlexPod integration service that delivers Cisco UCS and Cisco Nexus with NetApp FAS storage, pre-installed and delivered in racks, which are fully integrated, configured and tested.

This enables the channel partner to offer a full-stack, pre-validated data center solution that is easy to quote, resell and order.

The integration service is carried out in our facilities at our warehouse, and the service is backed by industry-accredited engineers and technicians.

All configurations adhere to vendor best practices, and are based on Cisco validated designs and NetApp technical reports for FlexPod. Software and firmware versions used are in line

NetApp and Cisco share a long history of support collaboration to resolve joint customers' technical issues. With the launch of the FlexPod platform, NetApp and Cisco have established cooperative support, with a strong, scalable, and flexible support model to address the unique support requirements of the FlexPod converged infrastructure platform.

The cooperative support model uses the combined experience, resources, and technical support expertise of NetApp and Cisco to provide a streamlined process for identifying and resolving a customer’s FlexPod support case, regardless of where the problem resides.

Backed by the joint training of technical support teams, joint technology investments, strong crosscompany support engineer and management relationships, and documented escalation processes, NetApp and Cisco are committed to accelerating the resolution of a customer’s FlexPod support issue.

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The New Campus Network

The American University of Sharjah recently collaborated with Cisco in order to provide its students with a state-of-the-art virtual computing environment.

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August 2013

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ounded in 1997 by His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qassimi, the American University of Sharjah (AUS) is a recent addition to the world of global higher education. Nevertheless, it has already earned a reputation throughout the Gulf and beyond for its academic excellence.

Its multicultural, coeducational campus life attracts students from across the region and around the world With around 2,500 students living on campus out of a population of 5,200 students, and many more independent learners seeking to access the university’s facilities remotely, the ability to reliably and securely serve e-learning applications and educational content is crucial. Ashi Sheth, IT Director, American University of Sharjah, says, “Success brings its own rewards, but also its own problems. We have a data center infrastructure designed for the last decade, struggling to keep up with today’s demands for dynamic cloud-based services and collaborative learning applications.”

AUS uses Cisco collaborative solutions such as Show and Share, Digital Media Player, and Media Experience Engine, and the growing popularity of those applications contributed to demands upon its data center. The need to store and retrieve vast amounts of content was testing the traditional model of application-specific, standalone servers.

As a result, AUS found a natural fit in a solution based on the Cisco Unified Data Centre Architecture, rather than the oldstyle enterprise model being offered by the incumbent vendor. “Virtualization of IT assets, service automation, and the attractions of cloud-based computing were right there on our road map,” says Sheth, “so we were delighted to see that Cisco was thinking exactly the same way. Its well-considered integration with storage technologies from NetApp and virtualization software from VMware meant we would be able to adopt a phased approach to the introduction of new data center models.”

That latter point was crucial because the existing AUS data center environment is complex and represents a significant investment by the university. A complete equipment upgrade simply could not be contemplated. “The modularity

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of the Cisco Unified Data Centre Architecture means we can incorporate other applications and computing environments as they become due for refreshment,” says Sheth. “Along with much faster server provisioning and lower total cost of ownership, that makes a pretty compelling proposition.”

The initial virtual data center installation consists of two Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) chassis equipped in total with seven Cisco

“Success brings its own rewards, but also its own problems. We have a data center infrastructure designed for the last decade, struggling to keep up with today’s demands for dynamic cloudbased services and collaborative learning applications.”

UCS B200 M2 Blade Servers using Intel Xeon x5670 Series multicore processors with 64GB of RAM. Full connectivity between the chassis and blades is provided by a Cisco UCS 6100 Series Fabric Interconnect Switch with Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) technology and Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Cards providing 10Gbps backplane speeds.

Running on Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches with Cisco MDS 9124 Series Multilayer SAN

Switches supporting NetApp storage devices, the existing AUS data center is fully integrated with the new and rapidly-expanding Cisco virtual data center. Cisco Fabric Interconnect FCoE technology offers complete interoperation with the existing SAN environment, with optical fiber between the UCS 6100 and the MDS 9124 switches, saving the need for separate siloed storage.

“As well as the close fit with our technology road map, we were impressed by the Cisco UCS Stateless Computing concept,” says Naji Nujumi, Systems Engineer, American University of Sharjah.

“It means that the kind of environment needed by an operating system or application can be quickly and easily recreated in a new server, making us much more responsive to users’ needs.”

This rapid provisioning capability is accomplished with service profiles, which are effectively server definitions realized in software. Stateless Computing makes for much greater scalability and can be used in conjunction with virtualization to achieve optimum data center utilization.

The UCS platform will support several application sets. It will provide virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) services based on Citrix XenServer Enterprise Edition to academic and administrative users, including hosting a full Microsoft Office suite. Also served by this private cloud model will be educational applications such as MATLAB (a programming environment for algorithm development, data analysis, visualization, and numerical computation) and Maple 16 (helping students analyze, explore, visualize, and solve mathematical problems).

With the cloud-based VDI architecture currently running as a proof-of-concept pilot, the benefits are eagerly anticipated. “People will enjoy the same desktop view whether working on campus, on a mobile device, or at home,” says Sheth. “Their learning environments will no longer be shackled to a physical location, and they’ll be able to access educational applications any time, any place.”

That VDI platform will also enable full bringyour-own-device functionality for the 5,200 AUS students. As a participant in the VDI proof-ofconcept pilot, Sheth says, “The boot-up speed is impressive, while remote HD video runs just as if the content’s sitting there on the local machine.”

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Getting physical Bassel Halabi, Regional Manager, Middle East and Pakistan, Panduit, answers questions about the latest trends in physical infrastructure and his company’s value proposition.

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How can the channel benefit from partnering with you?

How is your current partner ecosystem looking?

There are various ways a partner can benefit from joining our program. Panduit is the expert on the physical infrastructure layer and our partners have access to that expertise. We collaborate and partner with leading global technology companies like Cisco to build our solutions, and our partners also have access to these solutions.

They also benefit because we reinvest 10 percent of our annual revenue back into R&D and therefore constantly develop innovative solutions making our partners more relevant to their end users. We have over 115 online courses that our partners have access to and, as part of the program, we refer new business to them. Finally, our partners have access to our incentive scheme and some of the program incentives are linked to solutions from other technology partners, like Cisco solutions.

We believe we have a strong partner ecosystem in place, comprised of a good mix of key resellers as well as gold partners. The good thing is we are already working with a lot of the key partners

How important is a robust physical infrastructure for companies to meet the needs of the new breed of applications?

What is your current go-to-market strategy?

Our go-to-market strategy is 100 percent partnercentric. We would like to continue to work with key partners in the region, including key systems integrators and resellers as well as key distributors, like Comstor, in order to supply complete solutions to our customers.

Bassel Halabi, Regional Manager – Middle East & Pakistan, Panduit

The world economy is tight but we clearly see signs of growth in the Middle East. However it is not the boom that was experienced four to five years ago, and we are always under pressure to provide our solutions at the best possible price.

"It is not the boom that was experienced four to five years ago, and we are always under pressure to provide our solutions at the best possible price."

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Do you have plans to build on that ecosystem. If so, when and how?

We are always looking for new partners to join our program, hence the partnership with Westcon.

They give us extended reach in the region and we can help them provide complete solutions.

ould you give a brief overview of your Unified Physical Infrastructure approach?

The increased demands being placed on the data center physical infrastructure require the integration of traditionally disparate and proprietary systems. Simply put, a Unified Physical Infrastructure (UPI)-based approach enables the optimized convergence of core systems, and provides substantial benefits like risk mitigation, cost reduction, increased business agility and enhanced sustainability.

How do you see your business growing in the next 18 to 24 months?

in most of the Middle East countries that we do business in. However, as we develop new solutions and products, we would like to enhance our partner ecosystem to ensure that we provide the best and most current solutions to our customers.

The physical infrastructure can have significant impact on the performance, efficiency and reliability of the data center. According to a recent IDG Research Services survey of more than 100 IT executives, companies that did not make physical infrastructure design a top priority when preparing for cloud deployment have experienced negative outcomes as a result of reactive infrastructure changes, including increased cost (55 percent), slower implementation times (41 percent) and increased power and cooling needs (38 percent).

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August 2013

Finding hidden value

In a world where true value is hard to find, Cisco’s idea of offering professional services through its channel has really taken off, thanks largely to the fact it allows partners to offer more value to their customers. Debbie Mayfield, Regional Services Sales Manager, Cisco UAE, explains more.

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hile the entire channel community professes to add value in some way or another, a number of channel players are stumped when that value is top-notch support for high-level gear.

Training has become an important talking point for the channel, with many bemoaning how expensive it has become to skill up. Resellers lose business because they’re unable to differentiate themselves with skilled employees who can provide top-level support. And because they’re losing business, they can’t afford to send their employees on the training courses they need.

It’s a vicious circle, then, but Cisco has come up with an answer to break the cycle. With its Cisco Services arm, it aims to provide customers with professional services so that partners can offer more value without having to worry, too much, about skilling up themselves. And the idea has caught on well over the past few years, according to Debbie Mayfield, Regional Services Sales Manager, Cisco UAE. “The services business at Cisco involves professional services that help customers with kits design and implementation, to ensure they get maximum benefit and achieve the objectives they had in mind when they set out to purchase the kit,” she says.

“The other side of the business revolves around the maintenance contracts that focus on overall hardware replacement. We have an extensive depot pool both here and across the Middle East, so our partners don’t necessarily have to stock kit themselves. We do that on their behalf provided they have a maintenance contract with us, and I believe that this is one of our key differentiators.”

According to Mayfield, Cisco Services have

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traditionally been broken up into ‘proactive’ and ‘reactive’ services. Cisco encourages partners to get involved in the proactive services, as they entail network and security assessments, optimization services and install base management, meaning it provides partners a chance to really get to grips with the customer’s requirements.

The reactive services are simply focused on making sure the networks are healthy, says Mayfield. For example, with Cisco Smart Net Services, customers can call Cisco directly for advanced hardware replacement, bug fixes and software updates, she says.

That said, Cisco hardly wants to cut its partners out of the support process altogether.

Mayfield speaks of getting the “right” partners involved in Cisco Services, and they’re the ones who really want to build strong relationships with their customers.

“I would say the right partner is one who really wants to get involved in the operational side of the customer’s business,” she says. “If they’re a drop-ship partner or a fulfillment partner, this isn’t the right model for them.

They need to be the kind of partners who want to develop an intrinsic relationship with the customers and want to be looked at as the customer’s potential IT arm.”

What’s more, Cisco is keen to throw the right partners as much training as it can, so the vendor tries to organize training sessions on a quarterly basis. These sessions can range from the Smart Care offerings to the Cisco Collaborative Professional Services. There are also regular WebEx sessions, and, Mayfield says, Cisco is always willing to meet partners who are serious about getting involved in the services space.

Of course, these services don’t come free for

Debbie Mayfield, Regional Services Sales Manager, Cisco UAE

the customer. And one of the problems with this is that customers often expect the support costs to be bundled in with the price of the gear.

Mayfield says that Cisco had trouble with this when it launched Smart Care in 2008, but the vendor and its partners are now managing to work around it.

“The 1.9 release introduces an SKU-based approach, similar to Shared Support or Smart Net, so partners have the ability to package the best services and come up with creative quotes for their customers,” she says.

Mayfield adds that Cisco Services is now a business ready to be driven, for both partners and customers. For her, it’s all about Smart Care at the moment. And if partners want to find that little bit of extra value to offer their customers, they might start seeing things in the same way.

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August 2013

The new big Avaya is on a mission to empower mid-sized businesses across the Middle East, Africa and Turkey, says Nidal AbouLtaif, VP, Middle East Africa and Mediterranean, Avaya.

Challenges or advantages?

The best SMEs are less risk-averse than their larger, more established competitors. They invest in new technology, understanding how it will make them better-informed and more competitive, especially if it helps them stay customer-centric. They want to grow, and actively look for sleek, new innovations to stay lean.

The drive to be efficient can be one of the best motivators. Their IT infrastructure can’t easily manage unnecessary tasks, nor can their balance sheets take unnecessary costs. SMEs focus on their specific needs, and solutions to meet those needs.

The business relationship between Avaya and leading partners like Westcon depends on creating solutions to address the specific challenges that are on hand. Flexible solutions for small and midsize business will bring both a great deal of success.

Ultimately, SMEs need to offer their clients and customers the same services as large enterprises.

Total communications for midsize enterprises

Nidal Abou-Ltaif, VP of Middle East Africa and Mediterranean, Avaya

The Age of the SME When NASDAQ Dubai was preparing to launch the first equity market in the Middle East entirely dedicated to small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), they estimated there were close to 72,000 of them spread throughout the city. Local businesses, support vendors, retail agents, and industry suppliers—the small and medium-sized engines of the economy—generate 40 percent of its gross domestic product. But until recently, they’ve been doing so with business tools that were built for large enterprises.

Small and medium businesses are the internal structure of a healthy, growing Middle

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Eastern economy. Companies in this bracket are innovative from their competitive nature, and flexible in order to deal with the tempestuous business landscape. According to an estimation from consultancy firm McKinsey & Co, more than 10 million SMEs are based in the Middle East, and together they boast a combined estimated year-over-year growth of 14 percent. That could double by 2015, from $6 billion in 2010 to $15 billion, according to Zawya. This is all from companies sporting as few as 50 employees, with staff blending multiple roles, and who are flexible, often managing their own internal information technology infrastructure.

Avaya’s understanding of personalized customer communication and effective inter-office collaboration are two critical business tools in the fight for growth opportunities. A wide variety of communications—via voice, messaging, video, web, and remote accessibility—is what empowers the creation of “the new big” enterprises of tomorrow.

So we have simplified, complex business communications systems; built-in, enterprise-class collaboration, specifically for the mid-size business market, with solutions suitable for as few as five employees and that can scale to up to 1,000; and networking and video conferencing that have time-saving, straightforward usage, and are Avayadesigned to be used without dedicated IT staff.

Customers don’t want to be confined to expensive video conferencing rooms. They don’t even want to be confined to the office. They want to stay connected with their customers, peers and partners. Avaya is making video conferencing mobile and affordable, keeping SMEs always connected—on the construction site, sales tour, or home office. It’s simple, so that Dubai’s small and midsize businesses can be innovative.

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Desk phone, meet video conferencing.

Now you can look them in the eye. Polycom video collaboration right from your Desk phone, meet video conferencing. desk phone.

See and hear in amazing HD quality. Key productivity apps and a smartphone-style interface. All this and more with Polycom® VVX® Business Media Phones.

Now you can look them in the eye. Polycom video collaboration right from your to Use desk phone.

See and hear in amazing HD quality. KeyEasy productivity apps and • Intuitive UI, large color screens “Polycom VVX Business Media Phones a smartphone-style interface.

Allthat thistraditional and more with Polycom® • Programmable VVX® line keys Business have collaboration features • 1-click access to productivity apps Media Phones. phone systems cannot match, giving us the

“Polycom VVX Business Media Phones - Peter Nowak, President, Design Electric, a full-service have collaboration electrical contractor features that traditional phone systems cannot match, giving us the To find out more visit polycom.com/vvx. communication power we need at a price we can afford.”

- Peter Nowak, President, Design Electric, a full-service electrical contractor To find out more visit polycom.com/vvx.

Easy to Set up & Deploy • Zero-touch provisioning Easy to Use • Web-based configuration • Intuitive UI, large color screens • Deploys on existing networks

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Easy to Integrate • 1-click access to productivity apps • Built-in web browser • Open SIP-based and&Microsoft® Easy to Set up Deploy Lync® interoperability • Zero-touch provisioning • Open APIs for developers

• Web-based configuration • Deploys on existing networks

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communication power we need at a price we can afford.”

Easy to Integrate • Built-in web browser • Open SIP-based and Microsoft® Lync® interoperability

WHENEVER. WHEREVER. HOWEVER

SMARTER WORKING 3.5=1 Mobile professionals now carry, on average, 3.5 devices with them.* But a Voyager Legend UC Bluetooth® headset can handle them all.

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*Source: Times Newspapers Ltd(2012).

The rise of the Mobile Worker.

YOUR MOBILE CONFERENCE ROOM. WALLS OPTIONAL From a 360-degree mic that directs itself toward the speaker, to active noise cancellation, the Calisto® 620 is the wireless Unified Communications speakerphone for your PC, smartphone and tablet.

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Removing the complexity from your network Sonus, positioned as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Session Border Controllers*, enables enterprises and service providers to remove the complexity from their network, leverage existing investments, and migrate smoothly and quickly to a communications infrastructure that allows them to realise the true potential of VoIP and unified communications.

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Sonus SBC 1000 Up to 100 Sessions

Sonus SBC 2000 Up to 600 Sessions

Sonus SBC 5100 Up to 10K Sessions

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Integration Survivability The questions customers are facing today…

The solution is as simple as S-B-C

Can our network continue to be reliable and scale to run the simultaneous voice, video, IM and conferencing that UC encourages?

A session border controller (SBC) does what it says on the tin: it controls sessions - those voice, video and conferencing applications - at the network border.

Can we afford to invest in UC technology on our IT budget? – realistically, we can’t afford to do a wholesale removal of the existing infrastructure; How will this impact our IT team?

– they’re already resource thin – is this more complexity that they don’t want?

What sort of security issues are we really facing? There are Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks, caller ID spoofing, toll fraud, attempts to steal secrets…

An SBC plays the role of traffic policeman – deciding what can be admitted or denied and directing traffic to the fastest, most efficient route.

It acts as translator of all the various ‘flavours’ of VoIP and SIP that exist internal and external to your network. It manages policies to ensure the network doesn’t get overloaded.

It secures incoming and outgoing communications and protects against DoS attacks.

Sonus and Westcon Working with Westcon, Sonus can help channel partners grow their business.

Sonus solutions are designed to provide customers with choice as they move to Unified Communications no matter if they are currently wholly IP or mixed TDM/IP. Qualified with Microsoft Lync and with proven interoperability with most legacy PBX systems, Sonus SBCs can overlay and integrate, removing complexity, enabling a smooth migration and empowering customers to realise the potential of UC. Tel: +971-4375-3493 www.sonus.net

* Sonus is positioned in the Leaders quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Session Border Controllers, published October 9, 2012 by Gartner, Inc.

August 2013

Building the data center of the future

Sufian Dweik, Regional Director, MEMA, Brocade, writes about a flexible, ‘on-demand’ strategy for Middle East enterprises.

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ccording to IDC, Middle East IT spending in 2013 is projected to cross the $32 billion mark, which is double the global average. No doubt a significant portion of this will be spent on technologies that will build the data centers of the future. The connected world of today cares very little for the back-end technology and infrastructure that makes it run, and yet demands so very much of it. At the heart of the communications, applications and service delivery ecosystem is the network, which has, over the past two decades, grown exponentially, both in size and complexity. The modern data center is no longer just the silent backbone, endlessly toiling away to keep operations up and running. Businesses now see it as an essential platform for innovation.

storage. However, not all networking infrastructures are equal, and for businesses that want to embrace a highly flexible and agile on-demand model, a fabricbased networking topology is required. One that delivers a blueprint that unifies vital areas of the data center, from fabrics to storage to physical and virtual infrastructure. A fabric-based network, both at the IP and storage layers, will simplify network design and management to address the growing complexity in IT and data centers today and deliver key features like logical chassis, distributed intelligence and automated port profile migration. Fabric-based networks are more attuned to operate in highly virtualized data centers to support techniques such as VM mobility within a fabric and across data centers, thereby providing the ideal hardware foundation for the on-demand data center.

The data center that Middle East organizations should deploy will require a new approach that includes a high degree of virtualization, the combination of physical and virtual infrastructure elements and an open, standards-based approach, which will provide the flexibility to evolve as new technologies come into play. One such technology will no doubt be software-defined networking (SDN).

Middle East organizations are already expressing interest in how this new approach can radically improve their networks.

Brocade believes that scalability and elasticity are among the top criteria for evaluating the success of data center deployments. Below are the key ingredients of a future-proof data center network.

On top of the physical infrastructure will be a virtual or logical layer. This is well-established in the server domain with hypervisor technology. The same concepts are now being applied to both storage and IP networks with technologies such as overlay networks enabled through a variety of tunneling techniques. Next we will see network services virtualized, thanks to the introduction of virtual switches and routers. “NFV”, or Network Function Virtualization, represents an industry movement towards software or VM-based form factors for common data center services. Customers want to realize the cost and flexibility advantages of software rather than continuing to deploy specialized, purpose-built devices for services such as application delivery controllers. This is especially the case in cloud architectures, where these services want to be commissioned and decommissioned with mouse clicks rather than physical hardware installations and moves.

Fabric for the future At the heart of any data center is the physical networking infrastructure, one that provides the connectivity between applications, servers and

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Virtual infrastructure

Sufian Dweik, Regional Director, MEMA, Brocade

Controllers In addition to the physical and virtual/logical layer will be controllers. One such example is the network controller, which is implemented in software and tracks the status of the network and provides welldefined KPIs. The complete architecture is built around applications that directly affect the underlying infrastructure and guarantees the best possible application uptime, performance and security.

Orchestration frameworks Finally, the entire data center environment must be managed by orchestration frameworks that allow for the rapid and end-to-end provisioning of virtual data centers. There are many approaches in the market, such as VMware vCloud Director and the OpenStack community. OpenStack, for example, allows customers to deploy network capacity and services in their cloud-based data centers far quicker than with legacy network architectures and provisioning tools.

The data center of the future will therefore be a combination of the most valuable aspects of the physical and virtual layers. Such a data center will give organizations the ability to flexibly deploy data center capacity in real-time, whenever and wherever they need it. Additionally, the simplified management and elastic nature of such a data center design will also deliver much improved ROI (due to scaling, scale multi-tenancy and time and money savings). So, for an organization wanting to make the journey to the on-demand data center, they must look for technology partners that are focused on delivering a network infrastructure that enables this vision.

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behind every smart network‌ is a Ciena solution.

Ciena is the network specialist and we proudly partner with Westcon to provide award-winning packet and optical network solutions dedicated to ensuring the scalability, reliability and automation for today's enterprise and service provider demands. ™

coherent optics packet networking

applications

To learn more visit ciena.com

August 2013

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August 2013

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A COMPLETE PORTFOLIO CHOOSE THE RIGHT ENTERPRISE DIGITAL ASSISTANT (EDA) TO MEET YOUR NEEDS

ES400

MC45

MC65

MC67

MC75A

Motorola’s smallest EDA, packing enterprise functionality into a sleek device with consumerstyle design — and pricing.

Great for voice centric users.

The MC45 is our value tier enterprisemobilecomputerwith wide area connectivity for data centric users. Where low cost should not be a compromise.

The MC65 adds a bigger screen (3.5”), 2D imager, longer battery and multiple keypad options to the MC45.

A great all round solution

Our most robust mobile computer yet with IP67 & 8ft drop spec. Also boasts a 1GHz dual core processor and HSPA+ connectivity

The 3.5G field proven MC75A is designed for ease of use in the field. Compatible with a full range of accessories (including MC70 accessories)

Value Added Distributor

MOTOROLA, MOTO, MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS and the Stylized M Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Motorola Trademark Holdings, LLC and are used under license. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2013 Motorola Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.

WESTCON MIDDLE EAST LTD JAFZA Showroom No SRA109, PO Box 17124, JAFZA, Dubai, U.A.E me.westcon.com +971 4 8839888

SMART Table® Collaborative learning center

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xcite young learners and help them grow together—both socially and academically.

The SMART Table 442i collaborative learning center combines learning and play to inspire centerbased learning and active collaboration.

• • • •

Inspired collaboration Irresistible small-group learning Activities that engage Part of a complete pre-K3 solution

Sarix IL10 series mini box and micro dome cameras

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he new Sarix™ IL10 series mini box and micro dome cameras are high-definition, cost-effective IP network cameras perfect for almost any indoor fixed video security application The Sarix IL10 Series box and dome cameras are high-definition IP network cameras that offer a cost-effective solution for video security needs in small- and medium-sized businesses. They are part of the Pelco Value (V) range of cameras.

IL10 Series cameras produce high-quality, color HDTV (720p resolution at 30 ips) video, 30 images per second (ips), H.264 compression, Up to two simultaneous video streams, Selectable bit rate, Minimum illumination down to 0.5 lux,

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Integrated 68° field of view lens, Power over Ethernet (IEEE 802.3af ) or 24 VAC options, ONVIF Profile S conformant.

These Cameras offer: • Easily integrates with third-party video systems • Affordable, cost-effective, high-quality cameras • Quick, easy installation • Web-based user interface for easy setup and configuration • Choice of PoE or 24VAC power • One-year warranty and support from Pelco

by Schneider Electric

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August 2013

SMART Room System™ for Microsoft® Lync®

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his is a more effective way to collaborate using Microsoft Lync Transform your meetings with the SMART Room System, an integrated hardware solution that combines touchenabled displays with an HD video camera, microphones and speakers to enable rich audio, video and data collaboration.

Meeting participants can contribute ideas in more creative ways and collaborate in a more inspired way—all within the Microsoft Lync software they already know.

Get your data center in 4 weeks

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ntroducing Next Generation InfraStruxure.

Whether your company just acquired another company or is planning ‘follow the moon’ virtualization to streamline energy use, you’re most likely facing pressing demands on your company’s IT infrastructure. Your legacy data center infrastructure may not be able to handle these business changes.

That’s where APC by Schneider Electric steps in with its proven high-performance, scalable data center infrastructure. Only InfraStruxure ensures that your data center can adapt effectively, efficiently, and quickly to business changes, making your the company the hero.

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What’s more, it gives you the capabilities you need to monitor and manage your data center proactively and easily to ensure healthy operations at all times. InfraStruxure data centers also enable you to: 1) Accommodate high densities easily 2) Add cooling quickly and easily 3) Monitor threats proactively 4) Upgrade instead of overhaul 5) Manage in a ‘single-pane’ view 6) Model capacity changes 7) Ensure your business drives your IT 8) Manage new equipment in seconds 9) Optimize reliability and efficiency 10) Move at business speed

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August 2013

Digital Content at your Control – NEC Display Solutions cover a wide variety of vertical applications

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EC offers high performance display solutions offering via an extensive range of products for a wide range of applications.

From high end 24/7 video wall for security applications through to displays for a broad range of signage applications, NEC has led the way in innovation and quality over many years.

Key Model Ranges- LFD Displays • NEW E Series – entry level from 42-65” Entry level signage, meeting rooms, • V Series – Mid Range Pro 16/7 Display DOOH, Corp & Govt. meeting rooms, VCON • XS + XUN – Pro 24/7 Panel Adv. feature sets Command & Control / NOC, high end Corp & Govt., Quick Service restaurant applications.

The award-winning projector range from NEC offers products for all needs and these are available through WESTCON.

Avocent® Universal Management Gateway A Comprehensive Appliance for Infrastructure Management and Control

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he Avocent® Universal Management Gateway is a multi-purpose appliance that consolidates access and control to all facilities and IT assets. Exclusively, the Universal Management Gateway uses proven technology to deliver a single, unified approach for both data center infrastructure management (DCIM) including remote data center management.

Key Benefits • Enhance data center efficiency and

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responsiveness with unified, real-time visibility and control of facilities and IT assets • Substantially reduce the complexity of deploying various hardware systems for alerts, telemetry, environmental sensors as well as device access and control • Maintain data collection capabilities during disaster recovery with each Universal Management Gateway storing its own data store

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RUGGED. RELIABLE. DATALOGIC. Experience Datalogic’s full line of mobile computers including pocket-sized to full-alpha-keyboard hand-held devices, industrial PDAs, and pistol-grip terminals...all designed for rugged environments.

FALCON X3TM MOBILE COMPUTER

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ELF TM PDA

LYNX TM PDA

MEMORTM MOBILE COMPUTER

www.datalogic.com

Topaz Energy and Marine enhances security and productivity with Dell SonicWALL

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Topaz uses Dell SonicWALL solutions to establish secure, effective communications across a globally distributed network

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Topaz Energy and Marine enhances security and productivity Topaz uses Dell SonicWALL solutions to establish secure, effective communications across a globally distributed network.

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opaz Energy and Marine is a leading oil field services company providing marine and engineering solutions to the global energy industry. Based in Dubai, the company has a primary focus on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and the Caspian Sea countries. The marine division operates approximately 100 off-shore vessels. It has an in-house IT team of 15 people delivering technology services to 16 office locations around the globe including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Nigeria and Brazil, all of which are connected through VPN tunnels. Topaz deployed Dell SonicWALL Network Security, Email Security, and Backup and Recovery solutions, resulting in greater performance, reliability, and manageability.

The challenge One of the main problems faced by Topaz was inconsistent bandwidth, which affected the company’s work flow, and employee access to critical data. Previously, Topaz deployed disparate firewall and VPN connectivity solutions, which were complex, difficult to manage and costly to scale. This left the Topaz network vulnerable to

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viruses and spam attacks that caused periods of downtime and hours of precious time spent troubleshooting and fixing problems.

Additionally, Topaz was in danger of losing business-critical information. The constant struggle with managing network bandwidth and security had to be addressed quickly as the company was in a growth phase and needed to extend its network service across its growing global footprint.

“Having deployed and experimented with many other solutions out there in the market, I was very unhappy with their complexities when deploying, upgrading, managing across our corporate network and scaling,” says Sanjay Kumar, IT Manager, Topaz Energy and Marine. “So when we deployed Dell SonicWALL appliances as a trial in 2004, I was very impressed with the results and decided to engageDell SonicWALL on a broader scale.”

Initially, Topaz deployed SonicWALL Pro Series firewalls in two locations and, within a year, across all offices globally. Topaz then upgraded the Pro Series to Dell SonicWALL E-Class Network Security Appliance (NSA) E5500, and NSA 4500, 3500 and 2400 Next- Generation Firewalls, all of which are centrally managed at its headquarters in Dubai.

Topaz also expanded its Dell SonicWALL

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“So when we deployed Dell SonicWALL appliances as a trial eight years ago, I was Challenge very impressed with the results.”

• Inconsistent bandwidth Sanjay Kumar IT Manager • Loss of access to critical data • Previous firewall and VPN connectivity solutions were complex to manage and difficult or costly to scale • Vulnerable network open to viruses and spam attacks

Solution Dell SonicWALL E-Class NSA, NSA, ESA and CDP solutions provide Topaz with a secure, stable global network environment and yield high employee efficiency

Benefits • Easy to deploy and manage • Greater network stability • Increased productivity

portfolio to include Dell SonicWALL ESA Email Security (ESA) with 1,000 mailbox licenses.

The solution offers comprehensive, effective and scalable email security for enterprise environments.

Powerful yet easy to manage, Dell SonicWALL Email Security combines anti-spam, anti-virus and

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August 2013

anti-phishing capabilities with content filtering and outbound email management, preventing leaks of confidential information and violations of regulatory compliance law. ESA solutions were deployed at the head office in Dubai and at the Qatar office as a backup. “We were especially happy with how Dell SonicWALL firmware was upgraded automatically, when it was released.

This meant that our systems are always up to date and robust,” says Kumar.

Over the years, Topaz developed a system where each office had two Internet connections—one lease line for VPN and a second line for Internet access. The lease lines piped 12 Mbps at each site, while the ADSL lines were between 40 and 100 Mbps based on local connectivity and capacity. Social media sites were blocked and rules were set based on management requirements and decisions.

In 2008, Topaz deployed Dell SonicWALL Continuous Data Protection (CDP) 6080 backup and recovery appliances.

The result Due to Dell SonicWALL’s GUI, the deployment was quick to roll out and easy to manage.

Subsequently, bandwidth performance improved markedly, leaving plenty of room to scale. In 2010, Topaz implemented Dell SonicWALL’s ES 5500 NSA series at its headquarters in Dubai as well as the 3500, and in 2012, implemented the 4500, all of which are managed centrally at the head office. Now, thanks to Dell SonicWALL, Topaz is able to effectively communicate with its global offices through a distributed network.

“Topaz is a true case study for the smart and effective use of Dell SonicWALL technologies.

The IT team utilized a range of our appliances to

Arbor Networks: How Can We Help?

A rbor’s Pravail APS platform protects an organization’s Internet service availability.

It leverages Arbor’s 12-plus years of experience in defeating DDoS attacks, and has been designed from the ground up to be easy to operationalize. Pravail APS integrates with cloud and serviceprovider DDoS protection services based around Arbor’s Peakflow SP solution—which is used by the vast majority of service providers to protect their services and customers. Arbor solutions—and the services based on them—can provide organizations with

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more comprehensive protection from the DDoS threat.

To combat threats inside a network, Arbor offers the Pravail Network Security Intelligence (“Pravail NSI”) solution. Pravail NSI is designed to provide organizations with pervasive visibility of the traffic across their networks. Network operators can easily obtain and navigate a picture of network and user activity—and quickly identify violations of acceptable use policies and unusual behaviors. They can also utilize actionable threat and reputation data, as well as more advanced threat identification features and technologies, to prevent any threat from

deliver a stable network environment across its offices worldwide and yield tangible business benefits embodied in high employee efficiency,” says Shanawaz Sheikh, Dell SonicWALL’s Regional Director, Middle East, Africa and Turkey.

The future Dell SonicWALL is currently working on extending the Topaz network to include handheld devices.

Plans are underway for Topaz to install Dell SonicWALL Aventail E-Class SSL VPN, which provides users of Windows, Windows Mobile, Apple Mac OS, iOS, Linux, and Google Android devices an ‘in-office’ experience. This will give easy and secure access to executives who are constantly travelling and enable them to keep abreast of important news. Dell SonicWALL will also assist Topaz in its global expansion into other upcoming locations in different regions.

gaining a foothold within the organization.

Threat intelligence is key. The ASERT team and ATLAS system provide Arbor with an unrivalled and unique level of visibility into the evolution of network threats.

Arbor refines the obtained information into actionable intelligence, which it provides via a feed into the Pravail APS, Pravail NSI, Peakflow SP and Peakflow Threat Management System (“Peakflow TMS”) solutions to allow them to deal with the latest threats.

Arbor is dedicated to providing all kinds of organizations with protection from cyber threats.

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Clear and present danger Christopher Green, Divisional Manager of Westcon Security, answers questions about the ever-changing threat landscape and what Westcon brings to the table for partners.

What do you see as the current security trends affecting the region?

Christopher Green, Divisional Manager of Westcon Security

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hat is your current view of the security industry within distribution?

I see fantastic opportunities within the sector.

Demand for IT security products and services has resulted in exponential growth over the past few years, owing to the increasing deployment of IT-enabled business solutions. Distribution plays a key part in creating effective go-to-market strategies for the vendors, giving their products a greater reach.

What is your go to market strategy right now?

The ‘Westcon Way’ is our sales enablement cycle, which gives an expanded, value-forward approach spanning the sales cycle from preparation to implementation. Plus, we’ve built strategic partnerships with specialists and service providers to help our partners at every stage. In each key area, we offer products, selling tools, technical expertise, integration, support and financial services.

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From my side, I see that companies throughout the region are seeking to adjust their approach to IT security because of the big four IT issues—Big Data, social networking, mobile and cloud computing.

At Westcon, we see the adoption of mobile device management (MDM) as a solution in the region. With numerous mobile devices, the threat vector has increased and corporations are being challenged to provide increased security for their users without compromising on user-friendliness.

The visibility of applications and users remains a key factor as the utilization of cloud-based services increases globally.

Increased need for BYOD devices connecting to enterprise networks have seen them move for granular control on their applications and user base. Thus expanding the desire for applicationaware security devices such as next-gen firewalls and network access control solutions—both of which can scale beyond the enterprise boundary.

Advance persistent threats (APT) are a real issue for any organization and we see numerous vendors coming up with solutions that handle this threat. One thing is clear: No single vendor provides complete security and it is important for customers to look for a multi-vendor solution and take a layered approach to dealing with APTs. All regions are under continuous attack by hackers, and regardless of the size of the organization, they are vulnerable to DDoS attacks. We have seen service providers in this region take progressive steps by launching managed security services for protecting customer networks against DoS/DDoS attacks. There has been a shift in mindset across the region and customers are looking for a layered DDoS solution for their network.

What are your main offerings?

Within our portfolio, we provide Big Data

security analytics, threat intelligence and security visibility (APT Suite), and line rate SSL visibility from Bluecoat, along with Secure Web Gateway and Secure WAN Optimization.

We have Dell SonicWALL, which provides intelligent network security and data protection solutions that enable customers and partners to dynamically secure, control and scale their global networks. With Juniper Networks, we have high-performance next-gen firewalls, and the industry-first Intrusion Deception System, which goes beyond blocking hackers from networks, but also tracks their behaviour and blocks them further ahead if they launch an attack on web resources. Through Kaspersky Labs, we offer protection against viruses and advanced malware attacks. These new solutions for business deliver world-class IT security and systems manageability across every endpoint, including physical and virtual machines, mobile devices and file, storage, email, Internet and collaboration servers.

What can vendors and resellers gain from partnering with you?

Vendors gain from our committed security team, who are driving the business by increasing partner breadth, creating new alliances and engaging existing customers. We offer added value through supply chain management, strong credit services, marketing, local training and support. For resellers, as stated previously we have the ‘Westcon Way’, whereby we help position their business effectively, build presence, generate product awareness and drive profitable sales revenue. We ensure all our partners gain an advantage from our strong vendor relationships to increase their revenues and profits. Our pre-sales teams support our resellers by building solutions, offering design advice and upselling opportunities, POCs and implementations

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Leverage True Value W

estcon Group’s patented six-step Reseller Sales Enablement Cycle is an expanded, value-forward selling approach spanning all the way from preparation to implementation.

At each step of this cycle, we aim to provide our resellers and vendor partners with tools and programs to better meet their customer needs.

In each area, we offer products, selling tools, technical expertise, integration, support and financial services to better support your business.

Based on our understanding of the reseller’s need to have better marketing and financial support and services in the ever-changing and challenging regional business environments, we have introduced Marketing as Service (MaaS) and Credit as a Service (CaaS).

At Westcon Group, we understand that, in order to expand your product and services offerings to grow your business, you need to market and promote the solution offerings and services you have within your portfolio.

With a keen understanding of the ICT industry, as well as the knowledge that not every reseller can afford their own marketing team, Westcon Group’s Marketing as a Service provides strategic services to help our resellers with one-off projects or tailored marketing services that suit each customer’s needs.

Our services include: • Strategic management and business plans • Campaign management • Design services • Webinar and tele-marketing services • Data-base management For more details, email us at marketing.services@ me.comstor.com & marketing.ae@westcon.com

Credit as a Service (CaaS) Credit as a Service (CaaS) is a Westcon ME Group initiative that helps you to deliver the best technologies and services to your end user and customer, while offering leverage on your investments.

We offer: • Invoice discounting • Trade financing • Micro credit • Leading options • Other financing solutions For more details, email us at caas.ae@westcon.com

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2013

Join us at Connect 2013 during Gitex @ the Sublime Bar, Ibis Hotel, Dubai World Trade Center 21st - 23rd October 2013 marketing.ae@westcon.com me.westcon.com

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