Arabian Reseller - April 2020 by Rysha Media

APRIL 2020 Vol. 2. Issue 4.

www.arabianreseller.com

PILLARS OF PANDEMIC PREPARATION

Wireless Fabric |Materialfor Life Connections from 2 meters to 245 kilometers.

Cambium Networks is the only company that provides a complete wireless fabric technology solution for Enterprise, IoT and Community Networks.

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CONTENTS 

08 09 10 11 12 16 17 

NEWS

Nutanix Partners with Udacity to Offer Hybrid Cloud Program

Huawei Launches New Solutions and Services for Developers Nexans and Ingram Micro Ink Distribution Agreement

Spectrami to Distribute PhishRod in Middle East, Africa and Turkey BeyondTrust Intros a Guide to its new Universal Privilege Management Koch Industries Acquires Infor Sentrybay and Raqmiyat Offer Secured Work From Home Solutions

F E AT U R E S T H I S M O N T H Boosting Productivity While Working from Home

Here's How to Game Like a Pro

COVID-19 Industry Impact Reports

The New Face of the IT Channel The Translations Industry Can Attract More Business with AI Remote Access Can Help Your Businesses During Difficult Times

ARABIAN RESELLER | April 2020

EDITORIAL

APRIL 2020

EDITOR IN CHIEF Chris N. Fernando chris@ryshamedia.com

CHRIS N. FERNANDO EDITOR IN CHIEF

Pandemic Planning: Companies Should Respond Responsibly

SALES AND MARKETING Ranbir Sen ranbir@ryshamedia.com

DEPUTY EDITOR Edward Frank edward@ryshamedia.com

The rapidly evolving threat around the COVID-19 virus is impacting the business and investor community across the world. The global and interconnected nature of today’s business environment poses serious risk of disruption of global supply chains that can result in significant loss of revenue and adversely impact global economies. The impact on the global economy may increase depending on the extent of geographic spread of the virus. However, the pandemic has already negatively impacted the global economy as a whole. Many multinational businesses have reduced output of facilities and or suspended operations in affected regions, as travel restrictions and mandatory social distancing and home working have been invoked. Companies and governments around the world continue to closely monitor the situation. Having said that, there are lots more businesses can do to mitigate the effects of COVID-19. Conventional approaches will not work in the current scenario and they will fall short. Traditional resilience plans are also not sufficient to address pandemic-related disruptions. Additionally, companies should consider establishing pandemic-specific policies and procedures, capabilities for employee communications, telecommuting

and personal/family leave to minimize disruptions. Due to their duration, impacts on personnel in the regions that absorb additional work cannot be overstated, from the start of the pandemic to several weeks in, when contractor resources can start to meaningfully contribute. Scale can also vary, and to date it has been regionally concentrated with some global impacts; we have not seen a fully global crippling pandemic yet, although this remains a possibility. Hence, in this issue, the feature article titled “Pillars of Pandemic Preparation” focuses on how businesses can approach such critical market situations. In the article, experts from Gartner chart out 10 crisis checkpoints to help companies start their COVID-19 pandemic planning. Pandemics are a serious wake-up call for supply chain professionals and companies with global operations to develop several alternate sourcing and manufacturing plans in different regions of the world to mitigate the risk from such adverse conditions. Usually, the response window for a crisis is measured in months, while recovery is measured in years. Those companies that are well-prepared will always recover more quickly. It is tough times ahead and we are all in it together. But, this too shall pass.

SENIOR WRITER Priyan Sampath priyan@ryshamedia.com

GRAPHIC DESIGNER John Christy info@ryshamedia.com

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Prarthana Mary prarthana@ryshamedia.com

DIGITAL TEAM Context Media LLP, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. www.arabianreseller.com

C O N TA C T I N F O R M AT I O N Rysha Media LLC, Sharjah Media City (Shams), Al Messaned, Al Bataeh, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Email: sales@ryshamedia.com Web: www.ryshamedia.com

While the publisher has made all efforts to ensure the accuracy of information in the magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors whatsoever. Copyright @ 2020

SPECIAL FEATURE

HERE'S HOW TO BOOST YOUR PRODUCTIVITY WHILE WORKING FROM HOME 6

During these uncertain times, the region’s workforce has been confined to their homes and are embracing working from home. The team at Acer Middle East share 10 tips designed to maximise efficiencies and boost productivity for professionals. • Create an organized routine, which mirrors the schedule you used to follow in the past, as this will help your mind and body adapt to a new working environment. Wake up, and take breaks at the same time as you used to. • Create a dedicated workspace at home, which allows you to focus. Designating a specific area, so there is a mental boundary between working and relaxing, will help maximize and boost efficiencies. • Think ergonomic – efficient and safe arrangement for your chair, desk (or table), computer, keyboard, mouse, and telephone can also keep you working more productively. • Stay in contact with your team members, clearly defining deliverables and deadlines. Schedule calls and meetings with your partners on a regular basis to maintain a communication flow. • If you are a senior team member or head a department, stay virtually connected to teams and have constant wellness checks with individuals that report into you. Ask how they are feeling, if

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they have any concerns, even if it is about work. During this transition time, it is important that individuals feel there is support available to them. Set ground rules with other people in your home or who you share your space with, for when you work; and only carry out domestic tasks after work hours. Take time for self-care and know when to “logoff” from work and spend quality time with family and friends (even if it’s virtual!). Try and squeeze in a short workout, so that you remain active. Look for learning opportunities online such as LinkedIn learning, which will help you to stay motivated. Invest in reliable technology with webcam functionalities, ensure good internet connectivity at home and update all software and applications on your laptop and smartphones. This will be integral to your efficiency.

Acer’s wide range of laptops offers premium performance, long battery life, lightweight design and is equipped with all the apps that you need to get you through the workday. The ideal laptop for the Entrepreneur – Acer’s Swift 5 • Weighing just under 1 kg, the Acer Swift 5 is lightweight and can be taken anywhere easily – even if it’s just from the living room to the bedroom • For entrepreneurs who carry around USBs, hard-

drives, content on their phones and require instant access – the Acer Swift 5 is equipped with a USB-C port, one USB-A 3.1 port, one USB-A 2.0 port, an HDMI port, and a headphone jack • Security: Fingerprint reader so that you can safeguard your trusted files without worry The ideal laptop for the Young Professional – Acer’s Spin 3 • The Acer Spin 3 is capable of strong Wi-fi Connection WiFi 5 – allowing the young professional to work quickly and efficiently • With a 14-inches FHD multitouch narrow bezel display – the laptop offers a clear and vibrant display for users wanting to maximize productivity during the workday • Work + Play: the laptop has four modes – after you are done working, flip the display to tent mode and watch a movie to unwind The ideal laptop for the Creative – Acer’s Nitro 5 • The Acer Nitro 5 is packed with a powerful performance – up to 9th Gen i7 Intel Processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 • With a 15.6-inches FHD IPS display – creatives can enjoy smooth, blurfree visuals with a 144Hz refresh rate • The laptop’s memory capacity is up to 1 TB HDD+ 256 GB SSD – perfect for creatives working with large files such as CAD drawings, video assets, and so on.

NEWS

Genetec Releases the Full Agenda for its Connect’DX Virtual Conference

Nutanix Partners with Udacity to Offer Hybrid Cloud Program Nutanix has announced a partnership with Udacity to offer a new Hybrid Cloud nano-degree program. This program will enhance learning opportunities in the emerging cloud technologies market that are essential for organizations to up-level their IT infrastructure. As part of the collaboration, Nutanix will also sponsor 5,000 scholarships to help IT professionals advance their knowledge with this initiative. As more services move to the cloud, IT teams require the knowledge and expertise it takes to properly manage these infrastructures that increasingly stretch across on-premises and public cloud in a hybrid model. Although hybrid cloud technology continues to grow and evolve, educational opportunities in this field remain at a standstill. In Nutanix’s recent Enterprise Cloud Index survey, 85% of respondents said that hybrid cloud is the ideal operating model. However, 32% of respondents reported a lack of in-house hybrid cloud skills. To fill this educational gap, Udacity and Nutanix have collaborated closely to develop a nano-degree program that will advance the knowledge of seasoned IT professionals. To strengthen professional development in this space, the nano-degree program will cover modern private cloud infrastructure and the design of hybrid application deployment. Ideal students are those managing traditional business applications, legacy infrastructure, or cloud-native applications on public cloud infrastructure. “One of our primary goals at Nutanix is to ensure that cloud technology professionals continue to stay on the cusp of innovation in this developing field,” said Wendy M. Pfeiffer, CIO at Nutanix. “We are excited to have worked closely with Udacity to develop the Hybrid Cloud nano-degree program, and now open access to thousands of leading cloud

professionals through this scholarship program.” To ensure all participants looking to increase their education within the cloud environment have an opportunity to do so, Udacity is opening applications to the Nutanix Hybrid Cloud Scholarship program. For the first phase of the scholarship program, Udacity will select 5,000 applicants to participate in the Hybrid Cloud Fundamentals course. From those 5,000 students, 500 high-performing students will be awarded a full scholarship to the Hybrid Cloud nano-degree program. “At Udacity, we strive to empower professionals with the most demanded, forward-looking skills in their fields,” said Udacity CEO Gabe Dalporto. “We’re delighted to team up with Nutanix, a pioneer and leader in the cloud computing field, to create the new, cutting-edge Hybrid Cloud nano-degree program.” The Hybrid Cloud nano-degree program will focus on four subject areas: •

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Modern Private Cloud Infrastructure: Learn to configure and manage a hyper-converged infrastructure cluster, providing a scalable, distributed storage, network, and compute fabric for virtual machines and advanced services. Hybrid Cloud Application Design: Learn about the evolution of hybrid cloud workload management and design for multiple infrastructures. Automating Private Cloud: Create a scalable web application and life cycle operational model with governance to enable on-demand, self-service workloads on-prem with fiscal oversight and quotas. Designing Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure: Learn public cloud concepts, manage hybrid workloads, and drive to global load balancing of workloads.

ARABIAN RESELLER | April 2020

Genetec has released the full conference agenda for Genetec Connect’DX, the company’s first virtual trade show taking place April 20-22, 2020. Focused on technology, innovation and the challenges affecting the physical security industry, Connect’DX will offer a virtual meeting place for anyone looking to learn and engage with industry peers. Connect’DX will provide an opportunity for security professionals from around the world to directly engage with each other as well as with Genetec and its partners, while also providing a platform for industry leaders from across a wide range of markets to share their thoughts. Taking place across multiple time zones, in multiple languages, Connect’DX will feature over 30 hours of on-demand content, 10 hours of live broadcast, in-depth sessions with the Genetec Technical training team, and live Q&As. Combining panels with end users, experts and thought leaders, educational sessions, security technology insights, and product demos, Connect’DX will give attendees an opportunity to expand on their knowledge of Genetec technology while engaging directly with the people who influence, design, and implement it. The event will also feature a Technology Partner Pavilion where leading software and hardware technology vendors from the physical security industry will showcase their latest products enhancements, and native integrations with Genetec solutions. “With trade shows and conventions being cancelled all over the world due to the global pandemic, we wanted to build an event that is similar in spirit to our traditional conference experience. We have designed an exceptional event where thoughtful talks, panels, training, and product insights become an entirely web-based, digital experience,” said Andrew Elvish, Vice President of Marketing. “Connect’DX is the place where anyone in the physical security industry can congregate to learn and exchange ideas, regardless of where they are in the world.”

NEWS

Cobalt Iron Announces “Make the Switch Without the Risk” Program

Cobalt Iron has announced the “Make the Switch Without the Risk” program for backup professionals working from home and other remote locations. The special promotion extends Cobalt Iron’s Compass enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) data protection solution to new customers for the same price they’re currently paying for service and support contracts on their existing backup systems, with no payments or interest in 2020.

Huawei Launches New Solutions and Services for Developers Huawei recently announced the launch of new ICT technologies and enterprise-based solutions and services at its Huawei Developer Conference 2020 (Cloud) – known as HDC. Cloud 2020 – an annual flagship event held for global developers in the ICT field. The conference serves as a way to build a global platform for exchanging ideas, trying out new things, and sharing the ICT capabilities Huawei has developed over the past 30 years. During the conference, Huawei reviewed its strategy on computer vision and how it has opened up papers and algorithm code for global developers to break new ground in AI research, development, and deployment. Huawei further released its Computer Vision Plan and invited global AI experts to participate in the research. Under the plan, Huawei will continue extensive investment in basic research, tackling the fundamental obstacles to efficiently mine knowledge from massive data, design efficient models for visual recognition, and represent and store knowledge. The company further announced that MindSpore, the all-scenario AI computing framework, is now available in open source on Gitee, demonstrating Huawei’s commitment to building a global open source community to serve as the backbone for a vibrant AI software and hardware ecosystem. Huawei also unveiled ModelArts Pro, the first-ever AI app development suite for enterprises, which is live on HUAWEI CLOUD. ModelArts Pro is positioned as an enterprise AI productivity tool on the cloud and

provides an innovative model for putting industrial AI into practice by integrating the know-how of experts in the field into corresponding suites and workflows that empower AI app developers. In addition, Huawei showcased some of the significant applications for Huawei’s Atlas AI computing platform on the cloud, edge, and devices. Zhang Dixuan, General Manager of Huawei Atlas Data Center Business, shared some of the best deviceedge-cloud development practices by partners who had made use of the Huawei Atlas AI computing platform. The presentation included a detailed demonstration of the performance optimization process behind the high-density cloud AI inference solution, as well as the benefits of efficient edge inference and ultra-low-consumption device-side inference, which are based on cloud-edge collaboration. Separately during the conference, the openEuler community released its first Long-Term Support (LTS) edition. Huawei announced it is also working with four leading OS vendors, Kylinsoft, iSoft, Uniontech, and the Institute of Software Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISCAS), on commercial editions powered by openEuler. The announcement marks a new milestone for the commercial readiness of openEuler-based operating systems. openEuler, the open source and free Linux distribution platform, offers an open community for developers worldwide and is now set to take the multi-core heterogeneous computing industry to the next level.

“A wide range of enterprises have already been advancing toward a more remote work culture as teams have become more globalized. But now, with the coronavirus pandemic, many companies are scrambling to make the transition to remote backup operations in a highly compressed time frame,” said Andy Hurt, chief marketing officer, Cobalt Iron. “In the face of the largest global crisis since World War II, the last thing companies should have to worry about is effective backup deployment, operation, administration, and protection of data from cyber threats.” He added, “By allowing organizations to modernize their backup infrastructure for a nominal investment, this promotion will help them to keep data secure and ensure business continuity — even when administrators can’t be physically present at the data center. Migrating to Compass can bring them capex reductions of up to 50% and opex savings up to 90%. And, they’ll reap the benefits of near-autonomous operations, industry-leading cyber security, ransomware protection, and support for legacy and modern workloads.” The Make the Switch Without the Risk program enables enterprises to migrate to Compass with zero incremental increase in software costs, and no payment or interest in 2020, and it also offers deep discounts on optimized hardware and multiple financing options. Cobalt Iron will provide remote deployment, setup, and configuration. The offer is available through members of Cobalt Iron’s IronClad Partner Advantage program. “It’s easy to monitor and manage backups from any location using Compass’ webbased user interface. But in addition to remote access, there are plenty of other compelling reasons to migrate to Compass under this program,” said Hurt. “For no more than their current support and maintenance costs, organizations can upgrade to a backup solution that supports private, hybrid, and public cloud deployments. And, rather than leave security and ransomware protection as an afterthought or add-on, we’ve woven the industry’s most advanced cyber security measures into the fabric of Compass.”

CHANNE L TALK

Fortinet Launches New Partner Program Fortinet has introduced its new Fortinet Engage partner program. The program provides partners with specializations focused on growing markets, including SD-WAN and cloud, customized support and engagement flexibility to accelerate their business growth and expansion. John Maddison, EVP of products and CMO at Fortinet, said, “With today’s digital innovations being a catalyst for organizations to evolve their networks and security strategies, we have transformed our partner program so partners can untap new opportunities and rising markets, including SD-WAN. Building on our investment in our partners, the new program offers specializations, updated enablement initiatives and tailored support for unique business models to further partner success.” Organisations are rapidly evolving and expanding their networks to keep up with the digital economy. By 2023, IDC predicts that the global economy will finally reach “digital supremacy” with more than half of all GDP worldwide driven by products and services from digitally transformed enterprises. As organizations transform their networks, security plays a critical role and also needs to evolve to keep up with new business demands. Recognizing this, Fortinet designed new enablement initiatives and specializations, allowing partners to take advantage of digital innovations and this changing landscape. Fortinet’s Engage partner program provides greater flexibility on partner engagement, offers customized support to partners’ business models and allows partners to specialize in emerging areas through tailored training and certifications. Fortinet’s Engage partner program addresses the required technology and sales skills needed from new network ecosystems, such as nextgen branch offices and dynamic cloud environments comprised of multi-cloud and hybrid cloud. “As a longtime Fortinet partner, Infosec Partners has been providing our customers with advanced security through the company’s Security Fabric platform approach. Just as the security landscape is everchanging, so are the business needs of our customers. Recognizing this, Fortinet’s new partner program allows us to take full advantage of the growing opportunities that the expanding digital marketplace provides through extensive, tailored support and specializations in areas like SD-WAN, Secure Access, and Branch as well as a bespoke decoy and deception controls,” said Mark Oakton, CISO, Infosec Partners.

Nexans and Ingram Micro Ink Distribution Agreement Nexans has signed a value-added distribution agreement with Ingram Micro for the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Jordan and Yemen. With this agreement, Ingram Micro is authorised to sell and promote Nexans’ entire portfolio of LAN solutions through its wide channel network in these countries. “End customers in critical infrastructure, large and medium enterprises, public sector, digital businesses, service providers, strategic hubs, are looking at moving to the next level of network performance. With the upcoming roll out of 5G, the number of use-cases and types of use-cases leveraging Internet of Things, Industrial Internet of Things, Smart Cities, Edge Computing, Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, amongst others, is going to grow exponentially,” explained Arafat Yousef, Managing Director of Nexans Data Network Solutions (DNS) Business Unit in Middle East and Africa. Nexans selected Ingram Micro, as top global distributor, because of its strong base of system integration channel partners across the region. For Nexans, the ability of a channel partner to sell solutions meeting specific networking requirements of end customers, is key. Another reason for working together with Ingram Micro was its ability to ensure sufficient level of stocks, across the regional distribution of its channel partners. “End users wanting to disrupt themselves to take advantage of

ARABIAN RESELLER | April 2020

a whole new universe of business models and customers experiences, will need to begin upgrading their networking and data center infrastructure. Nexans and Ingram Micro are jointly committed to embark of these powerful and disruptive market opportunities in the networking, connectivity, and data center sector across the region. In the initial stages we plan to focus on the oil and gas market segments,” added Arafat Yousef. Nexans offers an extensive range of cables and cabling systems. The company has been positioned as a high-end LAN infrastructure vendor that provides complete endto-end solutions in both, copper and fibre to major customers in the enterprise market. The advanced technology and the complete end-to-end solution offering by Nexans, both differentiates the company from many other cabling vendors that focus on commodity market. “We are delighted to start distribution of Nexans products and solutions in the Middle East region,” said Bahaa Salah, Managing Director of Ingram Micro, Gulf and Near East region. “Their advanced technology and the complete end-to-end solutions from Nexans enable us to expand our offering to the market and meet the increasing demand for cabling solutions in the region. We are confident and believe that with our strong channel community we will be able to take Nexans’ business to new heights.”

CHANNE L TALK

Spectrami to Distribute PhishRod in Middle East, Africa and Turkey Spectrami has signed a distribution agreement with PhishRod, a leading global anti phishing solution provider. The partnership would leverage on the best of breed phishing defense capabilities of PhishRod with strong technical & value-added services from Spectrami across the region. “We are very excited to sign this strategic distribution agreement. Spectrami is a true market leader for value added distribution across Middle East, Africa and Turkey. By joining hands with Spectrami, we aim to provide a phish free environment for all organizations in the META region,” said Syed Abid Ali, Co-Founder and CCO at PhishRod.

Mindware Signs Distribution Agreement with Mitel Mindware has announced the signing of a distribution agreement with Mitel. As per the agreement, Mindware will market, distribute and service the entire range of Mitel’s cloud and premises-based Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) solutions across the Gulf region. Mitel’s cloud, enterprise and next-gen collaboration applications power more than two billion business connections globally. It is the undisputed leader in cloud communications. The company’s public, private and hybrid cloud solutions have made it the choice of nearly 4.7 million business users worldwide. Mitel is the only brand recognized across the Gartner Magic Quadrants for Contact Centre, Unified Communications and Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). Speaking about the partnership, Nicholas Argyrides, General Manager – Gulf at Mindware said, “Business communications is the lifeline of any organization today, particularly these (challenging) days, when an organization’s physical premises are typically not the preferred workplace for most of us. Recent research has shown that business professionals spend over half of each working day in communications activities. Needless to add, a company’s communications and collaboration practices and technology immensely affect its productivity. And this, in turn, impacts the organization’s bottom-line.” “We have been looking forward to working with Mitel since such all-around product range nicely rounds off our portfolio as we add top-class UCC to our offerings. With the current anaemic trends in the market, productivity tools such as those offered by Mitel will inevitably become an integral part of organizations’ digital transformation

plans.” With Mitel looking to increase its footprint in the region, Mindware will provide its more than 2,000 Gulf partners access to the vendor’s solutions. The distributor will also actively seek to recruit new partners having strong capabilities in business software integration, unified communications, cloud computing, mobility, and virtualization. As part of the ramping up process, Mitel will extend full support and conduct training and enablement sessions for the Mindware team. In addition, Mindware will set up a Mitel ‘demo lab’ to enable partners to ‘test drive’ the solutions and get an in-depth understanding of the product technicalities. With Mindware betting heavily on the Cloud this year, they see a tremendous potential opportunity for the regional adoption of Mitel’s cloud communications offerings. The VAD will be soon be listing Mitel’s cloud solutions on its newly launched cloud marketplace. Feras Zeidan, Managing Director, Middle East & Africa at Mitel said, “Mitel MEA is honoured to build another growth milestone pillar and sign a regional GCC distribution agreement with Mindware. I am convinced that our new partnership with Mindware will fulfil the partners’ voice, video, UC & CX projects profitably and into the cloud. While working with Mindware’s in-country teams on enablement, fulfilment & post-sale support, our partners & customers will get local value addition, better design services, middleware integration, training and support. In partnering with a solid VAD like Mindware, technology partners will also gain faster fulfilments, fit-for-purpose solutions & roadmap entry into our software & services world.”

PhishRod recently launched their Automated Phishing Defense & Orchestrated Response platform that will allow organizations to instantly analyse suspicious emails through built-in intelligence feeds, quarantine and ultimately delete them from the end user mailboxes through an orchestrated response. The capability to thwart phishing attacks along with modules for Phishing Simulation, Security Awareness Automation & Policy Compliance is completely in-line with PhishRod vision to provide pre-emptive defense capabilities against phishing attacks by integrating people, processes & technology. Anand Choudha, CEO of Spectrami, said, “The partnership with PhishRod is going to be an interesting journey as they address the Phishing awareness and tutorials in English as well as Arabic language as that meets the need for Government, Educational and healthcare employees where bilingual support extends the option of language selection which eventually improves the phishing awareness level indicator for each organization.”

NEWS

Palo Alto Networks to Acquire CloudGenix Palo Alto Networks has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire CloudGenix, a cloud-delivered SD-WAN provider. Under the terms of the agreement, Palo Alto Networks will pay approximately $420 million in cash to acquire CloudGenix, subject to adjustments. The acquisition is expected to close during Palo Alto Networks’ fiscal fourth quarter, subject to the satisfaction of regulatory and customary closing conditions. As applications continue to move from corporate data centers to the cloud and SaaS, and users require secure access to applications from anywhere in the world, organizations are struggling to manage access for the distributed workforce. Current remote access solutions for the branch and retail offices are complex, costly and often insecure. To support the modern workforce, organizations need access to all applications from all locations, delivered via a global network as a service for accelerated access, and with integrated world-class security from the cloud. This is what the industry calls “secure access service edge,” or SASE. “As the enterprise becomes more distributed, customers want agile solutions that just work, and that applies to both security and networking. Upon the close of the transaction, the combined platform will provide customers with a complete SASE offering that is bestin-class, easy to deploy, cloud-managed, and delivered as a service,” said Nikesh Arora, chairman and CEO, Palo Alto Networks. Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access is the industry’s most comprehensive SASE platform, delivering a global cloud network with cloud-delivered security for all users. With the proposed acquisition, Palo Alto Networks will integrate CloudGenix’s cloud-managed SD-WAN products to accelerate the intelligent onboarding of remote branches and retail stores into Prisma Access. This combination will extend the breadth of the Prisma Access SASE platform, address network and security transformation requirements, and accelerate the shift from SD-WAN to SASE. CloudGenix has attracted approximately 250 customers, many of which are in the Fortune 1000 and include companies in healthcare, retail, manufacturing, finance, banking, tech and hospitality. CloudGenix was named a 2020 Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for WAN Edge Infrastructure. CloudGenix co-founders, Kumar Ramachandran, Mani Ramasamy and Venkataraman Anand, have agreed to join Palo Alto Networks. “CloudGenix’s vision has been to revolutionize branch offices through cloud-delivered Autonomous WANs. With CloudGenix, enterprises gain cloud-scale economics for the branch office with the freedom to use any WAN, any cloud, and best-of-breed infrastructure services. We thank our customers for making us an industry leader in enterprise SD-WAN. By joining forces with Palo Alto Networks, we will accelerate our ability to serve customers and partners in their network and security transformation” said Kumar Ramachandran, co-founder and CEO, CloudGenix.

BeyondTrust Intros a Guide to its new Universal Privilege Management BeyondTrust has introduced a guide to its new Universal Privilege Management approach to PAM. This modern approach addresses the entire universe of privileges across organizations, which continues to grow with the expansion of cloud, internet-connected devices, dynamic DevOps, and more. The Universal Privilege Management model offers a holistic approach to securing every privileged user, session, and endpoint, guiding organizations along a journey that allows them to address critical risk areas and immediately begin shrinking the attack surface. The new guide helps organizations map their own Universal Privilege Management journey to address a variety of PAM use cases. This approach allows users to select use cases that are most critical, then easily expand to implement a comprehensive PAM solution over time. The benefits of BeyondTrust’s Universal Privilege Management approach include: •

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Shrinking the attack surface and windows of exposure by enforcing true least privilege by controlling both time (the duration privileges are granted) and space (the privileges and access pathways). Monitoring privileged user, session, and file activities for unauthorized access or changes that inappropriately effect the organization’s sensitive data or normal business operations. Analyzing asset and user behavior to detect suspicious or malicious activities to secure operations in accordance with security best practices and regulatory guidance. Adopting a low-impact approach for PAM across the entire enterprise, protecting privileges without obstructing productivity, while also unlocking risk-reducing synergies to minimize resource consumption.

ARABIAN RESELLER | April 2020

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Implementing seamless PAM integrations to other mission-critical security solutions (e.g. Identify Governance and Administration (IGA), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), IT Service Management (ITSM), etc.) to maximize value, streamline workflow, and reduce risk. The BeyondTrust portfolio is an integrated solution that drastically reduces the attack surface and windows of exposure, while boosting business productivity. These solutions are all underpinned by BeyondInsight, the industry’s most innovative, comprehensive privileged access management platform that maximizes visibility, simplifies deployment, automates tasks, improves security, and reduces privilege-related risks. Privileged Password Management discovers, onboards, manages, and audits every privileged account – both human and non-human – and tracks every session. Endpoint Privilege Management grants the appropriate privilege to the right user or application, just for the time it is needed. Secure Remote Access enables organizations to manage and audit privileged remote access for employees and vendors.

“Today’s challenge is managing the explosion of privileges across the enterprise, which is hard to do when the number of users who need privileges is growing rapidly,” said Morey Haber, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Security Officer, BeyondTrust. “It’s more than managing passwords in a vault for a limited set of privileged users, which is no longer enough. Universal Privilege Management from BeyondTrust gives users absolute control over every privilege in their environment."

NEWS fish interfaces, to enable a vendor-neutral approach for managing configuration and operations of compute, storage and networking infrastructure resources across multiple vendors at scale.

HPE and its Industry Partners Simplify 5G Rollout Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced the Open Distributed Infrastructure Management initiative, a new open source program that will simplify the management of large-scale geographically distributed physical infrastructure deployments. In addition, HPE will introduce an enterprise offering, the HPE Open Distributed Infrastructure Management Resource Aggregator that is aligned with the initiative. Open Distributed Infrastructure Management helps resolve the complexity that telcos face in rolling out 5G networks across thousands of sites equipped with IT infrastructure from multiple vendors and different generations of technology. This new initiative underlines HPE’s continued leadership in open 5G technologies and commitment to accelerating industry alignment through open source innovation. Working with partners, HPE’s 5G portfolio promises to unleash the potential of 5G at the network core, at the edge, and in the enterprise. This initiative is being launched in collaboration with Intel and with support from key industry leaders including AMI, Apstra, Red Hat, Tech Mahindra and World Wide Technology. HPE alongside Intel plans to initiate an open source project under the Linux Foundation to further develop the initiative in conjunction with ecosystem partners to enable end-to-end automated management of networks. HPE is committed to developing and fostering the ecosystem and supporting customers by contributing infrastructure manageability code to the open source community.

5G represents a huge shift in the way mobile networks are built. Previous generation networks were largely built on proprietary systems, but 5G standards have been designed to utilize open software platforms operating on commercial off-the-shelf servers. The trend towards open distributed technologies like virtualized radio access networks (vRAN), multi-access edge computing (MEC) and cloud-native network functions will require the deployment of industry standard compute, storage and networking infrastructure from multiple vendors across potentially thousands of geographically distributed locations. Today, most data center physical infrastructure management solutions do not scale geographically or support multi-vendor deployments, resulting in operational inefficiencies and inhibiting technology innovation. The Open Distributed Infrastructure Management initiative simplifies network management and drives significant operational and financial benefits. It supports large scale, geographically distributed networks and facilitates interaction between disparate multi-vendor infrastructure resources. The HPE Open Distributed Infrastructure Management Resource Aggregator models infrastructure elements in every site to simplify infrastructure automation across resources, vendors and geographical locations. HPE will launch this commercially supported version of the open source infrastructure manageability function along with associated infrastructure-specific plug-in components in Q2 2020. The HPE solution will leverage industry-defined specifications, including DMTF Red-

“5G and Edge Computing industry initiatives will require large-scale and geographically distributed multi-vendor infrastructure deployments that can only be cost effectively realized with infrastructure-as-code automation,” said Claus Pedersen, VP, Telco Infrastructure Solutions at HPE. “The Open Distributed Infrastructure Management initiative tackles network scalability challenges and the costs associated with vendor lock-in by enabling multi-vendor infrastructure deployments, the centralized deployment of standards-based fault and configuration management, and the aggregation of resource-specific status information.” The HPE Open Distributed Infrastructure Management Resource Aggregator offers key innovations that will benefit other telco solutions including the recently announced HPE telco core and edge infrastructure blueprints. Delivered as-a-service with HPE GreenLake, these infrastructure offerings provide telcos with a fast ramp for rolling out 5G service across multiple sites. With key components of the Open Distributed Infrastructure Management initiative planned for open source release, HPE and key industry leaders are creating an ecosystem that will accelerate technology innovation beyond the telco industry. Telco infrastructure today is unique in terms of its distribution and scale. Deployment of industrial IoT and new levels of automation and distributed data-analysis will over time make the Open Distributed Infrastructure Management initiative relevant for solving similar problems in many other industries and application domains. As a founding member of the DMTF Redfish open source initiative, HPE is well placed to provide leadership in this space. A recent AvidThink report concluded that there is a need for a standards-based approach to large scale distributed physical infrastructure management. This applies to telco networks, but is also very relevant across many other verticals, including large enterprises with geographically distributed datacenters. HPE has over 30 years of experience in the telecoms industry, with more than 300 telco customers in 160 countries. In the core, 700m subscribers across 82 carriers depend on HPE Mobile Core software, and HPE was recently recognized by Frost & Sullivan with the 2019 Leadership award for Global 5G Infrastructure Enabling Technology.

MOVE RS AND SHAKE RS

Emitac Enterprise Solutions Gets New Head of Sales Emitac has recently appointed seasoned specialist Mohammed Nimer as the new Head of Sale for the company. Emitac is a provider of enterprise solutions, delivering end to end digital transformation and technology services from ideation to execution by combining talent, technology, automated solutions and innovation with scaled enterprise-level operational platforms

Bill Gates Steps Down from Microsoft’s Board Microsoft has announced that Co-Founder and Technology Advisor Bill Gates has stepped down from the company’s Board of Directors to dedicate more time to his philanthropic priorities including global health, development, education, and his increasing engagement in tackling climate change. He will continue to serve as Technology Advisor to CEO Satya Nadella and other leaders in the company. On June 27, 2008, Gates transitioned out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He served as Microsoft’s chairman of the board until February 4, 2014. “It’s been a tremendous honor and privilege to have worked with and learned from Bill over the years. Bill founded our company with a belief in the democratizing force of software and a passion to solve society’s most pressing challenges. And Microsoft and the world are better for it. The board has benefited from Bill’s leadership and vision. And Microsoft will continue to benefit from Bill’s ongoing technical passion and advice to drive our products and services forward. I am grateful for Bill’s friendship and look forward to continuing to work alongside him to realize our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to

achieve more,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “On behalf of our shareholders and the Board, I want to express my deep appreciation to Bill for all his contributions to Microsoft. As a member of the Board, he challenged us to think big and then think even bigger. He leaves an enduring legacy of curiosity and insight that serves as an inspiration for us all,” said John W. Thompson, Microsoft independent board chair. With Gates’ departure, the Board will consist of 12 members, including John W. Thompson, Microsoft independent chair; Reid Hoffman, partner at Greylock Partners; Hugh Johnston, vice chairman and chief financial officer of PepsiCo; Teri L. ListStoll, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Gap, Inc.; Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft; Sandra E. Peterson, operating partner, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice; Penny Pritzker, founder and chairman, PSP Partners; Charles W. Scharf, chief executive officer and president of Wells Fargo & Co.; Arne Sorenson, president and CEO, Marriott International Inc.; John W. Stanton, chairman of Trilogy Equity Partners; Emma Walmsley, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK); and Padmasree Warrior, founder, CEO and president, Fable Group Inc.

ARABIAN RESELLER | April 2020

Nimer’s stellar Interpersonal skills and prowess in addressing client qualifies him as the perfect leader forefront of improving and boosting overall sales. With over two decades of IT and managerial sales experience within the UAE and Middle East, Nimer possesses impressive account planning and channel management expertise, and his appointment adds to the strength of Emitac’s senior management. Besides Nimer’s vibrant experience from strategy development to relationship management and overall sales, he possesses a dense knowledge of organizational and individual buying behaviour that will aid ladder up Emitac’s rank even higher. “Mohammed Nimer’s robust background in sales and management makes a great fit for shaping enterprise strategies on that front at Emitac. Under his guidance, we are optimistic that the enterprise will nurture a culture of continuous growth,” said Antoine Abi Aad, General Manager of Emitac Enterprise Solutions. Born in 1976, Mohammed Nimer is an alumnus of the University of Lincoln, where he pursued his MBA. Married and a father of 3 children, Nimer is supremely committed to achieving his personal and professional goals. In his leisure time, he enjoys reading and playing football.

NEWS

Cisco Commits $225 Million to Global COVID-19 Response Cisco Chairman and CEO, Chuck Robbins has announced the company’s efforts to combat the impact of COVID-19, by supporting a range of global and local initiatives. Cisco is committing $225 million in cash, in-kind, and planned-giving to support causes and is also rallying its 77,000-strong employee network to work alongside community partners on the frontlines during the time of need. Of the total sum, $8 million in cash and $210 million in product is going directly towards global COVID-19 response efforts, with a focus on delivering resources to key sectors, including health, education, government response and critical technology. Part of this number will also go towards the United Nations’ COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, supporting the World Health Organization’s (WHO) focus on preventing, detecting and managing the spread of COVID-19. Through its Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) program, partnerships with local stakeholders to fast-track national digitization agendas, Cisco is also providing funding for heads of state, government agencies and businesses to rapidly deploy COVID-19 related technology solutions. Cisco’s CDA program is currently running in select countries, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia, where the company is working closely with the government and local institutions to transform industries – including healthcare. Cisco is also empowering those on the forefront of emergency response with access to its critical technologies, including free Webex collaboration software and security offers. To date, the organization has helped secure over 2.2 million people online, and Webex has facilitated virtual response meetings for the French, Canadian, German, Colombian, and other governments around the world. Robbins also shared how Cisco is proud to have seen an outpouring of support from its employees, who have reached out and contributed directly to non-profit organizations. To support, the Cisco Foundation has launched a campaign, allocating up to $5 million in grants and matching funds. Several funds have also been set up to support non-governmental organizations in regions such as the Middle East and Africa. Commenting on the announcement, Reem Asaad – Vice President, Cisco Middle East and Africa said, “In these challenging times, it is inspiring to see people from all walks of life uniting in their efforts to tackle COVID-19 – from local governments and emergency response teams, to our fellow partners, customers, employees and the wider public. Our primary goal is to ensure that public safety and business continuity can work in cohesion and be maintained. We will continue to monitor the impacts of COVID-19, determining how best to leverage the power of technology to connect and protect our communities.”

Koch Industries Acquires Infor Koch Industries announced that it has completed the acquisition of the remaining portion of Infor from Golden Gate Capital. “Infor, a global leader in business cloud software specialized by industry, has been a key component of Koch’s technological transformation. Koch companies have made more than $26 billion in technology-related investments in the past six years, transforming a global portfolio of businesses spanning multiple industries. In addition to being an investor since 2017, Koch has been a key customer, implementing Infor solutions across its businesses in areas like enterprise resource planning, human resources, supply chain, asset management and finance,” the company said. The acquisition brings new key capabilities to Koch to accelerate digital transformation, while providing Infor with resources and industry knowledge to continue growing its expertise in mission critical software for industries like manufacturing, retail and distribution, among others. Additionally, Infor’s industry-leading Healthcare Operations Platform and Interoperability Solutions extend Koch’s involvement in healthcare, where Koch companies are already engaged in connected device manufacturing, medical product purification, and hospital supplies. Infor is now a standalone subsidiary of Koch Industries, and continues to operate under the company’s current management team from its headquarters in New York City. The acquisition positions Infor as one of the most well-capitalized companies in technology. Infor has invested approximately $4 billion in product design and development to deliver

ARABIAN RESELLER | April 2020

industry-specific CloudSuites that solve the most challenging operational issues for over 68,000 customers around the globe. “Joining Koch Industries is an exciting new chapter in Infor’s history,” said Kevin Samuelson, CEO of Infor. “It allows us to take a long-term approach, focused on developing industry-specific solutions that help customers modernize and drive immediate, tangible impact.” “It’s been clear from day one that Infor’s unique approach and innovative team are truly bringing value to the market,” said Jim Hannan, Executive Vice President and CEO of Enterprises for Koch Industries. “We want to thank Golden Gate Capital for such a productive partnership and welcome Infor’s 17,000 global employees to Koch Industries.” “We are proud to have founded and grown Infor into an industry leader over the past 18 years,” said David Dominik, Co-Founder of Golden Gate Capital. Golden Gate Capital Managing Director Rishi Chandna added, “We have enjoyed our partnership with management and Koch Industries, and wish the Infor team well in the company’s next era of growth.” Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Rothschild, Inc. and Citigroup Global Market, Inc. served as financial advisors to Koch, and Jones Day served as legal advisor to Koch. Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities and Credit Suisse served as financial advisors to Golden Gate Capital, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Nob Hill Law Group, P.C. served as legal advisors to Golden Gate Capital.

NEWS

Trend Micro Partners with CyberX Trend Micro has announced a partnership with CyberX, a government-backed initiative, to drive the Kingdom’s cybersecurity awareness. Showing the strong need for cybersecurity, the Kingdom ranked as the most-attacked GCC country for malware and banking malware in 2019, with Trend Micro’s 2019 Security Roundup Report recording 2,352,570 malware attacks and 4,731 banking malware attacks.

Sentrybay and Raqmiyat Offer Secured Work From Home Solutions With the outbreak of COVID-19, there are widespread extended requirements for staff to work from home. The phrase “work-from-home” brings-in fears on data security and data-pilferage risk from unmanaged end-user owned remote desktops, PC, and laptops that would be used as endpoints by staff and external vendors, partners, and contractors. Remote access from unmanaged devices introduces elevated risks. Often these devices have a lower security posture, possibly out-of-date anti-virus or internet security software; they offer a higher risk of compromise because they might be running counterfeit or unlicensed solutions, or they are on untrusted networks. The enterprises have little or no control over what software is running or has previously been executed on the devices. These unmanaged devices deliver a higher risk of stolen sensitive data (including corporate credentials) from attacks involving keylogging, which, along with spyware is ranked the highest global malware, by the NTT Security Threat Intelligence Report. Other attacks to be wary of include screen-capture or screen-grabbing, man-in-the-browser, saved account detail harvesting, screen-mirroring, man-in-themiddle, DLL injection, and RDP double-hop. During the coronavirus crisis, the risk is exponentially much higher. Connectivity commonly used is VPN from these remote devices to corporate networks. VPN does not protect the user from malware that records the keystrokes entered or takes pictures or videos of the user’s endpoint in order to steal data. They scrape up passwords, credit card, and banking information, personal details, and more, to use in identity theft and other malicious deeds. Every piece of data entered into any application used by the homebased employee, contractor, or supplier such as Word, Excel, Outlook, Office apps, corporate apps, browser, webmail, SaaS

applications, and so on – can be uplifted on the endpoint itself by malware – then sent out to the command and control server of the cybercriminal. In summary, all this data is stolen by cybercriminals even before it enters the VPN tunnel. Ideally, with virtually no time for preparation, customers look for products that can be deployed quickly (i.e. within 24 hours) and which do not involve specially configured software or hardware – a simple download and install from pre-configured software is the preferred option. This means selecting proven anti-keylogging software that can protect every keystroke into any application and prevent screen-scraping malware from stealing credentials and sensitive corporate data. Raqmiyat, an authorized reseller of Sentrybay, provides secured work-fromhome solutions. “During this challenging time, organizations struggle to provide a secured work-from-home solution. By partnering with Sentrybay, we are offering this secured solution to help our customers without sacrificing their security posture,” said Abhijit Mahadik, Director – Cybersecurity Solutions at Raqmiyat. Armoured Browser from SentryBayprovides a browser on Mac and Windows – a very unique secured browser that provides anti-keylogging, anti-screen capture, and anti-screen scrap features thus enabling a secured browsing environment for sensitive work to be done irrespective this malware on the PCs. “The best part of this offering is that it creates separate user & desktop sessions and leaves no-trace upon closing. With the latest enhancements, it can be installed as a pseudo-remote access solution to lock down the use of, say, Office365, SaaS apps, browsing, and so on. It can also be deployed for Citrix, Vmware or any other remote access solution deployed,” the company said in a statement.

Trend Micro will serve as Strategic Technology Contributor of CyberX, a Saudi community initiative under the umbrella of “Attaa initiative” to raise awareness of cyber security threats in society. Being a non-profit platform, CyberX’s goal is to enrich the readable and audible Arabic content in the field of cyber security through a set of products such as: podcast, 60 seconds, Meet the specialists, CyberX awareness, Infographics and CyberX videos for awareness and educational content designed to cover multiple topics for several categories. “As the Kingdom’s cyber security threat landscape expands, our partnership with Trend Micro, one of the world’s leading cybersecurity firms, will provide Saudi organizations with latest cybersecurity research, best practices, and insights on the Kingdom’s cyberthreat sector,” said Mohannad AlKalash, Founder of CyberX. “We also expect Trend Micro’s executives to provide insights on our Arabic podcasts.” In addition to educational content presented in various forms that are appropriate to the nature of the content, CyberX is characterized by renewed ideas that are analyzed by experts in the field in which they discuss key security topics, concerns, and how to tackle them. “As CyberX’s Strategic Technology Contributor, Trend Micro will exchange global best practices and expertise to support the Kingdom’s cybersecurity, and to contribute Arabic cybersecurity content,” said Rasheed AlOdah, Country Manager, Trend Micro, Saudi Arabia. “Our partnership is in line with our corporate social responsibility commitment to raise awareness about cyber security to society, kids and families.” Trend Micro’s Initiative for Education is the parent program for numerous global initiatives that support Internet safety for kids and families, small businesses, and universities.

NEWS

PayBy Launches Mobile Payment Services in the UAE As the world is battling the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers and businesses are increasingly looking for payment solutions that are convenient, contactless, and safe. PayBy, an innovative fintech company, has officially launched its fast and secure mobile payment services in the UAE today. In partnership with the world-leading financial institution FAB, PayBy offers a highly efficient and secure payment solution that is superior to cash and payment cards. With PayBy, consumers will be able to use their smartphones to make contactless and cashless payments in physical stores. The new payment solution will also enable its users to pay for deliveries on arrival, order goods, and services online, transfer and receive money instantly, and even share cash gifts with family and friends, all via smartphone. PayBy also offers point of sale (POS) solutions for every type of business in the UAE, from small merchants to large stores that serve thousands of customers daily. These cost-effective solutions will support local businesses and help them reach a wider consumer base immediately. All financial transactions on PayBy are well protected by leading and proven technologies, including an AI-based fraud management system to detect unauthorized activities, in strict accordance with PCI-DSS standards. PayBy’s launch partners include the Lulu Hypermarket and Express, Baqalas (grocery stores), and such popular instant messaging platforms as Botim and ToTok. PayBy services will be made available through all these partners, and consumers will also be able to download the PayBy app directly onto their smartphones in April 2020.

KoolSpan Protects Mobile Calls, Texts, Data from Increased Threats In response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, governments and businesses globally are shifting employees to work from home or other remote locations. These organizations face unprecedented challenges and IT systems are under strain from demands placed by remote employees. Home based employees often face no alternative but to use home networks and personal devices for sensitive work. Conversations that would normally have taken place face-toface within secured networks are now made over cellular networks and the Internet. Hackers and cyber criminals, both state sponsored and non-state sponsored target remote, homebased employees with documented attacks against government and corporations, including mobile network based surveillance and espionage targeting mobile communciations of remote employees. KoolSpan recognizes these organizations must operate, but urges them to take prudent precautionary measures protecting employees calls, texts and data. Remote employees can easily take advantage of KoolSpan’s TrustCall Global Service which delivers high fidelity audio via intuitive, easy-to-use solution that

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installs in minutes and requires no user training. Organziations maintain flexibility to migrate to on-premise or hybrid deployments in the future. Government and Enterprise-ready solutions need to be fast and easy, but also require security and privacy with high performance, oversight, management, and enterprise-grade features, plus if needed, the ability to completely control back-end communications infrastructure. KoolSpan TrustCall is the only solution designed to meet these needs – high performance and HD quality, FIPS 140-2 validated encrypted audio, text, file content, data built around policy enforcement, control, management, and APIs available in flexible deployment configurations (public/private cloud, on premise, hybrid). “We recognize the incredible pressure government organizations and businesses everywhere face and are working with our channel partners to do everything to make it easy for them to deploy TrustCall to their organizations and people,” said Nigel Jones, KoolSpan CEO. “We express gratitude to our partners and customers. We hope all are well, together with their loved ones and families.”

NEWS

Avaya Spaces Online Collaboration App Gets TRA Approval in the UAE

Avaya has commended the approach to public-private par tnerships being taken by the UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, following the confirmation that the cloud-based Avaya Spaces collaboration app has been approved for use in the country.

Kaspersky Offers Free Licenses for 6 Months to Healthcare Sector Kaspersky has announced the free availability of its core endpoint security products for medical organizations, in order to help them stay protected from cyber threats during the pandemic. The full list of B2B products available for free for six months includes Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud Plus, Kaspersky Security for Microsoft Office 365, Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business Advanced and Kaspersky Hybrid Cloud Security. Continuity of operations and data protection is extremely critical for healthcare organizations. Especially in the current situation, when medical organizations are under extreme pressure and have to mobilize all their forces to help people in this very challenging time. For hospitals and medical institutions, it is important to ensure the stability of medical equipment and that data is constantly available for medical personnel, while also protecting the privacy of their patients’ critical information. To help medical organizations cope with the unprecedented pressure and help relieve cybersecurity risks that may arise during this period, Kaspersky has made its B2B solutions available for free. This includes endpoint and cloud infrastructure protection products, such as Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business Advanced and Kaspersky Hybrid Cloud Security, SaaS endpoint protection – Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud Plus – and protection for Microsoft Office 365 – Kaspersky Security for Microsoft Office 365. “In this critical situation, healthcare institutions are under immense pressure and carry huge responsibility while saving people’s lives and fighting against the infection. Doctors, nurses and all medical staff take on

most of the load and therefore need any support possible. We feel that it is our duty to support the medical community,” said Evgeniya Naumova, Vice President of the Global Sales Network at Kaspersky. “In order to help these organizations focus on what matters most, we now offer healthcare institutions free licenses for key Kaspersky corporate products for a six month period.” Along with this initiative, Kaspersky also suggests that medical institutions follow cybersecurity practices and implement the following measures as soon as possible: •

•

Schedule basic security awareness education for both medical personnel and administration employees – it should cover the most essential practices such as passwords and accounts, email security, use of USB devices, PC security and safe web browsing. Explain to the hospital’s staff that there is an increasing risk of cyber threats for healthcare IT systems. It is the right time to check the hospital’s protection solution, make sure it is up to date, configured properly and covers all employees’ devices. Switch on a firewall to enable protection from threats coming from the internet. The security solution should enable protection from ransomware as it one of the common threats for medical organizations. Ensure all specific medical devices are properly configured and updated, such as ventilators. If there is a chance that the number of such devices increases rapidly, develop a dedicated procedure to quickly install and configure all new devices.

Avaya Spaces provides a cloud meeting and team collaboration solution that enables people and organizations to connect and collaborate remotely – and goes beyond integrating chat, voice, video, online meetings and content sharing. It gives users an extensive set of meeting and team collaboration features, including voice and video conferencing for up to 200 par ticipants. “We commend the leadership of the UAE and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority for enabling the country’s citizens and residents to address the challenges we all currently face with apps such as Avaya Spaces. We applaud their approach to public-private par tnerships, and will continue working with the relevant authorities to suppor t them wherever we can,” said Nidal Abou-Ltaif, President, Avaya International. Earlier this month, Avaya announced that it will provide its Avaya Spaces collaboration software for free to education institutions, including colleges and universities, along with qualified non-profit organizations worldwide. Avaya Spaces is recognized for its ease of implementation and the significant impact it can have on organizational resilience and continuity. Since January, Avaya has seen a 700% increase in video collaboration traffic on this platform.

SPECIAL FEATURE

HERE'S HOW TO

GAME LIKE A PRO Gamers worldwide are proving that getting paid to do what they’re good at isn’t just a fantasy. From sponsorships to tournaments, there are many ways to make a living from gaming. Before you even start thinking about what gear you might need you to need to have an overall idea of what makes of a good gaming setup. Here are eight essential Asus products that you need to become a pro gamer. ASUS ROG Strix G The ROG Strix G embodies streamlined design, offering a formidable core experience for serious gaming and multitasking on Windows 10. Featuring the latest 9th Gen Intel Core processors and GeForce RTX graphics, it brings impactful gaming performance to a wide audience. Intelligent Cooling unleashes the full potential of its leading-edge processors, while

RangeBoost provides the strongest possible Wi-Fi signal for your environment. Wherever you play, illuminate the surroundings with Aura Sync on the new triple-edged light bar and 4-zone RGB keyboard. ASUS TUF Gaming FX505 ASUS TUF Gaming FX505 will change the way you look at gaming laptops. It exceeds expectations, boasting impressive hardware and a compact, aggressively-designed chassis that’s exceptionally tough. FX505 has a gaming desktop-inspired keyboard with RGB-backlit keys, a highlighted WASD key group, and Overstroke technology for fast and precise control. With a cutting-edge IPS-level NanoEdge display, and a MIL-STD-810G test certified durability, FX505 delivers an immersive gaming experience without breaking the bank.

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ASUS ROG Maximum XI Extreme This is an Intel Z390 EATX gaming motherboard with 802.11ac W-Fi, ROG DIMM.2 dual M.2 expansion card, Aura Sync RGB LED, DDR4 4400MHz, four M.2, SATA 6Gbps, HDMI and USB 3.1 Gen 2 connectivity. The gaming motherboard accepts LGA1151 socket, which means it is ready for 9th/8th Generation Intel Core desktop processors. It comes with a five-way optimization – automated system-wide tuning, providing AI overclocking and cooling profiles tailor-made for your rig. ASUS TUF Gaming X570-PLUS (WiFi) This motherboard is an AMD AM4 X570 ATX gaming motherboard with PCIe 4.0, dual M.2, Wi-Fi, 12+2 with Dr. MOS power stage, HDMI, DP, SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.2 Gen 2 and Aura Sync RGB lighting. It comes with Active PCH

heatsink, VRM heatsink, M.2 heatsink, hybrid fan headers and Fan Xpert 4. You also get dual PCIe 4.0 M.2 and USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A /Type-C connectivity. In addition, you also get exclusive Realtek L8200A Gigabit Ethernet, Intel 2×2 802.11ac Wi-Fi with MU-MIMO support, Bluetooth 5.0, TUF LANGuard and TurboLAN technology. ASUS ROG STRIX GTX1650 4G Gaming The ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5 is your ticket into PC gaming. It is built with the breakthrough graphics performance of the award-winning NVIDIA Turing architecture to supercharge your favorite games. You can get game ready with performance that’s twice as fast as the GeForce GTX 950 and up to 70% faster than the GTX 1050. It supports 0dB technology that lets you enjoy light gaming in relative silence. You also get DirectCU II that brings copper heat-pipes into direct contact with the die for better cooling. IP5X dust resistance is also thrown in, which offers protection from particle ingress for better durability. ASUS DUAL GTX1660TI 6G EVO The ASUS Dual GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB GDDR6 EVO rocks high refresh rates for an FPS advantage without breaking a sweat. The GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is built with the breakthrough graphics performance of the award-winning NVIDIA Turing architecture. You can broadcast your gameplay with the GTX 1660 Ti’s dedicated hardware encoder that is optimised for Open Broadcaster Software (OBS). The axial-tech fan design features longer fan blades and a unique barrier ring to increase air pressure. The 0dB technology lets you enjoy light gaming in relative silence. ASUS ROG Strix Helios The ROG Strix Helios RGB ATX/ EATX is a mid-tower gaming case with tempered glass, aluminum frame, GPU braces, 420mm radiator support and Aura Sync. It features premium design and aesthetics: Made for showcase builds with three tempered-glass panels, brushed-aluminum frame and integrated Aura Sync RGB front lighting. A multifunction cover with graphics card holders, a PSU shroud and a translucent

rear cable cover offers effortless cable management. You can also install three graphics cards in standard orientation, or two vertically for extra showcase flair using a bundled bracket. ASUS TUF Gaming GT501 Case The ASUS TUF Gaming GT501 case supports up to EATX with metal front panel, tempered-glass side panel, 120 mm RGB fan, 140 mm PWM fan, radiator space reserved, and USB 3.1 Gen 1. The metal front panel with custom TUF Gaming spatter pattern, and 4mmthick, smoked, tempered-glass side panel helps you showcase your build’s internals. It comes with ergonomic, woven-cotton carry handles that enable easy and safe transport up to 30Kg. It is also equipped with three 120mm Aura Sync RGB-illuminated fans and one 140mm rear PWM fan, plus up to seven fan-mounting points for targeted airflow. ASUS ROG Swift PG279QE The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QE Gaming Monitor is a 27-inch 2K WQHD IPS monitor offering a resolution of 2560-by-1440 pixels. It is overclockable to a refresh rate of up to 165Hz and supports G-SYNC. It offers wide 178-degree viewing angles and lifelike gaming visuals. ASUS VG278QR Gaming Monitor The ASUS VG278QR Gaming Monitor is a 27-inch, Full HD monitor that offers a response time of 0.5ms and a refresh rate of up to 165Hz. It is also G-SYNC compatible and supports Adaptive Sync. The monitor’s GameFast Input Technology minimises input lag and provides much faster motion delivery from end devices to monitor. The ASUS-exclusive GamePlus hotkey offers in-game enhancements while the GameVisual offers optimised visuals. ASUS ROG Claymore The ROG Claymore is world’s first RGB mechanical gaming keyboard with a detachable numpad. It also comes with support for Aura Sync and Cherry MX RGB switches. With this keyboard, you get fully programmable keys with on the fly macro recording, 100% anti-ghosting with N-key rollover (NKRO) technology, and hotkeys for fan speed, lighting and overclocking controls when

paired with an ASUS ROG motherboard. The onboard memory saves profiles on the go and the intuitive ROG Armoury offers lighting, key, and stats settings. The durable aluminum construction of the keyboard features Mayan-inspired detailing. ASUS ROG Strix Flare The ROG Strix Flare RGB mechanical gaming keyboard comes with Cherry MX switches, customisable illuminated badge and dedicated media keys for gaming. The dedicated media keys and volume wheel positioned on the left offer instant in-game audio control, a USB passthrough for easy connection and a detachable soft-touch wrist rest. ASUS ROG Pugio The ROG Pugio is an ambidextrous lightweight wireless gaming mouse with 16,000 dpi optical sensor, 7 programmable buttons, configurable side buttons, DPI On-The-Scroll button, and Aura Sync RGB lighting. The mouse offers optimised connectivity that includes dual-wireless 2.4GHz and Bluetooth(BLE), plus wired USB. The mouse offers up to 100 hours of wireless gaming with power-efficient sensor. ASUS ROG Gladius II Wireless The ROG Gladius II Wireless ergonomic RGB gaming mouse comes with dual 2.4GHz/Bluetooth wireless connectivity, advanced 16000-dpi sensor, ROG-exclusive switch socket design, and Aura Sync lighting. It comes with ROG-exclusive switch socket design to customize click resistance, with pre-installed 50-million-click Omron switches plus an extra pair of switches for different feedback. ASUS ROG Delta The RGB gaming headset offers Hi-Res ESS Quad-DAC, circular RGB lighting effect and USB-C connector for PCs, consoles and mobile gaming. It comes with customisable, multi-colour circular RGB lighting that lets you shine in style. It also comes with upgraded comfort with ergonomic D-shape and ROG Hybrid ear cushions. For More information, Check Out: http://tiny.cc/gamelikeapro

COVID -19 IMPACT

Expect Worldwide IT Spending to Decline by 2.7% in 2020 Worldwide IT spending is now expected to decline 2.7% in constant currency terms this year as COVID-19 impacts the global economy and forces many organizations around the world to respond with contingency planning and spending cuts in the short term. In line with previous economic recessions, IT spending on hardware, software, and IT services is likely to decline by more than real GDP overall, as commercial IT buyers and consumers implement rapid cuts to capital spending in line with declining revenues, profits, market valuations, and employee headcounts.

comes to budget contingency planning in the near term."

"Overall IT spending will decline in 2020, despite increased demand and usage for some technologies and services by individual companies and consumers," saidÂ Stephen Minton, program vice president in IDC'sÂ Customer Insights & AnalysisÂ group. "Businesses in sectors of the economy that are hardest hit during the first half of the year will react by delaying some purchases and projects, and the lack of visibility related to medical factors will ensure that many organizations take an extremely cautious approach when it

Spending on server/storage and network hardware will also decline overall despite strong demand for cloud services as enterprise customers delay purchases during the initial rapid response phase of the current crisis. Total infrastructure spending (including cloud) will increase by 5.3%, but all of this growth will come from enterprise spending on infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and cloud provider spending on servers. Meanwhile, overall server/storage hardware spending will be down by 3.3% and enterprise network equip-

Major spending declines this year are now expected in PCs, tablets, mobile phones, and peripherals with overall devices spending expected to decline by 8.8% in constant currency terms. The PC market was already expected to decline on the back of a strong Windows-driven refresh cycle in 2019, but the crisis will significantly disrupt a smartphone market that was projected to post stronger returns this year as a result of 5G upgrades.

ARABIAN RESELLER | April 2020

ment spending will decline by 1.7%. "Hardware spending in general is always identified for rapid spending cuts during any economic crisis, as a means for enterprises to quickly protect shortterm profitability," said Minton. "In previous economic crashes, IT hardware has tended to overshoot the economic cycle on both the downside and in the recovery phase. That's because underlying demand drivers don't change overnight, but the timing of purchases is shifted and delayed, and this can now be done even more quickly than in the past. What's different now is that cloud is a bigger factor than it was in any previous global recession, and this should mean that overall spending is less volatile than in the last two major IT spending downturns." IT services spending will decline by 2% in 2020, with the worst declines in project-oriented services as organizations hit the pause button on major new projects until business visibility improves. Spending on managed services and support services will also decline, in line with overall IT activities

and hardware/software deployments. Software will post positive growth of just under 2% overall, largely due to cloud investments along with some resilient demand for specific categories, which will be a component of response measures or are integral to ongoing business operations. "There will be pockets of opportunity for software and related services

during the next six months, as organizations create response measures focused around increased remote work and collaboration," said Minton. "Organizations that are further along the digital transformation and cloud migration scales are likely to be best-positioned in terms of integrating these technologies into effective and agile response plans."

Including telecom and other spending, total ICT spending will decline by 1.6% to just under $4.1 trillion. This compares to overall ICT growth of 3.5% last year, when IT spending increased by almost 5%. Telecom spending will be less impacted overall, as demand for broadband remains extremely strong (in some cases, higher as a result of increased working from home and isolation measures).

Worldwide Server and Enterprise Storage Systems Markets Will Decline in 2020 End user spending on IT infrastructure (server and enterprise storage systems) will decline in 2020 as a result of the widespread coronavirus pandemic. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC)Â Worldwide Quarterly Server TrackerÂ andÂ Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker, under the current probable scenario server market revenues will decline 3.4% year over year to $88.6 billion and external enterprise storage systems (ESS) revenues will decline 5.5% to $28.7 billion in 2020. The server market is expected to decline 11.0% in Q1 and 8.9% in Q2 and then return to growth in the second half of the year. The external ESS market

is forecast to decline 7.3% in Q1 and 12.4% in Q2 before returning to slight growth by the end of 2020 with further recovery expected in 2021.

IDC developed three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) for the impact of COVID-19 on the IT infrastructure markets. The probable scenario assumes a broad negative impact starting in China and spreading into other regions before slowing toward end of the year. Elements of the impact include changing demand expectations from various groups of IT buyers, supply chain shortages and logistical delays, short-term component price increases,

and a suppressed economic and social climate. The current forecast is based on the probable scenario as of March 26, 2020. However, as the situation continues to unfold, the forecasts might be adjusted further. The fast-changing environment has revealed some remarkable differences in how the pandemic has affected various segments of the market. As the first to be hit by the coronavirus, China will see the greatest negative impact in the first quarter of 2020 while other regions will start to experience the impact in the second quarter. Similarly, some industries (transportation, hospitality, retail,

COVID -19 IMPACT etc.) are facing significantly reduced consumer activity and business closures and others are being hit by an unexpected wave of demand for services, including video streaming, Web conferencing, and online retail. Facing economic uncertainty, many businesses are being forced to consider more expedited adoption of cloud services to fulfill their compute and storage needs. This spike in demand put unplanned pressure on the IT infrastructure in cloud service provider datacenters leading to growing demand for servers and system components. As a result, the IT Infrastructure market has two submarkets going in different directions: decreasing demand from enterprise buyers and increasing demand from cloud service providers. This dynamic is impacting the server market the most, resulting in just

a moderate decline for the overall market in 2020. The external storage systems market, with a higher share of enterprise buyers, will experience a deeper decline in 2020. "The impact of COVID-19 will certainly dampen overall spending on IT infrastructure as companies temporarily shut down and employees are laid off or furloughed," said Kuba Stolarski, research director, IT Infrastructure at IDC. "While IDC believes that the short-term impact will be significant, unless the crisis spirals further out of control, it is likely that this will not impact the markets past 2021, at which point we will see a robust recovery with cloud platforms very much leading the way." In the longer term both markets will return to growth. The server market is

expected to deliver a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.9% over the 2019-2024 forecast period with revenues reaching $116.6 billion in 2024. Meanwhile the external ESS market will see a five-year CAGR of 1.3% growing to $32.4 billion in 2024. "The IT infrastructure markets are already going though a transformation and shifts in end user spending will bring an even faster changing IT buyer landscape," said Natalya Yezhkova, research vice president, IT Infrastructure. "While the current crisis brings tensions and uncertainty to the market, it also will push organizations to expedite adoption of technologies and IT delivery models that help with optimization of IT infrastructure resources."

Africa (META). "A public cloud platform provides enterprises with an agile, scalable, and cost-effective IT infrastructure that supports their business processes. However, public cloud is not necessarily an appropriate option for all types of workloads. As such, some enterprises are choosing to keep certain workloads on-premises – using an in-house datacenter – or on private clouds. This approach helps them achieve better performance, 24/7 availability, enhanced security, and greater compliance with regulations."

2021 to Be the Year of Multi-Cloud By 2022, over 90% of enterprises worldwide will be relying on a mix of on-premises/dedicated private clouds, multiple public clouds, and legacy platforms to meet their infrastructure needs. That's according to the latest forecast from global technology research and consulting services firm International Data Corporation (IDC), which expects 2021 to be the year of multi-cloud, with the vast majority of enterprises deploying combinations

of on-premises, off-premises, public, and private clouds as their default environments. "The widespread disruption caused by the global COVID-19 outbreak has reinforced the critical importance of businesses being agile enough to scale up or down with fluctuations in demand," says IDC's Jyoti Lalchandani, group vice president & regional managing director for the Middle East, Turkey, and

ARABIAN RESELLER | April 2020

While uptake of multi-cloud architecture has started to gain momentum, not all businesses are sufficiently prepared to implement cloud roadmaps due to migration and skills-related challenges. "Just under 30% of medium-to-large organizations responding to IDC's META CIO Survey 2020 highlighted migration as a key challenge," says Lalchandani. "At the same time, 39% cited a lack of skills as an obstacle hindering their rollout of cloud strategies. To achieve success in their multi-cloud journeys, IDC advises businesses to take stock of their applications and develop a phased modernization roadmap for each one, thereby enabling them to make appropriate cloud decisions for the multi-cloud era."

consider are possible repatriation of employees and visitor handling procedures. Establish a pandemic communications program People can feel out of the loop quickly, especially during a pandemic. Assign a spokesperson for the company who is appropriate for the situation. Establish a pandemic communications program with preapproved messages and scripts for various stakeholders, including employees, customers, supply chain partners, insurance companies, regulators and community public health officials.

10 Pillars of Pandemic Preparation The COVID-19 coronavirus has left many organizations unsure whether their risk mitigation is sufficient. Gartner expert Jim Mello explains what good operational risk management looks like. Just 12% of more than 1,500 people polled in a Gartner business continuity webinar on March 6 believe their businesses are highly prepared for the impact of coronavirus, while 26% believe that the virus will have little or no impact on their business.

remedial action, while deferrable activities such as training or budgeting may occupy lower tiers.

Most respondents (56%) rate themselves somewhat prepared, and 11% said they were either relatively or very unprepared. Just 2% of respondents believe their business can continue as normal, highlighting the huge range of businesses that could be affected by the outbreak. Twenty-four percent of respondents expect little disruption, while the majority expect business to continue at a reduced pace (57%), to be severely restricted (16%) or to be discontinued altogether (1%).

Review finance and treasury implications Make sure to revise revenue forecasts and communicate with investors and suppliers about any potential financial issues. It’s also critical to ensure that your organization has the working capital to ride out the storm. Consider increasing the frequency of working capital checks and seeking loans or government-sponsored financial relief to support cash flow.

Monitor the situation to determine a change in severity Numerous sources of information can help you monitor the rate at which the infection is spreading and its severity. Many organizations rely on the comprehensive information found on The World Health Organization site.

“Most organizations have done some pandemic planning but still have many unanswered questions about whether they have done everything they can to manage risks,” says Jim Mello, Senior Director, Advisory, Gartner. “At Gartner, we recommend 10 crisis checkpoints to start your COVID-19 pandemic planning.”

Extend your clean workplace/personal hygiene protocols It’s critical to ensure that your organization complies with any new workplace regulations. Beyond that, establish handling protocols for staff returning from affected areas and extend your organization’s existing hygiene activities around cleaning and providing hygiene supplies.

Establish a pandemic preparedness framework Form a team that represents all critical business functions and reports directly to executive management. The first priority for this team is to assess the relative importance of business activities and organize them into tiers for response or recovery. For example, critical IT infrastructure such as network or VPN servers might occupy the top tier for

Review HR policies and practices Closely monitor your organization’s absenteeism rate for any sign of a problem. Identify critical staff and make sure your organization can continue to function in their absence. Be as prepared as you can be for absentee rates of up to 40%. Be sensitive to changes in employee engagement and workplace preferences, and consider offering extra sick leave or a remote work program. Other things to

Review impact on business operations Break down this potentially overwhelming task into activities or business areas. The team formed in step 1 should identify key areas to consider. Understanding the reality on the ground in countries of operations is critical, and this includes assessing third parties for their exposure. Key questions include: Is transport functioning? Have holidays been extended? Where can operations continue and where must they stop? Review IT actions and considerations IT as a business function tends to be relatively well-prepared in terms of business continuity, but nevertheless, assess the supply chain for critical equipment and keep extra inventory if needed. Look at remote data center management and cloud options for critical systems. Enable remote working programs and investigate alternative voice and chat options. Also reschedule nonessential IT work and prioritize key applications. Use a preparedness exercise to review pandemic plans and identify gaps in response Validate roles and responsibilities, recovery requirements and procedures with a preparedness exercise, such as a workfrom-home drill or a table simulation that operates on a compressed time scale. Identify any gaps in recovery capability and resource needs. Assess whether team members can cope with their responsibilities and also promote collaboration between them. Then get feedback from the crisis management team. After-action review Identify three lessons learned or key observations as a result of pandemic panning. Also get each area to identify at least three areas for improvement in the exercise. List and prioritize your short and long-term follow-up actions, and schedule future exercises or results reports.

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The New Face of the

IT CHANNEL ARABIAN RESELLER | April 2020

Written by Sherifa Hady, Channel Sales Director, EMEA, Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

EXPE RT SPEAK In a world of consumer changes and connectivity everywhere, channel partners are primed to sell new services and products and play a key role in the development of the next wave of technology trends. The channel is now being driven by three key trends: partner digital transformation; new business models with a focus on services; and customer trends driving new types of demand. It’s not just about what’s in the box anymore, we’re seeing networks open up a new world of services and solutions for the channel to offer, and customers who are eager to tap into these to deliver a cutting-edge customer experience. TREND ONE: Channel business models – it’s not just about the box, it’s about what the box gives you Across the entire channel, from alliance partners to distributors and systems integrators, we’re seeing partners start to ready themselves, and their business models, for a new technological landscape and how to keep their offerings relevant within it. Partners are looking five years ahead to anticipate what they will be selling, and where their revenue will be coming from. Distributors who once would have been a logistics partner or driving channel enablement are now rethinking their role for example. The cloud is a prime example of this – it’s changed the business model of partners significantly. Hardware is no longer the key revenue driver, and whereas before you might have expected hardware sales to account for most of your business, it’s now completely swapped to be a software-first market instead. The role of the vendor to help support and enable partners through this transition is vital. It’s about ensuring the incentives and support you give your partners is correctly aligned to the market they are trying to sell to. It’s

also about how you advise on the advantages and disadvantages of CAPEX and OPEX installations, and ensuring you’re embedded within the channel to give your partners the use cases, case studies, and best practice to sell in this new type of market. Some partners are already there and know where they want to go next. Others are still figuring out what their path ahead looks like. TREND TWO: Channel partners race to bring new service offerings to the market The channel knows that services are an essential part of their business model. The future lies in consumption. There are three ways that partners are pursuing this now. They might be reselling the services offered through vendors, managing assets and services for customers, or developing their own services and intellectual property offerings. Here again, we can clearly see the role that the cloud has played in influencing the market. It was a wake-up call for partners – if everyone goes straight to the cloud provider to buy their services then how do you sell around this? The cloud has hugely disrupted how people consider buying IT. For partners who embrace services however the rewards can be significant. From a profitability perspective, if everyone is just selling the same AP then the opportunity for margins is limited – but if you can sell maintenance and services on top of this then there’s a huge business opportunity. It also means you can get much closer to your customers. Longer term service agreements mean you learn to understand their challenges and how you can solve them together. The benefits for customer retention are huge. Finally, partners with the technology and technical skills to develop

their own IP offerings will be able to really stand out and differentiate themselves in the market. It drives their capabilities beyond just vendor specific offerings. By the end of 2020, this is one of the most significant developments we expect to see in the channel market. TREND THREE: Partners who focus on selling based on business outcomes can win big Customer needs will always be a driving force in the market. For many companies, IT is no longer just a cost centre in their business, used for data analysis and report creation. Instead it’s often a profit centre, driving revenue, new business models, and enabling the creation of billion-dollar companies along the way. For partners, reacting to these changes is central to setting themselves up for success in the year and decade ahead. Fundamentally the usage of IT has become very different. The customer may want a new system for their hotel in order to allow their guests to check in via their phone and get straight onto the Wi-Fi, but they’re unlikely to be interested in the detail of the systems they are buying. They just want to be able to deploy. This is a huge opportunity for partners to talk to their customers about business outcomes and take a more significant role within solution development. However, as customers move away from hardware to services partners won’t be able to rely on them ringing up to order new parts – this sell requires a much more proactive approach. The rise of the Edge is one of the final parts of this puzzle. Over the course of this year we will continue to see the exponential growth of connected devices, and within that a need for data and network power to sit at different points of the network.

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The Translations Industry Can Attract More Business with AI Matteo Ippoliti, the Founder of Langpros, speaks about the importance of linguistics and translation services

What’s shaping the IT industry in the region? Technology is an integral part of the production process when it comes to translation. The revolution started about 20 years ago when human translators started using computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools. So, it was a combination of machines and humans. In the last 10 years, we started with machine translation. Machine translation is basically a type of technology that involves the machine to create translation from scratch, without human beings. Of course, the results are never 100% accurate. What we do now with machine translation, is that a human translator/editor revises the final product. What will be the next big thing in technology in 2020? At the moment researchers are focusing on finding ways to allow machines to deal and replicate human emotions but obviously there is still a long way to go. Even when it comes to translation and interpreting, machines are now better equipped to deal with culture references, phrases and idioms using complex statistical models and machine learning algorithms (such as in Neural Machine Translation). But figurative language, irony, sarcasm, poetry are still out of a machine’s capability as they cannot feel what humans feel when using the language. How are you and your company gearing up to explore the opportunities in 2020? In order to take on new opportunities along the way during this

crucial year, we decided to boost our productivity so we acquired new professionals and specialized linguists that will do their utmost to show our professionalism also during this outstanding occasion. In the meantime, we decided to look for more opportunities offered by the AI that could help us focusing on the optimization of all our company processes and reaching our main goal of guaranteeing the best service possible both in terms of quality and speed. Therefore, we launched a branded portal where our clients will have the chance to upload texts or documents, request content creation and transcription services directly on this innovative platform. Prices will be calculated automatically, a super-intuitive way to process and deliver our language services with an even faster turnaround. An online dashboard will guide clients through the process so they can monitor the progress of their projects and save precious time. While we focus on ensuring our quality service, the whole translation process is going to be much smoother and our clients will get instant quotes, interactive services and solutions for all their translation requirements. What sort of challenges do you foresee for 2020? Translating languages is definitely a change that we foresee. From my perspective, as a linguist and translation company owner, the most challenging languages to translate are those spoken by a limited number of people, such as regional languages or “dialects” where there are only a

ARABIAN RESELLER | April 2020

few translators available. For instance aboriginal languages in Australia or certain tribal languages in Africa. When it comes to Arabic, the situation is relatively complex. Although there are many varieties of Arabic (according to some, approximately 30, including Classical Arabic) due to the fact that it is spoken in several countries, the variety that is generally accepted as standard is the so called Modern Standard Arabic, which is the one used and mastered by most professional translators and interpreters. From all the business learnings of 2019, what would you like to do differently in the upcoming year? 2020 like each new year brings new learning and in the past year as a team we learned many new lessons like the great importance of commitment and to continue embracing new challenges every single day. A high level of enthusiasm in every organization not only brings increased profitability and productivity but important overall improvements in the work atmosphere. Perseverance, hard work, and dedication don’t just show up in a short time and with our new resources, our main goal is to build a strong team in order for them to cooperate with the other team members in the most efficient and pleasant way. We learned the importance of strong and productive interaction through clear communication of our goals, vision, and mission to achieve the right determination to work and pursue excellence.

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How Can Remote Access Help Your Businesses During Difficult Times? Written by Hewitt Lee, Director of Product Management at Synology There’s a growing global concern of Coronavirus outbreak that has subtly brought unease upon global economies. One after another, tech events are being cancelled, and the damages are resulting in millions of dollars. On the 2nd of Mach, the head of the World Trade Organization said that he expected the coronavirus epidemic to have a ‘substantial’ impact on the global economy, and the end is nowhere in sight. In the wake of these unfortunate events, the need for an efficient IT infrastructure that supports remote team collaboration and file syncing capabilities needs to be implemented to ensure stable performance and business continuity during difficult times. Creating a More Mobile & Remote Workforce Since 2005 remote work has grown by 159%. From an employee’s perspective, cloudbased software benefits people to continue to work from any location, while solving problems like longer commutes and family commitment. From businesses’ perspective, the implementation of the likes of Network Attach Storage (NAS) into their existing IT infrastructure can ensure effortless remote file sharing and syncing, data ownership and security, higher levels of communication and teamwork, and long term productivity.

A Flexible and Dynamic Solution for Collaboration and Remote Work - NAS The remote access limitation has always been the obstacle for traditional file server that utilizes Windows SMB protocol. Businesses are unable to cope with the growing trend of remote workforce that requires dynamic remote team collaboration and file sharing capabilities, which the traditional file servers fail to deliver. On the other hand, SaaS models that operate on clouds which answer to these challenges often face other backlashes including recurring subscription fees, data leak and security issues. To instill more complexity, the recent waves of ransomware, which threaten victims’ data and block their access via Windows SMB protocols, have been disrupting IT systems government bodies and corporate worldwide. Thus, a flexible and dynamic solution such as a Network Attach Storage (NAS) server that brings the best of both worlds shall definitely be looked upon. An ideal modern day file server, in addition to having remote access to file services and dynamic team collaboration tools, should also have the capacity for cross office synchronization, self-serve IT, and compatibility with different devices. As the scales of businesses grow, along with the BYOD and 29

enterprise mobility trends, and ultimately the recent chain of unfortunate events and disasters, not all companies can have the luxury to have enough IT resources, and the IT environment can only get more complex and sophisticated. Smart Solutions Can Help Employees Work Smartly The right solution should allow employees to safely handle many storage issues themselves including changing passwords or restoring lost files from backups, access files that are synced across the offices from all over the world, and give users the ability to access files from anywhere across multiple devices. That way, employees can easily access or share files from outside the office with the benefit of keeping sensitive data stored on the company’s own equipment without needing to relying on IT personnel heavily. Many businesses are still hesitant to move on from conventional file server that may pose potential risk to data security and performance issues in the long run. In the wakes of many global hazards and incidents, by implementing a more dynamic modern day file server infrastructure, businesses can better manage risks, establish more robust file management rules, streamline team collaboration in order to ensure business continuity and productivity.

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INNOVATION Should Be Purposeful

Sanmeet Singh Kochhar, the Vice President for India and MENA at HMD Global, speaks about innovation in the smartphones market and the outlook for the months ahead ARABIAN RESELLER | April 2020

You just announced the company’s first 5G smartphone on the market. What sort of outlook does the company have in terms of the technology and will we see more 5G models hitting the market? We’re extremely excited to announce our first global and future-proofed 5G smartphone - the Nokia 8.3 5G. Indeed 5G will revolutionize the telecommunications sector and other industries with faster speed, reliability and more enhanced network capacity.

matter to them the most. Using HMD Connect is very simple; users just have to plug in their HMD Connect SIM card, purchase their data plan with their credit card and keep tabs on their data consumption right from the HMD Connect app or web portal.

Aligned with this, we believe we’ve created a truly unique device that doesn’t only bring true connectivity to fans, but also premiers ZEISS Cinema effects, letting you take full advantage of the creative potential that 5G content sharing can bring. While we can’t comment on future launches, we do encourage you to stay tuned.

HMD Global has always promised modern design and guaranteed updates. How has that strategy helped Nokia elevate its brand awareness on the market? We believe in purposeful innovation and not innovation for the sake of innovating. Additionally, we pride ourselves on how intertwined our designs are. They deliver on what the phone is expected to deliver at the point of purchase and when receiving the software, while our fans are using the phones. Moreover, we’ve made it a point to be one of the fastest adopters of the latest Android operating systems, which we’ve achieved with Android Pie updates and that make our phones get better with time.

The latest phones launched by Nokia were in the midrange arena. Will we see a new flagship from the company, like the rumoured Preview 9.2? While we don’t comment on rumours, we can tell you that we don’t aim to be a company defined by a specific segment. At HMD Global, we focus on technology that helps individuals thrive through what it does, and through how people use it. As a brand, we are constantly looking at ways to expand the human possibilities of the connected world. Tell us about HMD Connect. How does the service work? Have you partnered with any telecom carriers or service providers for this service? HMD Connect is a hassle-free, secure and affordable data roaming service that keeps users connected in an easier way to the things that

We are currently working together with the local operators to bring even better pricing options and further expand the coverage to more networks and countries.

In a nutshell, our phones offer best in class materials and craftsmanship across the portfolio, delivering the reliability and durability expected of Nokia phones through purposeful design and engineering. Thus, we are proud that our four brand-new devices – including the Nokia 8.3 5G; the Nokia 5310, the next generation of the Nokia 1; and the new Nokia 5, continue to be fully aligned with our approach. What sort of market outlook

does HMD Global have for the rest of the year? The mobile device market in the region is driven by technological innovation and increasing smartphone and internet penetration. Indeed, technology is a great enabler – and Nokia phones make technology accessible to all, by providing everyday solutions that help people thrive in what they are doing. There is always a demand for quality phones with security updates – so we foresee the Nokia smartphones playing an important role for our fans in the year ahead. When it comes to smartphones, many vendors still focus a lot on the megapixels. How does HMD Global see this megapixel war? What makes a perfect camera? There is still a large focus on megapixels, as people believe that higher the megapixels, better the quality of the image. But this is only a part of what makes a good image. The overall specs of a device are what count. For instance, most of our phones feature PureDisplay screen technology, which takes the viewing experience. On Nokia 8.3 5G, PureDisplay technology is powered by the Pixelworks visual processor, complemented by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G modular platform’s breakthrough AI-enhanced entertainment capabilities. This technology provides immersive HDR quality and amazing colour reproduction for all of the streaming media, photos, videos or games, even when the content is only available in standard dynamic range (SDR). This is done by dynamically upscaling the colour depth and detail by a factor of 64, transforming all your entertainment into unforgettable, cinematic experiences.

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Protecting Your Company During COVID-19 Written by Ross McKerchar, CISO, Sophos Cyberattackers are resourceful and opportunistic. They will move quickly to take advantage of a situation. COVID-19 is no different. There is a huge amount of global uncertainty and change right now which criminals are seeking to capitalize on. The risks are amplified by the immediate and unforeseen IT challenges that companies are having ensuring their staff can work from home. There are two areas which are most likely to result in a cybersecurity incident due to the ongoing crisis: remote access and phishing. Below is a set of prioritized recommendations to prevent, or at least mitigate, these issues. Remote Access This refers to the myriad ways organizations are allowing their employees to work from home.

These range from the obvious â&#x20AC;&#x153;traditionalâ&#x20AC;? remote access services, such as VPN and terminal service gateways, as well as cloud-native conferencing and other collaboration tools that organizations everywhere are adopting. The key risk is weak authentication of your remote access services. Organizations have been battling for years to ensure services (particularly when internet-facing) are protected by multi-factor authentication (MFA) and only accessible with centrally-managed corporate accounts (typically held in Active Directory, Azure or Okta). The security problems occur for a couple of reasons. Firstly changes being made quickly on the front line may not been seen or understood by leaders in the organiza-

ARABIAN RESELLER | April 2020

tion better placed to evaluate the resultant risk. Secondly, even when risk assessments were made, the original premises are probably no longer correct. What should IT and security leaders do? There are long term and short term fixes. Long terms fixes boil down to a zero trust approach. There is no doubt this crisis will accelerate the shift towards zero trust architectures. Organizations should focus their efforts on tactically reducing risk as quickly as possible. Primarily this means ensuring key services as protected with MFA by any means possible. This is best tackled per service. Organizations need to identify which services are most at risk and most valuable to their adversaries. For

organizations with on premise infrastructure and traditional perimeter-based security these are likely to be VPNs and other remote access gateways. For organizations with cloud infrastructure, the focus should be their identity provider (most commonly Azure or Okta). As the central point for authentication, simply enabling MFA here will get you the biggest and quickest win, especially as both Azure and Okta have integrated MFA capabilities and integrations with popular 3rd party providers such as Duo. Making tough trade-offs Even these tactical options are not easy and compromises will need to be made. The exact balance of trade-offs will be different for every organisation but here are some considerations: VPN Capacity If you’re backhauling client traffic to scrub, allowing “Split VPNs” (where clients go direct to the internet) is the quickest way to gain capacity and likely less risky than exposing squishy, insecure internal services directly online. However this does depend on your clients having well-patched browsers and, ideally, endpoint based web-protection. Also be aware that if you have SaaS services relying on clients coming from known corporate IP addresses don’t simply turn off that control – replace it with MFA! Centralized vs de-centralized MFA Attaching MFA to your identity provider allows for a common experience across all applications. This is undoubtedly less confusing for staff and easier to rollout. It’s

also a much longer route if you don’t have a centralized identity service. SMS-based MFA There’s a lot of very valid concerns about SMS-based MFA. It’s also the simplest and quickest way to get MFA enabled, particularly as staff will likely be familiar with it. Passwords If you’re spinning up new services (e.g. video-conferencing) and are unable to setup federated identity, employees are going to need to remember even more passwords. The biggest risk with this is password reuse. You can’t reasonably expect employees to remember dozens of unique passwords. A password manager is the best tool to get around this problem. Other considerations Beyond MFA there are a couple other related remote-access risks to consider: VPN and Remote access gateway vulnerabilities Patching critical infrastructure probably feels risky right now. Unfortunately in the past few months there have been some very serious vulnerabilities in common remote access equipment. If you have a vulnerable service you need to patch immediately. Just have a backup plan in-case the device fails to patch. Endpoint security updates Check your infrastructure to make sure that you are still receiving updates from your endpoint security provider. If you have a cloud-based management you’re probably ok but if not, it’s essential that your clients can reach updating services. This requires checking that your VPN allows access to your update server(s) (and that you have 33

capacity). Phishing attacks Phishing attacks using COVID-19 as a lure are the most visible and immediate cybersecurity risk in the ongoing crisis. IT departments and service providers are bombarding us all with legitimate messages about changes to services. Combine these issues and it’s unrealistic to expect employees to accurately identify and report all attacks. You need to assume that some will get through and some staff will be duped. Accepting this allows you to focus on being resilient to attacks rather than hoping to avoid them. Web filtering Web filtering can block connections to malicious websites or spot a malicious payload on the site. Endpoint software can spot malicious files and behavior should all the previous defenses fail and the employee ends up running something malicious on their system. The better-configured and effective all these defenses are the less likely an attacker will manage to evade everything. Patching Drive-by-downloads are less common nowadays but still a real risk. Patching browsers, mail clients and applications (such as Microsoft Office) which are regularly used to open attachments will limit the really nasty attacks that rely on minimal user-interaction. Lastly, there are few reasons to be running browser plugins such as Flash, Java, etc. nowadays – disable them if you possibly can, it’s much easier and safer than trying to keep them update. Stay vigilant. Coronavirus-related attacks will likely ramp-up over the coming weeks and months.

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The Convenience of Wireless Mesh Networking Written by Ferdinand Ma, the Product Manager for UAE at TP-Link MEA FZE

In a time where most of us are home, the collective load on network connectivity has grown exponentially, with different people wanting to stay connected for different reasons, and more often than not, in different parts of our house. Whether you’re working from home, or binge-watching a web series, or playing real-time games with friends, or learning new recipes from online cooking channels, or following a fitness instructor’s do-alongside routine, you need the entire space to be well-connected. More so, if each member of the household is engaged in these kinds of activities around the same time and these are the needs of a single modern house currently, imagine what the networking requirements of organizations these days would be. This is where a wireless mesh network comes in – with a massive scope of making everything convenient, seamless, and productive for all parties. A wireless mesh network is basically a communication network spread out across several wireless mesh nodes that are designed to inter-communicate and share the same network across a large geographical area. These wireless mesh networking technologies offer a

significant advantage over traditional wireless networks since they render the need for ethernet cables or any form of physical wiring (except for the source node). A wireless mesh network is a smart and self-configuring one that can carry out the integration of new mesh nodes automatically without network administration. Organizations operating in the wireless mesh network industry are offering innovative new products with easy setup and app-based network management features, and 2019 saw the product segment dominate the market. The market growth is resulting from the booming increase in the global adoption of wireless mesh networks that can be attributed to their strong network capabilities like faster data transmission and easier network deployment, amongst others. These networks ensure that the problem of a single point of failure can be automatically detected because if and when one node can no longer operate, the network is equipped with the ability to reroute – enabling it to keep communication between the remaining nodes intact other upcoming use cases include operating in areas with large crowds

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like concerts and music festivals, and connecting devices in remote areas and underground public transport like mountains and subways, among many more. It works with minimal infrastructure, which means it can be deployed faster than traditional infrastructure, and at a significantly reduced cost, too. The increasing popularity of smart gadgets is acting as a catalyst in escalating the demand for the Internet of Things (IoT) devices in the future. A magnanimous number of organisations are anticipated to be jumping on the IoT bandwagon and ‘over-implementing’ the technology in an effort to streamline existing operations. Mesh wireless networking technologies will be a transformational solution for smart homes.

Securing Access for Remote Workers Accessing the Cloud

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Written by Alain Penel, Regional Vice President – Middle East, Fortinet

Businesses across the region are now in the process of rapidly enabling teleworking and remote productivity solutions to maintain business and operational continuity with high levels of security. This can be a complicated process when expediency is so critical. To complicate the process further, businesses in the region need to provide a growing number of remote workers with more than just a secure connection back to the core network or datacenter resources they are used to be remotely connecting to. As an increasing number of applications are also being hosted in the cloud, organizations need to consider providing secure remote connectivity directly to those applications rather than backhauling those applications through the core network. Direct connectivity will not only reduce the load on the network, but also improve overall user experience, especially for high-bandwidth or latency-sensitive applications. A Unique Secure Solution for All Deployment Scenarios Deploying large-scale VPN solutions for remote users enable simple access, segmenting users based on role, security profile, and the content and resources they require are first-order tasks. Teams also need to identify users that require special access to resources, like power users, such as system adminis-

trators, IT support technicians, and emergency personnel who require a higher level of access to corporate resources and the ability to operate in multiple, parallel IT environments. Or workers that process extremely sensitive and confidential information or require advanced access to confidential corporate resources, such as administrators with privileged system access, support technicians, key partners aligned to the continuity plan, emergency personnel, and executive management, and those users that require sitebased access. These considerations require thinking about the entire network architecture, from cloud to on-premise to endpoint. We address these and similar requirements by providing a flexible operating system that is consistent across form factors – whether deployed in the cloud, on-premise, or in a power user’s home office – and whose management can be centralized for policy orchestration, VPN templating, and user segmentation. Enabling a Multi-Pronged Security Approach Our customers who deploy NGFW solutions in the cloud, on-premise, or at remote locations are able to take advantage of its single pane of glass management, enabling the control and orchestration of multiple firewalls across locations to establish and maintain consistent 35

security and user experience. We understand that business performance largely depends on user productivity, access to content and applications, at any location, at any time. With remote access and the ability to manage performance across locations using Secure SD-WAN as a core capability securely provides flexible options for mobile and fixed access to cloud resources at massive scale. Leveraging Existing Innovations Addressing new or increased capacity requirements due to growing demand for applications hosted in the cloud as well as SaaS services can seem like a significant challenge. But by leveraging the innovation and capabilities in their existing technology investments, organizations can often address a majority of their requirements without significant additional overhead. Businesses that have invested in a Security Fabric architecture have access to all the necessary tools in a single pane of glass management system. It enables them to fine tune their existing configurations and environments to address urgent and increasing needs, while addressing critical business requirements, providing the organization with the lifeline they need to effectively and securely support their increased remote worker communities.

MARKET UPDATE

More Than 1000 Students Suffer From Hacker Attacks Daily ARABIAN RESELLER | April 2020

According to the data collected by Atlas VPN, cybercriminals started targeting the field of education and attacked users more than 356,000 times during the last academic year (20182019). Since textbooks are expensive, and writing essays is time-consuming, pupils search for illegal downloads. In 234,000 cases, downloaded essays had hidden malware. Moreover, students downloaded 122,000 malware-infected textbooks. Hackers inject malware into different types of educational resources, from math textbooks to dictionaries. The most popular ones were English textbooks, with 2,080 unique cases. Not far behind were math textbooks, attacking 1,213 students. Literature is in third place, with 870 infected downloads. This data was collected globally. However, the actual number of cyberattacks is much bigger. The data is reported by Kaspersky, as their antivirus caught the cyberattacks. Yet, many students can not afford an antivirus program and attacks slip through unnoticed. Why are hackers focusing on the field of education? Since most hackers’ main focus is financial gain, they shift their focus to wherever the money is. In 35.5% of the 356,000 attacks, the malware contained a well known Stalk Worm (Worm. Win32 Stalk.a). Once on the computer, this digital worm can spread

through all devices connected to it. Most commonly, a student carries the worm via a USB drive from their own computer to their school’s computers. After infecting the school’s network, the worm can steal the data of the students, teachers, and administration. Then, hackers demand a ransom from the school in exchange for deleting the data or they sell it on the black market. Data collected from a successful attack can be sold for $250 to $350 per record on the black market. Ransom demands range from $10,000 to $150,000, depending on the amount and type of data stolen. Ravi Pendse, Chief Information Officer at the University of Michigan, said that cyberattacks on students and schools have been going on for a while. He states that it is hard for schools to keep up with the newest technologies. Schools usually do not have a big budget for cybersecurity purposes. However, even though schools do not claim it publicly, there is a lot of work focused on protecting their systems with the resources they already have, claimed Pendse. Hackers exploit students to mine cryptocurrency In some cases, downloads include malicious cryptocurrency mining programs that mine cryptocurrency for

the hackers (cryptojacking). Once again this is a way for hackers to make money. Cryptojacking is a form of malware that uses the victim’s computer resources to mine cryptocurrencies for the hackers. It makes your computer software and internet connection speed suffer. Also, your data usage will skyrocket, and the device’s battery will drain much faster. Yet, there are no other clear signs that cybercriminals have invaded your computer. Hackers aim to remain unnoticed so that you would mine as many cryptocurrencies as possible. In the middle of 2019, many cryptocurrency markets saw price increases. As a result, hackers became more interested in potential profits. Kaspersky antivirus detected 2,259,038 mining malware-infected files on their users’ computers in 2019. With the increasing cybercrime rates, what can you do to protect yourself? Schools as well as public and private companies you interact with store your information on their database. This means that you have no control over the data you shared with that company. However, you can protect your mobile device by installing a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A VPN encrypts your internet connection and changes your IP address. Hence, your online journey becomes completely safe and secure.

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COVID-19 Related Cyberattacks Slow Down But Still Present Tremendous Threat Written by Tamer Odeh, Regional Director at SentinelOne Middle East

COVID-19 Related

Cyberattacks Slow Down

But Still Present Tremendous Threat

Written by Tamer Odeh, Regional Director at SentinelOne Middle East We have been closely tracking adversarial behavior as it pertains to COVID-19/Coronavirus. To date, we have observed a significant number of malware campaigns, spam campaigns, and outright scams that are preying on the fears and uncertainties of the global population. Over the last few months, we have seen aggressive use of COVID-19/Coronavirus as a lure all over the spectrum of sophistication. Campaigns range from run-ofthe mill scams to non-targeted spam campaigns (primarily for credential harvesting). We have even observed enterprising

criminals selling COVID-19-specific malware/phishing ‘kits’. Nothing is sacred, either: not even the tragic death of NBA star Kobe Bryant, whose image was used to lure fans into downloading malicious desktop backgrounds. Cybercriminals are continuing to utilise COVID/Coronavirus as a lure to spread their malware campaigns. Victims are enticed to follow a malicious link to receive “more or updated information” on COVID-19 in their region or other misinformation. The malicious links lead to a malicious installer which downloads additional malware and

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establishes persistent communications with cybercriminals. From the onset of the SARSCoV-2 virus’s spread, opportunistic cyber-criminals have taken to proactively registering relevant domain names for malicious use. According to data from Recorded Future, “Beginning on January 12, the number of domain registrations started to increase, with an additional large spike on February 12”. While domain registration alone is not proof of ill-intent, it is a reminder that we need to be extra cautious when interacting with “COVID” and “Coronavirus”

related domains. Some of those domains claim to offer medical supplies at exorbitant prices; would-be buyers pay up-front and take their chances as to whether they will ever see a delivery. In early March 2020, the APT group Mustang Panda (China) utilized multiple spam campaigns to deliver implants. Spam messages made use of multiple COVID-19-themed lures. Malicious documents were used to execute additional scripts, and leverage subsequent LOTL tactics to retrieve and launch payloads. In mid-March 2020, we observed multiple websites hosting fake versions of WiseCleaner utilities. These sites were used to distribute the Kpot Infostealer trojan, along with a new ransomware family dubbed “CoronaVirus”. From the fake WiseCleaner-themed sites, a malicious version of “WSHSetup.exe” was used to download both the CoronaVirus ransomware along with Kpot Infostealer. Once infected, a customized ransom message is displayed at boot, prior to the loading of Windows. Victims are instructed to email attackers, as opposed to interacting with them via a payment portal site. In mid-March 2020, a new family of Android ransomware, CovidLock, began targeting users via malicious app (APK) downloads. The malicious apps were hosted on sites masquerading as hosts for valid real-time information tracking apps. Upon infection, the ransomware tricks users into providing full device control via misleading permissions request dialogs. The malware sets itself to load upon device startup and leads

to a lock-screen style ransom request. This specific family utilizes Pastebin to aid in the construction of the displayed ransom notes. Multiple dark web (.onion) sites claim to sell COVID-19/Coronavirus supplies (masks, sanitization and cleaning supplies) directly for BTC (bitcoin). These are outright scams, which just collect BTC and deliver nothing to their victims. To add insult to injury, we have also seen sites reporting to sell non-existent vaccines, charging $5000. Covid themed campaigns have started to slow this week, while criminals were quick to capitalize on the news heavy topic of ‘Covid-19’ for their campaigns we suspect this slowdown will continue due in part to the current situation where many countries, cities, and provinces have started to order “stay at home” or “shelter in place” orders. These orders could impact local governments and businesses in a way that will slow down a criminal’s ability to move money. We are still following to see what the effect will be on the underground economy as the global economy becomes more turbulent. The psychology of fear, uncertainty, and doubt is a powerful weapon. Criminals have become more advanced in their understanding of manipulating human emotion to achieve a targeted action. Social engineering is based on the premise that I can get a victim to take action the victim believes to be trusted, but which is actually malicious, using manipulation, influence, and deceit. It can also be based on downright intimidation, authority, and extortion. The net result is a victim taking actions they otherwise never would have in the absence of social

engineering. Nation-state actors have long relied upon social engineering to achieve targeted goals for espionage, system compromise, election influence, and social media manipulation. While this is still very much a ‘living’ situation, we have already observed the ability for enterprising cybercriminals to capitalize on the fear and uncertainty of the general public. As is the case with any large and newsworthy event, our adversaries have no scruples when it comes to social engineering and malware distribution. Nothing is out of bounds, and the main difference with the current climate is that the stakes are much higher. It is enough of a challenge to get accurate data and information from known-and-reputable sources. The criminal element further muddies the water and makes our attempts to protect our loved ones (and selves) that much more of a challenge. This is a concerning time for our industry and the public at large. We are in the midst of a global health crisis. In such times, we all need to be working together and ensuring that everyone has the most accurate and reliable data. We all want assurance that we can trust the resources available to us. Anything counter to that is destructive and potentially harmful to society. However, we all know that cybercriminals and sophisticated adversaries seize opportunities like this to further their own cause. This not only leads to the usual barrage of complications inherent to any cyber-attack or event, but in this case it can translate to real harm to those we love and protect.

PRODUCTS

Jabra Launches the Elite Active 75t in the UAE

Jabra has launched the Elite Active 75t earbuds in the UAE. This is the active lifestyle edition of the recently announced Elite 75t earbuds. Like the original, the Active version brings the same great calls and music that is now expected from Jabra but is optimised for workout and fitness use. The Active edition is enhanced for durability and is the latest in Jabra’s winning portfolio of true wireless earbuds. The Jabra Elite Active 75t is 22 per cent smaller than its predecessor, the award-winning Elite Active 65t. Built with a durable coating providing optimised grip, the earbuds are also dust and sweat resistant, while simultaneously extending battery life by 89 per cent (up to 28 hours). The earbuds also boast an increased IP rating from IP56 (of the Active 65t) to IP57, making them waterproof, including a warranty of 2 years. The earbuds were also designed to further enhance comfort through its optimal earbud shape and size, which also provides a first-class noise isolation. To achieve this, Jabra utilised thousands of ear measurements and scans to create the most optimal earbud shape, building up from four generations of true wireless Elite products and thus providing optimal passive noise reduction for a better sound experience. The user has the option of being totally immersed in their music or calls. Alternatively, they can use the HearThrough activation to let sound in when needed. From the second quarter of 2020 (Q2, 2020), Jabra will introduce a new software experience, Jabra MySound. Uniquely built upon hearing know-how and technology from sister company GN Hearing, producers of world-class hearing aids, Jabra MySound will individualize each user’s music experience. As individuals we all have different abilities when it comes to hearing. MySound enables users to optimize their audio experience based their personal hearing profile. It requires users to utilize the Jabra Sound+ app where they will take a test comprising a series of beeps. Following that, the music audio is optimized for a truly individualized experience, that calibrates the headphones based on each users’ unique profile. Through the Jabra Sound+ app, users can configure the functions on the left and right earbud to meet their personal preferences. René Svendsen-Tune, CEO at Jabra, said, “We are proud to be taking audio to the next level with our most optimal true wireless earbuds yet. The Elite Active 75t is a testament to Jabra’s engineering expertise and is proof that we are committed to creating the best user experience in the market. And Jabra MySound is a first step in harnessing the expertise of both GN Hearing and Jabra to deliver not just outstanding sound but individualized audio experiences.” Priced at AED 749, the earbuds will be available in Navy and Titanium Black and Grey colours in April 2020.

Acer Outs Gaming Laptops Powered by the 10th Gen Intel Core Processors Acer has announced its new Predator Triton 500 and Acer Nitro 5 gaming notebooks. Alongside significant developments in thermal performance, both devices come with the latest 10th Gen Intel Core processors and newly announced NVIDIA GeForce RTX SUPER and GTX GPUs. “In addition to the latest processors and GPUs, we’ve made exciting across-the-board updates to the Predator Triton 500 and Acer Nitro 5 this year,” said James Lin, General Manager, Notebooks, IT Products Business, Acer. “Most importantly we’ve applied new thermal technology which keeps the devices cool so gamers can enjoy the performance improvements from the latest silicon technology.” Powered by the latest 10th Gen Intel Core processors for high performance notebooks and up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER or 2070 SUPER GPUs with Max-Q Design, the Predator Triton 500 is capable of taking on the toughest challenges.Its industry-leading 300 Hz IPS panel with a 3 ms overdrive response time displays all the action in smooth and vivid detail, covering 100% of the sRGB colour gamut while supporting wide-angle views. The Predator Triton 500 comes with a Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650i wireless controller, E3100G ethernet controller and Control Center 2.0, ensuring speed-critical applications get bandwidth priority. All this power is packed into a thin 17.9 mm (0.7 in) and lightweight 2.1 kg (4.63 lb) all-metal chassis that features narrow bezels, for an impressive productivity of up to 7.5 hours of battery life, making this notebook an excellent choice for working professionals who want to play too.

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The Predator Triton 500 features Acer’s Vortex Flow technology, a new design involving three custom engineered fans strategically placed in the chassis, working in tandem to increase additional airflow while also reducing noise. This is further enhanced by CoolBoosttechnology, which increases fan speed for improved performance. Gamers can monitor the device’s temperature and adjust the fan speed through the PredatorSense UI. The notebook’s innovative cooling system also features an all-metal 4th Gen AeroBlade 3D fan that’s been specially designed to maximize airflow and reduce noise. Serrated edges, winglets and a curved fin allow for up to 45% increase in airflow. Adding five heat pipes to the mix, the 2020 Predator Triton 500 ultimately gets 33% better thermal performance than its 2019 counterpart. The Acer Nitro 5 comes with up to a 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processor delivering 5 GHz and graphics options of an GeForce RTX2060 or the latest GeForce GTX 1650Ti or 1650 GPUs. It comes with up to two M.2 PCle SSDs and a 1 TB HDDfor storage, and up to 32 GB of DD4R4 RAM in two user-upgradeable DIMM slots. Available with a 15.6-inch FHD IPS display, models with 144 Hz or 120Hzrefresh rates and a 3 ms response times allow for blur-free gameplay that comes to life on the device’s 72% NTSC, 300-nit panel. The Predator Triton 500 gaming notebook will be available in EMEA in May starting at EUR 1,899. The Acer Nitro 5 gaming notebooks will be available in EMEA in May starting at EUR 899.

Fitbit Intros Fitbit Charge 4 in the UAE

Fitbit has today announced the latest evolution of its most popular family of devices, Fitbit Charge 4 in the UAE. The Charge 4 and Charge 4 Special Edition are exclusively available for pre-order from April 06, 2020 in the UAE on Noon.com. Featuring Fitbit’s most advanced combination of sensors and features, now with built-in GPS and Spotify – Connect & Control, Charge 4 delivers what you want most in a health and fitness tracker, paired with essential smart features and up to seven days of battery life in a sleek, swim-proof design — all at an approachable price.

ASUS Republic of Gamers Launches Zephyrus Duo 15 ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15, which integrates two displays in an ultraslim form factor to bring a new dimension of versatility to premium gaming laptops, without sacrificing any of the high-powered performance that defines ROG. Empowering gamers who also create with flexible designs that streamline their work is a passion at ROG.

Multi-monitor arrangements enable gamers, creators, and power users to work more effectively on their desktops. Laptop users are also commonly seen using their phones as a second screen. To make that level of productivity portable, the Zephyrus Duo 15 doubles down on displays with an elegant Active Aerodynamic System (AAS) Plus design that makes the full-width ROG ScreenPad Plus touchscreen an integral part of the cooling system. As the AAS Plus system tilts the laptop up, the second display also rises for comfortable viewing, while revealing a large air intake for deep airflow. The sophisticated cooling design gives Zephyrus Duo 15 ample thermal headroom to fit powerful flagship processors in a groundbreaking multi-screen gaming laptop. Adding another display is no simple endeavor for ultraslim gaming laptops, where every millimeter matters. The screen must be large enough to show useful information yet close enough to be within easy reach. As the laptop is opened, ROG ScreenPad Plus tilts up at a 13° angle for comfortable viewing and touchscreen interaction. This fluid motion is carefully choreographed by a custom hinge that staggers the rise of the displays to prevent damage. To prevent the screens making contact as the lid opens,

the hinge incorporates curved sliders that delay the deployment of the secondary display. The 14.1-inch panel in ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 is the largest second display ever put in a production gaming laptop. The IPS panel stretches wide viewing angles across the full width of the body, and its 3840 x 1100 resolution boasts a high pixel density that delivers rich details, crisp text, and flowing lines at a smooth 60 Hz refresh rate. Having more screen space enhances a wide range of scenarios. ScreenPad Plus can be used to turn the primary display into a more immersive medium for gaming, streaming, and content creation. Users can get a more expansive view of their game, movie, or other media, while using the secondary screen to keep an eye on emails, social media, and more. Up to an 8-core 10th Generation Intel Core i9 CPU hits speeds as high as 5.3 GHz on a single core, and can engage up to 16 parallel threads with Hyper-Threading technology to power through heavy duty tasks. With up to 48 GB of combined onboard and SO-DIMM memory, Zephyrus Duo 15 is ready for multitasking mastery across multiple displays. Its DDR4-3200 RAM outpaces the old 2666 MHz standard, improving system speed and responsiveness. Wireless networking is essential for everyday productivity, so Zephyrus Duo 15 features superfast WiFi 6 (802.11ax). Two audio jacks make it easier to connect a standalone microphone and headset for streaming or voice chat, and a premium ESS Sabre DAC elevates the experience for gamers with high-end headphones.

Charge 4 includes Fitbit’s latest innovation, Active Zone Minutes, a new personalised standard based on your resting heart rate and age that tracks any workout that gets your heart pumping, from indoor biking to yoga, measuring the time you spend in each heart rate zone toward a weekly goal of 150 minutes. For more guidance and motivation in today’s environment, new content has been added to Fitbit Premium, including programs, workouts from brands like barre3, Down Dog and Physique 57, mindfulness tools, challenges and more. Along with 40 new pieces of free content, Fitbit is offering a free 90-day trial for new Premium users. With the launch of new tools, software and content, being “on Fitbit” offers even greater value for users looking to manage their overall health. “Our mission has always been to help people around the world get healthier. In today’s extraordinary times, that mission is more important than ever, but we realize how hard it is to focus on your health and wellness. However, staying active, eating well and getting enough sleep can help reduce stress and boost immunity,” said James Park, CEO and co-founder. “To help support our users, we’re offering a free trial of Fitbit Premium and added content so our users have the right tools at home to help them stay healthy; and, with Active Zone Minutes, we are giving users a new personalized standard for health and fitness so they can get the most out of any activity that works for them and help to keep them motivated.” The Charge 4 and Charge 4 Special Edition are exclusively available for pre-order from April 06, 2020, in the UAE on Noon.com. Both editions will be available starting April 15, 2020, in stores that will be open and online through Amazon, Virgin Megastore, Noon, Namshi, Sun & Sand Sports, GO Sport, Sharaf DG, Jumbo Electronics, Eros Digital Home, Emax, Carrefour, LuLu, Axiom Telecom UAE, E-City, Jacky’s Electronics and other retailers. Charge 4 is available for AED 699 in black, rosewood and storm blue/black. Charge 4 Special Edition is available for AED 799 in an exclusive granite reflective/black woven band plus a classic black band to easily swap out for workouts or a sportier look.

PRODUCTS

Canon Reveals More Details About the EOS R5 Exactly a month since its development announcement of the EOS R5 – a full-frame mirrorless camera built on the revolutionary EOS R System – Canon Inc. has revealed additional information. Achieving the ‘impossible’, Canon Inc. East confirms the EOS R5’s video capabilities will far exceed that of competing cameras on the market. With its ability to internally record 8K using the full width of the sensor at up to 30p, the latest Canon EOS R camera is set to redefine mirrorless with its market-leading features. In addition, in all 8K modes, it will support Canon’s renowned Dual Pixel CMOS AF. Canon Inc. also confirms the EOS R5 supports advanced animal AF – recognising dogs, cats and birds, relying not only on the eyes of the animal but also the face and body for situations when the eyes are not visible. Binoj Nair, Marketing Director B2C Business Unit, Canon Middle East said: “We’ve seen speculation that the EOS R5’s specs are ‘impossible’. Today’s announcement confirms once again, we are achieving the ‘impossible’ in order to support our customers’ need for a camera that delivers exceptional image quality and video capture. “As an industry leader, we are challenging the market with this launch and showing what’s possible with our technology. The EOS R5 and the RF lens system is proof of our commitment to redefine mirrorless and shows Canon’s unparalleled strength in creating products with true purpose.” Other EOS R5 specifications confirmed by Canon in the camera’s 13th February 2020 development announcement: • The EOS R5 offers a step-change in performance with an incredible 12fps using the mechanical shutter and the electronic shutter offering 20fps • The EOS R5 takes Canon’s cutting-edge image stabilisation technology to the next level, by including a newly Canon-developed, in-camera image stabilisation system – which works in combination with the lens stabilisation system • With content delivery just as important as image and video capture, the EOS R5 supports the automatic transfer of image files from the device to the image.canon cloud platform • The highly anticipated EOS R5 also features dual card slots for convenience.

Nokia Launches 5G Smartphone as it Expands its Portfolio HMD Global, the home of Nokia phones, has announced three new Nokia smartphones, a new member of the Originals family and its brand-new hassle-free data roaming service. The Nokia 8.3 5G is the first 5G Nokia smartphone added to the portfolio and is joined by the brand-new Nokia 5.3 and Nokia 1.3, as well as the latest addition to the Originals family, the Nokia 5310. Sticking with firsts, HMD Global also enters a brand-new service category with HMD Connect global data roaming, its innovative and hassle-free service that keeps you connected to the things that matter most. Alongside the four new devices and brandnew roaming service, HMD Global grows its footprint announcing expansion into Brazil this year. Also, to celebrate the phone partnership with the 25th Bond movie, in cinemas in November, fans can now get their hands on an exclusive 007 branded special edition Kevlar Case for the Nokia 6.2 and Nokia 7.2. Speaking about the new launches, Florian Seiche, Chief Executive Officer, HMD Global, said, “I am incredibly proud of the innovations we have introduced today that build on our unique commitment to ensuring the Nokia smartphone experience will only get better over time. Today we are kicking off a new chapter for HMD Global as we step into 5G with a truly global, future-proof smartphone. Combined with the launch of HMD Connect, we are creating a truly seamless experience in terms of connectivity.” Juho Sarvikas, the Chief Product Officer at HMD Global, said, “We take great pride in working with our partners to deliver unique devices. That’s why we’re excited

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to announce a number of firsts with this launch. With the help of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G Modular Platform, we’ve created a truly global 5G Nokia smartphone that’s designed with cost, usability, and future-proofing in mind. Not only does the Qualcomm 5G solution enable to us condense more than 40 different radio frequency (RF) components in a single module, the Nokia 8.3 5G also features the highest number of 5G New Radio bands from 600hmz all the way up to 3.8GHz – meaning it is a truly global and future-proof device.” The Nokia 8.3 5G will be available in the Middle East from September and comes in Polar Night for a global average retail price of $699 for an 8GB/128GB RAM/ ROM storage option. The Nokia 5.3 will be available in the Middle East from April and comes in Cyan, Sand, and Charcoal with the 4GB/64GB RAM/ROM configuration priced at a global average retail price of $199. The Nokia 1.3 will be available globally starting in April and comes in Cyan, Sand, and Charcoal with a global average retail price of just $99. The Nokia 5310 will be available in White/Red and Black/Red, starting in April 2020 at a global average retail price of $42. HMD Connect BETA launches now through HMDConnect.com with a Starter Kit including the SIM card, up to 1GB of roaming data, taxes and shipping at the price of $21. The 14-day global data roaming plan starts from $11, with plan upgrades starting from $6. The 007 branded special edition Kevlar Case will be available globally at the end of March at $21 for the Nokia 7.2 and Nokia 6.2

Conference, Collaborate, Click! Discover the new

ClickShare Conference Let the new ClickShare Conference transform your remote meetings. Gone are the frictions when you host a conference from your laptop, or the struggle trying to use cameras and other meeting room equipment. Simply launch the ClickShare Collaboration App or plug in the ClickShare Wireless Conferencing Button. In less than 7 seconds you are ready to go.

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