Arabian Reseller - January 2021

JANUARY 2021

Volume 3 | Issue 1

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www.arabianreseller.com

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WHAT WILL THIS YEAR

BRING ALONG? INTERVIEWS | EXPERT VIEWS | MARKET TALK | AND MORE

Data Center DC1000M U.2 NVMe SSD Enterprise-class U.2 NVMe PCIe SSD Gen 3.0 x4 SSD High performance over 3GB/s Predictable low latency and high I/O consistency On-board power loss protection (PLP)

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OUTLOOK 2021 25. Sharaf DG Business Looks at Expanding its Reach in the Retail Segment 27. 2020 Saw Innovations in Both Security and Networking

CONTENTS

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31. EdTech Will Continue to Enhance Education Techniques 32. BIGO Live to Focus on Gaming and E-Commerce Empowered by Livestreaming This Year

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33. Technology Trends Continue to Take Off at Speed 34. Will 2021 be a Better Year for the Channel Than 2020?

35. Be Optimistic and Believe That This Year Will be Better

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36. Success Goes Hand in Hand with Achievements of Customers 37. 2021 Will Be the Digital Transformation Year

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38. Backlog is Healthy and New Opportunities Under Pursuit 39. Value-Conscious Approach to Remain Financially Viable

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News 06. Fortinet Extends Availability of Free Self-Paced NSE Cybersecurity Training Courses 07. BenQ’s Latest Blended Education Solutions Ensure Quality and Healthy Learning 10. Etisalat Digital Teams Up With Vectramind to Offer a Unified Patient Experience Platform Solution

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12. Trackimo to Establish Local Presence in the UAE 16. VMRay and EliteVAD Sign Distribution Agreement

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17. Toshiba Gulf Signs Up Redington for Regional Distribution

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Editorial JANUARY 2021 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Chris N. Fernando chris@ryshamedia.com SALES AND MARKETING

Ranbir Sen ranbir@ryshamedia.com ASSISTANT EDITOR

Edward Frank edward@ryshamedia.com

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Chris Fernando

2021: The Road Ahead!

Following an unparalleled 12 months, we enter 2021 with some light at the end of the tunnel. The arrival of vaccines will hopefully mean a swift reopening of economies.

According to economists and industry experts, the economic rebound though is unlikely to arrive prior to the second half of the year. Overall, experts believe an end to the pandemic will contribute to a brighter future.

However, the fact is that total economic activity will gradually recover throughout this year, with more substantial improvements seen toward the end of 2021.

Rising manufacturing localization, changes in taxation, a varying pace of tourism sector recovery, and continued divergences between sectors in terms of their performance will continue to shape the business environment in the MENA region.

Beyond demand-growth dynamics, firms will need to integrate changes in their operating environment into 2021 plans.

Cover Illustration by Ranbir Sen

Businesses will need to align on key assumptions driving their budget numbers for 2021, integrating key market risks ahead for the business.

Transformative changes accelerated in 2020, leaving no doubt about the critical importance of digital operations.

And digital transformation of businesses and companies will only grow this year.

One thing is certain though - the need for flexibility by channel firms has never been greater as customers work their way through uncertain times.

This month, Arabian Reseller focuses on Outlook 2021 as the cover story. We spoke to and interviewed industry experts to understand the key challenges faced in 2020, business tactics that worked last year, the opportunities for 2021 and the way forward for the industry and market as a whole.

We hope you enjoy reading the magazine and here's wishing everyone a fruitful and healthy 2021.

COPY EDITOR

Priyan Sampath priyan@ryshamedia.com SENIOR WRITER

Nisha Seth info@ryshamedia.com WRITER

Vishal Jagani info@ryshamedia.com GRAPHICS DESIGNER

John Christy info@ryshamedia.com

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Prarthana Mary prarthana@ryshamedia.com DIGITAL TEAM

Context Media LLP, Chennai, India. info@contextgroup.net 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, UAE. sales@ryshamedia.com www.ryshamedia.com ALL RIGHT RESERVED 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 @2021

NEWS //

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

SentinelOne Releases Free SUNBURST Identification Tool SentinelOne has released a free SUNBURST identification tool to help enterprises determine attack readiness. The opensource assessment tool allows users to identify if the SUNBURST malware variant at the heart of the SolarWinds attack campaign would have infected their devices.

Fortinet Extends Availability of Free Self-Paced NSE Cybersecurity Training Courses Fortinet has announced that all selfpaced advanced security training courses will remain free beyond 2021.

Fortinet is committed to developing a diverse cybersecurity workforce by continuing to offer free security training for anyone around the world.

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Rob Rashotte, Vice President, Global Training and Technical Field Enablement at Fortinet said, “With over 800,000 registrations for our free training offerings in 2020, it has become clear that Fortinet’s NSE training is fulfilling a huge need for all levels of security professionals. As such we are committed to continue offering the entire catalogue of self-paced Network Security Expert training at no cost until we see the skills gap trend reverse. Together with our ecosystem of academic and commercial training providers as well as government and NGO partnerships, we will continue to provide the industry with a diverse, equitable and inclusive pipeline of security professionals."

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Fortinet’s free training initiative provides learners with the following: •

Access to more than 30 free security courses: These courses are on topics ranging from secure SD-WAN to operational technology (OT) security to cloud security with more courses expected to be added throughout the year. Additionally, pre-recorded lab demos by cybersecurity experts are available for on-demand viewing.

Preparation for NSE Certification exams: Most of the free courses are from the official curriculum for the Fortinet NSE Certification Program. Fortinet’s Certification Program is an eight-level program that has issued more than half a million certifications.

Continuing professional credits: Through a partnership with (ISC)2, individuals can use their free training completion – as well as any NSE training course – to gain Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits for CISSP and other (ISC)2 designations. Learners earn one credit for every hour of NSE Training Institute training they do with Fortinet.

As the pandemic led to the exponential increase of teleworkers, the need for securing remote networks and users became a top priority for organizations. IT teams already challenged with finding security professionals due to the skills gap were faced with an even greater need for expertise to securely transition to a remote workforce. One way Fortinet responded to this need was by opening its entire Network Security Expert (NSE) Training Institute catalogue of self-paced courses free of charge in April 2020.

In doing so, Fortinet provided IT and security professionals the opportunity to learn new skills, reskill or upskill their security knowledge. Since opening these courses to the public, there have been more than 800,000 registrations.

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The SUNBURST attack highlights the risks and realities of a supply-chain attack. Multiple third-party researchers report the cybersecurity products deployed in impacted enterprises. SentinelOne’s free utility tool helps enterprises of all sizes determine their readiness with their existing product set and team by helping any SolarWinds Orion customer determine impact retroactively. The tool also helps non-SolarWinds Orion customers determine if their endpoint vendor would have stopped this high-impact nation-state attack.

The release of SentinelOne’s SUNBURST tool follows SentinelOne’s confirmation that all of its customers are protected from SUNBURST, without requiring any updates to the SentinelOne XDR platform. The free tool is designed to identify processes, services, and drivers that SUNBURST attempts to identify on the victim’s machine and provide definitive evidence if a device would have been impacted.

“The sophistication and scale of the SolarWinds attack campaign present a level of cyber risk that is rarely seen,” said Brian Hussey, VP of Cyber Threat Response, SentinelOne. “Many traditional antivirus and next-gen solutions lack native anti-tampering functionality and were disabled by SUNBURST prior to product updates being made, leaving thousands of organizations exposed.

SentinelOne’s autonomous AI and robust anti-tampering capabilities have secured all of our customers against the attack.

In addition to continually monitoring and testing the latest SUNBURST variants to ensure our customers remain protected, our SUNBURST tool allows the community-at-large to easily measure their security tools’ effectiveness against SUNBURST activity and mitigate subsequent risk.”

Kaspersky Finds that 32% of UAE Employees Enjoy Working Outdoors People working from home during the pandemic have discovered some novelties that they would now like to keep, according to new global research commissioned by Kaspersky, which studied the behaviors of 8,000 SMB workers. Novelties favored by employees in the United Arab Emirates include weekday lie-ins (35%), binge-watching Netflix (33%) and working outside in the garden or on a balcony (32%).

As our working environment during the global pandemic shifted from secure offices to kitchen tables, we met many difficulties balancing work and private lives. According to the World Economic Forum, employees working remotely this year faced mental health and wellbeing challenges, such as childcare pressures and digital connectivity. Nevertheless, some office staff who switched to working remotely savored this experience and discovered some habits they now want to retain.

The majority of respondents benefitted from simply working in comfortable clothes: 48% got used to this lifestyle and would like to make it the norm in the future. Saying goodbye to long commutes also made employees happier as they could wake up shortly before work started, while many also enjoyed taking a nap during the day (32%).

Continuing to discover the perks of the new normal, 32% of people enjoy working outside in the garden or on a balcony, and 33% even manage to binge-watch Netflix at work.

Other treats favoured by employees include more time for video games(21%) and takeaway lunches (29%).

Marina Titova, Head of Consumer Product Marketing at Kaspersky, said: “This lockdown turned out to be a two-way street for people whose job allows them to work from home. On the one hand, employees finally got a chance to forget about the downsides of big-city life and start working in a more comfortable atmosphere. On the other hand, they faced many challenges when struggling to remain productive, reorganizing their workspace and developing new habits.

When you work from home your privacy is put at greater risk, making it vital that you remember to take care of your digital security.”

BenQ’s Latest Blended Education Solutions Ensure Quality and Healthy Learning BenQ has recently announced its K-12 Blended Education Solution that helps teachers, in-class students, and remote students to share the continuity of the education environment without worrying about loss of progression. The solution integrates three of BenQ’s advanced offerings – ClassroomCare Interactive Flat Panel, Smart Projector, and Eye-Care Monitor.

With COVID-19 having impacted education systems dramatically, returning to school safely, prioritizing local health conditions, and building a capacity for hybrid learning approaches are now essential school reopening measures. Whilst some education institutes started to implement blended learning methods to reduce the number of face-to-face students, there seemed to be a growing inefficiency amongst teachers to track students’ learning progress and maintain teaching equality when children are learning from home.

“Teachers have undergone rapid transformation and learning in the past few months. Even though the demand for digitalization has amplified, teachers have been facing challenges in ensuring that remote students receive a quality education and are able to interact with in-class classmates, and also in taking care of online and in-class students simultaneously,” said Manish Bakshi, of BenQ Middle East. “BenQ’s latest solution for blended learning combines our flagship three offerings, Interactive Flat Panel, Smart Projector, Eye-Care Monitor along with video conferencing, and cloud collaboration tools. These products

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have been designed keeping in mind the health, collaborations, and education equality to facilitate teachers and remote students. They help to make learning more interactive in real-time, enhancing the quality of remote learning considerably,” he added.

The Blended Education solution comprises of BenQ’s future-proofed display combinations adaptable to different types of classrooms, which include: •

•

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Dual screen classrooms: With a webcam connected, the classroom places BenQ’s ClassroomCare Interactive Flat Panel as the main display for teaching, and a Smart Projector as the second display for online teacher and students’ interactions with remote classmates. Educators are able to share and collaborate materials with the in-class interactive whiteboard solution “EZWrite Live” and web-based whiteboarding app through video conferencing.

Small-sized classrooms: Select the world’s first Smart Projector for Classroom and connect with a webcam. It has built-in internet connectivity and a web browser, enabling videoconferencing and wireless sharing of teaching materials from their mobile devices, tablets, or notebooks.

Eye-Care Monitors for Remote Students: For remote students learning from home, the Eye-Care Monitor with auto light detection and height-adjustable stand ensures students learn in a healthy viewing experience.

NEWS //

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

Entrust nShield HSMs Deliver Enhanced Security to Mirantis Kubernetes Engine

CyberKnight Books Over $10 Million in its First Year CyberKnight has announced its financial results for 2020 which ended on December 31st, 2020. This exceptional performance for a new company was observed during one of the most challenging periods in human history. Despite COVID-19’s unprecedented global impact, in its first year of operation, CyberKnight achieved more than $10 Million in revenue bookings and is on track for exponential growth in 2021.

“During Dubai’s real estate boom in the 2000s, there was a billboard which stated: It takes generations to build a world-class city; we did it in less than one. Deriving inspiration from these wise words, while being headquartered in the same city, we observed other value-added-distributors (VADs) take up to ten years to reach $10 Million; we are privileged to have been able to do it in one. Although our competitors tried hard to slow us down, we went from startup to scale-up in 2020!” said Avinash Advani, Founder & CEO at CyberKnight.

Advani continued, “We are extremely proud and grateful for this phenomenal achievement, but the credit goes to our high-caliber team, who were emulating our market-leading vendors to support our loyal Strategic Partners, as they advised Middle East customers. CyberKnight’s people worked diligently and efficiently over the course of the year, even during the lockdown working from home. The

team demonstrated resilience, commitment, and passion while wearing multiple hats in our dynamic startup environment.”

“There was nothing easy about operating a new business in 2020. With the uncertainty created by COVID-19, we struggled to achieve monthly and quarterly linearity, which made forecasting difficult. Although we had set higher targets for ourselves before the pandemic struck, we, unfortunately, realized that they were stretched goals as markets were devastated in Q2 and Q3,” added Vivek Gupta, Co-Founder & COO at CyberKnight.

Gupta concluded, “That being said, by year-end, CyberKnight managed to attain remarkable results for 2020, which can be attributed to various factors. Firstly, instead of spreading ourselves too thin like other VADs have done, we had a razor-sharp focus on cybersecurity with the right number of best-of-breed vendors to tell a Zero Trust Security story. We also rapidly expanded across the Middle East region, deploying vendor-grade teams in all key markets including the establishment of a local entity in Saudi Arabia. With our unique business model, we endeavored to add maximum value by empowering our Strategic Partners, instead of bypassing them like the competitors. This enabled us to become an extension of our vendors on-the-ground and remain a Trusted Advisor to enterprise and government customers across the region.”

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Entrust, a leading provider of trusted identities, payments and data protection, has announced its new partnership with Mirantis and the certification of its nShield hardware security modules (HSMs) with the Mirantis Kubernetes Engine. Entrust nShield HSMs become the first Mirantis-certified HSMs in the market to deliver enhanced security to the Mirantis Kubernetes Engine. The new certified integration provides a root of trust, enabling developers to add the robust cryptographic services offered by nShield HSMs to containerised applications.

The Mirantis Kubernetes Engine is a container platform for accelerating the development and delivery of modern applications. The platform provides developers with greater choice, simple onboarding and automation across DevOps, and a secure pipeline to Kubernetes environments that can run anywhere.

On-premises nShield or nShield as a Service HSMs, running the nShield Container Option Pack, now integrates with Mirantis Kubernetes Engine. Entrust nShield HSMs provide a FIPS 140-2 Level 3 and Common Criteria EAL4+ high assurance environment for generating the cryptographic keys used to sign, verify, and encrypt sensitive data for the Mirantis Kubernetes Engine. Application developers now can access cryptographic functionality – including enhanced key generation, signing, and encryption – within the container-based environment, protecting sensitive application data and transactions.

“Rapid application development processes must go hand-in-hand with robust cryptography to maintain security in any development environment,” said Juan Asenjo, Director of Product, Solutions and Partner Marketing at Entrust. “Integrating nShield HSMs with the Mirantis Kubernetes Engine makes it easier for developers to put security and trust at the foundation of containerized application development.”

NEWS //

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

Spectrami to Offer CipherTrace’s Cryptocurrency Intelligence Solutions Spectrami has partnered with CipherTrace to offer the company’s cryptocurrency intelligence solutions for anti-money laundering, financial investigations, and virtual asset risk mitigations for banks and other financial institutions throughout the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey. The partnership with CipherTrace will allow the company to expand its product portfolio to include blockchain analysis, cryptocurrency investigation, and AML tools such as CipherTrace Armada and CipherTrace Inspector.

Etisalat Digital Teams Up With Vectramind to Offer a Unified Patient Experience Platform Solution Etisalat Digital has announced that it has partnered with Vectramind, global healthcare, and communications technology firm, to offer the Firstpass platform to its customers in the region. This is the first time that Etisalat Digital Healthcare will be positioning this solution under its portfolio.

At last year’s GITEX Technology Week, Etisalat Digital hosted Firstpass, a unified patient experience platform for hospitals that helps bring about better insights to customers on their hospital operations, improve patient experience, do better capacity planning, and reduce no-shows to appointments. The solution will be offered to hospitals in the region, starting with the UAE and then expanding to Saudi Arabia and other jurisdictions.

Powered by Artificial Intelligence and machine learning algorithms, Firstpass anticipates patient inflows and wait times at every touchpoint and intelligently reroutes patients, streamlining the processes to optimise every moving part in the patient journey. Firstpass allows patients to have instant access to answers through 24/7 chatbots and a personalised information portal. In addition, it keeps patients in the loop with any scheduling shifts or updates via real-time communications and notifications.

Salvador Anglada, Group Chief Business Officer, Etisalat, said: “Etisalat is pleased to partner with Vectramind to offer the Firstpass solution in the region, starting with the UAE and later expanding to Saudi Arabia and other jurisdictions. At Etisalat, we aim to improve people’s lives by use of digital health technologies. We have developed a comprehensive set of healthcare solutions to support the UAE national agenda to achieve a world-class healthcare system that is aligned with Etisalat’s strategy of ‘Driving the Digital Future to Empower Societies’.”

Dr. Murali Krishna Vakalapudi, Founder and CEO of Vectramind, said: “Vectramind aims to optimise the 4 Ps, namely patient, people, provider, and productivity, with our flagship product Firstpass, and we are happy to team up with Etisalat Digital Healthcare team and offer this to their clients. This new relationship will bring to all of Etisalat’s clients a tool for enhancing patient experience and productivity across the care continuum.”

Under the terms of the MoU, Etisalat and Vectramind will collaborate and discuss opportunities that may be jointly pursued in the areas of patient experience and the Firstpass product.

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CipherTrace Armada delivers deep insights into a bank’s money laundering risks from virtual asset service providers (VASPs).

Armada supports banks and financial institutions in achieving AML compliance by providing critical visibility into risky cryptocurrency blind spots so know your customer (KYC) processes can detect and perform due diligence on virtual asset service providers (VASPs). The CipherTrace Inspector financial investigations solution can be used to further identify risky attributes of crypto addresses and wallets.

Commenting on the partnership, the CEO for Spectrami, Anand Choudha said, “With the growth in digital transactions and the increased use of cryptocurrency, there is also an increase in fraud. This is where CipherTrace helps banks, exchange houses, digital payment platforms and other financial companies to protect their customer’s transactions and also provide visibility and security so that they are free from the risks.”

CipherTrace CEO Dave Jevans remarked, “As cryptocurrencies become increasingly accessible, more bad actors are using bitcoin and other virtual assets to launder money, commit fraud, and deploy in ransomware and phishing attacks. It is paramount for banks and other financial institutions to gain visibility into their payment networks to ensure they are complying with all AML and CTF regulations. We are pleased to be able to support Spectrami, one of the most highly-reputed cybersecurity providers in the Middle East region, with the tools their clients need to identify suspicious transactions and achieve compliance.”

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NEWS //

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

Trackimo to Establish Local Presence in the UAE

Nokia and Zain KSA Smarten Up Saudi Homes and Offices with 5G-Powered FWA and Wi-Fi 6 Nokia has announced an expansion of its strategic 5G partnership with Zain KSA to rollout 60,000 FastMile 5G Gateway 3.1 with eSIM across Saudi Arabia over the next 12 months. The gateways will deliver stronger signal, better connectivity and ultra-high data speeds to every corner of homes and offices in the Kingdom. The move allows Zain KSA to support smart home and office adoption in the country with enhanced connectivity for smart devices through 5G and Wi-Fi 6, which altogether guarantees an improved customer experience.

Nokia FastMile 5G gateways take advantage of the company’s self-optimizing mesh Wi-Fi 6 solution for real time Wi-Fi performance optimization.

The gateways ensure a much quicker and easier account setup by using the latest eSIM technology that allows users to avoid the process of acquiring and installing a physical SIM card. This deployment is the first time eSIM has been used in a 5G fixed wireless access solution.

Eng. AbdulRahman bin Hamad AlMufadda, Chief Technology Officer at Zain KSA, said:“Rolling out our new 5G fixed wireless access routers comes in line with our digital transformation and 5G expansion strategy reiterating our role in serving the Kingdom’s society. Our mission from the start was to strengthen the 5G experience in the Kingdom into two levels: horizontally, concerned with spreading the 5G network across the largest possible geographical scale.

Vertically, through 5G fixed wireless access solutions to enable homes and offices with the best and most reliable broadband experience available. In alignment with Saudi Vision 2030 we will continue to invest further to enable the digital sector and the national digital transformation namely through: cloud computing, IoT, and AI; while simultaneously aiming to become the digital service provider of choice in the Kingdom.”

He added, “We are delighted to launch the 5G fixed wireless access devices, to ensure that homes and businesses can enjoy the fastest and most reliable broadband experience. As such, Zain KSA becomes the pioneering operator in the latest generation of telco services to deploy Nokia FastMile 5G Gateways which is another milestone added in our reliable and secure 5G network to revolutionize the way people live and work.”

Sandra Motley, President of Fixed Networks Division at Nokia, said: “We are happy to support Zain KSA connect more people, and revolutionize the way people live and work in the Kingdom.

Zain KSA is joining the leading operators around the world, in providing the 5G fixed wireless access to deliver a gigabit experience to consumers and businesses alike. The combination of FastMile 5G Gateways and self-optimizing mesh Wi-Fi 6 technology means that Zain KSA is delivering a new and unmatched 5G experience to everyone, at every corner in homes and offices.”

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Trackimo, an American IoT solution provider that develops the world’s most compact and cost-effective tracking devices are in the midst of expanding their operations in the region after successful Gitex participation. Trackimo works with global mobile operators such as Verizon, Vodafone, Telcel, among several others that have already rolled-out Trackimo’s personal safety and asset tracking products for their customers. The company plans to build similar relationships with Etisalat, Du, Batelco, and other operators in the region and replicate its international business model.

The company specializes in developing trackers that work seamlessly indoors and outdoors, over a worldwide cloud-IoT system. Trackimo’s smart GPS (Global Positioning System), GSM, Wi-Fi trackers are purposed for personal, professional, industrial, and commercial use. The most successful Trackimo consumer IoT product launched recently was the Vodafone Curve Tracker, which was recognized by the Financial Times as ‘the best tracker ever’.

Shai Bar-lavi, CEO, Trackimo, said, “We had a very successful GITEX and we would like to thank and really appreciate the efforts of the organizers for putting up such a flawless trade-show during this global pandemic. The trade visitors that we received at our booth were serious investors and buyers and as a result enabled us to connect with several potential distributors and partners from not only the Middle East but also the African region. We are currently evaluating the distributors and very soon will be establishing our footprint in Dubai, which will serve as our Middle Eastern headquarters."

From monitoring the safety of loved ones to tracking expensive professional gear to industrial and commercial integrations, Trackimo addresses a broad spectrum of tracking and monitoring needs. Tracking people, pets, luggage, shipments, drones, motorcycles, boats, cars, or remote-controlled objects, and many other sectors can immensely benefit from Trackimo’s seamless tracking technology.

Digital Transformation Pressures Drive Big Spike in Global Microservices Adoption The sixth annual survey of NGINX’s extensive open-source user community found that the proportion of applications being built with microservices jumped from 40% to 60% in the past year. At the same time, more than 50% of the 600 respondents indicated that they were using microservices in some or all apps.

The survey also revealed that containers are twice as popular as other modern application technologies. Moreover, 34% of respondents said that they were using containers in their production environment, compared to serverless (15%) and service discovery (7%). NGINX’s research resonates with Gartner’s recent prediction that 75% of global organizations will be running containerized applications in production environments by 2022, up from less than 30% today.

“We’re seeing a big shift from monolithic to microservices‑based apps. More than ever before, organisations are looking to build platforms with greater resilience and faster deployment capabilities.

Without question, there’s a growing confidence worldwide that microservices‑based apps can help improve the user experience, which is an increasingly critical success factor for all organisations,” said Dor Zakai, EMEA Senior Director for Solutions Engineering, NGINX at F5.

A further indication of this shift is that 14% of respondents plan to embrace service meshes in the next year, a 50% jump from the number currently doing so. As it stands, public cloud remains the most popular infrastructure option for modern app tools (55% of respondents), followed

by Infrastructure-as-a-Service (23%), serverless computing (13%) and private Platform-as-a-Service (11%). Organisations are also steadily moving away from on-premises load balancers, with 24% now using software-based load balancers and 19% sticking with hardware. NGINX’s community survey responses indicate that the latter is set to drop to 15% in the next year.

Lenovo Data Center Group Delivers New Data Management Solutions Lenovo Data Center Group (DCG) recently announced new end-to-end data management solutions allowing customers of all sizes to harness data more securely and efficiently, from edge to core to cloud, with a single set of tools and capabilities for a smarter way forward. “Customers continue to face challenges implementing a cohesive data management system to analyze and process data more efficiently,” said Stuart McRae, Executive Director and General Manager, Storage, Lenovo Data Center Group. “Lenovo’s unique state-ofthe-art data management architecture, in combination with the industry’s most reliable2 ThinkSystem servers, enables customers to accelerate Analytics and AI within a single platform.”

The new Lenovo ThinkSystem DM5100F brings high-performance, low-latency allNVMe storage at an affordable price point, enabling customers of all sizes to enhance analytics and AI deployments, while accelerating applications’ access to data. The Lenovo DM Series storage systems now include new S3 Object support, to create a next generation unified data management platform. This platform allows customers to manage and analyze all data types (block, file and object) within a single storage platform, accelerating the processing of data analytics while reducing infrastructure costs. These enhancements create expanded data protection capabilities, with transparent failover and management of object storage natively.

Additionally, with Lenovo DM Series storage, customers can add cold-data tiering from hard drives to the cloud, or replicate

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data to the cloud. This enables an economical multi-cloud strategy for storage, reducing the overall cost of data management. In the UAE, the government is investing heavily in the latest AI technologies and tools to advance efficiency, agility, and government performance by 2031. The nation launched the Building a Responsible AI Nation (B.R.A.I.N) initiative, which leverages AI with the aim of enhancing services, insights and analytics, and national security.

“Data-driven decision-making is a key tool that can help enterprises fuel progress and advance their overall operations” said Dr Chris Cooper, Director and General Manager, Lenovo Data Centre Group MEA. “By leveraging Lenovo’s unified hybrid cloud data management system, customers can gain insights, crucial information and AI-backed predictions to enhance their services and maintain their growth on an upward trajectory."

Jolera, a multinational service provider, recently worked with Lenovo to build out its back-end IT infrastructure. Jolera chose Lenovo DM Series and DE Series to build out its new offering, in combination with Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 servers connected to storage arrays. “One of our first achievements was boosting the deduplication ratio of our storage solution from 3:1 to 4:1 by simply using the built-in tools in ThinkSystem,” said José Martins, Vice President, European Sales and Operations at Jolera Inc. “Without question, this improvement will help us contain our storage spend, and we will continue to optimize our data center with tools and guidance from Lenovo.”

NEWS //

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

EU Countries Amass €171 Million in GDPR Fines in 2020 Data acquired from the GDPR Fines 2020 Report by Finbold.com indicates that a total of €171.3 million fines have been issued against European countries in 2020 alone. The fines were issued between January 1st, 2020, and January 1st, 2021.

Ooredoo Group and Ericsson Sign Five-Year, Strategic 5G Agreement Ooredoo Group and Ericsson have signed a global frame agreement for the supply of 5G radio, core and transport products and solutions, as well as related implementation and integration services for all 10 of the Group’s operating companies in Qatar, Indonesia, Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Palestine, Tunisia, Myanmar and Maldives.

The agreement covers Ericsson Radio System, including MINI-LINK 6000 products that are capable of the 10 Gbps, Ericsson Cloud Core, Cloud Infrastructure and Ericsson Cloud Communication solutions. This will enable end-to-end 5G support to digitally transform and modernize Ooredoo’s existing mobile networks across its operating companies. These solution will also significantly shorten time-to-market for new services and improve Ooredoo's network performance to meet the growing expectations of consumers and enterprises.

Ericsson Radio System is already deployed and live in several of Ooredoo’s operating companies. In Ooredoo Qatar’s network, Ericsson Radio System, using the 4G+5G Ericsson Spectrum Sharing solution, has facilitated a fast nationwide 5G coverage.

Furthermore, in preparation of Ooredoo Qatar’s network to host multiple global sporting events, Ericsson is deploying its latest 5G mid-band Massive MIMO radios to create a unique digital experience for millions of sports fans in the stadiums, at home, or on-the-go.

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulla Al Thani, Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer, Ooredoo Group says: “Today’s agreement represents another step in the longstand-

ing and successful partnership between Ericsson and Ooredoo, which enables our company to continue network expansion, enhancement and digital transformation.

Ericsson is bringing state-of-the-art global technologies to the countries we operate in, which enables us to provide the latest digital solutions for communities to enjoy the best of the internet, including connecting the most remote areas, supporting start-ups digitally and providing immersive experiences for sports fans at upcoming mega-sporting events."

With a turnkey responsibility, Ericsson will deliver a comprehensive portfolio of telecom services. Under the agreement, Ericsson will provide hardware and software expansions of the core network, radio network and transmission network, as well as enhanced mobile multimedia functionality for new service offerings.

Fredrik Jejdling, Executive Vice President and Head of Business Area Networks, at Ericsson says: “5G as a platform for innovation will speed up Ooredoo’s journey towards digital transformation. It will fuel new use cases that cater to evolving consumer and enterprise demands. It is with great pride that we strengthen our collaboration as we continue supporting Ooredoo’s ambition of delivering high-performing networks and superior user experience."

Ericsson's expertise in network design, deployment and integration as well as software upgrades will support Ooredoo’s transition to advanced multimedia services.

Under the agreement, Ericsson will also provide support and maintenance services.

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The GDPR Fines 2020 Report reveals that Italy accounts for the highest fines at €58.16 million of the total fines from 34 violations. The United Kingdom ranks second with €43.9 million in fines from only three violations. The two countries cumulatively account for 59.5% of all the EU GDPR fines. Germany is third at €37.39 million from three major violations.

Sweden’s 15 violations attracted €14.27 million in fines, while Spain closes the top five categories with €8 million in fines arising from 128 incidents. In 2020, a total of 299 fines were registered in the EU. On specific incidents, Germany’s H&M Hennes & Mauritz online Shop AB & Co. KG was fined €35,25 million for data protection violation. This is the biggest single fine on a specific data breach incident in 2020. Italy’s TIM, a telecommunication operator, received the second-highest fines at €27,8 million. British Airways is third after amassing fines of €22,04 million.

The fine comes after over two years since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was implemented in the EU and EEA back in May 25, 2018. Finbold.com chief editor Oliver Scott commented, “Despite campaigns to have organizations enact better measures to protect consumer data, the violations recorded across the EU remain significant with the law coming into place in 2018. It will be interesting to see if organizations will take up extra responsibility to prevent breaches in 2021. However, stakes remain high for companies to avoid risking regulatory action for breaches and protecting reputation alongside legal actions.”

Hytera PoC Solutions Enhance Safety and Protection for Private Security Industry Hytera PoC solutions are designed to help the private security industry ensure the safety and security of buildings, valuables and people by patrolling, securing and monitoring premises, guarding cash or other valuables in transit, and protecting VIPs. Safety is the top priority. Security guards must react quickly to threats and perform their jobs effectively without compromising the safety of property or personnel. Therefore, instant and efficient communication is essential.

Many security guards work at fixed locations such as transport hubs, power stations, offices, education centers, hospitals, shopping malls, retail stores and residential buildings. For these security guards, dedicated Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) networks or Push-to-Talk over Cellular (PoC) solutions provide reliable, instant group communications to ensure a rapid response to any threat.

For organizations with limited budgets that cannot always afford to deploy a dedicated PMR network, PoC solutions provide a cost-effective alternative without the need to invest in any network infrastructure, for this is already provided by mobile network operators. To ensure the safety of the working environment, it is often necessary to real-time monitor and record the on-site situation.

However, fixed CCTV coverage often has blind areas, so mobile surveillance patrols by security guards are needed to fill the gaps.

PoC radios and body-worn cameras can capture what happened during an incident and provide video and audio evidence afterwards. For security guards working in mobile roles such as the close protection of VIPs or the transportation of valuables, the main difficulty is ensuring reliable, instant communications with team members and the office while in transit.

PoC overcomes this problem by providing wide area coverage and seamless group communications over 3G/4G. PoC also provides dispatchers with greater situational awareness in emergencies, for 4G supports video streaming from the scene of the incident.

Accelerated Digitalization Among Key Trends to Unlock up to $2.6 Trillion in Oil and Gas Sector DHL Global Forwarding has released a whitepaper examining the key trends impacting the oil and gas (O&G) industry in the Middle East and Africa. According to the leading air, ocean and road freight specialist, digitalization will continue to play a significant role in transforming the industry, potentially unlocking $1.6 trillion to $2.6 trillion by 2025. This is achieved as companies leverage digitalization to improve margins, safety standards, as well as reduce emissions and water consumption.

The whitepaper predicts that owing to pandemic-induced slowdowns in travel, global oil demand will not reach pre-COVID-19 levels before the end of 2021. O&G companies in the Middle East and Africa region (MEA) need to take bold decisions to quickly reposition themselves, including redefining partnerships across the supply value chain, building resilience and going digital. For example, drones and autonomous robots can potentially reduce drilling and completion costs by 20% in deep-water areas and 25% in inspection and maintenance of assets.

Amadou Diallo, CEO, DHL Global Forwarding Middle East and Africa, who is also Executive Sponsor for the oil and energy sector at Deutsche Post DHL (DPDHL) Group commented, “The energy sector is grappling with multiple challenges due to the pandemic but it is not all doom and gloom however. Whilst it is more critical than ever to ensure the smooth completion of projects, it is equally pertinent that energy companies leverage technology to offer smarter, simplified and greener solutions. To that end, DHL has implemented best-in-class logistics solutions for leading energy companies, such as TOTAL, to collectively tackle technological,

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digital and climate challenges.”

The DHL whitepaper notes that increased investment in downstream projects will generate more value per barrel of oil through production of value-added specialty chemicals and plastics. Over half of the global oil demand growth by 2025 is expected to come from the petrochemical industry – and this is evident in the region where national oil companies are already partnering with key players across key demand markets; for instance Saudi Aramco’s non-binding deal for 20% stake in Reliance’s crude oil-to-chemical (COTC) operations.

The whitepaper also highlights an accelerated transition towards a green economy.

In 2019, 72% of all new electricity generation globally came from renewable energy sources, and the industry expects that nearly half (45%) of the global energy demand growth until 2030 would be sourced from renewable energy. Keeping with the global shift to low-carbon energy, O&G companies are transforming from volume to value business models. Policy makers globally are also shifting gears toward decarbonizing the economy.

Diallo concluded, “To stay relevant in a dynamic market, energy companies have to adapt and embrace new business models, which will allow them not only to participate but also to lead the global transition towards green energy. At DHL, we continue to work closely with our customers to optimize their complex supply chains and manage logistics costs better, so energy companies can focus on their core activities.”

CHANNEL TALK //

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

Canon Middle East Holds its Annual Partners’ Conference 2020 Virtually Under the banner of “New World, New Heights”, Canon Middle East held its annual Partners’ Conference 2020 virtually, demonstrating a commitment to ensuring a sustainable future in the region with innovative insights and solutions that help achieve new heights, in a new world. Despite a challenging year, Canon Middle East proceeded with its important annual partner conference virtually, demonstrating commitment to the Middle East region, ‘closer to customers’ Strategy.

VMRay and EliteVAD Sign Distribution Agreement VMRay has announced that it has signed a strategic partnership with EliteVAD, one of the largest value-added distributors in the Middle East and Africa. The new distribution agreement expands VMRay’s reach into new markets and provides EliteVAD’s channel partners with access to VMRay’s portfolio of innovative malware analysis solutions.

“When it comes to detecting and analyzing new and unknown threats, time and precision are the two critical factors that customers are looking for in a new solution”, said George Ezzat, Chairman and CEO of EliteVAD. “All organizations, regardless of their industry, are prioritizing projects that will better prepare them for the next wave of cybersecurity threats and rely on our expertise to identify the bestof-breed solutions that will help them prepare for the threats of tomorrow.”

As a value-added distributor, EliteVAD plays a great role in the growth of the regional IT economy through taking

a leading role in providing technology solutions & services by focusing on long-term relationships with vendors, channel partners, and customers.

“VMRay has created the industry’s only advanced threat detection solution that’s invisible to malware, enabling security teams to accurately and quickly identify novel malware strains and stay one step ahead of threat actors”, said Ilijana Vavan, Chief Sales Officer at VMRay. “EliteVAD is exactly the type of distributor we are looking to partner with as they not only have built an extensive network across the region, but they also possess the technical expertise to take our solutions to market.”

VMRay’s global channel partners currently include VARs and Distribution across EMEA, APAC, and the Americas that have expertise in both the Public as well as the Private Sector. VMRay partners gain access to the VMRay Platform and its suite of interconnected malware analysis and threat detection solutions.

During the event, the company connected with partners celebrating its partners for showcasing resilience, agility, and growth despite the unprecedented difficulties and events of 2020.

In addition to thanking frontlines for supporting essential sectors in the region while navigating the changes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Anurag Agrawal, Managing Director, Canon Middle East, and Turkey said, “CME is dedicated to forging ahead and rolling out its growth strategy to address both geographical gaps and emerging trends, to be closer to customers in the region and address their emerging needs while staying agile and flexible. We will focus on ‘Retaining our existing customers’, ‘Reaching new ones’ and ‘Raising the value to all customers’ to expand the business horizon. Despite the pandemic, Canon has launched various key and game-changing products in the business and consumer categories across the Middle East, coupled with expansion plans and strategic partnerships announcements” Canon strongly believes that complete cloud workspace solutions for companies looking to work from anywhere in the future are the key to the success of its products. The tremendous growth in social media and creative content creation such as vlogging will also increase demand for consumers’ products of Canon. Additionally, the company has been able to add a lot of value to its offerings with the launch of customized products for small, medium, and large enterprises this year.

ENGIE Solutions Wins Five-Year Contract to Service Gulf Data Hub ENGIE Solutions has won a five-year contract to provide operation and maintenance (O&M) services to Gulf Data Hub, a data centre located in Dubai Silicon Oasis. As per the contract, ENGIE Solutions will continue servicing Gulf Data Hub’s TIER III certified data centres in Dubai, accommodating 6,000 sq. meters of white space through integrated facility management services.

These services include technical, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing maintenance, as well as civil and specialized soft services including white space cleaning, pest control, and landscaping. Bart Holsters, General Manager UAE, ENGIE Solutions, commented, “As a company that is at the forefront of innovation, we enable clients to enhance quality standards and optimize their budgets by investing in the imple-

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mentation of new models of service delivery, new technologies, and energy efficiency opportunities to enhance user experience. As Gulf Data Hub’s longterm partner, we provide sustainable mission critical services, leveraging on big data and machine learning solutions to enable data-driven reliability, reduce down-time risks and lowering the PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness).”

Tenable Celebrates a Successful Year as deepwatch’s Preferred Partner Tenable is celebrating a successful year as deepwatch’s preferred risk-based vulnerability management partner. The strategic partnership combines Tenable’s industry-leading vulnerability management solutions with deepwatch’s innovative cloud SecOps platform and managed services to help joint customers see their systems, predict what matters and act to reduce risk, especially as they prioritize cloud computing.

Ingram Micro Launches Cyber Security Self-Assessment Tool CyberGram Ingram Micro has announced the launch of CyberGram, a Cyber Security self-assessment tool, developed in-house

by Ingram Micro to help generate Cyber Security momentum for Business Partners.

CyberGram is a user-friendly online platform providing deep insights into an organization’s Cyber Security posture.

Founded on established Cyber Security frameworks, CyberGramSM provides users with highly tailored recommendations to improve Cyber Security maturity levels end-to-end across the enterprise to help organizations enhance the value proposition of Multi-Vendor Architecture solutions. Dr. Ali Baghdadi, SVP & Chief Executive Ingram Micro META Region; and EMEA Cyber Security commented, “Ingram Micro is committed

to continuing to provide the right value support of Cyber Security solutions to business partners across the region using our in-house developed software, as well as Consultants and Solution Architects.

Our combined approach, shares to best of our people, our processes, and our technology. Supporting our partners in increasing the business value of Cyber Security solutions for their customers enables our partners to address more new business at a lower investment, and generate innovative leads.”

“Over the past year, we’ve seen a massive, global shift to the cloud and remote workforces,” said Mark Thurmond, chief operating officer, Tenable.

“We’re helping customers accelerate their cloud journeys swiftly and securely by combining our industry-leading solutions with deepwatch’s elite team of security experts.

Forward-leaning partners such as deepwatch are the bedrock

of our channel strategy and we remain deeply committed to working in lockstep with them."

“After rigorous testing and customer feedback, we determined that Tenable is the gold standard and selected them as our preferred vulnerability management partner,” said Charlie Thomas, chief executive officer, deepwatch. “Offering the only risk-based vulnerability management solution that provides a holistic view of the modern enterprise — spanning IT to OT and everything in between — Tenable has been instrumental in the strong growth of our vulnerability and risk management solution which has grown 129% over the last two years.

Together, we’re advancing the service of managed security to future-proof customers’ technology investments. We look forward to expanding our strategic partnership well into the future."

CyberGram enables users to evaluate their environment across distinct levels of Cyber Security maturity.

The tool then provides a detailed report with tailored recommendations designed to strengthen the users’ Cyber Security posture.

Toshiba Gulf Signs Up Redington for Regional Distribution Toshiba Gulf has appointed regional distributor, Redington Gulf, to handle their memory and storage solutions product portfolio for Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The distribution partnership was formalised at GITEX 2020 in a signing ceremony.

Santosh Varghese, Vice President, Toshiba Gulf FZE said, “To remain

at the forefront and position ourselves as market leaders for storage and memory solutions, we are excited to partner with Redington and are confident that in a short time, our brands will have the market footprint it deserves. We look forward to Redington Gulf’s value added services for our products."

“Our partnership with Toshiba/KIOXIA

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enables us to offer a wider choice of storage products to our partners in the region and become their preferred distributor for sourcing storage products.

As part of this agreement, Redington will ensure availability of products locally in the countries we are contracted through our robust in-country distribution capabilities and an engaged partner network,” said Jeetendra Berry, President-IT Volume Middle East, Redington Gulf.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS //

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

Nutanix Appoints Rajiv Ramaswami as Chief Executive Officer Nutanix has announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Rajiv Ramaswami as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective Wednesday, December 9, 2020, and as a member of the Board of Directors, effective Monday, December 14, 2020.

Ramaswami will succeed co-founder Dheeraj Pandey, who previously announced his plans to retire as CEO of Nutanix upon the appointment of a successor.

Commvault Gets New Vice President for Global Channel and Alliances Commvault has announced the appointment of John Tavares as Vice President, Global Channel and Alliances. In his new role, Tavares will be responsible for overseeing the growth of Commvault’s Global Partner Organization and strengthening the company’s relationships with partners worldwide. Tavares joins Commvault from Dell EMC, where he worked in a variety of sales leadership roles, first for EMC and continuing through the merger with Dell, for the last 25 years. During his tenure with Dell EMC, Tavares grew the company’s datacentre business encompassing software, hardware, and services, built a world-class sales team, and increased revenue year-over-year.

“I am excited to bring my long-standing sales expertise to Commvault and aid the company in continuing to grow its reputation for providing trusted enterprise-grade data management solutions across the global channel,“ said Tavares. “The Global Partner Organization has done some amazing things, especially

during such uncertain times this past year. I look forward to building on this momentum and creating long-lasting partnerships that will truly benefit our customers.”

With this change, Commvault’s former Vice President of the Global Partner Organization, Mercer Rowe, will be taking on the role of Area Vice President for Commvault’s business in Japan. He will be focused on growing Metallic, Commvault’s SaaS division, in the region and further strengthening Commvault’s presence in Asia Pacific.

"John is joining Commvault at the perfect time – bringing his wealth of valuable expertise to the Global Partner Organization and serving as a barometer of what we can expect in this next fiscal year,” said Riccardo Di Blasio, Chief Revenue Officer, at Commvault. “With John as the head of our GPO, working closely with our regional leadership, I am confident that our partnership opportunities will flourish, reaching new audiences and increasing productivity.”

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Ramaswami is a seasoned technology industry executive who has held senior executive roles at industry leaders including VMware, Broadcom, Cisco, and Nortel, after having begun his career at IBM. Ramaswami has an impressive, 30+ year track record of building and scaling businesses in cloud services, software, and network infrastructure. In his most recent role as Chief Operating Officer, Products and Cloud Services at VMware, Ramaswami co-managed VMware’s portfolio of products and services. During his tenure, Ramaswami led several important acquisitions and was playing a key role in transitioning VMware toward a subscription and SaaS model.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Nutanix at this transformative time for the company and the industry,” said Ramaswami. “I have long admired Nutanix as a formidable competitor, a pioneer in hyperconverged infrastructure solutions and a leader in cloud software. Working closely with the Board, the management team, and the more than 6,000 talented Nutanix employees around the world, we will build on Nutanix’s strong foundation of continuous innovation, collaboration and customer delight. Together, we will capitalize on the significant opportunities ahead and deliver on the company’s next phase of growth and value creation.”

“Rajiv is the right leader at the right time,” said Nutanix Co-founder Dheeraj Pandey. “With a future-proof business model, a loyal and expanding customer base, and a strong technology portfolio, I look forward to seeing Rajiv take the helm to lead this incredible team. This is the decade to watch for a company that so values simple, secure, and seamless. On a personal note, it has been a privilege to serve our customers and partners, working closely alongside Nutanix employees.” Dheeraj Pandey will step down from the Board effective Monday, December 14, 2020, to ensure continuity through Nutanix’s upcoming Annual Meeting of Stockholders.

Before joining Nutanix, Ramaswami served as Chief Operating Officer of Products and Cloud Services at VMware. Prior to this role, Ramaswami led VMware’s Networking and Security business, one of the fastest-growing units in the company, as Executive Vice President and General Manager.

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

// EXPERT SPEAK

THREE WAYS AN INDOOR CAMERA OFFERS PEACE OF MIND Heading back to the office after #WFH? An indoor camera can help ease the transition for family and pets alike, says Mohammad Meraj Hoda, Vice President of Business Development – Middle East & Africa at Ring For those who are currently used to the unique rhythm of working from home (#WFH, as it’s referred to on social media), even the thought of going back to a 9-to-5 routine can be disconcerting. More so if you’re leaving family or pets at home for extended periods of time, after they’d gotten used to having you around all day.

Although some may heave a sigh of relief to have a bit of “me time”, there are several occasions when you may need to check in with what’s going on at home.

You may want to see if your kids have gotten home from school on time and have eaten something, whether an older parent has taken their medication, or if your pets aren’t too upset at being left alone.

For many UAE residents, indoor video cameras can help ease the long daily separation.

This is 2020, after all, and physical location shouldn’t have to present any limitations to communication and peace of mind.

Whether for humans or animals, there are several ways that home video cameras can help ease that separation anxiety for both parties – with a few added benefits.

from your smartphone. Perhaps you want to see if your teenage kids are getting to their homework, or if there’s a stressful event responsible for your cat’s unsettled behavior while you’re away. A quick check is easy with a compact indoor camera.

TALK TO FAMILY AND FLAT MATES In one of those wonderful technological developments that prove we really do live in the 21st century, the best indoor cameras now come equipped with twoway conversation features, allowing you to connect and communicate with those at home from wherever you are.

With their high-quality audio, Ring’s indoor cameras are just like a video call – only better. By checking the Ring app from your office, your car or anywhere else, you can converse with your kids, the domestic helper, or even your pets! It’s peace of mind for everyone.

CHECK IN ON THINGS AT HOME Consumers around the world have been using Ring Video Doorbells to remotely monitor their homes, to check in on their pets, and even to confirm that their kids got home. That inspired Jamie Siminoff, Ring’s founder, to create a dedicated indoor device that serves these customers.

Ring’s new Indoor Cam is a mini marvel that plugs into the tightest spaces so you can simply check on what’s happening at home from anywhere and at any time – all

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GET ALERTED TO UNUSUAL ACTIVITY Since they can be activated by certain movements, most indoor cameras can alert you to abnormal activity within your home.

Market leading products, such as those now available to order from Ring, for example, will instantly send you a phone notification when motion is detected. With a couple of indoor cameras in strategic places – perhaps in the hallway, in the living room, or elsewhere – you’ll immediately be alerted to anything atypical.

So, whether you’ve got to work late to catch up on all those post-coronavirus targets, or if you’re on a site visit to another part of the Emirates, the right indoor camera keeps you calm and in control. Nothing can entirely replace your physical presence, but technology can help you, your family, and even your fur babies to adjust to the back-to-office season more easily.

EXPERT SPEAK //

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

PROTECTING REMOTE WORKERS BY ENCOURAGING COOLNESS IN TECHNOLOGY AND CYBERSECURITY Ned Baltagi, Managing Director, Middle East & Africa at SANS Institute advises organizations that this is the time to add a bit of coolness and fun into technology and help workers become more comfortable with basic cybersecurity and technology best practices.

Human behavior towards cybersecurity practices or today's greatest challenge managing the risk of the pandemic, varies by individuals. Yet every social action or organizational behavior has a consequence. By monitoring human activity and reinforcing positive actions to adopt safe cybersecurity practices or following safe-pandemic practices, organizations and human communities can benefit.

Designing applications that reward an individual with points and badges and displays them publicly can help mobilize positive movement. Gamifications can help improve the level of compliance towards following basic cybersecurity best practices in an organization, the same way as they can influence communities to shun risky post pandemic behavior.

Organizations criticize the lack of availability of technology skills and especially those of cybersecurity expertise. Yet both human resources heads in organizations and information technology heads do not realize that a lot can be achieved in their business by educating and motivating the workforce to adopt best practices of cybersecurity.

Many employees in the workforce can also be inspired to train themselves in cybersecurity skills to manage the basic administration of their devices and networks. With remote workforces becoming part of the post-pandemic workplace there is a human resource requirement to relook at the level of basic technology skills across the hybrid workforce. However, a gamification approach may be required to add an active element of interest around this activity.

Here are some basic tips on what administrators can do to kick start a cool and gamified approach towards technology:

#1 Personal information across Internet It is essential that remote workers maintain a clean record on the Internet. The post-pandemic phase has seen a disproportionate level of stress and readjustment and this may continue in the months ahead. But venting strong feelings and thoughts across multiple social media sites may just start working against remote workers and their teams. Threat actors are looking for such displays of personal information including family names, assets and other information, shared under duress, that can be used in phishing attacks. #2 Break and fix technology and devices One of the fastest ways for remote workers to get comfortable and experienced is to allow them to build up software tools and use them to test the technologies at their remote workplace.

Instruct remote workers how to spend hands-on time with technology, engage with technology, break it and then fix-it.

There are a lot of amazing free tools and resources available online for remote teams to work and play with. Some are more easier to use than the other, and you do have to make sure you know where to find them. But open source tools are a great way of expanding your tool kit and skill set. #3 Build the technology lab at home If remote workers are at home let them feel comfortable to build a lab at home.

Encourage teams to be curious about technology, allowing them to make mistakes.

The more mistakes they make, the more they are learning. And more technology learning helps to boost better understanding of cyber security best practices. #4 Share technology experiences.

Get remote workers and teams to share

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their experiences. If you want to physically protect a building, you need to understand doors, windows, and structure. For information security, remote workers need to understand the basics of computer networking. Understanding how computers function and communicate is the first step in defending them from cyberattacks. #5 Finding a mentor An experienced worker who is ready to engage with remote teams, can boost the confidence levels of remote workers who may find themselves without support at odd hours of the day or night. With remote workers dispersed across the country and the globe, while working under the same work deadlines as they would in conventional offices, lack of face to face access to co-workers is often a huge demotivation.

Informal mentorship can help plug such gaps and help to retain confidence in the organization's technology set up across remote workers and remote teams.

On a final note, every remote worker has their favorite device, app or feature.

Use that as a starting point for them to explore, learn, share and move forward.

Conforming to and understanding the organization's cybersecurity best practices may just become an easy ride for them as they plunge into technologies that help them to work better and better. #6 Expand your skillset with CTFs and Ranges Capture the Flag events are not only a great way to interact with your peers and like-minded individuals, they are also a great way to learn and apply new skills in a real-life situation. Playing either on your own or with your team and really help you hone your skills.

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

// EXPERT SPEAK

ORCHESTRATION AND THREAT INTELLIGENCE ENGINE AND FUEL Written by Anthony Perridge, VP of International at ThreatQuotient

These days we believe that “it’s not a matter of if, but when and how” we’ll be attacked. So, we’ve expanded our focus from prevention to include detection and response, and organizations are talking about using Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) tools.

According to Gartner’s Market Guide for Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) Solutions, by yearend 2022, 30% of organizations with a security team larger than five people will leverage SOAR tools in their security operations, up from less than 5% in 2019.

There are many factors driving demand, chief among them the shortage of skilled cybersecurity talent which is compelling most organizations to look for ways to automate routine, repeatable tasks.

Orchestration tools, specifically playbooks, are good for automating processes that we know we always perform the same way. The system responds reflexively, thus reducing the need for humans in this capacity. Playbooks help Incident Response (IR) teams accelerate response and mitigate risk, while freeing up expert resources to focus on higher value tasks which also helps with employee retention.

An organization’s Threat Intelligence practice has a different role – gathering external and internal threat and event data, normalizing it for analysis, and automatically scoring and prioritizing it based on organization-specific parameters. With a platform that serves as a central repository and organizational memory, teams and tools have access to the organization’s history of investigations, observations and learnings about adversaries and their

tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs).

Adding new data and learnings over time, the platform automatically reevaluates and reprioritizes intelligence to support ongoing detection, investigation and response.

Both orchestration tools and a threat intelligence platform serve the same high-level goal: Optimize people’s time so they can focus on areas where their intelligence, experience and skills are needed, and don’t waste time on things that can be easily automated. What makes these tools even stronger is when they work together.

The fact is, there is more we can do to optimize playbooks so that they save exponentially more time. When driven by threat intelligence, an orchestration tool can recognize connections and patterns, and adjust playbook runs to maximize efficiency. And when a threat intelligence platform brings in learnings from the IR practice, it can augment and enrich threat intelligence with greater context to further accelerate detection and response.

Using a phishing campaign as an example, let’s say that the organization has been targeted with 100 emails. The playbook flags something unknown, forwards it to a tool for inspection which confirms it is suspicious, then sends it to a sandbox that validates it is malware. The file is then added to the reputation block list.

When the next suspicious email comes in, the playbook repeats the same process. Over time the reputation list gets longer and longer, and system performance gets slower and slower responding repeatedly to the same requests.

But if the orchestration tool works in

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concert with the threat intelligence solution, then the full playbook does not need to be executed each time. The threat intelligence platform remembers activity from the same malware family and campaign and recognizes that it is an immediate and actual threat to the organization and scores it accordingly at a 9 or 10. The playbook can be written to adjust processes based on scoring so, for example, a score of 7-10 may trigger automatic blocking. A score of 3 to 7 may send the file directly to the sandbox. Anything lower initiates the full playbook. The ability for playbooks to dynamically adjust based on scoring increases the efficiency of tools and teams.

Another aspect that improves when orchestration and threat intelligence work together, is reputation list management.

It isn’t the job of the orchestration tool to curate the reputation list which can become unwieldy very quickly. However, a threat intelligence platform tracks and stores threat and event data from all sources and groups and remembers what it has seen, which allows it to understand the lifecycle of the threat and when to cull the reputation list. Because information that is no longer relevant is removed, new information can be added without the risk of overloading the reputation list.

The orchestration tool is about working the reflex, while the threat intelligence practice is about working the memory. Although their approaches are different, orchestration tools and threat intelligence platforms share the same goal: to accelerate detection, response and risk mitigation. And when they work together, they save teams more time and deliver even better results.

OUTLOOK 2021 //

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

“We Hope 2021 Will Bring More Normalcy, Certainty, and Safety for Everyone” Antoine Harb, Team Leader Middle East, and North Africa at Kingston Technology, speaks about the learnings from 2020 and his plans for 2021 How was 2020 for the industry and your company?

Working from home was a big hurdle for all Industries. As millions of professionals adjust to the new normal of working remotely, staff and supervisors have had to learn quickly how to improve communication and collaboration in a virtual setting.

IT Departments had to overhaul strategies overnight to allow working from home, followed by education on security to ensure that data remains safe. This naturally led to an increased number of people gaining a better understanding of their own technology followed by a greater personal interest in reliability, speed, and safety. Kingston is able to play a part in this by helping with that education.

What sort of opportunities did 2020 bring along?

As near to everyone, across all industries had to adjust to Working- From-Home (WFH) we noted an increased interest in the education of employees on topics such as Cyber Security and how to keep data safe when it is leaving the office/work premises.

Next to this accelerated educational interest, Kingston Technology has experienced an increase in the demand for Laptop DRAM and SSD’s, as both adults and children had to adapt to the new normal of working from home and homeschooling.

We further noticed a higher E-tailer demand, due to the movement restrictions and lockdown. As a result of larger numbers of people spending most of their time at home, we also saw an increased demand for our gaming products, such as the HyperX DRAM and NVMe SSD’s.

What were your key achievements in 2020?

At Kingston Technology we were able to adapt quickly to the situation and to maintain a high level of services and support to

Kingston’s partners and customers. Our wide product range further enabled Kingston to find its stronghold in the new demand for WFH equipment including DRAM products or the increased demand for SSD. More important though is the support and education Kingston Technology is offering to ensure that not only the equipment is available, but our customers are thinking about their data security.

What promises does 2021 bring along?

First of all, we hope for it to bring more normalcy, certainty, and safety for everyone.

We further believe, that working from home will continue after the pandemic as we can already see, that employees are actively requesting WFH to be part of their new jobs and companies can see the efficiency gained from reducing commuting time.

With WFH probably still being a big part of our life for a while as businesses are rethinking their office set-ups and many potentially downsizing their office space and introducing part time WFH as part of their long-term solution, we expect to see healthy demand for SSD, DRAM, and encrypted devices.

The lasting transition from city center offices to a hybrid solution of WFH and days in the office also comes with an even greater need for connectivity. Never has the need for a quicker further spread connectivity solutions such as 5G been higher. This potential acceleration of 5G will also require a great need for data centers.

Due to this change and fewer investments in commutes and business travel, Analysts such as Gartner are predicting, that the worldwide IT budgets are going to grow by 4% in 2021. These are obviously very promising predictions for most technology companies but next to equipping our customers with the top of the range technology solutions, Kingston especially wants to raise awareness about data security and how encrypted solutions can help with it.

What will be your key focus areas for 2021?

We will address two focus areas in 2021.

Firstly, Kingston Technology will be addressing the demand for higher capacities SSDs coupled with the demand for higher performance drives. There will also be a strong focus on the demand for DRAM in both the consumer and B to B markets and particularly the Data Center space.

Do you see opportunities in the regional markets with new markets opening up?

Yes, we have already experienced a big growth of E-tailer’s and we believe that more opportunities will come as many people are getting more dependent and familiar with online shopping.

What milestones have you set for 2021?

Our goals for 2021 are to maintain our focus, build product awareness use sales momentum and to support and stay close to our strategic customers, while at the same time raising awareness on Data Security and encrypted devices.

This will also have a long-term effect on stores and resellers as they are in need of fully developed online shops in order to survive this difficult time.

What would you like to do differently in 2021, when compared with 2020?

2020 was a difficult year for most industries and individuals. For us at Kingston, it is our priority to stay close to our partners and customers and hope that we might be lucky enough to be re-scheduling face to face meetings in 2021.

According to you, which technologies will be in demand in 2021?

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// OUTLOOK 2021

Our Theme for 2021 will be “The Year of Stabilization” Avinash Advani, the Founder, and CEO of CyberKnight, speaks about what worked for his company in 2020 and what he expects from the upcoming year How was 2020 for the industry and your company?

2020 was a shock to both the industry, as well as, CyberKnight. The industry was rattled in H1 as orders slowed drastically and budgets were put on hold, but then there was light at the end of the tunnel as we started to emerge from the lockdown in H2, with exponential funnel growth, a steady increase in orders, and budgets being reprovisioned, albeit with a focus on doing more with less.

As a start-up having launched operations shortly before the pandemic hit, we were definitely caught off guard when our ability to execute on our year-one plans suddenly ground to a halt after only a quarter. That being said, we made the most of working from home in Q2 and conducted focused online campaigns to help customers understand the risks associated with remote working, as well as, the importance of Zero Trust.

In H2, we went back to the office, although most meetings were virtual, and we did our very best to make up for the previous quarter by maximizing pipeline creation, aligning closely with our strategic partners, and helping evangelize Zero Trust Security as advisors to enterprise and government organizations across the Middle East.

What sort of opportunities did 2020 bring along?

Although some countries have had workfrom-home cultures for some time, 2020 taught us that remote working will be part of the new normal, globally. This creates efficiencies for some companies that can reduce their office space overhead and its associated costs, but this digital transformation has created new complex IT environments that in turn come with security gaps that need to be bridged with intelligent security.

As we saw over the course of the pandemic, cyber attackers continued their onslaught and therefore it is critical for organizations to think about Zero Trust Security. The traditional perimeter is vanishing, remote and

mobile users are the norm, and the cloud is everywhere, so security needs to follow the data, users, and applications, no matter where they are located.

What were your key achievements in 2020?

CyberKnight’s official launch was in January 2020. The months that ensued saw the onboarding of 23 market-leading cybersecurity vendors mapped to the Zero Trust Security framework. We were able to deploy local teams across all key Middle East markets, with our headquarters in Dubai and a local office in Riyadh, enabling local invoicing in Saudi Arabia as well. We transacted more than 60 strategic partners across the region, who in turn have sold one or more of our technologies to more than 100 end-users.

What promises does 2021 bring along?

It will take time for companies to transition from conservativeness to optimism, and this may be reflected in slower hiring and expansion, as well as, more cautious target-setting, as companies make the most out of existing investments.

We are hoping that the vaccine will be effective and the world will reach herd immunity as soon as possible so that Coronavirus times can be put behind us. From a company perspective, our theme for 2021 will be “The Year of Stabilization”, which means letting the dust settle, bringing certainty to business operations, and confidence to achieving business goals.

Do you see opportunities in the regional markets with new markets opening up?

2021 will see our continued focus on the Middle East and Africa region. We see significant potential in Egypt as a new market ripe for on-the-ground investments.

According to you, which technologies will be in demand in 2021?

From a cybersecurity perspective: • XDR and AI-based prevention technologies that protect against ransomware and nation-state attacks will be board-level priorities

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• • •

Cloud Security Remote Workforce Security IT/OT Security Convergence

What will be your key focus areas for 2021?

We are 100% cybersecurity-focused and have built our offering around Zero Trust Security. In 2020 we launched our Unified Threat Intelligence campaign, and in 2021 we will be looking at a new story encompassing SecOps and Threat Hunting.

What milestones have you set for 2021?

As the market hopefully returns to some semblance of normalcy, we will be looking to double revenue, achieve higher profitability through value-add business, and optimize processes.

What would you like to do differently in 2021, when compared with 2020?

My hope is that face-to-face end-user meetings resume so that we can once again meet our strategic customers in-person.

Do you plan to enter new markets or add new products/applications to your portfolio in 2021?

Yes definitely, but the expansion into new markets depends on how quickly the markets return to normal trading conditions.

Based on the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccines, we will be evaluating the addition of local resources in Egypt.

Also, we are always looking at portfolio evolution and enhancement. Therefore, portfolio changes will happen throughout the year as we aim to complete our offering and plug gaps with best-of-breed cybersecurity vendors.

OUTLOOK 2021 //

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

Only With Agility Can Business Perform Morgan Chen, the Notebook and Gaming Notebook Business Development Manager for UAE and GCC at ASUS Middle East, speaks about the challenges faced in 2020 and his business outlook for 2021 How was 2020 for the industry and your company?

2020 is an unprecedented year for the industry. Consumer behavior, retail sales, and supply chain have been reformed to cater to the influence of pandemic.

What sort of opportunities did 2020 bring along?

In 2020, due to the pandemic, computers regained importance in life and became the essential items in each household by the unique productivity to continue working and learning at home.

Did you face any challenges in 2020?

The current supply chain for an IT product is globalized. The lockdown policies in different countries at different timeframes brought up the challenge of stable and sufficient supply.

What were your key achievements in 2020?

In 2020, with a prescient leadership strategy and the team’s great efforts, ASUS achieved a historically high market share in the UAE. In the same year, we have also launched unprecedently ASUS Perfect Warranty, being the first and the only brand providing users warranty to cover accidental damages under normal use.

What promises does 2021 bring along?

Rapid innovations in different fields, including hardware, software, telecommunication, medicine, and so forth, help human beings to have the same or even better quality of life, work, and education than the pre-pandemic period.

Do you see opportunities in the regional markets with new markets opening up?

Along with lower contacts and interactions, some inconvenience also came to our lives, so the opportunities are everywhere for solutions for improving our lives.

be in demand in 2021?

Remote Collaboration: In 2020, more people than ever before are working or learning from home, so remote-collaboration technology like a virtual meeting, online classroom, project collaboration will be the key to ensure the quality of work and study.

Cybersecurity and Privacy: Under these frequent remote-collaborations, vast business and personal information might be exposed, so how to ensure information security will be essential.

Contactless: Taking precautionary measures to the pandemic, all the direct and indirect contacts are encouraged to minimize, so contactless technology will definitely be a trend for all aspects in life.

What will be your key focus areas for 2021?

Computers for commercial and educational purposes will be our focus areas in 2021.

With innovative product design, reliable quality, and supportive after-sales service, we believe that ASUS products can help users to perform at work and study efficiently.

What milestones have you set for 2021?

We expect our products, services, solutions can help more and more users to perform in life and continue being the best laptop brand in the world in 2021.

What would you like to do differently in 2021, when compared with 2020?

Be even more agile to changes. We are continually facing an unprecedented and uncertain year in 2021. Only with agility, a business can perform.

Do you plan to enter new markets or add new products/applications to your portfolio in 2021?

Products, services, and solutions for commercial and education usage will be our major focus fields in 2021.

According to you, which technologies will

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ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

Sharaf DG Business Looks at Expanding its Reach in the Retail Segment Hitesh Ojha, the Head of Business for the Audio-Video Division at Sharaf DG Business, talks about the products and solutions his company offers on the market, the learnings from 2020, and his plans for 2021

What sort of solutions does DG+ offer on the market?

At DG+, we offer a wide range of solutions such as large scale LED display solutions, background music, meeting room, and conference solutions, public address, structured cabling, theater AV, smart boards and interactive LEDs, digital signage solutions, video wall solutions, and so much more.

Which brands do you currently work with?

We work with lots of brands including Pixels for LED solutions; Bosch, Bose, QSC, Tannoy, JBL, Marantz, Polk Audio, KEF, TAGA, and Crown for audio solutions; Extron, Crestron, and Kramer for control and automation solutions; Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Christie, Spectron, Epson, and Benq for display solutions; Belden, Excel, Jacobs, Clipsal, Tecom for cabling solutions; and Shure, Bosch, Sennheiser, and Audio Technica for microphones and PA solutions.

What is your channel community like? Do you do all the integration yourself or do you work with local partners?

We work collaboratively with authorised channel partners to carry out specialised installation services under Sharaf DG supervision.

Are there any unique solutions or services you offer on the market, which your competitors don’t?

We are specialised in large-scale LED solutions, theater solutions, automation, and smart home solutions, which are some of the solutions with limited competitors on the market.

Please share the details.

We offer the entire gamut of AV solutions to large corporates across UAE with a focus on hospitality TVs, LED screens, speakers, amplifiers, and smart boards.

What were your learnings from 2020?

Situation and circumstances should be evaluated and utilised to the benefit of society as a business is a growing concern.

During the lockdown, we started offering business continuity solutions to our customers.

Post-lockdown, parents returned to work with kids still engaged in online classes. Backed by partnerships that we have with leading brands, we were able to offer solutions for customers’ homes such as smart home automation, solar panels, and home security with a remote viewing facility to monitor the kids.

What plans do you have for 2021? New services, new brand signups, new markets to explore, and so on?

We will focus on the LED market for malls and commercial towers, and structured cabling solutions which is almost a requirement for all of the buildings these days.

We will also focus on new partnerships with brands for commercial audio, video, and display solutions with some of the leading market names which are specified in high-profile projects. We would also like to explore market opportunities in retail outlets within malls.

What sort of B2B services do you offer?

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// OUTLOOK 2021

OUTLOOK 2021 //

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

“We Will Continue to Push the Boundaries of Innovation Further”

Keith Li, the Country Manager for UAE at Huawei Consumer Business Group, speaks about the challenges in 2020 and the opportunities to look forward to, in 2021 How was 2020 for the industry and your company? What sort of opportunities did 2020 bring along?

Our focus on delivering advanced and compelling technology to the widest range of consumers possible has resulted in a successful year so far. According to H1 2020 results, Huawei saw an increase in the market share of 5G devices in the UAE compared with the same period in 2019.

This is a trend we expect to continue to the end of 2020 and into 2021. Figures from the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker report also show that Huawei has seen shipments of 13.7 million devices in Q3 2020, a year-over-year growth of 87.2% compared with the same period in 2019.

We have also run a series of online sales events that have attracted huge interest among consumers in the UAE. Our two-day HUAWEI MEGA LIVE SALE event in November was very popular with consumers and saw AED 1,050,000 of orders in just 30 minutes on its first day. This follows on from similarly successful events held earlier in the year.

Did you face any challenges in 2020?

We embarked on an exciting new journey this year through our Together 2020 strategy. The challenge we faced was to effectively integrate our various platforms, products, and services into a growing eco-system.

This has seen Huawei AI, EMUI, Huawei Mobile Services, and 5G come together through Seamless AI Life under the 1+8+n concept.

This means consumers can benefit from Huawei smartphones, PC, tablets, wearables, and more, which now work together as part of a wider ecosystem through Huawei Share. It enables users to enjoy the latest apps on HUAWEI AppGallery as well as be more productive across various devices.

What were your key achievements in 2020?

This year saw our Kirin 9000 5G chipsets, which feature in the new HUAWEI Mate 40 Pro smartphones, become the world’s first 5nm 5G chipset to ship. This means enhanced performance, better graphics, and sophisticated AI capabilities that allow for much more innovative features on the flagship smartphone. We have also successfully developed HUAWEI AppGallery into a platform where consumers can enjoy innovative experiences with apps that are optimised and integrated into Huawei’s unique hardware and software capabilities.

It has quickly become a top-three global app marketplace with 490 million monthly active users on 700 million Huawei devices, and it is available in over 170 countries and regions in the world. The first half of 2020 also saw 261 billion user app downloads.

In addition, over 2 million global developers have now joined the Huawei Mobile Services ecosystem with more than 96,000 applications already integrated with HMS Core worldwide.

What promises does 2021 bring along?

We will continue to bring the most compelling and innovative technology to consumers in the UAE through a wide range of products in 2021. Huawei has built a reputation as a company that invests heavily to develop the most exciting technology that helps consumers in their daily lives. Our philosophy is to enable as many consumers as possible to experience this technology in a way that fits in with their lifestyles through a range of attractive price points. We will continue to do that while pushing the boundaries of innovation further.

According to you, which technologies will be in demand in 2021?

Consumers demand a more connected experience from their devices and services.

Through our 1+8+n concept, which is part of Huawei’s Seamless AI Life strategy, consumers can experience a better and smarter life with their devices. By placing using the smartphone as the hub of the

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technology that integrates devices such as laptops, wearables, tablets, cars, and more with one another, consumers can effortlessly connect with a variety of shared services and features. This enables them to enjoy greater productivity in their daily lives while developers are able to push their imaginations to create innovative experiences.

What will be your key focus areas for 2021? What milestones have you set for 2021?

We will continue to develop our Seamless AI Life experience by adding even more new smart products and services to the platform. Our current ecosystem of devices and services is already allowing users to do tasks faster and more easily and we will continue to enhance the user experience with greater innovation. We are also committed to pushing further technological advancements in various areas. These include 5G where we aim to maintain our leading position by investing in further research and development to ensure consumers can take advantage of the benefits it offers.

Do you plan to enter new markets or add new products/applications to your portfolio in 2021?

Yes, we have a wide range of exciting and innovative new products and services we plan to add to the market in 2021. These include smartphones, PC, tablets, wearables, and much more. These devices will also be seamlessly linked to our 1+8+n concept to enable consumers to enjoy more immersive entertainment and work more productively.

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// OUTLOOK 2021

"2020 Saw Innovations in Both Security and Networking" Alain Penel, the Regional Vice President for the Middle East at Fortinet, speaks about what worked in 2020 and his plans for tackling 2021 How was 2020 for the industry and your company?

The coronavirus pandemic has presented us with a unique, double-pronged view of change. It is both reshaping and redefining how business gets done, enabled by the trajectory of digital transformation that began long before COVID-19 forced organizations to rethink their strategies for the purpose of business continuity. This has been most notably demonstrated by the sudden and rapid shift to telecommuting, a concept that has become quintessential in 2020.

This challenge was exacerbated by the unprecedented cyber threat activity that has resulted from an increased reliance on personal device usage and the influx of workers outside the corporate network.

Throughout the pandemic, cyber threat actors have not let a single opportunity slip by. They have preyed on fear and concern around COVID-19 with phishing attacks while also capitalizing on security flaws within the remote workforce.

What sort of opportunities did 2020 bring along?

In the 2020 Remote Workforce Cybersecurity Report, we have explored the challenges organizations faced as a result of the shift in remote work and how organizations are planning to secure their remote workforce moving forward.

Only 40% of organizations had a business continuity plan in place prior to the pandemic. But as a result of the pandemic and the rapid shift to remote work, 32% invested further in this area. Almost all organizations expect to invest more to secure telework long-term, with nearly 60% of enterprises spending more than $250,000 in secure telework investments in the next 24 months. Moving forward, the majority of enterprises surveyed intend to make unplanned upgrades to their existing systems to secure telework. Many also plan to add new technologies not previously in place.

There is an opportunity to maximize their investments with cybersecurity platforms designed to provide comprehensive visibility and protection across the entire digital infrastructure, including networked, application, multi-cloud, and mobile environments.

What were your key achievements in 2020?

Innovations in both security and networking, focused vision on flexible secure access from and to anywhere, and continuous industry recognition from a range of third-party organizations, has fueled our expansion across all business verticals, and we believe this has led to our placement as a Leader in Gartner’s 2020 Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure.

Moreover, Fortinet has been recognized as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Firewalls. We are very proud of this latest recognition from Gartner.

And proud of our commitment to serve more than 480,000 customers across the world by tackling some of the biggest and most diverse challenges in networking and security. The threat landscape continues to evolve and more than ever organizations need a security solution to meet the demands of today’s digital businesses and dynamic network environments.

This year marks our 20th anniversary, two-decades of security-driven networking and we are just getting started !

What promises does 2021 bring along?

In an era of constant innovation, it is important to be constantly aware of the impact that new technology has on the threat landscape. The latest round of FortiGuard Labs’ threat predictions for 2021 highlights the fact that cybercriminals will only grow more advanced in their attack methods. Cyber adversaries leveraging intelligent edges, 5G-enabled devices, and advances in computing power will create a wave of new and advanced threats at unprecedented speed and scale.

In addition, threat actors will continue to

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shift significant resources to target and exploit emerging edge environments, such as remote workers, or even new OT edge environments, rather than just targeting the core network. For defenders, it is critical to plan ahead now by leveraging the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to speed threat prevention, detection, and response. Actionable and integrated threat intelligence will also be important to improve an organization’s ability to defend in real-time as the speed of attacks continues to increase.

Do you see opportunities in the regional markets with new markets opening up?

Investing in cybersecurity hasn’t been more important than it is today, and we are seeing businesses being strategic in their investments. Considering business continuity and a hybrid remote workforce is the future, we see great opportunity for secure SD-Wan deployments, especially with telecoms and large enterprises. We also see increased opportunities to secure public and multi-cloud environments as businesses increasingly deploying a variety of workloads across multiple clouds.

Our solutions provide broad protection across the entire digital attack surface, both on-premises and in public clouds.

According to you, which technologies will be in demand in 2021?

This year, organizations have witnessed unprecedented shifts in both work paradigms and threat activity. Because of this rapidly evolving threat landscape, it will take a careful combination of technology, people, training, and partnerships to secure against the types of attacks coming from cyber adversaries in the future.

OUTLOOK 2021 //

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

Reflections and Predictions from Authlogics Written by Stephen Hope, CEO, Authlogics

No-one could have predicted how 2020 was going to pan out when we welcomed the new year in all those months ago before lockdowns and remote working were part of our daily setup for this year.

Many industries have struggled throughout but the technology sector and in particular cybersecurity have never been so busy (well at least since Y2K!) with the demand for the improvement of IT security policies to encompass staff working from home.

Authlogics have embraced this change of direction and provided Password Security Management and Multi-Factor Authentication solutions across all industry sectors globally.

word Compliance Specialists for the second year running, we reached out to prospective customers through multiple webinars, sat on panels at virtual conferences, provided online partner workshops, deployed our solutions at a rapid pace including the setup of 80,000 users within a few days and we even took the time to network at a virtual cruise! All being though, the launch of Version 4.0 took precedence, as we enhanced both the PSM and MFA products offering unique features and functionality.

PSM Benefits included: • •

When lockdowns were initiated as the pandemic surged, Authlogics focused on assisting the healthcare, financial, and government sectors as these became key targets for the cybercriminals. With the rise of cyberattacks and increased corporation data breaches, our solutions were to hand.

• • • •

Detection and prevention of shared passwords Retroactive scanning, alerting, and remediation of AD accounts Social media /public account breach matching Public breach data web portal with analytics And many more dynamic features.

MFA technologies have gone from strength to strength with a strong competitive edge that offers deviceless authentication, NIST compliance and a user self-service portal with AD password reset.

Authlogics end-to-end solution deals with the immediate problem of insecure passwords and bad policies, all the way through to MFA which does not require a password at all. Our Password Security Management (PSM) product gives you everything you need to secure and manage passwords, including user self-service. Whereas our Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) product delivers various MFA technologies together with passwordless logins.

2021 will certainly bring unforeseen challenges once 2020 is behind us. During 2020 we have shown that we can quickly adapt to the strange new world, and that will be crucial for 2021 too. We will continue to evolve our products to meet new customer demands, as well as adding new standards such as FIDO.

As a company, we have adapted to the new ways of remote working and with the versatility of our products, having demonstrated to companies the effectiveness of our simple and secure solutions. In 2020 we were recognized as Best Pass-

A key focus for customers has been to further improve the user experience of MFA given the big increase in the number of people working remotely. We are continually looking for better ways to streamline our solution and are heavily

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focusing on even better user experiences.

We have broadened our customer database, partner selection, and raised our profile across the globe. Being at the technical forefront of the industry, our solutions are very easy and quick to deploy which offers fast results. Security is at its best when it is not complicated which makes for a better end-user experience. We stand apart from the rest with fresh thinking.

Authlogics CEO, Steven Hope, explains “We have designed our Authlogics solutions to comply with best practices with a key focus on adhering to NIST compliance for password security and user authentication. Authlogics has numerous tools and solutions to assist our customers to achieve the necessary ongoing compliance with legislative frameworks.

This is achieved with our password security management and multi-factor authentication solutions, both of which are prescribed requirements for secure and compliant environments.”

Our company ethos is to provide simple, memorable, and secure logins. We intend to continue our mission into 2021 to remove the password problem and encourage companies to migrate towards a passwordless environment, reduce their helpdesk costs, save time, increase employee productivity by simplifying the end-user login process, and securing critical company apps, If 2021 is as unpredictable as 2020, we look forward to the challenges ahead!

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// OUTLOOK 2021

Edge Computing Will Be Big This Year Dalia El Hendy, the Vice President for the Gulf for the Secure Power Division at Schneider Electric, speaks about the challenges faced in 2020 and the opportunities to look forward to, in 2021 How was 2020 for the industry and your company?

It’s not been an easy year, that goes without saying. However, there’s been an increased focus on digital investments, and we’ve seen many projects being sped up.

We’ve also worked closely with our channel partners to help them adapt as well, be it through increased emphasis on health and safety, or pivoting to focus on growth areas.

What sort of opportunities did 2020 bring along?

Digital transformation is impacting all industries as organizations are leveraging technology to drive new innovation, improve business agility, and streamline operations. New business opportunities and capabilities are being unlocked as organizations digitize their operational models. Enterprises are striving to undertake the critical initiatives required to modernize their facilities and infrastructure: specifically, improving productivity, reducing waste, improving energy resiliency, achieving sustainability goals, and, most importantly, protecting people, physical assets, and data.

What were your key achievements in 2020?

We’ve invested in our RMA facilities, to improve our customer service. We’ve worked with customers and partners on new data center models, that allow them to deploy faster, use less energy, and operate more sustainably. And we’ve worked for hand in hand with our partners on the issues that we’ve faced, which is the achievement that I’m proudest of. This year has been a reminder of why the channel is so important to us; our partners truly are an extension of the company.

What promises does 2021 bring along?

As estimated by the International Data Corporation (IDC), investment in technologies enabling smart cities in the Middle East and Africa region is expected to hit the $2.30 billion mark by 2021. The ever-increasing urban population has result-

ed in growing energy demands, coupled with the advent of new technology and the need for smart cities that improve systems and create sustainable and reliable infrastructure.

The integration of smart solutions that promote the efficient use of resources and data plays a crucial role in this drive towards smart cities while improving safety, mobility, and overall well-being.

Building cities integrated with next-generation technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) requires a huge investment, starting with creating a suitable infrastructure that supports current advancements.

Do you see opportunities in the regional markets with new markets opening up?

In the digital transformation journey, enterprises are faced with the dual challenges of innovating their operations and maintaining their existing infrastructure IT and data center infrastructure are key to supporting the shift to digital business. All companies need to be able to transform their operations with technology and frequently find that focusing on IT challenges detracts from their core business.

Along the digital transformation journey, the most frequently cited barrier is the challenge of integrating and supporting old and new infrastructure. Experienced services firms like Schneider Electric are able to assist customers through a comprehensive and scalable service portfolio—one that addresses resources, people, and processes through all stages of the life cycle.

According to you, which technologies will be in demand in 2021?

Understanding equipment performance is increasingly important, especially to mission-critical facilities. To accelerate progress in improving facility resiliency, digital services such as remote monitoring and analysis that leverage IoT, edge, and other technologies are emerging as a path to understanding equipment performance

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and shifting to condition-based maintenance What will be your key focus areas for 2021?

Our major focus is Edge Computing – this is where enterprises will increase their spend the most over the coming decade.

By 2025 there will be 80 billion connected devices, that will generate 180 trillion data Gigabytes and companies will spend 232 billion dollars on artificial intelligence to cater to and manage all this data.

We’re already seeing budgets being diverted to spending on emerging technologies that will help them make the best of these increasing data streams.

We also expect more enterprises will be utilizing technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotic process automation over the coming five years, thanks to the roll-out of enabler technologies such as 5G. These technologies are highly dependent on low latency and high bandwidth. At SE we have designed our best-in-class edge solutions starting from a very simple form for a Micro DC that can fit at any given operational working space.

The leading system integrators will focus on developing Edge solutions that are addressing customer-centric needs.

And that’ll be an important part of our channel strategy in 2021, to help equip our partners with the tools and the outlook they need to sell more Edge solutions through the channel.

OUTLOOK 2021 //

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

Digital Business Service That Go Beyond Support and Maintenance is on the Rise Renjan George, the Managing Director of DVCOM Technologies, speaks about the learnings he has had from 2020 and his predictions for 2021 How was 2020 for the industry and your company?

The overall impact of the pandemic was not only limited to health, but it has impacted every industry economically and the ICT industry is no exception. The first 2 quarters saw considerable losses owing to lock down measures, project delays and cancellations, negative sentiments and disruption of supply chains. Since our products and solutions cater mostly to the SMB segment, we cannot say that we were not affected by the lockdown, especially since many of our retail partners got hit by the same.

down measures that were put in place for the safety of the people. This resulted in considerable project delays and cancellations, and also gave rise to negative sentiments around business, all of which led to a painful disruption in the supply chain.

Moreover, since most of our vendors are based out of China, we started facing pressure right from the first quarter of 2020 due to the disruption in supply. However, the 3rd quarter has helped us regain lost ground as we are now more open to the new opportunities that have been thrown wide open in the age of remote working and remote collaboration solutions.

What promises does 2021 bring along?

Our recent partnerships with Zoom Communications and Teridion make 2021 look quite promising with a whole new segment of opportunities around remote working and collaboration that we’ve unlocked with them.

Everyone has come to use or know of Zoom during this pandemic and we are looking forward to the growth of our Zoom certified solutions in the year to come. Moreover, with Teridion, customers can expect lightning-fast file transfers, pristine voice and video sessions, and overall performance comparable to MPLS. Enterprises no longer need to deploy costly carrier circuits or MPLS networks to gain high performance.

What sort of opportunities did 2020 bring along?

COVID-19 has changed the way companies operate. Businesses have found themselves forced to focus on remote working. Organizations have realized that they can operate remotely often at the same or higher levels of productivity and cost efficiency and they now expect their remote interactions to operate smoothly.

This has rocketed the usage of digital tools like Microsoft Teams and Zoom by around 700%. Being a Yealink distributor, we were rightly placed to take advantage of this boom by providing Microsoft and Zoom certified hardware to meet the increasing demand to interact, connect, and collaborate with internal and external users seamlessly and intelligently, covering every scenario from small to extra-large spaces.

Did you face any challenges in 2020?

We had to incur significant losses during the first 2 quarters of 2020 due to the lock-

What were your key achievements in 2020?

• Channel: New stream of VC Business in MS channel • Sales: 20% sales growth in pandemic and retaining all employees • Vendors: Added s/w (cloud) focused vendors in our portfolio

Another partnership we’re excited about is with Cyberfish, whom we have signed up with recently to tackle phishing. It combines Computer Vision and AI to stop phishing emails and websites in real-time – before they have been reported or added to the blacklists. Our collaboration with them will help us access more business opportunities as phishing concerns grow.

We have also partnered with OneScreen, which was the first and remains the only interactive smart board manufacturer that provides the Screen Skills Guru service – unlimited, free, live help and training on any of their solutions. Functionalities like real-time polling, easy dial out, screen sharing, interoperability, and translation have never been

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easier and we’re looking forward to expanding our offerings with this collaboration.

According to you, which technologies will be in demand in 2021?

The next wave of emerging technologies that are built onto the cloud is the Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence (AI). Cloud Computing is maturing and becoming a reliable technology that is an enabler of digital transformation and business innovation.

It provides organizations the agility to scale and adapt their business models to the rapidly changing market conditions and growth opportunities. The next frontier for cloud computing will be the creation of a new level of customer experience. Companies would apply intelligent technologies in conjunction with the cloud to upgrade their customer experience.

We at DVCOM, are already seeing the rise of digital business service that go beyond support and maintenance. We are already helping companies accelerate their business transformation with products and solutions that include cloud-centric unified communication and collaboration tools, cost-effective voice solutions, remote management tools, security solutions, and various innovative products that companies need in order to prepare for the future and transform themselves into an intelligent enterprise.

What would you like to do differently in 2021, when compared with 2020?

To be pro-active to face unprecedented situations. This year, companies and consumers faced unrelenting pressures due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We learned how to rapidly respond to consumers changing needs, establish trust, and build goodwill as the crisis unfolded.

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

// OUTLOOK 2021

EdTech Will Continue to Enhance Education Techniques Dr. Vikas Nand Kumar Batheja, the Co-Founder and Director of Capital College, speaks about how edtech is changing the landscape of the education sector for better What sort of edtech learning was learned during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Certainly, this is an overwhelming time for all educators, students, and families. However, only times like these help us evolve and bring out our creative side to innovate, curate, and deliver through tech-based learning tools that will retain the quality of education. Capital College tries adhering to effective pedagogical practices so that they remain engaged and interested in the learning material.

One of the ways we have adopted these practices is by producing well-designed interactive lessons that are supported with constant checking to meet the needs of the learners. It is done by creating compelling audio and video content for students to remain interested and engaged.

While traditionally, schools give generic files where students are expected to learn and understand by themselves, currently, we are seeing a rise in learning software like LMS. At Capital College, we have worked on both – synchronous and asynchronous learning formats depending on what best suits the student’s learning process. We have a range of live sessions, recorded lectures where we target a global classroom making the session highly interactive and interesting.

What sort of impact has the pandemic had on the education sector in the region?

Like every industry, the pandemic has led to a stage of uncertainty in the education sector as well. There has been a significant portion of disruption in the system where research suggests that more than 1.6 billion learners spread across 190 countries and continents are globally affected. With higher education institutions taking a digital route, it has projected to affect 94% of the student population.

Having said that, this is a testing time and as responsible educators, we are looking for techniques that will salvage the current situation and perhaps discover ways that will be highly beneficial in the near future. In fact, with the aid of technology, there has been a display of a promising future in the industry

with an expedited mode of delivering quality education. Yes, many students may not have the required resources to carry forward an online mode of learning, however, this is a start to creating a safe environment where adaptive and well-read learners will thrive.

Has digital technology in education enabled us to find new answers?

Yes, definitely. Digital technology has evolved to become a core element in the education system. While tech tools have not only helped students to remain engaged and interested, but it has also formed an effective interactive space where it is no longer JUST textbook material. In addition to this, the role of teachers has also changed post the incorporation of digital technology.

They are no longer just orators or professionals who are imparting wisdom to the students, but they have transformed to become content creators, mentors, advisors, and evaluators. With teaching materials empowered with artificial intelligence, we are also starting to build platforms that can gauge student response and work accordingly.

Apart from this, these systems can integrate the type of tasks, interests, and difficulties so that teachers can tackle them. Such tools are only going to add a significant level of precision which may be difficult to achieve in a traditional classroom setting.

How effective is digital technology in education?

We strongly believe that digital technology is nothing but bringing out the best in students.

Digital learning tools are enabling students to cultivate self-directed learning skills. Students can identify the learning material, understand the importance of it and they are successfully able to apply the information.

In some cases, they are also able to evaluate their performance. On a higher education level, this will increase their efficiency, productivity, and ultimately will make them jobready. Through this form of learning, they can sharpen their critical reasoning and analytical skills which are reflected positively on their logic, imagination, and creativity as opposed

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to traditional textbook learning.

Additionally, technology creates an effective visual appeal which is keeping students engaged, growing their .k, knowledge base without them even realising it. They are becoming active learners, listeners, and adaptors which is further reinstated with teamwork, storytelling, problem-solving, and gamification.

With students becoming more responsible and accountable for their actions, they will be able to venture as self-starters in the market which is very crucial considering the current climate. As young aspirers, if they have the ability to become entrepreneurs and ideally create jobs for others, it is an achievement in itself for the education system.

Even before COVID-19, was there already high growth and adoption in education technology?

The concept of e-learning is not new. It has been prevalent for a few decades, however, the intensity of its adaptation has changed rapidly. Even before the pandemic, global EdTech investments were reaching $18.66 billion in 2019 and were set to reach $350 billion by 2025. Since the coronavirus outbreak, there has been a surge in using online tools like online learning software, portals to submit papers and assignments, video conferencing for teaching purposes, or even language apps.

Over the years, EdTech has had a constant source of enhancing education techniques, innovations and this pandemic has only reaffirmed its importance in the sector. The technology advancement has not only retained the quality of education provided but also improved student experience.

OUTLOOK 2021 //

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

BIGO Live to Focus on Gaming and E-Commerce Empowered

by Livestreaming This Year In an exclusive interview, the BIGO Live team speaks about the growth of live-streaming in the region amid pandemic, how it is turning to be a great revenue generator for brands, and the focus the company has for 2021 How was 2020 for the industry and your company?

At the beginning of 2020, before most parts of the world were compelled to shelter in place, live streaming was on a growth path and projected to account for 82% of all Internet traffic by the end of the year. The lockdown period further contributed to significant growth in usage statistics.

Twitch, a platform used by video gamers to live-stream gaming sessions, reported that hours watched on the platform grew 50% between March and April this year. Here in the MENA region, Bigo Live, a live streaming platform launched in Singapore in 2016 and available regionally since 2017, has reported that it now has around 5 million monthly active users (MAUs) just in the Middle East & North Africa region alone.

Live streaming is now a big revenue generator for brands as well as for established and emerging influencers. Globally, live streaming is predicted to generate USD 70.5 billion of revenue in 2021 and USD 184 billion by 2027.

What sort of opportunities did 2020 bring along?

Although 2020 proved to be quite a challenging year, it did create a number of opportunities for content creators and tech-savvy talent in the MENA region.

With many countries going into lockdown and restrictions placed on social interactions, many people began to spend more time online and in particular their mobile devices. Because of this, these individuals discovered a new way to consume content and also found joy and a new way to express themselves as content creators. People who opted to stay indoors could explore the world around them through the lens of content creators who were abiding by the safety guidelines set forth by their respective countries.

In addition, BIGO Technology continues to invest in its capabilities and talent across the world. During 2020, we continued to invest

to recruit individuals from across the MENA region to enhance our local operations by hiring more people in different countries across the MENA region that include: Egypt, Jordan, UAE, and other countries. The purpose of this is to help us understand the local user more by having stronger localized operations.

In Egypt, we are going to hire up to 1,000 (from currently 300 as of July 2020) people by the end of the year. The reason is that we want to enhance our content safety in this country. Jordan is one of our main offices in the MENA region and there is a lot of exceptional talent in the country. This is why we are planning to hire up to 200 people by the end of 2020.

Our objective at Bigo Live is not only to hire people but to provide individuals living in the region with opportunities to further enhance and enrich their lives. This includes content creators such as vloggers, broadcasters, etc. that can leverage our platform to create opportunities for themselves with reputable organizations wherever they may be. Currently, we have created approximately 35,000 job opportunities in the region.

Did you face any challenges in 2020?

In the past year, we all faced exceptional challenges brought forth by the pandemic which impacted global companies and in turn people both personally and professionally. As a global company, BIGO, alongside our counterparts in the market, had to evolve and upgrade our business to serve users better. We believe the world will get back on track soon with closer and tighter collaboration both regionally and internationally.

What were your key achievements in 2020?

Our user base has achieved remarkable growth during 2020 as we now have approximately 400 million users globally. We are extremely pleased with this achievement and look forward to continuing to provide our users with more innovative means of communications that bring joy to their lives.

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In addition, as an inclusive global community, BIGO is proud to have played a part in combating COVID-19 and connect people during this challenging time, which is why we held the “Global BIGOer One World Together� fundraising campaign. This initiative attracted over 3.7 million viewers to support the fight against COVID-19 and approximately US$100,000 was raised through the 24-hour campaign with all funds donated to the World Health Organization.

To celebrate all the great work achieved by our broadcasters, users, and staff, we are going to host our annual BIGO Awards Gala at 8 pm SG time on 21st January 2021 in-app.

At that time, the top global broadcasters will be awarded and showcase their creativity through wonderful performances as we will review the past year together and look forward to the opportunities that 2021 will bring.

What promises does 2021 bring along?

As it relates to live-streaming, direct monetization pathways include pay-per-view, paid subscriptions, advertising, and sponsorships. For a business that is considering live streaming as a part of their product marketing mix, greater brand and product visibility can drive traffic to the company’s sales channels, generating inquiries and leading to increased sales.

Live streaming offers an opportunity for businesses whose event marketing activities have been restricted to engage customers through live Q&As with executives, product demonstrations, and involvement in discussion panels. These platforms can also represent a significant opportunity for any budding content creator, as a new frontier to build a personal brand and audience.

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

// OUTLOOK 2021

Technology Trends Continue to Take Off at Speed Christoph Dobler, the Head for the Middle East & Africa region at Dynabook Europe GmbH, speaks about the challenges faced in 2020 and the opportunities to look forward to, in 2021 How was 2020 for the industry and your company?

2020 has been a year like no other, COVID-19 has had an era-defining impact on both our personal and professional lives and no industry is immune from the effects of the global crisis that has devastated so many lives and livelihoods.

It can be said that the tech industry has had certain advantages, given the high demand for secure work from home and home learning solutions, so the onus has been on us and our peers in the industry to rise up and meet these needs, whilst also being cognizant of the challenges that we have all faced and look for ways to overcome them, and to help our local communities where we can.

What sort of opportunities did 2020 bring along?

The acceleration of remote working has seen businesses of all sizes turn to technology to meet the needs of a new distributed workforce and maintain operational efficiency. While 2020 produced few new technological or business developments, it certainly accelerated many technology trends already in motion.

We’ve seen businesses pivot to deal with a lot of changes in the face of COVID-19. According to McKinsey, a fifth of businesses have dialled up investment in digital transformation initiatives, with many making the impossible happen overnight or taking decisions in a matter of days rather than months. In this extraordinary time, businesses have learned how to adapt and progress more quickly than ever expected.

What were your key achievements in 2020?

We launched a series of our most advanced and exciting products across our premium Portege, mid-market Tecra, and entry-level Satellite Pro platforms. Beginning with the Portégé X30L-G, the world’s lightest 13.3-inches fully-featured business laptop, at just 870g, and most recently with the introduction of the Satellite Pro C40-H and C50-H. Both models have been ideally suit-

ed to the needs of the work from the home workforce and the home learning student population respectively.

We also recently launched our new Portégé X30W-J, the world’s lightest 13.3-inch convertible with 11th Gen Intel Core processors.

Weighing just 989g, the 2-in-1 device meets and exceeds the strict requirements for battery life, start-up time, processor, Thunderbolt 4, and Wi-Fi 6 to be certified for Intel’s Evo platform specification.

What promises does 2021 bring along?

With a growing team and an increase in our 2nd tier business model, we will broaden our reach into the market and address a wider audience.

Do you see opportunities in the regional markets with new markets opening up?

We do see a great deal of growth potential in the MENA region, and this is why we have built a dedicated team to take this forward.

With myself now Head of Region Middle East and Africa, and the appointment of industry veteran, Philip Ashkar to the post of Business Development Manager MEA, we are looking forward to further expansion in the region in 2021 and beyond.

According to you, which technologies will be in demand in 2021?

Unsurprisingly, 2021 will see a new and changing workplace, and technology will be needed to support it. Automation has been on the business agenda for years now, but as social distancing rules remain in place going into 2021, automation and robotics will likely become core competence of multiple sectors in the foreseeable future.

We’ll see current technology trends continue to take off at speed, with new internet-of-things (IoT) applications, technologies, and solutions reaching every sector.

The unprecedented working environment created by the pandemic has propelled technologies like assisted reality (AR) forward, demonstrating the potential of wearables in driving collaboration amongst remote teams. We also predict that mobile

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edge computing will reach more sectors as we start to see the real benefits.

Healthcare is going to be a major focus in 2021. The global IoT healthcare market is expected to grow to $188 billion by 2025, at an annual rate of 21 percent. While IoT in the medical sector has been on prediction lists for some years now, it will see a renewed importance in 2021. A number of people stayed home in 2020, leaving long-term illnesses untreated.

In 2021, the rise of telemedicine and remote diagnosis will see healthcare professionals able to proactively monitor, support, and provide care for these patients’ health at home. Consumer interest in wearable health devices, such as ECG and blood pressure monitors, will accelerate as patients appreciate the insight into their own health and the ability to share data with their doctor remotely, for an instant health evaluation.

What will be your key focus areas for 2021?

We will be looking to engage more in the Education sector, given that it is a vital instrument in everyday life for all. In addition, we will continue to develop our remote working solutions, as well as growing our second tier reseller base.

What would you like to do differently in 2021, when compared with 2020?

As highlighted above, we plan to travel a lot more within the region, engaging more personally with partners and customers as soon as health precautions allow. Dynabook is continuously developing new products, with the aim of expanding our roadmap across all segments.

OUTLOOK 2021 //

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

Will 2021 be a Better Year for the Channel Than 2020?

Written by Chris Martin, EMEA and SAARC Channel Leader, A10 Networks In the digitally accelerated COVID-19 environment of 2021 what are the top channel trends that organizations are facing? Here is my take on the channel’s outlook in 2021, and what we can expect to see in the year ahead.

Certainly, the experience of the first and now second lockdown, demonstrates how a gradual economic recovery hinges on a viable resolution to COVID-19, a vaccine, and the continued need for government intervention.

The good news is that a vaccine is now being rolled out and that has certainly fueled hope that there will be some return to normality in 2021.

Expect a period of consolidation Where the channel is concerned, over the next 12 months, we will see a period of consolidation and growth. Every vendor will be looking at how they have adapted their working practices, both internally and with partners, especially during the peak months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Applying these reflections and any learnings should make for a far less turbulent year in 2021. In fact, most organizations have accelerated their digital transformation plans, which has hopefully led to opportunity and growth for the channel.

However, partners may have seen revenue decrease in traditional, mainstream technology as business requirements change.

Therefore, partners should focus on developing new technologies and solutions for their customers that are suitable for a completely different way of working, particularly as the pandemic is still very much an issue. Even with a vaccine on the horizon, the environment won’t change that quickly.

The key growth areas for the channel will be around helping customers with cloud migration and the adoption of 5G, including addressing concerns such as network security, IoT proliferation, and lack of agility and visibility throughout the IT infrastructure.

Key technologies in demand The technologies that will drive channel demand in the year ahead are those that ensure always-available application delivery and security, both on-premises and in the cloud.

Enterprises will be looking for technology that enables seamless migration, both to the cloud and between cloud-native infrastructures and hybrid solutions.

Cybersecurity and defense solutions that protect customer networks from increasingly sophisticated attacks that threaten network availability will be in high demand. Likewise, the increased use of automation, AI/ML and DevOps tools that help to simplify IT operations will grow. Technology that helps to secure multi-generational networks throughout the transition to 5G and cloud-native architectures will also see growth. And finally, organizations will be looking for solutions that help protect their investments throughout the ongoing business/digital transformation process.

Naturally, as organizations shift to remote working environments, there will be an increase in using a hybrid approach; we will see a balance of traditional on-premises combined with the use of public cloud resources.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a once-in-a-generation event that has been the catalyst for irreversible change; organizations will be exploring all avenues for how they can migrate a portion of their mission-critical data to cloud technologies.

Challenges on the horizon As I mentioned above, working practices have been irreversibly changed by the COVID-19 pandemic, with remote working set to be the norm in the future. This has, however, introduced an extended surface area for cyberattacks, which in turn makes cybersecurity a key concern for enterprises and a focus for the channel going forward.

What this means is that the enterprise perimeter has not only expanded but it has become much more distributed as many employees are no longer working inside the traditional network perimeter. Therefore, organizations need to reassess and rethink the way they defend their networks, users and data. Likewise, service providers will be experiencing increased demand to provide higher security and availability for their subscribers now that employees and children are working and schooling at home.

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Unfortunately, there is not a one size fits all approach and this is where strong partner relationships are essential to find the best solution to fit the need. Some organizations will place the onus on scalability, flexibility, and an efficient multi-cloud transformation. On the other hand, some organizations will need advice on how they can make a smoother and more secure transition to a remote workforce.

Keeping businesses and people connected As we begin the new year, businesses will be thinking about several key focus areas: • Where can we make efficiency gains?

• How can we manage costs?

• How do we ensure that we invest in the right areas?

• How can we automate more and reduce business risk?

• How can we remain flexible and agile to change quickly when we need to?

The organizations that understand these challenges and are ready to capitalize on growth opportunities will be those who have already transitioned, or are in the process of, transitioning their businesses to remote operations.

However, there are many threats associated with moving to a distributed environment.

These include extended or unplanned downtime, data breaches, and data loss, which can all cause reputational and financial harm.

The channel is in the unique position of having access to the tools, people and support necessary to keep businesses, and more importantly, people, connected. Vendors that act as enablers for all channel parties to accelerate this shift will reap the rewards of a prosperous channel environment in 2021.

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

// OUTLOOK 2021

"Be Optimistic and Believe That This Year Will be Better" Dmitry Doshaniy, General Manager at NNTC, speaks about the challenges faced in 2020 and the opportunities to look forward to, in 2021 How was 2020 for the industry and your company?

The technology industry has felt much better than others, but the growth here depends on a company’s area of operation and whether its products are focused on online or offline experience. Online communication services, messengers, and platforms have won much extra audience as a result of self-isolation and business events going online, which is the case for both B2C and B2B sectors.

For example, we at NNTC also felt the need to enhance online communication with our audience. Thus, we held webinars for customers and partners, which was a great and rewarding experience for our team. On the contrary, the demand for offline solutions decreased: sales of access control, building management and, in general, all infrastructure solutions that were in demand by office-type companies have suffered a lot during the lockdown.

Companies specializing in such solutions continued selling them, but the demand dropped dramatically. For NNTC, 2020 brought both good and bad news – after all, it's life. As for good news, we quickly established remote communication with all our customers and continued working on and completing projects. We had to move some initiatives, in particular, ideas for Expo 2020, which will now take place in 2021.

What sort of opportunities did 2020 bring along?

Technologically, some of our business areas have experienced significant growth, in particular, video analytics: automated social distance monitoring and temperature measurement. Before COVID-19, they were not in such a demand, while the pandemic brought a whole stack of tasks computer vision can solve. I think many solutions will remain relevant in 2021 and even in the longer run.

What were your key achievements in 2020?

The most significant achievement is that

our company “grows” from year to year, whatever the circumstances – if we put it in financial terms. And, speaking simply, our team overcame all the difficulties of the pandemic with flying colors, acquired new competencies, tried new roles, and became even stronger and more united. 2020 has been a good year to cultivate morale and find new ideas and approaches for business development. Moreover, our specialists had such a good practice in implementing ideas that they have reached a brand-new level of product development speed.

What promises does 2021 bring along?

I try to be optimistic and believe that this year will be better than 2020. Also, in 2021 we’ll face a very intense deferred demand, as after any crisis. After the pandemic, people will be even more eager to live better life, traveling, meeting with peers in their offices, shopping, entertaining, and completing professional projects.

During the lockdown, society has become more technologically advanced: even the most stagnant skeptics appreciated the importance of technology and learned how to use its benefits. This interest will continue after people return to the offices. We are happy with that, since NNTC sells its solutions to people who are not afraid of technology and strive to use it for good.

According to you, which technologies will be in demand in 2021?

The biggest shift that happened in 2020 was mass transition of organizations to a hybrid mode, meaning that people will be working remotely much more. This is why in the coming years, various tools for effective collaboration and remote team management will be in great demand.

In addition, we will see growing investments in healthcare and infectious disease control solutions, both organizational and technological. Indeed, this year, Apple and Google have developed an API to track contacts with virus carriers. NNTC also already offers a solution for manufacturing and construction sites that detects social distancing violations and helps identify contacts with infected people, so that affected personnel can be promptly sent to quarantine and receive medical treatment. Indeed, technologies save people's lives.

Do you see opportunities in the regional markets with new markets opening up?

The region saw a very eventful year, and not only due to the pandemic. The political relations between Israel and Arab Emirates have been actively improving lately, which will definitely help the business sector in both countries and open up new opportunities.

What will be your key focus areas for 2021?

There will be no drastic changes. We will remain focused on emerging technologies and keep identifying business tasks that can be effectively and creatively solved using innovative technologies. At the same time, we are going to place an even greater focus on cost effectiveness and economic feasibility of each development effort.

The Gulf economy was hit hard by the decreased passenger traffic, both tourists and business persons. As a result, the UAE government came up with a range of solutions and development options, such as allowing foreigners to be full owners of local companies without restrictions– a major step towards economic prosperity.

Indeed, despite positive trends I believe in, I don’t expect the economy to come out of recession in 2021. Our customers are going to be very careful with their budgets and therefore we need to work out the most effective and beneficial proposal. Only the most efficient projects will survive, so we can’t afford to sit back and relax next year.

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OUTLOOK 2021 //

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

"Success Goes Along with Achievements of Customers" Jason McMillan, sales director, Epson Middle East, speaks about 2021 opportunities How was 2020 for the industry and your company?

With the COVID-19 pandemic, this year has changed the ways we live, work, and do business. The crisis has generated a lot of challenges for every industry, but it has also created opportunities by accelerating the need for different types of more flexible and sustainable technology solutions and different ways of working.

While it has been a challenging year for organisations around the world with the country lockdowns and people having to work remotely, like every other business, Epson has had to adapt to ensure the safety of its employees and to help meet customer demands. We supported our resellers and channel partners as best we could, reassuring them that we were there to help them adjust to this new normal.

As we control every aspect of our supply chain, we were able to adapt to the situation where possible, moving production of products to alternative locations when necessary.

What sort of opportunities did 2020 bring along?

2020 has accelerated the growth of some industries. Take for example the e-commerce sector in the Middle East region. Online retailers became key sources of retail when the option or inclination to physically go into shops wasn’t there. Many businesses have shifted their business models to include an online aspect so that they are able to meet the changing demands of consumers.

With an increased need for home printing this year - with people working from home and educating children remotely or in hybrid learning models – we have seen increased demand for home printers, particularly for our EcoTank range. These ink tank systems mean that cartridges are no longer needed, significantly reducing the need for users to shop for and replace ink.

In addition, offices have had to implement social distancing practices, with reduced gathering points, touchpoints and contactless interactions being key to keeping businesses functioning in line with government guide-

lines. Middle East organizations are now looking at adopting innovative technology that can enable the socially distanced workplace. Epson’s business inkjet products can address these challenges through distributed print fleets or by leveraging software features within our Epson Print Admin.

And within manufacturing and heavy industry, our Moverio smart glasses have helped with remote diagnostics and servicing, enabling specialist support in field without the need for engineers to physically attend. In retail, our Moverio glasses have also been used for virtual shopping to help retailers remain open by reviewing products live in store for potential customers viewing at home.

What were your key achievements in 2020?

After a year of ups and downs it is of course nice to look at the key milestones Epson has achieved both globally and here in the Middle East. As sustainability is at the core of our company ethos, we are extremely proud of the sustainability credentials we have earned this year. We are continually committed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and were delighted to earn a platinum rating for sustainability from EcoVadis.

The platinum rating means that Epson is ranked among the top 1% of companies for sustainability achievements globally. Epson has also been placed on the prestigious CDP A List for tackling climate change and protecting water security. We were also proud to receive RBA platinum status for socially responsible manufacturing.

Last year we hit the sale of over 30 million 3LCD projectors and 50 million EcoTank printers globally. These are huge achievements for us, particularly as EcoTank printers save energy and reduce waste. These 50 million EcoTanks sold have saved over 166,000 tonnes of CO2.

Our successes go hand in hand with the achievements of our customers. One of the biggest customer successes from this year is La Perle, the first permanent, aqua-based, live show in Dubai. They installed eight Epson EB-L20000U projectors to enhance their incredible live show. Previously, La Perle’s lamp-

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based projectors were leading to high lamp and maintenance costs, they were spending USD 300,000 annually on lamp changes alone. Apart from the significant savings and sustainability benefits, our projectors help to create a fantastic show.

What does 2021 look like to Epson?

Two key areas of focus for Epson Middle East in 2021 are sustainable solutions for business and smart solutions for education.

Our technology solutions can deliver both efficiency and cost savings, as well as support the growing demand for sustainability.

2021 is going to be a journey for Epson Middle East to help connect businesses with the sustainable technology solutions that can not only save them money but also contribute to their sustainability goals. Our business inkjet printers for instance use less energy than laser printers, significantly reducing energy consumption. With this one simple technology switch small and large business alike can be more sustainable while protecting their bottom line.

We invest a lot of time and money into creating the right products to place into education environments. Technology has played a pivotal role in supporting teachers through a year of great change - particularly when it comes to the way teachers are now required to deliver lessons. Due to social distancing measures, spreading children further apart and some teachers needing to deliver lessons to students both in the room and connecting from home, Epson’s interactive display solutions and visualisers have meant that regardless of where a child is sitting in the classroom, they can still see what is being projected and fully interact with the lesson.

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

"2021 Will Be the Digital Transformation Year" Wissam Saadeddine, Senior Regional Manager – RoME at Infoblox, speaks about 2021 opportunities How was 2020 for the industry and your company?

COVID had a heavy impact on the industry, all of us had to shift our approaches, tune our strategies and change the way we operate. The first half carried the major impact where we struggled to understand the new changes, rules and regulations related to lockdowns, while in the second half we managed to coexist and start to adapt with the new norm with new business models.

Regardless of all the challenges, uncertainty and risks, 2020 still brought a bigger opportunity as the industry was accelerating and embracing digital transformation and rethinking their cloud and security strategies.

Infoblox played a critical role in this transformation and as overall it was another record year to Infoblox.

What sort of opportunities did 2020 bring along?

Organizations realized the importance and criticality to have a digital infrastructure that can continue to deliver services anytime anywhere. I believe 2020 will accelerate digital transformation for many organizations supported by 5G, SDWAN, Hybrid and multi cloud concepts and we will whiteness a major increase in that momentum as we move to 2021.

What promises does 2021 bring along?

I believe 2021 will be the digital transformation year, we will whiteness new line of business coming online, traditional services transform to digital and a change in rules and regulations in government and no government entities in the region to facilitate the adoption. Security and Cloud services will be the core in this transition bringing a big opportunity to critical innovative technology players like Infoblox and others helping customers in this transition.

Do you see opportunities on the regional markets with new markets opening up?

Emerging markets will have a big opportunity during this transition, and governments started to take the steps and optimize their regulations to help accelerate and going with new partnerships and alliances with

technology vendors to help accelerate digital adoption. We also will see new trends and new verticals coming to the front during the transition like Education, Retail, Healthcare and others changing their priorities to leverage technology to drive digital transformation to their business.

According to you, which technologies will be in demand in 2021?

Any innovative technology that is aligned with the trends and the customer journey to digital will have a role to play in 2021, technologies related to security and cloud that supports and enables SDWAN, SASE, SaaS and others. BloxONE platform is one of the born in the cloud innovations Infoblox brought to the industry to enable organizations to pivot and embrace their digital journey.

What milestones have you set for 2021?

Hiring and onboarding is a critical milestone to continue to serve our customers and partners and be always available across the region, the other milestones related to us being able to travel again and be closer to our customers and partners.

What would you like to do differently in 2021, when compared with 2020?

The uncertainty 2020 brought to us made us take conservative decisions, however 2021 will be the year we break our fears and take more aggressive decisions that can help us accelerate our business objectives.

The customer business is changing and evolving and we should all align around their business priorities and the new initiatives they will be embracing.

Do you plan to enter new markets or add new products / applications to your portfolio in 2021?

Infoblox is leading the way with BloxOne and we are ready to have more applications on the plaform on top of Threat Defence and DDI which Infoblox were know with since many years. Infoblox is investing to help customers in their digital journey and would announce more services in the BloxOne platform in an integrated fashion.

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// OUTLOOK 2021

OUTLOOK 2021 //

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

"Backlog is Healthy and New Opportunities Under Pursuit" Dr. Mostafa AlGuezeri, the CMD for UAE & Overseas Countries at Hitachi ABB Power Grids speaks about 2021 opportunities How was 2020 for the industry and your company?

We are a joint venture entity formed in July 2020 between Hitachi (80.1%) and ABB (19.9%), though first announced in December 2018. We are convinced that now is the right time for Hitachi ABB Power Grids. Now more than ever, the world needs innovative and sustainable energy solutions to address the challenges facing society.

By combining Hitachi’s leading open digital technologies with our world-class power grid solutions, we will play an active role in the global transformation and decarbonization of energy sand support a sustainable energy future. We’re excited to be at the forefront of sustainable energy innovation. We believe that enabling a stronger, smarter and greener power grid can drive progress for a sustainable energy future What sort of opportunities did 2020 bring along?

Backlog is healthy as well as the new opportunities under pursuit. The new entity will leverage Hitachi’s digital solutions portfolio, to expand its portfolio and extend its presence in sectors like mobility (e.g. electrification of railways and buses), industry (e.g. energy management and asset optimization), smart life (e.g. smart cities, energy storage), and IT (e.g. software solutions and data centers) – all contributing to Social Innovation. Through Hitachi ABB Power Grids, Hitachi can further strengthen its Lumada business, incorporating energy solutions, and providing advanced digital solutions to the Hitachi Group's customers for a sustainable society.

In summary, there are multiple opportunities for growth and market development for the new JV such as: • Combining Hitachi’s digital capability and portfolio with ABB’s world class power technologies • Expansion and growth opportunities in sectors like Life, IT etc.

• Leveraging portfolio complimentarity and front-end synergies e.g. rail, EV, renewables • Access to new markets and geographies

• •

(e.g. Japan) Financing opportunities for large infrastructure projects Broadening service portfolio to generate growth

What were your key achievements in 2020?

The main market segments served in the Middle East include Transmission and distribution (where the Company is number one in the world) Utilities, Industries, Infrastructure, smart cities, mobility, EPC’s customers, etc.

There is a huge growth ambition in digitalization in the country. We highly regard the transformation and the steps taken so far towards digitizing the processes along the value chain.

Customers who select us as their partner will benefit from Hitachi ABB Power Grids’ combined strengths, which. The new entity will be able to benefit greatly from Hitachi’s digital expertise such as the Lumada platform, machine learning, big data, hybrid cloud management and cybersecurity: • Combined, Hitachi ABB Power Grids brings almost two and a half centuries of pioneering innovative technology and an unparalleled installed base • By coupling this heritage with big data and AI capabilities of the Lumada platform, Hitachi ABB Power Grids will be in the unique position to leverage data and know-how to further enhance the capability of its OT and IT solutions and provide customers with insights over their fleet and networks, helping them manage better their operations and improve their business.

What promises does 2021 bring along?

We can create more value for customers and work towards a sustainable society. Customers who choose Hitachi ABB Power Grids, will benefit from our combined capabilities in energy and digital platforms as well as leverage our expertise, global footprint and unparalleled installed base.

Our overall approach is to balance social, environmental and economic value. We believe that as a global market and technology leader, we can and must make a difference by

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collaborating across stakeholders, innovating with customers and partners and engaging with policy makers to adapt and adopt regulations that enable deployment of technology and business models supporting secure, sustainable and scalable energy infrastructure such as power grids.

The global energy transition is seeing more renewable power sources added to the world’s power grids as part of our decarbonization efforts. We need to ensure that our grids remain resilient and become more flexible as they adapt to new supply and demand challenges.

Making electricity more accessible, affordable and sustainable also calls for better energy efficiency across the value chain and a reduced environmental footprint through the lifecycle of products.

According to you, which technologies will be in demand in 2021?

Digital and energy platforms will be needed to manage the enormous power system energy transition challenges increased complexity and ​additional capacity required for CO2e reduction. Hitachi ABB Power Grids has the technology and expertise to execute on the above efficiently. Hitachi’s digital solutions portfolio, to expand its portfolio and extend its presence in sectors like mobility (e.g. electrification of railways and buses), industry (e.g. energy management and asset optimization), smart life (e.g. smart cities, energy storage), and IT (e.g. software solutions and data centers) – all contributing to Social Innovation.

Through Hitachi ABB Power Grids, Hitachi can further strengthen its Lumada business, incorporating energy solutions, and providing advanced digital solutions to the Hitachi Group's customers for a sustainable society.

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

// OUTLOOK 2021

"Value-Conscious Approach to Remain Financially Viable" Hyther Nizam, President MEA, Zoho Corp, speaks about opportunities in 2021 How was 2020 for the industry and your company?

The IT industry has undergone a dramatic shift this year, moving completely to a remote work model. This was a major challenge for IT companies, who had to quickly align their workforce to this operating model. This year also brought great opportunities for IT companies to serve the digital transformation needs of enterprises.

As for Zoho, we have managed to do well during the pandemic. Because of the lockdown and the growing remote working trend, businesses have turned to cloud solutions that enable continuous operations from afar without worrying about IT support.

We have benefited immensely from this trend. Customers, particularly SMEs, have become more rational and cost-conscious in their buying decisions as part of their pivotal measures. Customers today prefer flexible pay-as-you-go plans and Zoho offers exactly that, subscription-based pricing with monthly payment models, which businesses can try, use and then upgrade.

Did you face any challenges in 2020?

One of the key challenges was managing the customer churn induced by the global pandemic. The tough times are hardly over but we have been able to retain our customers by extending priority support as well as subscription fee waivers through a set of relief programmes.

Another challenge was to make sure our business partners stayed on course. We understood their predicament and accommodated deferred payment requests to soften the cash flow impact. We also used this as an opportunity to provide our partners with an in-depth training about our suite of 45+ applications and also equip them with the know-how to optimize revenue and future-proof their business.

What promises does 2021 bring along?

The pandemic has forced businesses to adopt value-conscious approaches to remain financially viable. Today, businesses understand the benefits of such cost sav-

ings and are skeptical about reverting to their pre-pandemic expenditure levels. So customers will become even more rational in their IT spending and as a result, vendors who provide great value at an affordable cost have better chances at survival in 2021.

Considering the SaaS market particularly, we are going to see more consolidation down the line and vendors providing end-to-end solutions will be most preferred. The recent Slack acquisition by Salesforce is testimony to where the market is heading. At Zoho, we already have Zoho Cliq which competes with Slack and is available at a fraction of Slack's cost. Zoho Cliq also comes with built-in integrations and extensible options that allows it to work seamlessly with other Zoho apps as well as 50+ third-party apps without writing any code.

Do you see opportunities on the regional markets with new markets opening up?

Our flagship offering, Zoho One, which packages all 45+ apps as one solution with unified pricing is really attractive for regional markets, especially among SMBs. We will focus on making Zoho One available in each market with local pricing and support integrations with local payment gateway vendors. Zoho One is a compelling offering to navigate into regional markets.

Aside from working with government bodies and business accelerators to support local businesses, we are also engaging with service providers who are interested in packaging out offerings into their solutions.

We recently entered into a partnership with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which has presence across 46 nations. This is a great opportunity for us to accelerate our upmarket momentum in the large enterprises segment.

What will be your key focus areas for 2021?

Transnational Localism - Going forward, we will adopt a "think global, act local" model which we refer to as 'Transnational Localism'. We will be setting up local offices in major GCC markets with local hiring to pro-

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vide the best customer experience across our sales, consulting, and support services.

We will also concentrate on local community upliftment and contribute to regional technology advancement initiatives wherever possible.

Creating the right self-service content for our partners and customers - Our focus is on top-of-the-funnel content that is deeply educative. We will create an expansive database of self-service materials and knowledge base to help our prospects quickly choose the right software for each of their functional and departmental needs so that they can direct their time towards growing their business rather than figuring out technicals.

What milestones have you set for 2021?

GCC is one among the top five growth markets for Zoho. We want to double down on this momentum through increased adoption and usage of our products. Zoho One has 45+ apps, we want to widen product usage inside Zoho One so that our customers derive the best value for what they are paying for. User registration is the ultimate business driver and we aim to reach millions of new users in the region in the coming years.

What would you like to do differently in 2021, when compared with 2020?

Provided the pandemic effects wear off in the next few months and situations improve, we will have more physical meetings with our customers and prospects. Virtual meetings cannot replace personal interactions.

At the same time, we will also embrace the new norm where some customers would still prefer virtual meetings. The needs will differ in every country and market and we need to align our team to meet such local demands.

REVIEWS //

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

4/5 BenQ EX2710 Mobiuz BenQ is a company that offers a wide range of gaming products on the market including the ZOWIE range of gaming monitors. But not many know that the company also offers budget-friendly monitors under the Mobiuz lineup.

Inside the box, you get the stand, the stand base, HDMI cable, and the power cable, along with some paperwork that includes the quick start guide and the warranty info.

To assemble the monitor, first fix the stand onto the stand base. Next, click the stand into place behind the monitor – you will hear a click which means it is now secured in place.

The BenQ Mobiuz EX2710 is a 27-inch monitor that offers a full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. You get an aspect ratio of 16:9, HDR functionality, and a refresh rate of 144Hz. The OSD on the monitor can be accessed and controlled by using the tiny joystick at the back of the monitor. In terms of HDR modes, you get a few which includes HDR, Cinema HDRi and Game HDRi options.

These can be accessed using the ded-

icated HDRi button on the lower right hand corner. In terms of connectivity, you get two HDMI 2.0 ports and one Display Port 1.2. There is also a 3.5mm audio jack and dual 2.5W speakers.

BenQ also throws in a panel cover which can be used to cover the I/O area to hide the cables connected to the monitor. The height of the monitor can be adjusted up to 130mm.

You can tilt the display up and down by 5˚ and 20˚ respectively. You can also swivel the monitor left or right by 20˚each.

In terms of picture quality, the EX2710 offers amazing results. It is also capable of delivering a 144Hz refresh rate, and 1ms response time.

You also get FreeSync Premium, which ensures that you won’t get any tearing in games. There’s a black equaliser too for richer blacks.

This adjusts the sharpness and contrast ratio to deliver true black colour, thus making the gaming characters stand out from a darker background.

The monitor also comes with BenQ’s

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AED 1,449 Eye-Care Tech that reduces eye strain, headaches, and fatigue. This is done by protecting your eyes from bluelight when you game for extended hours.

There’s also a Brightness Intelligence Plus Technology which automatically adjusts brightness and colour temperature as per your ambient and lighting settings.

We did try this feature out while gaming on the monitor using the Xbox gaming console. We tried to mimic the lighting conditions to see how the technology works. As you can see in the video above, Brightness Intelligence Plus Technology does its job quite well.

The BenQ Mobiuz EX2710 offers a wide range of gaming features at an affordable price point of AED 1449. This monitor is for those who are looking for a performance-based gaming monitor at pocket-friendly price.

The BenQ EX2710 Mobiuz is an excellent all-around gaming monitor that offers good sharpness, picture detail, contrast, and reduced motion blur.

WATCH VIDEO REVIEW

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

// REVIEWS

ASUS ROG STRIX LC RX6800XT Close to the heels of AMD launching the new RX 6800 XT, ASUS launched its own ineration – the ASUS ROG STRIX LC RX 6800 XT Gaming OC. This one comes equipped with the goodness of a 240mm liquid-cooled radiator, as well as a lownoise blower on the card.

The big radiator will offer up the huge cooling potential for the chipset, allowing it to high a much higher boost clock and maintain it for big performance increases. Meanwhile, the blower fan is there to keep the memory chips and power delivery hardware cool, but overall, that shouldn’t have to spin too much. Some of the features of this behemoth include a 1527 MHz Core Clock, a 2410 MHz Boost Clock, AIO Liquid Cooling, 240mm radiator, 2 x 120mm fans, low-noise blower fan on the card, and of course, ARGB lighting.

This one is a high-end liquid cooled 6800XT card.

You also get 600mm tubing for compatibility with EATX chassis and alternative mounts, and Super Alloy Power II that includes premium alloy chokes, solid polymer capacitors, and an array of high-current power stages. The GPU also accompanies the ASUS FanConnect II, which equips a hybrid-controlled fan header for optimal system cooling. And

there’s GPU Tweak II, which provides intuitive performance tweaking, thermal controls, and system monitoring.

The ASUS ROG STRIX LC RX6800XT is a hybrid cooled graphics card, which means it uses both air and liquid cooling to keep things, well, cool. This thing is beautifully designed, but by no means is a small card. It has clean looking hardware – one half of the card features a funky STRIX digital graffiti design on it. This is the same design seen on ASUS’ recent motherboards, gaming mouse, power supplies, cases, and so on.

When it comes to the tech specs, the 6800XT gets 72 activated CUs multiplied by 64 shader units. You also get 16GB of GDDR6 memory based on a 256-bit memory bus, which essentially translates to 512 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

The TDP listed is at 300 watts for this product. The 2250 GHz boost clock is spectacular. However, the more average game clock is listed at 2015 MHz. New in this GPU is a 128MB infinity cache and support for PCI-express 4.0.

The RX6800XT graphics card showcases an assertive black ROG design and comes with a backplate. In the I/O area, the card includes two DisplayPort 1.4

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ports, one HDMI 2.1, and a USB Type-C connector. Installing any graphics card is straightforward these days. Once the card is seated into the PC, make sure you hook up the monitor and, of course, any external power connectors like 6/8-pin or the new 12-pin PEG power connectors.

In order to test the performance of the GPU, we put it through some tests.

On the 3DMark: Night Raid the score achieved was 65493, while the graphics score was 147600. In the 3DMark: Fire Strike benchmark, the score was 31493, while the graphics score was 51956.

Meanwhile, in the 3DMark: Fire Strike Ultra test, the score stood at 12321, while the graphics score stood at 12956.

In 3Dmark TimeSpy, we were able to clock a score of 15488, while the graphics card stood at 18168. In 3Dmark Port Royal test, we clocked a score of 9257. The regional pricing of the ASUS ROG STRIX LC RX6800XT hasn’t been announced yet. That being said, the card offers a higher boost clock, comes with an RGB lit 240mm AIO liquid cooler, comes built with premium components, and offers top-notch performance.

READ REVIEW ONLINE

REVIEWS //

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

4/5

AED 147

Logitech Silent Wireless Combo MK295 When you think of a keyboard or a mouse for your PC or laptop, the first brand that comes to mind is Logitech.

The company has been churning out one quality product after the other for years now. We recently received their new Logitech Silent Wireless Combo MK295 for review – so how did it perform? Read on, to find out!

The Logitech Silent Wireless Combo MK295 is, as the name suggests, a wireless keyboard and mouse combo.

Inside the box, you get three items – the keyboard, mouse and a transmitter to which both the keyboard and mouse get wirelessly connected.

Both the devices feature a minimalist design – the build quality is very good, too.

The full-size keyboard also accompanies eight convenient shortcuts plus the full numpad that simplifies data entry and navigation.

The wireless mouse meanwhile features a contoured and portable shape. Using the mouse felt very smooth, while the

device offers precise clicking and pointing on most surfaces. In addition, both the keyboard and the mouse, feature Logitech’s SilentTouch technology.

disturbing your household with clicking and typing noises. Using the Logitech Silent Wireless Combo MK295 was an outstanding experience.

The keyboard offers an adjustable height, a spill-resistant design and offers a wireless connectivity coverage of about 10 meters, using 4GHz Wireless technology. Both the keyboard and the mouse are plug and play devices.

Both the keyboard and mouse were very silent to use and the buttons on the keyboard were very smooth while typing.

The mouse also offers precise clicking and pointing.

As soon as you plug in the nano transmitter into the USB port of your PC or laptop, switch on the keyboard and mouse and they get instantly connected.

For a very affordable price point of AED 147, the Logitech Silent Wireless Combo MK295 is a perfect keyboard and mouse combo for your PC or laptop.

The mouse uses one AA battery, while the keyboard uses two AA batteries as the power source. According to Logitech, the batteries on the keyboard can last up to 36 months, while the battery on the mouse can last 18 months. The combo offers up to 90% less clicking and typing noise.

So if you are working from home late at night, you don’t have to worry about

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READ REVIEW ONLINE

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

3/5 ECS LIVA Q1D Mini PC Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) is known for pocket-sized mini PCs and the company has been bringing these innovative products to the market for years now.

The company recently launched its new LIVA Q1D mini PC to meet the growing demand of stay-at-home application for those studying and working from home during the current COVID-19 situation.

The ECS LIVA Q1D is palm sized and is also suitable for applications such as digital signage, thin-client or Terminal applications in versatile use-cases.

And since the LIVA Q1D can be VESA mounted behind a compatible monitor, you can also used it for indoor applications in facilities such as schools or libraries, healthcare, hospitality, business, and retail.

The Mini PC itself is available with a choice of Intel Pentium/Celeron processors, and a choice of 32GB or 64GB eMMC storage. eMMC storage means that the storage chip is embedded or soldered directly onto the mini PC’s motherboard. Under the hood, our review unit came with Intel’s Pentium N4200 quad-core SoC, 4GB of

RAM and 64GB of EMMC storage.

The N4200 processor from Intel meanwhile runs at 1.1-2.5 GHz (Single Core Burst, Multi-Core Burst max 2.4 GHz) and is based on the Apollo Lake platform.

Similar to the Braswell predecessor, the chip is manufactured in a 14 nm process (P1273) with FinFETs. Besides four CPU cores, the chip also includes a DirectX 12 capable GPU as well as a DDR3L/ LPDDR3/LPDDR4 memory controller (dual-channel, up to 1866/2400 MHz).

You also get a MicroSD slot to expand the internal storage capacity. The LIVA Q1 series also supports connectivity standards such as Bluetooth 4.1 and 802.11ac.

The Mini PC also features Intel HD Graphics 500/505 that offers support for 4K videos playback. The LIVA Q1 series has also been designed with a cooling fan inside it, to keep the system cool and stabilised.

In terms of connectivity, you get lots of choices such as two USB 3.1 Gen1, one USB 2.0, 1 HDMI, and Gigabit LAN. Besides HDMI, LIVA Q1D also comes with a DisplayPort in case you want to use a dual screen setup with this mini PC. The

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// REVIEWS

$350 ECS LIVA Q1D Mini PC is available with and without the OS – our review unit was already configured with Windows 10 as the OS. Setting up the device was a walk in the park. Connect the power adapter, plugin the HDMI cable and you are good to go.

The ECS LIVA Q1D Mini PC is so small that you will barely notice it when placed on your work desk. The device is powerful enough to run all day to day computing apps including internet browsing and using apps such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

The ECS LIVA Q1D Mini PC is available at a price of $350 (AED 1300) with Windows 10 OS. For that price point you are getting a palm sized mini PC that can power your daily computing needs, does not require lots of desk space, and is very light and portable.

If you are on the market for a PC that is budget-friendly and can handle most day to day computing jobs, the ECS LIVA Q1D Mini PC is something you could look at.

READ REVIEW ONLINE

REVIEWS //

ARABIAN RESELLER - JANUARY 2021

4/5

AED 810

Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy 3.0 (64GB) The biggest asset for any business is its data. With the current working environment where employees are alternating between working from home and office on a roster-based setup, data security becomes very important. Especially when it involves data that can either make or break a business.

Now there are lots of options available on the market when it comes to data security – you can choose from cloud drives, NAS drives, external storage devices, portable storage, and lots more. However, what’s important to keep data safe and secure is the encryption of the said data.

Kingston Technology is a very well known brand when it comes to quality storage products. The company also makes flash drives that accompany 256-bit AES encryption called DataTraveler Vault Privacy 3.0.

This series of flash drives offer business-grade security in XTS mode.

The device has been designed to protect 100% of the stored data, by enforcing complex password protection with minimum characteristics to prevent unauthorised access. In addition, for additional peace of

mind, the drive also locks down and reformats the entire drive if someone tried to illegally access the contents of the device after 10 intrusion attempts.

The Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy 3.0 can also be switched into ‘Read-Only Access Mode’. By doing this, the files on the drive can only be read and not altered in any way. This is an excellent way to easily prevent any sort of malware from altering and corrupting your files.

In addition, you can also set a password for the USB flash drive so that only those who know the password can access the files on the drive. And as mentioned earlier, if someone were to wrongly guess the password 10 times, the drive will lock down and reformat, thereby erasing all the data on the drive.

As soon as you plug the device into your PC for the very first time, you will be greeted with the setup window. Here, you will need to set up the password for the device along with the hint for the password in case you forget it. Next, add your name, the company name, and other details for identification.

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Once you click on Finish, the device will start formatting the drive. It will be then ready for use. In order the test the performance of the drive, we used the ATTO Disk Benchmark. Since ATTO uses compressible data rather than random data, you get higher performance and higher benchmark scores.

We were able to clock read speeds that exceeded the 40 MB/s mentioned in the specs sheet. For read speeds, we were able to score a little more than the 250 MB/s mentioned in the specs sheet. In our CrystalDiskMarch Benchmark tests, we were able to score read speeds of 248 MB/s and write speeds of 41 MB/s.

When it comes to data security, you cannot really be more careful. Thankfully, with the Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy 3.0, safety and security of your data will be something you don’t need to worry about.

The encryption of data worked really well during our tests and as you can see from the benchmark results above, the device does a truly great job.

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For Business Inquiries ASUS Middle East Tel.: +971 4 256 6102, M.: +971 55 544 5639, Email: jeff_j@asus.com www.asus.com/me-en/commercial

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